“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” Acts 4:31
Imagine yourself, Thursday. You are on a run with your friends. All of you go to a ministry academy. All you are thinking about is how your morning is going to go since your schedule has changed due to fire drills. That's exactly how my morning went on the 26th of May. But little did I know, or any of my friends for that matter, that God had something else in store for us that day.
For a little context, our schedule for Thursdays is prayer time at 8 am, study for an hour at 9 am, then church work from 10 am to 12 pm. We had a different schedule that day due to fire drills, so we were off at 10 am instead of 12 pm. All the students didn't know what we were going to do for prayer at first, but God did. Isaiah had taken the reins and said to meet for prayer in the office at 8 am. So Holly, Isaiah, Vinny, Gabe, and I all met at the office, unknowing what was to come next.
Isaiah took initiative and started prayer by asking us all what was on our hearts. Just like a starter question so we knew what everyone needed prayer for. About half way done going through the circle, Chyenne came into the office. She came down just to see what we were doing for prayer. Once we were all finished sharing our hearts we then prayed. Gabe started off with a “simple” prayer to get us rolling.
I was pretty emotionally wrecked that day cause my Grandpa had passed away at the beginning of the week. It was a really hard experience for me, but God had some freedom in store for me. We were in the middle of praying and I just wanted to cry. I haven't been able to cry in the past 3 years due to emotional shut off. I felt like if I would have just been able to cry, it would have been able to help. Well, about half way through the prayer time, Isaiah hugged me and prayed over me, and I started crying. It was a really nice moment and it was crazy, cause everyone was crying.
The last part was probably the most powerful part, cause we got to pray over Vinny. Chy said that she felt like we needed to pray over him and see a prayer answered. So we all crowded Vinny and laid hands on him. Most of us gave him a word from God. Which was really impactful cause he is now starting to see them come to fruition. Then, Chyenne, and everyone else, said that we could feel his presence. It was such an amazing feeling. It was heavy, but it was a good heavy. Like if you put a weighted and heated blanket on. And Chy said that she had been praying for an experience like that for 2 years, and it happened with a group of 6 young adults in a barn.
Long story short, I had never experienced the Holy Spirit in that way before. And I never thought I would as a teenager. So my thoughts and hopes for those who are reading this. If you are in a place where you think you can’t experience the Holy Spirit the way we did, go after it. It's not something that can just happen randomly, most of the time. It takes faith and relentlessness. Go after him like you never have before, and what you will find is more than you can ever ask for.
-Caleb Busam