Featured Speaking in Tongues ... Does YOUR Church Allow it?

John ...

...scary to think, you may have been one of the teens that my programs to the local junior and senior highs may have been a part of! During YOUth Service Week, I'd send three adults to every classroom to speak about the importnance of finishing school, and becoming a productive citizen. This was a one day a year, massive undertaking, where I had hundreds of volunteers grouped and sent to speak at all the local schools. These folks ranged from college grads to tradepersons, to medical and law enforcement professionals, and they all took a few minutes each to speak about how school played an importnat role in getting them the job or career they currently had. It was well recieved at the pulic and private schools, and in 1979, Grand Island Teachers Association gave me a commendation for my work with youth and programs to help them stay in school and work through problems through the counseling programs I had set up throughout the city and county to identify problemed teens and help them to get to the right people to help them and their parents turn things around! Everything from family counseling, to tutoring programs, to postive role mentoring and groups involvements! It was a fun run, and a blessing! I still have some contacts with kids and parents that were helped in those few years the Youth Service Bureau ran!

Where were you when the tonrado hit? I was under ground, praying that the promise, "Lo, I'll be with you always!" meant in a basement during a tornado! :wavey:

 

I know that truck stop well. I used to do a ride along with the Sheriff's Youth Service Officer every Friday night, and we'd go there for a cup of coffee and, you know what comes next ........ a donut!

One time in an ice strom, we were called to intervene in a husband - wife dispute. It appears the husband was heading to the interstate Holiday Inn to kill his wife, who he had just discovered was in a room with his best friend. All officers were redirected to the HI, and because of the ice storm, it took us 20 hours to travel from downtown GI to the HI. Lucky for us and the other cops, when we all finally got there, the husband had apparently run off into a ditch an hour earlier, and never made it there. We were all fighting the ice, but since were were there, we went into the HI coffee shop and had ......wait for it......coffee and ....what was left of the days donuts! :laugh:

 

It is....

....truly, as someone once said, A SMALL, small small, world!

 

Thanks Rhys....

To answer your question....or the plan you laid out: YES! That is the way I've seen it done! Any variation of this is not accepted, and I seen a pastor chastise the person for going Lone Wolf!

It is quite a beautiful thing to witness, when it is done in orderly fashion!

As for singing in the spirit and praying in the spirit, that is not neccessary, as it is not for the edification of others, but rather an act between the individual and God! And it too is a beautiful thing to witness, espeically when a church of hundreds breaks out singing in known and unknown languages. It is like angels have descended on the congregation and it is something you'd have to be part and parcel of to truly enjoy!

Thanks for setting us straight! :wavey:

 

Done that...and surprise, surpise!

....all three people in the sanctuary, came up with the word, almost word-for-word! When it's real, there is no denying it!

Of course, I am not about to test God; it is a for real thing!

Let me explain. While I don't speak in tongues [I only use it for prayer and singing], I've heard people get up and speak the tongue, waited for the translation, and then been amazed, because as I stood there, caught up in the moment, I too, could have given the translation as it was nearly word for word what I was sensing within from the Spirits gentle nudge.

Let me take this one step further, sister! There have been times in service, when the pastor asked if anyone had a scripture or word to share with the congregation, and I felt the Spirit's gentle nudge to share a certain word and or Scripture, and as I sat there, too scared to speak, wouldn't you know it sister; someone on the other side of the church stood and read the very same Scripture I had been nudged to share just seconds earlier.

Keep in mind that this kind of thing happened several times when I was still in my infancy stages of tongues and following the nudging of the spirit. Each incident taught me a valuable lesson, and before you knew it, I was more than able to speak straight from the Holy Ghost leading to the congregation, especially in the realm of preaching.

I learned that He was genuinely talking to me, by watching what He gave me to say, pass unto some other person, due to my spiritual timidness!

I look at it this way, Kiddo ... I serve a supernatural God. A God who can do anything and everything we can't do on our own. I have learned that all I need when I preach or speak, is enough faith to trust Him to have the right word for the right time, and greater than great things take place.

Ten years ago, I was asked to preach a three day, four service revival. I studied for weeks, laying out four excellent messages built upon the way my preaching class theory taught me how to do! But once I got to the first night, and saw the church overflowing with a mixture of treet people and regulars; God's Spirit spoke to me and said, "You can preach what you have planned out, and do just fine ... or you can toss out the notes and plans, and lean hard on me, and I will deliver a great revival.

Right up to the moment of stepping behind the pulpit, I was set on preaching from note cards that took several weeks to develop!

But, as I looked out on the people, squished in the pews, sitting in the aisles, standing around the back of the church and sitting on the floor in front of the alters, I sensed that what I had was not good enough to feed the sheep, so I invited God, through prayer, to use me and to pour out of me, his vessel, the words, He himself prepared. I totally moved under the Spirit, and the results were overwhelming. And each service following that one, saw more people squeeze into the mid-sized church, and on Sunday night, when I gave the alter call, we had more than half the people crowded into that building, and now watching television of the service in the Sunday school hall, come to the alter for everything from being born again, to heal from drugs, alcohol, and I saw numerous marriages turned around!

One last fact. The presence of the Holy Ghost was so heavy on that service, that the pastor and I first prayed his staff that had come forward too, so we could free them up to help us pray with the hundred or so souls which came forward that night!

It was amazing, Judith, and I have never looked back. I now preach with the full leading of the Holy Ghost, and the results continue to blow me away!

And that all started with a man of God who was too afraid to share the very same message in the Spirit, that God took from me and gave to another, to get it spoken! Once I witnessed that God would not let the message go unheard, and that He would simply use another to speak what I ws afraid or embarrassed to speak up and say, I learned that if I wanted to be fully utilized by God, for God and of God, I had to step out in faith and act!

Yes, I am SINCERE, and I thank you for seeing that. Nevertheless, allow me to contradict one thing you said:, I am not wrong in a sincere way! God bless you my sister. And in no way do I suggest that you explore tongues. Your hesitation and disbelief are fine. I have seen some wonderful abilities and gifts at work in your contributions to this board, so it is apparent you have mastered the gifts. He has laid upon your heart. Tongues, and the gifts of the Spirit are definitely not for everyone. And these gifts in no way make me superior to anyone else.

For instance, ICON, and DHK have a solid gift in discerning and interpreting the Word of God [although their personal bias keeps them from the topic of tongues], others can debate wonderfully, without the need to let anger of name calling take over.

You, my dear sister, have a sweet spirit, and a genuine love for others, as does HAMel, and Anne. I would not insist that any of these folks even consider tongues, or a prayer language or prophecy, or a heavenly singing voice ... they all have found their place of service in the Body or Kingdom, and tongues will not enhance their skills of gifts one iota!

I just ask that you who seem to think that tongues had its day in the SON, not be judgmental on those who believe that the Holy Spirit like God, was the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. That which He started way back when may not be used as it was on Pentecost, but that doesn't mean it is no longer available in some form, for those who believe it is available.

God gave certain gifts ... gifts that are not meant for all, but nonetheless, gifts that can and will be used to lift up and carry forward the word He began, in earnest, the day He anointed the 120 to go out and build the church her on earth!

Shalom!