Feeling the Fire of God

Two nights ago at Rodney Howard-Browne’s church, I attended a service where evangelist Jonathan Shuttlesworth was the guest speaker. At the end, he offered to pray for everyone. When Jonathan laid hands on me, I didn’t get slain in the spirit but noticed a tingling in my hands afterward. When I woke up the next morning, I felt a stirring in my spirit. Even as I write this, my hands are still tingling. 

Christianity is not dependent on feelings such as Mormons urging potential converts to seek after a “burning in the bosom.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Nevertheless, God has often manifested Himself to where I felt Him doing things in me. On the night on my conversion in 1991, my brother-in-law led me in a prayer to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I then felt a surge of electricity flow through my body. All the guilt I felt from the sins I committed suddenly left.


One Monday night in 1995, following a street evangelism outreach, someone at the church encouraged to move into the center of a prayer circle. After another person laid hands on me, I fell to the floor and shook uncontrollably. I didn’t understand what was happening until someone mentioned “bitterness.” Despite forgiving those who had hurt me in the past, I still needed more “spiritual surgery.”


A year later, the Lord led me to move to Toronto for two months. I attended numerous renewal services at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. Many times while lying on the floor doing “carpet time”, I felt pains shooting out of my heart. God gradually removed all the emotional wounds I had suffered over the years. At the last renewal service, I felt something “pop” in my sinuses. Later, I realized I got healed of a deviated septum. Prior to that night, one of my nostrils was plugged up when I tried breathing through my nose. Because I used to think that was normal, I received a healing I didn’t know I needed!


During a return visit to Toronto in 1999, I went up front to testify what the Lord did to me three years earlier. Then I received additional prayer and laid on the floor for a couple of hours unable to get up. It was also around this time I attended Brownsville Revival meetings in Pensacola, Florida. A few times after services, I felt a tingling in my hands. 


I’ve also felt the fire of God at meetings where no one laid hands on me. In 2002, I went to the Thursday night and Friday morning services at a Benny Hinn Miracle Crusade in Washington, DC. When I got in line for the Friday evening service, I had an “overloaded” feeling in my spirit. So I walked back to the house I stayed at to have personal time with the Lord. On my way home, I saw five boys riding bicycles by the Capitol and led them all to the Lord. Back at the house, I felt the fire of God stirring inside me.


Since then, I’ve been to numerous other meetings where the Lord touched me in various ways. Again, our faith is not dependent on manifestations. Nevertheless, John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:11, “He [Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Christians shouldn't be afraid when God touches them in ways unfamiliar to them. Let's remove the religious glasses and let Him make Himself real to us however He chooses.


“But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.” - Jeremiah 20:9

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