Personal Narrative: The Holy Spirit

We have often heard the phrase “words cannot express” and because of its frequency of use this phrase is often not taken seriously. Words truly cannot express the spiritually moving experience I had on that night in June 1961 at the Pilgrim Holiness Church, Chimborazo, St Joseph, Barbados. These days when I reflect on my conversion at a humble altar of prayer these words come to mind:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin and nature’s night Thine eye diffused a quickening ray I woke, the dungeon flamed with light My chains fell off, my heart was free I rose, went forth and followed Thee.

My conversion was like a spiritual fountain, overflowing within, and producing wave after wave of indescribable emotion.

I feel that God through his Holy Spirit has drawn me into a nearness to him to the extent that on many occasions without having to agonize in prayer or search relentlessly through the scriptures I know the will of God. This does not mean that prayer and Bible study should not take pre-eminence in one’s life. However it is an assertion of the scripture that says "His Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God". I feel this nearness from the time I awake in the morning until I go to sleep at night and it is extremely comforting. Many times I feel and sometimes I do shout, Immanuel (God with us) and the rhythms of my heart resonate with the verse of scripture in the Psalms, “For the Lord of Host is with us and the God of Jacob is our refuge" and again to compound the nearness, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me and your rod and your staff they comfort me”. Yes this is a blessed result of my conversion and continually motivates me in my Christian

Within three months of my great uncle’s death the Church District arranged a series of seminars held on Saturdays and mandated that each church send suitable people to be trained in ministry. Among the subjects taught was systematic theology and homiletics and for about 6 months I along with two others from my church attended every Saturday. Through this system I improved enormously and preached not just locally but in the zone and my confidence grew exponentially. Remembering what the voice had said "Why didn’t you do it?" I threw myself into local evangelism and preached at open-air meetings, went door to door and generally became quite active in the local church and the zone. This went on for about three years and then God willed that I needed to go to the next