He explained that it was through Jesus that I would be given the opportunity to be forgiven for my sins. Despite all the mocking I had expressed toward the word "sin" growing up, I knew there were things I had done in my life that I was not proud of and that did not measure up to a God that required moral rightness. If God was truly willing to offer me proof of his existence and if I needed to be forgiven for my sins then I figured it was about time to give it a try.

My friend baptized me at home in my bathtub. Coming up out of the water, I prayed for the Spirit, but nothing happened. Encouraged to pray more, we went to the living room where my friend added a prayer that I would be healed of debilitating headaches from which I had suffered since a car accident many years earlier. The pain was so bad that I had to sleep each day, sometimes three times a day, and I experienced intermittent paralysis on one side of my face. By no coincidence (I now realize) I had been examined by the doctors at UCLA medical center just five days prior to my friend's visit. They had said there was no cure for my condition and their solution was to put me on drugs for the rest of my life, to mask the pain. Now my friend was saying that prayer could completely heal me. He laid his hands upon me and prayed in English, then in tongues. I was instantly healed and the headaches and paralysis never came back.

It wasn't until two weeks later that I actually received the Holy Spirit as I knelt down to pray with another person. I said, "Hallelujah" (i.e. I began to praise God in English), and a rush of energy went through my body, followed by hearing myself speak in an amazing new language. I knew at that moment that the power of the Holy Spirit had come to dwell inside of me. I suddenly had this constant awareness of God's Spirit being inside me and that I could communicate with Him in the pure language of the Spirit any time I wanted. I was encouraged to pray in tongues every day, as it would strengthen my bond with the Lord.

As I began to read the Bible, I was excited to discover that it actually made sense. Two years earlier I had, in fact, tried to read the Bible for the purpose of finally proving it wrong. Yet, during my attempt to discredit the Bible, I simply could not understand what little I read.

At the time that I was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, I was teaching a course that I had previously developed on positive thinking. It had been part of my quest to find the answers to life. Yet, now, as I read through the scriptures, I realized that if a person received the Holy Spirit first, and then prayed to the Lord, there would be tangible daily evidence of the Lord's blessing and provision. I realized that the promises of assistance from God far outweighed the philosophy of positive thinking where a person must tackle the world armed with a collection of positive affirmations. Now I understood that, through Jesus, a person can receive the Spirit, speak in tongues as evidence, then have not only access to God's blessing in this life but also have an entrance into the life to come that begins when Jesus Himself returns the second time for all to see.

I am married to a wonderful woman whom I can truly grow together with as the years pass because we are unified in our experience of being Spirit-filled. It has been an answer to prayer to see both our children receive the Spirit when they each in turn were about 3 ½ years of age. It is a joy to hear them pray to the Lord in tongues of their own accord during the day. We live in an age where technology is undermining morality in children faster than ever before. It is comforting to know that the Lord has given our sons a personal relationship with Him that is far greater than the blind faith concept that I was exposed to as a child. I know this will help them as they face their years ahead.

Being filled with God’s Spirit is a comfort that I would not trade for anything. It is a consistency in an inconsistent world.

Kaye Sullivan

My Dad came from a family with a strong Catholic background and my Mom was very involved in the Church of England when she was young.  Yet, both had been "burnt" by bad experiences in their churches and so did not seek to raise my brother and I with any firm religious belief. 

Though I was not encouraged to actively believe in God, as I grew I became aware of an inner desire to go to church. I never pursued this desire until my early twenties. By this stage, although I was successful on the outside, I was struggling on the inside. I felt like a "fish out of water" in life. I yearned to find where I belonged. There were also so many questions about life and death for which there seemed to be no clear answers. Death and not existing anymore terrified me. It seemed that the more I strove by my own effort in life, the more I fell apart within, although no one truly knew.

I thought that going to church would help me and I even underwent confirmation in the Wesleyan Methodist Church. But, as often as I went on Sunday, I still felt the same again by the time Monday rolled around. There was no reason for me to question the preaching and everyone was so nice, but the experience was always very empty. No one gave me any clear direction so I assumed that being a Christian simply meant choosing to believe in God and the Bible, and trying be a good person. Even then, I didn't know what "being a good person" really meant in God's eyes. Despite my attempts to believe in Him, I felt no closer to God, and although I desperately hoped He did exist, I could never be sure.

Then, a lady I worked with told me about someone she had met who had invited her to a church supper. She told me how impressed she was with the genuine joy and peace of the people there. These were two things I greatly desired in my own life so she offered me a business card she had been given by the host. To my surprise, when I spoke to him on the phone, he told me about real, personal, tangible miracles that had happened in his life and others' lives and that I could experience the same.

Although I was excited, I was also suspicious and afraid of getting caught up in a cult. But the desire to check it out never left me and finally, after three months, I attended a meeting. The moment I walked through the door I felt like I had come home. Everything preached from the Bible was very clear and made complete sense. The spiritual gifts were very powerful and I was moved to the point of tears by the end of the meeting.

The most exciting time came when the man that I had spoken to on the phone offered to show me a bunch of scriptures. It was such a relief to read for myself what God clearly expected from me and the abundance He offered in return. I was shown that even though I considered myself to be a Christian, technically God did not consider me to be one of His until I had been baptized by full immersion in water and anointed by Him with His Holy Spirit; that this was the purpose of Jesus' coming and subsequent death and resurrection i.e. by His sacrifice the way would be opened for all to come to God and be cleansed through the infilling of the Spirit. I read about the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit, on the Day of Pentecost, and how the disciples first spoke in tongues as the first manifesting sign, as others also experienced from that point forward.

Inspired by what I read, I asked how I could also receive the Holy Spirit anointing. I was invited to pray with the man and another lady and I accepted. I was nervous and on the outside things felt uncomfortable, but on the inside everything felt so right. So there, in a peaceful room with two strangers, I called out to God, "wherever He was", to fill me with His Spirit, "whatever that was". My whole world changed after a few minutes when I heard myself begin to pray in a brand new language. It wasn't "gibberish", but a pure, complex, beautiful language. At the same time I felt the "hole" in my heart close up. I felt complete. Instantly, somehow, I knew God intimately. I knew I belonged to Him. Suddenly I had an inner understanding of life and I was no longer afraid of death. I knew beyond doubt that I had been filled with God’s Holy Spirit and miraculously changed. I was baptized at the next meeting, in obedience to the scriptures.

I prayed in tongues all the way as I drove home that first day. For the next three days I pored over the New Testament, thirsty to know what treasures lay in the Bible. For the first time the scriptures were alive and seemed to be actively talking to me. The more I consistently read and prayed in tongues, the more I found myself changing in amazing ways. It seemed like God was cleaning me up. I no longer felt driven to "succeed" according to worldly definition. Instead, I felt fulfilled as I focused on pleasing God and on the simplistic joy of life as a woman (and later, wife and mother) in the Lord. I felt a constant hope, peace, inner joy and contentment.

The Lord very quickly blessed me with a Spirit-filled husband and we have a most wonderful marriage, the type I had only ever dreamed about. Whereas I used to be concerned about having children and how they would "turn out", the Lord has blessed me with confidence and wisdom as a mother and I delight in my relationship with our two boys. It was so exciting to see them each filled with the Holy Spirit at a young age. Since being filled with the Spirit, I have seen God’s miraculous provision and direction in my life and the answering of many specific prayers. The more I seek to apply God’s Word in each area of my life, the more I experience His blessings. It is so comforting to wake up every morning knowing I have a relationship with the real, living God. I thank Jesus Christ for this. 

Ethan Sullivan