Fake Evidence Appearing Real...

Spell each first letter and you get 'FEAR'.

And that's really what the spirit of fear's all about; false evidences in life that appear so real, you wouldn't trust God that He'd bring you around or through them. With fear, Christians can never completely enjoy God's gifts, no matter how spectacular the gifts are. But here's one thing we all need to know and know good; the fear may be big, but God will always be bigger!

Anyway, today's sermon was about speaking in Tongues.

Now for those who are fellow Christians, there's alwaysa difference between having the Holy Spirit and being baptised by the Holy Spirit. You may have the Spirit in you but if you do not know what the Spirit does or is used for, then what's the point?

It's just like in NS. When you receive your M-16, you don't just run around your camp shouting, "I GOT A GUN! I GOT A GUN! NANANANANA!!!" and randomly fire shot here and there. By right, you would first find out how to properly clean, store, hold, carry, load, aim and fire the weapon. In the same way, seeking for the Holy Spirit to come into you and help explain itself day by day is something I'd advise Christians to do.

And many a times in the New Testament, groups of people that have received the Holy Spirit in a sudden blaze end up speaking in an unknown language - Tongues. Such cases are like in Acts 2:1-4, 10:43-46 and 19:1-6.

But what is Tongues anyway? Well, for one thing, Tongues is a way of praying. It's basically the prayer of healing, prosperity, help, praise, blessing others, thanksgiving and all the other prayers you'd say in your life compressed into a sentence that only God understands. A mega-in-one prayer. Receiving blessings made easier. Answers just one sentence away. You get the drill.

But don't getr me wrong; you can always pray to God in a simple prayer with your own language if you still havn't been, erm, 'zapped' into talking in Tounges. God will always understand what you're saying. And as Children of God, you stil have more than enough authority to cast away spirits of illness and misery. Trust me.

But getting back to the topic, let's just answer a question I bet is in your mind; Why don't we understand Tongues? Well, to quote what I said earlier, speaking in Tongues is like saying every prayer you would ever say or need to say in your entire life. As such, if you knew what you'd be praying in the future, you might end up trying to prevent yourself from going through something which God might have allowed for your or/and another party's own good.

Here's an example;
Let's say your Tongue contains the phrase '...And Lord, please protect me from the loansharks that are chasing me...'. Now, if you actually understood Tongues and knew what you just said, you'd most likely end up locking yourself inside your room, refusing to get out into the world and never trusting anyone who's not within your family, all because you'd think a gang of loansharks would end up chaseing you if you wern't careful enough. But 1) Even if you were gonna be chased by a group of loansharks, wouldn't God be there to protect you unless he chooses not to? 2) You still don't know what happens before or after the 'chasing sequence'. What if you'd end up preaching to those loansharks and converting them to the Christian ways? You'd have stopped a future miracle if you just kept hidden.

Thus to avoid all the misunderstandings and confussion, God made sure you'd never find out what your Tongue actually means. How convenient.

Now ever since Tongues was ever used and even to the modern day, speaking in Tongues has helped casty out and prevented many illnesses, from historically feared leprosy to mordernly dreaded cancer tumors. As such, it has always been concidered a gracious gift from God. But like how continuos running makes you sprint faster and faster, and like how continuous maths worksheets and workbooks make you better and better in the subject, using the gift of Tongues more and more often in life helps make the results prayed for more spontaneous and miraculous.

Let's have a look at 2 Timothy 1:6 (New King James Version);
6Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

So let me give an example of where Tonges stands in your life:
Imagine a cup of Teh Tarik standing infront of you; the great Tea majority floating at the top, while the Condense Milk sediments sunk down at the bottom and an average teaspoon to top off the image. Good enough to satisfy the tipical Singaporean, huh? Well let's just say that the Tea represents your life, the Sediments represent healing, prosperity, blessings and all other things God has promised you, the Spoon is Tongues and the Teh Tarik Man is God basically telling you to 'stir and shake up' your life by speaking in Tongues.

Not that convincing? Well, now let's move over to the New International Version and see the same verse again;
6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

So here's another example:
Imagine a Satay Man fanning his overfilled grill with his Pandan Leaf Fan; fanning fast but steadily with one hand, flipping the Satays with the other and shouting in his Malay/Indian/Chinese accent, "saTAY!! saTAY!!". Now this can truely turn a Singaporean on digestively at anytime. Look inside his Grill, what do you see? Coal Ambers. So picture this; you're the Satay Man, fanning with the Pandan Leaf Fan, which is Tongues. Keep practicing with your fan without doubt or stopping, till finally the Coal Ambers, your blessings, suddenly burst into flames, engulfing the Satays the same way you should use your gifts to bless others.

The Holy Spirit will burst out from you in many ways, from as dramatic as spontaneous healing to as 'ordinary' as not feeling anything at first, but soon discovering that the illness has left no trace of itself in your body in the next check-up.

A final use for Tongues is quite typical - it can be used for stress therapy.

Scientifically speaking, the Human Body was not properly designed for compressing anger within. Whenever you hold back anger without forgiving whatever that caused it or letting it out, it's the body's instinct to send this anger to a particular part of the body, most commonly being an abdomenal organ. Once the anger gets 'dumped' into the chosen organ, the organ becomes the body's 'punching bag' and starts to experience muscle constrains that if experienced far too many times, from months to years, can cause internal injuries such as digestive track problems, kidney failure(s) and even breathing problems.

That's why it's sometimes advised not to settle anger psycologically. But how can speaking in Tongues actually help scientifically? Well firstly, saying a prayer that you don't understand is just as good as complaining and sharing about the fustration verbally, a treatment advised by many councilors. Second, Tongues is ussually said in a rythimic tone, and music surely does calm the raging beast, thus giving you a peaceful mind. Thirdly, it has been tested that speaking in tongues can actually boost your immune system by 30-50%, and also drops blood ressure to safe levels. Medically sound, I say.

So to conclude, speaking in Tongues can do wonders in life, from physically relaxing you, to spiritually making prayers a whole lot easier. I still haven't sparked of Tongues yet, but I'll be praying to God for the gift which he promised. I know it will arrive; maybe it actually did arrive, just that I haven't realised it yet. Oh, well.

Just to let you know, I've already chosen to forgive the new students that have been tearing the CL'B' class upside down. May God bless them mightily and help calm them down one way or another.

God bless one and all, One and all praise God...