My Holy Spirit Baptism Testimony

 

My Holy Spirit Baptism Testimony

In 1979 at age 28, I had begun to repent of a worldly sinful life beginning with heartfelt prayer at home, and the Lord began changing me on the inside and I began repenting of the sins God was convicting me of.

Following my mother, I began attending her Baptist church and jumped in attending three services a week plus the monthly special prayer meeting. Making friends in the local church community, I met some young people from the Assembly of God and they spoke about the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.
When asking 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.

As the weeks passed I began to have a spiritual crisis partly due to my own weaknesses and 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. 

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.
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.

Then in June I was working at the College Vintage Days at Fresno State University, in my booth where we sold jewelry and craft goods. It was a wonderful event outdoors with the CSUF Jazz Band playing in the park, and a great atmosphere. 

Then 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 been told by our pastor. Her name was Linda Savage., and she listened patiently to my negative report and 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.
She 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 she had something I did not have.

After it was over at home I began to pray asking God “What about this Holy Spirit business? If it is real I WANT THAT TOO!”
-I was still in the spiritual crisis and looking for answers, but this time I went to God.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.

On July 4^th a friend named Jerry and I were having our cars detailed by a local man named Chris Cornwell. After he 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 he noticed I had a bust of Queen Nefertiti 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. 
He left but then 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 and 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 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 “OK, take me to the water!”.

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”. 

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 be with a Street Ministry in San Francisco. It was a welcome relief from my spiritual crisis as every day we were passing out Bibles and street witnessing. People from all over the US had come to participate and our group was around 20 Christians.

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. The people seemed to have that joy I was missing. I was tormented and knew I was missing something.

First Encounter.
Mid September 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 and the idea of going to visit another church was a mental barrier to be overcome, and I did not know what a Pentecostal church was.

That Sunday morning I went to my Baptist church with Mom as usual, but that Sunday evening I went to the little UPC church located in a small 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 at the primitivity. There were around 15 people at most including 3-4 children.

It went through the usual format and the pastor preached with passion. Nearing the end he made an “altar call” where at the front were some folding chairs to kneel in front.
Because I was a Baptist, I saw no need to "go forward", but he continued, and a few members went up to pray. I resisted and obviously as the only visitor, he was preaching to me.

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. Something powerful had happened that I did not understand, and I realized the crisis oppression had lifted from me after all those months.

I purposed to return and for several 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 I was really seeking Spirit baptism.

Along with all that, I was reading my Bible to understand the new birth and working to overcome my now former, Baptist indoctrination.

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 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, 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 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.

My experience was similar to the converts in Acts 19.
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 commanded us to receive. God bless you.