-By Susan Bousquet

It’s hard to put into words all that happened when I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1976. “What is baptism in the Holy Spirit?” you ask. Well, I can tell you how it happened for me.
As far back as I can remember I talked with God and knew He listened. I felt his presence in my life. So when I was fifteen and saw my older brother John come home with this “Holy Ghost” experience and saw the drastic change in his life, I wanted what he had. But my dad forbade my brother to tell us anymore.

Fast forward four years; at the wise old age of nineteen I found myself married, a mom and spiritually miserable. Bad decisions had put a gap between me and my God. I knew well that God was holy, and now, I also knew I was not. Though I forsook Him, He did not give up on me. Empty and searching, I saw my need and began crying out to God. This search and God’s intervention found me attending Church with my brother John and praying for the same Holy Spirit baptism that he had received.
This did not come easily for me. I began reading my Bible incessantly. I saw in the Bible that when people got the baptism of the Holy Spirit they, “spoke in tongues”. I had never spoken in tongues, but my brother and several other people I now knew did. However, I had believed that I already had the Holy Spirit and did not need to speak in tongues. It took the Lord himself to convince me otherwise.

For six long months, I prayed earnestly to receive this experience. Then, on May 8th, 1976—I will never forget that night—the Lord Jesus filled me with His Holy Spirit and I spoke in tongues just like I had read about in my Bible! I remember going home from the church that night. It was a two-hour drive. I felt clean, fresh, and new! The trees looked greener and the moon brighter. When I got home and laid my head on my pillow, oh the peace I felt in my soul! I knew my searching was over, I had found what I was looking for—God living in me!

Picture an empty glass immersed to the brim in a bowl of water. Before I received the Holy Spirit I was like the glass; immersed in God’s spirit to the brim of my soul. Now picture the glass being plunged beneath the surface. The water flows in and fills up or “overwhelms” the glass. That is what it was like after I received the Holy Ghost.

Before Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead he told his disciples that he would send them the “Spirit of truth”, which is another title for the Holy Spirit. He said this, “The world cannot accept him (the Spirit of truth), because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.”

Baptism in the Holy Spirit is the spirit of Jesus coming to live in you. A fresh new beginning, a new life, a new forever, a forgiven past! In the baptism of the Spirit the cup is finally full. God revealed who He was and God has a name – Jesus! He can be trusted. He will never leave you. He satisfies without bad side effects. You can run to him to help you face, not escape reality. He has a plan, a future and a glorious end for you.