I will never forget the night I met the Holy Spirit.

November 7, 2013. The house was dark and still. I was lonely. I felt unloved. I wanted more.

I popped in my headphones and hit shuffle on my iPod. And this was the song that played:

Awaken my soul, come awake
To hunger, to seek, to thirst
Awaken first love, come awake
And do as you did, at first

Spirit of the living God come fall afresh on me
Come wake me from my sleep
Blow through the caverns of my soul
Pour in me to overflow

Come and fill this place
Let Your glory now invade
Spirit come and fill this place
Let your glory now invade

As the song played, I did something I had never done before—I raised my hands up to heaven and fell to my knees. I prayed the words of this song with complete abandon, tears streaming down my face.

And Heaven invaded my home and my heart that night.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

It’s true. I can’t explain what happened that night.

It had probably been 25 years since I prayed that prayer we teach our children—asking Jesus into my heart. I had a fairly conservative upbringing, so while I believe the Holy Spirit was present through my years of summer camps, missions trips, and bible college, I had never paid any attention to the Third Person of the Trinity.

But that night, when I raised my hands to heaven, I encountered something new.

Spirit of Truth. Spirit of Life. Spirit of God.

Can you remember when you met the Holy Spirit? Was it a mighty rush of wind bringing life to your dry bones? Was it a piercing light shattering your fears? Was it an unquenchable flame cleansing your impurities? Was it a river of living water restoring your soul? Was it a voice guiding your feet along a path?

Oh what a glorious gift we have all been given. “I will pour out my Spirit on everybody and cause your sons and daughters to prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will experience dreams from God.”

Since that night I began to do something else I had never done before—I started to raise my hands in worship on Sunday mornings. Because I want the Holy Spirit to invade Calvary. I want us to wake up from our sleep and encounter something new. I want us to be transformed in ways we can’t explain.

Do you want that too? Let’s raise our hands to heaven together.

—Ingrid Hoogenboom

Face to Face with Jesus Teaching Series

A response to John 3:1-21 (NLT), Acts 2:1-17 (TPT) and Bethel Music’s Fall Afresh