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This is from chapter 4, pages 31-38 of “Prison To Praise” copyright 1970. The book was written by Chaplain (LTC) Merlin R. Carothers and tells of his conversion after leaving the U.S. Army, his college training and entrance back into the Service as a Chaplain, and then his ministry for several years. Chapter 4 tells about how he heard of and received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

For some time I’d been going to a small weekly prayer group near Fort Bragg. One evening, Ruth, a member of the group was visibly moved during a prayer session. I’d watched her during several meetings and often thought I’d like to ask her how she had come to experience such obvious joy in her life. Unlike some of the rest of us, she seemed to be filled continuously with a joy I certainly had felt only on rare occasions in my life.

This particular evening Ruth confided in me, “I was so blessed I almost prayed out loud in tongues.”

“You almost what?” I was horrified.

“Prayed in tongues, “Ruth said brightly.

I lowered my voice and looked around to see if we were being watched. “Ruth, you could have ruined our group! What has come over you?”

Ruth laughed heartily. ”I’ve been praying in tongues ever since I received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.”

“What is that?” I’d never herd the term before.

Ruth patiently explained that it was the same experience that the disciples had at Pentecost. “I experienced my own Pentecost, she smiled with unmistakable radiance.

“I thought you were Baptist,” I felt shaken.

“I am, but God is moving in all denominations.”...

I put my hand on her arm. “Be careful, Ruth,” I said earnestly, “You’re playing with dangerous stuff. I’ll be praying for you, and if you need help, call me.”

Ruth smiled and patted my hand, “Thank you, Merlin, I appreciate your concern.”

Some time later she called me.

Ruth later called Merlin and invited him to come to a retreat. Other calls followed reminding him to bring his golf golf clubs and letting him know that all his expenses would be paid for him and another minister if he wanted to bring a friend. He and a Presbyterian minister named Dick went.

The story continues,

The services were unlike anything we’d ever attended before. People sang with uninhibited joy, clapped their hands and actually raised their arms while they were singing.

Both Dick and I felt very much out of place, but agreed there was a joy here that we could learn something from.

One ...lady kept coming up to us and saying, “Has anything happened yet?”

“No, ma’am, what do you mean?” we’d answer.

“You’ll see, you’ll see,” she always said.

Ruth and some of the others who had invited us urged me to have a private talk with a certain lady who they said had unusual power.

They took us to meet her, and I instantly disliked her She quoted scripture in a way that made me feel as if she was trying to convert me. I didn’t like to have scripture quoted to me, and especially by a woman.

Still, our friends insisted that we have a talk with her, and since they’d paid our way there, I felt ie we ought to oblige.

We sat patiently as she told us what God had done in her life and in the lives of others that she knew. She made numerous references to the “Baptism in the Holy Spirit,” and went through the Scriptures to show that the experience had been a common one for Christians in the first century.

“The Holy Spirit is still doing the same thing in many people’s lives today,” she said. “Jesus Christ still baptizes those who believe in Him, just as He did at Pentecost.”

I felt a twinge of excitement. Could it be that I could experience my own Pentecost? Could I see tongues of fire, hear the rush of wind, and speak in an unknown tongue?

She had finished talking and sat looking at us.

 I’d like to pray for you,’” she said softly. “That you might receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.”

Without hesitating I said, “Yes.”

She placed her hands on my head and began to pray softly. I waited for “it” to hit me. Nothing happened. I didn’t feel a thing.

She went on and placed her hands on Dick’s head. When she had finished praying I looked at him and he looked at me. I could tell he hadn’t felt anything either. This whole thing was a fake.

The lady looked at us both with a hint of a smile.

“You haven’t felt anything yet, have you?”

We shook our heads. “No, ma’am.”

“I’m going to pray for you in a language you will not understand. As I pray you will receive a new language of your own.”

Again she placed her hands on my head. I felt nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing. When she was through praying she asked if I could hear or sense any words within me that I didn’t understand. I thought for a moment and realized that there were in my mind words that didn’t mean anything to me. I felt certain that these words were a product of my own imagination, and I told her so.

“If you said them out loud, would you feel as if you were being made a fool of?” she asked.

“I certainly would.”

“Would you be willing t be a fool for Christ’s sake?” This put the whole situation in a different. perspective. Of course I’d do anything for Christ, but speaking out loud such utter nonsense could mean disaster for my future. I could imagine all those people going around telling everyone that a Methodist chaplain had been praying in an unknown tongue. I might even have to leave the Army! Still, what if this was what Christ wanted me to do? Suddenly even my army career seemed less important. Haltingly I began to speak out loud the words that were forming in my mouth.

Still I felt nothing different. I did believe that Jesus Christ had given me a new tongue as a sign that He had baptized me in the Holy Spirit, yet the disciples at Pentecost had acted like drunk men. Obviously they had been overwhelmed by some feeling.

I watched Dick; his experience seemed to be the same as mine. He spoke words of an unknown tongue and believed in the validity of it, yet displayed no emotional reaction.

 ”Your experience is based on faith in a fact, not on feeling,” said the lady, apparently reading our minds.

I sat in deep thought --I didn’t feel any different, but was I different? I looked up; an amazing realization had just hit me.

“I know that Jesus Christ is alive!” I said. ”I don’t just believe, I KNOW!”

Why of course! The Holy Spirit brings witness of Jesus Christ says the Bible. Now I knew that to be a fact. That was the source of the new authority the disciples after Pentecost. They didn’t remember a man who had lived and died and risen again. They knew Him in the present tense because He had filled them with His Holy Spirit whose primary purpose is to witness to Jesus Christ!

In a flash I understood the horror of what I’d been guilty of for the last several years. Not only I, scores of so-called Christians in pulpits and in pews who dilute the message of the Cross and the central position of Christ.

Even as I saw the magnitude of my sin, I also saw Jesus Christ in all His splendor as my redeemer. I saw Him for what I’d always known deep in my heart that He was. All my recent nagging doubts were swept away by a wave of joyous certainty....

“Thank you, Jesus!” I stood up, and as I reached my full height, something hit me! I was suddenly filled and overflowing with a feeling of warmth nd love for everybody in the room.

It must have hit Dick at the same time. I saw the tears well up in his eyes, and without a word we reached out and gave each other a bear hug, laughing and crying at the same time.

I looked at the dear lady I had resented so fiercely just a short while ago, and realized that I loved her. She was my sister in Christ!

We went downstairs for lunch and I felt an overwhelming love for everyone I saw. I had never known anything like it before.

That evening Dick and I began to pray in one of the the rooms. People came to join us and soon the room was full. As we prayed others were filled with the Holy Spirit. The hotel rang with shouts of joy as people experienced the fullness of Christ’s presence.

At 2:00 a.m. Dick and I tried to go to sleep. It was no use, we were too excited.

I said, “Dick, let’s get up and pray some more.” We prayed for another two hours for everyone we knew and then praised God for His goodness to us.