What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?
I am going to try to explain this plainly so that everyone understands. It is nothing like the Baptism of water that we receive from our pastors in our churches. Amongst our family and friends in a reverent ceremony. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit cannot be learned and doesn't come at specific date or at a scheduled time. It can only be given by God. And it comes from Him in His own perfect timing. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is God's response to how we are living our lives.
I feel the need to write this because I had been a member of a church for over 20 years. Paying my tithes and offerings, working in the church and doing everything my religion required of me. And still I had no real connection to God. I had no idea that at some point God could respond to me.
Everything changed for me when I decided to get to know God for myself, to build a relationship with Him. This concept was totally foreign to me and it was not taught to me in church. But I had heard so many wonderful testimonies of other people who had 'found' God. And this was the common thread between all of their stories...a personal relationship with Him. I wanted more of God, so I had to try it.
It was simple for me. My church life did not change but what did change was my prayer life. I started praying several times a day and reading God's word, the Bible, daily. With those simple changes my everyday life, outside of the four walls of the church began to change. I was really surprised at how the things I did, the things I said and even the things I thought changed.
My change was slow and gradual. It did not happen instantly as I had been taught. From the day I decided to get to know God for myself to the day I received His Holy Spirit was 5 months. I actually did not expect anything to happen at all. I wanted more of God. And I felt like I was experiencing Him more of Him because of how my life was changing, But one day the miraculous happened.
MY EXPERIENCE
I will never forget this day February 7, 2016. I was sitting in a church service and I felt something that I had never felt before. I didn't know what was happening at the time but I knew that it was something spiritual. I felt a cleansing as if my entire spirit was cleansed off or cleaned out. It's hard to explain but I felt lighter, I felt free and in that moment I was filled with The Holy Spirit and I was able to feel my connection to God. It was the most amazing experience and my whole life was forever changed.
It was as if a small spark inside of me had been ignited. I was consumed with this new feeling. I felt like my soul had come alive. This is the day that I became the new creature that the Bible speaks about. This gave me a new zeal and passion, and I have been on fire for the Lord ever since.
I know it sounds cliché but God is real and every word of the Bible is true. It is time that we seek to receive everything that The Bible tells us we can have. If you have not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit ask God, trust Him and seek all of Him with your whole heart. This is the answer if you want real change in your life. If you believe you will receive, just don't give up.
1 Corinthians 6:19 19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
Galatians 3:2 2This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? *** I love this one because I received not by all my works but by hearing and having faith...AMEN!
Acts 1:8 8But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Acts 8:15 15Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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