I was born into a Christian family, and I am so thankful for the church where I was raised because they understood what it meant to be the church. We did not just go to church — we were the church. From a young age, these values were instilled in me. My mother would lie by my side every night when I would go to sleep and speak to me about eternity so that, even at the age of four, I was already beginning to comprehend my need to give my life to Christ.

One day, our church had a revival meeting. Back in those days, a revival was a week-long series of meetings where a guest speaker would preach, usually about the second coming, Christians who had backslid, and Hell. One of the nights that he was preaching about Hell, his preaching was so vivid that I nearly felt the flames of Hell on my feet below me. It gripped me, and because my mother had prepared my heart, I understood that if I died in my sin, I would go to Hell. After a week of revival meetings, the pastor gave an altar call at the end of the service. I found myself slipping out of my pew and walking down to the front where I took the hand of my beloved pastor. He asked me, “Ricky, why have you come forward?” I looked at my parents and then at my pastor and said, “Brother  , I’ve come to give my heart to Jesus.” That morning, I made a public profession of faith and gave my heart to Christ, and that very night, I was baptized in water. That began my life of service to Jesus.

Discovering the Holy Spirit

In the church where I was raised, we were firm believers in the written Word of God, the Bible. Our pastor had a fervent love for the Word of God and for the lost, and my views on the church, beliefs about our responsibility to fulfill the Great Commission, and love for the Word of God are all rooted in that church. I am so grateful to have been blessed with such a strong church community as a child, but when it came to the Holy Spirit, we did not know much. We understood that the Holy Spirit convicted us of sin, regenerated us in our new birth, and empowered us to share Christ with others, and we understood that the Fruit of the Spirit was to be produced in our lives, but when it came to the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit — particularly the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the present day movement — we didn’t believe. We were doctrinally cessationists; we believed that at the end of the apostolic age, when the apostles died, the gifts of the Spirit had ceased. In fact, if anybody claimed to have had a pentecostal or charismatic experience, we laughed at them. We thought they had bad doctrine and it was just a figment of their imagination, because we knew there was no such thing as current day gifts of the Holy Spirit. We relegated the ministry of the Holy Spirit primarily to the conviction of sin and support in witnessing — that was all that we allowed Him to do!

By the time I was twelve, I began to think that there had to be more than just those things, so I opened my Bible to 1 Corinthians 12-14, and I saw how much territory in the New Testament is allocated to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I began to think, There has to be more to this than what I’ve been told. I became hungry.

One day, I went to see my aunt, who was a Pentecostal. We kept her at a distance because we thought that she was doctrinally confused, but I needed different kinds of answers than my church could give me. When I walked into her house, she was listening to a reel to reel tape of Kenneth Hagin. I did not know who that was, but all of a sudden, he began to give a message in tongues! That was the first time I had ever heard tongues. About that time, my aunt came walking through the kitchen door and saw me standing in her living room, paralyzed, in a state of shock because I was listening to somebody speaking in tongues. Her eyes were huge because she thought she was probably going to get in trouble with my parents, but hearing him speak in tongues did not scare me. In fact, I wanted to know more.

I began to come see my aunt every single day after school, bringing my Bible to talk about the Holy Spirit. She began to walk me through the scriptures and teach me about the infilling and baptism in the Holy Spirit. One by one, she answered all the doctrinal arguments that I had heard against the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the month of January, 1974, I came to her house one day, and I got on my knees and said, “Today is my day. I want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.” She laid her hands on me, and I was filled with the Holy Spirit! It was a glorious experience, and it began my search to understand Him even better.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

Though I had been filled with the Holy Spirit, I still had a lifetime to learn about Him, and I studied with every means available to me. Eventually, I was led to John 14:16, where Jesus elaborates about the ministry of the Holy Spirit:

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;”

Two words in this verse are very important. “Another” is the Greek word allos (άλλος). There were two possible words that could have been used. The first is the word heteras (έτερος), which means another of a completely different kind. If Jesus had used this word, it would have meant, “The Father will give you another comforter, but He will be completely different; you will not be accustomed to this completely new experience.” That would have been very alarming, but Jesus used the word allos, which means another of the very same kind or identical in every way. It was the equivalent of saying, “When the Holy Spirit comes, it’s going to be like I’m still with you; what I would do is exactly what He will do.” The Holy Spirit brings us the reality of Jesus!

The word He uses for “Comforter” is the Greek parakletos (παράκλητος). This is a legal term which describes a lawyer, someone who argues on your behalf. It comes from a combination of two words, the first being para (παρά), which describes a parallel relationship. This tells us that when the Holy Spirit is with us. Not only is He a resident in us, but He is alongside us like a partner everywhere we go. This word describes a very close intimate relationship, like my marriage to Denise. The second part of the word, kaleo (καλέω), means to call. Just like you or I have a calling from God, the Holy Spirit has a calling to be alongside you. He knows His job — His task, His number-one assignment — is to be alongside you. The Holy Spirit is actively working in our life, speaking to us. He is telling us to bravely march into battle because He is with us. He is legally with us, on our team.

When we look at all of John chapters 14 through 16, we learn how important it is that the Holy Spirit is so dedicated to us, because He is too important to our lives to live without. In John 14:26, Jesus says, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” This verse tells us that the Holy Spirit acts as a teacher to us, and if we submit to His authority, He will educate us and remind us about everything that Jesus said. However, just like Jewish students had to submit to their Rabbis, the Holy Spirit requires our submission so that we can receive His teaching. The Holy Spirit knows best, and submission to Him has a real power because then He can direct you perfectly in every area of your life. Chapter 16, verse 13 tells us that He is also the Spirit of truth, which means that we can trust Him not to mislead or misguide us, so we really have no excuse not to follow His teachings!

In John 15:26-27, Jesus also says, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.” From these verses, we learn about two things that take place when we surrender to the Holy Spirit. Number one, He gives us a firsthand testimony of Jesus. When I was filled with the Holy Spirit, I got to know Jesus better than ever before because the Holy Spirit loves to talk and talk and talk about Him, so we just can’t help but hear when He is inside of us. Number two, The Holy Spirit works through us to testify to others. The Holy Spirit is working today, not just to convict us of sin, but to live in us, to teach and guide us, to bring the words of Christ back to our memory when we need them and bring us closer to Jesus Himself, and with all that, we can lead others to Him as well.

It is important to note that this Comforter and Teacher that I have been telling you about is a living person. In John chapters 14 through 16, Jesus uses a personal pronoun 18 times in reference to the Holy Spirit. This is not a word used for a lifeless object or energy but a living individual, a person with a will and personality of His own! In these chapters, Jesus never once refers to the Holy Spirit as an anointing, a feeling, or an emotion. The Holy Spirit is not a mysterious force that just floats around in your life. He has a personality, an assignment, and a desire to work in and through you! He is your friend, teacher, and comforter. That is what He was called by God to do.