05/13/2026
When I was a new believer, my friends prayed for me to have the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is what happened:
"Before they started to pray, I began hearing a sound. It grew louder and surrounded me. I heard thousands of cheering voices, louder than a stadium full of yelling fans. Then I saw a curtain open, and when I looked through it, I could actually see heaven. I was at the edge of the throne room and started to enter.
There were swarms of angels, swirling and squealing in uncontained ecstasy. They had their backs to me, and even though I could not see their faces I could hear the sounds of ecstatic pleasure coming from them. God was on His throne and completely surrounded by adoring angels.
Wow! I marveled. They’re having a really good time. Next, I saw lightning and fire come out of God. It hit the angels, who could barely handle all of the pleasure. Their wriggling and fluttering swelled with every jolt they received from Him. I had never read the Bible, of course, and no one ever told me about Psalm 16:11 which says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
Awestruck, I continued watching, and without warning one of the lightning flashes from God headed toward me. As it neared my chest and before it struck me, I saw it as a grapefruit-sized fireball. Then it went inside my body.
It is difficult to find words to describe what I experienced. It was as if fire, love, joy and pleasure entered me all at once. It was amazingly good, but, in a way, it was too good. I actually wished God would tone it down a notch or two. I could not handle that much. Yet before I knew it, a second fireball was coming straight at me.
Now it was getting very intense. As this deluge of pleasure passed through me, I began acting just like the angels—wriggling, jumping and spinning around.
..It was getting hotter and stronger, so I ran outside to cool off, but it only increased. Then I panicked because of the intensity of my experience, and asked the Lord to stop. He stopped immediately. Once released from that incredible feeling, I was instantly sorry and asked myself, Why did I panic like that? It was so good?
My friends had never mentioned the fire, so I was not sure if I was getting the right thing. Their instructions were about tongues not fire. I could not speak in tongues at that point. All I could do was scream. I had really thought I would die if God had turned it up one more degree.
I learned an invaluable lesson from this: Never ask the Lord to stop. Now I know to say, 'More, Lord. Just strengthen my inner man to handle Your consuming presence.' ”
-- excerpt from my book, JOY! God's Secret Weapon For Every Believer
