Involuntarily = done without conscious control. Some functions are involuntarily performed, such as breathing, digestion, heart beating, eye reflexes, etc. Did you mean to say
"voluntary" instead of
"involuntary" ?
I used "spontaneous" to describe what happened on the Day of Pentecost instead of involuntary because when the disciples first started speaking in tongues, they continued on their own volition. They could have stopped, but they were having so much fun, they didn't want to. This was the arrival of the Holy Spirit whom they had been waiting for and they were going to enjoy every blessing He had to give them at the time.
... "the tongues came spontaneously (rather than involuntarily)". When you first spoke in "tongues" (30some years ago?) it's likely that you were unduly encouraged (Pentecostalism) to speak with "voluntary" utterances and may have done so ever since (like many Pentecostals) that may have never experienced fewer involuntary utterances.
It was 55 years ago. I couldn't speak in tongues before the Holy Spirit enabled me. I didn't know how. The Pentecostal church I was in did not encourage putting pressure on people to speak in tongues. They believed in waiting on God for Him to do it. It was only when the Holy Spirit spoke to my spirit and told me to receive Him, that He told me after that, "You can speak in tongues now." I stepped out on that word, and found myself able to speak in an articulate language that I had never learned.
You've possibly heard about medical studies (e.g. 2008) that proved the supernatural Gift is involuntary and not under the conscious control of the person speaking in an unknown tongue. I'd call that involuntary (
Medical study proves validity of speaking in tongues) not voluntary.
It depends on your definition of "conscious control". Speaking in tongues is the same as deciding to speak English. Because English is my first language, I can automatically express myself, choosing the right words. But the actual speaking is under my control. Only an insane person babbles away without having any control over what he is saying. I can choose when to speak and when not to. Because the actual language is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I don't have direct control of the nature of the language itself. Paul says that when he speaks in tongues, his understanding is unfruitful. In other words, he doesn't understand the language he is speaking. All he knows is that he is speaking a language that God understands. But he is not under a compulsion to speak, because the actual speaking is under his personal control.
Of course we know all too well that many other Believers think such involuntary utterances are of demonic influence or voluntarily faked utterances due in no small measure to peer charasmatic/Pentecostal congregational pressure.
I don't know what your experience of Pentecostal churches are, but I have never been in a Pentecostal meeting where there has been peer congregational pressure to speak in tongues. My experience in meetings is that people love speaking in tongues because they love to worship God that way.
Suspect your "tongues experience" happened in a Pentecostal church where you, like others, felt some peer pressure to speak in an unknown tongue. So, Yes, then it would have been voluntary utterances rather than involuntary utterances (or possibly both).
During my first few weeks in a Pentecostal church I felt no peer pressure to speak in tongues. I knew that being filled with the Spirit brought a new power to a person's spiritual life and the evidence (as that church taught it) was speaking in tongues. I thought it was going to happen when I got baptised three weeks after receiving Christ, but it didn't happen. I thought that it was going to happen spontaneously when I came out of the water, as I saw it happen to others who were being baptised. But nothing happened. I think it is because I was expecting God to just do it instead of me using my faith to enable it to happen. In actual fact, it happened away from the church on a sunny weekday afternoon while sitting on my bed in the hostel where I was living, reading a book about receiving the Holy Spirit. I was alone, no hype, no emotion. The Holy Spirit spoke to me out of the pages of the book and told me that He gave the Holy Spirit 2000 years ago, and that I should just receive Him. I said, "I receive the Holy Spirit right now". Then the Holy Spirit said, "You can speak in tongues now." So I tried and out came the language. it was as simple as that. All I had to do was to step out in faith and do what the Holy Spirit told me to do, and He gave me the language to speak. In actual fact, I have never done anything through peer pressure, or pressure from any church. I walked out of a church once when a pastor with a "power and control" spirit demanded that I come under his authority. I told him in front of all the congregation that no way was I going to come under his authority, because Jesus is my Lord and I am not going to let anyone come in between Him and me. My view of authority is that I have no obligation to accept the authority of anyone except the Person who was crucified for me.
When you and other charasmatic -- Pentecostals (e.g. 80s,90s) first spoke in an unknown tongue in large gatherings like those held by such charasmatic faith healers like Francis and Charles Hunter it was may have been as much voluntary than involuntary. The growth of the early charasmatic "Living Word" church congregations were an outgrowth of the Hunter's ministry and other charasmatic faith healers.
I have had extensive personal fellowship and experience with Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, and I have never encountered any of what you are describing. I don't know why you are picking on Frances and Charles Hunter. I have watched a number of videos of their ministry, and I have found them true to Scripture, and realistic that it is Jesus who heals people and not them. In the churches I have associated with, "faith healing" is not an accepted definition. They don't believe that people are healed by faith. They have used "divine healing" to show that Jesus heals people and He is sovereign in the way He goes about it. If someone is not healed, they have never said, "You weren't healed because you didn't have enough faith." This is because they have accepted that it is God's decision whether a person is healed or not.
God sometimes uses the most unlikely people to proclaim the Good News accompanied by supernatural Gifts of His Holy Spirit. Often going against the grain of mainstream Christianity just as during the time of Jesus going against the manmade traditions of mainstream Judaism.
" Known as the "Happy Hunters," Charles and Frances Hunter were nationally recognized both for their powerful healing ministry and for their unbridled, contagious joy. What few people know, however, is that Frances spent years as a "wild sinner," and Charles was a "dried-up spiritual prune" for most of his early life.
God miraculously used these two unlikely candidates to birth one of the most powerful healing ministries the world has ever known. Their story is one of triumph, power, and divine intervention."
During some of their large group gatherings the entire crowd would supposedly receive the gift/Gift of speaking in an unknown tongue. It would be interesting to know what percentage of those hundreds in a gathering were involuntary speaking via the true Gift and what percentage felt pressured to voluntary start speaking in a unknown tongue.
I can't really comment on their ministry. Like all ministries, they weren't perfect, but then, who is?
Sometimes such initial utterances of the true Gift surprises a Believer that had been taught (indoctrinated) to believe the Gift is not for today and they voluntary close their mouth to stop the utterances. This indoctrination is based on the following scripture ...
As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
Believe the correct interruption of
"when the perfect comes" is referring to His Second Coming when He reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords. Why so many denominations interrupt this verse to mean that this occurred with the pasting of the original Apostles is a stretch that IMO is due in no small measure to the influence of manmade theological doctrines.
A lot of things have happened since the late 1960s when I was introduced to the Pentecostal church. Much of what we see in Charismatic services is so different, that it bears no relation to what I knew when I first signed up. When I first fellowshiped with Penteostals, they kept to the New Testament and the preaching of the Gospel was paramount and the baptism with the Spirit was for power connected with the preaching of the Gospel and the saving of sinners. But through the 1980s-90s the emphasis seemed to have changed into manifestations being prominent and the preaching of the Gospel put on the back burner. Instead of the traditional hymns that were Gospel-based in their words, the music changed to more emotional tunes with repeated often one-line lyrics based on "how I feel about God" more than what is God saying to us through the songs. Instead of the filling of the Spirit resulting in boldness to preach the gospel and see souls saved, healed and set free from demons, the "power' has morphed into bodily jerking, shaking, falling backwards, rolling around the floor, and other bizarre behaviour. It has changed from how the power of the Holy Spirit can flow through us to convict sinners of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come, to what "the Holy Spirit" is doing "in me". This is connected with an inward looking "my spirituality" which is tending more to New Age spirituality instead of genuine Christian faith and practice. The original Pentecostals were strong on personal holiness as a foundation for a successful Christian life, but the more modern ones have gone for a "spirituality" that is more self-centred and based on emotion. It has evolved from "what does God think of me at my level of holiness and commitment to Him" to "how do I feel about God and am I experiencing the right emotion?"