Speaking in Tongues Forum

It is a terrible thing to witness the present day modern church, at least the “system,” or ‘professing church,” sink into ever growing and deeper apostasy on  a daily basis. This should not surprise us because the Holy Spirit warned through Paul the church would do just that as we neared the last of the last days and the advent of the Rapture. We’re living in those days friend, believe that or not to your own peril or blessing, but Jesus is coming soon! It gets quite humorous at times to hear preachers deny this very fact of the Lord’s soon return but I ask you a very pointed and serious question: when was the last time you ever heard a message in tongues and the interpretation given concerning the Second Coming that said, “I’m not coming soon; relax, enjoy your programs, can up frozen foods for the Tribulation, no need to hurry, no need to make evangelism a priority, no need to make souls a priority, no need to watch and pray; take it easy and don’t prepare for anything; I’m not coming till the end of the Tribulation or ‘I’m telling you to get ready for the wrath of the Antichrist” LET THIS WRITER ANSWER THAT - YOU NEVER HAVE HEARD SUCH FOOLISHNESS IN TONGUES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No, when one hears a message in tongues about the Second Coming it’s always “BEHOLD I COME QUICKLY; Get ready and ready QUICK; the TIME IS SHORT; Make your garments PURE and HOLY, WHITE and READY for I am coming SOON!” That is actually what was happening at the church of Thessalonica when Paul had to write a second letter comforting them the coming of the Lord had not taken place; there were those giving such erroneous messages in tongues claiming Jesus had already came (2 Thes. 2:1- He has not come a Second time YET, but HE IS coming!  He is even at the door and it behooves us as Believers to be as vigilant, prepared, sober, watchful, aware and FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST as we can possibly be! Romans 13:11-14; 1 Thes. 5:1-5 We have just come through one of the most riveting Centuries known to mankind - the 20th Century. Since 1900, the world has seen some of the most powerful technological advances known to mankind; it has also seen the most number of believers come to Christ than at any other time in church history; in addition there was fulfillment of more prophecy in the 20th Century than any other century prior to it with the advent of Israel becoming a nation in 1948 and the current ongoing Middle East crisis that grabs our daily headlines.  This past Century also saw another great event as it relates to the Church Age - the greatest number of people baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues as recorded in Acts 2:4 than ANY other time in human history! The message of the Spirit baptism is no longer just an experience that happens to those who are part of a Pentecostal church; it is occurring in Christians lives and hearts in almost every single denominational group we know of. There is strong resistance to this message to say the least in many circles including a growing resistance and rejection of the Spirit’s work among those who call themselves “Pentecostals” and “Charismatics.” When the Pentecostal message was renewed in the early 1900s, there was great persecution of those who preached it and many who received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues were labeled as demonic, disturbed and crazy. The Pentecostals of the early 1900s didn’t care how much they were persecuted or what names they were called, they knew what was happening was from God and wanted the POWER more than the prestige of being accepted by the so-called church.  Today’s Pentecostal movement has so backslid from God we care more that we’re accepted by the Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians and in the name of “unity,” (which is a FALSE UNITY and godless) we shun and reject the moving and operation of the Holy Ghost that made us who we are and defined the latter days outpouring as foretold by the Apostle James who said that the “husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it, ‘until he receive the early and latter rain.”   The early rain was the work of the Holy Ghost in the early church age during the time of the Apostles; the latter rain began with the outpouring of the Spirit in Los Angeles, California at Azusa Street under the prayer burden of men like Frank Bartleman, Evan Roberts, A.M. Smeale and William J. Seymour, men of God whom as the Holy Spirit said in Hebrews this “world was not worthy of,” and many whom the well-known theologians lampooned, mocked and accused of every thing under the sun short of calling them Satan incarnate!  The famous Baptist theologian A.W. Pink called the Azusa outpouring “the vomit of Satan.” Well Mr. Pink that was real spiritual and discerning now wasn’t it. It’s amazing how that those the majority of the church world scorns and mocks are those most adored by heaven; and those lauded and applauded and praised by the so-called church are as godless as godless can be and no one recognizes it!  How far we have left the power and discernment of the Holy Ghost in these last days. Prior to the Azusa Street outpouring in 1903 when the “latter” rain we speak of actually began, the message of the baptism of the Holy Ghost was seldom preached. After Azusa Street, the Holy Ghost birthed this message in the hearts of preachers world wide and as a result scores and scores of millions of Believers in Jesus have been gloriously filled with the Spirit with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. This February marks the 21rst  anniversary this writer was gloriously filled with the Spirit in his aunt’s kitchen in Atlanta, Ga. on a cold winter night. I’ll never forget that night for it has set the course I’m on today to be frank. I wished I could tell you this journey since that glorious night was one filled with few potholes and troubles, but it was not. I wished I could tell you that I learned early on to not just experience a one time touch from the Spirit, but learn how to WALK in the Spirit, to depend on the Spirit, to be led of the Spirit, to obey the Spirit of God, to yield myself to the Spirit of God, to walk in humility and submission before Him - all things necessary for a victorious Christian life, which sadly I didn’t after that glorious night.  I didn’t have anyone back then tell me that the Spirit of God works within the parameters of the Cross of Christ and the Cross only. I wished I could tell you that I understood all these things instantly but I didn’t. I received a prayer language of tongues in 1987 that I little used in the months and years following to my own peril which led to failure after failure because and instead of being in tune with the Holy Spirit I was in tune with an experience instead of being in tune with God! It’s taken me these 20 years to learn (and I’m still in kindergarten) to be led of the Spirit and depend on His guidance and direction for my life but without the moving and operation of the Spirit this writer has no ability, no power, no ounce of anointing and NOTHING to offer those he comes in contact with each day through this website or any other avenue the ministry the Lord graciously opens for us. I can tell you as I write this journal that I am as thirsty for Him today more than I was 20 years ago because I’ve seen the results of trying to live a life on the arm of the flesh. I was a young kid preacher then with so much arrogance and pride that would be dealt with through the years as the Holy Ghost backed off at times allowing me to walk in my own stubbornness and falling into deep terrible bondage at times including a 3 year span in 1996-1999 where I almost completely walked away from the faith. He’ll do that friend; if we want our arrogance and pride and not heed His direction and guidance He will leave us to our own desires and designs. We will find yourself as I did -  flat on our back with no one we love; left and alone in a world that has always been a tough place to exist anyway, but for the backslidden child of God, 1000 times worse! The church needs to come back to this power of the Holy Spirit I speak of. The sovereign power of the Spirit can break into the lives of individuals and churches with supernatural grace and manifestations, which sadly never takes place in most churches because “rationale” has replaced faith and stupidity reigns in unbelief through the mouths of backslidden preachers claiming this power “went away” with the apostles and/or if it does exist today it has no place in the church. Some go as far as to say the baptism in the Holy Ghost is of Satan which borders on blaspheming the Holy Ghost! Preacher, I don’t care where you got your degree or degrees plural from, but as an old high school science teacher told me years ago “better to keep your mouth shut and people not think you’re a moron than to open it and prove their point!” If you want to be ignorant of what I speak of - be ignorant.  Stay stuck in your unbelief and never move with the supernatural power of God in your church if you so desire - no one, including God Himself will force you believe what He says in His Word is Truth. Preach your sermonettes that last 15 minutes and put even the bugs in the church asleep; sing your songs that have about as much life in them as polar bear’s nose in the North Pole does; pray your 3 minute prayers that have absolutely no anointing in them and demons laugh at instead of tremble at the power of the Spirit on them; send everyone home at 12:00 sharp so they can get in front of their TV at 12:15 sharp with no convicting touch or change in their hearts or lives! OH, are you hearing me reader? Are you hearing me man of God? God has called you sir not to stand behind that pulpit and preach your unbelief into the sheep He has given you to pastor; He’s called you to get FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST and be endued with power from on high that your sermons will produce more than a sleeping pill on Sunday morning. Pastor, want to know why your altars are barren each week? Pastor, want to know why you have so much division and discontentment in your church?  Pastor, want to know why even you sit there and go to sleep some Sundays with the song service?? YOUR CHURCH IS WITHOUT THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST! YOUR CHURCH NEEDS TO REPENT and ask the HOLY GHOST TO COME BACK and do His work among the people and in the people and through the people STARTING WITH YOU PASTOR; STARTING WITH YOU SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER; STARTING WITH YOU DEACON; STARTING WITH YOU WORSHIP LEADER; STARTING WITH YOU man of God! Oh, the church needs another Pentecost. We need another fresh enduement of power from on high!  We believe God is pouring out His Spirit on Christians throughout the whole world. Hundreds of years before Christ, the prophet Joel said: Joel 2:28-29
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: [29] And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.”   Peter repeated this very verse on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17) to explain what was happening when they observed more than a hundred people who had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Peter went on to say. Acts 2:38-39 - Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. [39] For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. We believe outside being born again, which is the greatest thing that happens to the sinner; the baptism in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues is the greatest experience a CHRISTIAN can receive after they have come to Christ! I want to say it again. Salvation is the greatest gift one can receive as a sinner before they know Jesus.  Once they know Jesus, the greatest event in the life of the born again Child of God is the baptism in the HOLY GHOST with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. This is why God saved us - not to just take us to heaven - had it been just that He’d drowned us all in the baptismal tank - but to make us a living habitation for His Spirit - to be a WITNESS to all the earth - first in Judea, then in Samaria and then to the uttermost parts of the EARTH!