Being Filled By The Holy Spirit: My Testimony

About 13 years ago, I attended a class on the spiritual disciplines and read Spiritual Disciplines by Richard Foster. I was inspired immediately to begin trying some of the new ways to connect with God that I heard and read about. And one Saturday morning, Phil took the kids out to give me some quiet time. I decided to spend it with Jesus and practice. Richard Foster suggested a simple meditation in his book, called Palms Down, Palms Up. The idea is to have your palms down, and give over all the things tugging at your mind to Jesus and let Him care for them, and then after a time, turn your palms up and receive from the Lord whatever He would like to give. This being my first real foray into this discipline I wasn’t expecting much. Regardless, I totally surrendered myself to God, as I laid out on the floor, waiting on the Lord to teach or show me something. 

The Lord decided to give me more, so much more than I could have possibly imagined. 

The Lord totally overwhelmed me with His presence. It was as if a dam in my soul that I didn't know was there was broken wide open and I was washed away in the flood. This flood was like nothing else I have ever experienced before or since. Thus far, it has been the most important, and most defining time in my whole life. 

The next 6 months became what I call, my Summer of Jesus. 

Let me try and share some of it. . . truly, much of it is hard to capture in words. During that season, my kids were young, Simon was barely 2, Eve was 5, and Lily 7. It was like the Lord put a bubble all around our home, and there was no contention, worry, or upset of any kind. The kids played and played for hours with hardly a peep, as I read, prayed and spent huge chunks of time with Jesus learning, soaking, and just being with Him in conversation. It was as if all of nature, time, and existence was pointed toward learning more of who Jesus is. He opened up the truth of nature to me. One day, I literally sat on the floor at my bedroom window and watched a Japanese maple in my backyard blow in the breeze - for 4 hours! The Lord told me all about how that tree glorified Him, and had so much to say about the believer’s need to follow Jesus and be like the trees of the field. The time flew by. . . how could that have been 4 hours? 

I also knew exactly where and what I was supposed to do in each minute as I entered it. Is it time for the dishes or to read? Is it time to talk with a friend or pray? It was like the Lord cut a path in the spiritual realm and was teaching me how to walk in it. . . and I knew exactly where to go, what to do, and when. It was like each minute of time came to meet me and the Lord smiled on whatever I needed to attend to. 

The Lord was having me pile-drive information into my soul. I was reading so much! All the old mystics, books on who the Holy Spirit is, more on the spiritual disciplines. Authors I had never even heard of. . . and He was opening my mind in ways I didn't know were possible. Shifting, changing, rewriting bad theology. And the WORD! It was so loud and alive and sinking deep into places in my heart that I never knew existed. Jesus was radically shifting my very make-up with His Word. 

I wondered at times what to do with all that God was doing. . . It was so, so, so much. I wondered who to share it with, and the Lord just brought friends to my doorstep who needed to hear, who needed to taste and see that He is good! I was able to minister out of this insane overflow directly into the hearts of the people He brought. I also was getting Words of Knowledge, and Words of Wisdom for people. . . that had never happened before! Suddenly everything coming out of my mouth felt important and necessary to life. It wasn’t about me or puffing up my flesh, it was about the Lord and the life He wanted to impart. Ministry suddenly felt easy. I’ll tell you what too, some of those friends are now on a similar journey to press into Jesus because of what Jesus was doing through me. Watching them flourish in Jesus. . . is such a privilege! 

The Lord also called me out of things that didn’t matter. I didn’t care about what was on TV or the latest novel (though some of that is perfectly fine!) It was simply that I wanted BETTER things. Worldly stuff just melted away. I wanted to pray and read scripture more! I would get up in the middle of the night to pray for hours (I had never done that before either!) and He showed me things about intercession that I still don’t fully understand! I was getting prophetic dreams and visions, I was getting just complete downloads of subject matter that I still can’t fully comprehend. At times, I had to ask the Lord to turn off the fire hose because I felt like I would explode from so much.  

Then one day on a retreat the Lord poured out bucket after bucket after bucket of His love on me. This feeling of alive, of awake, of fullness is beyond my capacity to describe. But the feeling has so lingered in my soul that I am constantly thirsting after Jesus with such an ache that at times I can’t speak - still to this day. Each night as I would go to sleep, when I woke, even just for a second, or when I woke in the morning - I found my soul singing praise songs to Jesus. My soul was always singing! Eventually, as I walked on with Jesus in this season. . . even if I stopped during the day and quieted myself. . . I could hear my soul still singing in the background! 

Everything, everything, everything made more sense. From the flowers in my yard, to the big questions we all ask in life. Not even because He was always giving answers. . . but because His presence in everything made everything FULL. Filled with light. His character and heart were bursting in. His greatness and glory shone out of everything. 

This may sound too fantastic to be real. (I’ll just have to rely on Phil and my friends to back me up!) BUT IT IS. It is real. It happened to me. . . and even as I write I am overwhelmed by the graciousness of His astounding blessing to me. The ache is back right now. . . and now He is pressing past the ache!! His presence is breaking out in me right now as I type!!! I am shedding tears because it has been years since last I felt Him like this! Friends, HIS REALITY is more real than any words I can write down. My Summer of Jesus changed everything for me. And even in each hard moment after (because those came back!) as He had me pressing through any of the foolish junk this world offers, I would do whatever it took to find Him. NO MATTER WHAT. 

He is the prize. HE IS YOUR PRIZE. 

Friends, Jesus wants to show you who He is! 

This fullness wasn’t just for me. . .

He is offering Himself to everyone who earnestly seeks Him.

THERE IS MORE! 

Seek, ask, knock! Press in. He wants to give the Holy Spirit in fullness to His children. 

Get to know the Holy Spirit. . . because it is through His power that I received all of this blessing. The Holy Spirit will always, always, always point us to Jesus. He is God, and He is trustworthy. Go and get your portion! 

If you live here in or near Clermont, FL, come learn more. The Father, Jesus, and the Spirit are worth your time, all the rearranging, the coming and the going. The Spirit will meet with us and we will walk away changed. . . how can we not with such a God like this?

For all the info you need go to my EVENTS page and RSVP to my phone number!