How To Get Born Again (part two)

 

 

 

(…continued from the first part…)

                 After agreeing with the above truths, you will then confess that, “I accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour!” The word ‘confession’ is the same homologeō proving contextually that it is of Jesus and not about your sins. I hear many ministers warning those who answer the altar, “Confess all your sins!” The salient question is, “How many wrongdoings?” Can he, the minister remember all his sins? Who can? Which sins do they make an inference to? Sins of the past, present or future? What is needed is faith and true faith.

Another reason why many churches insist on teaching confession of sins before getting born again is predicated on 1John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It will be an exegetical anomaly to use this scripture for a soteriological ministration. John says, ‘If we,’ which does not exclude him, the apostle of Jesus. This Book is called ‘The general epistle,’ meant for all believing Christians. Christians are the true born again -people of God. The opening verse of the second chapter reads, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” for as an apostle, he is a father figure, spiritually to the nascent Church.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Faith is the only facilitative instrumentality responsible for any transaction with God. Faith is the modulative element that fine tunes the intent of the heart, bringing it into a certain alignment, which eventuates in the harmonization with God’s aim and that of the wielder of faith.

Concerning the Jewish race their faithlessness got them wandering in the vicious circle of unbelief. Hebrews 3:19 “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Over a million of Israelites perished, unable to enter into the promised rest.

God will not ask you to do the impossible. As regarding our sins at the altar of regeneration, the answer is in Colossians 2:13-14, (13) “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14) Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.” Verse 13, in answer to: how many? It says, “having forgiven you all trespasses” meaning not one, twenty or a million but all trespasses. The time of the forgiving act? It is in the aorist. Before Christ came to die for our sins God had already knew that I will one day come to Him for salvation and He counted me among those to be redeemed! Ephesians 1:4, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:” your salvation is secured in Him, Jesus. To know more about the security of the believer, read my post, “WHY GO ARMINIANISTIC SOTERIOLOGY?”

Mere mouthing the sinners’ prayer does not bring one into the spiritual regeneration process. Many have got it wrong by thinking that mere ritualistic recitation of the sinners’ prayer had got them born again. It must necessitate faith in the finished work of the cross. You must see yourself as a sinner. Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” The word “shapen,” chuwl (khool) (or chiyl {kheel}) means: ‘1. (properly) to twist or whirl (in a circular or spiral manner), i.e. (specifically) to dance, to writhe in pain (especially of parturition) or fear 2. (figuratively) to wait, to pervert.’ ‘Iniquity’ is `avon (aw-vone’) (or oavown (2 Kings 7): perversity, i.e. (moral) evil.’ Chet’ (khate) is the Hebrew word for ‘sin’ meaning: ‘a crime or its penalty.’ This is what the earthly natural birth of everyone portends. Every conceived person is a potential criminal, before the law of the Creator.

If you pray the prayer truthfully and most especially, in faith, from your heart the Holy Spirit has made your spirit realm His abode, making you a carrier of God. Ponderous! Four things you need to lubricate your spiritual life. 1) Pray always (1Thessslonians 5:17). 2) Read the Bible (Joshua 1:8). 3) Attend Church services regularly (Hebrews 10:25) & 4) Get others born again by telling them about Jesus (Mark 16:15). Pray in Jesus’ name: God wants to hear you, the object of His love; in Jesus’s name: the only Mediator between God and man. The more you read the Bible the closer to God you are. Going to church is not only an obedient act, it recharges your spiritual life. Telling others about Jesus is the great commission for all Christians.

Get born again by saying this sinners’ prayer: “Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”   (…to be continued…)

Read the first part here 

Click to read the 3rd part

 

 

How To Get Born Again (part one)

Man, through Adam, fell and died spiritually. Since the Eden fall mankind had continued to sink in the opprobrium of the contravention of God’s law till it reached the notoriety of Genesis 6:5, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Regretfully, the Mosaic account of God’s position in verse 6 reads, “And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”

There is not a doubt that God had, through His prophet, Adam, told the pristine family of humanity, what to do to appease Him. Jehovah reminded Cain in Genesis 4:7, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” The word ‘sin’ is the Hebrew for chaṭṭâ’âh or chaṭṭâ’th (khat-taw-aw’) means: ‘an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness), and its penalty, occasion, sacrifice, or expiation.’ ‘Lieth’ is râbats (raw-bats’) ‘to crouch (on all four legs folded, like a recumbent animal); by implication to recline, repose, brood, lurk, imbed.’ A sacrificial lamb: a prefigurement of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ was the sermon Whom Cain repudiated.

At the resurrection of Jesus Christ He is the sole legal tender Lamb of the salvation of mankind. The Bible says in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” signifying that man is in need of salvation. It also reminds one of Ezekiel 18:4, “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Man has been plunged into an untold spiritual quagmire. Even Nicodemus had no answer to this deeply rooted predicament. This is the profile of Nicodemus. His Greek name Nikodēmos (nik-od’-ay-mos) “conqueror” or ‘victorious among his people,’ was accepted even by the Jewish authorities. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. He was successful. This man could boast of a PhD in theology. And he was a law teacher of the scripture.

He could not understand John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The word ‘born’ gennaō (ghen-nah’-o) means: ‘to procreate (properly of the father, but by extension of the mother); figuratively to regenerate.’ ‘Again’ is anōthen (an’-o-then): ‘from above; by analogy from the first; by implication anew.’ ‘Except’ and ‘cannot’ are words of negation, pointing to the impossibility of this new birth without following due process i.e. scriptural protocol. The permutational involvement in the rationalistic empiricism of the cultural phenomenon of the physical man beclouded the mind of Nicodemus.

This successful individual could not apprehend the spiritual context from the defining ‘regenerate’ neither could anōthen remind him of a new birth, midwifed by the Holy Ghost, coming from the decree of the One who sits on the throne of the heavenly assizes. Intellectuals, religionists, people of immense illustriousness and the wealthy class will twitch their noses in response to ‘get born again’! It is for this reason Jesus had to give Nicodemus the curative kerygma of John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” He did that to save him from spiritual neurasthenia, a contagium that has bedeviled Christendom. Failure to follow through to the end the teachings of Biblical truism is the result of Lucifer’s incursion into human affairs. Very few churches make the altar call to lead people in the sinners’ prayer of salvation. While John 3:3 is the kerygma call to salvation, the practicality of the format prayer that gets one born again is found in Romans 10:9-10.

Romans 10:9-10, 9) “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” ‘Confess’ is: homologeō (hom-ol-og-eh’-o) ‘to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent.’ Homologeō is not in connection with an individual’s past sins. It is an acceptability design to get one acquainted with the Lamb to an eventuation of God’s expected acceptance of the Lordship of Jesus by the individual. It must be noted that the King James Version of the Bible that I always use in my exegesis of the scriptures was written in the flowery of the Elizabethan English. Verse nine gives an overview of the context; and what the first words say in our modern day English is, “…that if you should confessedly agree and declare verbally that Jesus is (your) Lord.” The 10th verse takes one through the steps to be taken in this salvaging ritual.

You have to believe the allusion to the kerygma (biblical message) of verse eight. Your heart must believe the finished work of the cross. Your mouth must confess that:

*Jesus is the Son of God. Mark 1:1; Luke 1:35, 22:70; John 3:8.

*Jesus died for your sin. John 1:29; Acts 2:36 & 1John 2:2.

*God raised Him from death. Romans 6:4, 10:9, 1Corinthians 6:14 & Colossians 2:12.

*Jesus is Lord. Psalms 110:1; Jeremiah 23:6; Luke 3:11; John 13:13; Acts 10:36; 1 Corinthians 12:3, 15:47 & Philippians 2:11

 (…to be continued…)

Read the 2nd part here.

I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE (ii)

Only the Deity can address the sin question!

 

(…continued from part one…)

                The conjunction, ‘also,’ is kai, and from the above definition, it should read: “the Son of man is Lord and indeed of the Sabbath.” The reality of the duality of this most enigmatic Personage is so total from the standpoint of His official status as the last Adam, which gives Him the Lordship of the earth, which Adam lost. Of the same Jesus, it is written, in 1Corinthians 15:47, “…the second man is the Lord from heaven.” This is the hypostatic union! God and man fused together in one Personage called Jesus Christ. He is ‘the second man’ because a third evil personified Antichrist is expected. As ‘the last Adam’ (1Corinthians 15:45) He is the Saviour. If HE is the Saviour that makes Him Jehovah: a salvaging covenant name, which cannot be appreciably understood by human philosophy save through the agency of faith.

The scriptural establishments of the distinctive coexistence of the Father and the Son cannot be repudiated by the grandiloquence of the finest logic propounded by Hegelian dialectics. To the gainsayers of the Trinitarian concept this philosophical theory was needed to debunk the existence of the Triune God of Christianity. Hegelian dialectic philosophy is an interpretive method in which the contradiction between a proposition (thesis) and its antithesis is resolved at a higher level of truth (synthesis). God, to them, died, as taught by Friedrich W. Nietzsche, a German philosopher, poet and Christian critic.

F.W. Nietzsche -the author of “God is Dead”

Following the three stages of Hegelian dialectic God, the Father did die, becoming the thesis. The antithesis, Jesus, by His death on the cross paved a logical way for a resolution of the Christian God in the emergence of the Holy Spirit as the synthesis. Philosophy is not an evil tool per se. But when utilized by human understanding, it becomes what I call human logic tampered by Satanism. The moment the Hegelian dialectic stumbles on another deity, the Holy Spirit gives way, and the first (the original) thesis goes into oblivion. Philosophy of man has always left man hanging in his problems and never solving his spiritual problem of the state of afterlife. Hegel saw “Geist” (the absolute mind or spirit) developing through history, with each period having a Zeitgeist (spirit of the age). Hegel’s theory of the dialectic was the inspiration for the Dialectical Materialism of Karl Marx and Marxism. Does philosophy proffer any salvation from man’s sinful nature? None whatsoever.

Looking at the verbs ‘was’ and ‘am’ of John 8:58, anyone versed in English grammar will think that ‘was’ is an inflection of ‘am.’ It is not. ‘Was’ is ginomai (ghin’-om-ahee): ‘to become, be made; to cause to be (“gen” -erate), that is, (reflexively) to become (come into being).’ This is an Abraham, who came into being. ‘Am’ is eime: ‘an existence: of the incarnate God.’

“I am the resurrection,” takes us on the journey back to day number three of creationism. Who called the grasses, shrubs and tree plants into physical being with their fruits on them as they were springing up immediately, without a recourse to the natural process of germination? The original Gardener, of course! He did not say, “I am a…. (which will mean: one of them);” He used the definite article. The Gardner of Eden was the One standing physically present before the very eyes of the sisters of Lazarus! Mary Magdalene’s curiosity was correct. She was asking the original Gardener where the good Lord was, on Easter Sunday. The Light of creation was called forth on the first day of a seven-day week: a Sunday! Satanic incursion destroyed the garden of God. His resurrection blossomed us back to spiritual fruition. A new life through Jesus. Amen!

Who walked the Garden of Eden every cool of the day? Who did Adam see when he opened his eyes for the first time of his life? No one can see God, we understand. That God does not leave His throne vacant is a truism. The question, however, is, who is the LORD God who walked physically, planted edible food, called out animals into being and above all sculptured an inanimate Adam before breathing two lives of soul and spirit into him in the Garden of Eden? Why is He is called ‘LORD God,’ which in Hebrew is Yahweh Elohim?

“And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them” [John 17:10]. The contextual ownership in question here is the product of creationism. For anyone to have a community of ownership with the Eternal Creator that One must be the Creator as well. Christ, in this wise, can never be an angel, as diabolically taught by the Jehovah’s Witness sect. As the Son of man He has a beginning for He shares an Adamic ancestry with the first man. But as the Son of God He shares an essential equality of oneness with the Divine Father. He does not have an adscititious existence with Divinity. He receives genuflexion of adoration even from the four angels around the heavenly throne (Heb 1:6; Rev 5:8 & Rev 19:4).

Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I’ll give you rest (none else can)!

Hebrews 1:6, “And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.” Revelation 5:8, “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.” And this, the next text, is the scriptural evidence of His equality with the Father, found in Revelation 19:4, “And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.” Ask yourself why they who worship the Father will deign to fall down in worship of the Lamb, Jesus Christ? Praise the Lord!              Concluded

Read the 1st part here.

I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE (i)

               THE HAND THAT BROUGHT THE GRACE OF GOD TO MANKIND

Beyond the contextual apprehension of John 10:30, “I and my Father are one;” is the esoteric profundity couched by Jesus to unveil the truism that characterizes the personage of the Revelator.

Jesus did not use the personal pronoun, ‘my’ which happens to be the translators’ insertion. ‘My Father’ looks, therefore, like ‘the Father,’ with the definite article. Now, the thing is: If Jesus Christ were not God, could he have said these words without being guilty of blasphemy? The word ‘are,’ esmen, is a plural masculine gender. So, by the utterance of “we are one,” it is meant: in nature and essence, and perfections, particularly in power; since Christ is speaking of the impossibility of plucking any of the sheep, out of his own and his Father’s hands. Whatever is in His Father’s hand is also in His hand. He is as protective as His Father is.

The Jews asked Jesus in the twenty-fourth verse, “If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.” So, what you read in the 29th “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand;” is a vindication of the mental synchronism that exists between the two of them, attested to by verse 30.

The first word, ‘I’ is the Greek egō (eg-o’): ‘a primary pronoun of the first person ‘I’ (only expressed when emphatic).’ The conjunction, ‘and’ is kai (kahee) it means: ‘and, also, even, indeed, but. Origin: apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also a cumulative force.’ ‘Are’ is an interesting esmen (es-men’): ‘first person plural of “to be” which is indicative of eimi (i-mee’) ‘a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; “I exist” (used only when emphatic).’ ‘One’ is called heis (hice): (a neuter gender) ‘a primary numeral; one.’

God revealed His covenant name, I AM, to Moses. The Septuagint rendition of I AM is Egō Eimi. Esmen, the plural of Eimi, has helped to reveal more than a Personage in the Godhead just the same way Elohim (Hebraic plural for God) establishes the Trinitarian concept in the Godhead, of Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God….” The unseen Father in heaven is the Incarnation of the visible Revelator whom Isaiah prophetically called ‘The everlasting Father’ in chapter nine of the sixth verse of his Book. ‘I AM THAT I AM’ is what we call JEHOVAH. My first son, at about age eight to ten, told me how overwhelmed he felt anytime I defined JEHOVAH which is ‘self-existence’ or, better still, in the mind-blowing, ‘A One who exists by His own power’, which my son finds too ecstatically overpowering! This is the revelation of Jesus! The Incarnate God.

Jehovah does not mean, ‘one who comes into existence’ for ‘to come’ will give an impression of chronological timing. It is anti-theology to equate God with time. It gives an illogical opinion of the Divinity. It is an insult to place God and time side by side as equals. He had been in existence before creationism. He created eternity from which He drew out time for our use. He did not come into existence; He is existence Himself. Amen! And this is all I am trying to show anyone who wishes to know more about the Lord, Jesus!

For the information of those who see Jesus as a created being, the grammatical cumulation of kai lends credence to the neuter ‘one’. It cannot be overemphasized: the momentousness of this word ‘one’. “I and my Father are one.” It goes beyond a certain synchronous mental evaluation prowess they exhibit. The rapturous truism of the connotation of this little word ‘one’ is that it is saying that the Christ and the Father are of the same essence! Check out the reaction of the unbelieving religious deportment of the antagonistic Jews. John 10:31, “Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.” Jesus asked them, in the 32nd verse, “Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?” Without wasting time, “The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God” (John 10:33).      “I and the Father” is reminiscent of Proverbs 8:22, “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old;” and the more appropriate 30th verse, “Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;” as if they share a common paterfamilias as they grew up to, and from, adolescence to maturity. Let me reveal a gleanable theological truism from “Many good works have I shewed you from my Father” of the 32nd verse of John chapter 10. If the words of Jesus are always true, then what He was telling them is, “Many good works have I shewed you from Myself!” The Father and He are one! Jesus is the attested, “The everlasting Father” of the book of prophet Isaiah.

Emmanuel! The very God of very God!

God’s protocol, the Scriptures, is readily acquiescent to this oneness. When Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life;” in Scripture, the word ‘life’, zoe, in the Greek, which is ‘God’s kind of eternal life,’ gives a connotation of Jesus being the existence Himself! When He made the categorical statement of John 8:58, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am;” He used the same covenant name of Egō Eimi. This is why I call Him J.J. (JEHOVAH JESUS). When He said, “I am the resurrection,” what He simply voiced was, “Jehovah, the resurrection,” placing His hand of Divinity on His holiest chest: for the avoidance of ambiguity! Mark 2:28, “Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” This asseveration is pregnant with profundity.                       (…to be concluded…)

The Glossolalia (3rd Part)

 

 

Continued from part two

Jesus has clearly informed us to expect signs of new tongues. If, as some want to teach, that glōssa is no longer of His Church, why should glōssa ‘follow Christians very near to them’? And why should it be an attendant result to their spirituality? Two signs are mentioned; if the speaking in tongues is an outdated phenomenon, what about the casting out of evil spirits? Are there no more demons, are their activities no longer operational? Those who ‘believe,’ in the verse above, are the Christians. As long as we continue to play the roles of His ambassadors the signs must follow our Christian existence. Amen!

I remember the first time I spoke in tongues. I was seated before my landlord then. He was a cruel, sadistic individual. He was vehemently opposed to my decision to stop the unnecessary imposition of the fee meant for sweeping the compound. One tenant, whose children did the sweeping, was enjoying freedom this imposition. I told him what he knew, that my wards could easily take care of the domestic chore. The landlord bluntly refused. Righteous indignation welled out of me. I just let it out as the Spirit gave the utterance, and, “shhgrr,” was all I whispered. He had no answer for the spiritual encounter. From then I had become, in his house, an untouchable tenant!

Three times I had to answer the altar call to receive the in filling of the Holy Spirit. After the third time I decided to believe that the LORD had already given me the gift: that its manifestation was just a matter of time. One day while praying at home after our family evening devotion, I sensed that, for the past two days, I had, for a second of each day, had my tongue changed. On the day number three it was an unanticipatedly outpouring of the new tongues. It was so glorious. I used to think that this glōssa was a secretly arranged act, expecting somebody in The Household Of God Church (my local assembly) to call me one day and to tell me, “All you have to say is, “##!!@@*%$##, and you’re welcome into the world of speaking in tongues.” I thank God that glossolalia is real! I can speak in tongues for more than eight hours and would not be tired. This is where the power of the Christian is latently resident! The Spirit of God Himself gives you the very utterance needed, the most appropriate word that God wants hear; He gives the code of authority over demonic attacks.

The administration of the Church is so important to the Builder of it as 1Corinthians 12:28 puts it thus: “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” Speaking in tongues is one of them for it is one of the ways by which God participates in authorization of the verbal strength of His glorified children. Amen.

In the twenty-ninth to the thirtieth verse Paul probes rhetorically with: “Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? 30) Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” “But,” Paul caps it all in the 31st verse, “covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” Speaking in tongues is one of the gifts, I believe. Selah!

Christians do not realize the kind of power they have been fortified with. The Holy Spirit came like a dove at the baptism of Jesus, simply because, as John’s name (the grace of God) is defined, Jesus came to broker peace between God and man. On the day of Pentecost, HE came as fire, to consume the nefarious machinations of the enemy. Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The word ‘power’ is the Greek, dunamis (doo’-nam-is): ‘1. Force 2. (specially) miraculous power 3. (usually by implication) a miracle itself {literally or figuratively}.’ Disappointingly, some Christians even believe that we cannot bind Satan. Too bad, we have so many ill-informed Christians. Who is the enemy that Jesus refers to, contextually, in Matthew 12:29, when He said, “except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.” Read from verse 25 and Satan is the enemy.

Do not live a weak Christian life, desire earnestly to speak in tongues.    

              Get born again to receive this awesome gift. Say this sinners’ prayer: “Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”

(CONCLUDED)

 Read part two here.

The Glossolalia (2nd Part)

Rea

…continued from part one

Paul, in 1Corinthians 1:7, “So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:” writes to the church, extolling her spiritual, fruitful gifts which must include the glossolalia. To the same church he writes in 1Corinthians 14:4-5. Verse 4) “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.” Is this not a proof of the fact that the Church is endowed with the glōssa? In verse 5 it is explicitly clear that speaking in tongues is a blessing to the Church, where Christians assemble, and it reads: “I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.”

“For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful” (1Corinthians 14:14). That the understanding is not fruitful does not serve as an estoppage of this gift. If my spirit prays, it is doubtlessly the fact that the Holy Spirit is the Giver of the celestial utterance. Paul went on in the next verse, “What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.” Now when you hear Christians singing hymns in tongues this is where the pastors get the supportive scripture from. That the Spirit of God fixes the lyricalness of the songs of adoration is exhilarating! What it connotes is that, I am actually singing to the Most High and using the very lyrics He wants to hear from the lips of His dear child!

 

            To Paul was given to teach the mystifying stance of the Lord’s architectural edifice called the Church. He would not waste time in his enjoinment of 1Corinthians 14:39, “Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.” While the word ‘covet’ is the same zēloō, ‘prophesy’ is prophēteuō (prof-ate-yoo’-o): ‘to foretell events, divine, speak under inspiration, exercise the prophetic office,’ ‘forbid’ is kōluō (ko-loo’-o) ‘to estop, that is, prevent (by word or act);’ which comes from the base of kolazō (kol-ad’-zo) [From κόλος kolos (dwarf)]; properly to curtail, that is, (figuratively) to chastise (or reserve for infliction).’

It is tantamount to the proverbial shooting oneself in the leg, spiritually, when a Christian decides not to take the gift of speaking in tongues seriously. So many believe that after the Pentecostal experience the gift ceased; but the Apostle wrote in 1Corinthians 14:18, “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:” and earlier on in the second verse of 1Corinthians chapter 14, he taught “For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.” I will rather engage Jehovah God in tongues, addressing issues of absolute mystery! That the more one shares mysteries with the Lord, his God, is the best for his spiritual preferment, is a truism.

Our Lord Jesus Himself made a categorical profundity in the statement He made in the promise of Mark 16:17, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;” and the Greek definition for ‘tongue’ glōssa (gloce-sah’) is: ‘the tongue; by implication a language (specifically one naturally unacquired).’ It is a gift given only to God’s born again children. The word ‘signs’ is semeion (say-mei`-on): ‘an indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturally.’ ‘Follow’ is parakoloutheo (par-ak-ol-ou-theh’-o) ‘1. to follow near 2. (figuratively) attend (as a result), trace out, conform to.’ ‘Believe’ pisteuo (pist-yoo’-o), means: 1. to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. credit 2. (by implication) to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well-being to Christ).’ ‘Cast out’ is ekballo (ek-bal’-lo): ‘to eject.’ The KJV translation of Daimonion (dai-mon’-ee-on), as the Greek word for ‘devils,’ should actually be ‘demons’ and not ‘devils’ (Satan is the devil). Daimonion has the meaning of: 1. ‘a demonic being (a foul spirit) 2. (by extension) a deity.’ Laleo (lal-eh’-o), which is ‘speak,’ means: ‘to talk, i.e. utter words.’

    (…to be concluded…)

Click here to read the 1^st part.

Read the 3rd part here

The Glossolalia (1st Part)

 

If there is power in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21), then of necessity, it behoved God to put an efficacious delegated authority in the tongue of His saved saints, on the day of Pentecost, in the upper room. It had to be an upper room owing to the fact that the energizing power to speak in tongues come from above and only to those born again (i.e. begat from celestial above).

Glossolalia, according to Collins Dictionary, is defined as: ‘an utterance, partly or wholly unintelligible, believed by some to be produced under the influence of ecstatic religious emotion and conceived to be a manifestation of the Holy Ghost: practised in certain Christian churches, usually called Pentecostal’. It also has a definition of: ‘babbling in a nonexistent language’. This is Holy Ghost prattle i.e. children of God ecstatically prattling affectionately before the LORD, their heavenly Father, in a most familiar speech – to the Most High. Amen.The word glossolalia comes from the Greek glōssa (gloce-sah’): ‘the tongue; by implication a language (specifically one naturally unacquired)’.

         For unscriptural reasons some denominations hold an aversive conviction for the glossolalia, teaching that it ceased with the demise of the founding apostolic fathers of the Church. Quite jaw-droppingly, The Jehovah’s Witness people will quote, by pulling out “…whether there be tongues, they shall cease…” from 1Corinthians 13:8, forgetting the tenth verse: “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” The perfection of Christ’s reign has not taken place yet, or has it? Another argument stems from the fact that at the Pentecost the Holy Spirit gave them utterances of known languages and not this gibbering nonsense. This was no doubt, a reversal of Babel, when God confused the Nimrod (Antichrist) led building for Satan. Here, at Pentecost, Jesus had built His Church!

The HOLY SPIRIT is a PERSONAGE

Act 2:1-13 (1) “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. 5) And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 6) Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 7) And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? 8) And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 9) Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Powine”, and Asia, 10) Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 11) Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. 12) And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13) Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine”.

Speaking in tongues is only for born again Christians. Every Christian is commissioned to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” [Mat 28:19]. Jesus made it very easy for them. He brought the nations of the world to their doorstep, where they turned three thousand of the people into His disciples. The word ‘teach’, mathēteuō (math-ayt-yoo’-o) means: intransitively ‘to become a pupil; transitively to disciple, that is, enrol as scholar.” On their return to their various countries they will, no doubt, teach others to follow Jesus. Now that souls have been won to Jesus it is time to open the vocal cords, in the gibberish glossolalia, in holy worship.

Act 10:45-47, (45) “And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. 46) For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, 47) Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” If Gentiles received this power from the Holy Ghost, because it is His work, why should He stop giving the gift just because the apostolic pillars have died? Show me the scriptural proof, if there is one. In 1Corinthians chapter 12, verse 4 makes us understand that: “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” Verse 10 enumerates some of the gifts: “To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:” are the eight other gifts, faith included, obsolete as well (not forgetting: every gift is given by the same Spirit)? In the Book of 1Corinthians 12:31 the apostle, Paul, taught, “But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” A Jehovah’s Witness man pointed out the immorality of ‘covet’. I did not waste time in bringing him to the understanding that the King James Version was written in the Shakespearean style of Elizabethan flowery English. ‘Covet earnestly’ is one Greek word: zēloō (dzay-lo’-o): ‘to burn with zeal; to have warmth of feeling for or against.’

(…to be continued…)

Read the 2nd part here