I was baptized in the Holy Spirit in the early 70’s, and I have always refused to apologize for it.

 

I had a glorious encounter with Jesus at home by myself when I experienced the liquid fire and love of God overtake me with the evidence of a beautiful prayer language (tongues).

 

That day changed my life forever. If you want to know more about the baptism of the Spirit, go to my website under the category of “Spiritual” and read what I wrote on this topic in 2020. If you REALLY want to know more, I wrote a book titled Understanding the Holy Spirit: Experience the Power which you can buy on my website. Address is listed at the end of the post.

 

I grew up in a church who empathically taught against this supernatural encounter with Jesus even though it is in the scripture throughout the four gospels and all through the book of Acts. Throughout the years, I have discovered that most churches take that same theological stand. It is easier to not believe and teach against it than it is to allow the Holy Spirit to take over traditional mainline denominational churches.

 

Actually, I was baptized in the Spirit on a Thursday morning and went to church on Sunday night like a good Christian. The sermon was about how anyone who believed or experienced something called the baptism in the Spirit and spoke in tongues, had to be “of the devil.” That night I walked out of my childhood church and left for good never to be a part of that nonsense again. I attended with my parents occasionally, but God snatched me out of that unscriptural dogma.

 

Being one of those hungry prophetic types, I have looked for decades for full-gospel churches who taught the full counsel of God and not only what is easy to preach to those who are asleep.  Over the past several years, I started to realize how bad bad was as I watched America taking a nose dive and no one in the pulpit seemed to notice.  We went through 9/11 and no mention from the pulpit–no prayer and no mention–it was like it never happened.  America went through one crisis after another for the past several decades, and there was no mention of anything in many of the pulpits of America for fear someone might be offended.

 

Stone silent!

 

What I have learned in the past year is that this has been status quo church all over America for decades.

 

The Holy Spirit was shut out decades (centuries) ago, and we wonder why we have experienced dead church for so many years. 

 

I guess the thing that angers me the most is the people of God have been willing to tolerate and put up with this dead religion until America has been destroyed because of our godlessness. I have been as tolerant of it as everyone else. I sat there as well watching the years pass by; however, I have always had the fire of God in my belly and hunger in my heart that could never be satisfied by any church. I have always been a God-seeker and studied and read almost everything I could find to take me deeper in my walk with God. I have read the Word all of my life, so I have never depended on a pastor to teach me much of anything.

 

We fell asleep in the process of “going to church” as we were anesthetized by programs, church games, and empty sermons.

 

Over the past year so many things I tolerated “in church” for so many years started making me physically sick. My prophetic bent, the hunger in me driven by the Holy Spirit could no longer stand in church where most of the people in the room still appeared to be asleep. 

 

I left traditional church forever!

 

If you have been stirred or moved by this writing, please forward to your friends and family, so they can subscribe to www.drbrendaramboauthor.com.