A Book – A Bible – The Holy Spirit
January 20, 2020 was a very special day, the day God showed me who the Holy Spirit was and gave Him to me in a very real way. Maybe I had the Holy Spirit before that day, I don’t know, I wasn’t living in the Presence of God the Holy Spirit. Most of you have heard my testimony, but for those we have not, I will just touch on it a little. For 60 years, I had rededicated my life maybe 12 or 15 times trying to get something in my life straightened out and it never happened. It was always there. Then in October of 2020 our Pastor then, Nick made a statement about he thought we needed to pray more, and he was going to see to it that we did more corporate praying and we learned about prayer. It ruffled a few feathers in our church, mine included, I made an appointment to go in and set him straight. When I went in for our appointment time, I hit him with all kinds of questions. He was very kind, but held his ground answering the questions. About the time I started to hit him with the question about the prayer thing, I heard a voice say, STOP. I looked around the room wondering who said that. It was just me and Nick in the room. It did make me wonder if Someone was telling me something. I thought before I went to talk to Pastor, that I was Mrs So and So in the church, but I did stop with my high and mighty attitude. Nick said I want to give you a book, I want you to read it and tell me what you think about it. I said ok, we prayed and I left his office.
The book was, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala. I had never heard of the book or the author before. That night after dinner, I got the book down to read. I did something I had never done with a book before, I ask God if He had something He wanted me to learn from this book, He would show me. Then I began reading. It was 3 a.m. when I got to the end of the book. I read the book 4 more times, one after another, reading it with my Bible. God really had something He wanted me to learn and it was about the Holy Spirit. That’s what this book was about, the Holy Spirit, who He is and what He can do in our lives. I also found a book written by Charles Stanley. The Bible had so much about the Holy Spirit. It was unbelievable what I was learning. The desire to learn was so overwhelming. I just kept asking God what all is it You are teaching me, I know I have gone my whole life ignoring the Holy Spirit. God just said keep going. I did, reading, praying, my Bible came alive. This went on for 4 months. Then on Sunday, January 18, I found out what it was all about, or I had an idea. We were in church, singing one of my favorite songs, Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone. As I raised my hands in worship, I heard satan say, your chains are not gone, you’ve carried them around for 60 years and you are going to drag them around until the day you die. I was sitting between Dale and Nadine on the 3rd pew where we always sat. I knew then it was time to face this demon head on, I realized I had a demon that was running my life, or at least part of it. I called Nick and told him it was time to talk this through, so we set January 20 at 1 p.m. This was a Tuesday and satan told me it wasn’t going to work, it would fail like all the other times, but I got in the car and came on ahead.
I got to church, Nick and I began to talk. We talked for at least an hour. Nick ask, what do you want to do with all of this. I still did not understand some of it, but I knew God was working in my life, and I wanted to be free. For personal reasons, I will not go into detail. Nick told me he was going to anoint me with oil and we were going to pray. While he went back to get the oil, I prayed, I have to give this all to God, I have to give this to God. God I’m not sure. Yes, satan was there to, telling me, it’s not going to work. Then I heard the Holy Spirit say, your way hasn’t worked, why not let God handle this. The ”I have” to turned into, God help me, God help me!! I learned what it means in Romans where it says the Holy Spirit “groans for the saints.” I didn’t have the words, but the Holy Spirit fought satan for my soul. I felt the Arms of Jesus surround me as the battle went on between the Holy Spirit and satan. When everything was over, there was the peace I was looking for, for all those years. That’s what God was getting me ready for reading all those books, my Bible, He was teaching me about who the Holy Spirit was, so I would have Him in my life that day and forever. So I could surrender my life completely to God, my life has never been the same since then. My chains are gone, I was set free that day. My husband said he seen an immediate change in me, he knew I was free. The anger, hurt all of that was gone, I was free!!!
The very next year Dale got sick with cancer and was diagnosed as terminal and died 3 weeks later. At his funeral my sweet sister had a massive brain bleed and died 2 days later. I would have never been able to go through that without God the Father, Jesus, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been my guide every moment of my life and I know God has all my days and I will be ok. When I was going through the dark days, God was taking care of us, even though we were numb, He was there. My brother and I are learning our God will see us through no matter what, He will never leave us.
Do you know the Holy Spirit? He is a very real part of God. It’s hard to explain how I wasted all those years not knowing who the Holy Spirit was and how important He is to our lives. It takes coming to God humbly, knowing our lives are not where they should be and saying “God help me be where You want me to be”. If your life is missing joy or just not where it should be, maybe you are not finding joy in the Holy Spirit, the Peace of the Holy Spirit, He does make a difference in our lives, please let someone help you find the peace and joy only God can bring you through living for Him. It’s so wonderful to be simply me, no Mrs So and So anymore in the church. I’ve learned how to be humble and loving, finding the kind of love I think Jesus had, it makes my heart so free and light.
I just wanted to share this with you, and I love you so much.
God bless you always.
Sharon
