Lesson 5 – Facilitating the Baptism in the Holy Spirit

[Abayomi]

Actually, the gift of the Holy Spirit has been desire and prayer to God.

It is the reason for enrolling in this course; The Spirit Filled Life.

I pray at God’s appointed time, He will impart me with this gift in Jesus name, amen.

[Amanda]

Up until recently, a revival atmosphere was my default understanding of the reception of speaking in tongues, yes. I had only ever really seen it in snippets of videos or through word of mouth, always with regards to a revival atmosphere. And often with a negative connotation, unfortunately. When I started attending my current church, however, there was a man who shared his testimony about receiving the baptism of the Spirit around a campfire. My pastor also shared about his own first encounter with speaking with tongues, where he had been alone in prayer when it happened. Those two testimonies, as simple and short as they were, were enough to start to change my understanding.

I think my understanding now is more fluid and more complex than what it used to be. Less theatrical, too. I see speaking in tongues as a much less performative thing than I used to, and I understand it for what it is – a gift. That being said, I do still struggle with doubt. I do still worry about faking it, or seeing others fake it. I actually found this particular lecture video to be very comforting, because it touched on that doubt. It can be difficult to accept or comprehend supernatural happenings as mortal beings, but I can feel my heart softening around this topic. I feel like the more I get to know about the Holy Spirit and the importance of prayer language, the more genuinely I am able to believe.