The Holy Spirit Saved Me!
Positive Life Change
I was 19 years old when the most life-changing event in my life occurred. I grew up in a West Texas town called Littlefield. Littlefield was the Mayberry town. All we were missing was Opie. No one locked their doors, and everyone knew each other. While that had tremendous advantages, it also brought challenges.
My father passed away when I was 17. This sent my life into a whirlwind of experiences with drugs, etc. Even though I had not experienced everything out there, I had a working knowledge of what the world had to offer.
One evening, I was stocking groceries at Furr’s Supermarket in Levelland, Texas. Just before the store closed, a young lady invited me to attend her church that night. I had only one thing on my mind that day, and it was girls. I asked if any girls would attend the meeting, and she said they would. That was all I needed, so I attended the little Assemblies of God church.
I walked in, and there were only about 25–30 people. During the service, the preacher asked if they could pray for me to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Being raised in an evangelical church, I was accustomed to people praying, but I was about to experience the greatest surprise of my life.
Approximately twenty young people gathered around me and asked God to fill me with the power of the Holy Spirit. I did not know what that meant then, but I later found out by reading the book of Acts that being filled with the Holy Spirit is different from being born again.
They all laid hands on my shoulders (that was new), and they prayed up a storm. I did not understand what it meant to be prayed for in a spirit-filled fashion. These people had gotten ahold of something that I had never experienced before. After about twenty minutes of praying, I walked out of the building, a different person. I remember standing on the steps of that little house and looking up at the stars and marveling at their brightness.
The biggest event of my life occurred that night. I was born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. I no longer craved all of the self-defeating habits that had plagued my life up to this point. Since that day, the Holy Spirit has been my best friend. He knows stuff. We take photographs to remind us of what happened in the past. The Holy Spirit has photographs to reveal to us our future. I know everything will be alright because the Holy Spirit has given me peace that passes all understanding.
I invite you to take a couple of days out of your schedule and ask God to help you grow in the experience of a spirit-filled life. If life has become unfulfilling and boring, I strongly encourage you to do what I did and take an adventure of faith. Now that I have become a Spirit-filled Christian, I cannot imagine a life without the Holy Spirit.