Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up. -- 1Corinthians 14:1-5 (ESV)
One of the planks in the NAR platform are the false signs and lying wonders that are manifest in their churches. It is a focus on the supernatural and in most cases demonic spiritual activity. They believe they have the power to teach the gifts of the Holy Spirit, despite the bible saying they are apportioned as the Spirit decides. They believe in the false manifestations of the spirit in church services such as gem stones, gold dust, angel feathers and glory clouds. They trump up these personal and manipulated experiences into something on par with scripture or surpassing it. Heretics like Bill Johnson are fond of dismissing biblical accuracy by saying we do not worship the Father, Son and Holy Bible. Apparently, he has never read John's Gospel. Direct revelation is dumbed down to the point of silliness with everyone always believing they are hearing directly from God. If questioned, they will simply claim that you need a deeper revelation of the spirit or that you are a legalist by insisting on the bible. Keep in mind we are not talking about subtle departures from scripture but vast cliff diving away from the words of Almighty God. This is how you get people thinking nothing of claiming there is a sneaky squid spirit. Or that they can command legions of angels to make you richer. After all, this is the same gullible bunch that fell for barking like a dog as a move of the Holy Spirit and were packing 15,000 people per night into tent meetings to watch Todd Bentley kick people in the face to impart healing. Once you pass that threshold, all Charismatic bets are off. Linked above is a piece on Charisma News today from Mark Virkler, quoting a vision from someone named Malachi Talabi. The claims are supernaturally stupid and realistically absurd so let us reason once more through this short offering from the dark side of the spirit realm and make no mistake beloved. That is where they are coming from.
"When we pray in tongues, our spirit prays. We are speaking mysteries to God, and we are building ourselves up in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 14:2,4). Malachi Talabi shares a vision and his journaling concerning this revelation below. It is powerful!' -- Mark Virkler
Now beloved, we must be very careful when dealing with people who are so deceived because they also go on deceiving others. This opening from Mark Virkler asserts that when we pray in tongues, our spirit prays. He backs this up by quoting 1Corinthians 14: 2, 4 and saying that we are building ourselves up and speaking mysteries to God. The connection he is making is clear and unbiblical. The key verses today are the first five verses from 1Corinthians 14. Clearly this is Paul teaching the Corinthian Church about the gifts of the spirit as they relate to a church service. He also makes it clear that we should desire prophecy more than tongues. While Paul does speak about building the church up, more so through prophecy, he does not mention personal edification. I do not want to get too bogged down here as the vision is far more disturbing.
"What happens in the spirit realm when we pray in the Holy Spirit? I saw Jesus at a desk, and He had a pen. He dipped it in ink, then started to write down what I was saying in tongues. He finished a page and stamped it with His ring. He then gave the paper to some angels who jumped through the clouds into different periods of time (the future)." -- Malachi Talabi
Really. So, Jesus sits at a desk waiting for us to pray in tongues, so He can do our bidding by releasing His angels to carry out our orders? There are millions of believers spread across this world. How does He keep up? Why does He need to translate "shaka baba?" Doesn't He already know what it means? Why does He need to seal it with His ring when the angels are there witnessing the entire event? Are these my special angels? Are they assigned only to me? Why does my skin start to crawl when I think about his pending interpretation of this absurd vision.
"Malachi's Journaling About the Vision. "Praying in tongues releases My will. I said, "It is written." The angels perform things that I write. The things you pray to Me in this supernatural language are things that I write. The stamp with My ring is a symbol and mark of My divine endorsement. When you pray in tongues, I write things for the angels to perform. Where do you think your house and job came from? The angels respond to Me; they recognize My signature. Tongues is a way to release My will beyond your knowledge. That is what you saw when the angels jumped into different periods of time." -- Malachi Talabi
Praying in tongues releases God's will? I must have missed that in the bible. Was it found in 2Prevarications? Is the will of God inept on its own? What if someone never prays in gibberish, I mean tongues? Do they then forfeit God's will in their lives? What about the non-charismatic churches? Do all who follow these denominations miss the will of God for their lives? Why does what I pray in the spirit, which I certainly do not understand, require your endorsement? The Romans 8 verses make it clear that praying in the spirit is when the Holy Spirit takes over because we no longer know what to pray. If the Holy Spirit is Jesus, why all the secondary hurdles? Where do my house and job come from? What about those who are unemployed? Is it because Jesus refused to sign off on their Holy Spirit prayers? What about the devout believers in the underground church in China? They have no home or job; so, are you saying God's will is not released for them? Are all their angels just lying around waiting to be dispatched?
Now these questions are designed to show how silly all of this nonsense is, but the real dangerous part is when Talabi claims that tongues releases God's will beyond our knowledge. That is a full out assault on the sufficiency of scripture. There is no extra biblical base of knowledge. This is the age-old gnostic error of insisting on some deeper spiritual will of God to ascertain. Beloved, the bible is the final revealed will of God. He did not forget to tell us something that He now will only release to His angels if we mutter the right nonsensical words to Him.
"Here is what I discovered when I looked into a king's ring: In some ancient kingdoms, a king who wanted to mark or secure a document with his seal used his signet ring. He pressed it into softened wax and allowed it to harden into an unbroken seal that bore the mark of his ring. The signet ring represented the honor, authority and personal guarantee of the king, so it was highly valued." -- Malachi Talabi
The entire vision is demonic. It seeks to add special spiritual knowledge to the scriptures. Anyone who tries such should be considered accursed according to the Word. The bible is clear that there is a gift of tongues, which is other known languages. The secret prayer life is not meant to be in public. It is also unlikely to be the stream of unconsciousness we see uttered as tongues today. The bible says it is groans deep within us because we know not what to pray. It is intercession on our behalf from the indwelt Holy Spirit. Frighteningly, Talabi/Virkler conclude:
"This picture of tongues has made me want to abandon praying in English!" -- Mark Talabi
Wow. Only the devil would want you to consider stop praying in your own language and start praying words that you make up and have no meaning. Beloved, God is not some far away detached God that requires deep knowledge in order to reach Him. He is a loving, merciful, and gracious God who hears our prayers, even if the answer is no. You do not need a theological degree or to spend hours in contemplative prayer. Jesus is not sitting at a desk just waiting for you to speak a hidden language to Him so He can release personal angels into your future. Everything you need to know is in the bible. Do not fall for Gnosticism wrapped up in super-spirituality. God does not need that in order to hear you.
Rev. Anthony.
