My Immersion Experience by Katrin Hagman
I recently went through Immersion, and the experience offered a profound reminder of the Holy Spirit’s active partnership in our growth and healing journey. During the Immersion process, I opted for extra counseling sessions. My counselor said we were going to ask the Holy Spirit to bring up a particular memory for Jesus to heal. I admit I had my doubts about whether the Holy Spirit would in fact do that, but I figured I had nothing to lose, so the counselor prayed and we sat there for a few moments. Let me emphasize I was not trying to drum up some random memory. I was just sitting there thinking about how awkward I felt as I waited in silence with a person on the other side of a computer screen who I barely knew. Nothing happened for at least a minute. And then suddenly, the Holy Spirit brought up a particular memory that I had not thought about in years and years. The memory was as clear as if I had lived it out yesterday. I was so surprised that the Spirit heard the counselor’s prayer and responded so quickly! I did not expect Him to be so intimately involved in the counseling process. It really taught me something: the Holy Spirit truly is our Helper. Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth” (Jn 14:16,17a). When we go through the growth process through Immersion, we can count on the Holy Spirit’s direction and help; He partners with us to bring about the Father’s will, and the Father’s will for us is more of Jesus in our lives - not just in the present and future but in our past as well. It is a comforting fact that there is Someone going through Immersion with us who has our best interests in mind, who knows our weak and tender places, and who has the ability to heal them.
It’s one thing to read the Bible and believe what it says. It is another to actually experience the truth of what it says. And that is one of the best things about Immersion: It provides a place in our lives to experience the reality of the Bible, to see that God really is who He says He is, and that He really did provide the Holy Spirit to truly help us.
Now when I minister to someone through prayer, conversation or teaching, I remember my Helper who so easily and expertly dealt with me in a counseling session only because we asked. And if He did that for me when a counselor asked, He will surely do it for someone else just because I ask, too. There is no need to strive, no need to wring my hands in worry, no desperation in my requests. There is faith and expectation that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, will come and do His wonderful work and bring truth, freedom and healing as I love others and serve Jesus. Ultimately, He is the One who does the true work, and I get to be nearby to witness what He does.
I sometimes wonder if the significance of that counseling moment was not to heal a memory but to teach me the faithfulness and reliability of my heavenly Father at a deeper level. It was probably both! The Father has sent me the Holy Spirit to be with me forever in any and all circumstances, and that includes times when I am supposed to minister to others.
For those reading this I would like to ask: do you truly believe the Father will send His Holy Spirit to help you during Immersion? And then afterwards do you truly believe the Holy Spirit will minister through you, or do you think each ministry moment depends mostly on you? I would encourage you to do what I did. I asked in faith, waited with difficulty, but then experienced in wonder the gentle healing of the Holy Spirit (Mt 7:7,8). He’s our helper. He will always give uswhat we need.
Katrin is a 2022 graduate of WIML. She works for Life Lessons Publishing (https://www.lifelessonspublishing.com/)