Hi guys! This is Olivier. We are here standing at a kickstart weekend
in Port Hope, Canada, and God has been doing amazing things today.
He came and met us in unexpected ways. In particular, we just came back from the beach
where some baptism just happened, and our sister Michelle today
got an encounter with God in a way that wasn't expected at all.
Michelle, would you like to share a little bit of what happened?
Yeah. I came to the kickstart to learn about how to pray for people.
It was my main goal of being here - to learn how to pray for people.
I was totally surprised by actually God wanted to minister to me
and impact my life and change my life.
Early on, when Oliver was preaching about baptism, I realized that my understanding
of baptism wasn't exactly correct because I got baptized when I was 16
or around 14 and 16, and I was more... because there was a baptism service
in my church, and that was just what we did, so it wasn't a baptism because
I was truly wanting to repent and wanted to change. It was more because
that was what was happening. So I went to Olivier, to ask him some
questions, and he started to pray for me. He started to pray, God came,
Holy Spirit came and I was suddenly set free from all this stuff in my life that has been
holding me captive for many, many years, I never realized.
Some girls prayed with me and ministered to me, and God set me free of stuff
that has really held me back, just held me captive for a long time,
and a lot of that was connected to... also just certain way of behaving
that have become so accustomed to. Anyway, just to stop, to give you the right
kind of order of events, we then went to... kind of put pause on what God is doing,
And we went down to the beach and I was baptized, which was
completely different for me, because I thought that my baptism earlier,
when I was younger, was good. I thought that was authentic,
but this time it was so different because this time it was me,
just really repenting and asking God to forgive me and come into
a much more intimate and deeper understanding of my relationship with Him
and I realized that this baptism was very different to a previous one,
because it was authentic one. So I was baptized.
But we felt we needed to pray some more. We came back and we prayed some more.
And I think the biggest thing that happened in my life with all of this is a...
me realizing that... the biggest thing that I was set free from was...
For all these years, last 20 or 25 years or so, of walking, I've been involved in church,
I prayed for people, I've ministered, I've seen God using me in many amazing ways,
but this way has been the sense of me feeling like I have to perform,
that the Holy Spirit is here now and lots of shaking and lots of manifestations.
And I always thought, this is the Holy Spirit. But I just discovered now that actually
it's not, it's not even that, that I don't need to be doing,
I didn't need to be having any image of shaking or any image of manifestations,
I don't need to look like I'm more spiritual. Simply, just to enjoy God's presence
and He would be able to use me, to pray for people,
to enjoy His presence without any physical, strange signs and strange happenings,
and I realized that over the years and all my involvement in church,
we've been in meetings, we've prayed and we've expected to see
all this signs and wonders, but that would be more than seeing people healed,
and I realized that it was almost like a deception, that I've been deceived
in a way that I've been doing things. What I'm loving now, it's just the difference
because all the years I would ask myself a question and say: How come
we have all the presence of what we thought it was the Holy Spirit moving
in meetings, and yet, we weren't see people saved.
We weren't see lives impacted, we weren't seeing people going out
and praying for people to get saved, and then spreading the gospel even further.
I was always wondered why we never saw that. And yet, it seemed like we were busy
doing what God has called us to do. And now I realized that lot of it
it was just doing what we've been doing for years, so-called enjoying the presence
of the Holy Spirit, but a lot of it was not even God. It was just a way of behaving,
a way of doing things, an old patterned, that we've got used to do it, and yet,
not impacting people's lives. So, the biggest thing for me this weekend
it's to just have a healthy understanding of what being baptized in water is,
that it's accompanied with true repentance and how that's impacted my life,
and being set free of different things that were holding me back
and behave in old sins. That's been a huge thing and just realizing that
I want to go out and actually make an impact and tell people about Jesus
and see them baptized, and then see them going and making a difference
in other people's lives. So, that's been the biggest thing.
Glory to God. We've seen in the last years that there was some movement,
especially in some churches, where the focus became so overemphasized
on those kinds of manifestations, in the way we interact with God,
we feel like there is something more to go and get, to be more spiritual... - Yes.
to have more anointing, that we should interact with Him and feel more
of His presence with the shaking, with laying down on the floor
and having all those, sometimes convulsions, as well, and what we see is the focus,
the focus have just been overtaken on those things, to make us feel more and more
spiritual, when actually, the fruit of the Spirit in our life contains the peace, the self-control,
as an outcome of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and us surrendering to Him.
So, for Michelle it's been really something, God came today and met her with freedom, actually.
Yes, that's been a huge mindset shift for me, because I always connected
this outward manifestations, the shaking and lots of strange movements,
I connected that as being the power of the Holy Spirit, the presence of the Holy Spirit,
the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. I have walked that way for so many years,
and yet, I always questioned, but come if we have that, how come I'm not seeing
people saved and see people come to Christ, and seeing disciples,
and people telling other people about Jesus, how can we have all this stuff,
but none of that. And I realized that lot of it it's just a deception,
that you think that you have to have that to enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit.
But in fact - you don't. I am able to enjoy His presence just by being prayed for,
or come and pray, coming into God's presence, and just experiencing His peace
and His calmness and His joy, without all the outward manifestations.
That has been the biggest mindset shift for me - has been that.
I was actually set free from a lot of deception
and an old way of behaving. That I connected that old way of behaving
with this incredible power, but all this amazing power didn't come with me,
impacting people's lives.
The gospel, as I was sharing it today, is really about repenting before God first,
of the sins we have committed. And being baptized to Christ,
to wash away our sins and being united with Him and being clothed with
His righteousness. And then we will receive the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit produces this fruit in our life.
And yes, the Holy Spirit brings some gifts also. He gives us the power
to go and be witnesses of Jesus. But the outcome of true surrendered life
to the presence of the Holy Spirit in us is to live a holy life, to go, to make disciples,
to share Christ with us, and not live by the flesh anymore, not live by sight
anymore, but by faith.
Yes. You should not be living by actions, and how we, so-called perform,
but just by rather how we go daily and live our lives. Yeah.
God is amazing. It is beautiful what He has done today.
We have other video testimonies of people also who have been set free
from deception, from this kind of spirits also that has crept in some churches
and movements. We encourage you to watch some of them.
If you have questions, if you wonder, if you are experiencing really the Holy Spirit
if this is normal, what is going around you, watch these videos,
we'll share links in the text. I hope and we pray that God is going to speak to you
through those testimonies.
So, be blessed! We thank you for that in Jesus name.