The man that prayed me through!

Today I got word that one of my former Pastors that helped me in the early beginnings of my salvation experience, passed away. His name was Joe Barnes and he pastored First Assembly of God church in Huntsville, Texas for many years. I was attending Sam Houston State University in 1979 when I met the Lord Jesus Christ. During that time of my college life, I began attending Chi Alpha which was a student run ministry on campus. My friend (Tim Kroon) and I went because we were hungry for God. Previous to our experiences with Christ, we hard tried the things of the world and all that comes with it and we knew there was something better.

I remember a time he and I went out to a cemetery where a year prior to this, we would go because we heard their where Satanic sacrifices or rituals going on and we wanted to crash the party, not knowing really what we where going to encounter. We never really saw the party nor the sacrifices, but at least got to say we went to explore. So we're going out to the cemetery now to seek God. We knew it was definitely a quiet place, so we parked my truck, got into the back and began to pray, until we began to hear noises and became very distracted. Finally as we where praying we saw a line of car lights coming from deep inside the cemetery and we'd had enough. We jumped into the truck, sped off like crazy men. Maybe there was something going on in that place, but now with our life changed we didn't want any part of it. So we made our way back to First Assembly in Huntsville, it was late at night so we drove to the back of the church thinking we could find a quiet, but safe place to pray without distractions, but that wouldn't work either. Seemed like every time the wind blew and the trees waved their branches, we got side tracked and couldn't concentrate on the reason for why we were there. You see, we were praying to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. We had heard about it, saw others receive it, saw the results of lives changed by it, and now we wanted it for ourselves. Our motto was "if God's got it and wants us to have it, we wanted it". Needless to say, nothing supernatural happen that night to either one of us.

Several weeks later, a brother in the Lord, a student leader in our Chi Alpha group was teaching about the Holy Spirit. There was about (seemed like 60 people) crammed into a double wide mobile home that was on the back side of the church, sitting and learning more about the things of God concerning the Holy Spirit. I made a decision that night. I was not leaving that building until I had received the gift of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as mentioned in Acts 2, 1 Corinthians 12-14, and other areas of the bible. After the meeting the leaders asked if there was any that wanted to pray and tarry for the baptism, and immediately my hand went up. There were about 6 of us, so they took us inside the church, and it just so happened that Pastor Barnes was there that evening taking care of some routine church duties, so he came in to pray with us. He talked to us briefly about receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, and I remember kneeling down at that old altar and praying, trying my best to figure out what was happening or what was to happen. It seemed like hours, but really just a few minutes. Brother Barnes was on one side of the altar and I was on the other. He began to speak in a heavenly language that I could not understand nor tried to, and just minutes later God consumed my life with His presence and filled me with the Holy Spirit and gave me a prayer language of my own. What a day of rejoicing that was. God's gift freely given to any believer willing to accept it by faith and allow its operation in their life. I am indebted to three men that have had an impact on my life. Pastor James McKeehan of Lindale Assembly of God-Houston, Texas, Pastor Joe Barnes of First Assembly of God-Huntsville, Texas, and Pastor Lloyd Maddoux of First Assembly of God-Conroe, Texas. Pastor McKeehan and Pastor Barnes are both now with the Lord. They were men of God that I admired greatly. If I can do for someone just a small portion of what these men have done for me, I will have accomplished much for the Kingdom of God. Brother Barnes, thank you for being the man "that prayed me through".