“Looking back over the course of the last 8 years, I knew there had to be more. I went to non-denominational churches, methodist churches, baptist churches, at one point I was even considering joining the catholic church down the road. Every single one of these churches I went to, I knew they were missing something. The substance of each message was surface level, they hardly got into the Word, almost felt like a show. Everything else about them was lackluster. Each felt uncomfortable, like you were sitting in the waiting room of a doctor's office. I’m not knocking on these places, there are great people there, and I wouldn't be the man I am today, or where I am today if I never were a part of those bodies. But the common thing they each lacked was the Holy Spirit. Each of these places had the Holy Spirit boxed up on a shelf in their garage somewhere. You can't do that. The Holy Spirit is alive and moving today! Praise God!

Months before being baptized in the Holy Spirit, I was leading a small group within the college ministry of a local southern baptist church, leading people to Christ. Which is crazy because I really didn't know much about God. I literally had no relationship with Him. After the school year ended, I felt spiritually dead, I had been feeling so for months leading up to this. Because I had no relationship with the Holy Spirit, and everything about the church I was a part of felt stale, routine, and legalistic. So I quit going to church. About a month after this, a great buddy of mine invited me to Church of SC. So a roommate and I went and it changed the course of my life forever. My roommate was baptized in the Holy Spirit right next to me during worship, and he shared this corporately after worship. I had no idea what this meant at the time, I really don't know what I thought had happened. After the service, Don Wirt came up to me and asked if that was me who had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. I looked at him like he was crazy and said something along the lines of “What? Nah dude, I was baptized like ten years ago.” Then I talked to Paul briefly about this encounter and what all had happened and it sparked a fire within me. I had to figure out what these people were talking about. (A week and a half after this day, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit.) For a week I was in the Word and Secret Place like never before. I was reading articles, talking to people, in the Word, doing literally everything I could to figure out what this was, and why I had never heard about it. After about a week I knew in essence what baptism of the Holy Spirit was, and the difference between that and baptism in the name of Jesus (water baptism). Only issue was, I had no idea how to receive it. While this was going on there were a series of worship nights held at a buddy’s house every Thursday night, for about a month. There were only three of said worship nights. I’m fully convinced God orchestrated these worship nights so that I may come to know him deeper and more intimately. How sweet is God. Anyways, during the week leading up to this I was begging God to be baptized in His Holy Spirit. I had no idea how to receive this Gift. Then to my rescue, came the Holy Spirit! Praise God! It was a beautiful night of worship. There were about 15 of us there lifting up the name of the Lord and it was so precious. As the night began to wind down Donovan had a number of words for people, he shared them with people and we all prayed over them and everything else. Then out of nowhere, he said “Somebody here wants to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.” I was baffled. I thought to myself  “It's me, I want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. How does he know this? Then after what he had said sat for a moment, I knew he knew it was me that wanted to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I continued to sit there thinking “He knows it's me, he's about to ask me.” As soon as I got done thinking that, Donovan asked “Carson, is it you?” Man I hardly knew this guy, How could he know this? Of course I said yes. And that was it, people began to gather around me laying hands on me, praying in english and tongues, baptizing me in the Holy Spirit. It was beautiful. I felt the Holy Spirit like never before. It felt like I was standing under a fierce waterfall. All the while, inside my body I felt a warm pulsing electric feeling starting in my heart and radiating out in continuous and overlapping waves all the way out to my fingertips and toes. It was similar to that feeling you get when our foot falls asleep, but warm and fuzzy. What an awesome experience that was. Next day I was praying in tongues. I tried to in the moment at the worship night. I literally sat there with my tongues sticking out, looking like a lunatic, thinking the Holy Spirit was going to take hold of my tongue and go crazy with it. Not realizing that I was given utterance to pray in tongues, just as I was given utterance to speak in understanding (English, Acts 2:4). My spirit did a flip when I prayed in tongues for the first time. The devil tried to convince me I was speaking gibberish/not doing it right, but the third time I tried to speak in tongues, Holy Spirit in me made it known I had actually done it. What a beautiful gift that is.

Since being baptized in the Holy Spirit, I am walking in deeper knowledge and understanding of God. I have a vibrant, fruitful and intimate relationship with Christ, and fellowship with Him daily. The scales in front of my eyes literally fell away. I read the Bible with understanding, and my mind seems to be renewed almost daily. I think that might be the coolest thing I've noticed since being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Prior, whenever I did read my bible, I could never understand what I was reading. Now whenever I read, I'll read the same scripture I had in the past, but now I actually understand it. It's crazy, like the words on the page jump out at me. Prior to being baptized in the Holy Spirit, I never heard of the Holy Spirit working through people. Obviously heard of the Holy Spirit working, but never heard accounts of signs and wonders like Jesus himself, and the apostles did. I’ve gone from never hearing of miracles worked by the Holy Spirit through the hands of man, to seeing miracles worked through the hands of man by the Holy Spirit in my everyday life. I've seen demons cast out, deaf ears opened, broken hands healed, broken feet healed, some of which through my own hands! Praise God, all glory unto Him! I encourage you to seek out this truth if you haven't already because it will change your life forever. You will literally never be the same.”

— Carson Mosteller