Testimony – Pastor Steven L. ShelleySupernatural Baptism in the Holy Ghost at Age 7

I wasn't raised in a Christian home. My mother is

serving the Lord now and I'm so thankful for that, but I wasn't raised in a

Christian home. My grandmother on my father's side had been a preacher

for almost fifty years before she passed away. God began to deal with

my heart, and I was just a boy when I started a public ministry.

Some people don't believe or have confidence in that.

It's all right, but when I was seven years old, He baptized me

with the Holy Ghost. Now what is the evidence of that? It's

not speaking in tongues. It's a changed life. It's

whether or not you can say "Amen" to every Word of God. I was saying

"Amen" to every Word of God that I heard, and when I heard more, I had to say

"Amen" to that, too. It was something within me. Hallelujah!

God was so good to me, to give me a good background.

My grandmother was a healing evangelist. She traveled all across the

South. Knowing what I know now, doesn't undo all the things my granny

told me that were the truth. It doesn't make me doubt the miracles I

saw.

I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost at the age of

seven. My granny and I were on the way to church, and I said, "Granny,

I want the Holy Ghost."

She thought on it a minute to see if I was old enough to

have it. Then she said, "Sweet baby, God wants you to have the Holy

Ghost."

I said, "I don't believe God wants me to have the Holy

Ghost."

Well, I'm telling you. To her that was blasphemy.

She was so upset with me. She swerved and nearly wrecked the

car. "What do you mean?" she said.

I said, "I've prayed for the Holy Ghost. I fasted

for the Holy Ghost."

She said, "You mean you fasted?"

I said, "Yes ma'am." And it wasn't easy, because my

mother wasn't a Christian. So I had to be very careful about fasting,

because she'd be so angry. I said, "Yes ma'am. And I just still,

I just can't get the Holy Ghost." I said, "Every preacher that comes

to the church, I ask him to pray for me. And I just can't get the Holy

Ghost."

I mean, I could have talked in tongues like people were

being taught in other places. But I didn't want to talk in tongues.

That wasn't what I wanted. I wanted the Holy Ghost.

I wanted to know that God was now living inside of me.

I mean, I understand as a Baptist, because my parents were,

my mother and grandmother on that side were Baptist. And they believe

that when you're saved, Jesus and the Holy Spirit come in, and they live

inside of you. And that's all you need.

But that didn't satisfy me. I hate to be blasphemous,

you know. But that wasn't enough. I knew I felt good when He

came in and forgave me of my sins and helped me. But I saw that people

had something more than I did. I saw people that had the power of

God in their life. I wanted that. That's what I wanted.

And I was praying.

And Granny said, "Well honey, you've got to come to the

place where you want to be filled with the Holy Ghost more than anything else

in all the world."

I said, "I'm almost there."

She started quoting Scripture to me. "Son, do you

want the Holy Ghost more than you want a new bicycle?" My, I had to

think about it. I didn't really know what all the Holy Ghost was.

I wanted a bicycle, and I thought I wanted the Holy Ghost.

She asked, "Do you want Him more than you want a pony?"

Well, I thought I wanted a pony. But, "Yes, ma'am. I

want the Holy Ghost more than I want a pony. I want the Holy Ghost

more than anything else in the all the world."

She said, "Darling, you might get it tonight." That

was her faith. You might get it tonight.

In church that night I tried to sing, clap my hands and

say "Amen". I didn't know why I was sad, but I was sad. They

were shouting and praising the Lord, but I was sad. While they were

singing a song, I slipped down by the pew and began to pray. "Lord, I

don't know what all the Holy Ghost is. I'm just a child, probably not

old enough to have it. And I don't understand a lot of things.

But I need to know that You can fill me with the Holy Ghost. My granny

said I could have it. And so, Lord, I want You to fill me with the Holy

Ghost." That was my prayer.

I don't know how to describe it, but the next thing I

knew, I was looking down on my body. God had caught me away

spiritually. He lifted me, what I thought and felt like, was

completely out of my body. I was at the top of the building looking

down on my body, praying. My, what a feeling! I stayed up

there, just kind of flying, but I looked down and saw myself kneeling there.

That was what was so amazing to me as a child. And I began to

hear this language that I'd never heard before. I could hear it.

It was loud. I could hear this voice speaking in another language.

I could also in some way know that I was in a service. I could

somehow know other little glimpses that were going on around me.

And I said, "Lord, I want that. I want that.

If I could have that, I think I'd know that the Holy Ghost had come. I

believe I would know."

And as soon as I said that, I came right down back into my

body. I realized for a moment where I was. I shifted a little

bit. And I prayed again, "Lord, I want to be filled with the Holy Ghost

and Fire..." And up again I went, floating above my body, looking

down at myself, seeing myself pounding and praying, asking the Lord to give

me the Holy Ghost. Here I was, way up like a bird. Brother,

I didn't have a care in the world. I was just floating and praying.

I looked down and saw my body. I began to hear that

language again. And I said, "Lord, give me that." And back down

into my body I came.

I'm praying again, "Lord, fill me with the Holy Ghost."

He lifted me the third time. And somehow in this I began

to get an understanding, even as a kid. This was me. This

language that I'd been hearing, was coming out of my spirit. God had

placed a language in me by the Holy Ghost.

I remember physically reaching up and touching my lips.

And when I touched my lips, my lips were moving. And I couldn't

stop them. I could feel them moving. And I thought, I don't know

that I'm talking. This was a strange feeling. I don't know that

I'm talking. But my lips are moving.

But what God let me know. I know it sounds strange.

But remember, I wasn't thirty. I was seven. And what God

let me know was, He had filled me with the Holy Ghost. And this

language that I was hearing was coming out of my own mouth the whole time.

But every time I focused on that language, I came back

down. Kind of out of the Spirit. But when I prayed, "God,

give me the Holy Ghost," He'd lift me up again. And then when I heard

the language, I said, "Give me that. I think if I'd get that…"

Over an hour later, when I finally came to myself, my

fingers came up and touched my mouth. When they did, my mouth was

moving. I realized it had been moving all the time for a solid hour.

That language I was asking the Lord for, He'd already given me.

I'd been speaking in tongues. Oh, that felt nice.

I didn't say you had to speak in tongues, but as a

seven-year-old boy, God knew what it was going to take. I heard Bro.

Branham say that God knows what it's going to take to let you know you've

got the Holy Ghost. God knew what it was going to take and that's

the way He gave it to me.

I just started screaming, "I got it! I got it!

I got it! Granny, I got it!" Well, I couldn't find my

granny. The last I remembered, they'd been singing, but now I couldn't

find her. I looked back, and my granny was having a spell back there.

When she came running past me, she yelled, "My baby's got it!"

They carried me out, drunk in the Spirit. Lying

in the back seat of the car, I spoke in tongues all the way home.

Granddaddy said, "I'm worried about him, Mildred. He hasn't come out

of that yet. I want to put him in here." (There were twin beds

in the room.) He said, "I'll stay in one and put him in the other."

All hours of the night, I woke up speaking in tongues. My

granddaddy jumped up and asked, "Oh, are you all right?" When he heard

I wasn't speaking English, he laid back down.

In the morning at breakfast, my granny said, "Do you want

milk or juice or something?" I started to tell her what I wanted, but

out came tongues. My granddaddy said, "Mildred, this young-un's got

the biggest dose of that I ever saw. It's lasted clean through the

night." Boy, I wish my granddaddy could know that it's lasted more

than overnight, for seventeen years. Oh, hallelujah! Brother,

I tell you, I'm more excited about the Holy Ghost tonight than I was in

Pentecost. Now I know that I have more than the gift of the Holy

Ghost. I have the Person of the Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ living inside

of me.

When you have an experience like that, there won't be enough

devils in hell to move you off that. Somebody said, "But I didn't have

any kind of experience." Keep praying, keep believing. I

believe everybody ought to have some kind of experience, some kind of joy,

some kind of something.

Next: Praying at the Altar at 18 Months Old

Back: Commission to be Led by Visions and Dreams

Testimony - Pastor Steven L. Shelley

Commission to be Led by Visions and Dreams

Supernatural Baptism in the Holy Ghost at Age 7

Praying at the Altar at 18 Months Old

As a Small Boy

Divine Visitation at Age 3

Childhood Family Traumas

Beginning His Preaching Ministry at Age 7

Divine Revelation of Malachi 4:5-6

The Healing of a Blind Boy

Commission for "End-Time Message for the Bride"

Testimony of Brother Cleveland

Discovering the Ministry of a Great Man of God

His Evangelist Grandmother Called Home to the Lord

Home |  Contact Us I  About Us

Jerusalem Revival Center. .