SID: You had quite an encounter at a time when you were really struggling. Many of you are really struggling right now. Tell us about that encounter.
HRVOJE: I got saved. God saved me. I didn’t look for God. I didn’t ask for God. I thought I loved God but he hit me like from nowhere. I thought, “God, this is so amazing.” The first two months of my walk with Jesus I thought this is like miracle land. It’s like wonderland. This is like it’s always going to be like that.
HRVOJE: But after two months my flesh started to knock on my life and then I experienced … what I’ve experienced in my spirit it didn’t spill over into every part of my life. So I struggled with some issues, sin issues in my life and I thought, “God, I can’t do that. I don’t know what to do.” And then one August in 2001 I got a dream.
HRVOJE: In that dream I was in a stadium in our city and there was a wrestling match going on, an arm wrestling match. There was a guy, he was huge. He was so tall, he was so strong, he beat everybody and there was no opponent any more and he was looking into the stands and he said, “You.” He was pointing towards me and I thought, “What? You mean me. No, I can’t do that.” My mind was like, “Man, that is embarrassing. No, I can’t arm wrestle with him.” But he really meant me.
HRVOJE: So I went to the front, I thought to myself, “Okay, let it just go over quick. Just leave the building. It’s going to be embarrassing.” So he took my hand. His hand was so big I couldn’t see my hand and then the referee started the arm wrestling match. I closed my eyes and I thought, “Okay, that’s it. That’s it.” Nothing happened so I opened my eyes and I saw he was red in his face. He tried so hard to beat me. He couldn’t beat me.
HRVOJE: I thought, “This is my opportunity.” So I took all of my strength and tried to beat him but nothing happened. But in that moment I said, “Holy Spirit, help me.” I beat him. People started to jump. They took me on their shoulders and I said, “It has nothing to do with me. It’s not me. It’s the Holy Spirit.” I woke up and I knew, I have to get baptized with the Holy Spirit to get over all these issues I was struggling with.
SID: There is such a need for people, as you said earlier, to understand the fear of the Lord but it’s not what you think. Would you explain that?
HRVOJE: Exodus 20:20 says, “Fear not, God came to test you that his fear might be before you.” So fear not, but you should be afraid, which means the fear of God casts out all other fears. The fear of God may cast out all our fears you have in life. The fears you have concerning your family, concerning your job. The fear of God casts all of these fears.
