Jill
Jill
“
As the Bible says, “The joy of the Lord is our strength.”
My name is Jill and I was born into a Christian home. That is, my Mum and Dad believed in Jesus and He was important in their lives.
When I was quite young, I asked Jesus into my life and became a follower of Jesus. As I grew older, I have had times when God challenged me to renew my commitment to Him.
I married; and my husband, Andrew, was also a follower of Jesus.
Let me tell you about a time when I was in my late twenties. By this time, we had two young children and had recently moved to Cardiff. We started to go to a new independent church. People in this church seemed a little different from what I was used to. The only way I can explain it is that they spoke as if Jesus was their friend and they expected Him to answer their prayers, and He often did. After a little while Andrew and I chatted to our church leaders and had many questions about the Holy Spirit. One of our church leaders spent some time with us explaining how he understood what the Bible taught about the Holy Spirit.
That summer we booked to go to a Christian festival called Spring Harvest, along with many from our church. At one of the evening celebrations. we both decided to go forward for prayer. The person prayed that the Holy Spirit would fill us. I felt a wonderful warmth and joy. That was on the Friday evening and the holiday finished on the Saturday.
The next morning, we went to our church and one of our friends, Pete, was welcoming at the door. As soon as he saw Andrew and I, he asked “What is different about you two today?” Andrew told him we had just come back from Spring Harvest and had been prayed for, to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Pete then invited us around to their home for a meal to learn more about what God had done.
God is good. We have learned that God’s Holy Spirit is always there at conversion, but we need to continually ask Him to fill our lives. This is how we live a joyful life. As the Bible says, “The joy of the Lord is our strength.”
Since that time, life has not always been easy and we have been through some tough times, but Jesus has always been with us. We now regularly pray for the Holy Spirit to fill and lead us – and He does!!