I remember the days when the believers in the South West of England were starting to explore the gradually appearing gifts of the Holy Spirit in their meetings. Those were the days. There were different groups starting to experience these gifts, and others, not necessarily those experiencing it, were trying to understand it all in semi-theological terms. It was a time when meeting format experiments were happening over a long period of decades. The Brethren (mainly Open Brethren) groups had been leaders in open meetings, and trying to apply the Apostles’ teachings in the New Testament to allow obedience to these teachings to be possible in these meetings. But the teachings were intended for believers who had the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These Brethren believers were not so sure about the more miraculous, supernatural kinds of gifts, since it was widely held that such gifts had ceased. Instead they were focussed on open speaking in a meeting format where, should a prophetic gift be present, the gifted speaker might just spontaneously stand and speak in the hearing of all present. You see, it was widely held by some, perhaps due to beliefs of the movement’s leaders over the previous decades, that prophecy was still a gift of the spirit that had not ceased. Not sure why, then, tongues (speaking in tongues) was deemed to have ceased whereas prophecy had not, but there you have it. That was the prevailing view. There was a compromise on the level of openness to such participation in meetings. Some found it too alarming and challenging to accommodate just any attendee speaking out. (By the way, it was for some of these groups not very acceptable—not biblical—for women to participate like this, but it varied. ) So it became a more accepted pattern for someone who had received ‘a prophetic word’, as it was sometimes called, to pass it by a leader or pastor (although many Brethren churches did not believe in having pastors as such) first before the meeting, and let the leader effectively triage it, deciding whether to let it be said, and in some cases where accepting the presence of gift of prophecy was treated with extra caution, the accepted leader would actually speak the message themselves to the meeting. This latter kind of practice was happening more outside Open Brethren where having a trained or semi-trained church pastor was more the norm. In one kind of group the gift of tongues was honoured, and to some extent, expected. These were Assemblies of God and other Pentecostal assemblies from United States, plus a few similar churches emerging in Britain such as Elim Pentecostal. Here the format was accommodating of the belief that believers can have a gift of speaking in tongues. So it was normal to allow someone to speak out loud in a gift of tongues and seek that either they or another believer be inspired to give its interpretation. Then there were other groups where not only tongues was emphasised but miracle working. I am thinking of churches of the kind called Vineyard Churches, again originating in the United States. Here the format would seek to accommodate miracles and healings, besides the other gifts of prophetic and tongue utterances. So there were these differences of meeting formats, to some extent experimental, and kept distinct. Yet many such as myself would attend all three kinds of meetings, and learn to adapt to each. In some settings there would be a combining of these, such as in university student groups, where people from various backgrounds met together in worship. On the whole, I found after leaving such a university with such a group, that the various kinds of churches or assemblies kept themselves to themselves, persisting distinct denominational views about spiritual gifts. This seems to continue today. Except there is a growing awareness of the existence of the alternatives. Some Brethren churches have abandoned that label and sought to be nondenominational and in the process have discovered that speaking in tongues is happening today, in some cases very genuinely, although there remains skepticism about it. Some of these seem to exclude it from meetings but include it, say, in youth meetings or other peripheral meetings such as midweek house groups. In this case, attending a main service meeting you might be very unlikely to witness tongues being spoken, yet very much witness prophecy, which has fewer challenges. Here it does not have to be openly claimed that the message spoken or new song written and sung that it is resulting directly from a spiritual gift such as a revelation. It can simply be said or sung aloud, and the other gifted attendees left to decide what it is. Not all Assemblies of God meetings were places to find speaking in tongues. You might go to the meetings for years and never come across it, or never even hear of anyone receiving the gift. That seems at odds with the denominational teachings which expect every single believer to manifest it as an initial mark of receiving the Holy Spirit. These assemblies do have pastors, so you might expect at least the pastor to have manifested the gift, but some confusion in the past was commonplace about deciding how to discern faking it from the real thing, and some might never have had a thorough vetting, so to speak. Maybe I am being a little cynical there. The real thing does occur. I once heard such a leader speak in tongues in a meeting attended by maybe fifty to a hundred, and it was real. The words were beautifully eloquent but not an earthly language. They spoke them clearly at a microphone as they led worship. I actually received the interpretation inspired in my inner mind as the words were spoken. I did not speak the interpretation but a moment later the speaker said it in just the same words I had received. “Consider the trees.” It went. “They put forth buds and leaves.” I saw a vision of it too. “They do so by the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” And it went further about stars and planets in a similar way. I knew this was the real Holy Spirit, from education about it from Pentecostals and Charismatics I learned from over the years. It honoured Jesus as Lord and Christ. The man who took me to this meeting, my first experience of such things, told me this was happening a lot in that area, even in a local Methodist church not far away, particularly among young people. I suppose the young have not been had their minds filled with teachings that such gifts ceased, and are maybe less resistant to Holy Spirit influences within. It figures to me that there must be a lot involved in giving a message in tongues, unaware at first what you are saying aloud in a meeting. The man I heard do this later said he could not remember it. Maybe he needed to be put by the Holy Spirit into some kind of trance as he spoke, to prevent his brain overriding the words, yet his mind was then still free enough to receive and speak the interpretation by the same Holy Spirit. I can understand how it is hard for many churches to accept and accommodate this gift. But it allows wondrous truth to be spoken and revealed. Oh, that there were more of it—with interpretation of course so all can benefit and doubts be dispelled. Oh that the divisions were what ceased. Oh that the Holy Spirit were more widely given, along with such gifts and others, perhaps by more laying on of hands, but that is another topic for another day.
