Powerful Holy Spirit Experience by Sherry

1/6/22

This testimony is not a flattering portrayal of the person I was. Thanks be to God though it is not who I am now. It is a great account of God working in a sinner's life to redeem and heal brokenness.

The hole in my soul was huge, demanding and present each and every day. I tried to fill that emptiness with different things; jobs, self-help books, trying new recipes, lunches with friends and long talks with myself. Nothing satisfied that longing for relief. I became increasingly agitated and angry at just about everything and everyone.

I remember one day my supervisor came in to give me my yearly review. The first Gulf War had just started, and everyone was on edge. As I sat down in front of this man, I listened and as he gave me my “not so great review” I exploded. I told him he was a terrible boss and sales were down because of the war and people sending their kids off to go fight.

Certainly, this was not me I thought. I’d had great reviews up until he became my boss. Then as I left him, I turned around to look and saw him tearful. I couldn’t understand why he was crying. Oh, I thought unrepentantly, what’s his problem? That wasn’t the only time I verbally unloaded on someone.

My birthday and my mothers were only one week apart and for years we celebrated our special days together. After growing up, getting married and moving to a different town, momma and daddy would drive the distance to celebrate where I lived.

Then one time I got very annoyed with my mother. She did not stand up for my daughter regarding a magazine that momma had bought her for an assignment at school. One of my sisters that came along to celebrate wanted that same magazine and took it with her when they left. I said you can’t take that, it’s my daughter’s. 

Daddy intervened and offered to buy that same magazine for my sister after they left. That didn’t seem to help matters at all. So, my sister threw down the magazine and asked me to find the pages my daughter needed for her assignment. I found them and my sister tore them out of the magazine. Some of the pages tore badly and were not easily repaired for the class assignment. The original book went home with them.

I became more and more angry as the day went on. I waited until momma and daddy were home before I called. My husband warned me not to call. He said wait, but I couldn’t wait. I knew they’d be home by a certain time. I went into the bedroom and closed the door. Dialing the phone number, I waited. Momma picked up the phone and I unloaded, said some terrible things about how she didn’t do a thing to remedy the difficult situation and that she was a terrible mom. Feeling justified, I hung up the phone. Instantly I felt this horrific filth inside. It was dirtier that a garbage dump, filthier than anything I’d ever understood before and it put me on my knees.

It was only seconds after I felt this filth, I heard an inner voice say, “This is what sin feels like.” Astonished at the feeling and those words, I reached out to one of my good friends and told her what had occurred. Every day after work I would go in my bedroom, close the door and cry. I didn’t know how I was going to fix the damage that I had done. Days and weeks went by until one day, I got a vision.

Now, I didn’t know what it was or that it was even possible to see in my head. But there He was, Sunday School Jesus, arms wide open telling me to “Give it to HIM.” This went on for three days in a row. Finally, I yelled at Him and said, “I don’t know how to give you anything. You’re in my head.”

God, in His infinite love for even the worst sinners, gave me another way out of my mess. I was visiting the good friend I confided in before frequently. One day she called me and asked me to meet her at a local restaurant for coffee and pie. Since she’d been going through some very difficult health issues, I wondered how she could even do this. But I went. And what I saw definitely intrigued me. Here she was sitting at a booth, smiling, looking normal and not sick or swollen from meds at all. I stood there in the isle and asked her what happened to her. She said, if you’ll please sit down, I’ll tell you.

So down I sat across from this, what looked like a miracle, friend. I asked her what happened. She told me that some ladies from her church came to her house, laid hands on her and prayed. She got well. No more swelling or pain, nothing. “Sure, I said. Yeah right.” Well, something definitely happened because she didn’t look like this a few days ago. I was interested.

My friend invited me over to her home to have watercolor classes one day a week. This was terrific I thought. One day, after I rang her doorbell, she answered and pulled me inside. She never pulled me into her house before. I didn’t know what she was doing. She closed the front door and told me that she wanted to pray for me. “Um, no,” I said.

She continued pursuing me until the third time and said, “I HAVE to pray for you!” I was getting uncomfortable, but trusted her so I said, “Okay, just get it over with.” Up the stairs we went. I sat down on her little sofa bed, and she sat across from me on a swivel leg chair. She reached for my two hands and began to pray in English. Then with my eyes shut she began to talk in a different language altogether. I never heard that before and I didn’t know she spoke a foreign language. This was very strange. But I listened.

After I relaxed a bit, in my mind I saw Sunday School Jesus I had seen previously about 5-6 feet from me. Then, another spirit, an ugly dark spirit left my chest. As soon as the ugly spirit left me, it turned, faced me, laughed a wicked laugh and disappeared.

Immediately, Jesus came, and His Spirit literally sat into me. I remember watching His hand go into mine. Every part of Him was now inside of me! I yelled at my friend and said, “What did you do to me?” I was not able to move from my spot on the sofa. It felt like I was super-glued to that very spot. My friend asked me what happened. I said, “You don’t know?” She had no idea what transaction had just taken place, and neither did I. I had no idea what it all meant. It was strange to say the least.

If that wasn’t weird enough, my friend said, “I’ve got to call someone to come over.” “NO, DON’T CALL ANYONE. Who’s going to believe this? No!” What does she do? She’s already on the phone in the other room. I can’t move mind you. Nothing could pry me off that sofa. Believe me, I tried to get up. In just a few short minutes the doorbell rang. “Oh no”, I thought, “It’s going to be some little old lady and she’s going to sit down next to me and hold my hand.” That’s exactly what happened. I wanted out of this strange situation, but something was not allowing that to take place.

These two women told me that they needed to pray for me so that I would ask Jesus into my heart. “What?” I said, “He’s already there. I saw Him come into me and He’s still there.” They told me that I needed to ask Him into my heart. They led me into that prayer, and I said to them, “He’s REAL? Jesus is REAL?”

 A few weeks later, my two lady friends again prayed for the infilling of the Holy Spirit or Baptism. The gifts of the Spirit manifested a little at a time. Jesus had to show me in dreams how to speak in tongues, the prayer language He was giving to me. Then later, other gifts became evident as I worked either volunteering or as paid staff at my church. Prayer with several people who mentored me showed me other gifts. Funny, I was one who didn’t believe He was real!

Ever since that day, I have followed my Lord and Savior Jesus…Sunday School Jesus and all that He is. He rescued me and showed me who I really am. I am His child, broken and imperfect yet loved, a sinner, and forgiven, filled with His own self. I’m still learning and will until I reach Him in glory. Gone is that huge hole in my soul and gone is the anger that I spewed all over others.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here.”