One especially sweet experience that I have been having over the past few months (after or during praying in tongues):
“I would do ANYTHING for you!”
“I love yo…u sooo much!”
Robin: “Father, are those recurring sentences – in my mind/spirit – from me to You, or from You to me?”
God: “Yes.”
MORE ON PRAYING IN TONGUES:
Although it’s not something you learn, like riding a bicycle, THERE IS A GREAT DEAL YOU CAN DO TO MAKE YOURSELF RECEPTIVE TO THIS PRECIOUS GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. SEE WHAT PEOPLE DO WHEN THEY SPEAK IN TONGUES. IMITATE IT FOR THE PURPOSE OF JUMPSTARTING THE PROCESS IN YOURSELF. UNDERSTAND THAT YOU’RE GETTING FAMILIAR WITH THE PHYSICAL, MECHANICAL ASPECT SO THAT YOU’LL BE FREE TO RECEIVE GOD’S PART – THE IMPARTATION OF HIS SPIRIT INTO YOUR OPEN MIND, SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY.
CAN TONGUES BE LEARNED ?
The short answer is “NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT !! . Not from a human being, that is. Praying / Speaking in tongues is a GIFT FROM GOD – a supernatural gift at that!
HOWEVER, there is something very useful that you can do to put your mind and heart in line with receiving this priceless gift. Knowing, by seeing and hearing, what tongues is MECHANICALLY SPEAKING will NOT … I repeat … NOT give you tongues!! But it could help a lot just to see and hear what it is like, as a kind of PREPARATION.
Tongue-speakers are very reluctant to demonstrate it – AND RIGHTFULLY SO – for fear that you will emulate them and (a) nothing happens or, WORSE YET, (b) You learn some mere mechanical contrivance and think you have tongues when you don’t!
Praying in tongues is a GIFT FROM GOD. PERIOD. God never said you couldn’t observe it to know what it looks like. Another Period.
It seems to me that many people make way too much of tongues – like there is something spooky … or, complicated … or, esoteric … or very difficult about praying in tongues. Or, they make way too little of tongues, dismissing it as trivial, crazy gibberish.
Some people would have you believe that it is so ‘out there’ and other-worldly that we’d be best served by leaving it alone. They assign to it fabricated rules and regulations, claiming that our poor Paul didn’t say we could do thus and so. Well, he didn’t say we could use electric toothbrushes either!
Puh-leeeeze, let’s give Paul a break. Why in the world would anyone think that he should have left us 2000 years later, an instruction manual on how to and how not to speak in tongues? There were probably as many variations of tongues on the Day of Pentecost as there were people applying them!
NOW, PLEASE, MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT: Speaking/Praying in tongues is a supernatural gift from God. Something totally amazing will take over in your mind and body when you really have “GOT IT” !!
Fallen brothers
Temptation thine
Faith unto patience,
Perfection springs
Solomon’s gift,
Beseech the Lord
And waver not
in convoluted
instability.
(R.Starbuck)
When you are surrounded by God- loving people who constantly support one another in their faith, in accordance with . . . .
Hebrews 10:24 KJV
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: . . . .
does your enthusiasm, your excitement, and yes your faith go through the roof? That is, until you are alone again? And then, do you kind of crash?
If so, you’re not alone! It’s human nature!
I for one I think we should be less and less enamored with human nature! We need to learn to maintain the same level (awareness) of faith that we had before we started listening to the incessant yammering of the carnal mind once again!
The fleshly thinking is always wrong. Period. When we are fully tuned in to God, we are always right – and right is a great place to be!
Consider Moses, who actively endured the wrath of Pharoah by focusing on God:
Hebrews 11:27 KJV
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
WHAT KIND OF POWER DO WE HAVE OVER SICKNESS AND DISEASE, AND EVEN DEATH?
Ephesians 1:19-20 KJV
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, [20] Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
WE HAVE RAISING-FROM-THE-DEAD TYPE OF POWER IN US !!
IF YOU DON’T GLORIFY GOD, IF YOU DON’T REALLY ESTEEM HIM, IF YOU AREN’T THANKFUL AND DON’T MAGNIFY THE VICTORIES AND THE GOOD THINGS GOD HAS DONE, THEN YOUR IMAGINATION HAS NO OPTION EXCEPT TO BE NEGATIVE.
Romans 1:21 KJV
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
WOULD YOU JOIN ME IN AN EXERCISE THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR (AND MY) LIFE? MAKE A QUICK LIST (IN YOUR MIND IS OKAY) OF ALL THE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS YOU’VE ENTERTAINED RECENTLY. FEAR . HATE . JEALOUSY . REVENGE . ETC . ETC . . NOW , LET’S RECOGNIZE THAT ALL OF THAT IS FROM THE CARNAL MIND – READY TO RE-EMERGE WHENEVER YOU’RE DISTRACTED .
<> OR, YOU (AND I) COULD CONCEIVE (IMAGINE) [yetser = Hebrew] DIFFERENTLY, DISMISS THE WORLDLY THINKING AND TURN TO GOD.
Did you ever decide to sit down and simply listen to God speaking to you in your spirit. You put out all potential distractions in order to give Him your full attention — only to find out that He had nothing to say?
Me neither.
T H E . E N G L I S H . S C H O O L
Established in 1973
Dr. Robin Starbuck, Director
Midtown Manhattan @ United Nations Plaza
