"Being Spirit-Filled"
By Ruth A. Castillo-Sebastian



Greetings from your brethren in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada!!!

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ!!!

After I heard Pastor Butch’s sermon on Be Filled with the Spirit - what does it mean? Through your sent e-mail via your website, I cannot help but share my personal reflection on God’s message through your dear Pastor. Then I got a reply and request if I could share it on your web. I instantly said, “Anything for the Lord”......why not. It’s a great opportunity to edify His church and reach out to others.

Amazing how this World Wide Web does for us, I am one of those who benefit a lot in this great technology especially when I miss church due to my work rota working as a nurse on a weekend. I always get the Sunday sermon from WIN Singapore and I get in touch with my relatives and old friends too who are now scattered around the world.

Anyways, below is my original e-mail and personal reflection on his powerful sermon........


To Listen to the Sermon, Click this Link
http://www.winsingapore.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=202

Hi Manj and Pastor Butch,

Wow! Simply and soundly made and presented yet so powerful and full of truth and reality. Especially nowadays that there are so many church movements and there is a very thin line between the real and fake marks of a spirit-filled church and Christians.

I, too have spoken in tongues and was slain. That moment, I know in my mind what I was doing at that time. I was in my highest moment of praise and worship for the Lord in the youth camp but I noticed I was hearing a different language so I put my hand to stop my mouth (this means I was still in control) but I was really moved by my personal praise and worship to God that I could not stop the leading and the power of the Spirit in my tongue and I let go and listened to myself at the same time as I continue to praise and worship God. It was a very personal touch from God. I know this were the words the Spirit wants me to speak and sing at the same time while I was full of tears praising and worshiping Him for His awesome greatness in my life. It sounded like Latin, Greek and Arabic. In my mind, I was singing Praise God! Hallelujah! To God be the Glory!! Hallelujah!!....over and over again....and the words that come out is almost the same over and over that is very foreign to me. I even asked Bro. Babes Paulate about it as he was the Youth pastor then. I thought I was being possessed. He said, God gave you the gift of tongues. And I just accepted it.

I have been a Christian for over 20 years now and I have not been speaking in tongues for years but I felt there have been more meaningful experiences of the empowerment of the Spirit in my life as a Christian.

And from then on, I continue to listen to the Spirit as He led me in my everyday life. In my Christian life, I have experience all sorts of sins, tribulations, trauma and tragedy but the Spirit never departed from me. God has put people in my life to meet and live with and He is still the same. In my personal experience, since I became a believer of our Saviour Jesus Christ the Spirit has always been there. He guides me all the time. If my spirit is bothered in a major decision, the Spirit tells me not to do anything yet and wait. And it always works that way.

Thank you once again for this encouraging and enlightening message. I have known this topic of spirit-filled but this is the best I heard so far. I am so blessed that I need to pass this on to others.

In His love,

Ruth

[Profile: Ruth Austria Castillo-Sebastian is a very good friend of Sis Manju since high school. She came to know the Lord in WWCF Youth Ministry under Bro. Babes Paulate in the 80’s. She served as a camp nurse and involved in the youth ministry till she married and moved to Batangas and attended WWCF Batangas. She was widowed for 8 years with 4 children - Justine (17), Feldi (16), Jofer (14) and Jonah (12). They moved back to Makati and attends in WIN Makati under Pastor Vino Atienza. After 3 years of being widowed, the Lord moved her to Scotland with her 4 children and became one of the pioneers of a newly built Baptist church whose Pastor is a Canadian missionary. Their family served in the Youth, Women and Music ministry for 8 years. She was blessed with a Filipino husband and remarried to Charlie Sebastian in 2004. In August last year, the Lord opened an opportunity to work as a nurse and led them to go to Canada via a work visa and the family continuously serve the Lord in a newly opened outreach church in WIN – Surrey, BC, Canada under Pastor Manuel Parcon.]