All:
In Part 4 of this series of posts I need to clarify an aspect of the 20th century Pentecostal and Charismatic movement.
It is always problematic about how comprehensive to be, what to include or exclude. If you get too detailed, interest may be lost, and if you get too brief, detail can be lost.
The Greek word for "tongues" in Acts 2 is "ethnos" or languages. It is not the undecypherable ramblings associated with many pentecostal or charismatic groups. There is another Biblical word for a heavenly prayer language, "glossolalia" which is a more correct rendering elsewhere it is found in Scripture. The text in Acts 2 refers to the former when those present at the delivery of the Holy Spirit baptism, they spoke in up to 15 different languages, representative of areas from where they came. Paul talks of the latter as somehing that should be done in private. Its not to be used as a sign of super-spirituality, as often found in the United Pentecostal Church denomination.
Visions, real or fake, cannot be verified and this is always subject to legitimate debate. Ellen G. White of the SDA group claimed her visions were ALL from God and yet every prophecy she made in her lifetime was totally false or proven to be in error sooner or later in her lifetime. A Biblical prophet had to be 100% right, and just one mistake disqualified a person as a prophet of God in the Bible. Such a strict requirement obviously was for very good reasons.
Words of knowledge, in my understanding, is valid and can be validated by the coming to pass of what ever that word of knowledge is or given. I have experienced in my life time, many times, a word of knowledge. We associate this with what we know as "Intuition". I find when this happens to me a bit scary, because most of us do not operate in the spiritual world as we ought to, largely due to the distractions and our busy world of activities. I usually receive them [word of knowledge] between 3 am and 5 am. I try to write them down immediately when awaken because after two or three hours it is easy to forget.
In modern day parlance, we refer to this as listening to the "right" brain hemisphere for men. Women have a greater gift of "Intuition" because of the physiology of what takes place at birth on the 8th day of delivery of the male child. 80% of the sensory wiring between the "left" and "right" hemispheres of the brain are burned off when the male baby is bombarded with Prothombrin or Vitamin K (a blood clotting agent), which actually prevents a male child from bleeding to death as a result of circumcision conducted at a Jewish ceremony, which had to be performed precisely on the 8th day following birth. As a result of all this, the male child is "brain-damaged" from this event in terms of being able to later in life to listen to "Intuition". I'm serious, we are "brain-damaged". Female babies do not experience this flooding of the body" with Vitamin K and therefore retain all the fibers that connect the Left and Right hemispheres of the brain. This also explains the ability of women to be better multi-taskers, whereas men are not good multi-taskers. Men have to train themselves to learn to tap into the right brain where "Intuition" originates. Unless a male is trained to learn how to tap into their Intuition they go through life unaware. It can be done and takes years of discipline to do. Circumcision in the Bible was a sign or symbol between God and man/woman relationship. It was to serve as a reminder of the spiritual relationship that exists between humans and their Creator. Today, circumcision has a whole set different set of meanings and purpose.
Watchman Nee, the home missionary to China back in the early 1920's wrote a book called 'The Spiritual Man' and he devoted a whole chapter, some 40+ pages on the topic of Intuition being the means by which God spoke to man. I can tell you that whenever I failed to pay attention to intuition, I got in a heap of hot water. Every time I paid heed to the intuitional tug I was blessed. Some may call it conscience, but none the less this is a medical fact as to why men really need a help mate.
Everything in the Bible regarding the phenomena as to what is heard from God, required witnesses to validate such experiences as being genuine.
Ellen G. White and her cult followers have been responsible for putting guilt trips on millions without substance simply because she declared she had heard or received a vision or a dream from God. It is a known fact that all of her prophecies were totally wrong. The SDA church/cult considers her words, and writings, to be equal to Scripture.
My point is that all too often people listen to the messenger, but fail to practice the principles of Acts 17:11. Remember, false teachers like Benny Hinn take in as much as $475-million dollars a year, from people naive enough to believe that he is a prophet of God. The Bible is our plumb line, not our emotions. Always test the spirits from where such dreams, visions, words of knowledge, come from.
God bless,
Pastor Bob