My Testimony – by Sharon Ingram
I was raised in the Baptist church and became an active member of that church. From the time I was a baby, I never missed a Sunday morning service. My parents always thought that going to church once a week was enough, so there were no Sunday night or Wednesday night services for us.
When I was about 12 years old, a situation came up that was bad enough to make me realize on my own that the only way out of the situation would be through prayer. I didn’t know how to really pray. Up to that time, the only person I had ever heard pray was a neighbor lady—who was Pentecostal! She prayed every night before she went to bed.
I asked my mother how to pray, and she told me she didn’t know how. I asked the pastor of the church to teach me to pray. He did try, but said, “Repeat after me…” and began reciting a prayer like he had read out of a book somewhere—which I knew was not going to do me any good. So, I decided to try to pray like my neighbor prayed every night. I didn’t know very much about “the Sinner’s Prayer,” but I did know that “the Sinner’s Prayer” was not the only prayer that God hears from a sinner. I was a little 12-year-old girl who didn’t know I was a sinner, who prayed every night for God’s protection from my situation.
God not only taught me how to pray and delivered me from that situation, He eventually sent me to a Pentecostal church so that I could know more about Him and His truth. He also gave me a Pentecostal husband who helped me in my walk with God.
And then, on September 17, 1970, I personally experienced the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit of God gives the ability. What a difference prayer makes!
