WE HAD REACHED THE POINT of complete boredom with the established routine of scheduled meetings and oft-repeated lessons that marked the orthodox procedures of our denomination, when we heard a man speaking from the pulpit, refer to a little book, The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence, a lay brother in a Carmelite monastery in France about 1666. We obtained a copy and found that this man, living under a discipline far more rigorous than ours, had come to know God in a way that transcended anything we had experienced in our lives as a Christian. During this period, we read other books on the spiritual life, such as Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence, by de Caussade and First Questions on the Life in the Spirit, by T. E. Powers. These caused us to hunger for more of God in our lives, but we were at a loss as to how we should proceed. While in this uncertain state, a friend of ours invited us to attend a Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship meeting at the YMCA in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.

There we heard James Brown, a Presbyterian minister, recount the effect the baptism in the Holy Spirit had had in his life and ministry. During the address, he was interrupted twice when different ones began speaking in an unknown tongue followed by interpretation. This was the first time we had ever heard anyone speak in this manner and we were very much impressed. As we left the meeting, my wife, Mary Wheeler, said, "What do you think?" To this I replied, "Don’t. Let’s go back several times before we judge."

We were struck by their enthusiasm and obvious closeness to Jesus, as we heard on every side spontaneous ejaculations, "Praise the Lord," "Thank you, Jesus," and "Hallelujah." Some ways of expressing themselves, such as raising their hands in adoration and supplication, were strange to us, but there was no denying they had something. We attended several meetings and finally went forward for prayer with the laying on of hands for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The vociferous prayers and insistent urgings of those seeking to help us were so confusing that we were "turned off," and decided to seek out someone who was more quiet and dignified in his approach, to minister to us.

The lady who had first invited us to the FGBMFI meeting, next invited us to her home for a prayer meeting. A Spirit-filled Methodist minister and a Spirit-filled minister of the Disciples of Christ were present. As we were standing, praying with uplifted hands, my wife felt herself being drawn backward and a hand placed at her back gently lowered her to the floor. As she lay on the floor, she had a vision. There was a stone wall of rough texture and there beside it stood Jesus, with an elbow resting on a stone ledge jutting out from the wall. He was dressed in a long flowing robe and was smiling, although she could not discern His features. Opposite Him stood a large, black animal like a dog, with stiff bristly hair and bared fangs. Although this animal would rush out of a cloud of fog or mist toward Jesus with great ferocity, He continued to stand there, smiling, without moving a muscle. The performance was repeated several times, but each time the animal did not come quite as close to Jesus as before. At last he disappeared into the mist and did not return. Mary Wheeler thought, "Why, Jesus and Satan are fighting over my soul. How honored I am; and Jesus won!" After this she felt a vibration in her throat and thought, "If I would open my mouth, I could speak in a heavenly language." Sitting near her, I observed the muscular movement in her throat but did not know until later what it meant. She stirred slightly and I reached down, lifted her up, and seated her. When she had recounted her experience, the Methodist minister said that the Lord had given her a vision that would be of great help in time of need.

A week later, at a similar prayer meeting, a demon which had been cast out of a person present, attacked my wife when hands were laid on her to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, causing a most violent headache. The demon was rebuked in Jesus’ name and the headache gradually disappeared, but not without symptoms of soreness that lasted nearly a week.

We invited the Spirit-filled minister of the Disciples of Christ to our home for dinner in the hope that, since his background was similar to our own (Restoration Movement) he could speak to us on this subject in a way we could understand. After dinner, as we sat in the living room, he leaned forward in his chair and uttered this prophecy: "I see Jesus building a little fire, and He wants you to take a trip with Him." We did not understand it at the time, but seven months later this prophecy began to be fulfilled.

A few weeks after this event, during a regional meeting of the FGBMFI at the Chase Plaza Hotel in St. Louis (1965), my wife I went into a side room designated for those wishing to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. As soon as Gloria Phillips laid her hands on her, she was seized again with that agonizing headache. She got up out of her chair and ran toward the exit, holding her head in her hands. I happened to be passing the exit at the time and saw her. Howard Ervin, Derek Prince, Sam Phillips and I came to her assistance at once. It was evident that Satan was trying very hard to prevent her from receiving the promised blessing.

We were so inspired by the talks we had heard at the convention that I asked the Lord how I could have more of Him in my life. The answer came to me very clearly within, "You can have more of me when you are willing to give me more of yourself." "You can have all of me, Lord," I said, "and hereafter you may sit on the throne of my heart and every decision is yours.

Seven months after hearing the prophecy mentioned above, I received a long distance call from a businessman in Fullerton, California asking me to come out in a consulting capacity for his firm. I got a list of names of Spirit-filled people from a Presbyterian minister and my wife and I made stops enroute to California to talk to many of them. We attended a breakfast at Clifton’s Cafeteria in Los Angeles and I was graciously invited by Demos Shakarian, President of FGBMFI, to the microphone, to witness for Christ. The man who followed me was a successful California businessman, Shannon Vandruff, and as he began to calmly tell of the life in the Spirit, the peace, assurance and confidence it engenders, I knew I must speak to him. As the meeting progressed, I wrote on a piece of paper, "Please let me have your address and phone number," and when I handed this to him at the end of the meeting, he handed me his business card, on the back of which he had written the address and instructions on how to reach the Christian Center Church in Anaheim, saying as he did so, "This is an unusual church; I think you will like it."

The first Sunday, we went to our denominational church, Vermont Avenue Church of Christ near George.. Pepperdine College. The minister made the point in his sermon that our denomination had so emphasized water baptism that we had obscured the more vital point - a total inner commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. For this I commended him.

The next Sunday we went to Christian Center, arriving early. The Bible study, conducted by an elder of the church, centered on the life in the Spirit, with teaching from Ephesians. The service which followed, from the opening hymn, "All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name" to the last "Amen" after the altar call, was a thrilling, spine-tingling, Spirit-suffused religious experience. As each phase of the service unfolded - the songs, the music, the sermon - we found ourselves lifted up into "heavenly places" until with tears of joy, we turned to one another and whispered, "This is it. This is what we have been looking for!"

At the close of the service, we were invited into the minister’s study for prayer. The Scriptures were read relating to the baptism by Jesus in the Holy Spirit. By then we were very familiar with these, for we had read them repeatedly and fully accepted them. Shannon Vandruff’ asked us to fix our minds on Jesus and praise and adore Him with our whole beings. The Holy Spirit would supply words of His own choosing to express what was in our hearts. And this He did as I sat with arms uplifted in adoration and worship. The words were few and halting, but I had an inner peace and assurance in my heart that was very real. Mary Wheeler did not receive at this time.

The following Sunday night after the evening service, we went again into the minister’s study for prayer. I said, "My wife needs healing from these attacks of headache before she can have peace to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit." The reply was given:

"Jesus can do both; He can heal and baptize." As Shannon laid his hands on her in prayer, there came again the terrific seizure of the headache, rendering her almost unconscious. I laid her on the floor and Evangelist Dick Mills, his wife and I knelt beside her, praying for her. Pastor Ralph Wilkerson, minister at Christian Center, came in and, looking around, said, "There is someone in this room with an evil spirit. Get Darrell Hon." Shannon went out into the auditorium and brought Darrell into the room. Without a word, he took off his coat, laid it on a chair, and knelt beside Mary Wheeler but did not lay hands on her. Then, in a very stern voice, he asked, "Have you ever had anything to do with spiritualism ?" She replied, weakly, "No." Then he asked, "Have you ever had anything to do with fortune-telling or clairvoyance?" To this she answered, "Yes, a very long time ago." Then he said, "All such is of the devil and must be avoided entirely. In the name of Jesus Christ, whose I am and whom I serve, I demand that you evil spirit take your hands off her and release her this instant.

I bind you in the name of Jesus and command you to leave these premises and not to harm her any more in the future." He got up, picked up his coat and walked out of the room without saying another word.

Mary Wheeler’s hands, which had been clutching her head and neck in agony, fell relaxed and half-open at her side, and her face, which had been flushed and red, returned to its normal color. She said in a barely audible voice, "I love you, Jesus."

As we were driving back to our motel, my wife said to me, "I do not believe I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit tonight." To this I replied, "I believe you did, but until you accept it you will have no benefit from it." "All right, as of this moment, I accept it," she said. The following morning, in the twilight between sleeping and waking, she had another vision. She saw a man, half-submerged in a deep hole of mud and slime with a wheelbarrow partly turned over him and a dirty bandage around his head and over his eyes. He was crying out, "Help me! Somebody help me." She said, "Jesus, why don’t you help this man? He needs help. I can’t help him, for I haven’t received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and haven’t spoken in tongues." Immediately afterward she awakened and broke forth in a voluble stream of a heavenly language, receiving thereby the assurance that she, too, had joined the ranks of those whom Jesus had blessed in this particular way.

Thereafter, we took in everything that Christian Center had to offer in prayer meetings, teaching sessions, and worship. We were there for three months, the Lord providing all necessary funds through the consulting contract He had arranged for us out of a clear sky. In fulfillment of prophecy, we had taken a 2000-mile journey with Him and He had provided all our needs.

In one of the early prayer meetings at Christian Center, on March 17, 1966, Clara Grace in company with Pastor Wilkerson came over to us, laid hands on our heads and uttered the following prophecy, which was recorded on tape, as are all their services. We quote it here as it was typed from the record:

When we left Christian Center, there were in the congregation people from twenty-eight different denominations working and worshipping in harmony together. In the years that have followed, the Holy Spirit has opened our understanding to things in the Scriptures which we had never seen before, and has expanded our love to include every one who acknowledges Jesus as Lord.