May I Share With You A Bit On Praying In The Holy Spirit

The earliest I recollect me praying in the Holy Spirit or praying in tongues is 1996. Let me share with you where I was at at that time in my life. I was a very staunch Catholic that was very proficient in praying the rosary and the divine mercy chaplet along with going through a divorce. I could say that I was dealing with much stuff at the time. I would drive over an hour away to attend church because the priest and congregation accepted me for who I was. I had gone on a Pilgrimage to Medjugorje during the Bosnian War and was not too far away from the war zone while on the pilgrimage. I saw something so beautiful while there. People from all around the world would gather here because this was the sight of where Mary the mother of Jesus appeared to children and would give them messages. In this time of my life I reckon, as I look back on it now with the knowledge I have accumulated throughout the years, I, back then also thought I was hearing messages from Mary too. In hind sight I now know that it was really the words of the Lord speaking through and to me. I had no knowledge at the time that it was Him and not His mother. I had friends that were not Catholic and they would gently try to suggest that it just may not be Mary for she was dead and it was Jesus.
 I do not think I was ready for all of that knowledge at that time in my life. I believe I was already born again and had no knowledge of that either. It was not until I attended a church in which I was trained in evangelism and they asked me when I was born again. Thank God I was journaling back then and was able to look back through my journals to try and pinpoint my salvation through Jesus. As I said earlier I was traveling a good distance to attend church. When I was on the pilgrimage I saw people from all around the world receive communion in the Catholic Church with such reverence for the eucharist, they would actually kneel before the priest to receive it not in their hands but on their tongue like is use to be years ago. When I came back to the USA I felt nudged to do the same at church even when I was on the altar as a eucharistic minister. What do you think happened to me. I was asked to not receive it in that fashion, I obliged and then only genuflected to receive communion, I was then asked to not receive it on my tongue but in my hand like others do. After all I was told I was an example on the altar as a eucharistic minister. Can you see why I so enjoyed driving a good distance to just be able to have freedom to be who I was called to be at church? This quaint church would have a healing service once a month after a certain church service and if you needed prayer you would come up to the altar after the service was dismissed and their ministry teams would pray for and over you. This is where I experienced people praying over me with words I never heard of before or even understood. At times this lady would sing these strange songs while praying for me and I had no idea what she was even singing but they would bring such peace to me and this is where I rested in the spirit for the first time. I had no clue what any of this was until I asked questions. It was explained to me that when I would gently fall back it was a time that the Lord wanted me to rest in Him and the songs that were sung over me where sung in the spirit. The Lord praying through them for me.
I truly had no schooling in this stuff at all other than experiencing it first hand and others explaining it to me. No one prayed for me to be filled with Holy Spirit it happened to me as I was exercising one day on either my stair stepper or exercise bike at home in my home. All I remember is it sounded like jibber jabber to me. Sort of like baby talk if that makes sense. I would be shown things in visions as I would pray like this and even get interpretations of what I was praying too. I can honestly say it was Holy Spirit teaching me all of this. I then grew in knowledge and discovered that all those times I thought Mary the mother of Jesus was speaking to me it was really Jesus speaking to my heart. I was only able to receive knowledge where I was at at that time in my life. The true revealing knowledge came to me as I began to pray in the spirit. It may sound foreign to you or even the concept of praying in the spirit if you may have not been raised with this sort of background. I just know this...the more I began to pray like this the more insight was given to me...truth revealed to me to burst those religious bubbles I had grown up with. I remember reading the Catholic bible I had back then and then coming upon a scripture verse that revealed to me there is no purgatory when you die. Your last breath on earth then your eternal future will either be in heaven or hell. No one can pray or pay indulgences for you to get out of hell or into heaven.What do you do when you get these insights? When a person is ready to receive truth Holy Spirit will send those to you along with His gentle guidance for it is now time for the revelation in your life.
When Holy Spirit wakes me up to pray for another in the middle of the night I have no clue what is going on in their life but He does and He knows best what to pray. It is in those moments that I yield to Holy Spirit and He prays through me as I pray for them. It does not matter if I never know what was going on in their life at that very moment what matters is the yielding to pray for them. As I grew in my praying in the spirit I noticed my English prayer grew also. I would be able to open my mouth and beautiful words would come forth as I prayed for someone. It is as though Holy Spirit hand feeds the words to me and inside me it is as if I am just following the words I hear. Does that make sense? In all honesty there is only one person I know of right now that when I ask for prayer I have no idea if they pray in English or in the spirit but when I ask for prayer God answers their prayer. I think I even asked this person how do they pray that the way they pray, for God honors their prayers. I do believe that there are those that are gifted in prayer. I never take it for granted when I ask this person to pray for me, truly I do not take it for granted you must know that. I recognize a gift in them and I try not to burden them with prayer requests all the time. Lord my prayer is to have them continue to be blessed in their times when they pray not only for them self but for others.
Please know this, just because I pray both in English in words I understand and also in the Holy Spirit it does not make me a super star of some sorts. It is what I am called to do. It is part of my mission here on earth. What do you think it would be like if two people got together in marriage and they combined both of their gifts of prayer, wow, it sure would be incredible, it would definitely be a "God Thing" right.