BEING SPIRIT FILLED – TAKING AWAY THE FEAR OF DEATH

I was fortunate enough to be brought up coming along to the Revival Centres, with both my parents having been Spirit-filled separately, years before they even met.  When I was about 10 years old I shared a room with one of my sisters, who was Spirit-filled.  I didn’t really have any understanding of what the Holy Spirit was, all I knew was that my sister had something that meant if she died, she was ok, whereas if I died it was an unknown.  I was very afraid of dying, often keeping myself awake at night, for fear of not waking up in the morning, or always making sure I was within sight of someone else in case something (I don’t know what exactly) happened.  Many times I prayed just by myself, “Please Lord, take the fear away.”

I’d been seeking for the Holy Spirit on-and-off for some time. We were at a Halls Gap Christmas Camp in 2004, and another person the same age as myself received the Holy Spirit during a seekers meeting.  I realised, in hindsight, that as I prayed I was holding myself back. Dad asked if I wanted to have some more prayer, which I said yes to, and so we did after the night meeting with one of the Pastors. At some point while praying, I stopped being self-conscious and overthinking everything and began speaking in tongues.  For me it was a quiet moment.  I can remember walking into the camper trailer our family was staying in just afterwards and saying casually to mum that I’d just received before continuing on to find my toothbrush so I could get ready for bed. I was baptised the next day.  It was not too long afterwards that one day I just realised that I no longer feared death – I could fall asleep at night without fear of whether I woke or not in the morning, and could be by myself without fear of the ‘what if?’.

MY YOUNGER BROTHER’S ACCIDENT

Fast-forward a few years and my younger brother had a black-out (they think) whilst at the skate-park with some friends; he went face-first into a concrete quarter-pipe, before being out-cold on the ground.  My other brother and I were walking back from the school bus-stop shortly afterwards, and I could hear dad’s voice really loudly from the end of the street. As we got closer to home I realised dad was praying then intermittently telling my brother to ‘stay awake’ and ‘stay with him’. Dad, a pretty strong individual, was struggling to hold my brother still, as he was thrashing about and trying to run away from dad.  My brother was really not himself at all. Long-story short, he was first taken in an ambulance, then quickly transferred to a MICA van, before being taking to the nearest airfield and taken by helicopter to the Royal Children’s hospital in Melbourne.  The last update we had was that he was being airlifted to the hospital, then we heard nothing for hours.  We were praying at home for him. I can remember opening my Bible up to a random page and reading the first verse I saw. I can’t remember what the verse was, but in the moment I read it I knew that whatever happened to my brother, who was Spirit-filled some time before this incident, he would be ok whatever the outcome and I felt completely calm about the situation. In the end, he was fine, the medical profession never worked out what had happened, and the side-effects he was supposed to experience never eventuated.

DOUBLE BLACK-OUT

When I was 18 years-old I was working with dad in the shed when I blacked-out.  Dad later told me I’d blacked-out twice with a period of 10-15 minutes in-between. The only recollection I have from in-between the blackouts is a blurry image of dad standing over me and praying. When I came to (the second time), and every moment thereafter, I wasn’t worried, just completely calm.

MY CONTINUAL EXPERIENCE

There have been a number of situations occur within my life since being Spirit-filled, some more trying than others.  While in the midst of them it may have been confronting, challenging and/or uncomfortable to experience, for every situation, every time I’ve prayed to God He has continued to make clear what is the right thing to do, or not do, and He has given me comfort. Sometimes the reassurance has come through conversation with Spirit-filled saints, other times something said in the meeting, or sometimes through opening my Bible to a random page and beginning to read. My experience has been that when I keep putting my petitions to God, He answers in His way, in His time, with something that’s better than my own thinking was able to imagine.

Sam – Shepparton Revival Church