Conversation

The difference

Ray Berryhill, Danny DuVall and Maria Khaleel pastor thriving churches in Chicago; Birmingham, Ala.; and Pembroke Pines, Fla., respectively. Tim Enloe is an evangelist who holds conferences on the Holy Spirit across the country. Following are excerpts from a recent roundtable conversation with Randy Hurst, commissioner of evangelism, about the impact of the Baptism on their lives.

BERRYHILL: I came out of a church that knew nothing about the power of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues or really witnessing for Jesus. After I was saved and then baptized in the Spirit, the witness of God became evident in my life — not just by what I said, but also by how I lived. I could lead people to Jesus in an alley, on the street corner, in the stairwell at my job. The young people that I ministered to at church got filled with the Spirit even though that church didn’t recognize the Baptism.

I see the same things happening today. The power of God through the Spirit of God is being reproduced. Men and women who want to follow God, who have a call of God, who are excited about the move of God, who have been changed, are serving God with all their might. There are former gangbangers in my church who are now serving the Lord. This is not because of my teaching or discipling. This is the power of the Holy Spirit.

DUVALL: The year after I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, my dad, who was a pastor, made a church change. I went to a brand-new school in my junior year. I remember walking up to the new locker room thinking about how things had been at my previous school. I’d had a starting position on the football team at the other school. I had a lot of friends. But now I had been filled with the Holy Spirit, and Jesus meant everything to me. I made a commitment to the Lord that day. I said, “Lord, I don’t know if I’m going to play one down of football, and I don’t know if I’m going to make one friend. But for the next two years, I will serve You every day.” I walked into that new public high school with confidence, and I credit the power of the Holy Spirit for that.

KHALEEL: I got saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was 11 years old. I came out of a religious background where I had studied Scripture, but it was like a history book to me. God was some far-removed entity. When I got saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit, God became a living presence active in my life. The Word of God became alive to me. In the first year that I was saved, I read through the New Testament some 20 times. The Holy Spirit gave me a love for people, and particularly for the lost. I wanted to tell all my friends at school, and I was a very shy person prior to that.

The night that I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, God called me to the ministry. He said, “I want your life to preach the gospel.” I remember arguing with Him in myself and saying, “Lord, I can’t do this. I’m so shy I can’t speak to people like that.” But God has given me the supernatural ability to be able to step out of my comfort zone or my discomfort zone and be able to share.

ENLOE: When I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, God personalized my walk with Him in a greater way. I had always heard stories of other people receiving the Baptism. That was great, but it was at arm’s length. It was someone else’s experience in God. I’ll never forget the night I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. The reality came to me that God’s power wasn’t just for everybody else, but His power was for me. Just like there was a flame of fire on each person’s head in the Upper Room, there was a flame of fire in my life. I didn’t really think, Well, now I’ve got to go witness. It felt like that night I exchanged a teaspoon or an eyedropper of spiritual power for Niagara Falls, and it just began to flow out of my life. I found that the more I prayed in the Spirit, the more I walked in the Spirit. There was no end to God’s supply. He would take my vessel and He would keep on pouring another 55-gallon drum in and the goodness of the Lord would just flow out of my life to touch others.