2002.11.D.05 Why Pray In Tongues Created by James3 on 8/16/2019 10:56:08 AM Why Pray In Tongues
Greetings
Some challenging and important points
Warm regards and blessings
James Robertson
----- Original Message -----
From: "ANZAC Prophetic List" <prophetic@revival.gen.nz>
To: "ANZAC" <prophetic@revival.gen.nz>; "ANZAC" <prophetic@revival.gen.nz>;
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 11:34 AM
Subject: WHY PRAY IN TONGUES?
Date sent: Tue, 01 Oct 2002 12:26:29 +1200
From: "Tongues Prayer Warrior" <email withheld>
WHY PRAY IN TONGUES?
I was baptised in the Spirit in the Christmas holidays of 1962. But when I returned to Bible College its anti-tongues atmosphere caused me to question my experience. It was too easy to pray in tongues. Instead of the expected ecstatic experiences I found I could coldly turn the flow of language on and off any time I liked. Language? Gibberish more like! I decided I was just making it up, so I turned tongues off as fake for 10 long years.
Then in 1972 I was with an evangelistic group holding an outreach in a Christian coffee bar. Our evangelist was preaching up a storm when I was called over by a Brethren girl I knew. She wanted me to speak to a young Maori guy who, she said, was acting strangely. Every time our evangelist said the name of Jesus, this guy responded with the words "It stinks!" When she asked him why he told her he'd been a Christian but had joined the Black Power gang and given his soul to Satan to hate white people. However he'd found Satan is a cruel master and he wanted out. He had come to this Christian coffee bar to break free of Satan's grip, but this was proving difficult. He said he found he had no control over saying "It stinks" every time he heard the name of Jesus, and when she tried to get him to say "Jesus" something powerful locked his jaw and he couldn't speak. Would I help?
After the meeting I got the whole team to assemble around this guy and we discussed what to do. This looked like the demon-possession Jesus dealt with in the Gospels, but we were all non- if not anti-charismatic and for sure weren't into this sort of thing. Our theology was that a Christian couldn't possibly have a demon yet here was this apparently Christian guy waiting for us to free him of whatever unseen power was controlling his mouth. Some started to discuss whether he could ever have been a Christian but I could see that was an unhelpful sidetrack to this needy guy's desperate problem, so while the others discussed I put my hands on him and started to pray. I got deeper and deeper into prayer, really sensing his desperation, when suddenly and utterly unexpectedly I began praying in tongues.
I recognised it as the same language of ten years before, but now I had a problem. If I continued, I risked being thrown out of the team. What would our leader think? I decided for the sake of the guy to risk continuing, judging that maybe this was the supernatural weapon needed to deal with this supernatural problem. At one point I paused, just to check that I had control of this "tongue" and not that it had control over me, and yes, I could stop or go as I wished. But I noticed that my "tongue" had taken on a very commanding tone. It was really telling off whatever was in that guy and, I know now, commanding it to release him.
The young Maori now fell on his knees and groaned as if in pain. I checked with the Lord and the verse came to me from somewhere in the Gospels, "the spirit tore him." It was comforting that Jesus had been this way before us. Meantime the others were quoting Scripture verses to him and trying to get him to say the name of Jesus. Though he still couldn't, at least he was no longer saying, "It stinks." Satan was beginning to lose his grip.
Suddenly the tone of my tongues began to change from stern command to joy and praise. The guy had now collapsed fully on the floor and was fast losing consciousness. Yet against all appearances I knew he was through,
delivered, free--I knew by a faith as strong as certainty. Even though we had to call an ambulance and have him admitted unconscious to hospital, I KNEW he was fine. As the ambulance drove away our leader told me that just before he lost consciousness he could say the name of Jesus, which confirmed he was free.
His brother rang us next day. He'd woken early that morning in hospital, felt great, dressed, signed himself out and was rejoicing with his brother over his renewed Christian committment. And yes, he was saying the name of Jesus freely.
That ended all my critical neglect of tongues forever. I knew now that it was a God-given supernatural weapon to combat a supernatural enemy, that it would succeed when human resources and understanding utterly fail. I've tried to out-do Paul's "I speak in tongues more than you all" ever since!
In 1990 I was attracted to join a new church because of its great Prayer Warrior prayer programme. It was based on a wonderful idea, first thought of I discovered later by Spurgeon, perhaps the greatest preacher of the 19th century. As the speaker stepped forward to preach, a group of Prayer Warriors would go to the Prayer Room and pray for him and the congregation throughout the sermon. We often returned as the appeal was ending and saw many step forward to accept Christ.
I loved this calling and soon became a group leader, but with one major problem: I wanted only to pray in tongues while all the prayers were in English. The answer was to pray quietly in tongues while others prayed.
If for any reason a team didn't go out, I felt of God to "stand in the gap" and go alone to the prayer room praying only in tongues. During this time I received a dream I knew was of God but couldn't understand. Beside the church was a park, and I saw two men run down from the church and push their way through the high netting fence into the park where they ran haphazardly in all directions. Then they came to a power pylon and began to climb. I sensed great danger as one stopped but the other climbed higher and higher over thick strands of wire.
In 1993 I went to Singapore to teach at small Bible schools for three months and when I returned I found Prayer Warriors had been disbanded. Greatly upset, I took this to the Lord and felt again to "stand in the gap". I felt to pray through the worship as well, that worship was just as important as the sermon. Tapes of sermons were provided for me free of charge, and I felt fed and sustained of God throughout this wonderful period.
However some in leadership asked questions. Why was I always in the Prayer Room throughout all three services every Sunday instead of in the congregation where I should be? But God eventually provided a way that made everyone happy. Cars were being broken into on the lower carpark, so I offered to mount a permanent patrol during the services, which I turned into a permanent patrol of tongues prayer for the church.
I had another dream. In it I was on the lower carpark with great spanners in my hand uncoupling huge pipes. As I did so there were three explosions from the direction of the church. I undid the last pipe as the third massive exposion threw concrete and bricks dangerously overhead, but my family and I were sheltered and safe. What did it mean?
I prayed on in tongues.
Then the first "uncoupling" was announced. Our greatly respected and internationally-known Music Pastor publicly confessed that he had been involved in adultery and resigned.
I prayed on in tongues.
Then came a greater explosion. Our Pastor, who had recently been gaining an international reputation with overseas tours involving powerful healing and word-of-knowledge events, had been discovered in multiple adultery. I will never forget his resignation letter: "Church, I have been leading a double life..." The greatest explosion of all was when it was found that one of his conquests was the female pastor of a sister church, the wife of the pastor formerly in charge of our Bible School. Leadership was annihilated in two churches and a Bible School soon closed.
The dreams now made sense. So did my overwhelming desire to pray only in tongues. It is obvious now what the greatest need of our church was for God to bless it. But if I'd received direction or even revelation to pray against the adulteries of our two founding pastors, I would have rejected the prompting as Satanic, the Devil trying to slander two great servants of God.
This is the wonderful thing about tongues. God knew exactly what He was doing when He devised this gift. If we knew what we were praying for at times we would stop in horror. But the God who knows all secrets provides words unknown to us but known to Him (1 Cor 14:2) that then enable Him to act in ways we wouldn't dream of.
Paul the Apostle included himself in the "we" of "we do not know what we ought to pray for" (Romans 8:26). If Paul didn't know, do we know better? Isn't it unPaul-like arrogance to pray so many of our prayers in English?
The same Paul who said "I want you all to speak continually in tongues" (1 Cor 14:5) didn't waste his own prayer time praying ineffectively. He hit the mark every time (1 Cor 9:26):
"I speak in tongues more than all of you" -PAUL (1 Cor 14:18).
Andrew Strom
[MAKERATING]
The comment feature is locked by administrator.
Return