Margaret and Roma Share Their Testimonies of Being Baptized in the Holy Spirit

Margaret Cornell - A blanket came over me – it was the Holy Spirit

I had been seeking God for a number of months and one night Jesus appeared to me in my bedroom. Recognizing that He was truly the son of God I fell at his feet and surrendered my life to him.The next day I knew something radical had happened in my life; I felt full of love and joy and peace. I didn't know it but I had been born again.

Just after that our vicar had planned a church mission. During the mission at the church I had an earnest conversation with a visiting priest that caused me to think seriously about the condition of the church. It was certainly not alive. My recent experience of meeting Jesus affected the way I looked at things. I think I realized that other people just haven't experienced anything remotely like it and didn't really have much real faith in God.

Sometime later I was in a church meeting and I was having a casual conversation with a young woman sitting next to me about the mission. I said,  "David says if we don't like our church the way it is we should get together and pray about it," to which she replied, "Oh yes, let's."

I was very reluctant to do this as I had only just got the hang of praying by myself. However not wishing to appear chicken I said to her. “Okay, let's meet after next Sunday’s evensong."

We went to my house as arranged, and I said to my husband who was in the sitting room, “We are just going upstairs to pray."

We sat in my bedroom. It felt very awkward as I'd never done this before. I had fortified myself with the Anglican prayer book and I had also gotten a book of prayers out of the public library, so I began by reading a prayer.

Then this young woman began to pray quite naturally and fluently and I thought ...”Oh crumbs – she knows a lot more about this than I do!” Then she prayed what turned out to be quite a significant prayer for me.

She said, "Lord, fill us with your Spirit.”

Suddenly a blanket of something terribly powerful and wonderful fell upon me and I couldn't say another word. Thinking about her words I thought to myself, “This must be the Holy Spirit.” I was so profoundly touched by God that I really couldn't say anything else, which quickly finished our meeting. She must have been puzzled by my silence and she said to me, "Are you okay?" I said yes I was , but I really couldn't explain that in a way I was okay but in a way I wasn't, because something very profound which I did not understand had just happened to me.

A few days later I was happily sweeping my kitchen floor singing and praising God when suddenly I began to sing in a language that I didn't know. I was really surprised but not alarmed, because it felt really wonderful.

My husband had been brought up a Baptist and really knew the Bible so I walked into where he was sitting reading and asked him if there was anywhere in the Bible where people just suddenly start to speak in a language they didn't know. Without looking up from his newspaper he said matter-of-factly, "Yes, Acts chapter 2."

I leapt upstairs, looked it up in my Bible and found that it was just what happened to the disciples in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. I was astounded; I thought, “I've had a Bible experience.” I was speaking in tongues.

Stammering lips, and then a flowing language - Roma Flood 

I had only been saved for about six weeks and desired more than anything to be filled with His Spirit and speak in tongues. One night I awoke in the middle of the night and went into another room of the house and a few syllables came to me. I practiced them over and over so that I would remember them in the morning. But that seemed to be that and nothing else happened.

Then I went to a ladies’ weekend camp with a wonderful prophet who gave me an amazing word but I still couldn't speak in tongues. I returned home after camp and all the family were out. Despondently I unpacked my suitcase in my bedroom, telling God that I really thought He'd fill me with his spirit over the course of the weekend. Then as I was talking to Him my mouth started to tingle and strange words flowed out of my mouth.

I walked into the lounge room and the presence and the glory of God was so thick it seemed to fill the whole room. I couldn't stand under the weight of His glory and went down on my knees grabbing hold of the piano so I didn't fall. My whole mouth, tongue, and nose were tingling. Amazingly, the Lord still blesses me with this gift of tingling as I call it, which I love because He reminds me of His glorious presence and His everlasting love for me.  

Mark Virkler’s reflections: Hunger was present. Tongues began slow and stopped. Was prayed and prophesied over and still no tongues. Then when alone in her home, tongues appeared with tingling in mouth, and a sense of His glory filling the room as a heavy weight.

Free Booklet - How to Receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit 
Twenty Testimonies of Being Baptized in the Holy Spirit