Many believers have had astounding encounters with God that have been written down decades ago, I wish ignite a hunger within you by sharing a handful of these testimonies and also help to paint a clearer picture of what encountering the Holy Spirit looks like. These stories are blueprints for what is available to us, if God did it for them, He’ll do it for you. That’s the nature of the testimony, if God did it once He’ll do it again. “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)

The promise of the Spirit is for everyone that the Lord God will call, not just your pastor, or some great evangelist but every believer young and old has been granted access to the realm of God’s glory, Christ blood has ripped the veil in two so that we may come boldly and unreservedly into the fiery depths of God heart!

Charles Finney (1792-1875)

As I turned and was about to take a seat by the fire, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. Without any expectation of it, without ever having the thought in my mind that there was any such thing for me, without any recollection that I had ever heard the thing mentioned by any person in the world, 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 my 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. These waves came over me, and over me, and over me, one after the other, until I recollect I cried out, “I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me. I said, “Lord, I cannot bear any more; yet I had no fear of death.”

How long I continued in this state, with this baptism continuing to roll over me and go through me, I do not know. But I know it was late in the evening when a member of my choir for I was the leader of the choir came into the office to see me. He was a member of the church. He found me in this state of loud weeping, and said to me, “Mr. Finney, what ails you? I could make him no answer for some time. He then said, “Are you in pain? I gathered myself up as best I could, and replied, “No, but so happy that I cannot live.

He turned and left the office, and in a few minutes returned with one of the elders of the church, whose shop was nearly across the way from our office. This elder was a very serious man; and in my presence had been very watchful, and I had scarcely ever seen him laugh. When he came in, I was very much in the state in which I was when the young man went out to call him. He asked me how I felt, and I began to tell him. Instead of saying anything, he fell into a most spasmodic laughter. It seemed as if it was impossible for him to keep from laughing from the very bottom of his heart.

…Just at the time when I was giving an account of my feelings to this elder of the church, and to the other member who was with him, this young man came into the office. I was sitting with my back toward the door, and barely observed that he came in. He listened with astonishment to what I was saying, and the first I knew he partly fell upon the floor, and cried out in the greatest agony of mind, “Do pray for me!”

Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844-1924)

The power of The Holy Ghost came down as a cloud. It was brighter than the sun. I was covered and wrapped up in it. My body was as light as the air. It seemed that heaven came down. I was baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire and power, which have never left me. Oh praise The Lord!

There was liquid fire, and the angels were all around and the fire and the glory. It is through the Lord Jesus Christ and by this power, that I have stood before hundreds of thousands of men and women, proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ.

John G. Lake (1870-1935)

In October 1907 the Lord in His goodness baptized me with the Holy Ghost after several months of deep heart searching and repentance unto God at the home of a friend. Brother Thomas Hezmalhalch had invited me to accompany him to pray for a sister who was an invalid and had been in a wheelchair for a number of years.

As we entered the home, I felt a great calm resting upon me. I did not feel to join in the conversation. Brother Tom proceeded to instruct the sister from the Word concerning healing, and I sat in a deep leather chair on the opposite side of the room. My soul was drawing out in a great silent heart cry to God.

“O Jesus, I so long for the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but I feel so unworthy; so far from thee. O Christ, if it be possible to baptize such as me, please baptize me. I am so hungry, so tired of trying, so weary of doing things myself. I am sick of sin, sick of self, sick of trying, sick of working, etc. etc.”

Presently, a great quiet came upon me deepening rapidly into a peace such as I had never before known or experienced – a quiet of spirit, soul, and body. My being was soothed in a perfect calm, so deep, so quiet. My mind was perfectly still. I said, “O, Jesus, what is this – the calm of God? Is this the baptism of the Holy Ghost?”

Presently, it seemed as if I had passed under a warm tropical rain that was falling not upon me, but through me. The realization of peace was such as I had never known. The rain continued to fall upon me. O, the rest of soul. O, the quiet of God. O, the peace of that hour. The peace – I cannot describe – that passeth all understanding. This condition of peace was so great I feared to breathe. It was as the silence of heaven.

The saving rain continued to fall upon me. It soothed my brain. It soothed my body. It soothed my spirit. Would it ever stop? I feared it might. I said, “O God, I did not know there was such a place of rest as this.”

Then I became conscious of a change coming over me. Instead of the rain, currents of power were running through me from my head to my feet, seemingly into the floor. These shocks of power came intermittently, possibly ten seconds apart. They increased in voltage until, after a few minutes, my frame shook and vibrated under these mighty shocks of power. Then as I shook and trembled, the shocks of power followed each other with more apparent rapidity and intensity. I could have fallen on the floor except for the depth of the chair in which I sat.

Again a change. The shocks of power lessened in intensity and now have taken hold of my lower jaw. It moved up and down and sidewise in a manner new to me. My tongue and throat began to move in a manner I could not control. Presently, I realized I was speaking in another tongue, a language I had never learned. O, the sense of power. The mighty moving of the Spirit in me. The consciousness it was God who had come.

Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947)

The fire fell and burned in me till the Holy Spirit clearly revealed absolute purity before God. At this point she was called out of the room, and during her absence a marvelous revelation took place, my body became full of light and Holy Presence, and in the revelation I saw an empty Cross and at the same time the Jesus I loved and adored crowned in the Glory in a Reigning Position. The glorious remembrance of these moments is beyond my expression to give when I could not find words to express, then an irresistible Power filled me and moved my being till I found to my glorious astonishment I was speaking in other tongues clearly.

After this a burning love for everybody filled my soul. I am overjoyed in giving my testimony, praying for those that fight this truth, but I am clearly given to understand that I must come out of every unbelieving element. I am already witness of signs following. Praise Him.