The following story is a glorious one that I was inspired to
tell again after seeing the graphic attached to this article posted on Twitter
on the morning of this eve of Shavuot, June 2nd, 2014. Although many may balk
at the idea, I firmly believe that God Himself baptized me in a mountain stream
on May 21st, 1988 - the day after my ex-husband’s birthday, and the day before
Shavuot and Pentecost on Sunday, May 22nd that year. Let me tell you how it
happened.
It was a sunny and warm, late spring day in British Columbia , and my Canadian husband and I decided
to go hiking along Lynn
Creek North Shore
off of Burrard Inlet near the city of Vancouver .
I was really looking forward to seeing it, having never been there before.
For a while, we enjoyed the gorgeous scenery as we walked down
a paved path under the tall cedar trees flanking us on both sides. But then we
reached another path that ran along one side of the creek, which was far below
us. We turned left and continued to walk down a wide dirt path that was flanked
by ferns and majestic cedars on one side, while a simple railing ran along the
other side protecting people from falling down the steep sides of the rocky creek
embankment. When we got on this path, we could see a few people behind and ahead
of us, and also across from us on the other side of the creek.
As we walked on this shadowed forest path, we both fell into
companionable silence - only talking occasionally as we took in the sights and
just listened to the loudly gurgling melody of the current running over the
rocky creek bed not too far below us, the singing and chattering of birds and
squirrels, and the muffled voices of other people in the distance. As I look
back on it now, I think this was because there was something very spiritual
about this beautiful place that we both could feel. At least I know that I
truly felt closer to God there.
 |
| View looking down into Lynn Creek, BC |
We had walked about a mile when we came to a much wider part
of the creek where there was a steep rock embankment leading down to the water
on our side. As we stopped to look at one scenic area, I noticed a few brave
people that had managed to climb down to stand in the water on the rocks in the
creek, and - before I could formulate an opinion about how foolhardy this was -
my husband decided he wanted to get a closer look too. Not thinking about how
unstable I was when it came to balance - he encouraged me to follow him as he
slipped past the guardrail. Leary at first, I swallowed my uneasiness and followed
my unusually sure-footed husband, but realized moments later that the embankment
was too steep for me to manage safely, and I could not keep up with him.
Then the unthinkable happened. Feeling sudden panic - I
began to slip, and even though I reached for my husband’s hand at that moment,
he was too far ahead, and I could not grab his hand or get his attention before
I completely lost my balance. Time seemed to stand still for me then as I slid
down the rock embankment on my butt. Dressed only in a pair of shorts and a
sleeveless top, I felt a few moments of terror before hitting the water, automatically
knowing to hold my breath as the cold shock of the freezing water overtook me
and I sank down into a deep, crystal-clear pool between two enormous boulders
on the shore of that part of the creek.
Amazingly, I did not hit any sharp rocks on my way down the
steep embankment, which was surprisingly smooth. Nor did I hit any of the big
rocks jutting out of the water on either side, which surely could have hurt or
maimed me seriously. Instead, I fell between two huge and jutting,
smooth-topped rocks with a deep, circular depression between them - which
formed a small quiet pool in the midst of this mighty, churning stream of
extremely cold, rushing water.
Meanwhile, because I had momentarily lost my bearings in the
water, I paused as I held my breath and took in the scene around me as I looked
for the brightest source of light. Finding it above me, I started to swim
upward toward it and, after a few strokes, I could see the watery form of a man
to the left of me through the water and I swam toward him. At that precise
moment, the Sun seemed to be shining around the man’s head like a halo, and I
thought, for a moment, that I was seeing another vision of my Savior Yahshua!
Still not knowing who the man was that I could see, my
husband dipped his hand into the water toward me, and from my perspective in
the water, it looked almost identical to this painted graphic! At the time,
even after I realized that it was my husband who had pulled me out of the
water, I sensed that Yahshua was there with my husband, and it was Yahshua that
had lifted me out of the water without losing His balance, and nimbly guided me
safely to the shore.
Even though I had sensed all this as I was pulled out of the
water and was led to the shore, I was as angry as a wet cat at my husband on
our hike back to the car, and didn’t calm down until I found a warm towel to wrap
around me on our ride home. As we headed back home in silence, my anger spent,
I had the strongest feeling that God had His hand in all that had happened that
day.
Then, on the next day, in a moment of deep prayer, God spoke
to me about it. At that time, in a still and quiet voice, God’s Spirit within
me told me that this was not an accident or really my husband’s fault, but that
He had caused me to fall so that He could baptize me in the water. Over the
following weeks, He also showed me that He was going to give me a greater
measure of His Spiritual gifts, and He was calling me to speak and write on His
behalf.
Through a series of profound visions of Christ before and after
that divinely initiated baptism in a cold, clear mountain stream on the eve of Pentecost,
God showed me that He wanted me to be one of His witnesses and spokespersons to
the Church. Like Paul, I became an apostle of sorts by seeing Yahshua in
visions, and knowing Him personally through them. Though I didn’t know it yet,
the following passage from the Psalms had come true for me the day before
Pentecost that year:
~*~ Psalm 18:16-19 ~*~
“He
reached down from on high and took hold of me;
He
drew me out of deep waters.
17 He
rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from
my foes, who were too strong for me.
18
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but
the Lord was my support.
19 He
brought me out into a spacious place;
He
rescued me because he delighted in me.”
At the time, the above Scripture from Psalm 18 - and the
image in the Graphic at the top of this page that is meant to depict Yahshua
reaching down into the water to rescue each one of us in His own way on the day
of our calamity - literally came true for me that day! Uncannily, although I
did not make this graphic or attach that Scripture to it, it is a perfect
illustration of what happened to me that day in 1988, one month before my
official baptism at the Barnaby Christian Fellowship on June 12th, 1988, when
another amazing thing happened that I wrote about in my Spiritual Autobiography
linked to below:
“From The Desert To The Promised Land -
One Person’s Journey of Faith”
46-page
autobiography by Helena Lehman:
Here is a slightly altered excerpt from that spiritual autobiography about my baptism as an adult. I got baptized shortly after I had my amazing vision of the Risen Christ in my bedroom one fateful night after asking God the Father who Jesus really was:
Beginning of Excerpt: "In 1989, both my husband and I were baptized at Burnaby Christian Fellowship by full immersion. A short time later, Fred Peter - a man who had the gift of prophecy and had witnessed my baptism, came up to me and gave me a gift. It was a hand made card decorated with beautifully penned calligraphy script. It showed the date of my baptism and my name "Helena McNeilly", and there was a Bible passage on the next page. Upon inquiring about the Scriptural passage, Fred told me that he had been given this passage of Scripture by the Holy Spirit to give to me. I am so grateful for what Fred did for me and I hope the Spirit of Yah has let him know it! The scriptural passage that I received that day as special to me was this:
My Spiritual autobiography will also tell you about some of the amazing visions that I had before and after my baptism by God, and what God had delivered me from when I moved toCanada , and what He was doing in my
life after I became I believer the year before. I hope this will be a big
blessing to you as you seek to draw nearer to God also. In the meantime, say Hallelu-Yah
with me for our amazing, merciful and loving God Yahweh, His Son Yahshua and
His Spirit! Together they form the One True God Yahweh Elohim, the First and
the Last, and the Beginning and the End! Halellu-Yah!
Beginning of Excerpt: "In 1989, both my husband and I were baptized at Burnaby Christian Fellowship by full immersion. A short time later, Fred Peter - a man who had the gift of prophecy and had witnessed my baptism, came up to me and gave me a gift. It was a hand made card decorated with beautifully penned calligraphy script. It showed the date of my baptism and my name "Helena McNeilly", and there was a Bible passage on the next page. Upon inquiring about the Scriptural passage, Fred told me that he had been given this passage of Scripture by the Holy Spirit to give to me. I am so grateful for what Fred did for me and I hope the Spirit of Yah has let him know it! The scriptural passage that I received that day as special to me was this:
Joshua 4:9 ~ "Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day."After studying this Scriptural passage for several days and praying about it, Yahweh showed me what it meant to me personally. Like the Israelites, I had entered into the Promised Land of His Love after wandering in a desert of loneliness, sin and pain for many years. Now Yahweh wanted me to make a memorial of my salvation, and show the world what He had done for me! This is what made me begin writing down all the things He had shown me, and continued to show me over the following years. Another fascinating aspect of this verse was the use of 12 stones, which may be symbolic of the foundations of the New Jerusalem." End of Excerpt.
My Spiritual autobiography will also tell you about some of the amazing visions that I had before and after my baptism by God, and what God had delivered me from when I moved to
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Ministry Blog: http://pillarofenoch.blogspot.com
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