Standing Strong in His Grace

I always see a flower before it blooms.                               Richard T Hicks 2020 I was not always like that.  Why and exactly how in the world did my perspective change over the years? I used to be completely opposite.  I was a Norman Negative and Pessimistic Peter. You name it, I was it. I seen the glass half empty never half full. I was a constant worrier about the future and lived in the past. It was as if everyday was a drudgery.   All I could see before me as all my mistakes I had made in my life. All I seen in the mirror was one big mistake. It is as if I lived mistake after mistake. I felt like a scratched up record that could not be fixed.   Before I fell asleep at night not only did my mind replay the negative from that day but it was like it domino'ed a past of bad negative choices I had made in life surfaced....  I wanted to die but was afraid to...  It would keep me up for hours tormenting my mind..... I don't really think I am the only

When I was 18 I had a salvation experience one Sunday night on a jog around the block where we lived. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Holy Spirit had a hand in that experience...no doubt about it. My soul was touched and saved from the strong grip of the devil. My mind was very troubled and tormented as a teenager. I had experienced deliverance for the very first time. But what happened the next night was just as important to me. My friend Anna took me to see her pastor who opened up the scriptures to me about the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. I was so like a sponge on that night I soaked the word in as the Holy Spirit ministered through that Assembly of God pastor. As they prayed over me that night, I received the gift of a heavenly language from the Father in Heaven. I don't know it all and I know everyone's beliefs are different. But what I do know is this, I experienced it that night and I grew up a Baptist. It