A Fresh Touch of Fire

By Abigail Hamsher on September 4th, 2020

My walk with God really started when I was 13, when I got baptized by the Holy Spirit. Since then I have struggled and gone through low points with the Lord. It really wasn’t until January 2020, when I got invited to a Jesus Image night in Orlando, that my life was really impacted.

Here is a snapshot of what happened that night when I had an encounter with Jesus. So, it started out like this. We had almost finished our two and a half hour drive, had just pulled up to a stop light to turn in to the event, when Brittany said we needed to lay hands on Jessica. So, we lay hands on Jess and the Holy Spirit immediately floods the car. Jess starts crying, I’m speaking in tongues, Deanna’s praying, and all of this goes on until we find a parking spot. A few minutes later we are walking int to the Jesus Image ministry building. I’m already feeling the Holy Spirit all over the building. We find our way to our seats and the band begins playing. All I can say is that worship was amazing; best ever like tongue speaking, jumping, feeling the Holy Spirit in the room, worship.

Finally, the pastor comes up and says it’s time for baptism, and at least 20 people introduce themselves. While they were getting baptized, every person who came out of the water I could see the Holy Spirit on them. Then the pastor came up again, and told us to grab hands with our neighbor and pray for them. I grabbed Jessica and Deanna’s hands and started to pray. Not even five seconds into my prayer and I was overcome with the Holy Spirit. Heart rending, crying, and sobbing I’m overcome by the His amazing Presence. Like, He was right there with me. While Deanna was praying for me she started to call out “fear and anxiety”, and telling them to be gone.

Fast forward to later that night when we were in the car ride home, it’s about 11:30ish, and again Brittany tells us we need to pray. So, we started to pray, and listen to worship music. We then started to lay hands on Jess again. While this is happening, Jessica is getting wrecked, we start calling out doubt. This goes on for at least an hour. Around 12:30am with Deanna still holding my hand, I start crying again. Brittany’s telling me how she sees me having visions, dreams and interpretations. Me and Kylie are holding hands too and she is literally shaking. Mind you, she is only nine years old and we are all speaking in tongues. At that moment we take a rest and drive through Tampa and we pray for over the city.

After our break we start praying for Jess and she is having a breakthrough and then we start praying for Kylie who starts to speak in tongues and hears God whisper in her ear!! She starts to hear the Hebrew alphabet, and then Deanna starts to feel warmth all over her body, she even casts a few demons that she sees in the car. Overall, it was an indescribable night and I thank the Lord I got to experience it!! It was an Encounter like I’ve never had, and I know I’ll never forget it. The experience didn’t end there though, because ever since then I’ve noticed a change in my relationship with the Lord. That one encounter has led me to the path that I’m on now.

After going to Jesus Image, I started to have a more in depth relationship with the Lord, but I would still feel stuck from time to time. Like I was in a bind with my life, and I had no idea what to do, or if I should go back to college. Fast forward to April, when everything is happening with COVID, and a friend encourages me to look into the Jesus School. That maybe I should attend for the coming fall. This really stopped me in my tracks.

I started to pray about it and realized what better way to find out what to do with my life then to spend 8 months at Jesus’s feet, right? Well it wasn’t as simple as just attending the school, I had to go through the application process. But I really felt like I should apply, so after a long application process and an interview I got a call that I was accepted!! I then started to realize what this meant. That I would have to move to Orlando and boy was that going to be hard, with leaving my family, finding a roommate, and paying tuition. But through the process, God had a plan. He always does. 😊 After finding a great roommate and having enough money to pay for tuition I am now moving to Orlando and have never felt more peace in my decisions, especially knowing this is where God is taking me.

Throughout this past year and season, I really felt like God was telling me to trust him and have peace. This is something that is not easy at all especially for a person like me who has to have everything planned out, even years in advance. Haha. What has really helped me is the scripture 2 Timothy 1:7 (TPT) “For God does not give you the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit who gives you mighty power, love, and self control.” These last few months I’ve really had to lean on the Holy Spirit to guide me and remind me to trust the Lord. I encourage you to read that scripture and remind yourself to trust the Lord, and don’t fear the encounter.

Abigail Hamsher