DEVELOPING THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

DEVELOPING THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
All what we need to do, is desire the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, invite Him to flood us with His Holy presence and He will come in, New King James Version (NKJV) 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. My prayer at that time was about getting His gifts; because that was my hearts desire to be able to minister with the power of His Spirit. But when He comes in, He brings the whole package with Him, when He fills us with His presence the gifts just come up naturally.
GIFT OF TONGUES AND INTERPRETATION OF TONGUES.
As I said before, coming to this group it was challenging, I did not how to pray in English, I didn’t know the lyrics of most of the songs but I like them. One day while taking a shower I was humming one of those songs partly singing, partly just humming it, all of a sudden the singing in tongues started to flow, I thank my God for this Gift and continue to used, eventually interpretation develop as well.
WORDS OF KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM
After that Seminar, I continued praying for people, my Leader was always encouraging me to do it and I took every opportunity to pray for people. I remember one Sunday after our prayer meeting a Lady by the name of Therese Ierullo who came to visit our group asked Sister Merle to pray for her, she couldn’t do it as she had to rush to the office in order to speak with our Pastor, so she asked me to pray for this lady, I accept it, invite Therese to sit in a chair and another lady was helping me to pray. As soon as I started to pray I “saw” a golden cushion and a kitchen knife on top of it, so I decided to share with the lady what I was seen, She looked at me, paused and said tell me more, I replied, that’s all, you tell me what that means to you. Her face turned sad, tears felt down from her eyes and shared that she and her daughter have had a heated arguing and her daughter menace her to use that knife to kill herself. We prayed into it, also we prayed for her health she had some type of cancer. We became good friends, she would call me from time to time to share her things and pray together, from time to time she will come to our group and I’ll pray for her, couple of year it was her time to meet the Lord. I can clearly remember this episode as that was my very first Word of knowledge.
DISCERNING OF SPIRITS, COUNSEL AND ENCOURAGEMENT
At that time, Inner Healing started to call my attention; Father Robert De Grandis books on that subject guide me to venture into this area. Deliverance was hand on hand with this ministry. I stepped into this area with my faith on Mark 16:17-18, also strengthened with the authority that Jesus gave to His disciples in Matthew 10:1 (Amplified Bible) 1AND JESUS summoned to Him His twelve disciples and gave them power and authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out, and to cure all kinds of disease and all kinds of weakness and infirmity. The favor of the Lord was always helping us and healings started to take place.
PROPHECY, TEACHING AND PREACHING
I started to have dreams of preaching and ministering to people. In a moment of prayer I got a vision of myself receiving in my hands a Double Silvered Edged Sword, I interpreted that the lord was giving me understanding of His word, I shared my vision with Sister Merle and she discerned that the Lord was giving me the gift of preaching. I started to preach as I was walking or as I was at home I’ll do it as if I was preaching to people. I would see myself doing things and ministering to people, later on, on Conferences or in the TV Christian programs would see Ministers doing the same things that I saw myself doing. That was very encouraging to me as I understood I was seeing what the Lord wanted me to do. Sister Merle the Guzman our Leader and Sister Minda Pillien our Assistant Leader were a good example for me on how to teach and how to lead the group meetings. Sister Tony Dizon, Denny Galivo and Lina Yanez, were good example of how to pray and how to be a servant. They all put their gifting into my Spirit. In 1994 I have become Worship Leader and Eventually Leader of the Group. Our group has expanded and Sister Merle De Guzman as a good Leader has trained others to become leaders as herself, I was one of them, Sister Prosy Labbo was another one, she became Leader of the Charismatic Prayer Group at her Church. Brother Patrick who was Leader with me was another who came out of this group. Lucy Chu was involved in her own ministry with the Chinese community. As a Leader at of my group I changed a little bit the direction of the group and in every meeting I would preach the word of God and make altar calls for visitors to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, deliverances started to happen in a natural way. Sister Prosy Labbo and Sister Tony Dizon where giving me opportunities to minister in other groups. The prophetic started to have shape and my gifts of teaching and preaching were being used in our community.

My First Steps

My First Steps
It was Fall 1991; I had just accepted the invitation of one of my friends to go for Sunday Mass at Saint Peter’s Roman Catholic Church. I haven’t been in a Church for the last 10 years or so and I thought it might be a good idea to go and see if there is something different going on, besides, that will help me to know some people. The mass was in the afternoon and was celebrated in Spanish. To be honest with you, I didn’t like the way of preaching of the Pastor, anyhow, I continued to come from time to time, then I decided to Try the English Mass, I felt a bit better there, as some how I felt challenged to learn the responses of the ceremony in English. By December I was going to church in a weekly basis and I was interested in volunteering in something in the church. I liked the two priests there, the Senior Pastor Father Mark Shea and the Assistant Pastor Father Ernest De Gigio, they were friendly and I liked them both. I have decided to participate in the sacraments of the Catholic Church, the sacrament of Penitence, which are the confessions of sins to the Confessor of turn (a priest) and then participating in the Holy Communion at the end of the Mass.A struggle started within me as I continue to do things that I knew where not supposed to do. Both priests encouraged me to keep coming to church and get involved in some activity in church, so I could get involved in good activities and somehow get rid of my problems.So I chose to join the Lectors group in the Spanish Community, as that could be done during Mass on Sundays, but as I was not member of any other group, and that was a requirement, I could not be a member of the Lectors group. Then the only other group that I could try was the Spanish Charismatic Prayer Group, as it was held on Fridays evenings at 8 pm. I would arrive a bit late because my weekly work finished at 8pm, but I decided to try it anyways. I didn’t have any idea what this group was about, so I was going not expecting much.I arrived for my first meeting when the worship was already on, I liked the songs, they were happy songs and people were clapping and swinging their bodies following the music compass. When the quiet time came I felt a nice sensation of peace, but what really struck me that night was the way in which people, specially some ladies, were praying and addressing God as Papa or father, the name of Jesus was Praised and invocations to the Holy Spirit where made. I never have experienced something like that before, there was spontaneity on what people were doing and that was something that I haven’t see it in the traditional celebrations of the mass. At some point during the meeting I was introduced to the presents and invited to keep coming, at the end, they prayed for me and the service was over. I did certainly like this experience and I promised myself to come again and see this people.I kept coming and I really like it. I didn’t realize when, but God had already kindled in my heart a desire to come closer to him.At this point of time, it was the turn for Saint Peter Spanish Charismatic group to host a Healing Mass, many communities came and I could sense the level of faith on people rose up, there were prayers for the sick at the end of the mass and the response was massive. There, somehow I started to think God is really interested in His people.
I believe another reason to keep coming to the prayer group meetings were the readings and shared comments on the Word of God. That was a challenge to my knowledge; I started to read the bible and try to understand it. Again, there was a Weekend Seminar in the Church organized by the Charismatic Renewal, at some point in this seminar they prayed over me to be filled with the Holy Spirit, I did not sense anything special, but I was already on the road to meet my Lord.

In 1992 I was attracted by a Bible Study Group that was starting in our church; it was conducted in English in The Lord Is My Sheppard Charismatic Prayer Group. Sister Merle De Guzman was the Teacher and Leader of the group, I like the atmosphere and I decided to join that group. Later on There was a Life in the Spirit Seminar, there I was initiated in the Charismatic gifts and started to serve in the group as an utility member, the Word of Knowledge and “Visions” started to flow. By this time I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior and I was glued to the bible. I was eagerly waiting for our weekly meetings in our Charismatic Group. I just wanted to be as gifted as my leader was.
The passage of the bible Mark 16: 15-19 had wake up in me a desire to live this passage taking the word for its real value.
Mark 16:15-19 (New International Version Enphasis Added)
15He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."
19After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.
TV programs of Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, John Hagee and Glory to God Ministries were capturing my attention. Conferences, Rallies, Seminars, Healing Masses, Christian Books, etc where a constant nurture for the hunger and thirst of knowing more of the power of God.
It was Fall again and while ministering in the “Out of the Cold” program that our church has just joined in, I met a very fine and active Senior Lady, Gloria. She started to take me wherever an anointed foreign speaker was preaching or celebrating mass, so they could lay their hands and pray over me. I truly believe in impartation, and know the Lord used every single one of them to impart in me the gifting they have. This was the time when I started to lay my hands on people and start praying for them. My daily cry to the Lord was: Fill me with your Spirit; I want all of your gifts!
Baptism In The Holy Spirit
The calendar showed December, a new “Life in the Spirit Seminar” was starting next week. I was working as a Day Porter In “The Cooperators” Building on Yonge Street north of the Evangel Temple. It was Tuesday, 10am, my break time, It just stopped snowing and I went out to my favorite place in the back yard to sit on a stone bench and pray, I was singing in tongues. Then, it happened, all of a sudden the Holy Spirit felt on me, I started to tremble, then to shake violently, I could feel the muscles of my face and my lips twitching, and a thought cross my mind: “YOU REALLY EXIST!” Some incontrollable shouting came out of my mouth. The manifestation lasted maybe for 10 seconds, when it was over I felt a numbness in my left side, specially my left arm and in lesser extend my left leg. It surprised me, honestly I never had expect anything like this, nor have I heard anyone saying something about it. That night, I shared the experience via phone with one of the Leaders in our group, Sister Tony Dizon; I just had to share with someone this magnificent experience. Sunday came, First day of the Seminar. Our Leader Sister Merle De Guzman could not come as a sudden change of schedule in her work kept her away of coming to inaugurate the Seminar. The Speaker of the day was Sister Theresa Kitchen, Sister Minda Pillien took control of the meeting and literally forced me to lay hands and pray for some of the members before the meeting. At the end of the meeting, Sister Tony Dizon asked me to pray for here, so I was praying over her with my eyes closed, all of a sudden I hear a “plop”, I opened my eyes and I saw Sister Tony sitting on the floor, we knew what had happened, the power of the Holy Spirit was starting to be manifested. Somehow Sister Minda knew that our Leader would not able to come the next Sunday either, so I was delegated to be the speaker the coming week, the subject was “The Gifts of the Holy Spirit.”