by Paul Chika Emekwulu
At the music play station you’ve a choice but it is not so with certain direct spiritual experiences, otherwise, the difference between knowing and not knowing could be reduced to the barest minimum. This is what I should have told a friend of mine who said to me that he would be up in arms with anyone who speaks in tongues.
Unlike honesty, speaking in tongues for the very first time is not a choice. Like flying dreams, once you’ve been blessed with the gift of speaking in tongues, it can be induced at the right place and at the right time.
Without direct spiritual experience, your knowledge of things of the spirit could be wrong. Having had the opportunity to experience this wonderful spiritual gift, I know my friend and others who may be sharing his perspective are absolutely wrong.
Now, when it comes to speaking in tongues, there are two schools of thought: The cessationalists and the continuationalists. Cessationalism is the belief that the manifestation of the Holy Spirit especially as it relates to speaking in tongues, prophecy, and miracles as listed in 1 Corinthians 12 & 14 has ceased. Because of this, the cessationalistic perspective is that these things should no longer be expected or desired by the children of God.
On the other hand, continuationalism represents the opposing view that the gifts and the power of the Holy Spirit continued since Pentecost and still relevant in Christian worship of today.
The cessationslistic approach can be compared to the Sadducees unbelief in spirits while the continuationalistic approach can in turn be compared to the Pharisees perspective on spirits. It would have taken just one Sadducee who, through direct spiritual experience, not through faith, came to believe in the existence of spirits, for at least one Sadducee to be convinced that spirits are real. After all, when you haven’t experienced it, you’re only imagining it. You need to witness these things, though, not necessarily. However, Jesus never condemned direct spiritual experience. Rather, in John 20:29, he said, “Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
My own life is my witness having been chronicled with events about these things.
(1) On the 17th May, 2015, I was touched by the Holy Spirit, gifted with speaking in tongues, singing in the spirit, and laughing in the spirit etc. before the enemy stole them away.
(2) On January 10, 1975, I had a dream where I saw on page 2 of the then Renaissance, (a newspaper belonging to the former East Central State government) a notice of entrance examination into Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri and a partial listing of various subject combinations. In the dream the date this information would appear in the paper was Monday, January 13, 1975. On January 13,1975, it happened as depicted in the dream.
(3)! On December 4, 2004, I escaped an accident that could have led to death or incapacitation but it was averted not knowing how it would have transpired. This didn’t happen because of a voice I heard in my right ear that said, “Do not move.” I didn’t move.
There is more!
(4) On March 30, 1993, I had a dream where I saw a floral representation of a subset of a number sequence named Fibonacci numbers (1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21…). Out of this dream experience I wrote a book titled, Getting to Know Fibonacci numbers.
That’s not all!
(5) On Friday, January 11, 2013, I had a dream about the possibility of flying cars before I saw it on CBS, a US national television network. Today, flying cars are here and many companies have jumped into flying car manufacturing e. g. Terafulgia. Kitty Hawk, Joby Aviation, Aeromobil, A-Cubed etc.
Being a testimony, I am an ardent believer in continuationalism. For the reader to really understand the continuationalists perspective, I’ve decided to share one more testimony.
My problem started with incessant clearing of throat. A little less than two years after I came back to the United States from Nigeria in the spring of 2008, I noticed that my voice was gradually fading away whenever I was praying. As soon as the prayer was over, my voice would come back. People were making fun of me on the job. As soon I walk in everyone would start clearing his throat.
Now, because of this problem, I couldn’t sing well enough at prayer meetings but I can really dance very well for I’ve ears for good music. So, at times, I couldn’t finish Our Lord’s prayer without abruptly ending somewhere. It became so frustrating and it got to a point where my prayer life which was never too strong started having problems.
“We can’t hear you, brother Paul,” said a fellow charismatic. She was complaining that my voice was not distinct enough when I was leading the Rosary during one of our regular fellowship.
One day I said to my wife, “I think this is spiritual.” I said so because I’ve tried several over the counter medications and self-treatments including drinking warm water as needed. I have also acted on other people’s suggestions including drinking mixtures of lemon and honey or lemon alone but all to no avail. I didn’t give up. The struggle continued.
On the southeast corner of our living room is an altar decorated with flowers, the image of Our Blessed Virgin Mary, her only begotten son Jesus Christ and other holy images. Now, on the west side of the altar is a chair which I normally rest my hands on when I kneel down. Before using this chair, I used to kneel in front of a sofa immediately on the north side of the altar. As soon as I kneeled down in front of the sofa, my voice would start to fade away. At a time I thought I was allergic to the material the sofa was made of. Sometimes I would leave the sofa and use a chair which I normally place about two feet away from the sofa and four feet away from the altar.
All that changed in the morning of May 1, 2016 as my wife and I were having our morning devotional.
On Sunday, May 1, 2016, I decided to do something different. It was Henry Ford, an American industrialist, and the founder of Ford Motor Company who said, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Metaphorically, put differently, if you are uncomfortable with who you are in your present environment and of course still uncomfortable with and scared of what you will become if you continue to be what you are, then you’ve to change your present environment for another environment or change your present strategies in your present environment, otherwise, you’ll be getting what you’ve been getting. All this became the source of my motivation. I felt like someone in search of a better life and therefore, in need of a better environment. I wanted my voice to sound better and if I do, I need to do something different. To achieve that, instead of kneeling down in front of the chair on the west side of the altar, I decided to readjust the chair in such a way that it faces the altar directly so that when I kneel down I would be directly in front of the altar. At this time we were still reciting the Rosary, when I started saying repeatedly, “I want my voice back! I want my voice back.” As we got to the third Glorious mystery which is the “Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles”, the Holy Spirit took over as in Acts 4:8 when Peter witnessed teachers of religious law, elders and council of all the rulers of Jerusalem.
From then on I started to speak in tongues as in Acts 2:4. At this point, my voice suddenly changed. I started shouting, “I got my voice back, I got my voice back.” My voice actually came back. Immediately I knew I had been healed by Our Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is one of the ways we benefit from his love for humanity.
After my voice was restored, I was still in the habit of clearing my throat incessantly due to seasonal allergies.
Without direct spiritual experience our source of what is truth could be wrong.
As our knowledge of these things deepens, our understanding of the Scriptures comes more to life. I do believe that direct spiritual experience makes a difference in our knowledge of these things.
Manifestations of the Holy Spirit, and the supernatural powers of God through dreams are still experienced in the Church today as in the days of the Apostles. Continuationalism is real for I’m a testimony and if Jesus can do it for me, you can have your own testimony as well.
