This particular topic is fairly confusing to me. I wasn't raised in a tongue-speaking church...
I was raised nominally Lutheran, but with no church attendance and virtually no "practice" -- prayer, Bible-reading, etc. As a kid, I sometimes attended "Vacation Bible School" at the church of whatever acquaintance invited me. That was in the late '60s to maybe early '70s.
but my aunt was attending a charismatic church in the 70's and gave my mom a tape of the church service to listen to. I remember very distinctly as a child getting shivers and the hair on the back of my neck standing up when I heard that tape. It really frightened me, like deep down. I kinda even felt a little sick
I was "born again" while away at college early in 1980, a few months before turning 20. Later that year, a girl from my circle of friends brought a tape of herself getting filled with the Spirit and speaking in tongues. No one else in the group was Pentecostal, so I don't recall much discussion of it. But that was my first exposure to it. It seemed odd, but not scary.
A few years later, I was at a Bible study at a coffeehouse back at home, and noticed some of my friends praying softly in tongues during the prayer time. Also odd but not scary. But I was not ready to accept their invitation to visit their Pentecostal church.
Around February '84, I listened to some teaching tapes by Pat Robertson on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and was filled with the Spirit and began praying in tongues. After that, I began attending that Pentecostal church, and of course the tongues-speaking didn't seem odd at all.
Fast forward to about 3 years ago. My husband and I began attending an Abundant Life church. Felt acceptance and kindness there and decided to go to the membership class. 6 weeks of why, how, when, where to talk in tongues. Ok, fine. I'll go along with it even though the flags were starting to wave in my mind. Hubby was getting good things out of the church so I remained silent for his benefit. On the last day of the class the pastor came in and asked who wanted the baptism of the Holy Spirit and hubby said he did. He prayed with/for him and then began to instruct him on how to make the tongues flow out of him. He followed their instructions, humming, saying "ha ha ha" etc.....nada. The pastor got sort of frustrated but told him to 'practice' at home. I'm thinking, "Wait a second, if this is a gift that comes upon you from the Holy Spirit why would you have to practice it?" Whatever, fine.
Normally you shouldn't need to "practice" it or try to "make" it happen, but you also shouldn't expect God to grab you and work you like a hand-puppet.
At Wednesday night prayer service, I'd sit and listen, praying (in English) quietly and the pastor would say he 'felt so sorry for those who didn't pray in tongues because their prayers just fall flat' or 'those who don't pray in the spirit just don't reach God with their petitions'. Um...ok so I'll just pray for that gift and if God wants to give it to me that's great, but will my prayer life be null and void if I never get this gift? Should I even bother praying anymore? We are both open to receiving the gift, want it even, but it just hasn't happened.
That's an unfortunate attitude on the part of that pastor. He's going way beyond what Scripture teaches.
Several other things eventually happened at that church and I also began to do some more research into the WOF thing and we decided that we couldn't attend that church anymore.
That's odd. I have plenty of issues with WoF teaching and practice, but it's not typical of them to believe that the only prayers that "work" are prayers in tongues.
I'm torn on the issue. I have accepted Jesus as my savior, but feel like it's implied somehow that we're not "really Christian" if we're not talking in tongues. I do believe it is a real gift, but I don't believe that everybody can or does have it. I'm not entirely sure it can be turn and off like a switch. My personal opinion is that when/if it happens it's more like a freight train that cannot be stopped until it's done.
I don't know why some people receive the gift easily, some seem to struggle, and some never receive it. My reading of Scripture is that it is available to all. But the "freight train" idea is not consistent with Scripture. If you're waiting for God to cram the Holy Spirit's hand into the back of your head like Kermit the Frog and "make" you speak in tongues, you'll still be waiting when Jesus comes back. Scripture says that "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets." That means that, while the Holy Spirit provides the enabling, and at times may even cause an urgent prompting to speak, WE retain control as to whether or not to ACTUALLY speak. That is a difference between speaking by the Spirit of God and speaking while driven by a demon. It is also a difference between speaking by the Spirit as a New Covenant gift, and speaking by the Spirit as an Old Covenant punishment (e.g. King Saul).
I also question the sociological implications of prayer in tongues, at least in a service with a group of people. It's not unusual for some people to fake that kind of thing for acceptance. So anyway, that's just my 2 cents worth.
I'm sure that's possible. Also hard to prove.
