Sid: My guest by way of telephone at his home in Grand Rapids, Michigan is Tommy Almonte. Tommy was born in the Dominican Republic his mother was an Assistant Pastor at AG Church all he knows is going to church morning, noon and night. But he went to a church that saw dramatic miracles. When he was 9 he literally had a visitation; he was told the future of his family. And then at 10 it started to come to pass they moved to the United States to Michigan. As a teenager one of his best friends from the Dominican Republic who had also moved to the United States committed suicide. This put Tommy in a tailspin he literally was backslidden, then one day it had to be God he doesn’t even know why but he was unhappy backslidden, unhappy as a believer. One day he said “God, I’m going to make a deal with You I’ll pursue you if you can take away these guilty feelings I have inside of me.” And He knew God couldn’t do that; but he was told by the Holy Spirit to have a meeting with Him for a whole day every Saturday. So he started meeting with God and he started reading the Bible and he began to see that the whole purpose of creation starting in the book of Genesis was for man to have intimacy with God. He literally started falling asleep when he would spend that whole day and felt, gotten under condemnation, but he found that while he was sleeping God was performing surgery because there were so many obstacles to him having intimacy with God. And then after a few months Tommy you were shocked when you heard an audible voice from the Holy Spirit and what did this audible voice say?
Tommy: You know all he said to me was “Good morning Tommy.”
Sid: That’s enough!
Tommy: That was enough to hear because I was getting to a point where now I knew Him and I wanted to know Him more. I wanted more of Him and just to hear His voice was enough for me to say “I found Him.”
Sid: Yeah, and you told me yesterday that you that when you first heard His voice you thought that you were going… there’s a Hebrew word “Mashuga or nuts.”
Tommy: As it were yes and as a matter of fact I didn’t say anything to anyone because I was afraid people would say “Tommy’s losing his mind.”
Sid: (Laughing)
Tommy: And we have to take him you know to get check.
Sid: But you saw all this stuff happen as a kid in church.
Tommy: Yes, but you know there is something about when we talk about spiritual things even though that we know it but we have a hard time believing it. And anytime that we talk about the Holy Spirit even within our churches we get the same sort of check you know “Is this person okay.” Is this person losing his mind.
Sid: Let me ask you a question why do you think the Holy Spirit waited 2 months before you realized that He was really there, and in such a tangible fashion?
Tommy: Well, I do believe that there are a couple of reasons to that; one I was sleeping in the beginning and He was you know really doing surgery and taking all of these things that I had inside of me that were blocking you know that could potentially could have blocked my pursue of intimacy with Him. I also believe that God doesn’t just… the most precious valuable thing that God has to offer is intimacy. Intimacy is priceless for God. You can ask Him for a house, you can ask Him for the gift of the Spirit, you can ask Him for everything else but when you ask Him for intimacy really what you’re asking for is I want to know Your thoughts, I want to know Your heart. The Bible says only the spirit within a man know his thoughts. The same with the Holy Spirit; the Bible says “He knows the thoughts of God.” So by asking for intimacy what we’re saying is “I want to know You in a way that You can trust me to share things there that are not yet to happen you know.
Sid: So would you say that the Holy Spirit wanted to see if you were really truly serious about knowing Him. And that’s why He didn’t immediately start talking to you.
Tommy: Yeah, and not only that He wanted to show me that to know Him it was to pursue Him as any other relationship that I had. And any other relationship you know before… something that I want to mention Sid is that one of the things; the first thing that I did even before He said my name I asked Him for forgiveness. One of the things that He put in my spirit was that we cannot engage into intimate relationship until you ask for forgiveness. And my question was forgiveness for what? And He said “Anytime that you have mocked the Holy Spirit, anytime that you have made comments about the Holy Spirit that are negative you have grieved the Holy Spirit.” So before any meaningful relationship can take place as any other relationship you have to ask for forgiveness.
Sid: Did you grieve the Holy Spirit, had you been mocking the Holy Spirit?
Tommy: Yeah, and I remember when I was walking away from God I would see someone on television talking about God, or preaching the gospel, or ministering to the people. And I would laugh and say “Ha that’s fake.”
Sid: Especially when we see things that are out of our frame of reference we say “That can’t be God.”
Tommy: That’s right.
Sid: But who are we to know all of God?
Tommy: That’s right and what I have learned Sid is that when I see someone on television doing that’s representing God even if I get offensive where I’m not comfortable with it. If I’m going to criticize it I change the channel because I’d rather side and not be wrong and criticize some that they’ve been used by the Holy Spirit.
Sid: So have you found that it’s really easy to grieve the Holy Spirit; I mean can He really get hurt by this?
Tommy: Yeah, one of the… I think one of the main areas that we struggle with is really believing that the Holy Spirit is a person and that He has feelings and emotions. In the Bible He’s described as the one in the Bible says “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.” You cannot grieve someone if they don’t have the ability to feel and to have feelings. The reason why that is in the Bible is to let us know that the Holy Spirit is a person. The Bible explains that but sometimes we just have a hard time believing that. You know it’s sad to see a statistic like the one I was recently reading that the Barna Research Institute put out a research and they show that 52% of Born Again Christians they reject the assistance of the Holy Spirit. You know…
Sid: And imagine that if you grieve the Holy Spirit imagine how much grief he has with half of the Christians in America.
Tommy: Reject Him you know and you know…
Sid: By the way when you repented for grieving the Holy Spirit what reaction did He have or did you have?
Tommy: I didn’t hear anything but what I had was a sense of relief. Something was relieved within me; something was gone. And I do believe that it was that weight I do believe that I was carrying from mocking and saying things that hurt the Holy Spirit.
Sid: By the way every time that you come into prayer do you hear the Holy Spirit greet you?
Tommy: Yes, and it’s something that I will always cherish.
Sid: Is it audible?
Tommy: Yes, that He said “Good Morning Tommy.” And for me it is one of the most valuable things that I believe in our relationship is that not only that He does that but what he means. What He means by saying “Good morning friend.”
Sid: Well, one time you were late “What did He say to you?”
Tommy: You know I became comfortable as any other relationship that we have eventually you become comfortable. You start doing things that prior to that you were not doing and one of the things is that in the back of my mind I didn’t really think it made a difference that I was late to our appointment. I met the Holy Spirit appointment at 5:30 in the morning and it is my time with Him. But one day I was late and I got up and I went into the room and the first thing He said to me He didn’t say “Good Morning Tommy” he said “Your late!”
Sid: Again, an audible voice?
Tommy: Yes, and what it did inside of me is it moved, it was something it was a lie inside of me and I was believing that lie; I really didn’t care if I was on time or whether I was late. But if I set up an appointment with you and I show up a half hour late it would do something to you. In the same way…
Sid: It would say that you don’t think that I’m very important.
Tommy: That’s right.
Sid: That’s what it would say.
Tommy: That’s what it would say and the same way with the Holy Spirit. You know what I have found is that not only does He want to meet with me but He wants me to know that He takes out relationship seriously.
Sid: You know Tommy, I must say this right now; everyone that is listening to us right now God the Holy Spirit craves intimacy with you.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth