As I was driving down the highway recently, I began to speak to the Lord. Before one word was spoken, he stopped me. He said, “There is an attack coming to the Body of Christ that will bring in a spirit of division.” The enemy is sending an attack on speaking in tongues that will be a divider amongst My people.” As I began to pray over this word, the Holy Spirit provided a greater perception of the attack and strategy the enemy has been using to bring division into the church. For revival to be sustained and thrive there must be repentant hearts that unify the Body of Christ. Anytime the Holy Spirit has ever moved significantly in the earth realm, repentance and unification have been the catalysts for God to release His glory.
“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2:1-4. The enemy knows that when the church gets in “one accord”, heaven responds.
The release of the Glory of the Lord this year has been a significant advance in the church. God has gained more souls and more territory in such a short period of time. The Asbury revival is a key example of the global revival that God is pouring out all over. Not coincidently, a great division came against the church regarding the topic of woman pastors and then another from the topic of homosexual ministers in the church. While this is not a new strategy, it is telling that the enemy re-released them at this strategic time. The Holy Spirit gift of speaking in tongues is another prime target of division in the church that we as Spirit-filled believers must be ready to defend.
The book of Jude tells us, “3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.” For the next fourteen verses Jude warns against this specific apostasy, which is “the abuse of grace”. He specifically mentions the act of homosexuality in this warning, and then Jude provides the church a divine strategy on how to contend against these things.
“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” He told us to pray in tongues, walk in love towards people and hate the apostate teaching of cheap grace that has led to an apostate state of the church.
Many people within the church and many churches themselves have been divided on the topic of speaking in tongues. The people that do not understand this gift have disassociated themselves with those who do it and any type of function in the Body they have. The people who practice it come against those people who don’t with anger out of hurt and rejection. They won’t associate with those people in the Body who don’t speak in tongues and look down on them out of spiritual pride. Thus, the Body of Christ gets more deeply divided on a non-essential issue. We must remember, our salvation and core foundation does not depend upon the issue of speaking in tongues.
If you are in a church service where the pastor is preaching or worship is taking place and the Spirit of the Lord is upon you in the manifestation of speaking in tongues, please be mindful of a few things. One, if no interpretation comes through someone else, do not keep on speaking. You will become a distraction to the service, rather than the edification of the Body. On a Sunday morning service at a traditional church, new believers may be present that have no clue what is going on.
I conduct prayer gatherings all over the world, and I know in these settings at times prayer warriors will speak in tongues, and maybe a word of interpretation will come. The prayer warriors that are praying in the Spirit are standing in the gap on issues that only the Holy Spirit has knowledge of. That setting is fine because most attendees pray in the Spirit and understand what is happening. At a prayer gathering I held in December 2004, we all started weeping, praying in tongues and travailing in prayer. No one really understood what was taking place. This went on for two hours. We all left and knew the Holy Spirit had us standing in the gap for something big. At the same time as we were praying, the country of Indonesia was getting hit with a tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Praying in tongues allows you to tap into the Miraculous Realm in a powerful yet mysterious way. This gift is a powerful addition to your spiritual growth if you learn how to incorporate it into your life based on scripture and with balance. The devil fights the Body of Christ on this gift, especially if it is practiced out of scriptural context.
Many denominations have put out official statements recently changing their policy on forbidding its missionaries to speak in tongues. So many missionaries needed this powerful gift for their front-line work. An estimated fifty percent of them did speak in tongues, even when their denomination forbade it.
Due to this gift of the Holy Spirit being abused or out of order, speaking in tongues has become a point of contention in the Body of Christ. It is not always from those with a malicious spirit, it is out of a lack of understanding which leads to fear. Fear will fuel this divisive fight. Never come against something that you don’t understand! Stop to consider: What if you are fighting the very hand of God?
Gathering the Harvest and Advancing His Kingdom,
Shawn Patrick Williams
864-227-0508
After being radically saved from ten years of drug addiction and occult involvement through a Damascus Road experience in a bar, Shawn Patrick received a burning commission to evangelize the United States and the world. His style of preaching brings a revival culture to the Body of Christ. He attended Christian Life School of Theology and received his master’s from the Institute of Theology and Christian Therapy.
His personal experience of the power of the Holy Spirit, powerful deliverance from addiction and the occult, and his gangster background has aided in giving him a platform to speak to the next generation of believers. His passion is revival fire and seeing Christ saves lives. He has preached in 30 nations and has authored 12 books. He has a Doctor of Divinity from Day Spring University, was ordained as a bishop in 2009. He then launched Warrior Nation Fellowship, which is an apostolic network. He is also founder of the omega network and the apostolic training centers called “i3,” based in Greenwood, South Carolina.
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