When I first began my relationship with God at thirteen, my prayers were mostly centered on my personal concerns. However, as I matured spiritually, I started praying for others. Shortly after my baptism, my mother brought me and my four sisters to a Pentecostal revival meeting that had captured the attention of our small community. These gatherings, organized by an outside church, were known for laying hands on meeting attendees, often resulting in people receiving the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. Stories quickly spread of many young people from our community experiencing this phenomenon.
On the day we attended, my mother explained her reasoning. Since all our friends were going, she wanted us to have the opportunity as well, so we wouldn’t later feel deprived of the chance to speak in tongues. She also shared that, while she didn’t have the gift of speaking in tongues, she was confident the Holy Spirit resided within her since the day she committed her life to Christ. She didn’t feel the need to speak in tongues as proof of the Holy Spirit’s presence. As a teenager, I had only a vague understanding of speaking in tongues and wasn’t particularly eager to attend the meeting.
During the gathering, I witnessed people falling to the ground and speaking in tongues as pastors and deacons prayed over them with the laying on of hands. However, nothing happened to me or my sisters. Although none of my sisters ever spoke in tongues, a few years later, I occasionally began speaking in tongues spontaneously during prayer. It was unsettling because I couldn’t control when it would happen, and I often felt embarrassed.
In my mid-twenties, I drifted away from God and spent nearly two decades in what I would call a spiritual coma. Yet, in His great mercy, God used adversity in my life to draw me back to Him. During this time, I voraciously read the Word of God and learned to pray for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. My prayers expanded to include interceding for the church, praying for the salvation of loved ones and others, the restoration of broken families, and guidance for leaders at all levels. I also prayed for countless other concerns the Holy Spirit brought to my attention.
Perhaps one of the most profound shifts in my prayer life was learning to listen to God rather than just speaking. By being attentive, I began responding obediently to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. This obedience led to acts of service that God had prepared for me even before I was born—helping others and glorifying God in the process. One vivid example occurred when I was living in the Middle East. During an evening prayer, the Holy Spirit prompted me to give a substantial financial gift to one of the men who drove me and my colleagues to work daily. At first, I dismissed the thought, assuming it was my own idea.
However, after returning from a brief trip to the United States, I heard the Holy Spirit again during prayer: “I told you to give that money to [Name], and you didn’t do it. Now I’m giving you a second chance.” This frightened me because, as a woman in that country, approaching a strange man was forbidden. Convinced this was a directive from the Holy Spirit, I bought a greeting card, wrote a kind note thanking the driver, and placed the note along with the money in an envelope. The next morning, I discreetly handed him the envelope as I exited the vehicle. Later that evening, he approached me, visibly emotional, with tears in his eyes to thank me. He explained that his family back home was in dire financial need, and he had been desperate for a solution. Overwhelmed with emotion, when I got home, I cried profusely and repented and asked the Holy Spirit to forgive me for ignoring His initial prompting.
Another time, I received an unusual directive from the Holy Spirit to pray for a patient who had been declared brain dead and was on life support solely for organ donation purposes. It was a busy day, and I felt annoyed each time I had to attend to this patient, given the demands of my other living patients. On my last visit to the patient’s room before the end of my shift, the Holy Spirit instructed me to pray for this patient. I hesitated, arguing, “But God, this person is dead!” Yet, I couldn’t leave the room until I prayed. To this day, I don’t know what came of that prayer, but the experience reminds me of the lyrics from Casting Crowns: “Crazy people trust in Jesus, following Him wherever He leads…”
Even after my long estrangement from God, I found that speaking in tongues occasionally returned during prayer. This often happened when I lacked the words to express myself or felt overwhelmed by a burden. It was as if the Holy Spirit took over, interceding for me until the weight on my soul was lifted.
In recent years, during my private moments with God, I’ve sometimes found myself praying scripture passages without consciously deciding to do so. It feels as though someone is placing the words in my mouth—sometimes scriptures of praise and adoration, other times affirmations of God’s promises. This often happens when I’m abruptly awakened in the early hours of the morning, typically between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. My deepest desire is to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. I long to walk worthy of the Lord, remain faithful in every good work, and continually grow in my understanding of Him, as Colossians 1:9-10 beautifully expresses.
Living Water 