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One of Our Own: Stephanie Ling
Baptism in the Holy Spirit
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In Feb 2001 I had an experience that I will never forget. I grew up as a Taoist/Buddhist but when I was 15, I became a Christian. I became a zealous conservative evangelical Christian who took part in active evangelism. When I was 19, as the president of an inter-denominational high school Christian Fellowship I felt it was my duty to admonish a speaker for his charismatic teaching.
However a couple of years later after working alongside various pastors I realized that the evangelicals are ill equipped to deal with people requiring healing and deliverance.
This opened me to the Pentecostal experience and for the next 20 years I opened myself to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Even though I longed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and many Christians prayed over me I did not experience it. God did pave the way by letting me observe His work with the formation of FGA Miri. It was full of miracles and I met some amazing leaders there.
In 2000 we migrated to Melbourne and later settled in FGA Melbourne. Twenty years after admonishing the charismatic pastor I met him again. He is none other than Pastor Roland, our Senior Pastor!
A few months after that meeting I responded for prayer at the end of the Sunday Service. I verbally renounced all the skeptical things I had said about the Holy Spirit. Pastor Roland and Allan Khoo prayed for me and suddenly my tongue burst out in a new language. I had always been quite a skeptic on people bursting forth in tongues and laughter. In my mind since God created man with a brain I believed God wants us to use our brains analytically and to the full for His glory. Hence I seldom agreed to anything that falls outside the realm of my mind’s control. Also as a respect for God’s credibility I determine never to ‘aid’ supernatural occurrences i.e. if God wants to give the gift of tongues or any supernatural occurrences then it has to be genuine and not something that I, a mere human, assisted to conjure up.
When Roland and Allan prayed for me my tongue moved by itself to create a new language and I started to feel so at peace and joyful. Suddenly out of my mouth it was not only the new ‘tongues’ or language which flowed but a rippling joyful laughter as well.
I had heard of people being baptized with a new laughter but never desired it. I thought it was probably pretty undignified to be rolling in laughter. People who know me will testify that I am a serious kind of person. Yes, I did ask the Lord for tongues but not for laughter (which in the past I thought was pretty ridiculous). I think God knew that I needed to be less tense and I remember that my heart was so peaceful and happy then when the soft bubbly laughter of joy flowed out together with the new language. Unlike my initial fears, this was not a crazy kind of mad laughter but a rippling gentle, happy and pleasant sound.
As a conservative evangelical we had been taught that we received the Holy Spirit at our conversion. According to that teaching we do not need a second baptism of the Holy Spirit. I had my ‘second experience’ however in 2001.
I would like to highlight some differences that I had observed in the six years of my Spirit-filled life compared to the 20 years of my Christian life prior.
On reflection, I had been less spiritually effective over the past 20 years without the second baptism. In comparison the last 6 years of Spirit filled life have seen me more empowered for service. More miracles (though some may just term these as coincidences) have occurred.
These include salvation of some family members and friends, a notable change in my attitude and some personal miracles.
I thank God for His gift of His Son and of His Holy Spirit the Comforter. I thank God too for Pastor Roland and Allan for being God’s channel of blessings in my life.
Editorial Note:
Stephanie Ling and her family have been a real blessing to FGA Melbourne since they joined us in 2001. Daniel Ling was a cell leader for several years and, though no longer cell leading, now Chairs our Human Resources Committee and is a church Board member. The two older daughters also serve faithfully in FGA - Jenny is Head of the Dance Group and has been a Fungus Cell Leader and Grace is a teacher and Core Leader in the Kids Ministry. Their nephew, Ming Fung (Stuart), who lives with them, is a Cell Leader in the University ministry
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