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> A Testimony
semi
post Aug 17 2007, 05:13 PM
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The following testimony is posted here from another site with permission from Cesar Feliciano..

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Hello to all of you on this message board.

My name is Cesar Feliciano and I have been a Christian, born of faith in the cross of Christ, in the washing of regeneration through the blood of Christ and sealed unto Salvation through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

I have recently received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and am ever so grateful for the Lord showing his mercy and grace unto me for this unspeakable gift and privilege. I have been walking in the power of the Spirit for just over 1 Month.

This is my testimony for my experience with this most awesome of blessings...

My journey begins with the passing of a dear friend named Robin. I knew Robin through my wife Hope, who had been friends with her since her high school days. I knew Robin to be a happy-go-lucky type of person who loved to serve and help people in any way that she could. She always seemed to me to be one of the happiest people that I knew. Robin was always there to watch my kids when they were little and my kids loved her very much.

Robin was very supportive of my marriage with Hope and would sometimes give my wife a hard time about me being her “honey-do.” We joked about that a lot and often asked her when she would settle down. She said that she would love to, but that he right man had not come into her life. We knew that she would find someone someday and prayed for this on her behalf.

She was a dedicated missionary going to Albania and Indonesia, where her heart was. She would come by the house after returning from her missionary trips and would always bring us back a souvenir from her travels.

One day she came by the house to announce to us that she had perhaps found her soul-mate. We were very excited for her and rejoiced with her and her expected joy in marriage. We went to her wedding and she never looked more beautiful, awesome.

Shortly after her wedding Robin found out that she had cancer. She had wanted to raise a family with her husband Kevin but now had to put those plans on hold, while she battled this disease. It was at this point that I started to see just how much Robin loved God.

I had known for a long time that Robin was a “Spirit-filled believer.” Although my church preached against this sort of thing I always wondered how someone that believed this sort of doctrine and loved God so much could be so wrong.

As I saw how the cancer was attacking her, I noticed how resigned and joyful she remained. She went on to be with the Lord not many months later. I went to the memorial service and was astounded to see all of the people that came to honor Robin’s memory. Testimony after testimony was given and there were many a tear shed.

A video was played that showed Robin at her best, praising God for all of his goodness, and mercy to her. She spoke of the love of God and how she wanted all people to know Christ as their personal savior. This spoke to me in very powerful way. Here was Robin dying and still wanting to do the Father’s will by leading people to heaven’s eternity.

I suddenly felt an intense feeling of inadequacy and shame as I heard and saw what was transpiring. You see the Lord had been dealing with me about certain things and I sensed there was something missing in my life. I was dry and thirsty all the time, not for physical requirements but rather for spiritual. My Christian walk had been wrought with struggle after struggle and I could not get a hold of it.

I had begun to ask God to show me what he wanted to work in me. I asked him to help me live better. Robin was a shining example of someone that was able to do that. I started to think to myself that, despite what I had been taught in the Fundamental Baptist circles concerning tongues and “spirit-filled” faith, the evidence of Robin’s life was contrary to these teachings.

How could someone that loved God so much be in the flesh or in sin or even less godly because of what they believed, I was struck by this and felt that many of the things that I had been taught were not lining up with what I was seeing with my eyes.

The days following the memorial service were a time of wondering and searching for me. Many of the things that I had been doing seemed insufficient to me and I could not figure out why. I still struggled with many things and some major ones as well. I wanted to love God truly and deeply and yet could not figure out how to set about doing that.

While this was going on in my life I lost my job and was without work for about four weeks. It was during this time that the Lord started to direct my paths. I started to draw closer to God and express to him the desire of my soul. I told him that I was tired of trying to live my Christian life in defeat. I prayed earnestly as I had never done before. I wanted the desert in my heart to be filled with waters and my wells to be filled to overflowing.

It was at this time that the Lord led me to employment with a Spirit-filled believer, who owned a print shop in Middletown. It was here that I started to hear more about the full Gospel of the scriptures concerning the Holy spirit and the speaking of tongues.

At first I rejected much of what they were telling me but the more I heard and the more that I felt in them the true presence of God the more I started to realize that there was much true to what they were saying.

I prayed that the Lord would show me His will. I asked him to help me because I was tired of living the way that I was. I wanted more from him and started to pray that the Lord’s will be done in my life.

A couple of weeks passed and I was starting to really feel the presence of God within my life as never before. The Lord revealed to me that he wanted me to commit my life to him completely I decided that I would do that. He also started to burden me with a new found desire to bring the lost to Christ and to live more righteously.

I was invited to a Holy Spirit conference by my boss and decided to go and humor him. While there I heard preaching on the doctrine of baptism in the Holy Spirit. I had never heard this before and was surprised at the amount of scripture that existed to speak on this matter and back it up.

I listened to Tim Enloe give his sermon and knew that I had been hearing about the one thing that I needed and was searching for without realizing it. I went up to the altar and bowed my knees in prayer not really expecting anything other than the will of God to be done.

As I prayed I could hear the words of scripture being spoken and began to feel something. My biggest fear has always been to doing something out of control and in the flesh. I had been telling God that if he wanted me to receive Baptism in the Spirit he would have to do it gently and in orderly calm.

Kneeling there at the altar I felt my co-worker come and lay his hands on my shoulder and pray, His touch could not be mistaken as he has very large heavy hands. I then felt as my boss came up behind me to lay hands on my back. Additionally I could hear the pastor praying for me just to my left and being filled with the Holy Ghost he spoke over me. Tim knelt down next to me and spoke to me a couple of other verses.

It was at this time that God poured out His spirit on me. Where once I wanted to have nothing to do with any of this I felt as if I could not live without it. I felt joy unspeakable as the Lord poured out all of his blessing upon me. I started to quietly make utterances that I had never heard before.

It was at this time that a certain fear started to grip me. I started to think about all of the people that knew me and what they would think if they knew that I was manifesting tongues. As quickly as those thoughts came into my mind they were purged as I felt surges and waves of the Holy Spirit cascading over me.

I felt as if it were many hands on my back. I felt my bosses hands which I thought were still on me switching back and forth and they became fatigued. I don’t know how long I was up there for, but when I finally came down, I felt as if there was new hope and ability to live my life for Christ that had not existed before.

I wanted to thank my boss for being up there with me and he informed me that he was not up there. I told him that I felt his hands switching back and forth on my shoulders. He told me that he was not there with me but that he had been doing that to someone he was praying with. I then asked about the Pastor speaking behind me and praying for me and the many hands on my back encouraging me as I prayed. He told me that there was no one up there with me and that I had likely experienced the touch of ministering angels as I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Needless to say I was completely amazed at this and felt touched of God. A feeling of ultimate joy flowed over me as I felt confirmation of the Holy Spirit’s anointing upon my life. I immediately started to understand for the first time in my life that I could live the Christian life in complete victory and through the power of God’s word and the presence of His Spirit.

In Christ,

Cesar Feliciano-

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(Cesar went on to explain that his family was beginning to act strange toward him, and he knew that his regular church would not be pleased either, so he asked for prayer for direction in this.)

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