Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael The Disciple
I have often heard the complaint that certain groups (usually Charismatic) teach people how to speak in tongues. Have you seen this? What is involved?
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I think it can be intentional but often I think it is accidental.
I see a lot of times even in Pentecost a "believer" telling another seeker "just do it, just let it out" and then start speaking in tongues in that persons ear. If someone is in a suggestive state of mind they might be lead to believe they need to repeat what that person just said or try. I even see people supposedly filled going "hallelalalala lalalalalalalalalalala" just say it, just let it out. I think every Pentecostal church should take serious inventory in this area and teach better alter techniques.
Had an evangelist come and ask me about another brother if he had the Holy Ghost yet. I said that I think so but he said he got it in another church (one on the charismatics ones you were talking of) and that when he prays for others to receive the Spirit the above is what this person does....
Well the evangelist said to me almost verbatim that it does not matter how they get it as long as they get it... I was blown away and deeply saddened. There is a lot of performance emphasis on our ranks. If someone did not get the Holy Ghost for the first time we don't feel too hot. If someone is seeking we HAVE to have them get it right now and I fear that we are so primed to have something happen...anything...that even someone that did not really speak in tongues we will believe they did if someone shouts "He got it" and the slightest twinge of the lips. We expect miracle after miracle and I fear that we are so performance minded that we get in a Benny Hinn mentality where if bodies are hitting the floor because we pushed their forehead back, that that means something in the Spirit just happened when in reality it might have been our flesh.
The only true way to that kind of stuff...the real stuff...is hungry prayer and fasting and then having faith in a service. As facilitators our job is to teach them HOW to worship. How to seek after God with their heart...not to get them to let tongues out.