We were on a trip to the mountains for a church event and the student-teacher said, “I saw someone speak in tongues at a conference last week.” (That was the first I had ever heard of that term)
“What did that look like?” I asked, trying to picture more than one tongue flipping around in someone’s mouth…
I had questions … so many questions … and my journey started getting interesting and humorous, and quite painful at times.
A few years later I experienced the in-filling of the Holy Spirit at age 18 and was warned by my pastor that this was something that was not of God – and I was asked to leave the only church I had known since birth.
Confused, I asked the pastor, “If this is of Satan, then why do I have a hunger to read more of the Word and to seek God’s face than ever before?”
He paused for a moment and then said, “There are indeed times when someone special is blessed with a message from God or a miraculous manifestation of some sort, but it is rare. If what you say is true, then this must be of God. HOWEVER, you are not allowed to express any of this in the church or talk about it. We don’t want that here.”
IF I actually was one of those that God had visited and imparted something supernatural and special on my life, why would the pastor NOT want that in his church? Wouldn’t that mean that God was delivering something to His people?
I left completely confused that day.