Message of the spirit?

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Okay. Last Sunday, at my church, some new members from a different church, I'm guessing some kind of Assembly of God, caused a major disruption. A pastor among them, got up, asked for the mike from our pastor and started talking to us about a message he's got, something about problems in our church, and how Satan's got a hold, but he won't stay, blah blah blah. Kinda made me wanna laugh real loud, but I didn't.
THEN before he sat down he asked for anyone with a prayer on their mind to come up.
About six people did, most of which were from his group. One dude who had the biker look about him, shaved head, thick arms, black shirt, jeans, gloves, but he had a limp, went up to pray. I believe he was a new Christian. ANyways, some lady from that new group was praying REAL loud about our church, condemning it, saying how strong Satan's hold on our church is, and THEN she started speaking tongues (or babbling gibberish, which is what I think she was doing). I got up and left. My family did, too, and my two friends' families did, as well. Scared the heck out of me.
The woman had no translator with her and just started bubbling out gibberish. That made me uncomfortable. The fact that they were condemning us as well made me angry. But whatever.
I just wonder if stuff like this ever happens to y'all? And, also, I wonder if it's the Spirit that motivates people all the time, and allows them to speak in tongues. I don't want any evil spirits, perhaps Satan's influence, in my church at all, and I will definitely become enraged if this happens again. I'm rather worried for the body at my church. Not sure what this will do to us.
So yeah, I'm also asking for prayer, and any comments y'all got.
 
I went to a church where atleast one person would speak a prayer in tounge every service and someone would stand up and translate it. Too bad I was a wee child and I can't remember it that well.


Anyway, I'll pray for your church, whether or not it is a hoax.
 
I've heard lots of reports about people "speaking in tongues" and excorism, and in general you can discern between the true cases and false. This sounds like a false to me. Kind of odd tho, I thought assembly of God was a "head-screwed-on-right" denomination.
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[b said:
Quote[/b] (Ultima Avatar @ Mar. 26 2003,7:13)]Please, NSpire. Give me some credit! No hoaxes here.
Thanks for the prayers though.
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I don't mean whether or not you are making it up, I was talking about whether or not the woman was really speaking in tounge or just making baby noises.
 
There is a lot of confusion concerning exactly what composes 'Speaking in Tongues'

What you must remember there are two entirely different versions of this particular gift.

1) The Angelic Tongue. This is the 'gibberish' tongue. It's basically a direct link between us and God via the Holy Spirit in ecstatic speach. Explained in Galations, it's a gift of every believer if they desire it, but at the same time it SHOULD be used within the prayer closet and not in open services (which is something that the AoG do)

2) The Gift of Tongues. These can be spoken/translated Angelic tongues, but it is truly designed to be a human language. The important thing here is that an interpreter is required, and that at most only 3 people speaks in tongues, and if there is no interpreter present, then those with the gift do not use it during the service.



I know that the AoG's opinion on these two things are that they are really one and the same item, and that it is acceptable to use the angelic tongue during prayers during the corporate worship service. I cannot agree with this as Paul's teaching clearly say that during corporate services, an interpretor must be present and at most only 3 speak. Paul also goes onto say that to do more, or to do so without interpretation is a sign of chaos, and we serve a God of order (this is found in one of the Corinthians).


so to answer your question, yes she could actually have been speaking in tongues, but as in a majority of pentecostal denominations they are not using these gifts in their proper context. What is more unfortunate is that this improper use of the gifts has been gaining momentum and speed with the profilation of "non-denominational" churches.

Please remember that if something like this does happen, you can ask your pastor (or whatever teacher is doing this) for Biblical references for why he or she is doing what they are doing, if they cannot supply adequate passages, then they are doing what they see others doing, an this needs to be pointed out, if they can supply adequate passages it gives you a chance to learn, and if they say 'It's the work of God and the Holy Ghost, who are you to question it?" Then you know to run and not step foot within that teacher's class or sermon-time again.
 
I've been to a pentecostal church once. They had talking in toungues and laying of hands people getting touched and falling etcc. It's not my cup of tea, didn't feel comfortable there and left.
 
the laying on of hands is an important aspect of Healing and various prayers, and is witnessed throughout the NT

read my post above about the speaking in tongues


as for the "Falling out"  That is wrong.

No matter how you look at it, it is wrong. There is no Biblical justification for it happening in the NT Church.
Even the name should make you wary "Being Slain in the Spirit."  Last time I checked the spirit brought life.  These and other "Revival" concepts are quite dangerous.   They are emotionalism at it's worst, invoking feelings of ectasy to establish a foothold and conversion instead of actually relying on Christ to lead that person to a saving knowledge.

The most common "revival" actions:
"Being Slain in the Spirit"  This is when somone falls down on the floor, usually unable to move.  The usual scripture given for this is Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus and John's testimony about the Apocalyspe (i.e. Revelations), and the arrest of Christ.  What is not recognized is that it is Christ that is present when these people 'fell down like dead' and not the Holy Spirit with whom it's attributed today.  This actions are not a normal part of the conversion actions, as most conversions recorded in the Bible do not have this as a factor.

"Being drunk with the spirit"  This is usually evidenced by uncontrollable laughter.  The Biblical scriptures for this are even more sparse, and the ones I have been given I can not see the tie.  People usually use Peter's words on the day of Pentecost to support this action, but there is no true relationship.  What gets me is that my Bible tells me to be sober-minded in all things, how would the spirit advocate "being drunk" when the Bible calls for us to be sober-minded?  This is a contradiction.  Additionally, when people are afflicted with this, Chaos reigns in the church.  Once again, our God is a God of order, He does not want nor desire chaos in or during our services.   To say that Christ wants this to occur is to say that Christ wants to go against His word, which cannot happen.

"No Questions Asked"  Probably the biggest, scariest part of these "revival's" is the "Don't ask questions, you will offend the spirit" teaching.  I live in Pensacola, and was attending a service at the Brownsville Revival when those words were spoken by the pastor teaching that evening, (well not really teaching more like praying unceasingly in front of thousands)  The Bible demands that we question and test the spirits.  The Bible demands that we question and test our leaders and teachers.  Anyone that claims otherwise is lying to you and is not from God.  Anyone that claims the Holy Ghost told them to tell you to not question, is lying and is not from God.  They may mean well, may truly believe what they are saying, but they are not backed up by scriptures, and are actually in direct opposition to scripture.
 
Sad that Christianity could be so twisted...
Also, the Wednesday before, these same people started condemning people by name for sins or some other. Many, if not all, members got up and left. I don't go to Wednesday services and thankfully missed out on that. This family's probably not going to be present Sunday, I hope, or I'll say some stuff if anyone gets up, like "talking in tongues" in the corner really loud. "OH JESUS GOD LORD MIGHTY SPIRIT HOLY GOD WONDERFUL DUDE HELP US OUT BLESS US ALL" forever until they shut up.
 
Forgive me for not reading all of the reply's before posting.

I read a great mini-book on this by my favorite theologian, Dr. J. McGee. I think it's called "Talking in Tongues". The gist of it was that, while the Holy Spirit certainly COULD cause you to speak in tongues, 1) you're supposed to have a translator and 2) many such gifts were probably given only to the Apostles and the men of that era and that we nowadays recieve different kinds of spiritual gifts.

Hrmm that was pretty vague and not exactly what I had in mind...perhaps I'll get the book out tonight.

Anyways, I wouldn't worry too much about it - those were radical statements coming from radical people with radical interpretations of biblical verses. If anything, pray that they'll stay away and/or become true christians, assuming they're not.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Kidan @ Mar. 27 2003,2:24)] I live in Pensacola, and was attending a service at the Brownsville Revival when those words were spoken by the pastor teaching that evening, (well not really teaching more like praying unceasingly in front of thousands)  
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Wow I shouldn't have even bothere posting, Kidan just owned it up.

Anyways, Kidan, you say you live in Pensacola. Wow. You were there for that whole "Pensacola Revival" movement? Got any stories about that? All I know about it is from what I read in a Christian journal. Crazy and sad stuff. People want so badly to believe things in this world that they'll fall for these kinds of things...
 
Yeah. Angelwalk trilogy. Roger Elwood. GREAT books! I love the trilogy. I recommend you read it.
There was an annual Christian convention thing, where every non-believer was suddenly a believer. It was real sad to see, because I see that quite often, especially with people like, ahem, KENNETH COPELAND.
Materialism mixed with religion...incompatible.
In one of them, Fallen Angel, I believe, or perhaps Angelwalk, a man is in one of the booths at the place selling "Seven Simple Steps to Speaking in Tongues." Only one Christian man was obviously present in the whole group of "believers." He tried to show the crowd there how wrong it was, that tongues was a gift of God, nto something from a box. But they crucified him (metaphorically) and he left, saddened.
Gad, and I don't doubt that happens today.
 
As I said in that post earlier, that entire 'Brownsville Revival' was incredibly wrong.  The attendees were constantly told that to question what was happening would 'grieve the Holy Ghost'  and during one time I was there the preacher told the attendee's that to doubt what was happening, to question it, was to 'Blaspheme against the Holy Ghost'

I only attended once or twice, mainly due to statements like those, and in fact the profilation of Brownsville style teachings through the other Assemblies of God in the area is why I stopped attending that denomination and found myself a new church.

The thing about these 'Revivals' is that they are emotionalism.  They are not actually offering teachings on salvation and holy living.  they just make you feel good for 5 minutes and call it a life changing conversion.  Once the 'feel good' has worn off, you are stuck with someone that's has no commitment to Christ, and is just looking for their next 'fix'  To acheive these fixes they slowly shave away doctrines essential to Christain living, leaving only the 'feel good' parts.  They then throw brand new Christains into positions of leadership, ousting mature Christians, because these people are 'on fire' and instead of being able to guide someone to a deeper understanding of Christ, they just teach 'hey let's prayer so we feel good' .

A good author to read up on these things is Hank H. Hanegraaff and more specifically his books Christianity in Crisis and Counterfeit Revival  Do remember that this is a man, and his books are not the word of God, so it is possible to have errors within it, and that we are to seek out our faith with the reading of the Word and prayer with fear and trembling before the Lord.

as always, any questions or comments you can email me at kidan@wrighton.org, post it here, or if i'm on AIM, IM me with kidanssw


timor see that's why u read posts
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"many such gifts were probably given only to the Apostles and the men of that era and that we nowadays recieve different kinds of spiritual gifts."

That's going in the opposite direction. Just because your church doesn't do it, and anybody you see that claims to do it is obviously messed up, doesn't mean the whole thing is extinct. Paul wrote not to keep people from using the spiritual gifts (specifically the ones mentioned where Paul says that).
 
Spiritual gifts don't necessarily make you evil...it's how you particularly use them, or WHO gave you them. I stronly believe that demons can even grant power, just as God can. Anyone got stuff to say on that?
 
Actually, I'm pretty sure the only 'Tongues' are ones that are other languages, you just don't know them. The gibberish ones are probably rare dialects from Africa or Asia, most likley. But yah, the whole "need a translator or stay in your closet" thing has been covered, and I agree. I also feel the need to share that you really shouldn't flaunt God's gift, as unless theres some poor, uneducated African/Asian that doesn't know English, there is no need to speak in tongues, except to get closer to God on your own.

There is this story of a guy who praid in tongues, and this priest was there and said something along the lines of, "that was the most beutiful spanish I have ever heard," and the guy, of course not knowing Spanish, just shrugs and says "OK."
 
Riot.
Also, I have a question: it's not necessary to speak in tongues to speak in a different tongue than the native one you know: it's called learning langauges. I can speak some limited Spanish, but if I apply myself I can learn how to speak it, without referring to the Holy Spirit to come on me like a volcano and give me the power of tongues.
So is the Spirit really necessary to talk in tongues? I think not.
 
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