I’d like to tell you about an experience that dramatically changed my life.

I grew up going to church and have always loved it. But in my early twenties I visited a friend’s church where people prayed fervently, spoke in tongues and worshipped so passionately.  I had never seen anything like it.  They talked about an experience called "being filled with the Holy Spirit," and despite all my years in church I had never heard of that before.  I was intrigued but also very hesitant.  I was in a difficult season and was so hungry for more of God, but I also had many questions about being “filled with the Spirit” and just didn’t think it was for me.  If I had been a Christian for more than a decade already, why would I need this experience now?  Were people going to force me to pray for it?

Despite my discomfort, I remained intrigued and hungry for God so I kept visiting more services. I met with a couple trusted friends from the church and asked a LOT of questions. After several months, I finally had a few of them pray with me to be filled with the Spirit. They laid hands on me and prayed with me at the end of a service, but I felt nothing. I was discouraged and maybe even a little embarrassed but they assured me I had received it. As I drove home in my car, I cried out to God. I remember parking in my driveway and saying something like this to God, “I just want more of you! I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit! I want to speak in tongues! I don’t care if I don’t understand it all!”… And as I continued praying in my car, I began speaking in tongues! It came so easily and felt so exciting that I started to laugh and thank God.  I knew I had been filled with the Spirit.

One of the major ways my life has been changed since that moment is my prayer life.  Since that supernatural moment in my car, I felt a new excitement for prayer. I felt more empowered to pray for people. The Holy Spirit would give me specific scriptures for someone and I could pray it over them! I would feel burdened for someone and didn’t know how to pray so I would just pray in tongues. If I felt discouraged myself, I would pray in tongues and peace would come almost instantly. I found myself praying in tongues anywhere and everywhere… I could pray in the shower, in the car, and secretly in the grocery store and it was this new and incredible connection to God that I had never experienced before. I love the Message version of 1 Corinthians 14:2 that reads,

“If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him.”

Since being filled with the Holy Spirit, I've felt this new, divine connection to God and I have so many moments where the Holy Spirit has directed and helped me.

I would love to hear your story of being filled with the Holy Spirit in the comments below!

 Love you all,Jenny Schneider