Miracles And Power

[Ambie4]

As Shermana proposed in a previous topic, miracles ARE the reason why the first church spread so fast and all that power is STILL AVAILABLE!! I did not believe it until it happened to me personally over 20 years ago and I am still walking with God.

First of all, I would like to remind you all that Jesus came to save sinners, not the righteous. Those of you who think you are already righteous may not want to hear what I'm going to say, but those of you struggling with sin or doubt may be very happy to hear my testimony, which I will keep as short as possible.

I was raised in a church that believed miracles passed away when the New Testament was compiled. This included the miraculous instances recorded in Acts 2, Acts 10 and Acts 19 where the first disciples received the Holy Spirit with the miraculous evidence of speaking supernaturally in other languages. As a result of my 'church' upbringing, as a child I learned about all the miraculous things God did over thousands of years, but did not see or expect any evidence of it in the so-called 'real world'. I found this very confusing and while I didn't lose faith, I felt I could never truly get in touch with my Creator or with Jesus the way the people in the Bible did.

As a teenager, I was a very depressed and 'dark' kid who partied a lot and didn't really care about life. I also dabbled in the occult during that time, which taught me that there was an invisible spiritual realm around us that could be easily communicated with. I was fascinated with it at the time but God fortunately steered me away from that dangerous arena. When I started college, I tried to clean up my life and turn to God but found it pretty much impossible, due to my dependency on drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and friends with similar dependencies. I kept praying to God that he would help me, and started reading the Bible with friends who were partiers, like me. During this time one of my friends and I started having arguments/discussions about speaking in tongues. He had gone to a Pentecostal church as a kid and claimed it was real but I didn't believe in it and thought it was hype. One day, he brought a guy to our Bible study whom all our friends had known as a bigtime drug user, as this guys parents even used drugs. When he came to our Bible study, he looked different - not totally conventional but he had cut off his dread locks and ditched his leather jacket that had all his favorite punk rock bands painted on it, which most of us also owned. This guy, Steve, had been healed from using drugs and alcohol and he told me that I needed to receive the Holy Spirit. My church had told me that I had received the Holy Spirit when I was baptized when I was 12, but I remembered feeling disappointed when nothing happened and nothing changed. It definitely wasn't the 'Holy Ghost and Fire' baptism that John the Baptist foretold that Jesus would give to people, which also happened in Acts chapter 2.

After arguing for a while, I asked this guy how I would know if I had received the Holy Spirit. He told me I would speak supernaturally in another language. To me, this sounded more like what John the Baptist had been talking about - an experience accompanied by a miraculous sign. Immediately I was both excited and afraid that what this guy was saying wouldn't pan out - it really seemed too good to be true. Also, I was afraid that speaking in tongues was just emotionalism and wasn't a real act of God. I wanted to know the truth so I started going to his church, got re-baptized in the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, just like the believers at Ephasus did in Acts 19, and I started to pray. About 3 weeks later, I received the Holy Spirit praying at my friends' apartment and I quietly but powerfully spoke in tongues. I was instantly healed from a 5 year smoking addiction, no more desire to drink, no more drugs, no more bad language - and all that was 20 years ago. Since that day, I've had the ability to speak in tongues whenever I want by the Holy Spirit. It is a special prayer language that I use every day when I'm alone with God. The Bible says the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us, and it's in the awesome, miraculous language that God gives us. I know people commonly have this type of experience in Pentecostal churches but there is sometimes a lot of confusion and disorderly worship that goes on in those types of churches, just like there was in the Corinthian church, where people were getting together for worship and saying all their prayers in tongues instead of in the common language, which was why Paul had to correct them and say that he praised God that he spoke in tongues more than all of the Corinthian believers (I Cor. 14) but, in the worship service, it was important to use words that everyone could understand and to limit the use of tongues during the worship service so that outsiders didn't get frightened or confused.

Since that day over 20 years ago, I have realized that Jesus is alive and working with power just like He did when He walked the earth and just like He did in the first church. I am part of a fellowship that believes in miraculous healings and provision. We have a lot of members who see amazing, miraculous answers to prayer, especially in our churches in less developed countries, where our new members commonly get healed from serious conditions such as AIDS, lameness and blindness when they turn to God, get baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. God really does want to work in your life JUST LIKE HE DID in Bible times. If you haven't experienced His power, I hope you will open yourself up to it - it is truly AWESOME!! God Bless!

[Tex]

Tex: Nice story, thanks for sharing.
Pea[e.

[Jax Agnesson]

When you and someone next to you are speaking in tongues, can you understand each other?

[Haven]

Hi Ambie! Welcome to the forum!

I found your story interested. Still, I'm skeptical of the supernatural elements of your testimony. "Speaking in tongues" can be explained naturally as a strong emotional reaction / learned response, and the "occult" can be explained in a similar fashion. When examining certain phenomena, naturalistic explanations are always better than supernatural ones; one should only conclude a supernatural event occurred when such an event is unable to be explained naturally.

Since you didn't post a debate question in your OP (this is a forum for debate, per forum rules all threads must have a clear debate question), I'll add one: Are miracles possible? Is speaking in tongues the sign of supernatural intervention or simply emotional reaction (or some other factor)?

[McCulloch]

Moderator Action

Moved to Random Ramblings. Please review the Rules and Tips on starting a debate topic.

[Ambie4]

@Tex - Thank you. If you have not received the Holy Spirit and would like to, please e-mail me and I can give you some encouragement.

@Jax - As was the case in Acts 2, the languages are legitimate and each person is given a different one, so if the other person has studied the language then they will be able to understand it. However, the purpose of tongues is not to communicate with another person, but directly to God. That is why Paul says in 1 Cor. 14:2 "For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries."

@Haven - thank you very much for attempting to legitimize my post. I guess I need to learn the ropes. As for your comments about doubting the supernatural, the supernatural requires a certain degree of faith to witness, but really not very much. For example, the Bible says in Acts 2:39 that the promise of the Holy Ghost, the same thing that I received, is available to everyone: "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." So if you are really curious, you can test out the claim I've made and receive the Holy Spirit yourself, then you can decide what the Truth is. Once a person receives the Holy Spirit, it doesn't ever go away and so you will be able to calmly, quietly speak in the language that God will give you whenever you choose to, and you will feel another Presence making the words come out, but it is not something that will attempt to overpower you and it is not something you have to work yourself up into a particular emotional state to perform.

[Artie]

Speaking in tongues is an ancient heathen practice and is common in ancient pagan religions. It is strange that Christians should attribute this phenomenon to the Christian God when it is also practiced by for example Haitian witch doctors?
http://www.dividedbytruth.org/FD/sitnnc.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia

[Moses Yoder]

My cousin took my brother and I to a church once where they had a visiting preacher. I was about 18. He was a fire and brimstone man, and at the end of his sermon he asked anyone who wanted to come up and be healed. He laid his hands on the first lady, and she fell over and started shaking and spasming in the aisle like an epileptic. It looked pretty funny, and I couldn't help but laugh out loud which got me nudged a bit. More people went up and they were all affected dramatically as soon as he touched them. After everyone was done, he looked at my brother and I and said "I can tell these two young men have a heavy burden and need God's help tonight as well. Step on up!" I looked at him and he motioned me to come up, so we went. He touched us and nothing happened. I thought maybe I would fall over backwards and bust my skull open on one of the benches, but I felt nothing. Not a thing. I was kind of dissapointed.

As we drove home that night I thought about what had happened and it made me think about what I really believed, and what I wanted my life to reflect. It became a turning point in my life because of the lie I saw and the reality that I wanted my life to be. A little while later I met my wife, another major impact on my life. I'll never forget that night. I wonder if the people who were so affected that they fell over and gyrated like a Kitchen Aid mixer were so affected that night that they never forgot it?

I've never spoken in tongues, but when I look at the fruits of the spirit listed in James and hold them up in the mirror, I'm confident that He is working in me.

[connermt]

Speaking in tongues is an ancient heathen practice and is common in ancient pagan religions. It is strange that Christians should attribute this phenomenon to the Christian God when it is also practiced by for example Haitian witch doctors?
http://www.dividedbytruth.org/FD/sitnnc.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia

When you consider the pagan activities/festivals and dates christians took from pagan societies, I don't see how this would surprise anyone.

[TheBlackPhilosophy]

As Shermana proposed in a previous topic, miracles ARE the reason why the first church spread so fast and all that power is STILL AVAILABLE!!

Actually, take a class on The History of Rome...not to mention the fact that you haven't provided any evidence for that claim...

I also dabbled in the occult during that time, which taught me that there was an invisible spiritual realm around us that could be easily communicated with.

Hmmm...still not evidence...

As a teenager, I was a very depressed and 'dark' kid who partied a lot and didn't really care about life. I also dabbled in the occult during that time, which taught me that there was an invisible spiritual realm around us that could be easily communicated with. I was fascinated with it at the time but God fortunately steered me away from that dangerous arena. When I started college, I tried to clean up my life and turn to God but found it pretty much impossible, due to my dependency on drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and friends with similar dependencies. I kept praying to God that he would help me, and started reading the Bible with friends who were partiers, like me. During this time one of my friends and I started having arguments/discussions about speaking in tongues. He had gone to a Pentecostal church as a kid and claimed it was real but I didn't believe in it and thought it was hype. One day, he brought a guy to our Bible study whom all our friends had known as a bigtime drug user, as this guys parents even used drugs. When he came to our Bible study, he looked different - not totally conventional but he had cut off his dread locks and ditched his leather jacket that had all his favorite punk rock bands painted on it, which most of us also owned. This guy, Steve, had been healed from using drugs and alcohol and he told me that I needed to receive the Holy Spirit. My church had told me that I had received the Holy Spirit when I was baptized when I was 12, but I remembered feeling disappointed when nothing happened and nothing changed. It definitely wasn't the 'Holy Ghost and Fire' baptism that John the Baptist foretold that Jesus would give to people, which also happened in Acts chapter 2.

After arguing for a while, I asked this guy how I would know if I had received the Holy Spirit. He told me I would speak supernaturally in another language. To me, this sounded more like what John the Baptist had been talking about - an experience accompanied by a miraculous sign. Immediately I was both excited and afraid that what this guy was saying wouldn't pan out - it really seemed too good to be true. Also, I was afraid that speaking in tongues was just emotionalism and wasn't a real act of God. I wanted to know the truth so I started going to his church, got re-baptized in the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, just like the believers at Ephasus did in Acts 19, and I started to pray. About 3 weeks later, I received the Holy Spirit praying at my friends' apartment and I quietly but powerfully spoke in tongues. I was instantly healed from a 5 year smoking addiction, no more desire to drink, no more drugs, no more bad language - and all that was 20 years ago. Since that day, I've had the ability to speak in tongues whenever I want by the Holy Spirit. It is a special prayer language that I use every day when I'm alone with God. The Bible says the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us, and it's in the awesome, miraculous language that God gives us. I know people commonly have this type of experience in Pentecostal churches but there is sometimes a lot of confusion and disorderly worship that goes on in those types of churches, just like there was in the Corinthian church, where people were getting together for worship and saying all their prayers in tongues instead of in the common language, which was why Paul had to correct them and say that he praised God that he spoke in tongues more than all of the Corinthian believers (I Cor. 14) but, in the worship service, it was important to use words that everyone could understand and to limit the use of tongues during the worship service so that outsiders didn't get frightened or confused.

I'm afraid that peer-reviewed papers don't often include anecdotes as reliable evidence...

Since that day over 20 years ago, I have realized that Jesus is alive and working with power just like He did when He walked the earth and just like He did in the first church. I am part of a fellowship that believes in miraculous healings and provision. We have a lot of members who see amazing, miraculous answers to prayer, especially in our churches in less developed countries, where our new members commonly get healed from serious conditions such as AIDS, lameness and blindness when they turn to God, get baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. God really does want to work in your life JUST LIKE HE DID in Bible times. If you haven't experienced His power, I hope you will open yourself up to it - it is truly AWESOME!! God Bless!

It appears you have stumbled across the wrong forum, this is not a forum for proselytism; it is a debate forum.

Provide a coherent argument, some hard logic, and some reasonable evidence.

Otherwise, this is not the place to be doing what you are doing...