The Church in Spokane
TestimoniesBeing Filled with the Holy SpiritI grew up in a Christian family very preserved from the world. When I graduated from high school I began to realize even though my parents did a great job of keeping the world out of our home, my Christian walk was far from matching the Word of God. I realized that I desperately needed some spiritual nourishment! When I was a young person, almost daily, my dad and I prayed: “Fill me with the Holy Spirit.” I never knew what that really meant. So much of my spiritual search as a young adult stemmed from the desire to know, “What does it mean to have the Spirit filling me?” For a long time I was not making any progress in my pursuit and in fact had been very discouraged by various situations. I found my heart was becoming closed to the Lord, as no answer seemed to come. I was about to make a last-ditch effort to find some spiritual reality when I heard a person read something in a Bible study as an answer to a Bible question. This person was reading a verse explanation, a footnote, from the Recovery Version Bible. Hearing that footnote began to open my heart to the Lord again. Immediately after that I went to my first meeting with the local church in Spokane. I can testify that my heart rejoiced greatly at what I heard and saw in those meetings. The meetings were (and are) so enjoyable that sometimes my cheek muscles would ache from smiling so often! This verse really opened my eyes. Romans 8:11 says, “…His Spirit who indwells you.” I found out that to know the Spirit is not hard because He indwells me! This fact alone has changed my whole Christian walk. What a joy! The Spirit who gives life lives in me! This is why the meetings are so wonderful, because the believers enjoy being filled with the Spirit. This is the way it should be, according to Romans 14:17: “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” I thank the Lord that now my life is becoming a life not of vaguely wondering, but of paying attention to the Spirit, obeying the Spirit, and living out the Spirit. This is the real spiritual (or should I say Spirit-filled) life. Thank You, Lord, for bringing me to the glorious local church—where God bountifully supplies to me the Spirit out of the hearing of faith (Galatians 3:5). I feel the Lord has answered my plea to know the Spirit by showing me the truth in the Bible and the reality of the Body of Christ. I am so happy in the local church. I love the Lord more today than ever. Diane Hooper |