Acts 2:4 – And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
I love the sound of a room full of believers singing, worshipping, and praying in musical harmony with their heavenly language. It is not only beautiful but carries the fragrance and the atmosphere of heaven. There is nothing like it on earth. Over the last half century I have enjoyed this experience hundreds if not thousands of times, several of those moments really stand out to me. I have to make mention of the first time I heard this beautiful heavenly sound, it was in an apartment on Carrollton Ave. in New Orleans above a pizza parlor. I was attending my first gathering as a Christian and there was a group of Jesus Freak missionaries headed to Costa Rica for ministry. They all began to sing together in the Holy Ghost and it was like a great invitation from the Lord for me to come to Jesus.
My next memory was about a month later in Kerman, California at a pick up baseball game with other students and leaders at Gods Army. As expected someone got injured and there we were, gathered around the injured athlete and everyone was praying and singing in the Spirit. For me, I was immediately surrounded by the presence of the Lord and began to long for this experience to be part of my life. It wasn’t but a few days after this that I too was swept into this glorious experience of worshipping the Lord in a beautiful heavenly language.
The next account I want to mention was about six years later when we started our church In New Orleans. I particularly remember our Sunday night services when we would often sing in the Spirit for extended periods of time, only heaven will reveal what was actually happening then. All I know is that these meetings became the catalyst for Victory Church to flourish in the years ahead.
The final memory I want to share happened in January of 1994. I was at a meeting in Lakeland, Florida with thousands of other Christians when the Holy Sprit fell powerfully in the room. The glory was unmistakeable and most could not stand in that atmosphere. That has been called the night the angels sang by many over the years, all I know is that night affected me permanently. It’s hard to say exactly what happens in moments like those, all I know is that I have never been the same since.