Let me tell you about the first time I baptized someone with the Holy Spirit. It’s going to be a long story, come with me.
Earlier this year, in January precisely, I had sat through a class where a certain Pastor took us through the steps of baptizing people with the Holy Ghost in person. He never said anything about doing it over the phone and I did not know that was even possible at that time. Hearing him talk animatedly about it, my interest was piqued. But that was at the beginning of my committed relationship with the Holy Spirit and I assumed it was going to take at least two years for me to “finish growing” before I could get to the stage of baptizing others. So, I tucked that desire in one corner of my heart, waiting for the time to be right.
As my spiritual journey progressed, I felt the need for my friends and loved ones to grow with me too. I had some friends who lived in the same neighbourhood and worked in the same organization as I did. They were five ladies. We were quite close and did a lot of things together. I suggested to them that we come together every Friday evening to pray for one another; alternating the venue between my house and theirs. They agreed and we started praying together. Our sessions were refreshing.
Then we started facing persecution at our place of work – we worked and lived in the North East of Nigeria. The heat from the persecution kept increasing and our jobs were threatened. We visited one of our pastors for counsel. He told us to use our number to our advantage and pray at midnight until we see our desired change.
That was how we started midnight prayers. We would wake up at midnight, worship, praise, dance and pray against our “enemies”. I made sure we never took a break and made it my responsibility to wake everyone up every night. This went on for some weeks. But something was missing. I was the only one among the six of us who could pray in the Spirit. The rest could only pray in their understanding. I knew that the touch of the Holy Spirit was missing and that our sessions will be more intense if we were all able to pray in the Spirit.
So, I spoke to my Mentor about this. He was in another state and could not be of much help but he recommended a friend of his who was a pastor at a town about one hundred and sixty kilometres away from where we lived. I called this pastor and told him of our “predicament” and he offered to come down over the weekend and baptize my friends. I asked my friends if they were interested and they consented.
He came the following weekend. He shared some scriptures about praying in tongues and spoke about its importance in the life of a believer. Then he proceeded to get them filled. One of them was away so it was only four of them he met. They all were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in new tongues. One of them was even healed of a persistent illness. Having fulfilled his mission, the kind pastor left.
Our prayers became more intense than ever; we went from praying for an hour to two hours and even got to three hours. We still woke up at midnight but instead of praying for unknown enemies, we started praying intercessory prayers. We had to deliberately stop ourselves most times so we could go to sleep because we had jobs to go to in the mornings. Some of our heart desires were granted, most were yet to be granted but we had a lot of Peace.
I was already a member of Personal Fellowship Ministries International-an online community where we pray in the spirit and study scriptures together – but was not so consistent at that time. A series of events happened – which I will share in another story – and the Holy Spirit began to pull me towards PFMI. I resisted. This was because PFMI usually meets from 4 am to 6 am WAT. My religious mindset at that time held that midnight prayers were more effective than prayers at other hours. I felt that 4 am was late, all the “action” would have been over by then and that I will just be taking crumbs. And I could not pray for three hours from midnight to 3 am and still wake up at 4 am for fellowship. So, one of them had to be foregone and I didn’t think twice for that one to be PFMI.
But the Holy Spirit had other plans. He kept nudging. I kept objecting. Then He changed the strategy by changing my sleep schedule. So, normally, I used to sleep from 9 pm to 11 pm so I could be awake at 12 midnight by all means. The Holy Spirit changed my schedule such that no matter how early I slept in the evenings or how loudly I set my alarm to ring, I was unable to wake up at midnight. I would sleep through and wake up at 3:30 am or 4:00 am on the dot (my “prayer partners” were so dependent on me that whenever I don’t wake them up, our prayers would not hold). When I woke up at those times, I would be very upset at myself for oversleeping. The Holy Spirit would gently ask me to join the fellowship and I would refuse. I would lie awake in bed, unable to sleep, refusing to join the fellowship. This continued for weeks until I grudgingly decided to start joining fellowship whenever I woke up at 4 am. This was how I started becoming consistent on fellowship. I literally began to come alive as a result of just being present.
During fellowship one day, Sister Princess casually mentioned baptizing people with the Holy Spirit over the phone and I was gobsmacked! I had to ask how that was possible and she said it was pretty easy and would gladly take me through it if I was interested. I was thrilled! Does this mean I did not need to have at least two years of intense experience after all? She said all I needed was to be interested. I did several mental cartwheels. I told her I was interested, that in fact, I was born interested. She told me not to worry, that she would reach out to me.
She reached out to me some weeks later when there was a new member that needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. She called this new member via WhatsApp – let’s call her Martha – and added me to the call so I could listen to her as she baptized Martha. It felt like a dream. Martha had been a Catholic for more than thirty years and had just recently rededicated her life to Christ. She asked Martha to read the book of Mark 16:17. Martha did. She briefly explained to Martha why it was important for every Christian to be filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. She also told her she can only speak if she opens her mouth, that it was a partnership where the Holy Spirit gives the utterance and her role was to speak. Sister Princess began to pray in the Spirit. I muted my mic so I could pray along without interfering. I prayed and listened. In less than a minute Martha burst out in tongues and it was like a rushing tap. It sounded like her spirit had been waiting a long time for that particular moment. I also had an awakening of my own, I never knew a person could get filled over the phone and I could hear the Holy Spirit through her tongues that day. It was enthralling.
After this experience, Sister Princess told me to stay ready as she would be referring the next person needing the baptism of the Holy Ghost to me. This made me nervous but I told her I will be ready. The opportunity came about a month later. We had a first-timer on fellowship and he desired to speak in tongues. Sister Princess was only too eager to hand him over to me.
I asked the Holy Spirit to help me so I don’t disgrace Him before calling our first-timer (I would call him Eric in this post). When I called him, I spent almost an hour talking to him about the importance of praying tongues – I honestly don’t know why it took this long, maybe nerves. Eric had a strong desire and this made it easier. We started praying and in less than two minutes, Eric began to pray in tongues!
I could not believe it!
I felt butterflies fluttering in my stomach. My heart was filled with so much joy, I feared it would burst open. It was such a beautiful feeling. Eric was also happy but I think I was happier than him. I felt closer to the Holy Spirit by this experience.
Since then, I have filled quite a number of people from different age groups and all I can say is, no two experiences are the same and I feel the butterflies every single time.
What we have, the gift of the Holy Spirit is the most precious gift ever. Words cannot quantify who He is to us individually and even collectively.
He is Everything. Everything is Him.
*****
Do you desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues? Or do you just want to have steady intimacy with Him? We are happy to be of help.
Put a call through to us on +2348087206561, +2347034850169 or +2347069093160.
You can also send an email to personalfellowship1@gmail.com
God bless you!