My Testimony in Receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

This following testimony is true to the best of my recall knowledge with the understanding, with the fear of God, that those who who practice lying without repentance shall suffer the eternal death in the Lake of Fire as in Revelation 21:8 .

On Sunday, January 22, 1978, at age 35, I went forward to the altar of a bible believing and teaching Christian church. I prayed, repented of my sins and asked Jesus Christ to come into my life. I was raised in the teachings of the Catholic Church for 35 years in which the bible was not taught or studied. I knew something supernatural happened to me that day, in that I started to read the bible to research God's Word and listen to WRBS FM Christian Radio station in Baltimore. WRBS was an Arlington Baptist Church sponsored radio station with Southern Baptist Conference (SBC) Theology. There was a definite change in my life for the better, one of which in that I hungered and searched for absolute truth. 

The very week after I made the altar call, I called up and old well-to-do high school classmate, named Charles, who I had not seen since 1961. I confessed to him that I was the one who found his expensive ($65.00) outerwear coat in the our school cafeteria. Needing a coat for the winter and could not afford one because my father had abandoned me, I kept it, even after I repeatedly lied to him and the school secretary claiming it was mine. I offered to pay Charlie, 4 X the cost of the coat ($260.00) the biblical requirement for restitution. I told Charlie how I got born again the previous week, was convicted of my past sins and confessed my sin against him in stealing his coat and was willing to pay him 4x the cost of the coat especially since 17 years has passed . He started to praise the Lord over the phone for my testimony and said, Ed you don't owe me anything, He said, I got born again awhile back and just to hear your testimony and the movement of Jesus in your life is reward enough for me . So forget it, you owe me nothing. Even after i insisted to pay him the money and his insistence that he would not accept it was teaching me about the unconditional forgiveness required in born again Christians' lives.

I only attended the Sunday services in the church I got born again in for only three weeks. On the third Sunday the pastor was preaching against men having long hair. I looked around the congregation and and concluded I was the only man with hair covering my ears and just above my shoulder at the bottom level of my ears. I felt embarrassed and never went back because of what I thought was their hypocrisy.

For the next five years, my wife, I and my two children stayed in the Catholic church. My only source of biblical teaching was from Christian radio and my New Jerusalem Catholic bible. I was still doing my own thing. I had one foot in the world and one foot in the Lord's word. My occupation was in car sales, leasing and fleet manager at our Local Ford dealer. Occasionally I would go to the local watering hole after work and have a few more beers more than I should have had. My wife and i were distancing, especially since she was in nursing school and her attention was mainly in her new career endeavor. She had reneged on promise before our marriage that she would not work full time until our kids turned 18. I did not understand spiritual warfare at that time and did not understand the activities of Satan's demons attempt to destroy God's children, including my family. I also did not realize that I was turning away from the Lord. I had no route or support to properly grow in my Christian faith. There were times I felt very depressed and alone and without hope. As far as my Christianity, I was talking the talk but not walking the walk 

In January 1983, I sold a 15 passenger van to an all African American holiness church who just moved into the old Baptist church in an all white neighborhood on Glenmore Ave, just off of Belair Rd. I had a very good relationship with the purchasing elders of the church and reminding them I was born again in order for them to know that they would get a good price on the van and can trust me.

After I delivered the van, each month like clock work, they would send a church member to the dealership to invite me to come to their church, I kept promising them I would stop by for a visit one day but in my mind I was just putting them off.

Then one Wednesday night in April, I was working the 3-9 shift and good ole Jake, a nice likable single guy, but a womanizer or better yet the devil's advocate, invited me to have a few drinks at JC's up the road on Belair Rd. after work. Initially I resisted but gave in thinking that my wife would be studying and no time for me it would be good to have a friend to to talk to and just let loose.

and forget my worrys.

On the way up on Belair Rd. to JC's I was stopped at a red traffic light and all of a sudden I heard a voice in my mind which clearly spoke and said, " You're not learning anything at the bar, make a left hand turn and go up see those people that have been inviting you to the church". I then realized that I was stopped at the Glenmore Ave., the street the church was on. When the light changed, and with no hesitation, I made the left hand turn. ( At that time I did not understand the biblical concept of being beside myself). 

It just so happened that it was Wednesday evening when most churches have their Wednesday night service. When I arrived about 9:15, they were just finishing their worship services. In the back pastors office I talked to several leaders about why I visited them and confessed to them about my backsliding. They already knew I was backsliding. That is why they kept inviting me to their church so I could get "cleaned" up. The elders were preparing the baptismal tub. I got baptized in their unheated room at 11;15 that night in cold water, it was 45 degrees outside and the water must have been close to that. I being baptized professed Jesus Christ as my Savior. I left that night feeling very clean not from the cold water but from the confession of my sins and my confessing that Jesus Christ is my Savior. 

Baptism of the Holy Spirit 

The following month in May, my friend Don, invited me to his Apostolic church in East Baltimore. I had known Don for 5 years at the same dealership where we both worked. Don got born again, about 3 years earlier when a pastor came in to by a Pinto. In the course of the sale in Don's office the pastor witnessed to him the message of salvation.

Don received Jesus Christ as his personal savior that day. Any one who knew Don before, knew that this life changing experience was nothing but short of a miracle. Don was a Baltimore City police officer who got kicked off the force for his cruel tactics of getting information from suspects. (Before he received the Lord, to get the truth from handcuffed suspects he bragged how he stuck the barrel of his police revolver in the mouth of the suspects, pulled the hammer back to lock it in firing position and got the truth from them, very effective but also very illegal)   

Initially after I got born again about two years before he did, Don use to ridicule and mock my faith. Don was obsessed with collecting guns. After his life changing commitment to the Lord , Don confessed how he used to make his family at times eat nothing but boiled potatoes just so he could by another gun. After Don got saved his whole personality changed. He sold all of his guns that he made an idol and his before personality which was like the cruel Ernest Borgnine, "Fatso" "From Here to Eternity" type changed to that of quiet and gentle lamb. He apologized to me for the way he treated me before he got "saved'. 

 I arrived at Don's Apostolic Faith church on a Wednesday night worship service. Don was waiting for me. It was the strangest church I had so far ever experienced. All of the women had their hair up in a bun, no make up and wore long dresses with coverings up to their necks. However, they seemed very much at peace and had an inward beauty that reflected in their countenances. Of course, other than my Catholic Church, I had only been inside a total of three so called Protestant churches in 5 years: the Gospel Tabernacle, where I got born again, on January 22, 1978, the Holy Name of Jesus (Holiness) where I was watered Baptized the month before in April, 1983 and then the following month in the May 1983 at Don's church, the Apostolic Faith church. 

The service started with worship, then they had some preaching and prayer service. They called for those in the pews to come to the altar rail for any special prayer request. I went forward for prayer. I knelt at the rail and two of the prayer leaders came over to me and one laid hands on me. Then one of them started to pray in a strange language and the other began to pray in English. As soon as I heard the minister speaking in a strange language, I said to myself, "There not going to talk me into speaking in tongues" I knew I wanted to get out of there based on what I was taught in listening to WRBS Baptist radio station and from some of the other radio ministry programs on the same station. They taught that prophecy, Baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues was only in the first century and that these signs ceased when the bible was completely written Their theology was based on their interpretation of the following scriptures. 1Corinthians 13: 8-10 So I believing in this erroneous teaching at that moment and was preparing to leave the kneeling rail, when the minister said, you can receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit brother, all you have to do is just forgive everyone who has ever offended you in your life. I thought well that forgiveness is promoted in the scriptures, so I said in my thoughts, Lord I forgive everyone in my life who has ever hurt me. Then he said, surrender your complete will to the Lord, not to us, but to the Lord. I said to my self that's in scripture. So I said Lord I surrender my will completely to Your will. Then the brother said believe on this Baptism and you will receive the Holy Spirit, I said in m mind, Lord if this of you then so be it. 

Then the brother said you can now speak in you prayer language. I attempted to speak and spoke some babbling strange words like an infant child attempting to speak its first words. I thought I was being forced by this brother's suggestion and my human nature was attempting to appease his suggestion. So I got up and returned to my pew seat while the praise and worship continued in the congregation. As soon as I returned to my seat among the congregation and again facing the pulpit of the church, I had the sensation that something was filling me up from the soles of my feet to the top of my head only it was not physical but spiritual. The only way I can describe what was happening to me within from the human perspective is when I was a child I used to take a balloon and put the open nipple around the water faucet spout and turn the water on slowly while holding the nipple of the balloon tightly and watch the balloon fill with water, knowing very well that the balloon could only hold so much water before it would burst.

That is what was happening in my spirit. I was the human spiritual balloon being filled by the Holy Spirit, with the spiritual water of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. At that moment I thought I was going to burst. Then both arms and hands shot up as far as I could reach toward the ceiling of that church building, not by my power or will but by the power of God and I shouted out loudly to the top of my voice strange words in a very rapid machine gun style. I was not in control of this situation but God, by the power of His Holy Spirit, was in control. I do not remember how long this speaking in tongues lasted, but I believe it lasted at least two minutes, but when I stopped and looked around, it seemed every woman in the congregation was looking at me and smiling with a smile of approval. I noticed it seemed very bright in the church, especially around the women as if there was a dimmer switch to the church lights that was at its low setting before my outburst, then raised to its highest settings after my outburst in tongues. Don approached me also with a wide grin on his face. I asked Don, why are all these women looking at me and smiling; its like I'm looking into the gates of heaven and all of the smiling angels are waiting for me. He said, Ed, you ought to see the glow on your face. If you would have seen your face when you walked into our church tonight and see it now, it is absolutely brilliant. At that time I had no idea what Don was talking about until about 2 years later, when my son received his baptism in the Holy Spirit and his face became brilliant just during his initial praise and worship in tongues with up-stretched hands. I also became aware of this phenomenon, in the following years, when I led many people in the sinners prayer for salvation to be born again. The brightness of their changed peaceful countenance of their forgiven sin from the prior dark bondages of unforgiven sin was not as bright at the Baptism of the Holy Spirit light, but it was a noticeable change from darkness to light. I did some extensive research on this phenomenon of light and one thing I discovered was the ancient halos and auras painted on the saints of the church by historic artist were the physical example of what the Holy Spirit filled artist saw in the Holy Spirited filled subject. These glowing lights on the faces of the biblically defined saints , not the Catholic defined saints, can only be seen by another Holy Spirit filled Christian. The light, glow and aura of a saint is discerned spiritually, not physically. 

With my personal evidence of this supernatural, miraculous experience and knowing that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is just what the Bible says it is, I questioned, how could a very large denomination, like the SBC , with its many learned Doctors of Divinity leaders teach such heresy in denying the biblical account of the Baptism the Holy Spirit to its deceived followers. I again researched the Bible (KJV) for the answer, only this time I had the fullness of the Holy Spirit, also called the Spirit of Truth, dwelling inside of me to help in my research in that the Bible, says you need no teacher but the Holy Spirit, which includes teachers actually filled with the Holy Spirit as the following scripture so clearl states in confronting the SBC. 

". . . I'm writing to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

The anointing you received from Christ lives in you. You don't need anyone to teach you something else. Instead, Christ's anointing teaches you about everything. His anointing is true and contains no lie. So live in Christ as he taught you to do. . . " 1 John 2:26.27 John 14:26

The scripture that the Southern Baptist Conference misinterpreted in saying "We believe that the Holy Spirit is given at salvation and the gift of tongues was a sign gift of the apostles until the completion of the Scriptures. (Referenced in 1Corinthians 13:8-10) which reads:

Charity (Love) never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

I did extensive research of this scripture. The SBC is saying that prophecies, tongues and knowledge ceased when the written bible was completed based on the phrase when that which is perfect is come. I will say that they cursed themselves.They are saying the bible, the written Word of God is the that which is perfect is come. Yes they are partly correct in saying the bible is perfect meaning completed, Using Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries we find the word perfect in the Greek is:

 5046 τέλειος teleios tel’-i-os from 5056; } adj AV-perfect meaning of full age brought to its end, finished) wanting nothing necessary to completeness) perfect) that which is perfect) consummate human integrity and virtue) of men ) full grown, adult, of full age, mature

(Root word) 5056 5056 τέλος telos tel’-os rom a primary tello (to set out for a definite point or goal); AV-end , custom, uttermost, finally, ending, by (one’s) continual end 1a) termination, the limit at which a thing ceases to be (always of the end of some act or state,) the e) the last in any succession or series eternal1) that by which a thing is finished, its close, issue the end to which all things relate, the aim, purpose toll, custom (i.e. indirect tax on goods)

17th century excerpt from Matthew Henry a highly respected theologian comments on 1 Cor. 13:8-10

" He(Paul) takes occasion hence to show how much better it will be with the

church hereafter than it can be here. A state of perfection is in view (v.

10): When that which is perfect shall come, then that which is in part shall

be done away. When the end is once attained, the means will of course be

abolished. There will be no need of tongues, and prophecy, and inspired

knowledge, in a future life, because then the church will be in a state of

perfection, complete both in knowledge and holiness. God will be known

then clearly, and in a manner by intuition, and as perfectly as the capacity

of glorified minds will allow; not by such transient glimpses, and little

portions, as here.

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Means When Jesus comes for His church and the church is resurrected into his glory there will be no need for the Holy Spirited gifts to aid us for our salvation. 

Revelations 22: 20, 27 the very last two verses in the Bible

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

I will say SBC word cursed themselves.Yes, their knowledge of the Bible vanished for them when they falsely taught that the completion of the written bible is that which is perfect is come instead of the true teaching: But when that which is perfect (complete) is come the fulfillment of the 2nd coming of Christ, then, and only then we will not need prophecies, tongues, or knowledge because all of Biblical prophecy, tongues and knowledge will have been fulfilled. 

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

Corinthians 13:8-10

So what advantages are there as a result in receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit? Just look at this web site and the prophecy web pages, all of which have come true except the ones that predict the destruction of America if it does not repent from its sins and as of this date America has not repented.  

All the scriptures concerning the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

To be continued: