I would like to share the following testimony from an
anonymous person, regarding the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. This brother chooses to remain anonymous, so
only the Lord would receive the praise.
I think this will encourage you. He states:
After I gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ in 1986, my
friend invited me to visit his church. I
accepted and went with him. The church
was different than any other I had ever been to. Rather than meeting in a traditional church
building with a steeple, they met in what was formerly a nice restaurant with
chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, which had been renovated and converted
into a church. They had chairs instead of
pews. And up on the platform, the members
of the worship team were playing many types of musical instruments, including
keyboard, tambourine, drums, and guitar.
The worship and music was so full of joy! It was vibrant and lively. People were speaking in tongues, as well as
prophesying. You could feel the presence
of the Lord. The preaching was
excellent. There was an emphasis on prayer.
And when you walked into the church, you were greeted and felt so much
love from everyone. I remember one night
after a mid-week service, feeling like I didn’t want to go home, because the
presence of the Lord was so wonderful.
It was a foretaste of heaven.
I asked Alan, who had invited me, what these people had,
because whatever they had, I wanted it, too.
He said, that it was the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I had never heard of that, so I asked about
it. He gave me a little booklet that
explained it from the Bible. I took that
home and read it more than once, searching the Scriptures to see if these
things were really so. Once I had become
convinced this was Scriptural, I asked at a mid-week service for prayer to
receive the Holy Spirit.
So after the meeting, they took me to the prayer room and
had me sit down. The intercessors and
Alan stood around me. They asked if I
understood what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is, and I asked them to explain
it to me once again, which they did.
Then they laid hands on me, and I spoke with new tongues with my hands
uplifted to God, giving Him praise in a heavenly language. That night when I
got back to the military post where I was stationed, I went out into the woods
to my favorite prayer spot, and stood out under the stars and prayed in the
Spirit for a long while in my new language. That was the beginning of my
awareness of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life.
What follows are some testimonies, which are only examples
of the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life. There are too many
incidents to include them all, so these will have to suffice to make the point.
One morning in Bible school, the Lord spoke to me in prayer
and told me that if I delight myself in Him that He will give me the desire of
my heart to reap the harvest in Eastern Europe. A few moments after leaving my prayer closet,
I met a friend who said to me, “Delight yourself in the Lord…and He will…use
you mightily in the ministry and give you the desires of your heart.”
One day I went into my favorite submarine sandwich shop in
my hometown of Manchester, NH. I
was home on break from Bible school. I
happened to meet up with a man whom I had known in high school. This was the second time I happened to meet
up with him out in public without planning to do so, during one of my rare
breaks from Bible school. As I was
waiting for my sandwich to be prepared, I prayed for a word of knowledge for
him, so that I might lead him to Christ.
I closed my eyes and waited.
Then the Holy Spirit showed me an impression of a man sitting with his
feet in the water. I asked the Holy Spirit for wisdom and when my sandwich was
ready, I asked this man if I could sit with him. He obliged.
As we ate together, I asked him if he had been having any problems with
his feet lately. At first, he did not
recall having any problems. Then he said
that a couple days earlier he had bought a new pair of snakeskin boots, and
wore them to work as a delivery driver for a water cooler delivery
company. He said he feet had been really
bothering him. So this was an opening
that enabled him to see that God cared about him, and after I presented the
gospel to him, he gave his life to Christ right there in the middle of the
restaurant crowded with people.
One day while working at a
Christian resort hotel in Virginia
Beach as a bellman, I checked into the hotel the
Seegel’s, a missionary couple whom I had never met. Without my mentioning a word to Mrs. Segel
about Eastern Europe, she indicated that I
wanted to go there.
A couple months later, I had the privilege of checking in a
Romanian couple from Bucharest. Their names are Mr. and Mrs. Richard Wurmbrand,
whom I had never heard of before then. I
later found out they were famous, and had been in prison for Christ in Eastern Europe for many years before I was even
born. Before I even told Mrs. Wurmbrand
that I was studying for my Masters degree in World Missions, she said to me,
‘You’ll make a good missionary,’ because I was able to explain to her how to
use her electronic room key.
During my training for ministry, I met a young lady in Virginia, and we became
engaged, but later had some doubts whether we were to be married. So we separated and put each other on the
altar before the Lord. I then moved back
to my home state of NH. Then one day I
called her from NH for the first time in months. She said she was still praying for God to put
us back together, just as I had also been praying. We both still felt strongly we were to be
married. Even so, I experienced a crisis
of belief in my heart.
The very next day, in my private devotion time with the
Lord, I claimed her as my wife, standing on the verse in Proverbs 5:18,19. That same day, I had a message on my
answering machine that a brother in Christ had left for me. It was a recording of him interceding for me
that God would bless me with a mate.
That same night at a worship meeting, a prophet visiting from out of
town, whom I had never met, prophesied that God was going to bless me with a
wife. He specifically indicated that
this would occur within one week, even though he had never met me before, and
he didn’t know my situation.
Meanwhile that same evening, hundreds of miles away in Virginia Beach, a sister
was prophesying over my former fiancé that she was “not going to be alone much
longer.” When she returned home, she
recorded an audiocassette tape to send to me in the mail. This was the first time either of us had ever
done this.
Exactly one week after that prophesy over me, I was
surprised to receive her tape in the mail, in which she said she still believed
we would one day be married in God’s plan.
About seven months later, once she finished graduate school, she moved
to NH to become part of my home church, and we were married a little more than
a year after we both received these prophesies.
While we were missionaries in Europe, I went to a revival in
Belgium,
where I received the baptism with holy fire.
The day after I returned home to my family in Hungary, we had family prayer late
at night, and I imparted the holy fire to my wife and the children. My hands went from being cool beforehand to
very warm, even hot as I imparted the fire.
As I prayed for my youngest daughter, she felt two blazing balls of fire
in her hands that were very heavy like lead balls, and she became very
warm. My oldest daughter and wife felt
the same thing. They were amazed. My son
said he felt the holy fire, especially on his back, and his hands became
sweaty. Praise the Lord!
As a missionary in Eastern and Central
Europe, I once shared Jesus with a man at the auto dealership,
while we were both waiting for our vehicles to be repaired. He
said he does not have any spiritual beliefs, since he only believes what he can
see. After I spoke with him about the
Lord, his car was ready and he had to leave, so I gave him a gospel tract. As he was getting into his car, a vehicle
pulled right in front of him with the license plate number “GOD 947”. This car went ahead of him as he was leaving
the parking lot.
One time when I traveled to Bulgaria,
I preached at a gypsy church in Kalekovits,
Bulgaria. 14 people wanted healing, and the Lord healed
many of them. One young lady manifested a demon that made her mute, and
received deliverance after about 45 min. Then she got saved and I prayed
for her to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Praise the Lord.
About fourteen people got healed from pain in knees, and
pain in their lower back. I prayed for a young, fourteen-year-old boy who had a
broken elbow from arm wrestling. Also prayed for him to be healed of
hemophelia. He was shaking when I prayed for him, and he felt the power of God.
When I prayed for his elbow, he felt heat there. Others were also shaking when
they received prayer and testified of feeling heat go through their bodies.
I met with a precious Christian couple I know in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. We had a great time of fellowship. I shared
our testimony about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the holy fire. Then I
imparted the holy fire. When I did, he was sweating so much that his shirt was
soaking through. When I imparted to his wife, she felt like her feet became
weak and it was difficult to stand. She also felt great joy of the Lord inside
her.
I also met with a preacher in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. He has responsibility to oversee a church
plant in a town called Stamboljski. I
shared our testimony about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our family and
the holy fire.
Then we prayed for about fifteen minutes. Then I imparted
the holy fire. He was standing and his whole body from head to toe became warm.
He became weak and could not stand. He fell to his knees and bowed before the
Lord in praise. Afterward he was very warm and praising God.
One night in our home in Hungary, we had
family prayer on our knees in the dark. During the meeting, both my wife and I
felt the holy fire on our hands. I felt
led to pray for my daughter regarding the gift of intercession. My other daughter testified at the end of the
prayer meeting that she caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a flame of
orange fire where I was reaching my hand around my daughter’s back to pray for
her. It was so bright that it surprised her. As she began to share this
testimony, I immediately felt the presence of the Lord all over me. It became
stronger as she continued to share, and remained even after she had finished
testifying! Praise the Lord!
On one visit to Romania, I was
preaching at a gypsy church in Voila. After I finished the message, I imparted
the holy fire to all who wanted it. The pastor’s wife testified the next day
that she saw bright light when I prayed, going from person to person. She felt
peace and love. Then she saw in a dream a man holding a light, saying, “Don’t
look behind or sideways.” And she saw a road leading the right way. She said
the message I preached about obedience to the Lord was the right way to go.
All the people I prayed for that
night had supernatural experience consistent with receiving holy fire. Without
exception they all had supernatural manifestations. One man felt the power of
God going through him from his feet on up through is body. Another man felt
warmth or heat in his body. Another man was feeling the heat in his hands and a
prickly feeling. Another person felt
balls of fire in his hands. Some people were also trembling throughout their
bodies. The pastor also received it and definitely felt the fire in his hand.
He was thanking Jesus! He said, “I felt like the Holy Spirit was searching my
entire being from head to toe.”
At the same gypsy church in Voila, Romania, I
prayed for a man named Nicolae with a painful lump in right side of throat that
made it hard to swallow. I laid hands on him and commanded lump to go.
Afterward his pain was gone and the lump had shrunk, so it was much easier to
swallow. I prayed again and the lump disappeared, so he could swallow
normally. He testified the next night at
the meeting that the Lord healed him.
I visited another Pentecostal church in Ploiesti, Romania
and preached. When I imparted the fire of the Holy Spirit, most people
experience the working of the Holy Spirit.
One man felt two heavy fireballs in
his hands. Another man was overwhelmed with the glory of God and could not
stand. Other people felt the “peace” that passes all understanding.
When we returned to the US on furlough from the mission field, we shared
our testimonies at the Wednesday evening meeting at a church in Manchester, NH,
and afterward ministered to the sick. One young lady had severe neck pain, and
had seen doctor right before the meeting, who prescribed physical therapy. The
Lord healed her instantly, and the pain left immediately. Another lady had many
physical ailments and pain. After we broke the curse off her life. She felt a
peace like she hadn’t felt in long time. Another lady ministers to children and
asked for prayer for strength. We imparted from the Holy Spirit and she said
she was overwhelmed with joy, which was very obvious.
I checked back a couple weeks later
and learned that the young lady who was miraculously healed of neck pain was
still perfectly healed since the time she was prayed for. Then I got an email from another sister in that
church a few weeks later that said “You prayed for a certain sister at the
service at our church that Wednesday evening. Well, she told us last week to
let you know that the issues with her neck and leg and knee all have improved
dramatically! So I just wanted to send along this praise report to you.” Praise
the Lord!
We shared testimonies at
another church in NH on a Wednesday evening, and afterward ministered to the
sick. One lady had scoliosis since age 14. I checked her legs and her left was
longer by ¼ to ½ inch. I spoke to right leg and it grew out, so that the two
legs were perfectly even. She was then able to walk around with out pain. She
later said she felt a gentleness and had a vision of grapes when I prayed for
her healing. My wife was led to minister inner healing while laying hands on
her chest. She later said she felt a lump come up in her chest as Jen prayed.
We imparted holy fire to another sister. When we did, she felt tingling all
over her body.
I shared about what the Lord has
been doing through us in Eastern Europe at a
small group in a home one evening. I
mentioned the fire of the Holy Spirit and a sister came up to us after the
meeting to receive it. She said she had
always wondered what the fire of the Holy Spirit was in the Bible. When we imparted it, she saw white and felt
heat running from the top of her head down the back of her neck. Her hands also felt warm and numb. We prayed with her, led her to forgive some
people, we broke fear off of her, and drove some evil spirits that were in her
life. She was bright eyed and full of
hope after we prayed with her. She said
she felt “lighter” and she had a “new hope” now.
The next day she wrote: “I am so
thankful and overjoyed at the healing/ministering work The Lord blessed me with
through you both last night!!!! I have
not encountered faith and the power of the Holy Spirit like that in a very long
time, so I felt refreshed, invigorated and revived with hope, healing, and
faith.”
Once a garage told us that we needed
a lot of repairs on our used van, due to oil leaks, and the total came to
around $1250 total. I did not have the
money to spend on all the repairs at that time, so I prayed about which repairs to do first,
and asked God for wisdom. I also asked a pastor in Belgium to pray
for us. After praying about it, I felt
like we should do the one repair that was supposed to cost $780. Then we
received a gift from the pastor in Belgium, who was led to send us 500
euros. We were so grateful to God and to
the pastor for this generous gift!
When
they did the work on the van today, they were able to look closely and see that
the oil leak was not coming from this part of the engine. So we were able
to avoid the expense of some of the labor and parts associated with this
repair. When they added up the cost of it all and gave me the total
charges, it came to $641.39, rather than $780. I was happy to see that we
saved money. Then I remembered that the 500 euros that the pastor in Belgium sent to
us as a gift, which had converted into exactly $641.62 USD!!! That paid
for exactly the repairs we had done that day, which cost us $641.39!!!
Praise the Lord!
At one church we
visited in North Carolina,
the Lord led us to lay hands for healing on a man with lung cancer that had
spread to his back, which we did after the service with the pastor's
permission. The sick man, named Bob, had
not been to church in eight weeks, but decided to come on that one day when we
visited. We didn't know this until
afterward, once the pastor told us. Bob
said the pain left his back when hands were laid on and the prayer of faith was
offered in Jesus’ name.
The pastor said he
"knows beyond the shadow of a doubt" that the Lord led us there that
Sunday. The night before we visited, I had called the church telephone number
to find the Sunday service times. I
called around 11:25 PM expecting to hear the service times on the church
phone's greeting message, but instead the pastor's wife answered the phone at
home. On Sunday morning, the pastor told
the congregation that on the previous night, he had just been praying that the
Lord would send someone to the church the next morning. He said that was about
fifteen minutes before I called, so he saw our visit to the church as a direct
answer to prayer. He and his wife were
very encouraged by our visit.
In fact, later that Sunday evening, he
said, "I have rejoiced all day in the Lord because of your visit. [My
wife] has been telling everyone about how God answered prayer today."
Praise the Lord for the way He encouraged this pastor and his wife, and healed
the man with cancer!
One night as we were leaving
a restaurant, there was a waitress outside smoking a cigarette, who began to
talk to us. She was talking about
getting cancer from smoking, so my wife said she knew someone who could help
her quit. The waitress asked who it was
that could help her, and my wife said, “Jesus.”
She said, “Really?” So we began
to talk with her about the Lord. She
said she knew “someone was up there,” because her life had been miraculously
spared twice. Once she had gotten a
deadly MRSA infection in her brain and they had to cut her skull to treat
it. The doctors gave her no hope to
survive and she was healed. Another time
she was hit from behind on the highway, and her car rolled four times. The man next to her in the car was holding
her hand as the car rolled, saying, “You’re going to be alright.” When a lady came to the car to help, the man
handed her hand over to the lady that came to the window. The lady told her that help was on the way
for the two of them and would be there shortly.
Later at the hospital, that lady asked the waitress where the man was,
who had been in the passenger’s seat with her in the accident. But she replied that she did not know who
that man was, since she was traveling alone, and there was no passenger in the
car until the vehicle started to roll out of control. We explained to her that he was an angel of
God, a ministering spirit sent to help her, because God loves her and has a
plan for her life.
Then we discovered she had
never been born again, and after we explained the gospel, she said she wanted
to give her life to Jesus. So she prayed
right there outside the restaurant, and we also prayed for her. She wept as the presence of the Lord came
upon her. When my wife checked on her a
week later, she was very excited and said that her whole life had now changed.
I hesitate to share any of
these testimonies, because I do not want anyone to think more highly of me than
they ought to. I am merely a vessel of
the Holy Spirit. I am a servant of the Most High God. I can do nothing without Him. All the mistakes were mine, but everything
good that happened was because of Him.
He is the one who did all these things and the many other things I did
not share in this brief testimony.
Author's Note: You may find my collection of blogs at Writing for the Master.
Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus. Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?
“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15). He preached that we must repent and believe.
Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"
_______________________________________________
Len Lacroix is the founder of
Doulos Missions International. He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission.
www.dmiworld.org.
