The Ballestero Blog

Gifts Of The Spirit Gone Awry

I believe God still uses the gifts of the Spirit in His church today. Most Apostolic Pentecostals are familiar with those precious moments. Sadly, a few eager and Biblically uneducated have exerted more of their flesh than His Spirit in such moments.

That being said, it does not take away from the fact that God does speak to His church in very real and powerful manner.

Good pastors teach the importance of not saying ‘Thus saith the Lord,” unless they are certain that the Lord truly did speak to them. Punishment is upon those who use His name falsely and in vain.

Out Of Order

Almost every night of the revival the modest sized Southern church, a middle-aged woman gave a message in tongues after the sermon. She especially seemed to bring forth a message if there was conviction in the message.

After several weeks of nightly services one of the members brought their neighbor, an elderly woman of foreign descent. The visitor sat quietly with her hosts and seemed unemotional during the service and the sermon.

Everyone was standing while the invitation was being given, when the spiritual lady found a moment to give her message in tongues. While the message was being given, the old lady started to chuckle and covered her mouth to stifle her laughter. Her hosts were embarrassed that their guest would laugh at a time like this.

“Why are you laughing,” they inquired?

“Because I understand what she is saying.” She said with a knowing look.

“What is she saying?” They asked.

“She is saying, ‘I’m out of order and I need to sit down.’ Was her reply.”

Misinterpretations

Unverified stories such as these are told about messages being interpreted erroneously and have been heard by most of us:

1. “Repent, or I will write Michelob over the door.”
2. “Times are hard sayeth the Lord. Times are so hard I can barely make it myself, saith God.”
3. “Thus saith the Lord unto Sister… ah, Sister… ah, I forgeteth thy name at the moment saith the Lord.”
4. “Yeah, thus saith the Lord, Nay!”

God Lied?

The tall young West Virginia father actually stood up in the testimony service and spoke with great fervor about God speaking to him.

“I was at work today and the Lord spoke to me and told me that my little boy was choking to death. I ran out of the shop. I didn’t even take time to punch out from work.

“I jumped in my pickup and drove to my trailer as fast as I could. I ran up on the porch and nearly ripped the door off. There on the living room floor was my little boy playing happily with his toys.

“I looked at him and said, ‘Boy I’d rather have you dead than to have God lie to me like that!”

Good people can be zealous and sincere, yet be totally in the flesh and not the Spirit. Sometimes, their exhibitions can be injurious to the work of God.

Twenty-Six Messages In Tongues

While visiting a medium-sized church for the first time, I was amazed at the number of messages in tongues and interpretations. There were twenty-six messages in all in one service. More than a dozen of the messages that were interpreted appeared to be some church folks correcting other church folks. Several interpretations were even so bold as to criticize the pastor by name. All of this, plus several prophecies were included.

The guest evangelist wasn’t spiritual enough for them, because all he did was preach the Word. They closed the revival after the first night.

(Yes, even though some people are over-zealous, or unlearned, or even purposely misleading others, there is still the real Gift of Tongues. That is not even debatable. You will know and feel the difference when you hear it.)