TALK ABOUT TIMING!!

I was 17 years old.......my parents were divorced......I was living with my mom most of the time. I would spend a lot of my time at my friend Howard's house doing drugs, masking my troubles by getting high. I was having a good old time! God is the last thing I wanted in my life. Then.......It was a typical Saturday morning, crashed at Howard's after a night of booze and drugs. I wake up and casually look at my watch. Oh no! I was supposed to meet my brother at my moms and go to some thing with him, but it's already 30 minutes or so late. What do I do? I had promised him! Oh well... I'll just go home anyway and get something to eat. I didn't want to go anyway..... I was still quite high from the late, late night before. Bummer! There he is waiting for me. I said sorry, I overslept. He said no problem, I'll wait while you clean up....we'll just be a little late. Well then we booked it from Downey to Redondo Beach and get to this unique house on a corner right across from the beach with a bunch of stairs leading up to the front door. Decorated with nautical themes and interesting architecture. I was getting curious and nervous to where my brother had brought me. Some lady preacher named Dorothy Matthews. You see he had just "got saved" the previous month and was acting all nice for a change. I didn't have the slightest clue about his newfound faith. Heck we went to Lutheran School for 9 years. I was even baptized as an infant. I'm kool, I don't need this! Well..... I walked in the front door and this place was packed. This was a residence with limited space, yet they had rows and rows of chairs in the living room which were filled to capacity, people sitting out in the hall, and even the adjoining study that faced the main living room. There were just a couple of seats left way in the back row of the study. We sat down. I was relieved we weren't way out in the open. I sat there bored, thinking of other things, thinking I am not going to make it through this whole thing. Then came the time of the service called the "laying on of hands". It's where they pray for people with needs. A line forms and you wait your turn. About 8 people waiting at a time.They all start singing these songs, raising their hands, praising God, and speaking in all these languages I didn't understand. Remember, I was still high and I was trippin! I said to myself, where did my brother bring me? These people are crazy! I gotta get out of here! I'll just sneak out from the back row and go down the hall and then I'm outside. I'll go for a walk on the beach and have a cigarette while I wait for them to finish. Well...... God had other plans. At that moment it was like a window opened above me and The Holy Spirit poured down on me. I was suddenly in my heart convicted of all the sin in my life. I started to shake and tremble, crying my heart out for the shame I felt in my sin. I couldn't control it or stop it. My brother suggested I go up to the prayer line. So I did it. Standing there shaking, crying, and about 7th in line I am thinking I am going to bail. Gotta get outside. One of the elders who was next in line for prayer turned around and said..... brother trade spots with me. I went to the head of the line. At that very moment I was supernaturally delivered from drugs, healed of abdominal cramps, and saved. I went down to the floor under the power of the Holy Spirit and laid there for twenty minutes feeling like Roto Rooter had just gone through me. I got to my feet a new man. Instantly sober! She had me lift my hands and prayed that I might receive the "baptism of the Holy Spirit".(I didn't have a clue what that was) All of a sudden I felt in my newly cleaned-out body like I was being filled up starting at my toes and progressively coming up my legs (like a glass when you fill it up with milk).Further and further to the top. All of a sudden it overflowed... and just kept filling....and filling... I burst forth speaking in tongues and felt like I was on fire. You see I had just received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and hadn't had all the conflicting theologies telling me it's not for today blocking me from receiving what God had for me. I'm so glad God chose to do it this way as I probably would have been very skeptical had I had the chance. Thank You Lord for making a way for this sinner. I knew that I knew that I knew that I knew I had met Jesus, been cleansed of my sin, and would be spending eternity in heaven with Him. And a clean slate too. Whoooo ! What a genuine experience! I Love You Lord!