You know how I got filled with the Holy Ghost? I got filled with the Holy Ghost by a cross-eyed preacher. He was as cross-eyed as a bat, son. This guy could be looking directly at you, and you couldn’t tell it. This boy was cross-eyed!
He was not only cross-eyed, but he had a problem with the way he walked, too. He walked like one of those old Pentecostal preachers, strutting around like a chicken scratching at the ground. I don’t know why they all walked the same way. They didn’t walk like normal people. Maybe that’s kind of rude, but bless God, I thought, What’s the problem with this old boy?
He talked like one of those old Pentecostal preachers, too. He kept putting extra sounds at the end of his words. He would say, “I’ll tell ya-ah-ah…I tell ya, God-huuuhhhh, Gawd-huhhhhh.” You know, I thought that the guy needed a healing for whatever he had that made him talk like that!
That’s the kind of preacher who got me filled with the Holy Ghost. I was at that meeting with Cathy and her sister, Christine. At the end of the service, Cathy turned to me and said, “Go up there and get the Holy Ghost.”
I said, “No way! I don’t want to come back walking like that man! I ain’t going up there!”
She said, “Well, my sister’s going to go. You go with her.”
“I don’t want to go!” I said. “If I go up there and get what he’s got, I’m going to start talking weird and walking funny.”
“You need it!” Cathy insisted. “You’ve had an outpouring of supernatural power, but you need an outpouring of supernatural portion. You need the Holy Ghost.”
I finally did go up there with her sister, but I put her in front of me. I said, “Go ahead, Christine. You go first.”
As soon as I did that, an usher came over and grabbed me, moving me over beside her. So here I was, standing in front, and to be honest with you, I was a little nervous. The preacher came walking over, and it was amazing what this man would do. He said, “I’ll tell you, Gawwwwwd-huuuuuuh, Gawwwd-huuuuu, Gawd….”
When you see someone like this coming over to you, you’ve got to put your hands up before he stops in front of you. You want to blend in with everyone else, because if he stops in front of you, he’s going to start scratching and shaking right there. Then everybody will start looking at you.
I could just see what was going to happen. I would be standing there with my hands up, and he would come over to me, start scratching and shaking, and I would start shaking too. Before you knew it, every one of us up there would be shaking and talking funny.
Well, he came over and stood right in front of me. I could see him standing right there in front of me, but he didn’t know who was in front of him. I looked up and saw that crossed eye trying to catch me. It was moving, and I was moving back and forth, trying to catch it. He started saying, “Would you like to receive-uhhhhhhh?”
I was thinking, Me? You mean me? Just who are you looking at? I kept trying to move over to where that eye was looking. I couldn’t tell who he was looking at. I really couldn’t! One eye was looking at me, and the other one was on somebody else. He was standing right in front of me, but he was looking at two different people!
Christine nudged me and whispered, “Jesse, I think he’s looking at you.”
“No,” I said, “his eye’s on you.”
“Yeah,” she said, “but only one of them is. The other one’s on you.”
This cross-eyed preacher was standing in front of me, getting ready to lay hands on me, but he couldn’t find me. He told me he was going to lay hands on me, and reached out his hand to touch my head. But his aim was way off. His hand was flapping air somewhere over between me and Christine, trying to catch one of us.
I realized he was seeing two heads, so I leaned over to catch that hand. I knew he was missing me because he couldn’t find my head. And Christine thought he was going for her head, so we both tried to help him out, and craaack! Our heads knocked together.
She said, “I thought he was looking at me.”
“No!” I said, “he was looking at me.”
It didn’t matter though. An outpouring of supernatural portion came upon me, and I was filled with the Holy Ghost. Christine was filled with the Holy Ghost too. Both of us walked away from that prayer line all cockeyed – but full of the Holy Ghost! It didn’t matter what that preacher looked like. We still got the Holy Ghost.
God will use some of us who don’t look the best. He didn’t care that the man was cross-eyed. God just wanted a willing and obedient vessel. If you want to be used by God, determine to be a willing and obedient vessel. Then He can use you – no matter what your imperfections are!
Anyway, that’s how I got filled with the Holy Ghost – from a cross-eyed vessel. Don’t laugh. It could happen to you!
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Jesse Duplantis, minister of the Gospel, motivational speaker, television personality, and best-selling author, has been in full-time ministry since 1976 and is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries, located in the Greater New Orleans area of south Louisiana in the United States of America. With over four decades of sharing his unique blend of humor and faith around the world, generations of believers have been inspired by his messages and countless numbers have come to know Jesus Christ as Savior through his ministry.
Known for his unflinching, status-quo-breaking messages and humorous take on experiences in the life of the believer, Jesse continues to draw large audiences of believers through social media, television, and meetings held around the world. With speaking engagements booked years in advance, Jesse Duplantis continues to keep an intense traveling schedule, flying throughout the United States and the world preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With no booking agents pursuing meetings for him and no set fees imposed upon churches for speaking engagements, Jesse chooses his outreach meetings based on the same two criteria he always has: invitations that come in and prayer over each one. This uncommon way of scheduling in today’s world means Jesse’s many followers may find him speaking in some of the largest churches and venues in America and the world, as well as a great many small and growing congregations, too. No church is too big or small for the Holy Spirit, as he says.
Side by side with his wife Cathy Duplantis, the co-founder and chief of staff of Jesse Duplantis Ministries and the senior pastor of Covenant Church in Destrehan, Louisiana, Jesse continues to fulfill his life’s calling by daily taking up the Great Commission of Jesus Christ: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Through social media, television broadcasts, books, and other ministry products, as well as through many evangelistic meetings, the JDM website, the JDM app, and Voice of the Covenant magazine, Jesse Duplantis continues to see growth in his ministry and expand each year while maintaining his roots. Jesus is the center of his life. The salvation of lost people and the growth of believers is the purpose of his ministry. And for both he and his wife, every day is another day to “Reach People and Change Lives, One Soul at a Time.”