Bert Hodges (1895–1970)

Education: 5th grade and home study.
Positions held:

• Bell Telephone: Developed and created the rotary dialing system that preceded our push-button system of today. Invented a microphone that could pick up the “singing of the stars.”
• Warner Bros Studios: Started as a stagehand and ended up with a one-third partnership. Developed the soundtrack (“talkies”) for Warner Bros.
• Government (OSS–CIA): Because of his amazing talents, the government first used him to counsel fighter pilots in World War II, then as a “spotter” for unidentified flying objects in White Sands, New Mexico.

When my wife and I first met Bert, he was 62 years old. We were destined to spend the next 12 years together. As I look back, it seems like a fairy tale. I have never known such joy, excitement, and growth, not to mention love. Bert taught and demanded spiritual integrity, going far beyond salvation and the kindergarten churches and what they teach today! He healed with a wave of his hand, brought the dead back to life, and told you your past, present, and future with a smile on his face.

The church where we all attended, including the pastor, were scared to death of him and would not come near him. He was a spiritual giant among a bunch of pablum-sucking Christians and a few spiritual eunuchs. He told me right off he worked alone, but God had told him he was to take me along with him wherever he went and try to make me a spiritual creature, for he had an unusual ministry for me.

The church has failed miserably. Unfortunately, today, there are two kinds of Christians. In the early church, after water baptism they laid hands on them and filled them with the Holy Spirit. Today, the church has to evaluate if this is necessary, scriptural, or even demonic!

This is the way we met Bert: One weekend in 1957 (almost a half century ago), we were invited to a church picnic. We had been attending Bethel Temple, one of the oldest and most spiritual churches in Los Angeles. While sitting under a tree eating our lunch, an elderly man appeared and told Angie (my wife) she had petitioned God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He told her about this same time next week she would receive Him!

Attending church the following Sunday, Angie felt the power of God upon her. Upon returning home, she told me she had failed God. I told her she was just having an emotional experience and to forget it! The following Sunday found us at church again. At the close of the service, when everyone had left, Angie turned to me in tears and said: “You know the Bible backward and forward, what can I do with this power upon me?”

I was at wit’s end corner; I had no idea, for I was an unspiritual Christian, interested only in salvation-related experiences and scripture. I was a babe in Christ and thought I was full grown! I turned around in my seat, and about halfway back in this huge auditorium was the man that had spoken to Angie in the park. He was sitting there with his head back, eyes closed, and a smile on his face. I told Angie: “Why don’t you ask him? He seems to have all the answers!”

As she went to him, I left by the side door, went around the church, and through the front door into a dark pew where I could watch “the sideshow.” The man laid his hand upon her, and she burst into song in a foreign language. While she continued for about an hour, the man, without turning, said: “What do you think about this, young man?” I was not only speechless but felt as if nailed to the chair—I could not move any part of my body! The power of the Holy Spirit was upon me, but I was not yielding!

Bert came back and stood over me and said: “God has wanted to baptize you for a long time, but you are a wild ass of a man and must be tamed!” He then prophesied and told me all that week I would be jealous of what my lady had, I would lose my job, and even consider suicide. “But you will come back here next week, and I will baptize you in the Spirit, and you will have a great ministry.”

All that he said came to pass. I had the rare privilege of ministering with this spiritual giant, a prophet of the Most High, for 12 years. I am not worthy, but by the grace of God, I was used in a prophetic ministry for a few years, thanks to Bert’s obedience.