Johann was baptized! But not with water, because he accepted the water baptism in 2012 at the age of 16. On the first day of school he accepted the baptism known as "Baptism in the Holy Spirit". What had happened?
First of all, I do not want to motivate anyone to copy my testimony to their life. It is the way God went with me. Therefore, I am not going into every single detail. You should not be motivated to seek the Holy Spirit for the sake of experience or gifts. At the same time, this blog post is not a teaching lesson or sermon.
I grew up with the teaching that miracles ceased with the end of the apostles. And that speaking in tongues, as described in the Bible, does not come from God. With regard to spiritual gifts, until two years ago I did not know of a single person who had brought even one of the described gifts to manifest in his or her life. Accordingly, I believed that when I was born again, I received everything I needed to live. Also, I believed that speaking in tongues is something from the devil and that people who do such things are not Christians. The Holy Spirit was just a concept I encountered now and then when reading the Bible, but I did not have a close relationship with Him.
This changed about 1.5 years ago after I heard a sermon about the baptism in the Holy Spirit for the first time. The rejection in me was present during the whole sermon and also after the sermon, a battle was raging inside, but in the beginning the whole subject left me cold. I thought to myself, "I am born again and with being born again I received the Holy Spirit." For what, then, the baptism of the Spirit! Further, I was taught only that there is ONE baptism and not multiple. I began to ask God in my prayers if there was more than I had been taught so far.
After some time, I realized that I had to find an answer for myself. What does the Bible say about the "baptism in the Holy Spirit" or what does baptism mean in general? I started to focus my attention on this topic in the Bible, read books about it, made pro and con list and checked everything with the Bible. After about half a year, it was clear to me that the Bible does not speak about only one baptism. I started to let the word of the Bible work on my heart and renew my thoughts towards this subject. On March 12, 2023, three days before we left Switzerland and moved to Germany, I had a dream. And for the first time in my life, a voice told me to write down the dream. When I woke up from the dream, it was the middle of the night. My whole body was wet and extremely uneasy, total fear was upon me. Knowing that my words have power, I immediately spoke against it and a total peace came over me.
For several days and weeks I was thinking about the dream and wanted to know from the Spirit what the dream meant. And he gave me the interpretation. The dream was about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and that there was something inside me that was choking the scattered seed and keeping me from receiving. Months went by and I got no revelation about what was keeping me from receiving. Until suddenly the topic caught up with me again in the USA.
On the evening of Aug. 11, 2023, I went to a conference in Woodland Park with a housemate. During the worship time, while I had my eyes closed and was singing, I suddenly felt that I had no ground under my feet and was floating. I quickly opened my eyes and was glad that I was still standing in the same place and everything was the same as before. A few minutes later I closed my eyes one more time and again I had no ground under my feet. I opened my eyes to see that everything was the same as before. This was so strange to me that I decided not to close my eyes anymore. During the next song, when I had my hands raised halfway up in the air, my arms were supported from below and almost completely stretched up in the air. I quickly looked at my arms, but there was nothing and no one holding my arm. There was no one on my right, in front, or behind me. Only my housemate, who was standing to my left. But she had her hands down and was not paying attention to me. That's weird, I thought, and put my hands down... I didn't know what it all meant at that moment. We drove home that night and I was telling her in the car, in my then broken English, what had happened. She just looked at me with wide eyes and said, "I was speaking in tongues during worship and the Spirit gave me the interpretation that it had been for you. I saw Jesus, he was standing between us." Now things are getting weird, I thought to myself. She also confirmed to me that my body was not physically floating. I wasn't quite convinced that I hadn't imagined something and that it had been real.
The next day we went to the same conference one more time. Betty and Elijah came with us as well. During the sermon, when Elijah got a little antsy, Betty, Elijah and our housemate went outside. Now I was sitting all alone in a row. In front of me was the aisle and behind me were two rows completely empty. During the sermon, I was sitting in the chair normally, my head was pushed up slightly but with some force, so I was looking at the ceiling. I saw nothing except the light, ventilation pipes, etc. Immediately I had to think of the last evening. I realized, something is happening here, this is not imagination. Something is happening and I don't understand what it means to me... After I lowered my head again, I had to think of Samuel from the Bible when God called him and he answered after the third time, "Speak Lord, for your servant hears." I spoke these words after that.
Another two weeks passed and we are on our first day of school. Several speakers shared information. And then there was a change in the schedule for the day. One speaker dropped out just before her speech and someone else stepped in. He spoke about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and what it did for him. In the middle of his sermon he says, "All of you who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, raise your hands." I turned around and about 98% of the students raised their hands! WOW, I thought, there are between 1,000 to 1,500 students here... At the same time, I just thought, don't ask who hasn't been baptized in the Holy Spirit yet! And what do you think was his next question? Correct, his next question was, "Who wants to be baptized in the Holy Spirit?" I turned around because I was sitting in the second row from the front and at first no arm went up. A visitor then came forward who wanted to be baptized into the Holy Spirit. My arm stayed down. The instructor called him forward to the stage. While the man was still walking forward, I abruptly stood up. This is the moment I have been waiting for over a year, I thought to myself! Also, my dream came to my mind. So I slowly walked towards the stage. As I walked forward, my legs and then my whole body began to shake. Fear was spreading in me! It was the same feeling as when I accepted Jesus as my Savior for my life around 7 to 8 years old. And these are two different things... Which is quite interesting....
In front of the stage, two people started praying over me. And nothing happened... I wasn't waiting for a physical manifestation, but for the speaking in tongues to come out of my mouth as promised. (Not to be confused with the spiritual gift given for the general public. I am speaking here of the personal speaking in tongues). As the people continued to pray, many thoughts went through my mind. "I told you that you would not speak in tongues. People didn't tell you the truth!" or "You're not emotional enough, you shouldn't just stand there and wait for it to automatically come out of you. Throw yourself on the floor or start screaming..." And all such weird stuff was going through my head, which I stood against inside. And also one of the people unexpectedly said, "You may not experience the manifestation until a few days later." To which I promptly replied, "No, I know it will happen here and now! I'm just blocked inside."The person grabbed me by the back of the neck and we prayed together again. Then the blockade broke inside me! It was as if a barrier would break and the power of the water flowed through me. Immediately my tongue was released and speaking in tongues came out of me automatically. We let it run for a few minutes and then stopped. Since that moment, by the grace of God, speaking in tongues has been given to me that I can start and stop at any time I want.
I thank God as often as I exercise it for the gift He has given me. It is not something that I have earned by any work. It is a part of the work of redemption and a promise that he has given us, of which I am biblically convinced, which is available to everyone by faith. But everyone do their own research to see if they believe it is biblically right or wrong.
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