Audacity of Speaking in Tongues: A Manual for Tongue Speaking

By Oppong Kyekyeku

Theological correctness has made speaking in tongues controversial, and it confuses everyone within Christendom. Many doubts which surrendering it are creating fear instead of faith for its authenticity, meanwhile Jesus promised every believer as one of the signs to follow us. Speaking in tongues is not the Holy Spirit, but it is the evidence indicating that the Holy Spirit has come upon you. It happened on the day of Pentecost, when one hundred and twenty believers gathered together in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit came upon all of them, and they began to speak in tongues as evidence to confirm Jesus's prophecy. Peter couldn't ignore its reality but confirmed that the Holy Spirit had come upon the Gentiles just as they received, when he heard the household of Cornelius speaking in tongues. In Ephesus, Paul also believed the fact that the Holy Spirit had come upon all the twelve converts by laying his hands on them, because they spoke in tongues. Now we contemporary Christians cannot overlook this evidence. Instead, we must continue until we pass to the next generation. Because the truth has to be told.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781643000213

Book preview

9781643000213_cover.jpg

Audacity of Speaking in Tongues

A manual for tongue speaking

Oppong Kyekyeku

ISBN 978-1-64300-020-6 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64300-021-3 (Digital)

Copyright © 2018 Oppong Kyekyeku

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

With sincere heart, I dedicate this book to all the members of Holy Ghost Hour Church worldwide. Through your prayers and support, the vision given to me by God is fulfilling. I am forever grateful. May the faithful God, who never lied or disappointed, favor each of you to discover your God-given purpose in life and anoint you to achieve your goal. By his grace, your destiny is indisputable. It is well with you, so keep the faith.

Acknowledgments

I thank my God through Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, for empowering me with His wisdom to write such a provocative subject as speaking in tongues. I am truly thanking my wife Janet Oppong for giving me enough private sleepless time for researching, reading, and writing to get this book done. My appreciation also goes to my children—Rachel, George, Loretta, Joycelyn, and Nancy—for the prayers and physical support they offered for me to make this book happen.

My sincere gratitude goes to Professor Kenneth Tsivor, who proofread every word of the book before I sent it for publishing; Brother Emmanuel Chinasa Ihejiawunze, who did all the printing work; Rev. Samuel Amoah, associate pastor at Holy Ghost Hour Church in New York, who has become a tremendous helper to me in the ministry; Elder Bright Dwemena, my Barnabas in the ministry; Brother Komla Nyawuame (governor), president of the Men’s Ministry, who encourages me always after preaching.

To Sister Faustina Boafoaewusi, my faithful daughter in the Lord who is always by my side despite the difficulties; Deaconness Natheline Abeni Oyekan, faithful woman of God and one of the most generous individuals I have ever met; Sister Afi Jolie Sodjigbe, my dear daughter in the Lord who is always striving to reach beyond her limitations; and all Holy Ghost Hour Church members in New York.

I cannot stop without extending my appreciation to Rev. Robert Duodu (Paa Duodu), Assemblies of God Church in Ghana, my father in Christ; late Rev. Peter Nyantakye from the Church of Pentecost, Ghana, who taught me more about this subject; Rev. Kenroy A. Watson, founder of Crown of Life and Love ministry, my brother in the Lord who offered us a place in New York City to open branch of our church; Rev. Doku Duah, Holy Ghost Hour Church, Accra, Ghana, my vision partner who never quits; Bishop Alexander Adu Gyamfi, Bible Believers Tabernacle, because of his help I came to United States; Rev. Thomas V. Annan, Vineyard Christian Center, my spiritual colleague in the Lord; Esther Owen, professor of theological writing in New York Theological Seminary, who threw light on my writings; and to unlimited partners around the globe whose names have not been mentioned. Through each of your myriad efforts, this book has come to fruition. I am forever grateful. All your labors will never be in vain in the Lord.

May the faithful Almighty God forever bless all of you in all things.

Introduction

The debate between pro and con of speaking in tongues have no ending until our Lord Jesus Christ returns, where every Scripture and text will be understood very clearly by our intellectual capacity. Speaking in tongues is controversial, conflicting, chaotic, and confusing in Christendom, because each one is embedded in theological correctness, which is making it harder to find a common ground. Simply because most believers who speak in tongues have little knowledge to explain to their critics. There are many opinions and books written on this topic. The question is, what exactly is the Bible saying about speaking in tongues? With this notion, the literature of this book is not solely based on intellectual philosophical opinions but on biblical text. Because the Scripture answers its own questions with Scriptures, not scholars’ or people’s opinion. All Scriptures quoted in this book are from New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise indicated.

This book is meant to answer some of the questions surrounding speaking in tongues from a biblical perceptive. It is not going to answer every question concerning this subject; however, you are going to be enlightened on the most essential aspects of speaking in tongues if only you can bury your embedded belief and open your spiritual mind and heart and allow the Scripture to speak to you. The fact that you still don’t believe, understand, and are without any kind of experience in speaking in tongues does not mean that it doesn’t exist. The most dangerous, horrible, and unwise act for every individual is disputing what you don’t know or understand. Almost all the chapters in this book are in question forms to answer critical, basic, challenging questions pointing to tongue speaking.

I pray that the Holy Spirit who led me to write this book will reveal Himself to you and grant you with spiritual understanding on every chapter that you will read. Perhaps it is going to be challenging to you because of the embedded practices of religion, denomination, and theory; nevertheless, if you want to achieve what you have never achieved, you must do what you have never done. If you’re going to fulfill the great commission, you cannot pick and choose. Instead, you must accept everything pertaining to the promise for the mission, and one of them is speaking in tongues.

Why am I writing such controversial and confusing subject on Christendom in the face of cessationists? The answer is simple. The truth should be told. Truth is a tradition that must always be passed on to the next generation. In the days of Prophet Joel, God commanded him to tell the elders to do so concerning the judgment that came to the land and the promise of divine restoration.

Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it, let your children tell their children, and their children another generation (Joel 1:1–3).

Therefore I wrote this book because it is my responsibility to tell my children and this generation to know about speaking in tongues so that it becomes their duty to pass it to their children. It also your obligation, the readers of this book, to tell your children, church, family, friends, coworker, schoolmates, and your generation about this phenomenon, for them to pass it on to their children. You are indebted to this revelation, but trust God’s power to carry you through with the experience of speaking in tongues. This book is not meant to entertain you but to give you a platform of confidence and courage to refute the heresies surrounding speaking in tongues.

Chapter 1

Is Speaking in Tongues Real?

(Part 1)

And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.

You know Him; for He dwells with you and will be in you

—John 14:16, 4:17

Behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high

—Luke 24:49

Speaking in tongues has been attacked since the very beginning of the church. According to biblical accounts, the people who heard the disciples speaking in tongues on the Day of Pentecost mocked them by considering them intoxicated. People are still mocking folks speaking in tongues in today’s world, not exactly the way they did on the Day of Pentecost, but one way or another, the mocking never stopped. I strongly persuade that there is no subject that is more controversial, dominating, and dividing Christians than speaking in tongues. Why has speaking in tongues become divisive in Christendom? And why have most Christians always get it wrong? Because of the embedded theories that come through four channels to hijack our faith and understanding of this subject, as follows:

where we were brought forth in our faith

who we follow as a leader

what we are reading and hearing

how far we want to grow in the faith

No one can understand, interpret, and argue about the Scriptures by people’s opinion; subsequently, the Scripture interprets by Scriptures. The misunderstanding about speaking in tongues in our contemporary Christianity comes from lack of the church of Berea. No theologian, pastor, preacher, etc., is more knowledgeable than the apostle Paul when it comes to the Scriptures before and after; even Peter expressed that some of Paul’s writings are hard to understand! (2 Pet. 3:15–16). However, after Paul had taught these Berea believers, they went home and searched the Scriptures to find whether what Paul was teaching was true or not (Acts 17:11). Though they knew Paul as a great preacher from hearing his proclamations, still they spent time to compare Paul’s message to the Scriptures. If our contemporary believers are going to follow the Berea believers, many churches will be dissolved. But since the attitude of Thessalonian churches are flooding and blinding many people in our current Christianity, by feeding the people with entertainments and by preaching only what they want them to hear—mostly people’s opinions and lies to make them happy so that these preachers can fill their stomachs—they will continue to have great influence in our modern Christian community forever.

Despite who your leader is, whatsoever comes from his/her mouth must be tested and approved by the Scriptures because only the Word of God is what should govern every minister of God. And such a minister must speak only from the Word and only for the Word of God. No one is above the Scripture in Christendom unless that leader is an atheist. The clarity of the Scripture is our enemy because we prefer to listen to and read people’s opinions rather than spend time in the Word of God. Since the beloved pastor has said speaking in tongues does not exist anymore—or every believer must speak in tongues, period—nobody on this planet, not even Jesus Christ, can change that individual’s mind. Nevertheless, the Word of God is the authoritative platform on which every Christian stands in spite of who their leader is. The believers are seeking to test every spirit (including your leader) to find whether it is from God! Our discussion is about speaking in tongues; however, we cannot discuss tongue-speaking if we don’t start from the Holy Spirit.

Who Is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is God. The third person of the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). The Holy Spirit is not only God, but He is also a person. There is a grammatical difference between the words he and it. The word it represents an object such as animals, plants, a car, a house, a toy, etc. The word he represents a human being (the image/likeness of God). When Jesus was exposing the Holy Spirit to his disciples, he used he to introduce the Holy Spirit as a person. John 14:26 says, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

The natural tendency of a person is to exhibit their abilities, therefore Jesus revealed the propensity of the Holy Spirit as a helper, a comforter, a teacher, and a reminder. These acts should be fulfilled by communication, of which the Holy Spirit has three dimensions of operating in believers’ lives.

The Three Dimensions of How the Holy Spirit Operates in Believers’ Lives

Jesus presented three dimensions of the Holy Spirit’s operation in the lives of his followers before ascending to the Father. They are as follows:

The Spirit dwells with us (John 14:17).

The Spirit will be in us (John 14:17).

The Spirit will come upon us (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8).

You may agree with me that, in fact, these three statements are not identical for anyone to make it one elucidation. They are totally different constructs and need to be interpreted as individual conventions before one can understand each structure. This is where most of the concept of speaking in tongues always fall short—because the diversity of these three are being covered with a single coherence by some of the Bible teachers and some theologians with their embedded theories. And it always turns into an argument, leading to confusion and chaos. Meanwhile, they are separable.

May the Holy Spirit Himself give you the spiritual mind of understanding to acknowledge the difference among these masterpieces. Let us begin from the Spirit that dwells with you.

The Holy Spirit Dwells with You

Apparently, to understand the dwelling of the Holy Spirit with us, we must first check the account of John’s gospel:

And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him; for He dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16, 14:17)

When Jesus was on this earth, his followers didn’t need anyone to help them but Jesus. Nevertheless, he would be going to the Father forever. Then his disciples would miss his physical presence and would turn out to be indiscreet. With that notion, he then assured them with his presence through his promise of another Helper, that He may abide with them forever. Where was the Holy Spirit back then, that He is coming to live with them forever? The Bible articulates that the Holy Spirit has been existing through both Old and New Testament times, beginning from creation. Which can be understood in New Testament as pneuma in Greek. The Greek word originated theological appellation for the Holy Spirit as pnemanology. And in the Old Testament he also called "ruah" in Hebrews. Both words mean spirit, breath, wind. In other words, the Holy Spirit is not different from the one true God Yahweh. He is the spirit, or breath, of God. As you cannot be separated from your spirit or breath and live, so God cannot do anything without his ruah or pneuma; and the biblical accounts confirm this from the very beginning of creation through Christian eschatology.

In the Old Testament, the Spirit (ruah) of Yahweh is God’s power in action; the Spirit of God is present and at work, as God hands and arms. First, in creation, the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters in the very beginning of creation (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 104:30). The Spirit of God created us, and with that, the breath of life is given. Without breath (ruah), there is no life for the living (Gen 2:7; Job 33:4).

Second, the Spirit commissioned the people to deliver God’s messages, starting from Isaiah’s declaration. The Spirit commissioned him to preach the good tidings to the needy, heal the sick, liberate the captives, free the prisoners, proclaim God’s judgment, and comfort the mourners (Isa. 61:1–4). The Spirit also commissioned Ezekiel multiple times to deliver his message to those in captivity. Sometimes judgment, and at times hope, depends on the contingent circumstances. (Ezek. 2:2, 11:24, 11:25; 37:1). The prophet Micah was also commissioned by the Spirit to rebuke Israel’s transgression and their sins (Mic. 3:8). And the Spirit again commissioned Zechariah to remind Judah of the consequences of disobeying the Laws of God (Zech. 7:12).

Third, the Spirit instructed the people to be faithful and fruitful. God gave his good Spirit to instruct the Israelites; He also did not reserve his manna from them and supplied them with water when they thirsted (Neh. 9:20). The prophet Isaiah reminded the people of their father’s unfaithfulness, which in fact caused grief to the Holy Spirit and triggered God’s anger against them as an enemy and fought against them (Isa. 63:10–14).

Fourth, the Spirit equipped them for effective leadership. Pharaoh and all Egyptians saw the spirit of leadership in Joseph (Gen. 41:38). The Lord asked Moses at the time if the task was too much for him to carry alone, to gather seventy elders of Israel and sanctify them so that he could take some of the same spirit of leadership on him to the elders to share the task (Num. 11:16–29). The Spirit equipped Joshua to lead the Israelites after Moses had laid his hands upon him (Deut. 34:9). The Spirit also equipped all the judges who led the nation of Israel after Joshua was gone. Here are examples: Othniel (Judg. 3:10), Gideon (Judg. 6:34), Jephthah (Judg. 11:29), and Samson (Judg. 13:25, 14:19; 15:14).

Saul was also equipped by the Spirit when he was anointed by Samuel as a king over the Israelites (1 Sam. 10:10, 11:6). Again, the Spirit came upon David to equip him as king over Israel after Samuel had anointed him (1 Sam. 16:13). Elisha received the Spirit’s empowerment to become a prophet at the time the Northern Kingdom had rejected Yahweh their God by prostituting themselves to foreign gods (2 Kings 2:9–15). And Isaiah again prophesied about the Spirit that might rest upon the root of Jesse to equip him with diverse kinds of the Spirit’s characteristics (Isa. 11:1–5; 42:1–4). In fact, the prophecy of Isaiah related to Jesus Christ.

And finally, the Spirit gave gifts for creative work: for example, the Spirit filled Bezalel with all kinds of artisans for the building of the Tabernacle (Exod. 31:1–11). The Lord encouraged the remnants of Judah through the prophet Haggai concerning the rebuilding of the broken temple that my Spirit remains among you; do not fear (Hag. 2:5). The Lord promised Zerubbabel that by His Spirit the hands of Zerubbabel would lay the foundation of the temple, and the same hands would also finish it (Zech. 4:6–9). Whatsoever the Spirit of God has started in you, He will finish it. Though it may seem impossible, still remember, there is never undone business concerning the Holy Spirit. If He is truly in control, then it shall surely come to fruition without delay. These views give you reason that, without the Spirit of God, nothing can be done, therefore the manifestation of the Spirit is crucial in our mission for Jesus Christ.

Unquestionably, with the section of the creation accounts, which, in fact is inclusive, all the rest of the Spirit manifestations point to Israel. Though the Holy Spirit was present in the midst of the nation of Israel, only a few elites—such as the leaders, elders, judges, priests, kings, messengers, prophets, and craftsmen—were chosen for the Spirit to come upon; and since He, the Holy Spirit, did not have permanent residence, after the job was accomplished, He then retreated to the Father. Furthermore, just as God used the Israelites to bring salvation to the entire world through Jesus Christ, so did he use His Spirit. Through Joel, the prophecy came that a time is coming that the Spirit of God would descend not only upon Israel and the selected few but also upon all flesh, both young and old (Joel 2:28). However, no time was appointed for the outpouring of the Spirit until Jesus Christ came.

The Holy Spirit in the New Testament becomes the brain behind every character of the church, starting from the conception of Jesus. Matthew’s accounts tell us about a young virgin, Mary, engaged to Joseph; but before they saw themselves, Mary was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit (Matt. 2:18). Luke’s writings also express that after the angel Gabriel delivered the message to Mary, she asked, How can this be since I am a virgin? Gabriel replied, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of Highest will overshadow you’ (Luke 1:35). This prophecy became flesh and led to the birth of Christ. The Spirit originated Jesus’ growth (Luke 1:80), and the Spirit was present during Jesus’ baptism (Matt. 3:16). And at the beginning of His ministry, the Spirit led Him (Matt. 4:1, Luke 4:1). Jesus was filled with the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:17), the Spirit was upon Him (Luke 4:18), and the Spirit raised Him from the death (Rom. 8:11).

Evidently, the Holy Spirit was with Jesus every moment of His life here on earth as we have observed. Now He is leaving the earth to be with the Father, and He therefore deployed the Holy Spirit into the church as another paraclete (Greek paracletos) to carry on the role of Jesus as a counselor, helper, strengthener, supporter, adviser, advocate, partner. The concept that Jesus is positioning the Holy Spirit into the church is the fulfillment of