Growing up Christian, I never knew a relationship with God was possible. I knew how to pray, but I didn't know that God would answer. Well, except for times of finding lost items or surviving a boss battle in a video game after saying a little prayer, but those seemed more like coincidences.

My first undeniable experience with God was in high school. I was depressed because of a failed relationship and it was really taking a toll on me. Wishing I had never existed, I randomly cried out in my spirit, "Jesus! Please take this from me! It's too much for me to handle. I give it to You, I give it to You!"

Suddenly, I was not depressed anymore. I just no longer cared. What the heck? God actually answered my prayer! I carried on with my day happily and went to school the next day as if nothing had ever happened. Forgiveness was effortless.

At the same time, I was also dealing with a bully. Well, maybe "bully" isn't the right word. He was quite a fun and outgoing kid―however, he had a bit of a mental disability and felt the need to keep punching me whenever he saw me at school. I came up with this idea to distract him with friendly conversation and jokes. My plan worked. It actually worked so well that he went from bullying me to chasing after me to be his friend. From that point forward, he escorted me to all my classes and drove me crazy. 

At the start of the next year, something wild happened. I had an encounter with God at my youth church. While we laying hands and praying for each other, I began feeling this wonderful supernatural warmth burning in my chest. I walked away from the prayer huddle in an ethereal state, feeling almost as if I were in a dream. At first I just took it as some weird emotional thing, but then on the drive home, my mom said, "That was a powerful service tonight!"

"Powerful? Wait, what? So I wasn't the only one experiencing that?" I thought. Although I was too in awe to say a word.

At the next service, and pretty much every service after for quite a while, I kept having these ecstatic spiritual experiences (especially during times of worship). This was my spiritual awakening. Church was no longer boring. Worship became an adventure. God was no longer just my religion, but now He had become real to me. As a result, I became a new person. God's love filled the emptiness inside me, and my family could tell something changed. I also stopped chasing relationships because I'd found the love I had really been searching for in God.

Back at school, I spotted my "escort" at the door. Instead of getting upset like usual, I couldn't help but greet him as if he had always been my friend. Inside my mind I was thinking, "You're really lucky today. I do NOT want to be nice to you. You do not deserve this." But because of God's love so deeply permeating my soul, I could not resist the urge to be kind. Eventually, this guy ended up following me to church and giving his life to Christ! Glory to God!