(From Pam Padgett: Member of the body of Christ)
When I was a sophomore in high school, one of the boys in our class was killed in a motorcycle accident. Before this happened, it had never occurred to me that someone my age could die.
I was terrified, for I "knew", put in my heart by God, that if I had died when Tommy died I would have gone to hell.
It was also strongly put in my heart that my only hope was God.
I had been raised in the Catholic church and attended several years of Catholic school, learning the various rituals taught in the Catholic church. But when I realized I could die, it was clear to me that none of the rituals I had been taught could save me, and nothing I could do could save me. My only hope was God.
So I started to pray, but then realized I didn't know "who" I should pray to ... the Father, Son, or the Holy Spirit . It was critical to me that I make my petition properly, for God was my only hope. So I asked that my prayer get to the "right one".
Then I asked that if there was any way for me to be saved, that God would do that.
I had no idea what would happen to me, if God would save me or not. But it was in HIS hands.
There was nothing I could do.
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Not long after this I began to recognize that there was "something of God in me".
An example is that one day I was talking with some girls in my class and one girl said "I bet none of you know what I did yesterday afternoon." Immediately I "knew" that she had gone to Tommy's grave and I said this to her. She said that was correct and that I must have seen her there.
I tried to explain that I hadn't seen her there, but they didn't seem to hear me and went on with their conversation. There was no way I could have known this, except that God had given me this knowledge. (Spiritual gift: Word of knowledge ... I Cor. 12:8)
Much later I came to believe this was a "word of knowledge".
I Corinthians 12:7-8 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
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When I went to college a few years later a friend gave me a Bible and I loved reading it. While reading in I Corinthians two verses stood out to me as follows:
I Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
I Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
Now I knew it was the Holy Spirit of God that was in me!
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