I saw a person in that congregation who I knew by the Holy Spirit was a new convert. In the
vision, I saw the people she had been with the night before and what she had done. She was
less than a month old in the Lord and had been forced by two other people to do something
that was wrong.
I knew by revelation — by the word of knowledge — that this woman felt that God didn't love
her anymore because she had sinned. She had
decided that once she left this service, she would never go to church again because she had
failed.
This was a spiritual vision that came to me in a second of time. I spoke to the congregation in
such a way that no one else would know what had happened, but that this woman would know
that God loved her and was dealing with her.
Before I finished speaking, this woman ran to the altar crying. I knew she was saved, but she
hadn't been filled with the Spirit. By the time her knees hit the floor, she received the Holy
Ghost. She found out how much the Lord did love her!
Another instance in which the Holy Spirit spoke to me by the word of knowledge concerning a
new convert, occurred in the last church I pastored. While I was shaving one morning, the Holy
Spirit said to me, "I want you to go pray for So-and-so. He has sinned."
This new convert was a forty-three-year-old man, but he had just gotten saved two weeks
before. He had lost his temper on the job and the Holy Spirit showed me that he had sinned
and that now he was home in bed. He had gotten sick as a result of losing his temper. The
Lord wanted me to go restore him.
Here was a man in need, and the Spirit of God knew all about it. No doubt there were other
people in my congregation who were in need, but God didn't send me to minister to all of them.
He sent me to minister to this man, and we did get him restored.
While I was ministering in a church in Lubbock, Texas, years ago, the Spirit of God moved
upon me just as I finished my message. I suddenly found myself saying to quite a large fellow
whom I had never seen before, "You — standing in the back next to the aisle. Step out into the
aisle."
This man was quite tall and wore cowboy boots which made him even taller. He was as far
back in the church as he could get. Without question or hesitation, he stepped into the aisle.
I heard myself say to him, "Before you came to church tonight you said to your wife. . . ," and I
began to tell him exactly what he had said to her. He had not wanted to come to church.
Before I finished speaking, he began to cry and sob. God revealed the secrets of his heart
through the word of knowledge.
This man ran down the aisle and slid into the altar. He had never been saved in his life. His
wife was saved, but he fought her about salvation and the things of God. However, as the
secrets of his heart were manifested, he repented and was born again.