Introduction

Chapter 1

Spiritual Warfare

Chapter Two

Uttering Mysteries

Chapter 3

Bless With the Spirit

Chapter 4

Self-Edification

Chapter 5

My Spirit Prays, But My Mind is Unfruitful

Chapter Six

Give Thanks

Chapter Seven

Intercession

Conclusion

Appendix

Private Prayer,

Public Power

Ron Smith

Private Prayer, Public Power

Copyright © 2004

Ron Smith

501 Blacktail Road

Lakeside, MT 59922

www.ronsmithbooks.com

All Scripture references taken from the Revised Standard Version unless noted.

ISBN 0-9641913-8-5

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

In honor of my tongue-speaking elders, specifically:

Demos Shakarian

Derek Prince

Pat Robertson

Harald Bredesen

Jack Hayford

of whom the world is not worthy

Introduction

Jack Hayford writes,

Helen Pierson, wife of Alby, the former Major League Baseball outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels, tells of a dream she once had; a dream she saw as concerning some people’s attitude toward speaking with tongues as a prayer exercise. In the dream, she saw herself in a magnificently appointed banquet hall, as guests strolled among a lavish spread of delicacies being served buffet style. As various guests passed from one splendid spread of foods to another, each one inevitably came to a single table on which a gorgeously garnished tray featured but one item-an enormous tongue of beef. Uniformly, guests would look at the tongue and then, with their faces twisted with revulsion, would turn to a neighboring banqueter-each virtually chorusing, ‘I certainly don’t want any of that!’ Helen likened this picture to the frequency with which she has encountered devoted Christians who savor the meat of the teaching of God’s Word, delight in the Bread of daily feeding on Christ our life, and who enjoy the desserts of ‘the good things of the Lord.’ But when it comes to ‘tongues,’ a knee jerk reaction tends to dominate the mind-set of multitudes within the church: ‘I sure don’t want any of that!’ (Jack Hayford, The Beauty of Spiritual Language, p. 20).

Jack Hayford (1934-)

Pastored Church on the Way, Van Nuys, California which grew from eighteen members to more than ten thousand. He loved and accepted people across denominational lines. He has written many books and more than 350 songs (his most famous being “Majesty”).

Paul prayed in tongues. In fact, he wanted all saints to pray that way. We read in the good Book, “Now I want you all to speak in tongues.” We also have his testimony, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all” (1 Corinthians 14:5,19).

Pentecostals are the fastest growing part of the Christian church. Who says so? Harvey Cox says so. As Professor of Religion at Harvard University, this former “God is dead” propagandist is also rethinking the Deity’s demise and Cox’s own untimely statements about God’s death as well.

Pentecostal church growth spawns various responses. Some saints fight this burgeoning growth, while some saints put up with it and bear it like they put up with a crazy uncle in the basement of their mansion. Others agree with Pentecostals-passively. Pentecostals push it (some are pushy, others are not). Many people (Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal) refuse to talk about tongues at all.

While we attempt to categorize this on-going and phenomenal growth, the world honestly looks for spiritual power. Sometimes Oprah delivers spiritual power with a bizarre, new age surge, sometimes the Holy Spirit delivers it. Wherever power comes from, the world is interested. Church growth endorses the truth of that statement.

We leave the world confused while the world comes to Pentecostals in droves. There is a certain unseemliness to the presence and power in the Pentecostal churches (at least we in the church feel that way, at times). The world beats down the doors to get into Pentecostal churches, but sometimes we cower in shame over embarrassing tongues from heaven. Baptists say one thing, charismatic Catholics say something else, and the old-time Pentecostals (the ones who self-confessedly “really saw the glory”) say something different altogether. The urbanized Charismatics serve lattes in their foyers, unlike their spiritual forebears who tarried for hours at the altars seeking the Divine flow of power from the throne of Heaven itself. Through all of this bizarre maze, Pentecostal churches keep growing around the world and keep attracting more people than all of the other churches.

I write this book to add a voice to the loud and beautiful choir of prior witnesses. This book is simple. I will look at seven of the apostle Paul’s statements about prayer in tongues found in the Bible. I will tell many stories because stories speak powerfully. To people who do not like these stories, they are mere “anecdotal” evidence. The Bible encourages “anecdotes” as spiritual warfare: “They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives to the death” (Revelation 12:11). Interestingly, anecdotes tell the history of God’s people throughout Scripture. Anecdotes work and they speak truth plainly-a problem for some doubting Christians. Anecdotes are convincing proof to the truly hungry. They are testimonies of spiritual power and spiritual warfare.

My Anecdote

Although I was raised in the Methodist church, I never went much (only Christmas and Easter-sometimes). God saved me from sin in July of 1971, about two months after I heard Billy Graham preach about hell. In that first six months of my Christian experience, I did not read the Bible at all. In December of 1971, I got a Bible for Christmas (actually several). Within two or three weeks, I read through the New Testament in the New English Version. After another three weeks, I had read it again.

In March of 1972, I read a book by a Lutheran pastor named Larry Christensen. His book was entitled Speaking in Tongues. Late one night, I prayed and experienced what Harvard theologian Harvey Cox calls “fire from heaven.” God filled me with His Spirit and I prayed in tongues for the first time (a very “non-Methodist” thing to do). I was alone. No one “laid hands” on me. No one “coached” me on how to do it. No one suggested that I follow him or her in a few syllables of gibberish. No one told me to spell “Cincinnati backwards” real fast. God overpowered me right there in my dorm room in Abilene, Texas, where I prayed in tongues for about an hour.

From then until now, I have prayed in tongues daily (usually daily, I have missed a few here and there). Thirty years of praying in tongues force me to write this book.

As glory filled my days as a young college student, I felt some pressure to either bury my experience or de-emphasize its importance. I did not realize that a few years earlier John Sherrill had found the following to be true: “At Yale, for example, twenty men including a faculty member, five deacons of the University Chapel, a Phi Beta Kappa, and Summa cum laude graduate student received the Baptism and began to practice Spirit- filled prayer” (John Sherrill, They Speak With Other Tongues, p. 67). Even though our college fellowship was dynamic and many students claimed to be filled with the Spirit of God and to pray in tongues, at times I felt alone.

John Sherrill (1923-)

Author of They Speak With Other Tongues (1964). He also wrote The Cross and the Switchblade with David Wilkerson (1963) and God’s Smuggler with Brother Andrew. He was the senior editor of Guidepost magazine (1951-1969).

Three experiences in college set the later course of my life. The first one was an inquisition-like encounter with the religion department at my school. Our skeptical professors heard about the Pentecostal/charismatic “phenomena” occurring in our dorm rooms and wanted to query us publicly about the activities. I remember feeling somewhat put on the spot as a young undergraduate having to publicly answer this panel of mostly Ivy League trained Ph.D.s about my personal life. I look back now and smile as I think about one of my friends named Doug. During the inquisition, he felt like God was leading him to pray publicly in tongues on behalf of the professors, and he promptly did so.

The second experience occurred when I thought about going to seminary. My friends were all accepted early with full scholarships during my senior year. The school they attended was, and still is, a fine school. The school asked applicants about experiences with tongues. A non- propagation promise was demanded for any prospective student who wanted to attend the school. I balked at that questionable demand. Most of my friends, however, went along with it and received full scholarships from various saints. I declined, solely because of that one demand about tongues.Again, I felt alone.

The third experience revolved around choosing to go to Gordon- Conwell Theological Seminary. I struggled to seek God and hear where he wanted me to go. I had also looked into three other seminaries; two of the three offered me very large scholarships. I declined them, though, after more thought and prayer about the sad spiritual condition of those theologically liberal, although well-respected, seminaries.

I read the Assemblies of God magazine Pentecostal Evangel one day. I read that charismatic theologian Dr. J. Rodman Williams had a special week of meetings at Gordon-Conwell, and he was well received. I remember thinking, “If Gordon-Conwell can invite Rodman Williams, they can surely put up with me.” So, I went to Boston.

Rodman Williams (1918-)

Presbyterian theologian and charismatic leader and writer. He received a Ph.D. from Columbia. He wrote many books on the Holy Spirit and has taught at Austin Presbyterian Seminary, Melodyland, and Regent University (CBN).

I have written above that these three experiences set the later course of my life. Why do I say that? Each battle demanded a decision from me. Simply put, would I stand by what God did for me that night in March of 1972, or was that experience either peripheral or unimportant? I responded correctly each time, by the grace of God. God blessed the course of my life as a result of those decisions. I met my wife and went into full-time ministry from Gordon-Conwell in 1978.

During seminary, a few professors showed real zeal for charismatic reality at Gordon-Conwell. In the 1970s, Dr. J. Christy Wilson and Dr. Gordon Fee helped the cause. Dr. Wilson held chapel prayer meetings and told stories, while Fee held prayer meetings at his home. Doctors Richard Lovelace,Andrew Lincoln, Ramsey Michaels, and John Jefferson Davis demonstrated both interest and empathy for the cause. Dr. Harold Ockenga also allowed us to hold fairly exuberant Friday night charismatic prayer meetings (complete with prayer for healing) right there in his Calvin Library next to his office. Certain students pursued the gifts zealously. Some were Calvinists, someArminians, and some were outright Pelagians. Nevertheless, God blessed us. Derek Prince came, complete with British brogue, while I was there. I still remember his discussion of Isaiah 61 in a large classroom near the library.

Gordon Fee (1934-)

Ph.D. University of South California.  He was a Pentecostal New Testament professor (retired) who taught at Wheaton, Gordon-Conwell, and Regent University. He has a serious commitment to missions. His most prominent book is God’s Empowering Presence, which looks at the Holy Spirit in all of Paul’s writings.

J. Christy Wilson

Missionary to Afghanistan and born in Iran.  He graduated from Princeton Seminary and had many supernatural experiences. He lectured and taught at Gordon-Conwell Seminary for many years.

Derek Prince (1915-2003)

A Cambridge philosopher who was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit in 1941. He exorcised many demons. He also wrote more than forty books including Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting. This book was translated in eastern Europe and was credited partially with the destruction of the Soviet Empire.

In 1979, I invited David du Plessis to speak to our community in western Massachusetts where I was a pastor. “Mr. Pentecost,” as he was called, spoke for over two hours without stopping for a breath or for water. He actually spent the night in our apartment and talked with us a lot about Smith Wigglesworth and his relationship with him. Dr. du Plessis told us about Dr. John G. Lake’s visit to Capetown when du Plessis was only a young boy. Caravans of dump trucks carried off truckloads of crutches, morning by morning, for six weeks, while Lake ministered there.

Over the past twenty years of ministry, I have observed a troubling phenomenon that Dr. Donald Miller at the University of Southern California has also documented. Miller surveyed three west coast movements that evolved out of the Jesus movement of the 1960s. These three movements were Calvary Chapel, The Vineyard, and Hope Chapel. Miller looked at various aspects of spiritual practice in these three movements. One of his questions concerned the practice of devotional prayer in tongues. Miller found that with the exception of the Vineyard, speaking in tongues has been progressively less present in the other two movements through the years ending the 20th century. This troubles me. I have also seen it, though not necessarily only in these two movements, but also in other parts of the church that were birthed out of the Jesus movement, specifically in my own organization, Youth With A Mission (YWAM). YWAM was started and led for years by men affiliated with the Assemblies of God or similar denominational backgrounds.

I echo Gordon Fee’s concern that the Holy Spirit is given mere lip service in the church. In this book, I want to tell stories that will shed light on Scripture references from Paul’s writings. Gordon Fee argued the scholarly case powerfully in God’s Empowering Presence. I aim to convince, challenge, persuade and, where necessary, quote solid scholarship to underline my own case.

In the history of Pentecostalism, there are books by the score about tongues. Some keep to the point while others ramble-I hope to remain on point. Because of this, there are some things in Pentecostal culture that I will not directly address. I will allude to them presently to show you some of the other material extant. I include these stories here simply so you understand that I am aware they exist.

Supernatural phenomena adorn the history of Pentecostalism. Some of these phenomena parallel the story, retold by Harvey Cox, of “Simpson’s Bible Tabernacle.” Cox interprets an October 1907 revival meeting and then quotes Harold Moss:

Harold Moss saw the woman who was one day to be his wife float five or six feet in the air. We have it from direct testimony. It was during one of the hectic meetings that broke out all over the country following the eruption at Azusa Street (in Los Angeles, 1906). During these often hectic meetings, railway cars, rented halls, tents, and churches were transmuted into scenes straight out of apostolic days. Anything, it seemed, could happen. People prayed all night, spoke in unknown tongues, leaped in the air, shouted, and fell to the floor in trances, which the Pentecostals call “being slain in the Lord.” Levitations were rare, but there is this remarkable diary entry about his future spouse written by

Moss himself:

‘People were slain everywhere under the mighty power of God, including the ministers on the platform. The case of one young lady, Miss Grace Hammore (who since has become my wife), was quite remarkable. She was caught away in the Spirit and rendered wholly oblivious to anything natural. Asweet spirit of holy song came forth in notes like that of a nightingale and it filled the whole building. The power of God took hold of the physical and she was raised bodily from the floor three distinct times. She afterwards stated she had seen a vision of a golden ladder and had started to climb it.’

Dr. John G. Lake saw similar occurrences in London. Most of us did not find our wives that way, I know I didn’t.

John G. Lake

(1870-1935)

Ordained Methodist minister. God healed his wife ofT.B. which thrust him into a worldwide healing and evangelistic ministry. He settled in Spokane, Washington where he established the Healing Rooms. Many thousands of documented healings occurred under his ministry in Spokane.

Prophecy

Pentecostals state that God speaks to people, and that “speaking” is often supernatural. One form of the supernatural word is in prophecy. As wonderful as prophecy is, this book focuses elsewhere. A prophetic example comes from the life story of Demos Shakarian, founder of Full Gospel Businessmen International. Shakarian writes about his family’s move from Armenia to the United States as a result of a prophecy. The story is as follows:

Efim Gerasemovitch Klubniken had a remarkable history. He was of Russian origin, his family being among the first Pentecostals to come across the border, settling permanently in Kara Kala. From earliest childhood Efim had shown a gift for prayer, frequently going on long fasts, praying around the clock.

As everybody in Kara Kala knew, when Efim was eleven years old he had heard the Lord calling him again to one of his prayer vigils. This time he persisted for seven days and nights, and during this time received a vision.

This in itself was not extraordinary. Indeed, as Grandfather had been accustomed to grumble, anyone who went that long without eating or sleeping was bound to start seeing things. But what Efim was able to do during those seven days was not so easy to explain.

Efim could neither read nor write. Yet, as he sat in the little stone cottage in Kara Kala, he saw before him a vision of charts and a message in beautiful handwriting. Efim asked for pen and paper. And for seven days sitting at the rough plank-table where the family ate, he laboriously copied down the form and shape of letters and diagrams that passed before his eyes.

When he had finished, the manuscript was taken to people in the village who could read. It turned out that this illiterate child had written out in Russian characters a series of instructions and warnings. At some unspecified time in the future, the boy wrote, every Christian in Kara Kala would be in terrible danger. He foretold a time of unspeakable tragedy for the entire area, when hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children would be brutally murdered. The time would come, he warned, when everyone in the region must flee. They must go to a land across the sea. Although he had never seen a geography book, the Boy Prophet drew a map showing exactly where the fleeing Christians were to go. To the amazement of the adults, the body of water depicted so accurately in the drawing was not the nearby Black Sea or the Caspian Sea, or even the far-off Mediterranean, but the distant and unimaginableAtlantic Ocean! There was no doubt about it, nor about the identity of the land on the other side: the map plainly indicated the east coast of the United States ofAmerica (Demos Shakarian, The Happiest People on Earth, p. 20).

Shakarian concludes the story by writing,

But the instructions proved correct. In 1914, a period of unimaginable horror arrived for Armenia. With remorseless efficiency the Turks began the bloody business of driving two- thirds of the population out into the Mesopotamia desert. Over a million men, women, and children died in these death marches, including every inhabitant of Kara Kala. Another half a million were massacred in their villages, in a program that was later to provide Hitler his blueprint for the extermination of the Jews.Those who heeded the Boy Prophet and sought asylum in America, heard the news with dismay (Shakariah, Tbid., p. 22).

Demos Shakarian (1913-)

Dairy farmer from southern California. He established the Full Gospel Businessmen in 1951. By 1988 there were more than three thousand local chapters in eighty-seven nations. A typical Saturday morning breakfast produced businessmen giving their testimonies, getting saved, being filled with the Holy Spirit and getting healed. His life was marked by the supernatural power of God.

Healing

Healing captures the attention of many sincere believers, but this book is not focused on healing, although some of the stories may involve miraculous healings. When I think about healing, Dr. John G. Lake comes to mind. Between the years of 1914 and 1920 “it is estimated that.thousands of healings occurred through Lake’s ministry” (Burgess, McGee, & Alexander, Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, p. 531).

Lake testified concerning the power of God in 1908 in SouthAfrica In eighteen months God raised up one hundred white churches in the land. That hundred churches was born in my tabernacle at Johannesburg.I continued in the ministry of healing until I saw hundreds of thousands healed. At last I became tired. I went on healing people day after day, as though I were a machine.. (Reidt, John G. Lake, p. 488-489).

Words of Knowledge

Words of knowledge, though powerful, are not the focus of this book either. An example of a “word of knowledge” comes from the life of John Wimber from his book Power Evangelism.

David Pytches writes concerning this John Wimber word of knowledge,

He was once on an airplane when he turned and looked at a passenger across the aisle and saw the word ‘adultery’ written over his face in large letters. The letters were of course only perceptible to the spiritual eye. The man caught Wimber staring at him and said, ‘What do you want?’ Just as he was asking that, a woman’s name came clearly into John Wimber’s mind, and he replied by inquiring of this other passenger if that name meant anything to him. The man’s face paled, and he suggested they should talk in some other place.

It was a large plane with a bar, so they went to talk there. On the way the Lord spoke to Wimber again, saying, ‘Tell him to turn from his adulterous affair or I am going to take him.’ When they got to the bar Wimber told him that God had revealed that he was committing adultery with the woman whose name he had first mentioned and that God would take him if he did not repent. In tears, the man asked what he should do. He repented and received Christ in front of a stewardess and two other passengers at the bar. When he mentioned that the passenger in the seat beside him was his wife, Wimber suggested that the man tell her the entire story, which he did. He was then able to lead his wife to Christ (David Pytches, Does God Speak Today?, p. 26).

John Wimber (1934-98)

The key figure in the late twentieth centuryVineyard Church movement. In 1970, Wimber led eleven Bible studies per week with over five hundred people attending his church in Yorba Linda, California. He worked at Fuller Seminary and was noted for signs and wonders. At his death, Wimber’s monument had 440 churches in the US and 370 international churches in fifty-two countries.

Signs and Wonders

Signs and wonders have often dominated Pentecostal books. T.L. Osborn details signs and wonders in his book that has sold over one million copies, Healing the Sick. Showing an unusual cloud formation over a huge evangelistic audience in Java, Indonesia in 1954, Osborn states, “During the Osborn Crusade in Java, a Buddhist photographer captured the cloud formation in likeness of Christ’s face above the crusade audience-a wonder that has caused many to believe the gospel..” Osborn continues,

AMoslem woman stood listening to the message. Then, suddenly, she saw a great ball of light appear behind me on the podium. It burst, and then a huge open hand appeared behind me with blood dripping from it. She believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and was healed also. Another person saw a great light cover the field of people and a huge cross appeared. Then two pierced and bleeding hands appeared so large that they covered the entire audience. Blood sprayed from them over the people. Everyone who was engulfed in the flowing blood appeared to be immediately healed and made whole. But others feared the blood and fled from it, dragging their poor, crippled, and diseased bodies in a frantic escape to destruction. Signs and wonders like these and others caused tens of thousands to believe on Jesus Christ and to trust His word for salvation (T.L. Osborn, Healing the Sick, p. 445, 449).

T.L. Osborn (1923-)

Went to India at the age of twenty-two as a missionary. He launched into worldwide evangelism/healing ministry in 1948 at the age of twenty-five after receiving a vision of Christ. He probably preached to more people face-to-face than any evangelist in history. Signs, wonders, and miracles mark his ministry.

Tongues

There are three types of tongues. The first tongue demonstrates God’s supernatural power as a sign in a known language to the listener but not the speaker. Believers or unbelievers receive words from God in this way. The second type of tongue receives an interpretation in a public worship service and can also be spoken both to God or interpreted and spoken to men. The third type of tongue is the focus of this book. This tongue is simply a prayer tongue directed toward God (See 1 Corinthians 14:2).

The “Sign” Tongue

(A supernatural tongue that is not the focus of this book)

In the 1920s, R.B. Garlock spoke in this supernatural sign tongue to the cannibal Pahn tribe in Liberia for twenty minutes. God spared his life in this supernatural encounter as Garlock was on trial before the whole tribe. They were later converted to Christianity.

Reinhard Bonnke writes,

In 1985, Thoralf Gilbrant, a Norwegian scholar and international editor of the sixteen volume Biblical Library, testified to the World Pentecostal Conference. His grandmother had preached to Italian ship crews in fluent Italian, not knowing a word it (Reinhard Bonnke, Mighty Manifestations, p. 179).

Tongues and Interpretation

(Another supernatural tongue which is not the focus of this book)

David Pytches writes in Does God Speak Today?, The Face in the Mirror:

A young Sri Lankan Bible student was giving himself to long hours of prayer when he felt an unusual movement of God’s Spirit. His eyes fell on the mirror, upon which he saw an arrangement of unfamiliar faces looking back at him. The student Colton Wickramaratne, stared back at the faces-all clearly belonging to Westerners except for one, a beautiful Asian girl. As he reflected upon whatever the meaning of this strange vision could be, he sensed God speaking to him: ‘These eight people will touch Asia with the Gospel. The eight people will be instrumental in a great Asian revival to come.’ The Lord then told Colton that he would meet each of these eight people, but that he was not to tell any one what he had seen until he had met the eighth and final person. The vision and the message left such a deep and ineradicable impression on the young man that he would never forget it.

As the years went by he met seven of the faces one by one, but the last still eluded him, until finally he recognized her in the most surprising way. He had been visiting a Christian girl in the hospital who was paralyzed due to a fall when she was a university undergraduate. The visit, he felt, had been rather unsatisfactory, and he was returning to his car outside when he happened to glance up at the window of the ward the patient was in. There it was! Reflected in the mirror of her room he saw the eighth face-that of theAsian girl.

He returned at once to her ward, only to find it a most inconvenient moment; the girl was passing through a spasm of extreme pain. She seemed unimpressed when he told her that God was going to heal her and make her a witness inAsia. Nearly a year later, this same girl, still paralyzed and stretched out upon her bed, suddenly heard what sounded like a man’s voice, ‘Mita,’ it said, ‘I’m going to raise you up to make you a witness in Asia.’ She could hardly believe her ears. Someone was surely playing a trick on her. Then she heard a further word, ‘I’m going to heal you on Friday, the 11th of February.’ The ‘voice’seemed to have come from behind her back. She could neither see nor sense anyone. Mita had never been impressed by people who claimed to have heard from God. It made her very suspicious of them, but deep in her heart she knew that this had to be God.

Later at Colton’s church, where Mita had been taken in a wheel chair a ‘tongue’ was given, the interpretation of which confirmed the earlier promise to her. It ran, ‘God will raise you up to be a witness to all Asia. His word to you is true. Trust him. He will not lead you astray. He will glorify himself through you.’ She knew now that God had spoken to her, but still she shared it with no one.

Back at the hospital she reflected upon it and prayed, ‘Father you have told me the day and the date. Please don’t keep me waiting all day! Please tell me the time too.’ She half- expected to hear the ‘voice’ again, but instead she sensed in her heart that God had appointed for it to happen at 3:30 on the afternoon of Friday, February 11.

Once again, this time as she lay back in a chair for the disabled at church the following week, God’s word was confirmed. Mita had the documented evidence that she was completely paralyzed for a year. Soon after that last church service, Colton, her pastor, went to see her. He seemed to know something too. ‘What has God told you?’ He asked. He read her lips (by now she could not even speak), and she told him about the time for the promised healing. It was planned to invite a number of believers to her room on Friday, February 11-among them were two Christian doctors (David Pytches, Does God Speak Today?, p. 44).

David Pytches (1931-)

Went to Chile in SouthAmerica as anAnglican missionary in 1959. In 1977 he became vicar of Chorleywood, England and a leader in theAnglican charismatic renewal worldwide.

It was exactly to the minute that complete healing came to Mita. She was literally catapulted from her chair as the power of God came upon her for her healing. This amazing story is told fully by Mita herself and Mark Buntain in the book Miracle in the Mirror, and is attested by such a well-known Christian as BrotherAndrew. As wonderful as this story is, this book is about a different kind of supernatural tongue.

In this book, I intend to write about praying in tongues as private prayer. This prayer includes several aspects, of which I will discuss seven. These seven aspects of private prayer in tongues include: spiritual warfare, intercession, personal self-edification, uttering mysteries in the Spirit, thanksgiving, blessing, and praying in the Spirit

Mark Buntain (1923-1989)

Missionary to India. He was the son of a Pentecostal minister in Manitoba, Canada. In Calcutta, he started the Mission of Mercy to feed the hungry (1,500 people in Sunday school, 4,000 in Sunday service in six languages). His mission fed 22,000 people a day. He fed a quarter of a million people, 100,000 went to school, and thousands were ministered to in hospitals. He was very serious about tongue speaking.

Chapter 1

Spiritual Warfare

“Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).

Fuchsia Pickett wrote her spiritual autobiography in 1998 entitled Stones of Remembrance. She wrote one story titled “A Recent Deliverance”:

A few months ago, I was ministering in Olen Griffing’s church in Shady Grove, Texas. We had prayed for most of the congregation, and many were lying on the floor under the power of the Spirit. When I finished praying for people, I went to sit down. As I sat there observing the work of God in so many lives, two elders brought a man to me and asked me to help them pray for him. As soon as I looked at the man, I knew his problem was demonic. I thought, I am weary, why don’t you folk pray for him? Looking again at the man.the man’s eyes were glassy-looking, and he almost snarled at me. I said, ‘In the name of Jesus.’ We used the weapons we knew to use. But there was no change; he still stood looking at me with glassy eyes. So I sat down for a moment to regroup and prayed, ‘Lord, what next? What am I to do?’

The Lord spoke to me, ‘Tell him to pray in tongues.’ I was startled. What? Tell a demonically controlled man to pray in tongues? I heard the Spirit say to me again clearly, ‘Tell him to pray in tongues. He has had the baptism and has grieved the Holy Spirit.’

I stood back up and said with authority, ‘Sir, have you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit?’ He said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ ‘Pray in tongues,’ I commanded him. His response was garbled. I said again, ‘In the name of Jesus, pray in the language of the Spirit.’

Suddenly he began to pray in tongues, and I recognized that his spirit had begun to pray. The Holy Spirit was washing all the bitterness from his soul, all the resentment and anger that were there. After a while his countenance began to beam with a divine glow. He had ‘prayed through.’ The last I saw of him he was praying in tongues and shouting.

I said to the elders, ‘I have never done that before.’ They were thrilled with their friend’s deliverance. The man had grieved the Holy Spirit, and by surrendering his own human spirit back to the Holy Spirit he received divine deliverance from the demonic powers that tormented him (Fuchsia Pickett, Stones of Remembrance, p. 85-86).

Ephesians details spiritual warfare. ClintonArnold, professor of New Testament at Talbot Seminary writes, “There is strong emphasis on the power of God and the ‘powers’ of evil in Ephesians. This includes a lengthy section instructing believers about engaging in a ‘spiritual warfare’ against these ‘powers’” (Clinton Arnold, Ephesians, Power and Magic, p. 1).

The phrase “praying in the Spirit” in Ephesians 6:18 takes on even larger importance due to the spiritual warfare emphasis in the book of Ephesians. Paul places this statement in relationship to being strong in the Lord (Ephesians 6:10), putting on the armor of God (6:11), and “contending against principalities, powers, world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places” (6:12). One of the ways to do that is to “pray in the Spirit.” What exactly is that? Respected New Testament scholar Gordon Fee writes,

‘Praying in the Spirit’ is to be understood as yet a further weapon in the warfare, even though it is admittedly not associated with armor.There is every good reason to think that Paul intends this phrase precisely as he has used it elsewhere-especially in 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 [cf. Rom. 8: 26-27]-to refer specifically to that form of prayer in which the Spirit assumes a special role in the praying, especially, though probably not exclusively, praying in  tongues.

Paul considered prayer to be above all an activity empowered by the Spirit.The context is that of conflict, warfare

against ‘the prince of darkness grim’; only ‘praying in the Spirit’ will suffice in such conflict (Gordon Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, p. 730-731).

Prayer Tongues, Spiritual Warfare, and the Bible

All Christians agree that God wants us to read the Bible and Satan does not. History testifies to the opposition of satanic forces against the translation, propagation, and reading of Scripture.

Lutheran pastor Larry Christensen wrote Speaking in Tongues in 1968. He details many stories in this book. On page 27, he begins a section entitled ‘What is the Value of Speaking in Tongues?” He begins that section with this story:

Those who have experienced this manifestation of the Spirit find that it has great blessing and value. It is no ‘frill’ or ‘extra’ in their Christian life-something, which they could now take or leave depending upon their mood. It has had a deep, often a transforming effect on their spiritual life. One man expressed it this way: ‘Speaking in tongues was a spiritual breakthrough for me.’ There is an awareness of having entered a vast new spiritual realm. And this leads to deeper study of the Scriptures, for one wants to know more about this realm that has suddenly taken on new reality. One suddenly finds himself able to understand the Bible far better. One young worker who received this experience said, ‘For years I have tried to force myself to read the Bible, but I never got anything out of it-I couldn’t seem to understand it. Now I read the Bible everyday, and I always get some new thought or insight’ (Larry Christensen, Speaking in Tongues, p. 27-28).

William Tyndale translated the New Testament into English and was known as the father of the English Bible. As well, he planned on translating the Old Testament, however, his plans were cut short. Satanically inspired persecution rose against Tyndale for his translation and his godly work:

Tyndale planned to complete the translation of the Old Testament, but in 1535, he was betrayed by a fellow Englishman, Henry Phillips. Phillips induced Tyndale to venture onto the streets of Antwerp, and he was ambushed and seized while walking down a narrow passage. He was taken to the state prison in the castle of Vilvorde, near Brussels. After nearly one and a half years of confinement, Tyndale was strangled and then burned at the stake in Brussels on October 6, 1536. His last words were reported to be, ‘Lord, open the King of England’s eyes’(Woodbridge, Great leaders of the Christian Church, p. 204).

Satan hates the Bible and hates Bible reading.

Dr. J. Lawton Smith M.D. wrote a letter to Don Basham, published in 1971. Dr. Smith wrote, among other things, about a deliverance:

Over a five day period, Brother and Sister Coffey prayed with me and over one hundred demons came out with definite signs and manifestations-gluttony, unclean sex spirits, migraine headache, fear, and many others. I found that two things particularly distressed the demons-[1] the Word of God and [2] prayer in tongues” (Don Basham, Can a Christian Have a Demon, p. 90

Dan Bashan (1926-1989)

Disciples of Christ Minister. He pastored churches in Washington D.C., Toronto and Sharon, Pennsylvania. He traveled and taught with Christian Growth Ministries from 1975-1981 about the Holy Spirit and also exorcism.

Prayer Tongues, Spiritual Warfare, Deliverance from Drugs

Jackie Pullinger went to Hong Kong and ministered among Chinese mafia-controlled gangs. Satan inspired drug use and prostitution-dominated life on the streets where Pullinger ministered in the famed Walled City. She tells the story of one of her converts, Siu Ming, and his journey out of the demonically inspired world of drugs:

Eventually, he concluded, ‘It’s either jail or Jesus,’ and took Jesus. Some of the former gang members living there then prayed with him and he began to speak quietly in a language he did not know. We then took him back across the harbor to Third House so that he could withdraw from heroin.

Some of the boys were smart enough to pray immediately and never had the slightest twinge. Others, like Siu Ming, waited until they were in extremis before learning that God did not want them to suffer at all. He refused to pray, which was understandable since his experience of praying was limited to the session in my house only a few hours earlier. He was in agony with withdrawal pains and did not know how to make a prayer even had he felt like it.

At last he could bear no more and in desperation agreed to pray in tongues.

He did not have to think what words to say, God’s Spirit gave them. He said he felt wonderful and in ten minutes was asleep. He slept right through a day and when he awoke he had a real confidence that Jesus did love him. Through this, he also learned to pray in the Spirit and was freed from heroin painlessly. Although this miracle had been repeated each time with each of the boys, each one of them knew that it was specially for him (Jackie Pullinger, Chasing the Dragon, p. 168-169).

Jackie Pullinger

Started ministry to Hong Kong’s Walled City at the age of twenty. Later she started St. Stephens Society to provide for the ministry. She emphasizes the importance of prayer in tongues for power to be released from drugs and living the Christian life

Jamie Buckingham related a similar experience while interviewing Nicky Cruz for writing the book Run Baby Run. Buckingham writes,

A junkie lay wretching in Brooklyn.Nicky laid hands on the junkie’s head and prayed in tongues for a few seconds. I had never heard tongues before, always believing it was some kind of ‘trance-talk.’ How well I remembered the time when I was a seminary student in Ft. Worth and the students and faculty were all atwitter about some of the people in a Baptist Church in nearby Handley, Texas, who were reportedly ‘speaking in tongues.’ The reaction ranged from ‘tsk-tsk’ to ‘that’s heresy.’ But this wasn’t heresy.  It was power. Within seconds the junkie ceased his heaving, groaning and shaking.I learned later that he had been completely delivered from dope in those few seconds. But it was the ‘few seconds’ that blew my mind (Jamie Buckingham, Risky Living, p. 16).

Jamie Buckingham (1932-)

Ordained Baptist preacher and charismatic author. He wrote thirty-eight books on charismatic and Holy Spirit themes.

Nicky Cruz (1938-)

A Puerto Rican gang member who was converted under the ministry of David Wilkerson. He co-authored his life story in 1968 entitled Run Baby Run. He has traveled extensively in the Spanish-speaking world speaking on his conversion, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the importance of prayer in tongues.

Prayer Tongues, Spiritual Warfare, Missionary Activity

Buckingham related, later in the book, praying in the Spirit for a demon-possessed boy in Colombia, and God delivering the boy in the jungle from the demon. Speaking of the jungle, Jack Hayford relates the following story of demonic struggle from the Philippines. It is the story of missionary legend Evelyn Thompson:

[I was] a missionary in the southern parts of the Philippines on the island of Mindanao, where there are many jungles-interior places not usually reached by anyone, really. We were on a trek to reach a new village. It was from that area that a woman had come-a woman who was completely out of her mind. The villagers had not know what to do with her at all, and they brought her to a place near the ocean where, on the sand, a house on stilts had been built-high stilts, maybe twelve feet high. It was made of bamboo rounds and looked more like a cage than a place for a human being. My husband and I were brought up into that house with several other people to pray for this woman who was chained to the bamboo floor. It was very sturdy; she could not get loose.

As soon as we walked into that room, we realized what was happening, as the Holy Spirit made known to us the demonic nature of the problem with her. There was a small baby in the corner of the room lying on a mat. It was her baby-a beautiful baby-but she could not take care of it, and someone else was doing that. As we came in and almost immediately began to pray for her, the woman began to rant and rave. We prayed as one would usually pray in such a setting; we prayed with power, we prayed in the language of the Holy Spirit-but still nothing seemed to happen.

Finally, I said to the people, ‘Those of you who do not believe or cannot have the faith to release this woman from the chains that bind her soul, please leave the room.’ All but three left, and my husband, another man, and I were left. Then we prayed again. At first, when I laid hands on her, she calmed-but nothing happened. Great compassion filled my soul and I cried out, ‘Oh God, what can I do here? I cannot leave this place without Your doing something here that I can see, that this woman would be delivered!’ I began to pray again with such passion that my husband put his arms around me, feeling concerned for the way I was pouring myself out in prayer. We still had much to do on this journey, and he was concerned for the ebbing of my strength in the tropical heat. But I asked him to release me and allow me to pray until I sensed victory, and he agreed.

I began to pray again, and as I did, out of my mouth- like a ball of fire from the middle of my stomach-came another language that I had never spoken before in the Spirit; certainly a language that I had never learned, nor had I ever heard it before. But as it came out of my mouth, I saw that there was a change in the expression on the face of the woman we were praying for. I saw that her eyes were listening, and at once I began to understand that I was speaking her language. As this change came over her, I saw the muscles in her face begin to relax, the trembling stopped, and her hands ceased the wild beating of the air as though she were trying to hit me. She had been writhing almost like a slithering snake, and this, too, ceased as well as her constant laughing over her shoulder in a hysterical way. Then a most wonderful thing happened.

I not only could see that she understood me, but suddenly I was enabled to understand what I was saying; I was able to think as well as to speak in a language which I had never learned and never heard before! In the following minutes I explained the story of Jesus Christ, God’s gift to us, and how Jesus had died for our sins and rose from the dead. And with a perfect awareness of every word I was speaking, I led her to the Lord Jesus Christ with full understanding of that language at the time.

She was totally delivered and today she still lives. She became a witness to the Resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ, was restored to her husband that very day, and took her baby and nursed it. Now these many years later, she knows the Lord and has raised her children accordingly.

I did not know that language after that one instance. I later heard that language spoken by others in the mountain areas, but could not understand it and I certainly could not speak it.

How great is our God! How blessed to be filled with His Holy Spirit and to have faith that He knows His way when we don’t. He will lead us and guide us (Jack Hayford, The Beauty of Spiritual Language, p. 84-85).

Evelyn Thompson endured in prayer. Various Greek writers used the word “perseverance” which is found in Ephesians 6:18. The Greeks used this word to convey a sense to “hold out, persist in an activity” (Colin Brown, Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol. 2, p. 767). Evelyn “held out” and “persisted” in prayer in tongues for this demon- oppressed woman and won the victory through perseverance.

Evelyn Thompson instructs the rest of us in the church. Persist, persevere, and don’t ever give up praying in the Spirit. Through the years, I have quizzed many Christians-personally-about their experience with praying in tongues. More often than not, they respond, “Well, I started out, as a young Christian, like a house on fire, praying in tongues. But as I have grown older my zeal for tongues has died out.” This lagging zeal is caused by what? There are several possible answers: unbelief in its effectiveness, criticism from other Christians, maybe sin in the life of the believer, possibly boredom with the things of God, or a desire to be respectable. Any or all of these could be the reason for the lack of perseverance in the life of a tongue-speaking prayer warrior. It might also be the devil opposing prayer in tongues.

A critic would say, “These are extreme examples. Very few people share these experiences. Why don’t more people see this? Why was I not taught this at my famous Bible school? Famous preachers, with very large radio, television, and writing ministries teach against this kind of thing.” The only response I can give is a rhetorical one. Why weren’t you taught that in your famous Bible school? Why don’t more people see this? Why do famous preachers with very large radio, television, and writing ministries teach against this kind of thing? These are good questions-often with no answers.

Other critics would say, “This is Pentecostal charismania. If you teach this kind of thing to the church, Christians will become bizarre.” How much more bizarre can you get than the lady in the bamboo hut in the Philippines or the heroin addict on the streets of New York? Others would say that we are creating unrealistic expectations in missionary candidates. It is better to create some kind of supernatural expectation rather than expect nothing from the supernatural.

Other critics would actually put these Pentecostal occurrences as part of the “spiritual warfare problem.” Pentecostals represent Satan and his activities for some critics. Jesus’response to that would be, “Well if Satan casts out Satan then his kingdom is coming to a quick end.” Other critics would call these people liars, exaggerators, or simply deluded folks bordering on lunacy. Some say that theology is nonexistent for Pentecostals. The facts and the Ph.D.s earned year after year by Pentecostal students of theology-at reputable schools-argue otherwise. “Pentecostals read the Bible in the barn by candlelight” some would argue. Prejudice paints pictures. People see what they want to see. This can be true for both believers and unbelievers. “Don’t bother me with the facts, I have my mind made up!”

Miracles happen, tongues happen, electricity happens! We don’t understand it, but reality is reality wherever we find it. We don’t see electricity, but we see its effects. In John chapter three, Jesus said that we can’t see the wind of the Holy Spirit, but we see its effects. We don’t see demons either, but we see their effects as well. Nicky Cruz prayed for the heroin addict in tongues, and he was healed. We see the effects of Evelyn

Thompson’s prayer in the Philippines.

Some would look askance at the testimony of the death of Polly Wigglesworth, the wife of Smith Wigglesworth-the famous Pentecostal evangelist. Wigglesworth often saw the effects of his prayers in private prayer tongues. He responded to news of her death in an interesting and faith inspiring way as found in the book The Standard of Wigglesworth: ‘Good-bye Polly,’said Wigglesworth as he sent her off to preach.

‘Smith, watch me when I’m preaching. I get so near to heaven when I’m preaching that some day I’ll be off.’ He thought back on these words that his dear Polly had once spoken. ‘Well,’ he mused, ‘she certainly must have preached tonight.’ It was New Year’s Day, 1913, and the local doctor and a policeman had met him just as he was stepping out the front door on his way to Glasgow to minister at some meetings. However, the look on the two men’s faces as they met him told him that something was wrong. ‘Polly’s dead, Smith. She fell dead at the mission door.’ Just a few hours before he had bid her well as she was leaving to go preach there. How he loved his Polly. She was everything in the world to him. In the natural he was devastated, but deep down inside, he knew that she was where she wanted to be. He began to speak in tongues and praise the Lord, laughing in the Spirit.

Soon the house was filled with people. Her body had been brought to the house. At Smith’s instructions, they took her up to her room and laid her lifeless form on the bed. ‘She’s dead, and we can do no more.’ Smith just smiled. He knew differently. Asking everyone to please leave the room, he closed the door when the last one had left. He turned around and walked over to her bed. He knew that she was with her beloved Lord as she had so longed to be, but standing before her now he couldn’t bear the separation.

‘In the name of Jesus, death give her up.’ Polly’s eyes opened and looked straight into his. ‘Polly, I need you.’ She answered, ‘Smith, the Lord wants me.’ An incredible struggle was going on inside him now. Oh, how much he wanted her with him. How could he go on without her? He had thought that they would have so many more years together. That still small voice came-the voice he knew so well, the only one he loved more than hers. ‘She’s mine. Her work is done.’ With tears streaming down his face, he yielded to his Lord. ‘My darling, if the Lord wants you, I will not hold you.’ She smiled as he kissed her cheek tenderly. Then he simply said, ‘Good-bye for the present.’ Her eyes closed, and she was gone. ‘Yes Lord.’ He had obeyed. He turned and walked out of the room. It was the hardest thing he had ever done (The Standard of Wigglesworth)

Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947)

British healing evangelist and a plumber by trade. He saw fourteen people raised from the dead in his ministry. After the age of forty-eight his ministry became worldwide. Critics accused him of being harsh with the people he prayed for.

Private prayer in tongues is a tool in spiritual warfare. Paul writes in Ephesians 6:18, “Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” Gordon Fee writes concerning this passage that it is describing “yet a further weapon in the warfare.”

There is every good reason to think that Paul intends this phrase precisely as he used it elsewhere, especially in 1 Cor. 14:14-15 (cf. Rom. 8:26-27)-to refer specifically to that form of prayer in which the Spirit assumes a special role in praying, especially, though probably not exclusively, praying in tongues (Gordon Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, p. 730-731).

Chapter Two

Uttering Mysteries

“For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 14:2).

Let’s think about mystery. Dr. John Lake writes about the power of the Holy Spirit in his ministry:

For nine months (after being filled with the Holy Spirit and praying in tongues) everything that I looked at framed itself into poetic verse. I could not look at the trees without it framing itself into a glory poem of praise. I preached to audiences of thousands night after night, and day after day. People came from all over the world to study me. They could not understand. Everything I said was a stream of poetry. It flowed from my soul in that form. My spirit became a fountain of poetic truth.

Then a new wonder was manifested. My nature became so sensitized that I could lay my hands on any man or woman and tell what organ was diseased, and to what extent, and all about it. I tested it. I went to the hospitals where physicians could not diagnose a case, touched a patient and instantly knew the organ that was diseased, its extent and condition and location (Wilford Reidt, John G. Lake, p. 25-26).

Reidt goes further to describe Lake’s life between 1914 and 1920. Lake started The Healing Room ministries specifically to pray for sick people. In the five years The Healing Rooms were open, 100,000 people were known to have been healed. On May 4 in the Spokane Daily Chronicle was listed an incident from each day of the week:

Sunday, 2:45 p.m.-A suffering woman, insane with an agony of pain, pronounced incurable by her physicians, excepting possibly through operations, which were to take place Monday at 9 o’clock. Cause, diseased mastoids. Hands were laid upon her, the power of God flowed into her, in five minutes her pains were gone, to the astonishment of herself and household.

Monday-A group of baffled physicians, a woman dying of spinal meningitis, raving in delirium, their treatment of no avail. Her brokenhearted parents, the prayer of faith, the touch of God, recovered consciousness, the joy of the household, a gathering of friends and relatives to a meeting of praise to God for the healing.

Tuesday-Two men quarreled, a fight followed, a crushed head, a surgical operation, a long period of suffering, the final announcement of the physician, ‘The man must die.’ The other man facing the possibility of a trial for manslaughter, his sorrowing wife and children a telephone call, a quick response, two ministers of the church arrive, hands are laid on the dying man, the power of death smitten, in a few minutes the agony of suffering had disappeared and life had returned, He conversed without pain for an hour and is recovering.

Wednesday-A mother with her little son, three years old, who was strangling with membranous croup, his face black, bronchial tubes refusing to act, the physician could do nothing more; a woman of faith kneels by the bedside, ministers in faith and prayer to the dying child, and in the evening the mother presents the child to her friends well.

Thursday-A long-distance call from a city a hundred miles distant. The father is dying of cancer. The petition is presented to a public meeting at the Healing Rooms, prayer for the dying man is offered by the congregation. Another telephone call two hours later to tell us, ‘A marvelous change has taken place.’ Telephone calls each day since. Reports continued-rapid recovery.

Friday-A doctor of medicine, who has suffered from extreme diabetes, and who has spend a hundred thousand dollars in going from institution to institution all over the world where the promise of healing was held out, hearing of the power of God in our midst has been ministered to for some weeks past, came to report his final perfect healing, and that his weight has increased thirty-five pounds, and that he is perfectly well by every known scientific test (Reidt, Tbid., p. 70-71).

How does a person have all of these things happen in their ministry? Lake himself, gives us his answer: “I want to talk with utmost frankness.and say to you, that tongues have been to me the making of my ministry” (Reidt, Tbid., p. 27).

Harvey Cox calls tongues the recovery of “primal speech.” “Primal speech” releases that enigmatic part of humanity closely related to the image of God. He goes on to say that this mysterious recovery of “primal speech” in Pentecostalism is also one of the reasons for its attractiveness worldwide. The unexplainable humbles us. Mystery reminds us of our being finite. Francis Schaeffer called this recognizing the “manishness of man.” The unfathomable puts us in our place.

Cox detailed “tongues as mystery” in many other cultures and religions. In the 20th century many observations presented themselves about uttering “mysteries.” Some observations encourage Christian “mystery” phenomena, others discourage it.  Some observers write that the modern tongues “mystery” experience is fraudulent. One writer actually argued that Pentecostals are particularly “hypnotizable” people.

What is “mystery”? Well, it can mean two things in Paul’s writings. First, a mystery can be something which is simply not cognitively understandable to humans. Second, a mystery can be an indication of closer fellowship with God. The mystery of tongues probably includes both of these ideas.

One writer, John Bunn, compared the contemporary tongues phenomena to Mesopotamia in the 2000-1500 B.C. era. He described “ecstatic” prophecies and speech among ancient Babylonian holy people akin to Christian Pentecostals. Bunn documents Egyptian youth whose “lips poured a veritable babel of voices” (ed. Religious Book Club, A Charismatic Reader, p. 40). Professor Bunn writes that the Canaanite, Hittite, Israelite,Arabic, and Greek practiced tongues as well. He discusses later shamanism in world history occurring with tongues.

Bunn concluded four important things:

1. Glossolalia (tongue speaking) is a common religious phenomenon.

2. Associated with lower socioeconomic classes for the last 4,000 years

3. Served as a device to denote presence of deity in an acute personal dimension

4. Aids to ecstasy were regularly employed with music and recitation.

We conclude, from Bunn, that Christian “mystery” utterances are simply a Christian category of a far broader religious phenomenon in world history. Cox writes that this mystery is a key to the burgeoning Pentecostal movement in the church. Pentecostalism, as we presently find it, is middle class wherever it is found in the USA, according to Cox.

Although we disagree with Bunn’s verbiage (ecstasy, etc.), we can be heartened that “incomprehensible tongues” are a large part of every religious tradition in history worldwide. What does Paul mean when he says a person praying in tongues “utters mysteries in the Spirit”?

Gordon Fee concludes that “mystery” in 1 Corinthians 14:2 describes the ignorance we all face as we hear a prayer in tongues. Tongues are “outside the understanding” of both “the speaker and the hearer.” Paul states this later in 1 Corinthians 14:14 where he writes, “my mind is unfruitful” when “my spirit prays [in tongues].”

This ignorance strikes at our human tendency to control. We desire control, even in our private prayer, devotional and spiritual life. This control even extends to denominational standards for ministry and missionary acceptance. Some denominations desire control over their missionaries bordering on their missions boards trying to control God himself. Note the following historical example: Presbyterian theologian RodmanWilliams writes in his theology text Renewal Theology,

[A] missions board, according to a report in Christianity Today magazine (Sept. 18, 1987), has developed a policy that ‘disqualified missionary candidates who actively participate in, or promote speaking in tongues.’ Further, ‘any missions personnel already appointed, approved, or endorsed by the mission board who become involved in glossolalia will be counseled by a mission board representative. Continued participation in speaking in tongues would result in their dismissal.’ ‘I may add,’says Williams, ‘though it hardly needs saying, the apostle Paul would be totally disqualified and rapidly dismissed! (I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all!)’(Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology, Vol. 2, p. 224).

Speaking about “getting the boot,” Williams writes not only about Paul, but also about Francis Xavier: “For example, it was said of St. Francis Xavier who went as a missionary to the far east, that ‘God restored to St. Francis the gift of tongues; for he preached often to the Chinese merchants.in their mother tongues, which he had never learned’” (Williams, Tbid., p. 215, quoting,Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Others Principal Saints, Vol. 4, p. 444). Xavier (and many others like him) would have been canned from the mission board because of the fallen human desire of that same board to control the mysterious.

Theologian Craig Gay at Vancouver’s Regent College wrote The Way of the Modern World. Gay states, “Who will rule, God or man? This is the great constitutional question that determines everything in mortal life” (p. 239). God created man to rule and have dominion over the rest of creation. After the fall, we desire to rule over each other, even trying to control God himself. Imagine that. We battle God and his mysterious gift of prayer in tongues, which is a losing enterprise.

Harvey Cox responds to this monstrous urge for control by writing, When you ask the Pentecostals why they think their movement grew so rapidly and why it continues to expand at such speed, they have an answer: because the Spirit is in it. They may be right. But as I have pondered these questions from a more pedestrian perspective, it has occurred to me that there is another way to think about why the movement has had such widespread appeal. It has succeeded because it has spoken to the spiritual emptiness of our time by reaching beyond the levels of creed and ceremony into the core of human religiousness, into what might be called ‘primal’ spirituality.Classical theologians have called this ‘imago dei,’ the image of God in every person (Cox, Tbid., p. 81).

I suggest the same thing that Cox states. Praying in tongues reflects a part of the image of God. In some mysterious way, praying in tongues reflects a part of man’s dominion over the rest of creation.

We are wise to embrace Sir John Templeton’s idea of “humility theology.” Templeton stated that the most spiritually knowledgeable person on earth knows less than 1 percent of everything there is to be known about God. In fact, “It has been estimated that we now have only 3 percent of the information that will be available in 2010!” (Donald McCullough, The Trivialization of God, p. 20). That was written eight years ago. We probably know three times as much about 2010 now-9 percent! Perhaps we find “uttering mysteries in the Spirit” in that 99 percent of God that nobody on earth can fathom-a huge part of God’s unknowability, holiness, and mystery. How much do we really know about God? The correct answer is that we know very little-less than 1 percent. We don’t have to understand something for it to be good.

Sir John Templeton (1912-)

Winchester, Tennessee investment legend and a serious Christian. He graduated from Oxford, was knighted, and started his own college at Oxford. He singlehandedly turned Princeton Seminary into the most financially well-endowed seminary in the US.

Donald McCullough

President and theology professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary. He pastored Solana Beach United Presbyterian church for fourteen years. He has a Ph.D. from Edenborough.

Therefore we do not have to understand prayer tongues for it to be good.Some church historians feel that the roots of the Gregorian chants were in the singing of these kinds of “tongues” mysteries, that is singing in tongues (see Williams, p. 228). Chants are hauntingly inscrutable, mystifying, and beautiful. This haunting eeriness imposes itself when one hears a Polynesian islander pray in his native tongue. Hawaiians pray with a forceful and mysterious chant in their own language. No one doubts either the sincerity or the power in that mysterious Hawaiian prayer practice.

Phillip Yancey wrote the rhetorical question, ‘If you can control God, who wants him as God anyway?” The mystery of God “undomesticated” and beyond human control points to God’s holiness.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German martyr under Hitler, discussed this strange holiness of God while in prison. He wrote a letter to his nephew describing it:

It is not for us to prophesy the day (though it will come) when men will once more be called so to utter the word of God that the world will be changed and renewed by it. It will be a new language, perhaps quite nonreligious, but liberating and redeeming-as was Jesus’ language; it will shock people and yet overcome them by its power; it will be the language of a new righteousness and truth, proclaiming God’s peace with men and the coming of his kingdom.Till then the Christian cause will be a silent and hidden affair, but there will be those who pray and do right and wait for God’s own time (Donald McCullough, The Trivialization of God, p. 58).

Holiness in scripture refers to separateness. God is totally separate from creation-totally distinct-totally in another mysterious but wonderful, beautiful dimension. Historical theology points to this utter separateness of God.

Louis Berkhof wrote the text that most evangelical theological students read during the late 20th century. In his work Systematic Theology, he writes, “In its original sense, it denotes that He [God] is absolutely distinct from all his creatures, and is exalted above them in infinite majesty” (Systematic Theology, Berkhof, Eerdmans, p. 73).

“Uttering mysteries” in tongues reminds us of God’s holiness and His “wholly otherness.” This obscure prayer language flows from another separated dimension apart from earth. It is God’s “native language” spoken in many strange and supernatural dialects. No wonder tongues scares some people, we experience in a small way, a small part of God’s holiness-first hand. That can be very threatening.

Donald McCullough quoted L. M. Montgomery from Montgomery’s fiction novel Emily of the New Moon. This passage from a fiction novel demonstrates accurately the dilemma of mystery we face as we pray in tongues, “uttering mysteries in the Spirit.” Montgomery writes about “wonderful, persistent, mysterious beauty,”

It had always seemed to Emily, ever since she could remember, that she was very near to a world of wonderful beauty.

Between it and herself hung only a thin curtain; she could never draw the curtain aside-but sometimes, just for a moment, a wind fluttered it and then it was as if she caught a glimpse of the enchanting realm beyond-only a glimpse-and heard the note of unearthly music.

This moment came rarely-went swiftly, leaving her breathless with the inexpressible delight of it. She could never recall it-never summon it-never pretend it; but the wonder of it stayed with her for days. It never came twice with the same thing. Tonight the dark boughs against that far off sky had given it. It had come with a high, wild note of wind in the night, with the shadow wave over a ripe field, with a gray bird lighting on her window sill in a storm with the singing of ‘Holy! Holy! Holy!’ in church, with the glimpses of the kitchen fire when she had come home one dark autumn night, with the spirit-like blue of ice palms on a twilight pane with a felicitous new word when she was writing down a ‘description’ of something. And always when the flash came to her, Emily felt that life was a wonderful, mysterious thing of persistent beauty (McCullough, Tbid., p. 83).

Jackie Pullinger writes that she had gone to some of the most dangerous and difficult areas of Hong Kong to preach the gospel. She chronicles it for us:

‘Jesus loves you,’ I said, but there was no response. I was upset. I tried to make it sound more sincere.

‘Jesus really does love you,’ I repeated, and meant it with all my heart.

‘What’s that to do with me?’ one man replied. ‘Go and tell someone else.’ I never got around to telling him that Christ died for his sins.

I found a prostitute who was very sad and not very pretty. She earned the equivalent of about one US dollar a day. She could not read, and didn’t have a radio. I touched her to try and communicate the love of God.

‘Jesus loves you,’ I said. She was so frightened she almost fell into the open sewer.

‘No dear, you made a mistake. Don’t you know who I am?’ she replied. ‘You’re one of those nice Jesus people, aren’t you? You’re not supposed to touch people like me.’

I asked others if they knew Jesus.

‘I don’t have time,’ they answered. ‘I don’t get Sunday off. Everybody here works seven days a week.’

‘But do you believe in Jesus?.’

The Lord honored the cry of my heart and gave me hundreds in the years that followed after I discovered the power of the Holy Spirit. I was hungry for the Spirit. I prayed with awfully loud people-I mean they even said grace in tongues!- and it was embarrassing. I got through that because I was really keen on God. Then I received the power of the Holy Spirit and the gift of a new language.

‘Well now,’I told myself, ‘everything’s going to happen, everything’s going to change.’ But nothing much occurred. It was all interesting rather than exciting. After about a year I met someAmericans. ‘Jackie do you speak in tongues?’they asked. ‘Well, I speak in tongues but I think I’ve got something different from anyone else. I neither sit on a cloud nor float in love.’

They told me I was rude and that, as one who believed in the word of God, I should know that I must pray in the language God has given so that I might be edified.

‘It doesn’t say you’re going to feel edified. It says you are going to be edified,’ they said. ‘So get on with it girl,-half an hour a day! The power of the Spirit is given so you can preach the gospel and do the works of God. Stop sitting around waiting for gifts of healing. Use the gift you have.’ So I prayed in tongues, by the clock, and it was hard work. I didn’t soar to the clouds or waft around in glory, but something happened. At the end of six weeks I discovered that when I talked to people about Jesus they believed. When I prayed for sick people, they got healed. I said exactly the same things as before. The difference was that now I was saying them to the right people because, for the first time in my life, God had got into my prayers.

‘Lord,’ I was saying, ‘I don’t know what I’m praying about. I don’t know why I should be praying in this way but, please, when people want you, will you lead me to them? I want to be somewhere in what you are doing’ (Edward England, Living in the Light of Pentecost, p. 224-226).

Jackie teaches us two things about prayer in tongues in the above passage: (1) “Lord, I don’t know what I’m praying about.” Gordon Fee says that this is the essence of the mystery; Paul writes about it in 1 Corinthians 14:2. No one, including the speaker, understands the words spoken in prayer tongues. (2) “It was hard work.” and “I neither sit on a cloud nor float in love.” The “hard work” was undoubtedly made more difficult by the fact that she had no idea what she was saying. Her earlier facetious testimony stated her nonreligious, gut-level feeling about the whole thing. Jackie understood nothing she was saying, she felt nothing. Jackie’s prayer in tongues was indeed “uttering mysteries.”

Harvard theologian Harvey Cox recalls his first encounter with prayer in tongues as a college freshman. He writes in Fire From Heaven,

The first time I ever heard anyone speak in tongues, I found it strange, fascinating, and a little frightening.It was an unforgettable evening.One of the leaders spoke excitedly for several minutes about how the spirit of Jesus in ‘these last and evil days’ was waiting, at this very moment, hovering expectantly over this very building.He added that if we received the Lord that night there would sure be ‘signs following.’

‘That means tongues,’ my friend said, his eyes lighting up. ‘Just watch this’.I watched transfixed.

I could sense that we had both come mainly out of curiosity, maybe even to be entertained, we had found ourselves in the presence of something that was more than we had expected. It didn’t seem right to talk about it just then (Harvey Cox, Fire From Heaven, p. 84-85).

Cox encountered a different world that day as a young college freshman. In his own words he found it “strange.” He found it “fascinating.” He found it a “little frightening.” In fact, it was “something more” than he expected. Cox encountered mystery.

Dr. Rodman Williams, graduate of Columbia and professor of Theology at Regent University Graduate School in Virginia Beach, writes about these uttered “mysteries”:

By ‘mysteries,’ Paul refers to hidden or secret things that are not achievable by human understanding and accordingly can be disclosed only by the Holy Spirit. These mysteries are not ultimate ones such as Paul himself occasionally received through special revelation; however they are hidden matters spoken in a tongue, perhaps, about such matters as God’s purpose, His blessings, and His direction, and these matters can have tremendous value (Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology, Vol. 2, p. 404-405).

Perhaps some tongues really are “tongues of angels” as the Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 13. This kind of tongue would be very puzzling. Gordon Fee writes that the Corinthians probably thought their prayer tongues were just that. Another New Testament scholar, Ralph Martin, writes that the phrase “tongues of angels” was a specialized phrase for a type of prayer-speech suited to praising God” (Williams, Tbid., p. 396). Mystery is at the heart of speaking in tongues for Williams.

He gives four key thoughts on uttering mysteries:

1. They are ‘hidden things’ spoken to God. They are hidden from the highest reaches of human wisdom and knowledge.

2. They carry the speaker into the divine realm. It is speaking concerning ‘the deep things of God.’

3. The matters prayed for may be about issues of this life and what God would have us know about a given matter.

4. To ‘utter mysteries’lies at the heart of speaking in tongues.

(Williams, Tbid, p. 229-230)

David du Plessis highlights the nature of prayer in tongues as mystery. He was the first Pentecostal ambassador to the World Council of Churches. The World Council stated after its 1954 meeting in its prayer bulletin,

Requested specific prayer about the meaning of speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues, and called on Christians everywhere to remember ‘the significance of the unusual and extraordinary in the Christian Church as opposed to the normal and mediocre.’ Speakers in tongues were described as those ‘who continually challenge and disturb the church which all too easily becomes complacent and self-satisfied.’ (Durasoff, Bright Wind of the Spirit, p. 89).

David du Plessis responded to this excitedly, “A Pentecostal could hardly have written a better outline on the ministry gifts.”

The words above tell the story of mystery: “the meaning of speaking in tongues”; “significance of the unusual and extraordinary”; “disturb the church”-all of these phrases point to mystery in prayer tongues.

David du Plessis (1905-87)

He took Pentecostal experience to all the major denominations. He was loved by the Catholic church and travelled on a Vatican passport. He was originally kicked out of the Assemblies of God and was later invited back in.

This mystery extends to other supernatural phenomena as well. “Oral Roberts illustrated further bewilderment by recalling the time he prayed for two blind persons in the same prayer line on the same evening. He prayed for both with equal intensity and released the same positive faith to God, yet one received sight while the other did not” (Durasoff, Tbid., p. 129).

Episcopal priest Morton Kelsey addressed the strangeness of prayer in the Spirit in his early book Tongue Speaking. Kelsey writes,

It would be difficult to find two more diverse attitudes than we find expressed towards the experience of tongues. On the one hand, it is valued as the fountainhead of meaning and vitality, a direct contact with God. On the other, it is viewed as a dangerous experience giving the individual over to the unknown and hostile forces of reality, one that results in personal and social disaster.

There is no doubt that glossolalia is dangerous. In words of one psychologist, it is strong medicine. It would be foolish to conclude that there are no dangers in tongue speaking. To say that glossolalia is a spiritual experience, a direct experience of God, does not mean that it is a safe, cushioned ride to the next playground. It does mean that it is an experience of the most basic and central reality of life, the realm of the spirit, of which so many people are unconscious and from which so many people are cut off. Much of the neurosis of our time derives from just this unconsciousness and separation.

Dealing with the living God is a dangerous adventure, as the Old Testament is constantly reminding us. Jesus and Paul believed that there was malignant spiritual reality, as well as good, and that it was dangerous. Man needed strong medicine to deal with it. For Jesus the cross was strong medicine. In apostolic times, asActs tells,Ananias and Sapphira found dealing with God a deadly, dangerous business. Spiritual reality has to be dealt with or it will deal with us, and tongues is one way, a strong medicine. It is like shock treatment, which makes no rational sense but should be used sparingly and carefully, but in some cases is the only thing that breaks up a pattern of mental illness so that healing can begin (Morton Kelsey, Tongue Speaking, p. 227-228).

Morton Kelsey (1917-)

Episcopal priest, university professor and author. He taught at Notre Dame for many years and wrote more than twenty books relating Christianity to supernatural power.

I am reminded of a dream I once had in Canada. I had been spending long days thinking about prayer in tongues and spent prolonged times praying in tongues, trying to learn more. Two of my journal entries describe it:

Wednesday 2/24/99-In the lab all morning-9:54 a.m.-for 2 hours plus (praying in tongues).

Thursday 2/25/99-I had a very interesting dream last night where I was walking down a hallway that looked like a cafeteria line. As I got to the serving area, I saw nobody, and across the counter was a wire that looked like a speaker wire. I grabbed the outside of this speaker wire, not the steel part but the outside (rubber shielded part). An incredible rush of power went through that wire and into my chest. I remember making a loud noise in my sleep and I think I sat up-the current was so strong. I also remember that I asked Judy later if she heard me last night, she said, ‘No.’ As I thought of and prayed about this dream, I concluded that I was actually dreaming about my tongues experiment. The interpretation of the dream is that I have grabbed a much hotter wire with a lot more power than I had realized.

I did not recognize its power in the dream. The wire looked odd and out of place there in that serving area. The unusual thing, as I reflect back on that dream, is that I, for some reason, decided to pick the wire up. The wire was in a strange place and I did not recognize its frightening power.

The apostle Paul used the word “mystery” twenty-one times in the New Testament. P. T. O’Brien writes in The Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, “Usually it points not to some future event hidden in God’s plan, but to his decisive action in Christ here and now” (p. 622 ff). This broad statement should be encouraging good news for the tongues speaker. The things we pray about in tongues are really practical “here and now” things. We are not simply babbling about some future apocalyptic or heavenly reality, but we are speaking to God about issues of the “here and now” to use O’Brien’s terms. These mysteries “include everything that transcends human power of conceiving.”

O’Brien relates mystery to spiritual warfare and writes, “this refers to subduing everything, especially hostile ‘powers,’ under his lordship.” So, as we utter mysteries in prayer, we declare that the hostile spirit forces arrayed against us are actually under the power and lordship of Christ.

So we come back to where we began this chapter. God does strange things through prayer in tongues. Unfortunately, sometimes the Pentecostals themselves are strange. What is the secret of the strange, mysterious power that pervades the lives of someone like John Lake, William Branham, or David du Plessis.

Each of them no doubt would attribute much (if not most) of the mystery to praying in tongues. We reiterate what Lake would constantly repeat to his followers: “Tongues are the making of my ministry.” It is a strange statement, but Lake would say, “strange-maybe, but also true.”

John G. Lake said that he owed everything in his ministry to prayer in tongues. Many Pentecostals would disagree with his emphasis but not his results. We utter mysteries to God when we pray in tongues.

The apostle Paul writes, “for one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 14:2).

Chapter 3

Bless With the Spirit

“Otherwise if you bless with the Spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say the “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?” (1 Corinthians 14:16).

Blessings and curses are real. Consider this true story in which Catherine Marshall details the family history of the godly New England preacher Jonathan Edwards, and his gracious wife, Sarah.

In this family where ‘the hearts of the fathers and the children’ were so visibly turned one to another it is possible to see how God blessed them down through the generations ‘unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.’ In 1900 A.E. Winship tracked down 1,400 of Edwards’ descendants and published a study detailing what astonishing riches this family had contributed to the American scene. By 1900 this single marriage had produced: 13 College Presidents; 65 Professors; 100 Lawyers and a Dean of an outstanding law school; 30 Judges; 56 Physicians; 80 Holders of public office; 3 U.S. Senators; 3 Large-city Mayors; 3 State Governors; 1 U.S. Vice- President; 1 Comptroller of U.S. Treasury.

Members of the family had written 135 books ranging from five years in an English university to a tome on Butterflies of NorthAmerica. They had edited eighteen journals and periodicals. They had entered the ministry in platoons, and nearly one hundred of them becoming missionaries overseas” (Catherine Marshall, Something More, p. 75-76).

Maurice Berquist writes in The Miracle and Power of Blessing,

1.  Blessing is highly desirable; it actually gives something.

2.  The person receiving it does not need to be worthy of it.

3.  A blessing is conferred, given, bestowed.

4.  The word ‘bless’ is not to be confused with the word ‘praise’

(Maurice Berquist, The Miracle and Power of Blessing, p. 24-25).

Costa Deir was a missionary and apostle to Africa during the 20th century. He spoke of blessing and spiritual dominion through prayer in tongues. Deir publicly told the story of a Christian school which he and several of his co-workers established in the Middle East. During his time there, national authorities demanded the renewal of visas for six teachers in that school. One of Deir’s administrative co-workers submitted all six passports more than once and was repeatedly rejected. Coming back, he reported the governmental opposition to Costa Deir. Deir said, “Give me the passports.”

I remember sitting in an audience in Pennsylvania stunned as Deir reported what happened next. Costa Deir walked up to the passport/visa window with all six passports and visa applications. He placed the passports on the desk and pushed them toward the office worker. Deir began to pray and bless in tongues those passports right there in the presence of that office worker. The worker slammed the rubber visa stamp onto all six passports without a word and passed them back across the desk to Deir. The transaction took less than a minute to conduct.

Deir excitedly told us, “I took dominion in the Spirit over the situation.” The blessing prayer in tongues overcame that governmental opposition to the Christian school. Deir told us years after this circumstance, “That Christian school continues to this day!”

The Bible mentions blessings or their related words over 450 times. The Greek word used by Paul is technically a combination of two Greek words that means “to say a good word.” So when we utter a blessing over someone “we say a good word” over him or her. God has said a “good word” over us when we got saved. He said that we are righteous, just like he did with both David and Abraham (see Romans 4).

This word “blessing” in Greek applies to both the form of the speaking and the content of the speaking. So prayer in tongues, as blessing, is an attractive practice. The Greek philosophers linked this Greek word for blessing to harmony, good deportment, and symmetry. “Blessing” is frankly beautiful, not only in content but in form. Jack Hayford’s book title about tongues, The Beauty of Spiritual Language, is exactly correct according to the study of the history of the Greek language. Likewise, the content of“blessing” expresses both praise and laudation. Thus we get the word in English “eulogy.” Only one time in classical Greek is a blessing pronounced from a god or gods.

From the Old Testament, blessing meant to “endow with beneficial power.” Cologne, Germany professor H. G. Link writes, “Hence blessing originally involved a self-contained beneficial force which one could transmit to another and which stood in contrast to the destructive power of cursing” (Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol. 2, ed. by Colin Brown, p. 207).

Link gives several Old Testament principles about blessing:

1.  The performance of a blessing involves a word invested with power and an action ratifying it.

2.  The imparted blessing works unconditionally and irrevocably. It is permanent and can neither be revoked nor rendered ineffective.

3.  Blessings are given at greetings or partings.

4.  Blessings are imparted at climactic points of life: births, marriages, deaths.

5.  Anyone can bless.

6.  The mighty bless inferiors and the inferiors bless the mighty.

7.  It can effect peace, security from enemies, good fortune (Tbid., p. 207-208).

In the New Testament, believers receive the blessings of Abraham, which is the gift of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:14-16).

H. Wolff writes, “Blessing becomes the key word of the great history of Israel from Abraham’s departure up to the Davidic empire” (Tbid., p. 209).

Looking through my prayer journal, I ask myself, “So what am I blessing when I bless?” I note the following entries:

February 22, 2002 in Trinidad, Colorado-Meditating on tongues (Rom. 8:26, 1 Cor. 14:26; 14:2, 5, 14, 16)

January 28, 2003 in Lakeside, Montana-10:45 a.m. I prayed an hour in tongues. I thought about relationship of faith to ‘not understanding’ what I am saying. Praying in tongues is really a fresh call to faith, that is to trust that what I’m saying is really both above me and making a significant difference in the world.

The Scriptures are clear that no one really knows what they are blessing when they pray in tongues:

1 Corinthians 13:2  “tongues of men and angels”

1 Corinthians 14:2  “no one understands him” “he utters mysteries”

1 Corinthians 14:9  “if you in a tongue utter speech that is not intelligible”

1 Corinthians 14:14  “my mind is unfruitful”

1 Corinthians 14:16  “he does not know what you are saying”

In the middle of this quest for answers it is so easy to feel alone in trying to find them. This is far from true (like so many other appearances in the spiritual world).

I, like many others, don’t keep in mind that “according to reputable observers, by 2000, Pentecostal numbers were increasing at the rate of around 19 million each year.no less than seven hundred new Pentecostal churches opened in Rio de Janeiro each year.by the year 2050 there is a projected estimation of 1 billion Pentecostals” (Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom, p.8, 63-64).

The thing we always want to remember is that we are really not alone in seeking out answers to these kinds of mysterious prayer- blessing questions. So in looking through the whole Bible, what are the objects of blessing? The range is vast and the objects are varied.

Blessings-spoken “good things”- are like a different form of prayer (just like tongues). Let’s see what the Bible says about “blessings.” Things that are blessed in Scripture are: people, food, water, fruit of the ground, grain, wine, oil, increase of livestock, work of your hands, the land God gives you, in all a person undertakes, fruit of a person’s body, basket and knead trough, barns, a person’s substance, the Lord, sacrifices, household, the King, curses, the righteous, people with peace, house of Israel, house of Aaron, those who fear the Lord, provisions, mothers, breasts, wombs, persecutors, those who curse you, the cup of blessing, birds, Adam and Eve, Sabbath, all things, field, those who bless God’s people, Pharaoh, coming and going, advice, God’s glorious Name, forgiven sinners, nation whose God is the Lord, trusts in God, he who considers the poor, chosen man, everyone who fears God, mourners, meek, merciful, pure, peacemakers, those who are persecuted, eyes, ears, children, un- seeing believers, giving, man who endures trial, reader of Scripture, dead who die in the Lord, unified saints, the upright, those who rebuke the wicked, faithful man.

It is possible for us to pray in tongues over any of these items or for any of these kinds of people, asking God to do good things on their behalf. I think of Demos Shakarian praying over his herd of cattle during an outbreak of tuberculosis, and God heard him and protected his animals. Shakarian’s dairy farm was the largest in the world at the time of his prayer.

Pronouncing blessings in the Spirit can benefit everyone. In 1972 I was filled with the Spirit and began praying this way. I smoked cigarettes up until that night in March of 1972. I also had a terrible tongue and would curse and swear in one sentence and in the next tell people that I was going to be a preacher. When I arose from that first time of prayer in the spiritual language, I was delivered from cigarettes and swearing. Since that time, thirty years ago, I have not had a cigarette and only one cigar. I have, to my own shame, said a few (though not many) curse words. God delivered me!

Charismatic patriarch and Episcopal priest Dennis Bennett testified to the power of the Holy Spirit in his life. Through the years, thousands of people were filled with the Spirit and blessed by his testimony. He explained a similar experience. He writes,

I myself had been a light smoker until I received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. At that point I found it a physical impossibility to smoke! We did not find it necessary to make an issue about it. One by one, people who had received the Holy Spirit would stop smoking-without being told to, until it became rare to see anyone smoke in our fellowship. This has puzzled me a bit. Clearly, many who stopped smoking had far worse habits and problems that needed dealing with: overeating, and other over indulgences of various kinds, to say nothing of gossip, lack of honesty, conceit, and all other sins fallen mankind is heir to! The best explanation I can offer is that such things as overindulgence in smoking, or drinking, bad language, etc., are the outward symptoms of deeper problems. Being outward, they can be dealt with outwardly. It takes much longer to change the inclinations of the heart. It is important that these outward patterns be changed, but it is important to not make the mistake of thinking, as many do, that a change in these outward habits means ‘holiness.’ Holiness is a matter of the heart (Dennis Bennett Nine O’clock in the Morning, p. 36).

Dennis Bennett (1917-)

Prominent Episcopalian priest. God filled him with the Holy Spirit in 1959 while he was pastoring a church in Van Nuys, California. His small church in Seattle, which he later pastored, became one of the strongest churches in the northwest. He ministered worldwide about the power of the Holy Spirit.

Everyone agrees that stopping smoking is a blessing. This blessing, just possibly, was pronounced as a prayer in tongues over the blessed recipient.

At first glance, this all seems so mystical and subjective. We pray about things we don’t even know about and believe God blesses them. Yes, that is what I am saying, but more importantly, that is what the Scripture says.

To throw a bigger curve ball, blessings are not the only invisible response of God to the words of people. Curses are also real. Remember this story from Jesus’ life?

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he way hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’And his disciples heard it..

As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, ‘Master, Look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered’ (Mark 11:12-21).

As strange and, yes, mystical as that story seems, Jesus knew the power of a curse. This raises questions. How does this work? Does that mean that if we are angry at our neighbor’s dog we can curse him and he dies? I think not, although the Scripture gives no clear answers to this question. The Scripture says that if a person “curses father or mother” that they are in big trouble. This does not just mean using swear words in family fights. This means invoking supernatural power to harm mom or dad.

I remember when I was on an outreach in 1980-1981, a teenage girl did not seem to enjoy her Christianity or her fellowship with other Christians on the team. After many hour-long sessions of discussion a light went on. I asked her, “Have you ever put a curse on your parents?” Her jaw dropped and she confessed having done exactly that in her junior year of high school. She and her mother did not get along, so my friend invoked satanic power over her mother’s life. My young friend repented and there was dramatic change in her countenance and relationships from that time on. It is clear that God takes curses very seriously. He also takes blessings just as seriously.

You remember the story of the false prophet Balaam. King Balak of Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel. God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed” (Numbers 22:12). Balak later said, “I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them” (Numbers 23:11). Balaam stated further, “Behold, I have received a command to bless: he has blessed and I cannot revoke it” (Numbers 23:20). Balaam concluded with this statement about Israel, “Blessed be everyone who blesses you and cursed be everyone who curses you” (Numbers 24:9).

Later in Scripture Nehemiah looks back on this circumstance and states, “yet our God turned the curse into a blessing” (Nehemiah 13:2). Scripture clearly places power in blessing and cursing. Believers, unbelievers, and even God himself believe in the power of blessing and cursing-if we are to take the Scriptures at face value.

Pentecostal patriarch Derek Prince writes,

The main vehicle of both blessing and curses is words. Such words may be spoken or written or merely uttered inwardly. Scripture has much to say about the power of words. The book of Proverbs, in particular, contains many warning as to how words may be used either for good or for evil. Here are just a few examples:

The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous will be delivered (Proverbs 11:9).

There is one who speaks like the piercing of the sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health (Proverbs 12:18).

A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit (Proverbs 15:4).

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit (Proverbs 18:21).

The apostle James also has much to say about the use of words. He points out that the tongue is a small member of the body, but the hardest of all to control:

‘Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.

With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude [likeness] of God.

Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so’(James 3:5-6, 9-10).

James uses vivid imagery to emphasize the tremendous power that words have to affect people and situations, either for good or for evil. It is significant that he singles out both blessings and curses as words that can be charged with this kind of almost measureless power (Derek Prince, Blessing or Curse, p. 33- 34).

Joshua believed in the power of blessings and curses. Moses directed him to establish two tablets on two different mountains once Joshua began conquering Canaan. The Scripture says,

Then Joshua built an altar in Mount Ebal to the Lord, the God of Israel, as Moses the servant of the Lord has commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, ‘an altar of unhewn stones upon which no man has lifted an iron too’; and they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings. And there in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. And all Israel, sojourner as well as home born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them (Joshua 8:30-35).

Joshua acted upon his belief in blessings and curses. He conquered Jericho by the power of God. Right at the end of the story we read, “Joshua laid an oath upon them at that time, saying, ‘Cursed before the Lord be the man that rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates’” (Joshua 6:26).

This curse ran its course for six hundred years and was fulfilled upon Hiel of Bethel who lived during the days of evil King Ahab. The Bible says in 1 Kings 16:34, “In his days, Hiel of Bethel built Jericho; he laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.”

This story, amazing as it is, raises as many questions as answers for us. How and when is a blessing or curse truly powerful enough to do something? The Scripture talks about curses not alighting. What is the difference between a biblical blessing or a curse and simply saying something negative or positive over a person or a circumstance? How are cursesfrom God worked out any differently than Satanic curses? Well, we know that the source of the curses are different, but do the end results look similar? The answer is not always clear. We know that prayer in tongues is more than mere positive thinking. Let’s think about blessings some more.

“Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, ‘Oh that thou wouldst bless me and enlarge my border, and that thy hand might be with me, and that thou wouldst keep me from harm so that it might not hurt me!’ And God granted what he asked” (1 Chronicles 4:10). This is the prayer of Jabez Bible teacher Bruce Wilkinson found that praying this prayer and then writing about it brought him blessing. Thousands of others testify that God blessed them as well from praying this prayer faithfully. Wilkinson tells his story in his small book named The Prayer of Jabez. Through the years he has prayed this prayer, and he attributes much of his huge success in the “Walk Thru the Bible” seminars to that prayer.

How much has God blessed Wilkinson? The internet home page for The Prayer of Jabez tells the story. From a press release of October 9, 2002, we read that the book was number one in the advice category on the New York Times best-seller list for thirty-five weeks in 2001. It not only went on to become the fastest selling book of the year (at eight million sold), Publishers Weekly (the magazine) called it “the fastest selling book of all time.”

The book went on to become the first book sold in what Multnomah Press termed its “Breakthrough Series” (of other Bruce Wilkinson books). A whole plethora of “Jabez” products and books have since deluged the market bringing even greater blessing to Wilkinson and Multnomah.

Six sections of testimony archives grace the Jabez web site. On the first page we read the table of contents for the first section of testimonies to “praying the prayer.” Some of these testimonies include:

A couple’s adoption testimony

Prayer changes business appointment into blessing

Thai Buddhist gets saved

Speaker inspires family to change plans

God’s provision to an expatriate in France

Mother’s illness leads to nursing home ministry Adult sons return to church

Small congregation constructs a new building

Finnish researcher’s paper accepted

Great-nephew is divine appointment

Cancer patients unite in divine appointment

I remember hearing a radio interview with the author when the book first came out. The “here and now-ness” of Wilkinson’s book was challenged. To Wilkinson’s credit, he did not back down from the thesis of his book nor from what he believed God taught him.

As well, the head of a cult watchdog group put out a book parodying the title and the content of the book. I am not sure what the point was of that one. Their attempt to stop (or at least slow down) Wilkinson’s momentum was futile. In fact Wilkinson’s book could be compared to jumping in front of a runaway train. There simply is and was no stopping the Jabez express.

Why mention The Prayer of Jabez in a book about prayer in tongues? This question is especially pertinent since Wilkinson does not mention tongues in his book. Coming from Dallas Seminary he would not encourage nor endorse the thesis of this book. Why do I mention it here?

Praying in tongues is a prayer for blessing. The prayer of Jabez is a prayer for blessing. I remember someone asked me what I thought of the book The Prayer of Jabez when it came out. I told them that I thought it was legitimate and that I had done a similar thing in my own prayer life for a period of time. I had prayed the blessings in Deuteronomy 28 over my wife and myself. This list of blessings is more thorough than what is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4 (Jabez’ prayer).

Since praying in tongues is praying blessing over things and even blessing the Lord himself, it seems to me that there is a relationship (even if only at a distance). The mystery and cognitive unfruitfulness of blessing in tongues makes it a bit more difficult to categorize and even discuss with specificity.

“Blessing” in tongues can also be “praising God” in tongues. Contemporary Christian singer John Michael Talbot writes,

This is where the power of charismatic praise and thanksgiving come in. Sometimes it means praying in ‘tongues,’ or ‘praying in the Spirit.’

While some of the church fathers indicate that this gift seemed absent from the more established Church of their post apostolic era, they continue to describe clearly charismatic experiences in the cathedrals of their time. This can be seen in both St. Augustine in the west, and St. John Chrysostum in the east. They describe singing in the Spirit as ‘Jubilatio,’ where the congregation spontaneously sings praises to God without any common melody or words. They simply sing ‘alleluias’ or ‘vowel sounds.’ They say that it was so loud that it could be heard to the outskirts of their cities and towns. I do not know what this sounds like to you, but it certainly sounds like a description of contemporary singing in the Spirit to me!.

Here we ask God to help the mind by bypassing it temporarily. We understand that praise and thanks stirs up the power of the Spirit, who is the ultimate instrument of God’s grace. We also understand that spoken words have the power to confirm and strengthen thoughts and emotions. So we intentionally allow ourselves to speak praise and thanks beyond objective understanding and words in order to stir up the Spirit, who can cleanse our thoughts and emotions from negativity much better than we can (John Michael Talbot, Reflections, 2/28/2003).

I find this statement from John Michael Talbot interesting for more than one reason. This “stirring up” or surge in the Spirit comes to people singing praises to God.

I notice that most of the truly huge contemporary worship songs come from charismatic/Pentecostal artists and musicians. This is true, usually, for both the writing and the performance of the music. Jack Hayford, a music writer himself, suggests that in Colossians and Ephesians where Paul encourages “spiritual songs,” the ancient apostle is encouraging that kind of “singing in the Spirit.” This may be true.

Paul exhorts the Corinthians to keep a lid on this kind of activity in public, however. This seems to confront directly the historic Pentecostal practice as well as both the John Michael Talbot and Jack Hayford opinion. Paul discouraged the public practice of tongue speaking without interpretation. Usually, Pentecostals and charismatics are quick to reclassify singing in tongues as outside the range of the “prohibited” practices in 1 Corinthians. They argue this because, in their minds, Paul prohibits disruptive speaking (not singing) in tongues in the open congregation. So, the interpretation for this really depends on where a person stands relative to the 1 Corinthians prohibitive passage on public “blessing” (by singing in tongues) without interpretation.

The Scriptures teach us that the actual content of tongues can be praise and glory to God. Both of these fall under the category of “blessing” God. We see this is true, plainly in black and white in Acts 2 at the birthday party of the church. Luke, the Gentile writer, tells us, “Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:11). Luke continues that everyone who heard this extolling of the mighty works of God were “amazed and perplexed.” Declaring these mighty works of God forces us to recall some of the Psalms. Over and over the psalmists remind us of God’s mighty works in the context of blessing and praise.

Since I am a theologian I close this chapter with the testimony of another theologian, Dr. J. Rodman Williams. Dr. Williams taught at three institutions;Austin Presbyterian Seminary, Melodyland School ofTheology, and Regent University School of Divinity. He has written five books concerning the Holy Spirit and testifies,

Here I must interject a brief account concerning Dennis Bennett and his ministry to me. Dennis was the Episcopal priest who a few years before in Van Nuys, California, had received national publicity for announcing from his pulpit that he had recently begun to speak in tongues. On one occasion Dennis came to Austin, and I was much impressed by this testimony to his own baptism in the Spirit. He spoke with enthusiasm and sincerity- and not with the least touch of irrationality. Afterward, upon my invitation, Dennis graciously agreed to visit me in my seminary office and to pray on my behalf about the Holy Spirit. I got out of my chair (of theology) and knelt on the floor while Dennis laid hands on, and prayed over me. At one point in his prayer he asked if I cared whether he continued by praying in tongues. I surely had not expected or wanted that to happen, but still managed to respond ‘It’s all right if you think it will do any good.’ To this Dennis replied, ‘Yes, I think that you particularly need to hear and accept this because you are still too locked up in the mind.’ At the conclusion of Dennis’s prayer for my reception of the Holy Spirit I remarked that I did not sense anything had happened. His reply was simply that I might yet have to become more childlike, humble, and willing to receive what God had to give.

Weeks went by. I continued to pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gracious heavenly Father heard my prayer and answered during Thanksgiving week, 1965. I shall be forever thankful. Praise His glorious Name!.

Then came Wednesday, the day before thanksgiving- THE DAY!.I was soon on my knees practically in tears praying for the Holy Spirit, and pounding on the chair-asking, seeking, knocking-in a way I never had done before. Now I intensely yearned for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then I stood and began to beseech God to break me open, to fill me to the fullest-with sometimes an almost torturous cry to what was in myself to possess my total being. But for a time all seemed to no avail. With hands outstretched I then began to pray to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-and mixed in with the entreaty was a verse of Scripture I kept crying out: ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul.And all that is within me, bless his holy name!!’ I yearned to bless the Lord with all my being-my total self, body, soul, and spirit-all that was within me. Then I knew it was happening: I was being filled with His Holy Spirit. Also, for the first time I earnestly desired to speak in tongues because the English language seemed totally incapable of expressing the inexpressible glory and love of God. Instead of articulating rational words I began to ejaculate sounds of any kind, praying that somehow the Lord would use them. Suddenly I realized that something drastic was happening: my noises were being left behind, and I was off with such utterance, such words as I had never heard before.

Wave after wave, torrent after torrent, poured out.I knew I was on earth, but it was as if heaven had intersected it- and I was in both.

The whole thing lasted about an hour (Rodman Williams, A Theological Pilgrimage-Preface, p. 6).

Dispensational pastor John MacArthur discounts Williams testimony along with everyone else that has had a similar experience. MacArthur wrote fourteen years after Williams experience, “I am convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that tongues ceased in the apostolic age and that, when they stopped, they stopped for good.” MacArthur continues,

There are at least six substantial reasons why tongues have ceased: Tongues was a miracle gift, and the age of miracles ended with the apostles; the miracle of tongues was a judicial sign to Israel because of Israel’s unbelief; the gift of tongues was inferior to the gift of prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:1-3).

Speaking in tongues was rendered useless when the New Testament was complete; tongues are mentioned only in the earliest books of the New Testament, and history records that tongues did cease (Moody Magazine, “The Charismatic” (part 3), John MacArthur, December 1979, p. 83 84).

I wonder what the billion Pentecostals in 2050 will think of MacArthur’s view. Moody Magazine died.

We conclude this chapter on “blessing” with the close of Rodman Williams’testimony on the day he was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Williams writes,

The whole thing lasted about an hour. Then I felt strangely impelled by the Holy Spirit to move around the house, room after room, each time to speak out with a prayer in the tongue. I was not sure why I was doing this, but it was as if the Holy Spirit was blessing each spot, each corner. Truly, as it later turned out, He was preparing a sanctuary for His presence and action..

I mentioned a paragraph ago how the Lord was preparing our home as a sanctuary, in a few weeks people began to gather each Sunday evening in our home for prayer, fellowship, and ministry..Indeed, the numbers grew so large that people gathered in every room in the house with an overflow to the outside yard. Some said that as they drew near they saw flames of heavenly fire upon the rooftop. Sunday night after Sunday night for some five years we met-and the Lord blessed richly and bountifully (Williams, Tbid., p. 7).

Williams blessed his house in tongues and God filled it with ministry for the next five years. Paul writes, “Otherwise if you bless with the Spirit.” (I Corinthians 14:16).

Chapter 4

Self-Edification

“He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.” (1 Corinthians 14:4).

As I have been writing this book, I dreamed about building my house. Three years ago I built my house with the help of a close friend (and expert builder) named Bruce. In my dream I saw Bruce standing in front of a flip chart with white paper. The house plans were on the chart. I remember saying something to Bruce in the dream. He corrected me and then began to add things in a long list to the side of the house plans. Clearly this list was a timed, detailed flow chart of when things should be done during the building of the house.

Waking from that dream, God reminded me that this was much like praying in tongues. The word “edify” comes from the Latin word “to build.” As I pondered that dream I thought about its details. I thought I knew what we needed for building, but Bruce, the expert, quickly corrected me and added a list of more things to do next to the house plans.

Prayer in tongues is parallel to this. In building our spiritual house, God has called us to “edify” both ourselves and other people. God called us to be “builders”-spiritually.

So what’s the problem about this “building” in prayer? We really don’t know how to pray and build like we should. Romans 8:26 says, “We don’t know how to pray as we ought..” We need the help of the Holy Spirit, the expert, master builder. Chuck Smith, founder and patriarch of Calvary Chapel, describes his experience of being edified by praying in tongues. He writes,

Speaking in tongues is a very edifying experience to the believer. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14:4, ‘He who speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself.’ The term ‘edify’ means to build up, and it is used in the New Testament for the building up of Christ within the life of the church or of the believer. The purpose of the church assembling together is to be built up in Christ, and when I am in church I should seek to build up the whole body of Christ; when I speak in tongues in my personal devotions it is one of the ways by which Christ is built up in me (Chuck Smith, Charisma vs. Charismania, p. 110, 111).

The key phrase in that quotation is, “when I speak in tongues in my personal devotions it is one of the ways by which Christ is built up in me.” Clearly Pastor Smith sees regular benefit in this practice. From the presence and power in the Calvary Chapel churches, it is also clear that God has heard his prayers in tongues.

Chuck Smith (1927-)

Ordained Four Square pastor. He left Four Square to start Calvary Chapel in 1965. He was known for attention to Bible study and was considered the “godfather” of the Jesus movement. Calvary Chapels boast adherents to the hundreds of thousands.

Amazingly some writers see self-edification as selfishness and not proper. What about other kinds of self-edification? For instance, Bible reading is self-edifying. Would that be “selfishness and not proper” also? Jonathan Edwards writes,

Be assiduous in reading the Holy Scriptures. This is the fountain whence all knowledge in divinity must be derived. Therefore, let not this reassure lie by you neglected. Every man of common understanding who can read, may, if he please, become well acquainted with the Scriptures. And what an excellent attainment would this be! (Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, Banner of Truth, p. 162).

Is that advice selfish? Or how about where Edwards further states, “Procure and diligently use other books which may help you to grow in this knowledge. There are many excellent books extant, which might greatly forward you in this knowledge, and afford you a very profitable and pleasant entertainment in your leisure hours” (Tbid.). Is that selfish? I don’t think either of Edward’s statements encourage selfishness. Both sets of instructions encourage Christian self-edification which is responsible, legitimate self-interest. No one denies that legitimate self-interest is both responsible and proper. Legitimate self-interest subsumes private prayer in tongues.

What about going to church? Would that be considered self-edifying? I think most Christians would say yes. They get edified and built up when they go to church. As well, Christian preachers and church leaders through the centuries all agree that church attendance is both proper and healthy. In fact, I can not count the number of times I have heard non-Pentecostal preachers exhort, push, and cajole people-indiscriminately-to go to church. Thirty years of listening to preachers give “go to church” exhortations runs into the hundreds if not thousands of repetitious edifying directives.

Is it selfish for Christians to go to church? No, it is legitimate self- interest. Have you ever heard someone say, “I need to go to church.” Or perhaps you have heard a harried father or mother tell their child, “We go to church so we can learn about Jesus.” Is that selfishness on the part of the parent? Is it selfish for that parent to want to learn about Jesus and want their child to learn about Jesus? No Christian in their right mind would say, “Stay home from church, it is selfish to go to church.” Everyone says church is a healthy place to be on Sunday morning.

Is sex in marriage selfishness? It is pleasurable to both spouses. Is it biblically selfish? If so, then James Dobson and other family ministries better rethink some of their teaching. It is absurd to suggest that Scriptural sexuality is selfish. This is another example of legitimate self-interest in Scripture. God gave this as a gift to people.

Is prayer in English or one’s native tongue selfish? After all, I am praying for my own interests. Is Bruce Wilkinson’s Prayer of Jabez selfish? “O that you would bless me!” Through the centuries, the greatest and most well-known preachers have urged prayer upon the saints. I do not recall any stating that personal prayer was selfish and that doing so was somehow less than right. In fact, I read and have heard just the opposite. Characteristic statements parallel the great Puritan preacher in Boston, Cotton Mather, “The curse of God is on every prayerless household.” Mather saw personal prayer in English as anything but selfishness. Great missions leader George Verwer stated in a Gordon-Conwell chapel service in the 1970s, “It is more important for me to pray than to eat.”

Are Wilkinson, Mather, andVerwer selfishly indulgent in their spiritual lives? The whole church answers, “No.” Why then is prayer in devotional tongues decried as “selfish”? Different people would give different answers.

Often, opposers point to 1 Corinthians 14 and say that Paul encourages prophecy rather than tongues because prophecy edifies the church while tongues edifies the speaker. Paul does not outlaw public Bible reading or public prayer in English because these are understandable and edifying to the hearers in a worship service. Prayer in tongues, publicly, is not understandable or edifying because the church does not understand what is being said by the speaker.

The same people who decry public prayer in tongues negate contemporary prophecy and the power of God to supernaturally speak a prophetic message in a worship service. In 1 Corinthians 14 we read that we should zealously pursue all the spiritual gifts, especially prophesy.

Present-day dispensational and non-supernatural covenant preachers want neither tongues nor prophecy in their worship services. What they want is controlled order. Aperson standing up in their church and praying in tongues and then interpreting is viewed with as much horror as a person standing up and prophesying in church, beginning their prophecy with, “Thus saith the Lord.” God doesn’t speak like that-they say. I simply go back to Templeton’s statement that we know less than 1 percent of who God is and what he does. To cavalierly say, “God doesn’t speak like that today” is a rather expanded view of our own knowledge of the spiritual world. Those same “God doesn’t speak like that” people would be quick to defend the Bible as “God’s inspired Word.” God’s inspired Word tells us that God spoke through a donkey. If he spoke through a donkey, it seems that men or women would not be outrageous candidates for the 21st century church as conduits for a Word from God. The point in all of this is that the same people who want to control and outlaw private tongues (or public tongues and interpretation) would also want to outlaw prophecy in contemporary worship services. Why? Because they want control. They might say something like, “Because God does not speak that way today.” Where do we find this in the Bible? The short answer is that we don’t.

Why would dispensational preachers, pastors, and radio personalities want to outlaw all of these activities? I think it is a combination of enlightenment rationalism and control. Even some of the best evangelicals are rife with enlightenment attitudes and thinking relative to these kinds of supernatural manifestations.

As Philip Jenkins tells us in The Next Christendom, there will be one billion Pentecostals in the year 2050. These billion believers (just fifty years from now) will look back on this generation of skeptical unbelief in the pulpit and condemn it for its unbelieving rationalism and arrogant control. God, “un-domesticated,” is anathema to some of these contemporary controllers. They cannot control the God of the universe. The future church will look back and pronounce a ban with disgust on this kind of unbelief.

“The world is flat!” The church insisted during the life of Galileo. They condemned him for an outrageous idea that the world was actually round. Even our prepubescent kids (first and second graders, children six and seven years old) understand that the world is round. They look back on the church of Galileo’s day and are astonished by its ignorance and stubbornness.

I suggest that the church of the coming century will look back on this generation and condemn it for its ignorance and unbelief-not simply about prayer in tongues but a plethora of other supernatural issues. Some contemporary Evangelical preachers and congregants have become moral philosophers and students who wear crosses to class and sing songs before their moral philosophy lectures. Jesus said that if we in his church lose our distinctive flavor “saltiness” we are good for nothing. How much more supernatural can a philosophy be than its founder rose from the dead and will fly back in the sky some day? We have lost our sense of wonder in the faith. With our loss of wonder we have lost the supernatural power of prayer in tongues-a massive loss indeed! So, how are we specifically edified (built up) when we pray in tongues? Surprisingly, when we pray in tongues we are physically edified.

An article published by the healing rooms entitled “The Physical Benefit of Praying or Speaking in Tongues” states,

God has made provision for you and I to be whole and to have access to his healing process. There is a study that has been done by Dr. Carl Peterson M.D. (the husband of author and evangelist Vicki Jamison Peterson). This study revealed that there is an available healing power that can be released from our bodies for our own benefit. Dr. Carl Peterson, M.D. worked on this study at Oral Robert’s University in Tulsa, Oklahoma a few years ago. Being a brain specialist he was doing research on what the relationship was between the brain and praying or speaking in tongues. Some amazing things were discovered (Northwest Revival Network, 2/28/2003, www.askgodforit.com/ speakingintongues.html).

Dr. Peterson writes,

Dear Friend,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the relationship of extended periods of praying in tongues and joyful laughter to brain activity. As you will read in the enclosed explanation, I shared some information concerning this with several ministers at a gathering some time ago. I pray this information will be helpful to you.

Respectfully,

Carl R. Peterson M.D.

I have had a number of inquiries concerning the efficacy of praying in the Spirit (speaking in tongues) and its benefit to the human immune system, i.e., immunity enhanced by chemicals released from a part of the brain.

Therefore voluntary speech during extended vocal prayer causes a major stimulation in these parts of the brain (mainly the hypothalamus).

The hypothalamus has direct regulation of four major systems of the body, mainly:

1. the pituitary gland and all target endocrine glands

2. the total immune system

3. the entire autonomic system

4. the production of brain hormones called endorphins and enkephalons, which are chemicals the body produces and are 100-200 times more powerful than morphine.

In summary, a very significant percentage of the central nervous system is directly and indirectly activated in the process of extended verbal and musical prayer over a period of time. This results in a significant release of brain hormones which, in turn, increases the body’s general immunity (Tbid.).

Dr. William Standish Reed, earlier in the 20th century, discussed the value of prayer in tongues. He stated that since the speech center dominates much of the neural network, the restorative and beneficial health effects of prayer in tongues is significant. David du Plessis testified to the restorative power of prayer in tongues (I remember he told me personally). He flew virtually everywhere in the world at all hours of the day or night. He said that he often would pray quietly in tongues while on the plane right through the night. He stated that he often returned home to Oakland, California after a taxing journey. Although jet lag should have been a problem, du Plessis testified that he actually felt physically refreshed because of his prolonged prayer in tongues on the journey. Another way we are edified and built up is psychologically. Morton Kelsey describes a consensus opinion from followers of the famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. Kelsey writes,

Most of Jung’s followers have sustained the same view of tongues as a genuine invasion into consciousness of contents from the deepest levels of the collective unconscious. Those with whom I have talked have evinced an interest in the experience. Three of them have each commented that one or more patients had had experiences of tongues which had led them to seek to integrate their lives. Without this experience they believed that these people would never have been able to come to psychological maturity. The experience of speaking in tongues opened them up to the unconscious and to fuller, though more difficult, life.” (Morton Kelsey, Tongue Speaking, p. 190).

Alluding to psychologistsAnn and Barry Ulanov, Harvard’s theologian Harvey Cox writes,

Psychologists Ann and Barry Ulanov, in a book called Primary Speech, recently observed that all of us, without exception, still retain a certain capacity for what they call “primary speech,” the pre-verbal expression of pressing needs, demanding urges, and tumultuous emotions that is so evident in infants..After we develop the ability to speak words, these psychologists suggest, primary speech still continues as a kind of undercurrent..Could it be that what we find in Pentecostal and other churches is the resurfacing of this surging, ever-present undercurrent, bursting to the surface because the religious setting provides a reassuring environment where we can safely become as little children, at least temporarily? (Harvey Cox, Fire From Heaven, p. 88-89).

Cox continually asks himself the question in Fire From Heaven, “Why does it [Pentecostalism] continue to draw so many people today?” He answers his own question with a psychological insight drawing from his Union Theological Seminary mentor Paul Tillich:

I think the answer is that tongue speaking responds to one of the most glaring features of the spiritual crisis of our era, what one writer has called the ‘ecstasy deficit.’ Whatever one may think of the different ways people understand it, tongue speaking is an ecstatic experience, one in which the cognitive grids and perceptual barriers that normally prevent people from opening themselves to deeper insights and exultant feelings, are temporarily suspended (Cox, Tbid., p. 86).

Speaking of “exultant feelings,” Roman Catholic layman Larry Tomczak writes,

As thanksgiving and praise erupted from within, a profound sense of God’s presence began to well up in me. I felt the rapturous and exultant joy of the Lord surging through me, and the more profuse my praise, the more intense became my desire to magnify the name of my Savior. I grew impatient with the inadequacy of the English language to fully express all that I was feeling, how I loved God. Then, just at the right moment, new words began to flow from my heart..I could not restrain my tongue, and my lips began to stammer, as a new language hopped, skipped, and somersaulted from my mouth. The language was foreign to my ears, a heavenly language only God would understand. It was praise that had surged through my whole being to seek expression through the Holy Spirit in a new transcendence (Larry Tomczak, Clap Your Hands, p. 112-13).

Rodman Williams quotes Gordon Fee in saying, “Contrary to the opinion of many, spiritual edification can take place in ways other than through the cortex of the brain” (Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology, p. 233). Fee confronts rationalism and enlightenment humanism directly. So much is brain-centered in the 21st century, including the 21st century church. Prayer in tongues literally bypasses the brain but, as we see, can actually edify the brain and psyche. So, we are physically edified, we are psychologically edified. How else are we edified when we pray in tongues?

We are spiritually edified. Charismatic pioneer Harald Bredesen became the pastor of Mount Vernon Dutch Reformed Church in New York City in 1957. Bredesen coined the phrase, “charismatic renewal” in 1963. As well, “Harald stories” abound of supernatural encounters in airports, churches, and “non-spiritual” places. He was featured on World News Tonight with Walter Cronkite in 1963. God led this man in unusual ways. “Bredesen’s ministry has also been marked by an ability to reach political leaders, including various heads of state” (See Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, p. 98). Bredesen testified constantly to the power and spiritually edifying nature of praying in tongues.

He wrote a letter to another influential early leader in the charismatic movement named Don Basham. Basham had a broad teaching ministry and was considered an expert in exorcism. During a period of deep despondency over his church and their lack of concern for the things of the Spirit, Basham wrote Bredesen asking for advice and he responded,

Dear Don,

Your lament from the wilderness has reached me here in Hawaii. Though this is a far cry from the wilderness, your letter certainly strikes some responsive chords. The description of the situation in your church sounds like an exact description of the one in my own, except for the fact that I do have a handful of people who have received the baptism. But for the most part the attitude of my people is the same as yours, or perhaps I should say, they are in the next stage after yours-that is to say, they feel, ‘this stuff is fine for those who want it but count me out.’

During the preceding stage, when the going was very tough, I became so desperate that I spent whole nights in the church where I would be free to cry out to God without disturbing my wife. During that time my favorite prayer was, ‘Oh, Lord, it is enough now, take away my life.’ It seemed as if the irresistible force had met the immovable obstacle and there was no hope at all. Yet, it was during that furnace experience that God was battering me into shape for His use; it was preparation for this worldwide and very thrilling door of opportunity that God has opened to me now.

It seems strange that I should be going around the world as the visiting expert, helping many people of all denominations in this experience, while in a very real sense I have been, and am, a failure on my own front. Remember this though, dear brother Don, God is not so much interested in your success in your church as His success in you! Forget about the results you are having or not having and just concentrate on being God’s man..

I pray that your very sense of frustration and desperation, which I know so well in my own experience, may be used of God to crowd you into real plaudit ministry wherein you may spend many hours each week in seeking His face in prayer and in His word. Be sure to exercise faithfully the gift of tongues, even when you don’t feel edified, even when you don’t see the results. Take it by faith-”He that speaks with an unknown tongue edifies himself and speaks mysteries unto God.’

Eternally in Christ,

Harald

(Don Basham, Face Up With a Miracle, p. 117, 118)

The important point of encouragement from Harald Bredesen to Don Basham was in that closing statement of exhortation: “Be sure to exercise faithfully the gift of tongues, even when you don’t feel edified, even when you don’t see results.” As well, Bredesen instructed Basham to “spend many hours each week in seeking His face in prayer and in His word.”

Legendary Pentecostal evangelist Smith Wigglesworth spoke of being spiritually edified. He stated that before his feet hit the floor in the morning, he began praying in tongues. Wigglesworth believed it was necessary to stay fresh in the Spirit and the primary way was through Bible reading and prayer in the Spirit (in tongues).

Jackie Pullinger’s testimony comes to mind. Her American friends spoke strongly to her,

They told me I was rude and that, as one who believed in the Word of God, I should know that I must pray in the language God had given so that I might be edified.

‘It doesn’t say you’re going to feel edified. It says you are going to be edified,’ they said. ‘So get on with it, girl-half-an- hour a day!’ (Edward England, Living in the Light of Pentecost, p. 226).

How else does praying in tongues edify us? Dr. Robert Frost Ph.D. describes a few of them in his early work in 1965. Frost describes a “humility of heart and mind.” Humility is a result of Christ’s work in our lives. Paul demands humility from the church: “Put on then as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness and patience.” (Colossians 3:12).

Prayer in tongues builds faith. The apostle Jude writes, “But you beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” Mahesh Chavda describes the kind of faith this praying in tongues has produced in his life. Chavda and his wife have seen over 700,000 people come to Christ during their preaching ministry. In Chavda’s recent book entitled The Hidden Power of Speaking in Tongues the first sentence reads, “I believe in the power of speaking in tongues. I believe because I have witnessed its power in my own experience as well as in the experiences of others” (Mahesh Chavda, The Hidden Power of Speaking in Tongues, p. 7). Chavda then relates two stories to demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit as related to his opening statement, “I believe in the power of speaking in tongues.” His second story reads as follows:

During nearly thirty years of ministry I have personally witnessed multiple thousands of instances where people who have turned to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith after hearing the gospel preached have manifested confirming signs and wonders in their lives as evidence of the Lord’s presence..Many new believers, even those who have never heard of the Holy Spirit, have spontaneously received the baptism of the Spirit, evidenced by speaking in tongues. I particularly remember one overseas crusade in which thousands responded to the gospel. As I prayed over these new converts and welcomed the Holy Spirit, He swept over the crowd in a wave, and fifty thousand began speaking in tongues at one time (Chavda, Tbid., p. 9).

Mahesh Chavda may seem to be a man from another world. He has testified to fasting on twenty-nine different occasions for forty days (Mahesh Chavda, The Hidden Power of Prayer and Fasting, p. 11). He suggests that believers build up their faith when they speak in tongues. “It’s very simple. Pray in tongues as much as you can.” How much is that? Chavda gives us his answer:

If you have the time, pray for an hour, pray for five hours. I find personally, that I begin with about thirty minutes and suddenly I hit a spring of living water in this brook..How much should I pray? I believe at least thirty minutes is needed for us to prime the pump.Begin to pray in tongues daily, even if it is only for fifteen minutes. Gradually increase the amount of time you pray in the Spirit (Mahesh Chavda, The Hidden Power of Praying in Tongues, p. 62-63).

So, a legitimate question is how exactly do we get built up in the faith as we pray in tongues? This question encompasses all of the other facets of prayer in tongues. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul writes that speaking in tongues is “speaking to God.” That means that we are praying. Prayer in itself is edifying. The power of prayer and faith are almost frightening.

Harvard Medical School cardiology professor Hebert Benson wrote a book entitled Timeless Healing. Benson concludes his medical book by stating, “I am astonished that my scientific studies have so conclusively shown that our bodies are wired to believe, that our bodies are nourished and healed by prayer and other exercises of belief..My reasoning and personal experience lead me to believe that there is a God” (Herbert Benson, Timeless Healing, p. 305-306). Remarkably, Benson concluded that the very act of prayer encourages health. Benson quoted well over one hundred scientific and medical sources to support his claims. The reason his findings can be frightening is that Benson found prayer to really any god or goddess could produce some of these healthy effects.

I include this to point out that the very act of praying itself can be physically edifying. I use the term “edifying” in this paragraph very broadly.

John MacArthur’s claims of self-centered egotism toward the tongue speaker are unjustified from this simple medical evidence. Medicine says that prayer is good for people-physically. Medicine, being faith-neutral, does not point people toward the true and living God in Jesus Christ. However, Benson concluded that “our bodies are wired to believe” (Tbid., p. 305).

Benson gives nine points of advice for “timeless healing to work.” I interpret them for tongue speakers.

1. Practice and apply self-care regularly. Interpreted for the tongue speaker that would mean: Pray in tongues regularly.

2. Know your truth. Interpreted for the tongue speaker: Know what the Bible says about prayer in tongues.

3. Beware of people with all the answers. Interpreted for the tongue speaker: Cultivate mystery in the practice of self- edifying tongue speaking.

4. Negativity is destructive. Interpreted for the tongue speaker: Cultivate faith that God is really doing something as you pray in tongues. Also, stay away from critical, negative, and unbelieving people-either Christians or non-Christians.

5. Trust your instincts more often. Interpreted for the tongue speaker: Remember that praying in tongues is a practice that transcends rational prayer and cognition.

6. Remember that immortality is impossible. Interpreted for the tongue speaker: The apostle Paul wrote that the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Tongue speaking is neither a panacea nor a cure-all to overcome death. Christ’s return will overcome our last enemy to be destroyed.

1. Let faith, the ultimate belief, heal you. Interpreted for the tongue speaker: Build yourself upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

2. Respect others’ beliefs, don’t impose yours. Interpreted for the tongues speaker: Don’t be obnoxious.

3. Believe in something good. Interpreted for the tongue speaker: How does, “Have faith in God” sound?

(Benson, Tbid., chapter 13)

We edify ourselves further by remembering that this is mystery in action. There is a joy of discovering new things in the spiritual world by praying in the Spirit. There are so many things out there that we don’t know from the Lord. This way of praying keeps us in a place of constant learning and constant humility before mystery. The Scripture says that God gives grace to the humble.

I spoke with a pastor in the local Vineyard Church about praying in tongues. One of his concluding statements was that praying in tongues is a “strange phenomenon” about which we know little. The very “strangeness” of this kind of prayer can make it edifying. To be able, in constant childlike wonder and motivation, to seek God continually this way and experiment in the invisible world of tongues is both edifying and motivating.

Many things edify us, spiritually, but don’t necessarily feel like they are. For instance, have you ever been to a church service where you left with a subjective sense of wholeness or “feeling uplifted”? If someone asked you to pinpoint what made you feel so good about having just attended church, you may or may not be able to give a specific reason about why you feel good. I have experienced this many times through my thirty-plus years of being a Christian. How was I spiritually edified in that service? Well, I really can’t put my finger on it except to say that I was. This takes us back to mystery; there is something mysterious about the way our spirits work under the influence of God’s Spirit. This is doubly mysterious since Paul writes that when we gave our lives to the Lord that we “became one spirit with Him.”

Bible study and Bible reading and meditation edify us. Jesus felt his words were life giving. He said, “The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6). Jesus also knew that the usefulness of those words may be more for the future than the present. He said that the Holy Spirit would bring his teachings back to the disciples’memory. Bible reading and meditation edify us, but we don’t always feel immediately edified nor do we see their immediate benefit always. We trust that somehow, by faith, God has done something spiritually helpful as we have spent a brief time in His Word.

Blessing others and ourselves as we pray edifies us. Paul says in Romans 8 that we do not know how to pray as we ought. He states in 1 Corinthians that we do not know what we are praying for when we pray in tongues. No doubt there are times when we bless ourselves in tongues and don’t even realize that we are doing that (1 Cor. 14:16). This must be categorized as self-edification.

We are built up by giving thanks. We do this in tongues, at times. Derek Prince states that giving thanks to the Lord is like staying plugged into a supernatural power source. I remember watching him pray for sick people once in Boston. When he saw the power of God on a person and that person was getting healed, he repeatedly said, “Continue thanking Him, you will stay plugged in that way.” This thanksgiving was healthy.

Building ourselves up is healthy in the spiritual war that we are in. David du Plessis modeled this throughout his life; he was one of the most energetic men on the planet. He attributed his strength in this spiritual battle to his constant prayer in tongues.

It is interesting to think about building a house-a spiritual house. I remember building my home in Montana. There were days when we arrived at the job site at 7:30 a.m. to begin work in the gorgeous Montana summer weather. We worked exhaustingly all day. Some days seemed like we accomplished so much and the movement in the process seemed huge. Then there were other days that I walked away from the job site looking and thinking, “We made no progress today-nothing.” There was a period of about two or three weeks when it seemed like every day we walked away from the building thinking, “We accomplished nothing.” Actually, we made progress even though it did not feel like it.

Another thing I learned building my house was about how precise the workmanship had to be according to the plans of the builder. I remember the Lord speaking to me that I was to do exactly what my friend, Bruce, told me to do. The great thing about this is that there was never any conflict between the two of us over how something was to be built. I respected Bruce and admired his workmanship. Arrogance would have been the only word to characterize any second opinions from me- his novice helper.

This is parallel to walking with the Lord and building our spiritual house. God has the plans on how to build it. The real and pressing question for all of us is, “Are we going to go about building the house His way or ours?”

I remember, as well, building our basement foundation and pouring the concrete. Again, we took measurements and they were exact with no

allowance for even an inch in the wrong direction. During our time building the foundation we had no power tools except for a skill saw.

To build, I used a hammer with a stainless steel handle. My elbow swelled due to the transferred shock down the barrel of the hammer. I thought to myself, “How on earth are we going to build this three-story house if my elbow is this swollen in this much pain for the next several months?” We decided to buy power tools to finish the house. Praying in tongues is a lot like using power tools.

I learned in building my house that it was financially expensive. Everyone knows that and I experienced it first hand. I often joked during the building that the first thing I did each morning upon arising was to light up a one-hundred-dollar-bill just to get the day started. It was expensive. Praying is also hard work and expensive; it is costly. Prayer carries a large personal price tag.

I learned that some of our hired subcontractors cared a lot more about their workmanship quality than others. I was astounded by some of the brazen slovenliness I found. One guy did poor work and he later called Bruce to be paid. Bruce said to him, “I have been waiting for your call.” Bruce then detailed the precise reason why that worker had not seen a dime since he had been working on our house. Bruce told him that he assumed this worker did not want his reputation to suffer in the community and that his reputation would be protected by coming out and completing the job correctly which he had earlier started and left poorly done. Completing the job in prayer in the Spirit requires perseverance. We build ourselves up in our most holy faith by persevering in prayer in the Spirit.

I remember how tired I was at the end of each day. I went home and literally fell into bed, day after day. Paul mentioned that prayer is work.

My builder corrected my ideas about building. My builder had all of the details mapped out in detail. He was an expert, he was precise, and he got the job done. All of these details point to the Holy Spirit in our prayers. He gets the job done expertly and precisely.

God, the builder, corrects, guides, leads and builds us up. He does this correctly-every time. Paul the apostle writes that when we pray in an unknown private prayer tongue we build ourselves up. The apostle Jude states the same thing in his short epistle at the end of the New Testament. Jude writes, “But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit.” Jude describes prayer in the Holy Spirit as instrumental for the ability for a New Testament believer to “build yourselves up.” The apostle Paul writes in the same spirit, “He who speaks in a tongue, edifies himself.” (1 Corinthians 14:4). Paul describes the importance of prayer in tongues for personal edification when he writes, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all” (1 Corinthians 14:18).

Chapter 5

My Spirit Prays, But My Mind is Unfruitful

“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful” (1 Corinthians 14:14).

The future belongs to the Pentecostals. In 1 Corinthians 14:14 there is a clash between present Christianity and the future of the worldwide church. Much of present Christianity leans on “my mind” while the church of the future will lean on “my spirit.” Importantly, Paul’s statement “my spirit” refers obliquely to the renewed spirit made “one spirit” with the Lord earlier in 1 Corinthians (Gordon Fee, God’s Empowering Presence).

How do these two different spiritual power sources play themselves out? What do they look like in action? Penn State distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies Dr. Phillip Jenkins gives us some idea. Jenkins cites much demographic, church, psychological, and anecdotal information to paint a picture for us. One place the spirit and the mind will clash will be in ethics.

Jenkins writes two very informative passages in a chapter entitled, “Coming to Terms.” The “terms” are the terms of the future look, feel, and flavor of the church of God around the world. Speaking of the future look of the international church, Jenkins writes, “These models have been far more enthusiastic, much more centrally concerned with the immediate workings of the supernatural, through prophecy, visions, ecstatic utterances, and healing” (Phillip Jenkins, The Next Christendom, (The Coming of Global Christianity), p. 107).

Dr. Jenkins tells us that the church of the future is “far more enthusiastic” and “much more centrally concerned” with the supernatural. This includes “ecstatic utterances” prayer in tongues. The movement of the future is a movement toward prayer in tongues. Like it or not, the future belongs to the Pentecostals-worldwide.

Jenkins gives us a preview and a prologue of the future by describing the 1998 Lambeth World Conference ofAnglican Bishops. Elsewhere in the book, Jenkins tells us that theAnglican church is no longerAnglicized but rather more African andAsian than Caucasian. What are the practical effects of this de-westernizing of the future church as specified in the 1998 Lambeth Conference? Jenkins writes,

One example of this occurred at the 1998 Lambeth Conference of the world’s Anglican bishops, who were considering a liberal statement concerning homosexuality. The statement was heavily defeated due to the votes ofAsian and particularlyAfrican bishops, to the fury of American liberals. One of these was Bishop John Spong of Newark, who declared that the African bishops had ‘moved out of animism into a very superstitious kind of Christianity,’ and this explained their failure to understand the issues at hand. Spong professed himself appalled by the whole tone of the Third World spirituality, with its ‘religious extremism’: ‘I never expected to see the Anglican Communion, which prides itself on the place of reason in faith, descend to this level of irrational Pentecostal hysteria.’ Spong was in effect suggesting that ‘Pentecostal’ fervor was a thinly disguised continuation of ancient paganism, with all its unenlightened moral trappings (Jenkins, Tbid., p. 121).

Several words jump off the page at us as we read Spong’s statement. These words highlight the coming clash in the church of the future. These words highlight the point of this chapter on praying in the Spirit while our minds are unfruitful. Bishop Spong’s words about the Africans were, “very superstitious”; “theAnglican Communion, which prides itself on the place of reason.” For Spong, reason takes priority over “Pentecostal hysteria.” Bishop Spong experienced the future of the church in that conference.

We experience the future (in a small way) by praying in the Spirit and allowing our minds to be unfruitful as we do that. The Scripture teaches that our present earthly experience of the Holy Spirit is only a small down payment of our heavenly future experience of the Spirit. Paul includes the mind as he later states in context, “I will pray with the mind and with the Spirit.”

This goes back to giving up control of our lives-our prayer lives- to God. Usually this means giving up control with our minds and rationality. This kind of prayer is not irrational (in the negative sense) but supra-rational in the transcendent sense. Dr. Robert Frost wrote about this in 1965:

It is a mystery to the natural mind; therefore, it is a spiritual safeguard against intellectual pride. No wonder speaking in tongues is so foolish to the proud mind of man. It is an offense to his intellect. We need to remember that our minds, apart from the discernment of God’s spirit, are no match for the deceptions of the devil. The ‘tree of knowledge’ is just as deadly today as it ever was! (Robert Frost, Ph.D., Aglow With the Spirit, p. 78)

Robert Frost (1926-)

Taught at several charismatic schools. He received a Ph.D. in biology. He teaches on the necessity for the power of the Holy Spirit and praying in tongues in the Christian life

In 1954, Francis Schaeffer received much criticism over his call for a deeper spiritual walk and the need for truly spiritual devotional literature within the Bible Presbyterian denomination. Schaeffer (although not Pentecostal, nor really wanting to be one) actually heard the audible voice of God speak to him twice in his lifetime; once about where to move with his family, the second time about a matter of forgiveness over some sin he had committed. God spoke above Schaeffer’s mind.

In a letter dated November 12, 1954, Dr. Schaeffer wrote a man named Ted. Schaeffer responded to some criticism in the letter and then gave his understanding of the ministry:

I believe most strongly.that our efforts in Christian service fall in to three concentric circles: the outer circle is the apologetic and defensive. (This is an important portion of Christian activity and should never be minimized, but it is not the heart..) The middle circle is inside the outer one and is more central. This is the intellectual statement of the doctrines of the Christian faith in a positive way. (This to me is an even more important portion of Christian activity, but if it stands alone, it still is not Christianity.)

The innermost circle is the spiritual-the personal relationship of the individual soul with a personal God, including all that is meant in the apostolic benediction when we say, ‘The communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.’ It is this last, innermost circle with which the devotional deals and without which Christianity is not really Bible-believing. (The Letters of Francis Schaeffer, edited by Lane Dennis, p. 47-49).

Schaeffer wrote that Christianity is not really Bible-believing without a devotional emphasis.

Praying in the Spirit (in tongues) dominates chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians. I find that Paul wrote a statement that must be thoroughly addressed before we thoroughly assess what he meant by, “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays.” We must consider Paul’s very balanced prayer statement in 1 Corinthians 14:15, “I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the mind also.”

In 1 Corinthians 14, “praying with the mind” meant praying in a language Paul understood-in other words, not tongues. Had Paul spoken English he might have said, “I will pray in English and I will pray in tongues. I will sing in English and I will sing in tongues.”

Several giants of the faith come to mind as we consider “praying with the mind.” I remember our chapel services at Gordon-Conwell in the 1970s. I don’t remember ever missing one when the president, Harold Ockenga, spoke; I always made it a priority to be there when he spoke. I listened to everything that our seminary library owned of his taped sermons. Dr. Ockenga was a spiritual giant in every good sense of the word. He was always crisply dressed-as sharp as a pin. He established both Fuller Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Seminary. He pastored historic Park Street Church in downtown Boston at the same time as he was doing these other mammoth tasks. He flew weekly from Boston to Pasadena and back to oversee the work at Fuller Seminary while simultaneously pastoring Park Street. Ockenga swam several miles a day to stay fit; he read incessantly; he was a role model in the best sense of that phrase. Billy Graham considered Ockenga his mentor in many ways.

I respect Ockenga greatly. I recall many times during his chapel sermons that he would describe his prayer life to the students. He regularly described the need for consistent daily Bible reading and meditation apart from what the preacher is preaching on that day in his or her church. Dr. Ockenga kept a prayer journal. The prayer requests were dated and listed on one side of the page, and on the other side of the page was a place for the date and manner of the answer. I remember one specific prayer that he told us he had prayed for years; he prayed that Billy Graham would be able to preach the gospel in Moscow. Reading Dr. Graham’s autobiography, Just As T Am, we find that Ockenga’s prayer was answered.

Brother Andrew, also known as “God’s smuggler,” moved me to pray as a young Christian when I was twenty years old. I remember reading his autobiography and thinking about how God really did answer his prayers (for God to blind the eyes of border guards into communist nations so he could take in Bibles). This pushed me to have faith and to pray.

I read all of Watchman Nee’s books as a university senior. I read his work Love Not the World and tried to imitate what he taught there- getting up before daybreak to pray. I promptly fell asleep most days. I quit trying to be Watchman Nee.

I read Andrew Murray’s Waiting on God as a university senior as well and was greatly moved to spend more time in silent listening to the Lord as I prayed. This practice led me to the right seminary after I graduated.

I read the Journal of John Wesley and was impressed about his prayer for exorcisms throughout his ministry.

I remember reading about the life of George Mueller, who started many orphanages in England and financed them simply through daily prayer. He prayed for over forty years for one of his friends to become a Christian. That friend was converted two weeks after Mueller’s death. As well, I first learned the importance of remaining financially debt-free in the ministry by reading about Mueller’s life.

I remember talking with my roommate, Cliff, in seminary about Calvin’s Tnstitutes of Christian Religion. Cliff remarked that he found it interesting and instructive to note that the majority of space in the Tnstitutes. covered Calvin’s teaching on prayer.

As a student, I pondered Mary Queen of Scots’ statement that she feared no army in Europe the way she feared the prayers of John Knox. I read Leonard Ravenhill’s statement that a man of God is not worth his salt if he doesn’t spend extended times of prayer daily.

In the 1970s Francis Schaeffer asked interested Gordon-Conwell students to pray and fast with him before he debated LSD guru Timothy Leary at Harvard. (Harold Ockenga reminding us that Schaeffer often fasted and prayed before making big decisions in his life.) Harold Lindsell, President of Fuller after Ockenga, reminded us of the power of prayer and fasting in a chapel service at Gordon-Conwell.

Professor Christy Wilson prayed for every student by name at Gordon-Conwell when I was there. He led chapel prayer meetings for missions and effectively prayed many onto the mission field (probably including my wife and me). Students look back to him as legendary. This leads me to comment on a wonderful book entitled A Call to Spiritual Reformation by New Testament scholar D.A. Carson.

In chapter 1, Carson gives “Lessons From the School of Prayer.” He gives seven lessons for properly “praying our minds.” I personally practice some (but not all) of them.

1. Much praying not done because we do not plan to pray.

-The Lesson: Have a plan.

1. Adopt ways to impede mental drift.

-The Lesson: Pray out loud.

1. Develop a prayer-partner relationship.

-The Lesson: Find someone to pray with regularly.

1. Choose models-but choose them well.

-The Lesson: Look around for mentors in prayer.

1. Develop a system for your prayer lists.

-The Lesson: Reiterating have a plan.

1. Mingle praise, confession, and intercession; but when you intercede, try to tie as many requests as possible to Scripture

-The Lesson: Be Scriptural in your praying.

1. If you are in any form of spiritual leadership, work at your public prayers.

-The Lesson: Think before you pray publicly.

1. Pray until you pray.

-The Lesson: Be serious and sincere with your praying.

(D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Baker Book House, 1992, p. 19-38)

Jerry Falwell, Bill Bright, and Elmer Towns represent contemporary giants for “praying with the mind.” Towns and Falwell published a book entitled Fasting Can Change Your Life. Both Falwell and Bright jump off of the pages just like Mahesh of Chavda. Falwell describes fasting for eighty days. He needed a lot money for Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Dr. Falwell writes, “We never had a difficulty raising cash to build Liberty University. Liberty was the fastest-growing Christian school in the world. We had raised more than $27 million of needed cash every year.” He continues, “After four consecutive years of $25 million deficits, we suddenly had $100 million to $110 million in liability debt.” Falwell prayed and fasted for all of this money. It is mind-staggering to think of a person praying seriously to remove this amount of monstrous debt. When asked by Elmer Towns, “What were the tangible results of that fast?” Dr. Falwell responded,

First, we received a cash gift large enough to pay off our long- term mortgage debt. Second, we replenished the cash flow of Liberty University with several million dollars that gave us financial and institutional health. Third, God sent Liberty a new president, Dr. John Borek, a Ph.D. in business administration, who had been the chief financial officer at Georgia State University. Without him, we might not have been prepared for SAC’s accreditation visit. Fourth, when SAC’s (accreditation agency) visited and then evaluated Liberty, they removed all sanctions and recommended Liberty University for ten years of reaffirmation, which is the bottom line of why I fasted. One individual has given Liberty University close to $50 million since those two fasts. And so those two forty-day fasts were unlike any experiences I have ever had (Elmer Towns and Jerry Falwell, Fasting Can Change Your Life, p. 20).

Dr. Bill Bright testifies in the same book, “On July 5, 1994, the Lord called me to begin the first of what has now been five forty-day fasts. After the fast in 1994, God led me to forty-day fasts again in 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998.” Bright was not satisfied with praying alone during his long fasts. He writes further, “God has impressed me to pray for two million in the United States and Canada who will fast and pray with me for 40 days for national and world revival and the fulfillment of the Great commission” (Towns & Falwell, Tbid., p. 104). Bright responded immediately that the Jesus Film and the “Explo” gatherings were the greatest responses to protracted prayer and fasting in his ministry.

Bill Bright and Jerry Falwell are strong in “prayer with the mind.” D.A. Carson quoted Robert Murray Mc’Cheyne, “What a man is on his knees before God, that he is, and no more” (Towns & Falwell, Tbid., p. 16). Clearly both Bright and Falwell are as tall as giants on their knees. The great irony in all of this is their ambivalence toward “praying in the Spirit.” In fact, in his autobiography Bright mentions his own son experiencing prayer in tongues. Clearly the angst and anxiety of the soul that Bright went through in confronting his own son demonstrates the elder Bright’s ambivalence to the point of scorn and possible embarrassment in his own family over praying in tongues. I remember getting strong negative feedback one time after being invited to speak to a Campus Crusade group. I told the leader that I was going to give my testimony about the Holy Spirit. It was as if I had said something seriously untoward in his presence. Needless to say, I didn’t “give my testimony.”

Jerry Falwell’s coeditor, Elmer Towns, made a revealing statement in a prayer and fasting testimony in Fasting Can Change Your Life. During a prayer and fasting time for the healing of Vernon Brewer at Liberty University, Towns writes, “God spoke to my heart-not audibly-God told me to lay hands on Vernon and pray for his healing. My response was, ‘No. I do not want to do that.’ I was afraid someone might think I was ‘Pentecostal’ (Towns & Falwell, Tbid., p. 90). We see Towns attitude toward Pentecostals here (no doubt accompanied by unwilling tolerance of the Pentecostal experience of tongues).

The attitudes of Jerry Falwell, Bill Bright, and Elmer Towns represent much of Evangelicalism in far broader scope. These are extremely godly people who simply don’t want to get involved for whatever reason. No doubt one reason they would give would involve some statement about unity. All of these men have shared platforms with charismatic and Pentecostal preachers and have been gracious to the point of physically embracing.

The irony goes further when we consider Harvey Cox. Cox does not carry an evangelical pedigree. Few at Harvard carry the “evangelical” label. Having said that, we read in his book over and over that he is a very sympathetic (and expert) observer of what God is doing in the Pentecostalmovement worldwide. Cox states that there are even times when he wishes he prayed in tongues. My suspicion is that many (if not most) Pentecostals would feel more comfortable having dinner with Cox and discussing “prayer in the Spirit” than with this admittedly evangelical triumvirate of Bright, Falwell, and Towns.

One evangelical extreme displays outright hostility to the point of publishing acerbic and caustic books-such as John MacArthur. Usually, these hostile evangelicals trained at fewer than five different seminaries. The opposition is subtle, smooth, and well presented. Often the unbelief pandered by these orators (bordering on expert Greek rhetoricians) is more impressive and persuasive than the Pentecostal statements of simple faith. These same hostile anti-Pentecostals will testify over and over to the power of God in answering their prayers with their minds (and rightly so).

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians that he would “pray with his mind” and that he would also “pray with his Spirit.” For all of our evangelical correctness in doctrine there is a stark difference between the look and feel of our churches and those of the first century. I read an interview with Pentecostal scholar, Gordon Fee in Christian History magazine one time. Fee was asked, “If the apostle Paul came back to the contemporary church what would he say?” Fee answered, “I think Paul would say two things. First, he would commend us for our sound doctrine. Second, he would ask in astonishment, ‘Where has the power gone?’”

Paul summarizes prayer in the power of the Spirit. The great apostle says that the “Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought” in Romans. Our admitted universal weakness in prayer moves us to cry for heavenly help.

C. S. Lewis quotes this anonymous poem, cited by D.A. Carson. The poem states, succinctly, both our need and the answer:

They tell me, Lord, that when I seem to

be in speech with you,

Since but one voice is heard, it’s all a dream one

talker aping two

Sometimes it is, yet not as they

conceive. Rather, I

Seek in myself the things I hoped to say, but

lo! My wells are dry.

Then seeing me empty, you forsake the

listener’s role and through

My dumb lips breathe and into utterance wake the

thoughts I never knew

And thus you neither need reply nor

can; thus, while we seem

Two talkers, thou art One forever, and I no

dreamer, but thy dream.

(Carson quoted by C. S. Lewis in Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1964) 67, 68)

So what is “praying in the spirit” like? The apostle Paul describes it as a “mystery.” He says that the intellect is “unfruitful” in this endeavor because “no one understands” what is being said (including the speaker).

Nicky Gumbel describes its utility for us. “Who is Nicky Gumbel?” you may ask. He oversees the powerful “Alpha Course,” pioneered at Holy Trinity Brompton Church in England (1977) by an Anglican clergyman, Charles Marnham. It was originally a four-week course in evangelism that is now an edited and expanded three-month course in lay evangelism that reaches tens of thousands with the gospel on a weekly basis.

Nicky Gumbel studied law at Cambridge University and theology at Oxford in the United Kingdom. He writes, “The benefit of tongues is that it is a form of prayer that transcends the limitation of human language.” This seems to be what Paul means when he says, “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful” (1 Corinthians 14:14). Gumbel continues,

Everybody is limited by language. I am told that the average Englishman knows about five thousand English words. Winston Churchill apparently used fifteen thousand words. But even he was limited to that extent. Often people are frustrated that they cannot express what they really feel, even in a human relationship. They feel things in their spirits, but they do not know how to put their feelings into words. This is often true also in our relationship with God.

This is where the gift of tongues can be a great help. It enables us to express to God what we really feel in our spirits without going through the process of translating it into English. (Hence Paul says, ‘My mind is unfruitful.’) It is not mindless, it is unfruitful because it is not going through the process of translation into an intelligible language (Nicky Gumbel, Questions of Life, 1993, p. 140).

Phillip Jenkins writes about Reinhard Bonnke,

Although Lagos is deeply divided between Christians and Muslims, the city has played host to some of the largest evangelical gatherings in world history. In 1998, a revival organized by the Redeemed Christian Church of God gathered a congregation between one and two million strong. In 2000, comparable crowds turned out to hear German Pentecostal evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, who advertised through the enticing slogan ‘Come and receive your miracle.’ On a single night, the crowd reached 1.6 million (Phillip Jenkins, The Next Christendom, p. 74).

What kind of praying impresses a person who draws a crowd of 1.6 million Nigerians on a night? Bonnke writes,

Speaking in tongues is prayer (1 Corinthians 14:2) and is therefore one way in which to ‘pray in the Spirit,’ especially when, ‘we do not know what we should pray for,’ as Romans 8:26 says. It is interesting that this applies not necessarily to praying for someone else but also for ourselves, for the verse continues, ‘The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us.’ We pray for ourselves when we pray in tongues. This explains why millions find themselves ‘getting through’when the mood seems to be missing in prayer, if they take advantage of this manifestation in their lives.. (Reinhard Bonnke, Mighty Manifestations, p. 178).

Nigeria produces big meetings. Loren Cunningham participated in a Nigerian prayer meeting in 2000, and it was reputed to be the largest in history-over five million present. People who are, “in the Spirit” see, say and do extraordinary things. The apostle John was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” when he saw the vision of Christ, which ultimately became our book of Revelation in the Bible. Ezekiel claimed that “the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem” (Ezekiel 8:3). Praying in tongues is simply another thing that happens when a person is “in the Spirit.” “In the Spirit often describes a supra-rational experience.

Terry Law, who preached the gospel and led worship extensively in the Soviet Union writes,

When we pray in the Spirit, we are declaring the wonderful works of God. We are entering in to the act of praise and worship.

Praying in the Spirit becomes an act of spiritual warfare. It fills your spirit with the thoughts of God. It prepares your mind to receive the thoughts of God. In fact, one of the most successful means of renewing the mind is to pray in the spirit ( Michael Moriarity, The New Charismatics, p. 104).

David Wilkerson spoke of mental as well as physical addiction to drugs in The Cross and The Switchblade. One of Wilkerson’s antidotes for relief from this addiction was extended prayer in the Spirit by the addict and intercession in the Spirit for the addict. This is similar to Jackie Pullinger’s prescription for freedom for Heroin addicts. Wilkerson, no fan of the charismatic faith movement, is as serious and devoted to praying in the Spirit as Kenneth Copeland who writes, “Pray in tongues. Pray in the Spirit. Not only just your hour a day that surely you spend praying in tongues, but all during the day, all during the day, even when it’s under your breath or like you say, ‘to yourself.’” (Moriarity, Tbid., p. 263).

Mahesh Chavda writes,

Speaking in tongues carries many benefits for our spiritual lives. For one thing, it helps us grow more intimate with God..Praying in the Spirit is a means by which we can build ourselves up, as well as our families, our homes, and our churches. Speaking in tongues is not just some kind of badge we pull out once in awhile as proof that we have been baptized in the Spirit. On the contrary, it is a wonderful tool and awesome spiritual weapon that God has given us, one that we do not utilize nearly often enough (Mahesh Chavda, Hidden Power, p. 20).

Chavda writes that for believers to merely “prime the pump” takes thirty minutes of praying in tongues. I wonder what he would consider praying in the Spirit to “utilize [it] nearly often enough?”

Chavda recalls being in a restaurant in a pastor’s seminar and praying in the Spirit. God showed him a vision of a young five-year-old boy attached to a kidney dialysis machine. He realized the vision was connected to the waitress. He spoke with her about the vision and she began to cry and ask, “Who are you? My little boy is dying.” Chavda said, “I am a servant of God and He is going to heal your son.” The vision, in Chavda’s words, was “100 percent true” (Chavda, Tbid., p. 92). David du Plessis referred to prayer in the Spirit as the Lord’s telephone. He said that often as he prayed in the Spirit the Lord would respond to him and tell him something supernatural that he needed to know. That is supra-rational.

Smith Wigglesworth, credited with praying for fourteen people who were raised from the dead, is quoted as saying,

‘These days we have shifted our emphasis from entering deeper and deeper in the Spirit to seeking God’s life and power through learning and knowledge. But the life is in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is calling for saints to put down their books and magazines, turn off their television sets, and spend more time in the Spirit’: Wigglesworth said that he never went half an hour without praying, he constantly prayed in tongues, he read the Bible at every meal (P. J. Madden, The Standard of Wigglesworth, p. 114).

We often tend to give the Spirit less credit for doing things than is proper. Even unbelievers may sing or pray “in the Spirit” and not even know it-sometimes in their own language-prophetically. Don Richardson tells of the Karen people in Burma. Their tradition spoke of a white man who would come to their land one day with a golden book to tell them about the ways of God. No doubt God inspired this tradition through some local prophet who unknowingly was actually, “in the spirit” as he predicted this thing. Was it legend? Yes. Was it Spirit of God inspired legend? Again, yes. The Karen’s had a traditional song that was written “in the Spirit.” This song, written way before the coming of the Baptist missionaries, called god “Ywa” (very similar to the Hebrew Yahweh). The words of the song remind us of passages in the prophets, especially Isaiah. It was called the Karen “Song of Hope”:

At the appointed season Y’wa will come. Dead trees will blossom and flower. Mouldering trees will blossom and bloom again. Y’wa will come and bring the great Thau-thee.

Don Richardson writes about a second song of hope that speaks of a returning king:

When the Karen King arrives

There will be only one Monarch

When the Karen King arrives

There will be neither rich nor poor

(Don Richardson Eternity in their Hearts, p. 80).

The apostle Paul writes that he would both pray in the Spirit and sing in the Spirit. That same Spirit of which Paul writes in 1 Corinthians inspired these Karen bards. Of course, when the white man arrived in Burma there was a monstrous salvation of the whole people group known as the Karen’s-prepared beforehand by prophetic songs and prayers in the Spirit given by unbelievers. These Karen prophets bypassed their cognitive understanding and spoke of a God-ordained future inspired by the Spirit of God. Similarly, we bypass our minds when we pray in the Spirit.

What blessing can it be to pray about something you really don’t even cognitively know about? Larry Christensen writes,

The human mind, wonderful as it is from the hand of the Creator, has limited knowledge, limited linguistic ability, limited understanding, and furthermore is inhibited with all manner of prejudice, little and large. Speaking in tongues is a God appointed manner of praying which can bypass the limitations of the intellect (Larry Christensen, Speaking in Tongues, quoted in Charismatic Reader, p. 88).

Are there people in church history who, if queried, would credit prayer in tongues as part of their success? I believe there are people. Let me chronicle some of them, literally from Ato Z :

A- Annacondia, Carlos: Argentinean evangelist who has seen over two million conversions in his evangelistic services over the last twenty years. At times whole sections of the stadium were swept over by the power of God.

B - Buntain, Mark (1923-1989): Missionary to India from Manitoba, Canada., who was the son of a Pentecostal pastor. He began his ministry to the poor in 1953 in Calcutta. As a result of his ministry, “250,000 have been saved from hunger, more than 100,000 have had the chance to go to school, and tens of thousands have been treated at the hospital, also had a radio program which ministered to more than 145 million listeners, three times a week” (Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, ed. Burgess, p. 102).

C - Cho, Yonggi (born 1936): Korean pastor of the largest church in world history who details priority of prayer in tongues in his early book, Man in the Fourth Dimension.

D - du Plessis, David, “Mr. Pentecost” (1905-1987): Russell Spittler writes about him,

No one in the twentieth century so effectively linked three of the major movements of the time-the Pentecostal movement, the ecumenical movement, and the charismatic movement. Time magazine reported the choice of seven editors of religious publications for the leading ‘shapers and shakers’of Christianity. du Plessis was among them, along with people like Billy Graham, Hans Kung, Jurgen Moltmann, and Rosemary Ruether (the editors had eliminated Cesar Chavez, Harvey Cox, Norman Vincent Peale, and Oral Roberts). Killian McDonnell spoke of du Plessis as a ‘national treasure’ (Burgess, Tbid., p. 252).

E - Erickson, Clifton (born 1915): A Norwegian evangelist with a healing ministry in the mid 20th century. Gordon Lindsey praised him as a man of faith and wrote of his great Chilean crusade of 1952 around the same time that Tommy Hicks was working in Argentina with President Peron.

F - Farrow, Lucy (20th century): She was a black missionary to Liberia. Touched in the Azusa Street Revival of 1906, she took that fire to Africa where many were reported to have been saved, healed, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

G - Garlock, Henry (1897-1985): Missionary to Africa (Ghana, Malawi, and Liberia) and the pastor of several churches in the United States who authored his testimony, Before We Kill and Eat You, in which he describes preaching in tongues to the Pahn Tribe and thus having his life spared as a result of that tongues experience.

H - Hayford, Jack (born 1934): He is known as the “Pentecostal Pastor” and has also spoken in broad venues interdenominationally. The pastor of Van Nuys Four Square church, known as the Church on the Way grew from eighteen people to over six thousand under his leadership. He wrote an important book on prayer in tongues.

I - Ingram, James Henry (1893-1981): He was a missionary leader in the Church of God in Cleveland, Tennessee, for over fifty years. A worldwide tour in 1936 led to the establishment of strong Pentecostal works in a dozen nations.

J - Jeffreys, Stephen (1876-1943): A British Pentecostal healing evangelist who had unusual miracles and unusual power attributed to his meetings. People stood in line all night to obtain seats at his meetings.

K - Kuhlman, Kathryn (1907-76): A healing evangelist in the 20th century who had tremendous medically-verified healings in her services. She had an unusual and almost strange demeanor in her preaching but with very positive results; her services sometimes lasted between four and six hours.

L- Lake, John G. (1870-1935):Ahealing evangelist who was credited with thousands of documented healings in Spokane, Washington, between 1914-1920. Lake believed that his greatest times of power were in South Africa (crusades about which David du Plessis still spoke of fifty years later with astonishment).

M - McPherson, Aimee Semple (1890-1944): The founder of the Four Square Denomination who had tremendous evangelistic gifts. She is described by Cecil Roebeck at Fuller Seminary as “undoubtedly the most prominent woman leader Pentecostalism has produced to date.” As well, Roebeck states, “ Her funeral at Forest Lawn in Los Angeles on October 9, 1944” was “one of the largest funerals ever held in Los Angeles” (Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, ed. Burgess, p. 571).

N - Nelson, Peter Christopher (1868-1942): Born a Norwegian Baptist he became involved in Pentecostalism in 1920 and later founded an Assemblies of God Bible school known as Southwestern Assemblies of God College. He was known for his excellent scholarship and faith in healing.

O - Osteen, John (1921-1998): A Baptist pastor from Paris, Texas, who was baptized in the Holy Spirit in 1958, and began preaching the benefits of praying in tongues almost immediately. He eventually wrote thirty books. Osteen established Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, with about 150 members; it grew to twenty thousand and has had a missions emphasis (having reached over 110 nations with the gospel).

P - Pethrus, Petrus Lewi (1884-1974): He was the founder of the Swedish Pentecostal Fildelfia churches. Known as an international diplomat for Pentecostalism, he was a worldwide leader in the movement even though he continued as a local pastor until his retirement in 1958.

R - Robertson, M.G., Pat (born 1930): He gave his heart to Christ in 1956. God baptized him in the Holy Spirit and he worked as an associate pastor with Harald Bredesen in Mount Vernon, New York. No doubt Bredesen’s influence persuaded Robertson of the centrality of prayer in tongues for a properly balanced devotional life of “praying with the mind and praying with the Spirit.” I suppose if someone asked Robertson for practical demonstration of the prayer of this kind, he could respond with a paragraph from The Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements:

‘The 700 Club’ is beamed live into more than seven million homes and fifteen thousand cities throughout America, and the CBN cable network has more than thirty million subscribers in fifty states. In a year, viewers of ‘The 700 Club’ log some 4 million prayer calls to 4,500 volunteers in sixty counseling centers. Since 1982, CBN’s Middle East television station in southern Lebanon has provided daily outreach to Israel and surrounding countries. It is estimated that more than sixty countries around the world are being touched regularly by CBN. CBN is now a sprawling complex of Williamsburg-style buildings on 680 acres in Virginia Beach and has an annual operating budget of more than $200 million and more than four thousand employees worldwide..

Another outreach of CBN is Operation Blessing, which, beginning in 1978, has become one of America’s largest private organizations helping the poor.(Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, ed. Burgess, p. 672).

S - Seymour, William (1870-1922): He was the pastor of Azusa Street mission where much of Pentecostalism looks back to its roots (see Harvey Cox, Fire from Heaven, p. 45-66).

T - Trasher, Lillian (1887-1961): A Pentecostal missionary giant to Egypt who established an orphanage in Assiout, Egypt. Her orphanage eventually consisted of “thirteen main buildings, housing about 650 children, widows, and blind women.”

U - Urshan, Andrew David (1884-1967): The son of a Presbyterian pastor in Iran who became a Pentecostal in 1908, and established a Persian mission. As well, he established Pentecostal churches in Russia.

V - Valdez, A. C. Jr. (1896-1988): Amissionary and evangelist who was influenced by theAzusa Street outpouring. Valdez traveled throughout the South Pacific preaching the gospel, seeing signs and wonders, and emphasizing prayer in tongues. Valdez appeared on national television describing miraculous power he had seen and experienced as a result of Azusa Street.

W - Watson, David C. K. (1933-84): An Anglican rector about whom Catholic theologian Peter Hocken writes, “Possibly the spiritual leader who in life and death has made the greatest impact on contemporary Christian life in Britain” (Tbid., 879).

Y - Yeomans, Lillian (1861-1942): A medical doctor with a gift of faith healing by supernatural prayer. JohnAlexander Dowie prayed for an addiction she had contracted, she was healed, and this set her on her anointed course. She worked withAimee Semple McPherson and served on the faculty of LIFE Bible College, writing six books on divine healing. At the age of eighty, she was still traveling and preaching the gospel.

Z - Zimmerman, Thomas (born 1912): The general secretary of the Assemblies of God as well as the first Pentecostal to be elected as president of the nationalAssociation of Evangelicals.

All of these people would echo Paul’s statement, “I will pray with my mind and I will pray with my Spirit.”

Chapter Six

Give Thanks

“What am I to do? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also” (1 Corinthians 14:15).

My wife and I led a missionary training base for several years in the 1980s. One lady gave a large offering to a missionary family going to the Philippines for an outreach. She came to our house crying uncontrollably shortly thereafter with tears running down her face onto her dress as she told us what troubled her. She had given the family ten thousand dollars and they did not thank her before they caught the plane to the Philippines. God underlined the lesson on gratefulness that day for me. I have been stunned through the years at the amount of ingratitude in the church of God.

When we think of spiritual strength in the church, “thankfulness” is certainly not the first attribute that immediately springs to my mind. I remember another story from the 1980s.

I was in a rather wealthy nation to start one of our School of Biblical Studies courses. I spent two weeks there and at the end of my time, the leader of the school told me that they were going to give me a sizeable honorarium. I walked the halls of that missionary training base and saw the need among both the hundred-or-so missionaries and the international group of students. I learned what the rent would be for a week on the facility for all of the self-supporting staff. My honorarium for two weeks of preaching could pay the rent for a week for all of the staff. I told the school leader to anonymously pay all of their bills. She was free to tell them that I had paid it after I left the country-which she did. I received less than five thank you notes from those one hundred missionaries. God highlighted the ingratitude lesson for me again.

I asked my wife and another missionary veteran about sermons they have heard since being saved. Between the three of us, we have heard about 3,500 sermons (not counting Bible studies, classes, teaching tapes, etc.). Then I asked, “How many memorable sermons on thanksgiving can you think of throughout all of your Christian experience?” My wife and missionary friend answered, “Less than five!” Thanksgiving looms small as a topic for the preaching.

The begging question is “Why is that?” I suppose there could be a lot of proffered answers to that one, but let me give a few. The fallen nature of man bespeaks ingratitude. The apostle Paul writes about it: “For although they knew God they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened” (Romans 1:21). Paul writes that in the last days, times of stress would include people who are “ungrateful” (2 Timothy 3:2).

Jesus said God is “kind to the ungrateful” (Luke 6:35). Jesus felt the sting of ingratitude. He healed ten lepers and only one irreligious Samaritan, a non-Jew, turned back to thank Jesus for the miracle. Jesus response is telling: “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?” (Luke 17:17). Ingratitude caught Jesus’ attention.

The Bible mentions the word “thanks” and “thanksgiving” over a hundred times. In fact, “thanks” and “thanksgiving” are mentioned as much as “salvation” in the Bible. How many sermons have we heard on salvation?

When I was twenty-four years old, I took a fellow seminary student out on a date. She was very zealous for God and very attractive. We went to the theatre to watch “Barefoot in the Park.” The next day I found a thank you note mysteriously placed in my jacket pocket. I was impressed by this display of Christian gratitude. She later became my wife!

The word for thanksgiving in Paul’s writings is “Eucharist.” This word in ancient classical Greek related to joy. The word for thanksgiving relates to the Greek word for grace. In fact, the word for grace is contained in the word for thanksgiving. Aprefix “eu” is added to the front of “grace” to create the word for thanksgiving. The word for grace relates to “everything about which one rejoices.”

In classical Greek “Eucharist” pointed to two things. The first was attitude, a thankful attitude. The second thing was the actual expression of that “thankful attitude.” The adjective “thankful” related to being “pleasant, well-behaved, or witty.” The verb, “I give thanks” was related to a debt or an obligation “to express and be thankful” (verbally and in behavior). Basically, the New Testament carries all of these nuances of meaning for the word “thanks” or “thankfulness.”

Some New Testament scholars relate the word to “praise” for God. This is acceptable as a partial reflection of a fuller orbed definition for the word. This is especially relevant for our study of thanking God in tongues. Thanks, blessing, prayer, and singing are all closely related in the context of 1 Corinthians 14:10-20. It makes sense that someone like Gordon Fee would write that, “Not only did one pray in this way, but one also praised God in song in this way.” Hence the verbs in vs. 16-17 that pick up this theme are “bless” and “give thanks.”

The apostle Paul states that if the whole church comes together and everyone is praying in tongues at the same time, the outsider watching this will declare the whole bunch to be crazy. Harvey Cox had a different take on the whole thing though. Relating back to the first time he heard praying in tongues, he discusses what he has heard since then, traveling around the world doing research on Pentecostals. The Harvard professor writes,

Since that night in Philadelphia many years ago I have visited dozens of churches and congregations in which tongue speaking of one sort or another took place. Sometimes virtually the entire congregation does it all at once and the sound seems like small waves of murmurs and gentle signs mounting into billows of muffled vowels and muted consonants. Sometimes it begins as a tiny trickle and grows into a roaring cascade then wanes again into a rustle. Sometimes it is a single person who stands and for thirty seconds or so (rarely more) speaks clearly discernible but incomprehensible syllables. Sometimes this is followed by an interpretation by another person, sometimes not. Sometimes it happens with a musk polyphony of tones and vocables but with no recognizable words. Sometimes the speakers sound anxious or urgent. More often they sound joyful, thankful, or serene (Harvey Cox, Fire From Heaven, p. 6).

Cox found these believers to exhibit a thankful spirit as they prayed in tongues publicly (out of order as some of it appears to have been). I wonder how Cox concluded that “thankfulness” would be the word he would use for these folks in these “dozens of churches” he visited over the years, listening to people pray in tongues.

Prayer giant and legend at Gordon-Conwell Dr. J.Christy Wilson was a thankful person. I remember him thanking me for answering the telephone one time. One of my friends followed him around one day to see if he was for real-his gracious and grateful spirit was so out of context.

He built the only Christian church in the history ofAfghanistan, but the government destroyed it. I remember hearing him testify that as the bulldozers were taking the church down, he was on his knees weeping but giving thanks at the same time. He stated publicly it was “because Paul wrote to be thankful in all circumstances.” This kind of gratefulness is what God is after. Apparently, prayer in tongues fosters and expresses that kind of gratitude.

Donald Basham mentions an atmosphere of gratitude around his experience of prayer in tongues during a time of theological questioning during his graduate school days. He writes,

Somewhere deep inside I felt a kind of “letting go,” as if some part of me, which had still been held in reserve, was finally being given to God. My prayer in tongues seemed entirely fitting to express my gratitude to God. Almost lost in an overwhelming spirit of worship and praise, I recognized my voice changing from language to language.(Donald Basham, Face Up With a Miracle, p. 72).

Sir John Templeton writes,

Thanksgiving opens the door to spiritual growth. If there is any day in our life that is not thanksgiving day, then we are not fully alive. Counting our blessings attracts blessings. Counting our blessings each morning starts a day full of blessings. Thanksgiving brings God’s bounty. From gratitude come riches-from complaints poverty. Thankfulness opens the door to happiness. Thanksgiving causes giving. Thanksgiving puts our mind in tune with the Infinite. Continual gratitude dissolves our worries (Robert Herrmann, From Wall Street to Humility Theology, p. 34).

Jack Hayford writes about a man for whom he had prayed:

I prayed with another man who remained completely silent after prayer, even though I encouraged his praise. He explained how his high church background made him still hesitant. Yet he also still avowed he was opened and as I had prayed with him, ‘something.someone’had touched his soul. Afew days later he was on a trip, and while soaking in a bathtub in Beirut, Lebanon, a spirit of worship and thanksgiving rose, and he began to speak with tongues (Jack Hayford, The Beauty of Spiritual Language, p. 159).

Robert Morris, former director of the Yale Christian Fellowship, states,

For me, the gift of tongues turned out be the gift of praise. As I used the unknown language that God had given me I felt rising in me the love, the awe, the adoration, pure and uncontingent, that I had not been able to achieve in thought-out prayer. Praise and adoration are basically non-conceptual things, and glossolalia is non-conceptual prayer...I have noticed a new ability to give praise to the God revealed in Christ, not just intellectual thanksgiving-but praise which seems to flow out of unknown depths in a non-emotional but fully self-filling way (John Sherrill, They Speak With Other Tongues, p. 88-89).

Morris talked about praise and about thanksgiving as a part of prayer in tongues. Twice in this excerpt he talks about cognitive unfruitfulness using words like “unknown” (twice) and “non-conceptual.” This praise and thanksgiving is consistent with other elements of tongue speaking in that it is simultaneously mysterious and apart from the “cortex of the brain” (to use Fee’s terms) but still very wonderful and, as Morris writes, “fully self-filling.”

David Wilkerson’s experience commuting on the ferry between Staten Island and Manhattan instructs us also about the relationship of thanksgiving to prayer in tongues. He would use the time on the ferry to pray. Sherrill writes,

[Wilkerson would] start off by thinking of all the things he had to be thankful for.he would review them one by one in his mind, in English, praising God for each one.

Bit by bit inside him, he would feel a mounting sense of joy..And suddenly in trying to express his gratitude he would reach a language barrier.it was at this point that he would burst

through into communication which was not limited by vocabulary” (Sherrill, Tbid., p. 89).

Testimonies are myriad in the history of the Pentecostal movement to people having heard someone speak in a known language the “wondrous works of God.” Rodman Williams quotes from an early publication (1906) fromAzusa Street entitled, “TheApostolic Faith”:

The gift of languages is given with the commission, ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.’ The Lord has given languages to the unlearned, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Zulu and the languages ofAfrica, Hindu and Bengali and dialects of India, Chippewa and other languages of the Indians, Esquimaux, the deaf mute language and in fact, the Holy Ghost speaks in all the languages of the world through His children.God is solving the missionary problem, sending out new-tongued missionaries (Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology, Vol. 2, p. 216).

As one reads the scholarly literature, this seems to be one of the largest points of discussion. Is it a real language or not? It seems to me that the question misses the point of the New Testament in two different ways. First, the New Testament tells us that the mind is “unfruitful” in this practice. Therefore, we should content ourselves with cognitive ignorance as we face this phenomenon. Second, simple faith dictates acceptance of the New Testament statements about praying in tongues, one of which is that we are “giving thanks.” It seems that simply submitting our (sometimes) rebellious mind to the Word of God and admitting what the Word says about it would be far simpler and more edifying.

Living in a rationalistic age coming out of rationalistic universities (and the like) pushes all of us (including me) to ask these fruitless questions like, “Is it a real language or not?” God says it is thanksgiving and expects us to relax with that and move on with Him.

Throughout this book we see that the saint praying in tongues knows nothing of what he or she is saying. This is a given as Paul states that the tongue speaker may actually:

1. Speak with tongues of angels (or men) (1 Cor. 13:1-2)

2. No one understands him (1 Cor. 14:2)

3. Utters mysteries

4. Utters speech not intelligible (1 Cor. 14:9)

5. Have an unfruitful mind (1 Cor. 14:14)

6. Does not know what they are saying (1 Cor. 14:16)

Paul writes also that prayer in tongues is thanksgiving. Let’s go through Scripture to see the kinds of things and circumstances that people thank God for. Why does this relate to prayer in tongues? This study points us to some of the things we may be praying and thanking God for as we are praying in tongues. We’ll look at the types of circumstances for thanksgiving in the Bible:

1 Chron. 23:26  Appointed time for general purposes

Dan. 2:23  For wisdom, strength, and revelation

Mt.11:22  For God hiding and revealing things

John 11:41  For unanswered prayers

Rom. 1:8  For the church

1 Cor. 1:4  For the church because of grace shown

1 Cor. 14:18  That he speaks in tongues more than all the Corinthians

Php. 1:5  For Philippians partnership in the gospel

1. Thess. 2:17  Thessalonians accepting the Word of God 1

2. Tim. 1:12  For strength to preach and minister

2 Tim. 1:3  For Timothy

Acts 28:15  Paul seeing brethren in Rome

Ps. 100:4  Enter gates

1. Chron. 5:13  For He is good and His steadfast love endures forever

2 Sam. 22:50  For deliverance from enemies

Neh. 12:24  According to commandments

Ps. 30:5  His anger is but for a moment, favor for a lifetime

Ps. 79:12  God’s response to enemies

Ps. 107:1  He is good

Ps. 136:4  Wonders

Ps. 136:5  Creation

Ps. 136:10  Exodus

Ps. 136:16  Guidance

Ps. 136:25  Food to all flesh

Dan. 6:10  Habit

Mt. 15:36  Passover

Mk. 8:6  Miraculous loaves

Lk. 17:16  Healing

Rom. 16:4  For taking risks in proclamation of the gospel 1

Cor. 15:57  Victory over death

2 Cor. 1:11  Answered prayer

2 Cor. 8:16  For putting love for saints in Titus’heart

2 Cor. 9:15  His unspeakable gifts

Eph. 5:20  Always in all things

Col. 1:12  For qualification of inheritance of saints in light

1 Thess. 3:9  Paul’s feeling of joy for the saints in Thessalonica

1. Thess. 5:18  In all circumstances

2. Thess. 2:13  Election

1 Tim. 2:1  All men, kings in high places

Heb. 13:15  Eternal city

Rom. 4:9  God is worthy

Rom. 11:17  Judgment and justice Ps. 69:30  To magnify God

Ps. 95:2  Come before His presence

Ps. 147:7  To sing to the Lord

Isa. 51:3  Comfort for Zion 2 Cor. 4:15  Gospel going out

2 Cor. 9:11  Generosity

Php. 4:6  Requests to God

Col. 2:7  Spiritual growth in Christ

Neh. 12:27  Dedication of wall and city of Jerusalem

So as we pray in tongues, we may be thanking God for a miraculous deliverance in our life. Perhaps God spared us from something we didn’t even know about. The Holy Spirit knows and inspires us to pray and thank God for the deliverance about which we know nothing.

We might be in a difficult life circumstance seeing no light of deliverance. The Spirit may be stirring us up to thank God in the midst of this hardship (obediently by thanking Him in every circumstance).

The list of thanksgivings could go on and on as we thank God in tongues. It is important to note that the previous list is not exhaustive. No doubt there are many things we thank God for in tongues that are not on this list. God is bigger than a list of Bible verses. So are His blessings. There may be things for which we thank Him and don’t even realize. As well, since this list in the Bible is not exhaustive, God may have another list in heaven, one hundred times as long as the one listed here.

Imagine a thankless world; everything is gray; everything is drab; there are no surprises; there is really nothing to brighten up another persons day; everything in this world is a duty.

Speaking of a thankless world, I remember my first trip to the Communist bloc in 1984. That was the year the Olympics were in Los Angeles. I missed all the excitement for them as I was in East Germany (on the wrong train) with the Germans cussing at me. I did not know German then (as I learned it later). I spent six weeks in the forest of Poland preaching to university kids.

Coming out of Poland through East Germany into West Germany I vividly remember crossing the border. I turned to my friend, Rich, and said to wake him up, “We are in the West.” The colors splashed all over my senses as I looked out the window of the Russian train. Suddenly, the world was no longer drab or gray-there was life! This was thankfulness in color form. Gratitude adds spice to life both in the natural world or spiritual world.

The apostle Paul writes, “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6). Paul also writes to “give thanks” in all circumstances. King David is the Bible’s example of a true worshiper. Praying in tongues to express gratitude and thankfulness parallels the Bible’s other directives to be thankful people. Paul writes that he thanks God for prayer in tongues in his own life and even that he “prays in tongues more than all of the Corinthians.” In effect, he thanks God for being able to thank God! Smith Wigglesworth saw this attitude of gratitude as key to resurrection powers. Wigglesworth (having seen fourteen people raised from the dead) knew something regarding resurrection power. Concerning the thankfulness of Christ he writes,

Ah yes the bitterness may come of night, but joy will come in the morning. Hallelujah. So many believers never look up. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank thee that you have heard me’(John 11:41b). Then he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus come forth!’

Beloved God wants us to have some resurrection touch about us. We may enter into things that will bring us sorrow and trouble, but through them God will bring us to a deeper knowledge of himself (Smith Wigglesworth, The Anointing of His Spirit, p. 227).

Wigglesworth continues,

Who knows how to pray only as the Spirit prays? What kind of prayers does the Spirit pray? The Spirit always brings to our remembrance the mind of the Scriptures and brings forth all our cry and our need better than any words. The Spirit takes the Word of God and brings our heart, and mind, and soul, and cry, and need into the presence of God.

The Spirit prays only according to the will of God, and the will of God is all the word of God when we have entered in with God into the mind of the Spirit, we will find that God changes our hearts. And when God reaches into the depths of our hearts, he purifies every intention and desire. We are told in the Word that it is joy unspeakable and full of glory (Wigglesworth, Tbid., p. 200).

Wigglesworth paints us a picture contrasting “joy unspeakable and full of glory” with the gray drabness of a thankless world parallel to the gray walls on an old communist train station.

Thanking God in tongues embarrasses some people. Charles Spurgeon embarrassed his friends because of loud praise and public thanksgiving. His friends would walk at a distance from him so as not to be identified with him in public. Folks do the same thing with a tongue speaker.

First impressions of prayer in tongues are often embarrassment. Some look away, refuse eye contact, and clear their throats. One friend told me how brave I was to write about praying in tongues. Another used the metaphorical phrase “walking on the edge.” Other people think about division in the church. I have a few friends who immediately responded with joy and their eyes lit up.

Prejudice forces people to the sidelines of the future. God is going to the ends of the earth with the Pentecostals. Prejudice, only refusing to thank God outright, will spiritually sideline any person in any nation from any tradition.

Teaching about gratefulness in tongues is mandatory for the church of the future to grow. Teaching against tongues has been a relatively recent event in church history. Some have thought that tongues were “appendix like” in the spiritual life. Others place tongues squarely in the middle of their spiritual existence. Somewhere short of the last opinion is probably correct. I remember hearing Gordon Fee say that tongues is neither the least important nor the most important thing in his spiritual life.

Imagine a conversation in the year 2050 between a certain dispensationalist* and a foreign Pentecostal fromArgentina:

Dispensationalist: “I said fifty years ago that there were six reasons why tongues ceased with the apostles. Now, fifty years later I hold the same opinion.”

Pentecostal leader: “So, how do you account for the one billion protestant Pentecostals and the half-billion Catholic charismatics? Abillion and a half people thanking God in tongues?

Dispensationalist : “There are several answers, none of them good. First, I would suggest that these Pentecostals, coming out of their former animist backgrounds, are carrying some of their old world-views into the church. Second, the ‘tongues-phenomenon’ that you describe is more a psychological/biological manifestation of human personality rather than a genuine New Testament manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Third, it is consistent with my earlier statements that theologically these new 1.5 billion Pentecostals are theologically remedial. I wrote this fifty years ago.

Pentecostal leader: “How do you account for the fact that seminaries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa are now training five times as many students for the ministry as American seminaries, and that many of these seminaries hold to the historic doctrine of the reformation and the major creeds?”

Dispensationalist: “I must go now.”

Pentecostal leader: “One further question sir?”

Dispensationalist: “I really must go.”

Paul rejoiced that he prayed and thanked God in tongues. From the Scripture we looked at, what might Paul have been thanking God for?

1. That God revealed Christ to him

2. For the grace shown him

3. For being a part of the world wide church of God

4. For strength to preach in the middle of persecution

5. That he speaks in tongues so much

6. For Timothy

7. For deliverance from persecution

8. For signs and wonders

9. For his joy over the church

10. For God choosing him

Of course, we can never know what Paul was thanking God for when he prayed in tongues, but we know that his prayer in tongues would agree in principle with the rest of Scripture even as Smith Wigglesworth said.

*Alluding to John McArthur

Chapter Seven

Intercession

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself inter- cedes for us, with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).

I have weak ankles. It seems to run in the family. I also have bad knees and a weakened back, but let me talk to you about my weak left ankle.

I sprained my ankle the first time in 1988 on a family member’s cattle ranch (I still remember the smell of horse manure). That weakness began over forty years ago. I had planned to fly from home in Hawaii to Chile, SouthAmerica, three days later. Incredibly, I sprained my ankle by simply walking. I went to the emergency room with an ankle that looked like elephantitis and later flew to South America with crutches.

Two summers ago I climbed a fence. Placing my foot perpendicular to the ground I heard a snap and thought I had broken my weak ankle. Fortunately, I did not break it, but again I severely sprained it. Right or wrong, a chiropractor told me that my ankle weakness was due to one leg being shorter than the other. That weakness continues to this day.

We all suffer weakness; some more than others. The Bible tells us in Romans 8:26 that one of our weaknesses is a prayer weakness. Interestingly, the word “weakness” translates into “sickness” in other parts of the New Testament. Paul uses this word in Galatians 4:13 where the RSV translates it as “a physical ailment.” There is no hint of strength in this word.

Most Christians I know have confessed to God-at one time or another- “God help my prayer life, it is weak!” The good news is that God has already said so in Romans 8:26 and He also supplies the remedy. The remedy is prayer by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Through the years, I often thought that this referred to prayer in tongues-specifically intercession. The last several years have confirmed the sensibleness of that conclusion-primarily through other students of scripture.

F.F. Bruce encouraged me in his Tyndale Commentary on Romans when alluding to the Pentecostal probabilities of this passage. Bruce sported no Pentecostal charismatic pedigree or inclination-simply honest scholarship. Liberal German scholar Ernst Kasemann states the same thing, in essence, as Bruce (but in a stronger way). James Dunn, British non-Pentecostal Holy Spirit enthusiast also holds this opinion. The “Coup de grace” was Gordon Fee. Fee strongly answers the Pentecostal intercession that Paul intends to convey. Reinhard Bonnke, Pentecostal evangelist, concludes the same thing as Fee. Their conclusion is that Romans 8:26 asserts that the Holy Spirit prays through believers to intercede for themselves and other people because the Spirit knows the mind of God. The Holy Spirit does this because of our present weakness in prayer.

A prayer example is in order from the history of Pentecostal missions: Willie Burton (1886-1971) went to Mwanza, Congo, at the age of thirty- one, as a Pentecostal missionary. Energetic Burton authored twenty-eight books including the standard work on Lubu religion. Burton became the field director of the Congo/Zaire Evangelistic Mission until 1960 when he retired (Dictionary of Pentecostal Movement, p. 102).

While serving in the Congo, Burton fell deathly sick with a jungle disease. People prayed for him and nothing worked. Everyone, including the Congolese natives, gave him up to die. One strange day, the phenomenal happened. Willie Burton simply got out of his bed-completely healed and for no apparent reason or change in his outward circumstance. He later went back to his native England on furlough and told the story in one Pentecostal church. After church a lady said she needed to speak with him. She asked Burton if he remembered the specific date and time that this strange incident occurred. He remembered it exactly due to its strangeness-down to the hour. The lady then told him that she had suddenly been burdened to pray for him in tongues but knew not why. The burden lifted after a sustained period of intercessory prayer in tongues. The date and time matched exactly (see Wigglesworth, The Apostle of Faith).

Prayer in tongues is intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Kasemann says,

In the New Testament the office is reserved for Christ except in this text, since the Paraclete of John’s Gospel has a different task (Niederwimmer, ‘Gebet,’261). With the intercession of the Spirit, then, there has to be some special circumstance, particularly as it takes place, in distinction from that of the exalted Christ.

Modern interpretation relates this in edifying fashion to wordless sighs (Sanday and Headlam; Schlatter; Dodd; Nygren; Asmussen; Greeven, Gebet, 153; Schlier, ‘Worauf,’ 611; Taylor, but cf. Ribberbos; Halz, Heilsvertrauen, 81). In primitive Christianity, however, there can be no question of this (Schniewind, ‘Seufzen,’ 86; Gaugler, 71f., 74). Instead it can only be a matter of ecstatic cries (Gaugler; Murray; Kirk). In 1 Cor 14:15 the apostle expressly mentions praying in the Spirit during worship and this phenomenon, not attested in the rabbis but presupposed in the Qumran Hodayoth (cf. Billerbeck and Dietzel, ‘Beten,’ 24ff.), is confirmed by Eph. 6:18; Jude 20; Rev. 22:17. Naturally there is also private ecstasy. But the sighs mentioned here are regarded as visible manifestations of the Spirit and they are associated with the legal act of the Spirit’s intercession that takes place in them. This is meaningful only in liturgical process (Zahn; Althaus; Fuchs, Freiheit, 112; Balz, Heilsvertrauen, 91, though cf. In opposition Gatjahr; Bardenhewer; Leenhardt; Michel; Murray; Dellin, Worship, 23).

The meaning of v. 26b is now clear. The apostle is not dealing with the problem and technique of prayer, nor is he speaking primarily of infused mystical prayer (contra Lietzmann; Dodd). He is speaking with reference to certain practices in congregational life which are open to misunderstanding and have in fact been misunderstood (Gaugler, ‘Geist,’ 67, 70ff,. 76), namely, inexpressible sighings. These can hardly be acclamations as in v. 15, for they are thoroughly understandable. It makes good sense, however, if what is at issue is the praying in tongues of 1 Cor 14:15 (Zahn; Althaus; N.Q. Hamilton, The Holy Spirit and Eschatology in Paul [1957] 36; Cullmann, Salvation, 256; Balz, Heilsvertrauen, 79f.; possible Delling, TDNT, I 376; Harder, Gebet, 169f.; unlikely Barrett; rejected by Sickenberger; Budy; Schlatter; Gaugler; Michel; Greeven, Gebet, 155).

The objection that tongues is an individual and not a congregation’s affair (Schlatter Gaugler; Leenhardt) is not convincing. For in 1 Cor. 14, praying in tongues represents worship as a whole. Paul was counted worthy to hear angelic speech and he could not reproduce it. The reason why the Corinthians prized tongues above all other gifts was that they viewed it as a language of angels (1 Cor 13:1), and it thus demonstrated the participation of pneumatics in heavenly being. The apostle has to take issue with this notion, and he does this by finding a different meaning in glossolalia at worship from that espoused by the Corinthians. Since he glories in his own gift of tongues in 1 Cor 14:18, he does not deny that the Spirit expresses himself in heavenly speech, and he sees in this a sign of the end-time in which the prophecies of Isa 28:11f. and Deut 28:49 come to fulfillment.

To characterize glossolalia in this way he speaks of ‘inexpressible sighs’ in the present passage. Heavenly speech can be heard in worship as a work of the Spirit. But what enthusiasts regard as proof of their glorification he sees as sign of a lack..The Spirit himself has to intervene if our prayers are to have a content which is pleasing to God. He does so in such a way that even in worship he brings us to that groaning of which the unredeemed creation is full and which speaks out of the longing of the assaulted for the redemption of the body.

Significant debate surrounds whether or not this ministry of the Spirit is actually describing glossolalia (or ‘speaking in tongues,’ cf. 1 Cor 12-14; see Tongues). ‘Sighs too deep for words’ (Rom 8:26) and ‘inward groaning’ (Rom 8:23) might well be the incomprehensible prayer language that Paul had described as taking place among the Corinthian believers. This is even more likely when we recall the theological function of the Spirit in Romans 8:18-27. The Spirit is a foreign power that intervenes in our darkness and confusion; a remedy when no cure is at hand. He does not energize human effort in prayer, but, in human weakness and powerlessness, he fills believers’ prayers with completely new content (Kasemann, Romans, comment on Romans 8:26).

Fee says,

This suggests, therefore, that our ‘not knowing what to pray for as we ought’ first of all does not refer to our not knowing how to pray, as though method or method and content together were at issue. That seems completely unfounded in light of what Paul says about prayer elsewhere, and especially of his directives regarding prayer, all of which assume that believers do not need instruction on prayer because they already know how to pray. Rather, these words imply that over and again during times of prayer, and in light of the present realities of suffering and endurance, our lack of knowledge has to do with the larger picture, as it were, thus ‘what to pray.’ In the midst of the ‘already/not yet’ of our salvation, with its present suffering and endurance yet full of hope as it is, we are left with an overwhelming sense of the enormity of our own weaknesses. Our ‘not knowing’ is related to our present weaknesses in light of our future redemption, our final revelation as God’s children, clothed in resurrection bodies which have replaced the current ones which are subject to the same decay as the groaning creation (Gordon Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, comment on Romans 8:26).

Bruce writes,

The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. Read the singular, ‘infirmity’(RV) or ‘weakness’(RSV, NEB).

The Spirit itself (better ‘himself’, RV, RSV, NEB) maketh intercession for us. Cf. Ephesians vi. 18, ‘praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.’ When believers pray ‘in the Spirit,’ the Spirit Himself intercedes on their behalf.

‘With groanings which cannot be uttered.’ ‘Through our inarticulate groans’ (NEB). Speaking to God in the Spirit with ‘tongues’(1 Cor. xiv. 2) may be included in this expression, but it covers those longings and aspirations which well up from the spiritual depths and cannot be imprisoned within the confines of everyday words. James Montgomery caught the apostle’s meaning well when he writes:

‘Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,

Uttered or unexpressed,

The motion of a hidden fire That

trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,

The falling of a tear,

The upward glancing of an eye,

When none but God is near.’

In such prayer it is the indwelling Spirit who prays, and His mind is immediately read by the Father to whom the prayer is addressed. Moreover, these ‘inarticulate groans’ cannot be dissociated from the groaning of verse 23, with which believers (together with all creation) long for the coming resurrection glory, which will consummate the answer to all their prayers (Bruce, Comment on Romans 8:26).

Harvey Rainwater says,

It is important to pray every day in the Spirit. For this reason it is of great value to have a special time each day to pray in the Spirit so that the Holy Spirit may be able to intercede for the needs that He knows to be the greatest in our lives. This way we will see more results and answers to the prayers we pray. At the same time, it is possible that the Holy Spirit may take control of us, and that we may enter into an experience in the spirit that we would otherwise not have had. We call this intercession in the Spirit. There are very few people who have entered into this supernatural realm of the spirit, to be used of God in this way; and to see how the kingdom of Satan will tremble.

Sermon from Wade Trimmer, “The Real Tongue Twister.”

Anglican minister Michael Green regards the purpose of tongues as enabling ‘the recipient to pray to God from the depths of his being and not merely from the conscious levels of his mind.’ Tongues gives a voice to our spirits. Harold Horton explains that tongues ‘has nothing whatever to do with linguistic ability, nor with the mind or intellect of man. It is a manifestation of the mind of the Spirit of God employing human speech organs.’Pastor Ernie Rockstad relates an experience in which a deliverance team had reached an impasse and needed help and so they called him on the phone and asked if he would pray and command while they kept her in restraint and held the phone to her ear. He said, ‘I proceeded to do so, but after some minutes it was reported that the situation remained the same. I wanted to use the tongue, but knowing these people had been strictly taught that tongues are not for today, I was reluctant to do so. Nevertheless, since this was a time of real extremity and I didn’t know what else to do, I overcame my diffidence and began to speak in the tongue. After doing this for a brief period of time, I became embarrassed and began again to pray and command in English. Shortly a voice came on the extension: ‘You had better go back to that other language.’ She seemed to understand, and it was evidently doing her some good. With alacrity I began again to use the tongue and continued to do so for some minutes. Then a voice came on the line again expressing appreciation and informing me that the young lady was quiet and all was well.

Testimony of Timothy Moor:

In the summer of 1984 I was cutting up a large fallen tree with a power saw. I made an atrocious misjudgment and the trunk sideswiped my leg as it fell the remaining distance to the ground. I ended up with a tear in my leg that started about four inches below my knee and extended to below my ankle. The tear was about four inches wide at the widest and in the picture it looks like part of the bone was exposed. The smaller of the two leg bones was also broken.

A few seconds before the accident happened, the Holy Spirit told me what was about to happen, not as a warning to keep me from making my stupid mistake, but as a reassurance that this was a part of God’s plan for maturing me. This foreknowledge had a profound impact on my attitude during recovery and on my subsequent attitude toward life. I knew deep within me that God was in control, that the accident happened with His permission, and that He meant it for my ultimate good.

Therefore as I was laying on the ground hurting, I knew that this was something I had to go through and I was able to patiently deal with the pain minute by minute.

In the process of dealing with that pain, I learned the power of speaking in tongues. I would alternate praying the Prayer of Jesus (‘Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy.’) with praying in tongues. I knew theoretically that God could answer the prayer in tongues with an immediate complete healing, but that didn’t happen. What did happen was that I maintained control of myself; I did not lose my dignity by filling the emergency room with my screams. To this day I am grateful.

Fred Hanschumacher writes in “Mystery of the Faith,”

Intercessory prayer of the Spirit-filled believer is unlimited because the Holy Spirit is doing the praying. By praying in tongues, a believer in America (for example) can allow the Holy Spirit to petition the Father to move in specific ways for someone in India whom he does not know. Only the Holy Spirit knows the specific details. What causes some people concern is never knowing what they’re praying for when using tongues. Through spiritual language you allow yourself to be used to accomplish the purposes and priorities of the Holy Spirit. You and the Holy Spirit are joined together in covenant. So, when the Holy Spirit prays through you, God sees it as you praying and immediately grants the request. Praying in tongues (Paul called it praying in the Spirit) is always according to the will of God and is one of the highest honors in the Christian life.

Dr. Richard Fry says,

This is his best way to intercede for someone; to pray in tongues, thereby praying the perfect will of God for the person or situation we are making intercession.

We all have friends and loved ones whom we pray for on a regular basis. But what are we supposed to do when a situation arises in which we have no idea how we should pray or what we should pray for? Tongues is the answer!

Praying in tongues goes right to the heart of the issue by declaring the perfect will of God over the situation.

Take the following situations for example: Tom and Pam are having problems in their marriage relationship. You have noticed the strain on their marriage, but you do not know why it is there. In short, you do not know what you should pray for as you ought. The best thing to do is to pray in tongues and allow the Holy Spirit to make intercession according to the perfect will of God. I know of nothing better to speak than the perfect will of God. Left to your own, you may pray that Tom be more understanding of Pam, or that Pam stop picking at Tom, when the real problem in the marriage is neither one of them is spending time in the word of God or prayer.

I suppose the most vivid experience of intercessory prayer in tongues took place in the middle of the night several years ago. Normally I sleep like a log and waking up is a process which takes me several minutes. One night while I was asleep, I sat up in bed, wide awake.

From the moment I opened my eyes I had a vision of a very small child before me. The child was obviously dying from malnutrition. I did not know whether to pray for food, for healing, for deliverance, or for a miracle. I didn’t not know what to pray for, so I prayed in tongues. After about twenty minutes I knew that the child had received the benefits of my petition.

Intercession bears a burden for others. Sometimes the Holy Spirit bears our burden through us for ourselves. Sometimes he prays through us for other people.

Paul writes, “Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).

Conclusion

I close this book with different concerns. Some concerns I have for myself while some concerns are for other people.

As I have worked through this text, more than once I have asked myself, “Have I believed enough in prayer in tongues? Have I practiced praying in tongues enough in my life?” I opened this book by writing that “thirty years of faithful praying in tongues” forced me to write. Page after page as I have read testimonies and included them in this book, I have once again been confronted with, “Have I been faithful?” Just asking myself this question is disconcerting. When the future looks back on my life, will people want to say, “He prayed faithfully in tongues”? I sit here and honestly don’t have an answer. I hope so, but I cannot be sure.

I am also concerned that I have put the most convincing testimonies I can find in this book in an attempt to persuade people about the importance of tongues. I hope I have included stories that are persuasive enough.

My concerns for you, the reader, are different. I am concerned for you that you read this book and instead of following the examples of faith written here, you will see this as an opinionated statement from a “pushy Pentecostal.” I am concerned that you will surround yourself with doubts and critics who speak from tradition and from the past instead of looking to the bright future. The Pentecostal future is incredibly bright.

I am concerned that you would somehow not be hungry enough to seriously seek God the way thousands of others have in church history. This concern extends from the lack of desire to search the Scripture for yourself in order to “tarry” like the old Pentecostals did in order that God may stir you up to pray in tongues.

I am concerned about preachers, pastors, and teachers saying unedifying and brutal things which would cut the guts out of what I have written to you.

There are certain things that I am not concerned about. I am not concerned about the correctness of what I have written. Scripture, experience, and the future demographic conclusions all underline my point. Scripture is clear. Praying in tongues was a prayer priority for Paul.

Experience (in the millions) underlines the validity and usefulness of prayer in tongues. Demographics tells us that the dynamic part of the church (into the future) are the Pentecostal dynamics. As I write this, only two major denominations added numbers last year inside the USA: The Assemblies of God and the Southern Baptists (anti-Pentecostal as they are). They have kept their heads above water. All of the others lost ground. Outside the USA the historic denominations grew-some dramatically. Pentecostal churches grow. Cultures with a supernatural framework for a world view saw geometric church growth. Reality is reality after all. I have no real concern about being correct. In the correctness of what I have written, I only hope that I have communicated in a winning way.

The zeal of my wife convinces me. Seeing firsthand the Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea convinces me. Seeing Jackie Pullinger’s work in Hong Kong, firsthand, convinces me. David du Plessis convinced me of the power of prayer in tongues in 1979 when he spent the night in my house.

The life story of Demos Shakarian silences honest objection to the supernatural. John G. Lake testifies loudly to the truth of prayer in tongues. Smith Wigglesworth prayed in tongues “before his feet hit the floor” every morning. John Wimber was convincing in Fuller Seminary if one watched the MC513 tapes.

The overall impact of the charismatic movement in both the Catholic and Protestant churches pushes us to accept the truth of glossolalia. As well, we are in the middle of 20 million per year growth in charismatic Catholic and Pentecostal growth. Only God knows how many Catholics are experiencing the Spirit in power this way. To think that an unknown black preacher in a small store front church onAzusa Street in LosAngeles (1906) could have sparked a world wide phenomena grades on the incredulous-except it is true. It began with only a handful and numbered in the hundreds of millions by the year 2000.

The joy of the Lord in some Pentecostal gatherings persuades me. The power in some of their healing services further persuades me. The fact that so many of the worship leaders, worldwide, in the body of Christ come from the Pentecostal church strengthens me. The other supernatural experiences around the lives of the Pentecostals persuade me. Fire flames on Presbyterian theology professor J. Rodman Williams persuades me!

The idea of praying above the human intellectual level attracts me, as well as the fact that Dr. Carl Peterson says it is actually healthy for me to pray in tongues.

I am further persuaded by the testimony of Harald Bredesen. Bredesen ministered to many political figures in very high and prominent positions in the world. There is really not a reason that an average Dutch Reformed pastor should be allowed into the highest corridors of power in the world-except God was leading him and supernaturally opening doors for him.

Mahesh Chavda (five hours a day), Reinhard Bonnke (1.6 million in an evangelistic service), and T.L. Osborn (possibly more people have heard him preach in person than any other man) all impress me as does Pat Robertson.

I am struck by the historical implications of what we do now with tongues. Am I going to be a part of the broader sweep of what God is doing in history? The most dangerous thing about living in the present is to forget the future (especially given Jenkins demographic statements looking to the future). To face the future I must adjust my thinking and practice to watch the future.

The future will judge with harshness or with humor the shrill contemporary anti-charismatic, anti-Pentecostal voices, pews, and radio and TV personalities. It seems that we have come to a parting of the ways. A non-committed, sitting back with arms crossed, and a “show me” attitude will be met with an outpouring of the Spirit beyond all previous comprehension. It seems to me that jumping in and enjoying the party from the “get go” is a lot more of an enjoyable and spiritually profitable direction to follow.

I am impressed with 20th century Korea. Judy and I ministered there in 1981 for the first time when Korea was poor. The amazing economic miracle occurred in less than twenty-five years. Today, March 2003, Korea is the number thirteen economy in the world. When in history did a whole culture move that way? Never. How did it happen? Through Korean Presbyterian Pentecostals.

I am impressed by the sheer “normality” of many in the Pentecostal/ charismatic movement. I think of Jean Darnall-what a powerhouse for God! If you look at her, she looks like a typical grandmother. I remember watching her preach at age seventy in front of the largest Buddhist temple in Hong Kong. David du Plessis struck me the same way.

The sheer uniqueness of the personalities is also impressive-for instance Kathryn Kuhlman. Her eyes had that far away look. She truly looked like a mystic. The strange harshness that Smith Wigglesworth dealt with people is also impressive. Wigglesworth once punched a person in the stomach under the anointing of God. You really would not want to do that any other way. The supernatural stories of John G. Lake and Mahesh Chavda force us to decide for or against a supernatural world view-fifty thousand people receiving a prayer language at the same time forces decision.

I also remain impressed and convinced by the supernatural testimony of Howard Conatser (raised from the dead in his own pulpit). He said that he didn’t believe in playing “shenanigans with the Holy Ghost.” I remember hearing in his congregation as he invited Israeli prophetAaron Levi to prophesy the election of Jimmy Carter. George Otis Sr. predicted the election of Ronald Reagan. All of these people were and are very committed to praying in tongues.

Another thing that impresses me about prayer in the Spirit is the necessity to cultivate mystery in our lives. I honestly cannot remember any academic push in this direction while I was in seminary as a young student in the 1970s. I have not heard many sermons preached about mystery either.

I recently had dinner with two friends, one from the South Pacific. We spoke about the American Native Indian Christian prophetic drums. My friend, Frank, talked about the mysterious healing of the Holy Spirit in response to the drumbeats. It is mysterious but the Scriptures teach us that drums are for the high praises of God and that God somehow inhabits those praises. Just as we don’t understand how God uses the drums, neither do we understand how he uses prayer in the Spirit.

A further mystery is singing in the Spirit. In several places Paul encourages “spiritual songs.” He paralleled “singing in the Spirit” with “praying in the Spirit.” This is an unusual melody but beautiful in the ears of God and man. I confess that I have not “sang in the Spirit” enough through my life. I have practiced it but want to do more of it. I have been much more faithful to pray in tongues than to sing in tongues. Jack Hayford is a role model for the body of Christ in this mysterious practice.

Cultivating mystery parallels cultivation of humility. John Calvin confessed his intellectual smallness when approaching God and His nature. Calvin’s humility was legendary. We would do well to imitate Calvin’s estimate of his own intellect.

As we think of God’s move in the developing world over the next fifty years, we think of our own preparation facing that future. The future in the church of the developing world is Pentecostal. In the future to be Protestant is to be Pentecostal in the more than two hundred nations outside of North America-we better get ready. I speak, of course, in general terms. Dispensational and non-miraculous seminaries, churches, and movements will not go out of existence, they will however be marginalized (much like the liberal seminaries of today). Training, in the future, will increase outside the USA and will be supernatural. There are few paradigms present in North America.

Psychological studies of future Pentecostalism are going to find different results than those of the past. Basically, psychology has been unkind and unbelieving when approaching tongues. This should not surprise us as the majority of psychological books have been from unbelievers. Harvey Cox noted that more recently psychology has become more friendly to those of us who practice glossolalia because of the “ecstasy deficit.” Study in the developing world will be on different turf. People from a totally supernatural paradigm will be studied culturally, personally, and from their pre-Christian days. Scientists, with a rationalist scientific framework, looking at a totally different culture and orientation will merit a lot of attention and have different conclusions.

Theological study on tongues will grow. The theological line may be drawn even more sharp in the future. Think of rationalist evangelical scholars and theologians losing territory academically and professionally. This will be painful. They may get louder before they are finally marginalized, but marginal they will become, incrementally at first, year after year. As the century plays itself out, Pentecostals (by their sheer numbers) will rule the day. This will hit every seminary, evangelical and liberal, in every nation.

Christian publishing will also be effected. Presently, as Jenkins has shown, Christian literature is “NorthAmerican centered.” This will change as the weight and theology of the church changes. The overt silence of the major publishers will no longer be rewarded as the “big kid” on the publishing block. New Pentecostal-friendly publishers will sprout up to deal with the future outpouring. The books will effect an even more powerful future outpouring of the Spirit.

Denominations such as the Southern Baptists may be forced to change their positions on Pentecostalism. You can only face reality for so long as an honest person before one calls reality “reality.” They could lose tremendous manpower for missions in the future. Southern Baptists may not accept promising nationals raised in a supernaturalist environment for ministry preparation. The nationals may stop coming or even stop applying for training.

By the year 2050, future Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal dialogue will be much different. There will be no patronizing, no patting Pentecostals on the head theologically, no crazy uncles in the basement. Pentecostals will call the times, set the context for discussion, and be the majority in every quorum (much like theAfrican/Asian Anglican bishops in the 1998 Lambeth Conference). The Bible must decide acceptable and unacceptable behavior in the future.

The future is extremely bright for the people in the church who pray in tongues. As God’s glory continues to hover over the developing world, we Pentecostals will feel more and more like the serious force we are.

The practical differences I have found in my life as a result of praying in tongues are:

1.  Guidance - God has led me to places, to people, and to ministry opportunities that I could have never arranged or manipulated. I could give examples, but they are so personal or so unusual that I feel awkward sharing them. I never prayed for some of these things with my mind, but God clearly and supernaturally led me to these circumstances and people.

2.  Provision - Being a self-supporting missionary, I have thought a lot about this. God has given me exceedingly abundantly above anything I could have ever asked or thought. More than one financial miracle comes to mind as I write this (all of them again too personal to share). I never prayed for these things with my mind, but God gave them to me.

3.  Preaching/Teaching - I have sensed strong supernatural help in my preaching and teaching. This support has been unusual and beyond normal prayer for help.

4.  A sense of the presence of God - God has been very real to me as a result of glossolalia.

5.    Mystery - Consistently embrace mystery in my Christian life.

6.    Pray exactly as Paul said so-when I do not know what to pray.

7.    Faith - My faith of Christian exploits has been strengthened.

I feel personally challenged to be disciplined as I face the future in my own spiritual life. This discipline involves praying, preaching, hearing, and writing about prayer in the Spirit.

Through the years, God challenged me to spend six minutes a day praying in tongues. For the most part, I have been faithful. I have tried to pray fifteen minutes a day for quite a while. On some days, when I have had more time, I have tried to pray longer than that. After thinking through some of the things I found while writing this book, I suspect my time praying in tongues will increase. I suspect that by the time I get old, the mysteries around prayer in tongues will remain for me. This is not a bad thing; I will remain challenged to faithfully practice praying that way.

Speaking of faithfulness, I never really questioned the reality of tongues. I have been forced back to the Scripture time and time again (Evangelicals, honest Evangelicals, or Pentecostal charismatics do that). We critique our own behavior repeatedly against the grid of Scripture. All behavior faces the scrutiny of Scripture, not only prayer in tongues.

As I think over the past thirty years of my life in relation to praying in tongues, one specific time comes to mind. As a college student, during my senior year, I was waiting to go to seminary. I think that the seminary application question (earlier alluded to) asking me not to propagate prayer in tongues confirmed and hardened my resolve to be faithful with this gift. I remember thinking as a college student that I did not want to act like a spoiled child at Christmas by despising the gift my Father gave me to enjoy. My will was set.

A second important time in my life around prayer in tongues was in 1976-77 when I lived in Dallas. I remember volunteering many future years as a kind of laboratory of tongues (asking God to show me something different in my life that I could attribute to prayer in tongues). The last twenty-eight years have proven it to me. Prayer in tongues makes a difference.

A third important time to me was my time at Gordon-Conwell. Gordon-Conwell offered a smorgasbord of learned and sincere opinions. The most soul-searching and difficult opinion to deal with was the sympathetically non-committed scholarly evangelical. They knew the passages but were inconvenienced. These people impressed me and challenged me. They impressed me because of their sincere and beautiful Christian commitment. They challenged me because I always felt a subtle condescension toward anything charismatic or Pentecostal. The feeling from them was, “We evangelicals are open-minded and Biblical-you charismatics are, on the other hand, experiential first, close-minded and somewhat arrogant second.” This further served only to stiffen my resolve.

Looking back on all of this, it is both interesting and encouraging to see that God somehow kept me on track as a Bible teacher and simultaneously committed to the work of the Spirit. I remained a “Bible guy” through all of this.

In some ways, I look back on these early days and am challenged by my earlier resolve. I want to go out of this Christian journey as stubbornly as I started it. Hopefully I can be kinder in the end than I was in the beginning.

I still feel insecure at times when I am around people that I know disagree with me. I am not insecure because I think my position is not Scriptural. The insecurity nags me because I know these people are uncomfortable with me or they may have had a bizarre experience with a Pentecostal in the past. I don’t want to be put in the same trash can with the bizarre people. I can predict the usual reason for disagreement and answer them quickly. The stress goes up because sometimes I am carrying this theological discussion on in my mind with them even as we sit together. “Pleasant” is not the word I would use for this encounter. Another area of insecurity for me is being painted with the “bizarre Pentecostal preacher” brush. By “bizarre” I mean the life-style of opulence, the rhetorical style of an auctioneer, the literary style of a tabloid journalist. All of this makes me feel insecure because that is not who I am or who I want to be.

Having said this, one of the surprising, unexpected, and unpleasant (although interesting) side effects has been the rather large number of bizarre people and preachers I have found myself associated with in the past thirty years. Even more painful is having my name used as public “Biblical support” for something strange or outrageous. Presence equals endorsements for some of these people. I always tell people who question the truth of the power of the Spirit and the charismatic Pentecostal culture, “I don’t care what bizarre thing you have seen. I have seen stranger things.”

I remember a dream I experienced recently. I was standing by a large propane gas fire. That fire was about twelve to eighteen inches in diameter from a large stone floor. I remember thinking in the dream that there seemed to be no end to the large amount of propane being burned. The remarkable thing about the supply of fuel for the “fire” is that God does not seem to shut it off-even for the strange people. The supply never ends. It is surprising to me how much power there is in God’s supply of the Spirit and equally surprising that He continues to put up with bizarre Pentecostal preachers and lay people.

Fortunately, the past sets nothing in concrete for the future. Racism haunts the American Pentecostal past while the future of worldwide Pentecostalism is racially inclusive.

An example from the past was when Kansas preacher Charles Parham visited Azusa Street. Harvey Cox quotes Parham’s published remarks:

Men and women, whites and blacks knelt together or fell across one another; frequently a white woman, perhaps of wealth and culture, could be seen thrown back into the arms of a ‘buck nigger,’ and held tightly there as she shivered and shook in freak invitation of Pentecost. Horrible, ‘awful shame!’ Azusa Street was too much like the behaviors of a ‘darkey revival,’ Parham complained (Cox, Tbid., p. 61).

Fortunately God was ahead of the preacher integrating the church- just like the first century integration of Jews and Gentiles.

Jenkins describes the Pentecostal future for us in The Next Christendom. He writes, “Soon, the phrase, ‘a white Christian’ may sound like a curious oxymoron, as mildly surprising as ‘a Swedish Buddhist.’ Such people can exist, but a slight eccentricity is implied” (Jenkins, Tbid., p. 3). Pentecostal future is nonwhite.

As I think about our bright Pentecostal future I am reminded of an incident that occurred in Mongolia. My wife, Judy, was teaching on the destructive power of the tongue from the book of James. She hid a large raw cow tongue in a box and passed it around the class expecting the students to be horrified. One girl exclaimed, “O, can I have it. I want to fix it for dinner!” Similarly, there are many optimistic and beautifully positive surprises in store for Pentecostals in the future. More people than weknow want tongues.

It is wonderful to dream about that future. Imagine cynics standing to condemn or patronize tongues speaking and God falling on them in Pentecostal power and experience. God did that to David Wilkerson’s grandfather. It was an exact prototype of what could happen to those same cynics (as gloriously distasteful as that thought may be) and perhaps they would write books to reverse the ones they had previously scribed with absolutely confident, anti-charismatic conclusions.

Much ink has been spilled over whether tongues are real languages or not. Many have addressed this. Pentecostals justify tongues with stories of real languages in prayer. The other day, a close friend told me about praying in perfect Spanish before she knew Spanish. Paul says it is a tongue of “men” or “angels.” Paul also says no one knows.

Interestingly, Jack Hayford titles his book with the word “language.” He did this to diffuse and block criticism and some anti-Pentecostal hysteria. Whether it worked or not, I don’t know. In his book, Hayford seems pleased that he did it.

Fifty thousand people a day experience praying in tongues for the first time. That is twenty people per minute or a new Pentecostal is made every three seconds, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week! I wonder if that would raise anti-Pentecostal rhetoric or quiet it.

It is interesting that God uses tongues the way he does. Prayer in tongues is like the tower of Babel reversed. He could have chosen a more diplomatic way. The original tower of Babel experience was to humble the people of the earth. Is the Pentecostal experience designed to humble us? It has me.

I pray that I will stay as open to God as I was thirty-one years ago when I was seeking him in my small dorm room in Abilene, Texas. I launched out of that dorm room (at midnight in March of 1972) praying in tongues, and it went on for one hour. God set me on a course to go to the whole world with a supernatural gospel. I felt different, not strange, alone from people but close to the Lord. The room was dark but filled with God’s spiritual light. I am so grateful to God that no one was present (my tongue sounded strange then and still does). In fact, my wife thinks my tongue is repetitive and bizarre. There was no emotionalism, no hype, but simply a real desire to know God and grow more with Him. The beautiful thing about being alone with the Lord in that first prayer tongue experience is that it was parallel to my conversion experience (I was alone in a fraternity house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for that one).

I think of the disciples at Pentecost. There is no record of anyone in the Old Testament speaking in tongues (except for Babel). The disciples spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance, and it was certainly not “socialized” into them. They had no role models that we know of; Jesus did not speak in tongues that we know of. This was sovereign. Manipulation was absent in the process. It was God’s power.

Another beautiful aspect of this is that diversity rules in the Spirit. God diversifies His manifestations. He also diversifies the way people receive His giftings. I have a friend who prayed with a non-charismatic Pentecostal group. Three nights later he woke himself up praying in tongues. God cannot be boxed nor “domesticated,” to use Gordon Fee’s term.

The inability to “box God in” expresses itself in the areas where tongues are useless. They are useless in giving the announcements at church. You can’t invite someone to your Bible study or wedding in tongues. There is no way to write a book in tongues. Tongues then are not the answer to everything. Tolkien invented a language for some of his elves in Lord of the Rings-a fiction novel- but that would be about it for usefulness in conversation (as good as Tolkien is).

In some ways I have been surprised about this zealous commitment to prayer in the Spirit through the years in my life. I am somewhat surprised that I didn’t write this book sooner. I know it surprises some of my friends (and critics alike).

This commitment has broader implications for my Christian life in four ways: First, a general commitment to the supernatural. Second, a needed push for broader loyalty to Scripture. Third, exciting anticipation to answers for prayer. Fourth, appreciation for Pentecostal history.

Speaking of appreciation for Pentecostal history, I wonder what God experiences emotionally when people despise a gift He is giving to His children. It seems that God would be in some kind of emotional pain. One of His beloved children looks at a cherished and valuable gift from the Father to His kids and despises it and treats the gift like a dead lizard in a punch bowl. I can’t imagine God’s pain when one of His Southern Baptist missionaries is canned from the mission field because of praying in tongues.

As stated earlier, the desire to control takes missionaries off of the field. The utter mystery and strangeness of tongues push bureaucrats toward non-spiritualism. Bible history describes mysterious signs and wonders performed for God’s people. Prayer in tongues is mysterious, its effects are therefore more often than not also mysterious.

Appendix

So What Do I Do Now?

How can I be filled with the Holy Spirit?

There are a few things that can prevent a Christian from walking in the fullness of the Spirit that God has promised to this children.

Lack of knowledge

Many Christians today are self-impoverished when it comes to life in the Spirit because they simply don’t know the wealth of provision and resources that they received when they accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

As Christians we are sitting on a gold mine of spiritual resources that God has gifted to us - strength, power, love, perseverance, wisdom, etc. - but much of this wealth remains untapped because we simply don’t know how to access these gifts that God has already given to us.

Lack of faith

Another reason that people are self-impoverished in the Spirit is because they have a lack of faith in their Heavenly Father and don’t trust completely in him. Many think that being “filled with the Spirit” means that God is going to make them do some awkward, weird, or off-the-wall things. They think that God will go out of his way to embarrass or humiliate them just to see how dedicated they are to him.

“Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). We must trust in God and know that he always has our best in mind (and not what he can do to hurt or humiliate us). We must have faith in our loving Father that, as his children, he loves us and will always care for us. He has proven his love and the fact that he is trustworthy time and time again!

Doubt

Another area in which Christians struggle is the fact that many doubt that God will do what he says he will do. Many ask the question “If I ask then will I receive what I ask for?” Jesus has already put this question to rest when he said “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Others feel that they may be unworthy to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The following are some steps that you can take in becoming filled with the Holy Spirit (or walking in the fullness of the Spirit).

Find a quiet place

It is good to find a place where you can be alone and undisturbed for a period of time so you can pray, read the Word, and wait on the Lord.

Prepare your heart

There are three things that you can check in your heart before proceeding. First of all, do you hunger and thirst after God? Do you desire to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. God will pour out his Spirit on receptive souls. Second, are you willing to give complete surrender of your life to God (giving your body as a living sacrifice)? Third, will you confess your sins and receive the forgiveness that is yours in Christ Jesus?

Review and study the Word

It is a good idea to read again what the Bible has to say about the promise of the Holy Spirit. You can look at the following references:

Joel 2:28-29

Matthew 3:11

Mark 1:8, 16:17

Luke 3:16, 11:9-13, 24:49

John 7:38-39, 14:16-17, 15:16, 16:7, 12-14,

Acts 1:4-5, 8, 2:38-39

Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit

Many people have not because they ask not. Remember, “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.” Ask in faith and believe that God will give you what you have asked for. God wants us to walk in abundance of the Spirit.

Receive the Holy Spirit

Now that you have asked, you must believe and receive what you have asked for. Know that the Spirit is dwelling and at work in you.

Pray for the gift of tongues

This is an action of faith. It is time to “get out of the boat” as Peter did when he walked out to Jesus on the water. Jesus didn’t lift him out or give him his hand, but Peter, in faith, stepped out of the boat and walked on water with his Lord. Everyone who was present witnessed a miracle!

God will also work a miracle in your life as you begin to “walk on the water” or “pray in other tongues.” Do not be afraid. Open your mouth and begin to speak and God will fill your mouth with His words. Some receive tongues without even praying for them.

Continue praying in tongues

It is very easy to start doubting if what you have received is for real. Don’t let anyone tell you that you are making it up or it is fake. You have received the gift that God has given you, so press on and continue praying in tongues EVERY DAY. It is a language that needs to be developed just as every language needs practice and development when it is being learned for the first time.

Don’t be like Peter, who, when he saw the wind, panicked and took his eyes off of Jesus. As a result he began to sink. Don’t take your eyes off of Jesus. Keep pressing on and keep your eyes fixed on the one who matters! You are a steward. Manage this gift well!