My spiritual lineage...
1. Some family members wonderfully Methodist
2. Brought up Baptist
3. Spirit filled Pentecostal Holiness
Noting from the Apostle Paul...
Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?- 1 Corinthians 12:29-30
Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. - 1 Corinthians 14:39
My old Pentecostal Holiness pastor was an old evangelist turned pastor. He really knew how to get wonderful evangelist for revival. One summer day as a teenager I was reading Nikki Cruze's Run Baby Run after a wonderful revival and I heard a voice speaking to the heart..."Put the book down" Not realizing what was happening I continued to read. I was sleeping next to an open outside door and the kady-dids were singing their praises to God very loudly. The voice spoke again... "Put the book down!" I then put the book down and heard the voice speak yet again... "Where is all the strife, hatred, and bad feelings?" I examined the heart to find nothing there but pure beauty. I thought to myself, "Oh my! I got exactly what those people got!"
But.... I never did speak in tongues. I have been in services where people have spoke in tongues and I believed their experience as legitimate. However with many it is a social standing. Someone will encourage them to speak and they will utter something to the effect of "Ba ba ba... Da da da" And then someone will encourage them... "You got it mate!" And they will go the rest of their lives believing they had been "Saved, Sanctified, and Filled with the Holy Ghost!" In which, showing the fruit of fine people, I would not doubt the experience. But point out the fruit of their daily lives much more important than any so-called "prayer language."
I think it important to correctly define the Holy Spirit as something much more than a prayer language. And it is important to let spiritual fruit illuminate and warm the heart with a ministry that will bring love and light to a darkened world. And to put all of this in form of song...
1. Some family members wonderfully Methodist
2. Brought up Baptist
3. Spirit filled Pentecostal Holiness
Noting from the Apostle Paul...
Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?- 1 Corinthians 12:29-30
Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. - 1 Corinthians 14:39
My old Pentecostal Holiness pastor was an old evangelist turned pastor. He really knew how to get wonderful evangelist for revival. One summer day as a teenager I was reading Nikki Cruze's Run Baby Run after a wonderful revival and I heard a voice speaking to the heart..."Put the book down" Not realizing what was happening I continued to read. I was sleeping next to an open outside door and the kady-dids were singing their praises to God very loudly. The voice spoke again... "Put the book down!" I then put the book down and heard the voice speak yet again... "Where is all the strife, hatred, and bad feelings?" I examined the heart to find nothing there but pure beauty. I thought to myself, "Oh my! I got exactly what those people got!"
But.... I never did speak in tongues. I have been in services where people have spoke in tongues and I believed their experience as legitimate. However with many it is a social standing. Someone will encourage them to speak and they will utter something to the effect of "Ba ba ba... Da da da" And then someone will encourage them... "You got it mate!" And they will go the rest of their lives believing they had been "Saved, Sanctified, and Filled with the Holy Ghost!" In which, showing the fruit of fine people, I would not doubt the experience. But point out the fruit of their daily lives much more important than any so-called "prayer language."
I think it important to correctly define the Holy Spirit as something much more than a prayer language. And it is important to let spiritual fruit illuminate and warm the heart with a ministry that will bring love and light to a darkened world. And to put all of this in form of song...