David Diga Hernandez - My Beautiful Encounter with the Holy Spirit

I’ll never forget when I first began to realize that I could know the Holy Spirit as a friend. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. That’s 2 Corinthians 13:14. This is truly a life-altering revelation: the Holy Spirit can share in fellowship with you. As you begin to become aware of and responsive to this friendship, the Holy Spirit’s presence and power start to affect you in tangible and profound ways. Knowing this about the Holy Spirit stirred a godly hunger within me. There was a liveliness that came upon my spiritual life. I had always known there was more, and when I first began to hear about how the Holy Spirit communes with believers, I knew I wanted that. If you desire an encounter with the precious Holy Spirit, welcome the Holy Spirit in the comment section. I was raised in a Christian family; I’m a third-generation preacher and a fourth-generation Christian. Growing up, I knew Jesus socially, historically, and philosophically, but I did not know Him personally. I memorized scripture and sang all the Christian songs, but I didn’t know the Lord for myself. By the time I was 7 years old, I had already begun to become aware of the spiritual battle over my soul. I could feel the conflict between light and darkness clashing around me. Around that same time, I developed a struggle with depression and anxiety that grew worse and worse, peaking in intensity by the time I was only 11 years old. Now, when I talk about depression and anxiety, I don’t just mean a general fear or sadness; I mean torment, demonic torment. I would hear voices, have horrific nightmares, and even speak with demonic entities. I’m not proud to say this, but the fact is that I saw demonic beings. One night, filled with terror, I was lying on a hotel bed during a family trip. We had actually gone to a weeklong Bible conference. My family attended the service while I stayed behind in the room. As I lay on my back staring at the ceiling, I was so gripped by fear that I was shaking and sweating; demons were harassing my mind. When my family returned from the service, I asked my dad if I could speak with him. He sent the rest of the family away, and I told him that I needed to give my life to Jesus. Now, the Bible doesn’t mention the sinner’s prayer, but it does mention sinners who pray. There in that hotel room, my father began to lead me in a prayer. As I started to pray, I could already feel a joy filling my heart to overflow. I could sense the love of God like a thick cloud in the room, like a weight upon my body. Something in me realized that the Jesus I had heard about was walking into this room. I’m about to meet Jesus; I’m really, really about to meet Him. My father had me repeat simple words, but I wasn’t able to; my mouth was trembling as I sobbed, and I could feel the warmth of tears streaming down my face. All I knew in that moment was that I wanted Jesus. The moment I received Him, something happened: I had never felt so loved, so accepted, so at peace. When Jesus walked in, every demon ran out; the torment was gone, the anxiety was gone; all I could do was cry with relief and gratitude. In the years that followed, everything was different. Determined to hold nothing back from Him, I decided to throw myself into His every promise. I immersed myself in total abandonment to His will. My commitment to make Jesus my Lord, Master, Savior, and God was entirely sincere and literal. I was well beyond a superficial claim, and that commitment brought about a complete miraculous transformation in me. This wasn’t just a change of culture, beliefs, or actions; it was truly a change of my very nature. I was recreated anew and born again. I became responsive and alive to God’s voice, and His voice was faithful to guide me. In the days immediately following my born-again experience, God set me up with a series of occurrences that seemed to lead me down a distinct path. It was as if God had made appointments for me. God’s sovereignty and my daily obedience kept me on a very specific narrow course; not a moment was wasted. If God asked me to do something, I did it without delay. If He asked me to believe something, I believed it without reservation. Grateful for the forgiveness of my many sins, I gladly yielded to His gentle guidance. Though I was by no means perfect, I did not wait until later in my Christianity to begin to take it seriously. To follow Christ, by definition, is to be what many would label as radical or extreme. In reality, if you truly begin to follow Jesus, even your days of so-called initiation are marked by the Holy Spirit’s confrontational calls to vanquish all forms of selfishness from the very start. Christ demands the entirety of your world. Unconditional obedience is the key to walking both consistently and precisely in God’s will without fail. Obedience toward God places you in the right moment with the right people under the right circumstances. I found that to be true as my days were filled with divine appointments—various occurrences that were too frequent to be dismissed as coincidences. The Lord directs the steps of the godly; He delights in every detail of their lives. It’s Psalm 37:23. I found myself standing before many mighty men and women of God who imparted spiritual treasures into my life because they possessed such profound spirituality. They were men and women with whom I felt I had no business.