In 1979 at age 28, I had begun to repent of a worldly sinful
life beginning with heartfelt prayer at home, and the Lord was working in changing me from inside my heart and mind; I began repenting of the sins God was convicting me of becoming uncomfortable around my friends who were doing what I had been doing. I will spare you the details..
Following my mother, I surprised everyone who knew me and started attending her Baptist church jumping in, attending three services a week, plus the monthly special prayer
meeting. Making friends in the local church community, I also met some young people
from the Assembly of God and they spoke about the Holy Spirit and speaking in
tongues. "What is that?" I asked.
When I asked my Baptist pastor about that, he discouraged further interest
by dismissing it as “gibberish”. Naturally I believed him and so I parroted the
view of our church.
But as the weeks passed I began to have a spiritual crisis partly due to my own
weaknesses and temptations. After 5 months I saw the church I attended was becoming dull and routine.
Having experienced the power of rock concerts and a zesty worldly lifestyle, the
church was rather sleepy and a lot of people sickly. The elderly pastor was clearly tired.
Although Sunday morning
was a full house, the Sunday evening and Wednesday night services were sparsely
attended, sometimes I was the only one that attended the special prayer night
meeting with the pastor.
There was really no evidence of spiritual power or authority in contrast to
what I was reading in my Bible. This troubled me, hence the crisis of faith and I was not finding fulfillment as much as i wanted to in that church. But the people were nice so I persevered.
Then in June 1980 I was working the Vintage Days event at
Fresno State University, there in my sales booth where my business partner and I sold jewelry and craft items. It
was a wonderful event outdoors with the CSUF Jazz Band playing in the park, the sound of their music in the background, and
a great atmosphere.
From the crowd a young lady I knew from Los Banos walked up and we
began to talk about Christ and the Bible. In the course of our convo I gave my spiel
about speaking in tongues as I had recently been told by our pastor. Her name was Linda
Savage, and she listened patiently to my negative report then replied in a gentle
calm manner, “well Rory, I have the Holy Spirit and I speak in tongues”.
I was stunned. “YOU!?” -I asked with amazement.
Linda said “Yes” and told me
of her conversion and receiving the Spirit.
She left a short time later but she had innocently rocked my world and now I
was not sure what to believe. I knew and perceived she had something I did not have.
After the event was over, I was at home and later that week began to pray asking God “What about this
Holy Spirit business? If it is real I WANT THAT TOO!” I wanted truth and now two opposite views were before me.
-I was still in the spiritual crisis and
looking for answers, but this time I went to God asking Him about the matter wanting truth. This was the first time I ever prayed a prayer for truth and there would be many more subjects to ask Him about in the years ahead.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.
On July 4th a friend named Jerry and I were
having our cars detailed by a local man named Chris Cornwell. After Chris finished, I had him come to my house to get paid in cash. We talked about the
Lord and he happened to attend a local Pentecostal church and noticed I had
a ceramic bust of Queen Nefertiti that I had purchased from the King Tut museum display that
was touring the US at the time.
Suddenly he pivoted and pointed at the bust of
the queen on the mantle shelf and said “THAT IS AN ABOMINATION!”.
I said “REALLY?”,
and I grabbed it and smashed it on the concrete outside.
He left but I found out later Chris had told his pastor about the incident and my zeal.
The next Monday evening there was a knock on the door and a man
announced that he was in the neighborhood talking to people about Jesus and
wondered if I was interested. “SURE!” I said being one who still loved
sharing about Jesus, even in my “crisis”. He wasted no time in showing me the
Acts 2:38 “message” of being baptized into the name of Jesus Christ and
receiving the Holy “Ghost” as the KJV Pentecostals said.
By now my personal crisis had
also deepened my need and desire for MORE OF JESUS, and even though I had been
baptized 7 months prior by my Baptist pastor (who never taught us to be
baptized, I had been led on my own to ask), I said to Steve, “OK, take me to the water!", I just wanted more of Jesus.
So he invited me to a Thursday night baptism and accompanied by several of the church folks, we went to the local Forebay lake 15 minutes
away, where I was baptized “in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of
sins”. Acts 2:38. "OK, maybe this will help me in this spiritual crisis" I thought, I was becoming more desperate for some kind of break through, and now I was reading Acts to learn more about that "Holy Ghost" business the Pentecostals were emphasizing.
The Pentecostal church was a tiny “Home Mission” church plant with about
15 people including the children. I was meeting the pastor for dinner socially after that
but did not go to his church, and I was still questioning the validity of tongues and the Holy
Spirit.
I was still a Baptist.
San Francisco Calling.
In August, a couple of weeks later I left for a month to work with a Street
Ministry in San Francisco. It was a welcome relief from my spiritual crisis as
every day we had morning prayer and after were passing out Bibles and street witnessing. People from all
over the US had come to participate and our group was around 20 Christians and we had a great fellowship while serving the cause for Christ.
The
ministry provided lodging and meals, and we stayed at Simpson Bible College at
the south end of San Francisco on the Peninsula. Each day began with prayer and
devotion and I met some very nice people.
Near the end of that ministry term, the spiritual crisis
began again and I was questioning changing churches and attending the
Pentecostal group, going back and forth.
I liked the young pastor of the
Pentecostal church, he was my age and we really hit it off well. He was Steve Lamarche and his wife Patty were Spirit filled and wonderful. Like Linda Savage, the people seemed to have a joy I was
missing.
Yet even as a Christian, I was tormented and knew I was missing something.
Steve told me "You need the Holy Ghost." But I thought I had *something* already, but the Bible verses he presented were challenging. I kept praying and asking.
First Encounter.
Mid September came and I was still praying about the Holy Spirit baptism and I recognized my need for more of Jesus. In response to their invitations, I said I would visit the Pentecostals but the idea of going to visit another church was still a mental barrier to overcome, and I did not know what a Pentecostal church was.
That next Sunday morning as usual, I went to my Baptist church with Mom, but that Sunday
evening went to the small UPC church located in a 1 room office suite. The
little congregation only had an accordion and tambourine, and someone may have played on a small organ for the music.
I had
to suppress the desire to chuckle out loud at the primitivity.
There were maybe around 12 people there at most including 3-4 children, sitting on folding metal chairs.
Church service went through the usual format, the tacky music but with heartfelt singing of different songs than we did at the Baptist church, and then the pastor preached with fiery passion.
Very un-Baptist like.
Nearing
the end he made an “altar call” where at the front were some folding chairs to
kneel at.
Because I was a saved Baptist, I saw no need to "go forward", but he continued,
and a couple of others went up to pray. I resisted and obviously as the only visitor, he was preaching to me.
Then on his third altar call, it was as if a supernatural
force grabbed me by the shirt and yanked me out of my chair and drove me to
pray on one of the chairs.
It was as if a dam broke, from my innermost being tears
gushed, and sobs wracked my body. I don’t even know if I spoke any words, but I
wept like never before for around 10 or 15 minutes emptying myself of Lord
knows what.
When service ended, they asked me “How did you like the service?”
but I was unable to speak.
“I can’t talk” I answered and went home. Yet something powerful had
happened that I did not understand, and I realized the crisis of heaviness and oppression had been lifted from me after all those months.
I purposed to return and for the next 2 months of Sundays went to the
Baptist service in the morning and the Pentecostal service in the evening. I
had to admit the power and dynamic preaching at the latter church was much
better and ministered to me. I noticed the women were old-fashioned dressed, and
all the men wore suits.
No big deal to me, I just wanted more Jesus. Seeing
and hearing the Pentecostals testifying and hearing some speaking in tongues,
my desire for the Lord thought nothing of it and now I was really seeking Spirit
baptism.
Along with all that, I was reading my Bible to understand the new birth better and
working to overcome my now fading, Baptist indoctrination as I transitioned into the Pentecostal faith.
Late September.
Leaving the Baptist church, I jumped into my new Pentecostal group and there was
a “Revival” with a young man Chris Jones, from Louisiana. Because church was so
small, and my relationship with the people growing fast, Chris and I spent some
time together with him, his wife, and their baby son, Jordan.
On a Friday night, our church was having a service with an associate church in
Madera, CA, and we all rode together in the church bus which Chris drove.
I was
seeking the Holy Ghost baptism and at that service, an evangelist named Nathan Hurst
from Texas preached. At the close I went to the altar to pray for the Spirit,
surrounded by praying Pentecostals, I focused on Jesus and finally! I “prayed through” and spoke in tongues for
the first time.
As with others we have seen, my face had a glow on it and there is a
picture of me with my dad around that time where the joy of God’s Spirit is
evident. My spirit was changed and I fell into our Pentecostal church life with
a new-found joy. The services were powerful and we passionately sought God’s
Presence in prayer before service even began.
Later I found out that most of the local churches looked down on us but we believed WE had "The Truth".
Many people, events, and would follow, some wonderful and
some not so good, but I can never deny or renounce the goodness of receiving the
baptism of the Holy Spirit which was accompanied by speaking in tongues. About 2 years later, my future wife would be converted out of Catholicism and she too would receive Holy Spirit baptism speaking in tongues.
My experience was similar to the converts in Acts 19:2-6.
This is written as a testimony and to spark a desire for more of Jesus Christ
and the Gift of the Holy Spirit which He said we should receive (John 7:37-39.
Marriage to Linda came 3 years after the above and our Pentecostal sojourn lasted 11 years. I was ordained as a minister and there was a lot of good along with things that were not so good before the Lord called us out of that denomination.
God bless
you.