A Wonderful Encounter with The Holy Spirit
The following testimony is of a man who recounted his struggle with alcoholism and how it had consumed his life, leading to despair and hopelessness. Despite numerous attempts to quit, he found himself powerless until he had an encounter with the Holy Spirit. This profound experience transformed his life. He also described some of the Holy Spirit’s features and important lessons:
- Power: He felt The Holy Spirit’s greatness, despite his flaws and past mistakes.
- Peace and Clarity: A divine sense of peace filled his being, and his mind became clear of the torment that often drove him to drink.
- Empowered and Guidance: He believed the Holy Spirit equipped him to resist temptation and rebuild his life.
Following this encounter, the man reported that he no longer felt the urge to drink and had a renewed commitment to faith and personal growth. His testimony served as a powerful reminder of hope and the transformative power of faith.
Paul T Experience 3545
Experience description: There were years of build-up to my experience, which is too much to tell here. I’m a Lutheran pastor, and an alcoholic. It crept up on me slowly, but by my late 30’s/early 40’s, there was no denying the issue. My doctor said I would be dead in 5 years if I kept drinking to the levels I was.
Various attempts to quit had failed. I had been confronted by my family, and after being also confronted by a colleague, I knew the game was up. I was desperate. On the evening of Thursday, March 10, 2016, I cried out to God with a depth of repentance I had never previously known. If I couldn’t be free of the substance, I no longer wanted to live. I didn’t want to wake up the next day.
On the evening of Friday March 11, I cried out to God with the same prayer.
On the evening of Saturday March 12, 2016, I was alone in what my family called the ‘gaming room’ – a bit of an all-purpose nothing room. My wife and kids were all in the front living room watching something on TV.
At 8:30pm, I lay on the old couch and poured out the same prayer, with a depth of anguish and desperation I had never before experienced. I was genuinely craving death. Then something happened which changed the course of my whole life.
As I was repenting my heart out, my surroundings disappeared instantly. I was in a completely different place. I was floating in white light – no up or down or left or right – no point of reference initially. I didn’t have a visible body, although I was definitely there. I’ve heard one ‘NDE-er’ describe this state of being as ‘a single point of awareness’, and that’s exactly what it was like. No head, no ears, no eyes…and yet I could ‘see’ in every direction at once – not just 360°, but a full globe of visible awareness.
Slowly, I became aware of a huge white wall off to my right, which gave me a sense of spatial awareness. It seemed about 30m away, and looked about 25m high. About 50m down from the direction of where I might have thought my feet were (if I had any) in a lying down position, the wall appeared to turn away. So I was near the corner.
I knew this was the outer wall of heaven. I was on the outside of heaven; I was not permitted to go in because I wasn’t dead. In the wall behind me, off to my right, there was a large pointed-arched doorway, a double door which looked like it was made of dark redwood.
The door opened, and a being came out…a man. It’s hard to explain how you know these things – you just do. This was the Holy Spirit himself, in the form of a man. But it was only as he got closer that I began to take the immensity of what I was seeing.
Thousands of NDE’ers report how they feel completely overwhelmed by feelings of love and peace, which go beyond the capacity of human language to tell. That was not my experience. I felt neither love nor peace. I was still too much in a state of shock!
What I felt radiating from that being was raw, indescribable, and overwhelming POWER! This being is power itself!
I felt that all life in the entire universe had it’s origin point in this being – every person, every animal, every insect, every plant, every star, every galaxy, and all life in the entire known and unknown universe – had the origin of its life-force in this being! He is the origin of all energy…all power!
The Holy Spirit can take any form he chooses, but to me he was as a man about over 20 feet (7-8m) tall, his robe was a shiny and heavy white sharply-pleated fabric that glistened, and one pleat on each shoulder was a vibrant gold. But his face was featureless, like it was nothing but bright shining starlight. His head appeared as a star.
He didn’t waste any time with me – no small talk. I was floating around the height of his waist, and the Holy Spirit reached out with his enormous left hand. The base of his hand landed at around where my brain stem would be, and the rest of his hand came up to cover my whole head. As soon as his hand was in place, I felt an explosion of fire on my head, which then rippled slowly down my whole body. This was the moment when I realized that, even though I couldn’t see a body, I definitely seemed to have one.
I could feel the fire go down my arms and out of my hands, and down my torso and legs, and then out of the soles of my feet. And it felt like my body – same dimensions. As the fire left my body, I knew instantly that I was healed! All the craving was completely gone… obliterated, to the very last atom!
No sooner had the fire departed my body, the Holy Spirit took his left hand away and he did the same thing with his right hand. It was like he lifted off the top of my head, and I felt like he poured in a huge jug of beautifully warm water, which filled me up to the very top! The water filled me with an indescribable ecstasy, of joy so extreme that it felt like a billion times beyond any joy we can experience on earth!! No language can describe what this joy felt like!!
Then instantly I was back in my body. I leapt to my feet and was dancing around the room like a complete idiot (and I can’t dance)! In the weeks that followed, people could tell something was different, but it took around 7 years before I could open up about it properly. I’ve had very mixed reactions to my story, so I generally don’t talk about it anymore, even though I feel strongly that I want to share this story of hope with other addicts. Hopefully this website is a safer way to do that.
- Any associated medications or substances with the potential to affect the experience? No
- Was the kind of experience difficult to express in words? Yes The grandeur, overwhelming power, and the suddenness of it
- At the time of this experience, was there an associated life threatening event? No
- What was your level of consciousness and alertness during the experience? Fully awake
- Was the experience dream like in any way? No
- Did you experience a separation of your consciousness from your body? Yes I seemed to be invisible, yet at a certain point during the experience began to ‘feel’ my body, but without actually seeing it.
- What emotions did you feel during the experience? Absolute shock.
- Did you hear any unusual sounds or noises? No.
LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Did you recognize any familiar locations or any locations from familiar religious teachings or encounter any locations inhabited by incredible or amazing creatures? Yes It was just a sense of knowing what this place was.
- Did you see a light? Yes Not a specific light; I was surrounded by nothing but light, like I was floating in pure light.
- Did you meet or see any other beings? Yes The Holy Spirit, but he did not look like anything I could have imagined. In the moment I simply ‘knew’ who this was.
- Did you experiment while out of the body or in another, altered state? No
- Did you observe or hear anything regarding people or events during your experience that could be verified later? No
- Did you notice how your 5 senses were working, and if so, how were they different? Yes Vision – a complete globe of vision in every conceivable direction simultaneously.
- Did you have any sense of altered space or time? No
- Did you have a sense of knowing, special knowledge, universal order and/or purpose? Yes All energy in the entire cosmos has its origin in the Holy Spirit. He is the animating force of the entire universe.
- Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure? Yes I could see a huge white wall, and I knew it was the outer wall of heaven. I could not travel beyond it. I felt that was not permitted.
- Did you become aware of future events? No
- Were you involved in or aware of a decision regarding your return to the body? No
- Did you have any psychic, paranormal or other special gifts following the experience that you did not have prior to the experience? Yes My body catches ‘fire’ when I pray. The events my body catches ‘fire’ about come to pass. Prayer has become an extremely reliable guide to action.
- Did you have any changes of attitudes or beliefs following the experience? Yes I became very ‘supernatural’ in my beliefs. Many encounters with demonic spirits followed. I had not experienced this before.
- How has the experience affected your relationships? Daily life? Religious practices? Career choices? I stayed in my career, although the change in me had a negative impact on my church. My family were thrilled to see me healed on my addiction, even if they were unsure what to make of my experience.
- Has your life changed specifically as a result of your experience? Yes I experience prayer and meditation is a powerful and supernatural way.
- Have you shared this experience with others? Yes More negative or neutral than positive. This has led me to essentially shut down about my experience.
- What emotions did you experience following your experience? Elation beyond description.
- What was the best and worst part of your experience? The best part was being healed, and feeling an ongoing strong communion with the Holy Spirit. The worst part is being treated skeptically, or people feeling it was unhelpful to them.
- Is there anything else you would like to add concerning the experience? No.
- Did the questions asked and information you provided accurately and comprehensively describe your experience? Uncertain Not medications or substances, but prayer seems to replicate the experience on a smaller scale.
The Bible provides multiple passages that recognize the Holy Spirit as a Person and as God. Here are some key scriptures that highlight these aspects:
The Holy Spirit as a Person
- Attributes of a Person:
- Mind:
“The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11)
The Spirit has knowledge and understanding, attributes of a personal being. - Will:
“All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:11)
The Spirit distributes spiritual gifts according to His will. - Emotions:
“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)
Grief implies the Holy Spirit can feel emotion.
- Mind:
- Personal Actions:
- Teaching:
“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26) - Speaking:
“The Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and join this chariot.'” (Acts 8:29)
“The Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'” (Acts 13:2)
- Teaching:
- Interpersonal Relationship:
The Holy Spirit interacts with the Father and the Son, showing personal distinction:
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14)
The Holy Spirit as God
- Divine Attributes:
- Omniscience:
“The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them?” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11) - Omnipresence:
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7) - Eternality:
“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” (Hebrews 9:14)
- Omniscience:
- Identified as God:
- Ananias and Sapphira’s deception:
“You have lied to the Holy Spirit… You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4)
This equates lying to the Holy Spirit with lying to God. - The Baptismal Formula:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)
The Holy Spirit is included alongside the Father and the Son in the divine Name.
- Ananias and Sapphira’s deception:
- Active in Divine Work:
- Creation:
“The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) - Regeneration:
“He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5) - Inspiration of Scripture:
“For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21)
- Creation:
Summary
The Holy Spirit’s personal characteristics (intellect, will, and emotion) and divine attributes (eternality, omniscience, and omnipresence), along with His inclusion in the baptismal formula and role in creation and salvation, affirm His Personhood and deity. Always consider being led by The Holy Spirit for every problem. Amen.
