Premier Christianity has an interesting story about how Joy Ogeh-Hutfield was filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, despite having an attitude that essentially mocked this spiritual gift.

Joy, an award-winning businesswoman, was born in Nigeria and immigrated to Britain when she was 16.

She was religious and regularly attended services in the Roman Catholic Church, where she was also married.

However, things took a negative turn when she had trouble conceiving a child and had several miscarriages.

When she was finally able to have a child, her daughter was born prematurely.

Shortly after this birth, she started being plagued by recurring nightmares and decided to talk to one of her aunts about the problem.

Her aunt, who is a born-again Christian, suggested that Joy meet with her friend’s husband, who was both a pastor and prophet, to discuss these nightmares.

Joy agreed and after asking if she was saved, the pastor wondered if Joy would like to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

“I don’t think God would like to give me the gift of the Holy Spirit,” Joy responded. “I am one of those people who laugh when I hear people speak in tongues. I just don’t think it’s real.” 

Despite her misgivings, she agreed, and the pastor and a woman who was with him laid hands on Joy and prayed for her.

As they were doing this, the woman told Joy to just open her mouth. At this point, Joy started spontaneously speaking in tongues and couldn’t stop.

This went on for several minutes and finally, the pastor and the woman started shaking Joy, asking if she was ok because she had been speaking in tongues unabated for 15 minutes.

Not only was she filled with the Holy Spirit, but after this Spirit encounter, Joy said the nightmares stopped, which suggests they may have had a demonic root.

In Luke 11:14-23, we read that after a recent deliverance, the Pharisees accused Jesus of utilizing the power of Beelzebub, a more powerful satanic spirit, to cast out demons.

Jesus responded to this accusation by stating, “it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons” (Luke 11:20).

In his rendering of the incident, Matthew clarifies what Jesus meant by the ‘finger of God’, writing that Jesus was casting out demons by the ‘Spirit of God’ (Matthew 12:28).

The ‘finger of God’ and ‘Spirit of God’ are one and the same thing, and through this, we understand that the Holy Spirit is the one Who gives us the power to deal with demonic influences.

So if Joy’s dreams had a demonic source, it is not surprising that they stopped when she was filled with the Holy Spirit.

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