My dramatic encounter with the
power of the Holy Spirit

It was 1997 and I had been a Christian for more than twenty years. As I considered my life, I realized something was wrong. Previously, I was what would be described as a model Christian. I had a beautiful marriage with Dahlia; was always in the church, always participating in activities such as Bible studies, I was a Sunday School Teacher, a member of the Church Council, but even then, something was missing. I had lost my "first love" for Jesus.

Born on October 16, 1964, the third of six children in Kingston, Jamaica, I accepted Jesus when I was about ten. I became aware of the call of God on my life from very early. On the final night of a summer camp (campfire), about a year after I became a Christian, I dedicated my life to serving Christ.

After that, I was “on fire” for God. I would witness at every opportunity: At home, I would place a bench outside my gate and preach to the children in my inner city community. At church, I was the only child on a small evangelism team. At school, I was a committee member of the Inter-Schools’ Christian Fellowship.

I first learnt of the power of the Holy Spirit at school. I belonged to a church that believed that the gifts of the Holy Spirit had ceased with the death of the last apostle or about the time of the canonization of scripture. However, in 1976, something dramatic was happening at the boys’ high school that I attended. Boys my age and a little older were praying for other boys and we were seeing immediate and dramatic miracles. One boy, who needed to use a hearing aid in one ear, was immediately healed and could hear even clearer than I could. I saw limbs (fingers and feet) grow in length before my very eyes. I realized then that there was a discrepancy between what my church was teaching, and my experience.

As a result, I then went back to the Bible and re-read the book of Acts, and then the rest of the New Testament. Rather than justifying my church’s position, I realized that the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit were meant for me also. Armed with that knowledge, I went back to school and told one of the student leaders of the group, “I want to receive what you have…”

Fast-forward in time and over the years, my passion for service waned. During this time I had resorted to a comfort level in my Christianity that seemed to fit in with the norm. I decided that my Christian walk would influence people, not my words. That meant that with the exception of public ministry such as drama, Junior Church Teaching, occasionally preaching, etc. I stopped witnessing. Everyone who knew me felt I was living an acceptable Christian life, which may well have been the norm, but it was a far cry from what I knew God had in store for me. My devotional life was reduced to a bare minimum - that is, every now and again. This continued, with occasional spurts of my interest level, even after I got married.

In 1992, after five years of marriage, Dahlia and I migrated to the United States. Unable to find a “suitable” church, we drifted from church to church. I was neither cold nor hot, rather I was a lukewarm Christian - the type God said He would spew out of His mouth.

My spiritual inertia came to a head one day when Dahlia inquired about my personal devotional life. Reluctantly, I had to admit that I had devotions only when I felt like it, which was infrequently. She then said something to me that I have never forgotten nor ever will. If I listened to a hundred sermons, I could never hear the voice of God rebuking me more than in that one simple statement that totally floored me: "I thought you were to be the spiritual head of the family.”

There was no answer. I had failed. I had failed myself. I had failed God. I had failed in the one thing that I thought I was successful in - my marriage, because I had failed in the most critical area God had entrusted me with, to be the spiritual head of my family. I had drifted so far from my role it wasn't funny. The only time we prayed together anymore was at mealtime. I didn't spend time in prayer. I had not fasted in over four years (the last time being when we were pondering migration). I had not witnessed in over four years. I had left God out of almost every area of my life: in business, in personal, and in church life. I was a Christian and all my friends knew that I was but that is where it ended.

TIME OF RESTORATION
I prayed and confessed my sins to God. I told Him I wanted to be the man He wanted me to be, and asked Him to restore to me the joy of my salvation. With all the sincerity I could muster, I asked him to change my heart. When you pray a sincere prayer from your heart, God hears and He answers. After that, things started to change in the most dramatic ways. First, God gave me a new love for His Word. For the first time since we had left Jamaica, I began to really enjoy reading the Bible again.

About a month later I was in bed sleeping when suddenly I woke up weeping for no apparent reason. I could not understand why I was crying that boisterously because I wasn’t dreaming or anything like that. I was so sad I just couldn’t stop crying. I tried to wake Dahlia, but she just didn’t respond. This was surprising, because she is a light sleeper. Unsuccessful in my attempts to wake her, I laid there sobbing, when without warning, the Spirit of God said to my spirit “Today, I have separated you for service.”

It was one of the most dramatic calls to ministry I had ever heard about. Immediately, the Holy Spirit started to play my life before my eyes and He took me back to my first camp in Portland, Jamaica and reminded me of the promise I had made to God that I would dedicate my life to Him in full time service. Then I heard the voice of God speaking to my heart; "It's time you made good on that promise to me."

After that, my life changed rapidly. Dahlia and I decided to become members of a church we had visited periodically. At the time, the church was also going through a season of soul searching, and seeking revival. God had led us back to the church in His perfect timing.

REVIVAL SEEKING

Good News Church
in South Florida.

As a part of its emphasis on revival, Good News Church had started inviting speakers from other churches to minister to the congregation on various aspects of revival. One such speaker was Pastor Guy Carey. The Holy Spirit had been moving in a very strong way in Guy Carey's church and they had seen God's hand move mightily in healing, restoration and renewal. He was first invited to share in our Wednesday evening service on April 2, 1997.

Pastor Carey shared from the scriptures but mostly from his experience on what was happening in his life and church. His definition of revival was "when your experience catches up with your theology." That made perfect sense to me. For too long I was living a partial Christianity. There were certain things I believed but had never experienced. I determined that night was to be the beginning of a new experience for me. As of that day, I wanted my experience to begin to play catch up with my theology until I would be able to say, "Follow me, as I follow Christ."

At the end of the service, Pastor Carey invited the congregation to the altar for prayer. He instructed us not to pray for a gift or for an experience, but to seek Christ and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. As he prayed for people who had formed a line at the front of the altar, many began to fall backwards, to the floor. This was perhaps, one of the first times I was witnessing this up close. I was a skeptic as far as that experience was concerned.

Pastor Carey laid hands on me and prayed for me, and as far as I could tell, nothing happened. He continued down the line, praying for others, and as usual, many would fall to the floor, then, in a few minutes, they would get up and return to their seats. I watched this for a while and soon, a request was made that if you were already prayed for you should return to you seat, to allow space for others to come forward and be prayed for.

By this time, I was desperate to experience the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. I determined that I would not return to my seat. In fact, I went as far as to make two promises to God: First, I would not leave the altar until God filled me with His Spirit, the way He did in Acts (and I was prepared to hand my car keys to Dahlia and wait as long as it took). Second, I promised God I would not help Him by falling or anything like that.

Some time later, Pastor Carey came back to me and began to pray. He laid hands on me, then without warning he removed his hands, stopped praying and began to declare: Man of God, Man of God… Suddenly, I felt a literal warm heavy presence of God on my chest. It’s weight and covering, felt similar to the lead shield that is placed on your chest when you are about to do a mouth X-Ray, only warmer. I was overcome by the weight of God’s presence and fell backwards to the floor.

In a single moment, I understood many things I hadn’t understood before. I knew what the words to many songs I had sung over the years meant; songs such as “Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me...” It suddenly occurred to me Oral Roberts wasn’t the “fraud,” I had made him out to be…it was as if in a single instant, God’s revelation knowledge had given me a new perspective on many things.

After a while, I was satisfied that God had done a deep work in me and so I tried to ease up but was too weak at the time and fell back to the floor. What was happening to me? Why couldn’t I get up like everyone else? After a while I felt stronger, but just in case I was still too weak to stand, I eased myself up and sat with my back against the front pew.

Still overwhelmed by what had happened, I started to laugh, not uncontrollably, in the sense that something had taken a hold of me, but it was the only way I could express the deep joy I was feeling inside. I then started to weep and couldn't stop. This was the first time, since I was fifteen years old, anyone had seen me cry in public - and it was not a pretty sight.

"UNUSUAL" HAPPENINGS
One very unusual thing that happened to me immediately after I finished crying that night and was still sitting on the floor at church was that the upper section of my index finger started to burn. It was as if I had placed it on a red-hot stove. I couldn't understand why that had happened but the only way for me to try to cool it was to stick it in my mouth. Of course I tried to disguise it because I felt very silly doing that. I had never read or heard of anyone who ever had such an experience and I wasn't sure what it meant.

Two days later I was helping a friend who owned a wedding shop to steam press bridal dresses. Being inexperienced, I got burnt by the steam very badly a few times, but those burns wore off after a few minutes. The burn I received at church lasted five days until the following Monday night. That night I was lying in bed (on my stomach, palms upward), praying in the spirit when I felt a very heavy presence come over me similar to the previous Wednesday. Only this time I think it knocked me out for a few minutes. How long I do not know, but when I came to I felt as if someone had placed a heavy piece of lead in my hands.

My hands started to feel as if I had placed them in a very strong static field and then pulled them out again with the static charge still on my hands. I went to sleep and the following morning, I woke up and the charge in my hands was still there. If I brought them together, it was as if I was intensifying the charge, creating a type of force field between my hands.

When I drove my car, it was as if I was passing that charge on to the steering wheel. That feeling remained in my hands for some two weeks. To best describe the sensation, it was similar to placing your hands on a refrigerator or computer and feeling the current passing through it (I think it is called the 60 cycle hum). Another way to describe it is the sensation you feel in your hand immediately after using an electric shaver.

It is now eleven years since that experience in 1997, and I still experience the slight feeling of electricity in my right hand. I have had an amazing ride, experiencing the power of God’s Holy Spirit. He has since, given me dreams, prophecies and visions; too many to explain in this forum. He has also spoken to me very clearly, not audibly, but just as certain and now He has commissioned me to tell the story of the power of his Holy Spirit.

This testimony was shared, not to suggest that I am above anyone else, but rather to give a background to my calling as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A key way God has called me to minister is through television in drama and documentaries. I pray your heart will be encouraged by my testimony. I pray that God may join your heart with mine to partner in the ministry of FireWorks International.