©2006 Charles Darby
Many years ago, while I was still in my middle teens, my Mother asked me to go, with her, to a tent meeting that was in town. She said there was a girl attending I should meet. I knew that was just an excuse to get me to go to the meeting! She was praying for me to be saved.
Well I didn't expect this girl to be one I would like. I didn't think Mother knew the kind of girl I wanted. At that age I didn't think anyone knew what I wanted! I was wrapped up in myself.
Well I was very wrong! The first time I met that girl I thought she was stuck up and wrapped up in her self! Also I decided, very soon, she was the girl I wanted to marry. She was dating someone else and had even promised to marry him. I knew she didn't want him, she wanted me! I soon convinced her of that. We have now been married fifty-seven years, praise the Lord!
When I met her I didn't ask someone to tell me about her. I wanted to find out for myself. I didn't ask someone to tell me what she liked; I wanted to date her and find out for myself. We have grown together over the years, not apart.
The last day of January 1970 our youngest daughter, Deborah Ann, was in a fatal car accident. She lived fifteen days in the intensive care unit of a local hospital. During that time I turned whole heartily to the Lord. I had played church a while before this and never found peace in my inter man. This time I knew there had to be more, to the Lord, than I had. I sought Him with my whole heart.
First I asked Him to forgive me for the way I had lived and give me His ability to live the way He wanted me to live. I said “If You will come into my heart and show me what You want and give me the ability, in You, to do it I will.
I didn't want someone to tell me about the Lord, I wanted to know Him for my self. I didn't want to just know about Him; I wanted to know Him. I began to fast and pray and read the Bible as much as possible. I said to Him, “If you will show me what You desire of me I will lay aside every thing I have learned about You and do Your will”. I wanted a living relationship with the Lord.
Later I found, in the word, that's what He wants from all of His children. I would read the Bible and find something that was for me and if I didn't have that in my life I would ask for and receive it.
After I had received Christ into my life I still had a real problem with some of the things I did before I received Christ. I was afraid to be around others in the church because I was afraid a curse word would slip out or I would do or say something that was not Christ-like. I knew I needed more if I was to live a life pleasing to the Lord.
As I sought the Lord and read the Bible, one of the first things I discovered was that there was a baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire that would thoroughly purge His floor. I knew I didn't have this! (I had already been baptized in water.) I began to fast and pray to receive this baptism. I felt like I had to have it. It was on my mind day and night.
Luke 3:16-17 John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.
After several days I received this baptism, with the evidence those in the book of Acts had. From that point on the fear of saying or doing something that was not Christ-like left me, praise the Lord! May I tell you that after a while I was disappointed? I thought that now I would be on “cloud nine” and never be tempted again. Boy was I wrong! I thought I didn't receive the right thing! I would seek the Lord and say, “I didn't want a substitute I wanted the real thing”. I would go over the scriptures where others received and say, “that's what I wanted”.
One night, in prayer, I was assured that I had received the Holy Ghost. That night I told the Lord that I would never again doubt that I had received the Holy Ghost. I also knew that I was just a babe in Christ and needed to learn and be led by the Holy Ghost. I asked Him to take me by the hand and lead me. That night is when my spiritual growth really began. During this time is when I experienced real peace in my heart for the first time. This is what I had been looking for all my adult life.
I didn't say all the above for anyone to get their eyes on me. I am just pointing out there is more in Christ than a “hope so” relationship. There is an ongoing fellowship with the living Lord Jesus Christ. In Him we live and move and have our very being. He is the vine and we a branch.
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