C.G. Bevington - who traveled the American Deep South during the 1920’s and 30’s, talked about praying for three hours under a tree until he “was lifted up onto a plane he had never visited before. He continued to express that experience by adding, “ I became very happy and rose from under that tree most wonderfully blessed. I believe I was regenerated then, but not yet knowing what regeneration was and being so young, Satan kept me from realizing that this was conversion,3”
Charles Finney described his experience differently. He says: 4 ‘…the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me. Indeed, it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love; for I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me, like immense wings.’
‘No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in heart. I wept aloud with joy and love; and I do not know but I should say, I literally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart.’
Corrie Ten Boom relied heavily on the scriptures to talk about and to document her Holy Ghost experiences. First of all, she relied on Acts 1:8 where after his death and resurrection, Jesus told the disciples,” You will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” In her book, Corrie Ten Boom, Her Life, Her Faith, 5 the author goes on to add that, Corrie stated that she knew that she had received that same power. Corrie words were, “some people call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Others call it the second blessing, I don’t try to give it a name. It was a new the beginning of a new spiritual blessing that brought me into a deeper experience with the Lord and a greater sense of His abiding presence.”
After I was first baptized in the Holy Ghost, a joyous abiding oneness with the Spirit of God is also what I felt. It was as though I suddenly came alive with the Holy Ghost presence and power from within my physical and spiritual being. The realization which hit me at that moment was awesome. This was many, many years ago, but I remember it as though it happened only yesterday. I felt the intimate presence of God’s power from within. It was a joyous, indescribably happy experience! God’s powerful Holy Ghost seemed to convey the thought that, “I am glad to abide with you”. Or even more poignantly He seemed to say “I’m happy to have you! “I am happy here with you!” I do not describe my Holy Ghost experience as a “burning churning within“. My experience was rather a wonderfully bubbly, exuberant presence from within. But it has all boiled down to what Corrie Ten Boom experienced as a wonderful “ spiritual blessing that has brought me into a deeper experience with the Lord, and a greater sense of His abiding presence“.7
1. Gospel Song Lyrics; "You Must Be Born Again."
2. KJV Bible, Acts 1:8
3. P. 13, Remarkable Miracles I Have Seen. C.G. Bevington. Bridge Publishing, Inc. South Plainfield, NJ 07080, 1992.
4. P 55, “Charles Grandison Finney: The Powerful Life”, They Found The Secret, V. Raymond Edmond, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids Michigan, 49506, 1975.
5. Corrie Ten Boom, Her Life, Her Faith. Carole C. Carlson, Fleming H. Revell Company, Old Tappan, New Jersey, 1983.
6. Ibid p. 171.
7. Ibid p. 171.
