This past year here at Arkansas Tech has been the most memorable of my college career since accepting Christ as a freshman back at my previous school Houston Baptist (HBU). I can’t help but attribute it to the relentless love and presence of my Heavenly Father and the truths he revealed to me through one of his many ministries: Chi Alpha. I was beyond blessed to have been reached out and discipled by both Zayne and Jayden these past two semesters and for the way they demonstrated both the love and patience of God as they taught me about the true power of the Holy Spirit.

To give a brief background, I grew up in a performance driven atmosphere where success was my greatest idol and what I had previously given my life to, along with my emotions and mentality. Once I was presented the Gospel and was shown how success was an everchanging concept that could never be fully obtained and that true life and fulfillment was found only in a relationship with God the Father that was purchased and made possible by the pure and blameless blood of Christ, I surrendered and gave my life to Christ. However, because success had been my number one idol, I didn’t want anything to do with it, and that included the prosperity gospel televangelists who were distorting the gospel in pursuit of this counterfeit source of life. Since these televangelists were preaching the use and power of the Holy Spirit, I stayed as far away from both Pentecostal and Assembly of God beliefs as possible. While I thought this was providing me freedom from my sin, it was merely captivating me in a legalistic cell where I wasn’t able to fully enjoy the Spirit and its full capabilities.

After Jayden and Zayne had pointed me to the scriptures of 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, and related to me real life testimonies about how they had healed people, prophesied, and even casted out demons with the same Spirit, I was truly blown away and curious beyond belief, especially when I realized they weren’t doing it to bolster their spiritual resume, or gain the admiration of others, as these popular televangelists were.

After many conversations with Zayne about the practicality of the Spirit and then further guidance from Jayden concerning the proper stance of humility while unleashing its power, I decided to pray healing upon one of my roommates and teammate, JB. He had been fighting depression for the longest time and was currently injured and not able to take part in the one thing that brought him “joy,” which was the game of football. I had been praying for him and for the Lord to reveal Himself to JB in order to grab hold of his attention and eventually save him not just from the depression, but from the sin that was fueling it, and I had faith that this was the right moment to act. After I had prayed over JB, not only was his leg beginning to heal at a much more rapid pace, but the Lord answered my prayer in a resounding way: JB asked me if I could take him to church on Sunday. Ever since this occurrence, not only has JB continued to talk about his newfound love for the church, but plans to live out his walk with the Lord and reach out to other lost members of the football team. This has been an incredible instance and has fueled me to the point of continuing to truly live by the Spirit in all facets of the phrase, both in adherence and submission to its power and presence by going out and loving God and others.