Prophetic Baptism Vision Fulfilled

It was dusk on a warm, sunny, summer evening in 2010 and I was outside on my deck enjoying my time spiritually curled up in God’s lap. I had just finished spending some time reading from His love letter (the Bible) and I was pouring out to Him whatever was on my heart. Since approximately 2006 I had been feeling the desire and need to be baptised as I had never been. As I now fully comprehended what water baptism truly meant and out of my deep love and admiration for Jesus, I wanted to take this next step of faith. The only problem was that I was still suffering from varying degrees of panic disorder and the fear of all of the “what ifs” was weighing heavily on me, especially the “what if I had a panic attack” thought. My church had a baptism ceremony around 2006 and I really wanted to be a part of it, but fear and panic had overtaken my desire to be baptised.

Since then I had made a lot of progress in overcoming many fears and I had been venturing out to a lot more places and taking part in more activities that I had previously avoided. It was clear to me that my faith and confidence were growing. I cried out to God saying “please make a way for me to be baptised. What is the best way? Where should it happen?” I really wanted to be baptised outside in a body of water like how Jesus was baptised in the Jordan River. Since I had made it out for a holiday to Pike Lake the previous summer, I knew I could go that far so I thought perhaps Pike Like would be a good place to be baptised. It is part of the Saskatchewan River too so it would be even closer to how Jesus was baptised.

As I continued to cry out to God about my strong desire to be baptised wondering how and when and where it would happen, I began having a vision. Youth group was about to begin for the first year with myself and another young lady leading it in the fall. I saw myself hanging out at youth group. Then I saw myself talking to one of the girls from youth group. We were excited because we were both going to be baptised. I saw myself get baptised and she was baptised afterwards. That is where the vision ended. At that point I felt a knowing in my spirit that I needed to wait until the 2010-2011 youth group season ended. I knew that one of the young ladies from youth group was going to be baptised at the same time as me. I did not know which girl; I just knew it was a girl. After that of course I questioned whether that was just a daydream or if it was, in fact, a prophetic vision from God. I decided not to analyze it, but just wait and see what happens.

That winter after attending a membership class at church one morning, we had talked about baptism and I was all pumped up and excited about the idea of being baptised someday soon. I went upstairs and walked straight over to one of the girls from youth and said something like “have you ever been baptised” or “would you like to be baptised” or something like that, I cannot recall my exact words. Her name is Sierra. I had no idea why I said that because I had no intention of saying that when I walked up to her, it just came out. I had no idea if she had already been baptised or if she was even feeling the desire to be baptised.

A few more months passed and our pastor started talking about having a baptism service that summer. I had completely forgotten about the fact that I had mentioned getting baptised to Sierra from youth when I received a text message from her saying she was going to be baptised with me. As soon as I read that I remembered that vision I had the summer before youth group started. It was all coming together with the Holy Spirit’s help.

On September 18, 2011, I was finally baptised. It was not in the Saskatchewan River or in Pike Lake for that matter, but it was outdoors in a swimming pool and I made sure I brought a small vile of river water that I poured into the pool so I could say that I was baptised in river water just like Jesus. There were five of us that were baptised that day. She was baptised after me just like in my vision and she was the only one from youth group who was baptised that day.

Some of you might be thinking, well you mentioned baptism to Sierra and that is why it happened, but I beg to differ. Mentioning it and someone deciding they are ready to do it are two completely different things. This had the Holy Spirit’s work written all over it from the time I had the vision to the time Sierra was baptised after me.

I even shared a short part of my testimony which was optional and I am not a public speaker type. In part of my testimony I said:

“I have struggled with fear and panic for far too long. It has robbed me of relationships and caused me to distance myself from family members I was once very close to.

I believe sometimes God miraculously delivers a person, for example, from an addiction or an illness and sometimes Jesus meets you down in the pit you are in, takes you by the hand and walks you out. I believe Jesus is doing the latter for me and in the process I have been learning some valuable lessons along the way that I otherwise would not have learned as Jesus walks me out of that pit one step at a time. I am not where I need to be yet, but I thank God I am not where I used to be.

It is that same crippling fear that has kept me from being baptized in accordance with and in obedience to God’s Word, but not anymore. I will no longer be mastered by anything but Jesus.”

If you were to ask me if I felt any fear as I shared my testimony and got baptised and my reply to you would be “you better believe it,” and you know what, I felt the fear but I also made the choice not to obey those fickle feelings and instead I pushed through them in faith with Jesus and sweet little Sadie (my new best friend) by my side. Sadie is a sweet little girl who was glued to my side that whole time. She was my little angel that God sent to me to share that very memorable moment in my life.