SHOULD ALL CHRISTIANS SPEAK IN TONGUES? 6 -True Stories

SADHU SELVARAJ’S STORY

In 1995, I went to the eastern part of Tibet. While there, I went to a very popular monastery in the region. Many Tibetan monks go there to spend weeks, months, and years in solitary retreat. Little hills surround the vast monastery complex in this town. Small rooms, about 3 feet by 3 feet, just enough for one person to sit and meditate in, were dug in those hills to serve as prayer and meditation chambers. Monks would go to these “caves” to meditate for 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, or 3 years. They spend the whole time meditating and never come out of these prayer rooms. Food would be brought to the monks in their dark environs.

So when I saw these small cave-like prayer rooms in the hills, I wanted to go over there and share the gospel with the monks sitting in darkness. As I was about to cross a little bridge over a stream to get to them, a senior monk came running to prevent me from going there. I asked him, “What is the problem lamala?” He said, “Non-Tibetans are not allowed to go beyond this stream to where those monks are all meditating in solitude.” I pleaded, “I will not disturb them. I am just going to give them this little booklet that will help them in their meditation.” He firmly said, “I understand, but you are still not allowed.” I felt quite sad and wondered what else could be done to reach these monks.

When There is a Will, The Spirit Makes a Way

I prayed, “Lord, please open a way that I may at least bring these gospel tracts to those monks sitting in darkness.” At that moment, the Holy Spirit said, “Look at the little young monk who is now coming towards you. Call him.” A little boy about 10 to 12 years old was carrying two buckets of water from the stream. I called him, “Excuse me, please come.” He came and with a quizzical look asked what was the matter. With the little Mandarin (the official language of China) that I knew I began to talk to him. He was fascinated that an Indian man would talk in Chinese to him and so he began to answer my questions.

While speaking with him I felt something like a river rising up from my innermost being and about to explode like a volcano out of my mouth. A gush of unknown tongues broke out, beyond my control. In my mind I thought, “O my God, will this boy understand the message spoken in tongues? As I went on speaking in tongues, I noticed that the boy’s eyes went wild. He looked at me and said, “Laso, laso.” He was giving affirmation to me in the Tibetan language. Laso in Tibetan means “yes.”

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When the Spirit is Allowed to Flow

Only then did I realize that I was not speaking to the boy in unknown tongues but in the Tibetan language. He listened carefully for 15 minutes. When the flow of tongues stopped he looked at me and said, “Give me all the tracts.” I asked him, “What for?” “You just instructed me to take all these tracts and go and give them to those monks who are meditating in the caves.”

When the Spirit of Knowledge came into operation, a holy fear came upon the boy, convincing him that he must comply. I tried to discourage him from doing so, worried that he might get into trouble. He protested, “No, give them to me.” He took the entire bag of tracts and the New Testaments in the Tibetan language. Right away he went to all the little prayer rooms in the mountains and began to deposit the tracts in the prayer caves, one by one. Isn’t God so good? God will always make a way where there seems to be no way.

LUCY LEATHERMAN’S STORY (FROM AZUSA STREET REVIVAL)

On August 10, 1906, Lucy left Oakland with Brother Andrew Johnson and Sister Louise Condit. As they traveled across the United States to catch a ship in New York City and head for Jerusalem, they stopped in Colorado Springs where four people were baptized in the Spirit, and while in Denver, three more were baptized in the Spirit.

According to their testimony in the Azusa papers, Brother Johnson had received seven different languages, one of which was Arabic, and Sister Leatherman was able to speak in the Turkish language.

In fact, while they were in Oakland, a man wearing the Turkish fez came by. He listened in wonder and asked what college she had attended. He was an educated man from a Turkish college in Constantinople and said that she spoke as perfect a Turkish tongue as he had ever heard spoken by a foreigner. She told him the Holy Spirit gave her the language and that she did not understand herself; he was the first person who had interpreted for her.