I felt this morning The LORD wanted me to remind myself and those of you who know me and follow my ministry.
The LORD led me to remind all of us how extremely needful our personal outreach we all have been given in our lives.
God has used me mightily through the years, but never to the fervency I once had when I was baptized in The Holy Ghost and Fire.
That electrical Fire power surged all through me in such a way that my entire life was changed.
The Baptism of Fire I experienced, was literally heaven on earth and is hard to fully describe, but it forever changed my life. The scriptures say it best,
“His Kingdom come, His Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Matthew 6:10.
I had no idea of His Power. I was only told that God still cast out demons and heals the sick and my friend would tell me stories for hours about her parents who were Assemblies of God ministers, things and stories of her own personal life as she got to watch as a child and she continued with God as an adult. How fascinating that God could still do this today.
I was totally ignorant of the Scriptures, but I believed in God, and I believed in Jesus, I was just so perplexed and wondered like a child about all I heard.
My friend was the one who told me about The Holy Ghost Baptism and that it was for me if I wanted it. I had never heard about this before, but I was very curious.
Over the years after being baptized by The Holy Ghost and Fire, I wondered if I had made a mistake in asking for it, since I knew nothing of it until my friend introduced me to the experience in Scripture.
My friend wasn’t pushy, but could tell I was interested and hungry.
At the time it was 1984, and it wasn’t long after the birth of my baby girl and I knew my husband was going TDY [Temporary Duty] to a remote base and would be gone for several days with the aircraft.
Our family had been going to Church on base faithfully and that is where we met my friend and her family. They invited us to a Church of God Christian Serviceman Center Mission, based out of Cleveland Tennessee.
I did not know God could be so real, nor did I know the raw Power of God. My friend encouraged me to ask God if this Baptism of Fire was something he wanted me to have, and she suggested that I give up a few meals and fast giving time to prayer as I always did with more fervency and more study of God’s Word concerning The Holy Ghost.
I had Bibles, dictionaries, Bible encyclopedias, and concordances out all around me and I was studying and seeking the truth about The Baptism of Fire.
My three children were young, and I was up early taking care of their needs. Every spare moment of time I had while my husband was gone TDY, I continued to feed on God’s Word.
I questioned God if this was literally something He wanted for me. Even though I was brand-new to learning Scriptures about The Baptism of Fire, I really did not understand what I was asking for.
I remember thinking to myself, “If this is something God has for me, it’s good, and I should ask for it!” and I found scriptural backing.
Not only was I reading the Bible, but I read a small book about the Baptism in The Holy Spirit written by John Osteen.
I have shared this testimony many times, but I especially felt led today to share it again, as I did not understand what the hefty price tag was attached to this gifting and blessing.
I took my friend’s instructions and I began to fast two meals a day, but I took what time I had that was free and dedicated that time to God in prayer and study.
Each day I continued seeking The Baptism of Fire, and on the third day, Friday night, after I got my children down to bed, I went to my living room and began to study and read again.
As God as my only witness, I felt a presence enter my house and I had never felt it before. I will try to describe it…..
Have you ever seen and felt a massive approaching storm coming towards you with great darkness of tempest, the clouds and the lightning and booming thunder coming towards you and then over your house and the feeling of the barometric pressure dropping, and you could feel the awesomeness of that raw power in the atmosphere?
That my dear reader is the same Presence that entered and was in my home!
As this presence entered my home, I was afraid, and I turned on every light in the house, but that presence did not leave.
So, I tried to sit on the couch and read but that feeling was so powerful and raw, that I finally got up and took the book I was reading on the Baptism of The Holy Ghost and Fire I went to my bedroom.
I was covered up and had the book in front of my face and I felt that same Power come into my bedroom, and I heard what an audible voice thunder to me and said, “It’s time!”
I sat straight up in my bed and said, “Time for what?”
As I looked up, and there was a white puffy Cloud in my room! I could see it with my natural eyes!
Because of not understanding what was happening to me, I got out of bed, and I called my friend and asked her if she could please come over.
I told her what happened, and that my heart felt like it was going to be out of my chest as I was going to die.
I kept my eyes closed, but finally opened them and the visible Cloud was gone but the Presence was still there! The Power of that massiveness of His Presence was still there!
I waited in the living room, looking up, trying to keep it together, but truly there was a fear. I do understand it now, for truly The Fear of The LORD is the beginning of Wisdom.
As I waited for my friend, the knock came at my door. I opened the door and my friend came in and she brought the associate pastor’s wife of the Church I went to at the Christian Serviceman Center the Mission.
They both said when they came on the property, they could feel the presence of God and they came in, speaking in tongues.
I sat and told them everything that happened. I kept looking up thinking that Cloud would show up again and we talked into the wee hours of the morning.
I decided I was going to stand up and put my arms up. I’d never done before, and I lifted up my arms to God and I asked him for The Baptism — and The Power touched the tip of my fingers.
I can’t say it was like a heat or oil, or peace feeling. It was more like an electrical current like holding a hot wire without the pain, but you can feel that electrical current inching down my arms and shaking me, and I asked The LORD to stop, and to fill me fully at Church on Sunday night at the Church of God.
To my amazement, that Power began to go out of my arms the way it came in. I was astonished and amazed and begged the women not to leave me — that I was afraid — because of The Presence in my house. They said they had to get home, so they left.
I was left in my home with my children, but the whole time that Power never left. I could not eat, drink, or sleep that whole weekend.
On Sunday, that night, I knew I was going to be baptized with The Holy Spirit and Fire! I was prepared, because that’s what I asked for.
When I got to Church, I went to the second row on the left and as soon as the music started, I began to praise The LORD and I asked Jesus to baptize me with The Holy Ghost and Fire and lifted my arms like I did at home.
The same thing happened, and the invisible Power started touching my fingertips and inched its way down to my shoulders, my head, all the way down, inching all the way down to the tip of my toes!
I shook under The Power of God and was literally like holding a live wire to the point where I could not stand and ended up falling back in my seat and I was gloriously filled with The Holy Spirit and Fire!
You may wonder why I would be afraid of this experience initially, especially in my own home, but everything was so new to me.
I didn’t understand the raw Power I experienced. I did not know what The Presence of The Cloud, thunder, and lightning represented in The Bible.
It wasn’t until a little later that God began to teach me in the Scriptures about the Shekinah Glory and about the Pillar of Fire by night in The Cloud by day, that led Israel out of Egypt.
“And The LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of Fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of Fire by night, from before the people.” Exodus 13:21-22 KJV emphasis added.
After this experience, I continued to seek God with all my heart with the new reality of who he is and a new hunger and thirst for him with the Fire in my bones that wouldn’t leave me alone!
I remember seeking him and He told me in a Vision that He called me as a Prophet to the Nations.
But because of my background being raised as Baptist, I said I can’t do that because I’m a woman! Little did I know, truly.
“And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I The LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.” Numbers 12:6 KJV
There are various levels of price tags attached to each gifting that he gives us by Grace. He Graces us to carry His Vision.
Little did I know what it would cost to serve and follow God all the days of my life.
We each have an area of outreach in our lives with our time, resources, and money and He Graces us to reach our areas of influence.
The LORD told us to go to the highways and byways and compel them to come into the Kingdom of God.
“But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” Ephesians 4:7-8 KJV
Since my loss of my 25-year marriage and my divorce, my move to Virginia from Alaska nearly destroyed my mind and total life.
If you have never felt the loss of your own control over your own body or mind, you cannot possibly understand it, and you don’t want to go there, nor judge anyone that is in that place.
I do thank God for all of those who covered me in prayer during those trying times.
During the years following that time, I wondered if I would ever recover totally. I do believe we have scars that remain and remind us of where we came from to be able to identify with those who cross our path in need of what we carry.
For our deep branded cries and silent torments of our struggle to die to us, so that Christ can rise in us, and cause our heart to ooze out compassion and mercies that cover the anguished soul.
God is bringing us back full circle in every way.
I have always prayed even before I was Holy Ghost filled, I learned to pray.
I remember being invited to Evelyn Christiansen meeting on prayer it was a three-day event. I learned to apply everything that woman said.
I applied it to my life, and I began to get up way before dawn, before my husband and children got up, and I began to put God first in my life.
I began to give God time. I began to take 30 minutes and just talk with Him and intercede for others. Then after I prayed, I would read His Word and to my amazement, He began to talk with me trough His Word, into my spirit.
God is calling me back to the depths that I once had in my Prayer Closet. I believe reader, that you’re not reading this in vain.
Think back. Think back hard for the years and what has taken you away from that depth of spirit you once walked in.
There are so many things that keep us from the fullness of Him. The cares of this life, needs, entertainment, television and all sorts of things, and even people have taken away the depth you once walked in.
You’ve got by on mediocre prayer and praying with others. And there is nothing wrong with praying with others, there’s nothing wrong with prayer in any form, if it is in Jesus’ Name.
But I must warn you.
I want to say that this Word applies to me first. I am first partaker of the fruits, and without realizing it, I have gotten slack.
I have leaned too far on the staff of man, and I’ve learned how to slowly adapt to praying over a meal, praying and jest, praying with others also in Group Prayer, and slowly over time, I came out of the depth of prayer I once had.
I began to see ways to incorporate prayer into people, and not realize how I had come out of my own intimate prayer time on my face in my Prayer Closet.
Although our God is a jealous God, He is our heavenly husband first and foremost, always and forever!
In my beginnings I couldn’t wait to be in my Prayer Closet. I would close the door every chance I got!
Even though married with three children yes, I took care of my family and home. I took care of my husband yes, I did those things — but every smidgen of time I got I was in my Prayer Closet with my Bible.
At that time, I was a lot younger, so now it hurts for me to sit in that Closet, but I am determined I’m going to find that place that I had with God.
If I must find a beanbag…. I will pray in my Closet once again!
I remember hearing things in my Prayer Closet — Visions, Dreams, all sorts of things interpreted in that place where I was sitting there and literally, I got lost in time.
It would seem like mere moments would pass by, and it would be hours on in. I was continually tempted by my children, and tempted by my husband, as they wanted me in there to watch television.
They wanted me to do this and that, and I did my best for them, but you know something? God is first!
God is foremost he is our first husband; He is our first love! If we do not please Him first, everything else is in vain and everything else we make into an idol.
But I want to warn you of the danger when you venture out of your own Prayer Closet and become the status quo.
When you lean upon the staff of man — it will pierce your hand. I know what happened to me.
After I was filled with The Holy Spirit, prayer was something I did, it was my focus after taking care of my children and my husband.
What time I had, I spent in my Closet with my Bible, talking to God and that went on for years. I served in three Churches, and I mean I ‘served’.
My Prayer Closet was my first place of each day, keeping Him first and foremost.
I was licensed and ordained February 1990 and I still had that Closet, that place with God where I always went to.
When we opened the Church that Friday, my Prayer Closet was my focus, that was where all my messages came from and all direction.
My God was always first and we started having services in our home and grew quick. I could no longer keep up with everything that had to be done.
I want you all to notice this danger — especially those of you that have ever been in leadership or who are in leadership at this moment.
Satan will use whomever to pull you away from your pure devotion to Christ and that intimacy with him and that Prayer Closet.
Well-meaning folks came in and helped me but soon, they needed me and instead of helping me, they needed me to be there when I was supposed to be in my Prayer Closet, so I began to lean upon man.
As I began to lean upon the staff of man and soon, I was depending on Group Prayers, Individual Prayers, and I wasn’t going before The LORD in intimacy like I was supposed to, first and foremost as His Bride as His Wife, as I am His first Love, He is my first love.
The danger — Listen!
The danger is in coming out of that place with you and Him.
You must stop now! You must stop and go back to the ancient paths and search for the King of Glory so that the King of Glory of will come in!
But God is warning me that even in success, the engaging and the heights of The Spirit, He wants to take us!
Will it all be in vain if we fail to keep God in that place of intimacy in our prayer life. He wants us and the devotion we once had.
Man, and cares of life, can cause us to fail and move away from our first love devotion in God.
God has had me literally in my Closet, praying, and a return to the Power and strength I once walked in.
He brought me all the way back to when I was called by God, and He baptized me in The Holy Ghost and electrical Fire when His Cloud was in my house!
I had no idea what it meant so it scared me but my only fear is not fulfilling my destiny. But I am returning to the diligence I once had in intimacy with God.
He has used me — limitedly — and blessed me despite me, but I want more. I want God to use me unlimitedly! Without measure!
Dear reader, please consider everything carefully and prayerfully…..
I don’t want Him to sit me down and continue the way it has been, just doing enough and ministering to people in all ways. Yet my own heart needed to come completely back to that first love prayer.
God has shown me where I missed it in my prayer life. It wasn’t that I didn’t pray, I did, but there wasn’t the consistency in being the lay down lover of Jesus is supposed to be in my prayer life.
I know you wouldn’t be reading this if The Spirit of God did not touch your heart, because it is His conviction and it’s painful.
It’s painful to face what we are, and what we had. It is painful, but He is giving us a chance. He is giving us a time in this season to return, and the time is now.
If you hear His Voice, hear what The Spirit is saying to the Churches!
Reader and believer, I know you want everything God has for you!
I want everything God has for me, and I will walk in my destiny, for I am returning to the love of my life!
I want that devotion and closeness I once had. I cannot lean upon others anymore. No, this is a call to come aside and pray and get back to the discipline it took to finally get into the flow of Glory!
I remember King Asa (1 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 14–16) did good for a time and experienced greatness and victory. He was following in grandfathers’ path, but a prophet came to him and basically warned him not to trust in the good success he had!
There is a danger with success because we lay down our guard and fail to remember where we came from and how it originated.
Because so many things come to us to steal our time from The LORD, busyness for busyness’ sake isn’t God’s Will.
Busyness in Church activities and what we think is God’s will is not God’s Will. Never will God give us demands without having that close relationship with him.
Just because there is a need, doesn’t mean we are to fill it. With man we always have needs, but we need to pray and not be hasty and miss the way.
He has warned me to be aware and to remember how to say “No!” to people in all circumstances that we have no business being in.
God has used me, despite me. My desire is to be the woman He desires, and a woman after His Own Heart. That is, it!
I believe The LORD is preparing and restoring everything, all the way back to when I was Holy Ghost filled!
He is showing me how America — especially in many Churches — are dead.
We’ve got to stand against the current tide of things and go upstream. We’ve got a push against the current of religion. We’ve got a price to the passion of our love for Jesus Christ!
God has shown me that Prophets and other anointed vessels who come out of their Prayer Closets leaning on their lover, must first go to The House of God and raise the dead!
The procedure is an awakening, and can only come when the dead are raised and convicted of their sin and repent, and turn away from their sin and can read The Bible, remain, and stand.
God will use us, despite us!
But just because He uses us, doesn’t mean we are right with God! The scriptures support this fact, that there will be those who prophesy and do mighty works in His Name — who won’t know The LORD — and He will say to them “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity!” (Matthew 7:23)
I do not ever want to prophecy, teach, preach, or do anything in His Name without having my personal one-on-one time with Him in intimacy, that He requires from me.
We’ve got the goods. We know the plan. We know God has done it before. Can you just imagine now what He will do if we are all grown and ready?
Well… as far as for me? I have no other desire in my life than to serve God, and I will obey.
When He makes things clear to me, I will obey.
I honor and support you. I challenge you, and I encourage you to go onward and upward. God has a mighty Plan, and you have a part!
In HIS Grace and Mercy,
~ Sherry Edwards Mackey
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