Sharing God's Mercy; Tale of a Baptism in the Holy Spirit

That night, I felt like my wife Mary and I needed a nice landing from a hectic weekend. So, I put on some music, and we retreated to our bedroom for some Bible reading and worship. Looking for my scrubs that I usually wear on such occasions, I come upon a, shall I say rather "original" outfit that Mary had gotten me as a goofy gift. Feeling a bit silly and playful, I put it on. I decide to keep it on, since it IS quite comfortable. The mood was set, I guess, for a night that would turn out to be out of the ordinary!

After this, I laid down and start reading my Bible. I read 1 Corithians 6:18-20. These particular verses hit home big time with me .

Right at the end of chapter 6, I placed my Bible on my chest, and started praying for forgiveness, with a real sense of shame in my heart. At that point, Mary had dozed off on my shoulder, and was gently sleeping.

After only a couple of minutes, I feel a nagging pain in my jaw, like it’s about to dislocate. To my great surprise, I feel my lips start moving on their own. I try to fight it back, but when I do, the pain is too much to bear. So I just go with it, and I start what feels like praying (I say « feel » because I don’t know what I’m saying!) at an ever increasing speed. I hear what I say, but I don’t understand it. I do it as silently as I can, for fear that Mary will hear me and think I’ve lost it.

After what feels like 10 or 20 minutes of this, I feel Mary stir on my shoulder, so I lie on my back, eyes closed, and try to keep my mouth from moving. This is how Mary catches me, apparently asleep with my mouth open!

She asks me if I had fallen asleep while I was reading. At first, I felt like telling her yes, but then I decide to tell her the truth. She then tells me that she doesn’t think I’m nuts and that she’s actually envious of what’s happening to me. That’s when All Heaven Broke Loose! (Thank you Amy for that new expression, I love it).

I kept on praying earnestly in tongues, going from the depth of dark despair to the heights of spiritual drunkenness. Mary and I had giggling fits like we hadn’t had in months, but in between those, I had fur-ball coughing fits, intense jaw pains at times, and my body was trashed about the bed and the bedroom floor, as if I was a puppet.

The general feeling of this whole night was one of cleansing, asking forgiveness and repenting for my past sins and God rewarding me in between these cleansing episodes with joy beyond compare, as if he was giving me breaks from this intense work he was doing in me.

Some highlights of those intense 3 hours :

• I’m thrown on the floor on many occasions next to my bed, weeping, asking for forgiveness, not able to look up from the floor;
• Mary and I have a giggling fit when, while I’m still speaking in tongues, she says “Now I know what they mean by being drunk in the Holy Spirit”;
• Another giggling fit starts when Mary says to me “I hope you’ll switch back to French (my mother tongue and the language I speak at work) for work tomorrow morning”. When she says that, I somewhat regain partial control of my body and manage to mimic a Powerpoint presentation while I’m still speaking in tongues;
• Most of my praying is done with very sharp forward head movements, as if I’m praying with resolve. My prayer, or whatever I’m saying in tongues is not repetitive;
• Many times, without warning, my head simply falls on the bed while I’m kneeling on the floor. I then lie there for a few minutes, and then my head springs back up as I start speaking in tongues again.;
• I sometimes try to speak to Mary in English, but my mouth keeps speaking in tongues, to our amazement. These episodes usually lead us to another joyful explosion, as I willingling submit to the power that allows me to speak to God in the language of his choice;
• When I regain control of my voice, I tell Mary how great all this feels, that I don’t want it to end. I tell her that it’s better than anything I’ve ever experienced in my life, plus, it’s free. That’s when the Holy Spirit forces me to my knees, rams my head into the mattress, and then my head shoots up and the Holy Spirits says through me, as I’m looking intently at Mary : “This isn’t free; what did it cost me?” and Mary answers, quite startled and shaken : “Your life”. Then my voice asks her :”What do I want from you?” and Mary answers, as her eyes fill up with tears “My life”. Mary later told me that she felt a sharp pain in heart after I told her that, confirming a Word that had been said to her that day. That was the first time I ever had a word of wisdom for anyone;
• At some point, I say to Mary : “God has great plans for you, but not yet. I say to her, His time is going to be your time”. I guess it meant that God will act out His plans with Mary once he feels that she’s ready to give her life to him, to totally submit to him. That was the first prophecy I ever had;
• After a coughing fit, I look at the hand with which I was covering my mouth, and then, looking up at Mary, I say :”This isn’t mine”, knowing in my heart that I felt these sins I was coughing up weren’t mine : These were my first steps as an intercessor;
• That’s when I feel like I’m being used to rid the world of other people’s sins, and I’m filled with fear. I pray to God and Jesus that I’m their willing servant but that I will need them to stay by my side to allow me to not fall on the side of the sins I’m trying to spit out. My fear soon vanishes, as I feel the Holy presence filling me up ;
• Mary then tells me something about ridding our house from the evil spirits that are in it. I happily start walking around the house, praying in every room, still in tongues. At one point, I stop dead in my tracks in the living room, lean against the wall, and start praying to Jesus, once again filled with humility and fear :”Please Jesus, walk with me, stay with me. I can’t do this alone! I need your presence, your shelter to keep me from sin and temptation”. I then start walking again around the house, filled with joy and laughter, praying over the doors, the windows and everything I touch;

So, there it is folks! Told you it was awesome. Hope it touched you. If it did, make sure you pass it on. I will go on praying for the saved and the unsaved, so that they receive Christ in their hearts and the Holy Spirit in His full measure.

Hope you enjoyed the music too!

Thank you Rick, for that Holy Spirit inspired music!

May God bless you abundantly!