Fire In My Bones: Say What? Pardon My Glossolalia

Here is the latest article by Lee Grady.

By J. Lee Grady

Southern Baptists recently ruled that their missionaries can’t speak in tongues. I’m glad the vote doesn’t apply to me.

I was floored last week when I learned that trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) International Mission Board voted to outlaw speaking in tongues on the mission field. In a 50-15 vote, these denominational bigwigs sat in a conference room in Alabama and decided that the SBC’ 5,122 missionaries are not allowed to have anything to do with glossolalia€”a Christian form of prayer described in the New Testament that is practiced today by millions of charismatics and Pentecostals (and an untold number of Southern Baptists).

The decision hits home for me because I was raised as a Southern Baptist and, coincidentally, I discovered the gift of speaking in tongues in a Southern Baptist church.

I’ll never forget the experience as long as I live. And with all respect to the SBC’ leadership, no trustee’ vote can take it away from me.

In the summer of 1976 when I was preparing for my first semester in college, I learned that the woman teaching my Sunday school class was a “charismatic.” I didn’t know what that term meant. I thought it sounded like some kind of back problem.

I asked a few people and learned that “June” had experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in a very personal way. This lady knew Jesus. When she opened her Bible and talked about the Lord, it seemed as though she had just been conversing with Him.

I asked June to explain to me what it meant to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and she eagerly invited me to her home for a two-hour conversation. She loaded me down with books, including one titled Why Should I Speak in Tongues? I knew it wasn’t a Baptist book, but hey, my Baptist Sunday school teacher said it changed her life.

After reading the books and several Bible passages I discovered that many people in the book of Acts spoke in tongues. Even the apostle Paul did! And he boasted to the Corinthians: “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you” (1 Cor. 14:18, NIV). I guess back then missionary trustees hadn’t outlawed glossololia.

After I was convinced that this was a biblical experience, I went outside my Baptist church in suburban Atlanta, sat on the volleyball court and looked up at the night sky. I was hungry for more of God. I prayed a simple prayer: “Lord, I’m Yours, and I want all you have for me. Fill me with Your Spirit.”

I didn’t hear the sound of a rushing wind. There were no claps of thunder and no flames of Pentecostal fire. But the next day when I was in my room praying, I could tell that a heavenly language was bubbling up inside me.

I opened my mouth and the words spilled out. Ilia skiridan tola shaman do skan tama. Or something like that.

I had no clue what I was saying. It sounded like gibberish. Yet when I prayed in tongues I felt close to God. And when I read about the phenomenon of “praying in the spirit” in the New Testament, I learned that it is a precious spiritual gift that edifies the believer.

My relationship with God was energized, and I’ve been praying in tongues ever since. And I’ve met hundreds of people who pray in the Spirit every day, including hair stylists, politicians, migrant farm workers, doctors, lawyers, waitresses, professors, pro athletes, celebrity musicians, cab drivers and wealthy businesspeople.

Oh yeah, and lots of Southern Baptist pastors.

I am baffled that Southern Baptists€”who are quick to describe themselves as defenders of Scripture€”would yank missionaries off the field who have had this experience with the Holy Spirit. Haven’t they read what Paul said plainly in 1 Corinthians 14:39, “Do not forbid speaking in tongues”?

The Bible says that when the apostle Peter visited the home of the devout Gentile Cornelius and preached to the people who were gathered there, the Holy Spirit fell on them, and they began speaking in tongues (see Acts 10:44-46). That’ the way it happened in the first century. That was long before the first religious committee had been formed.

Yet these Baptist trustees must figure it’ OK for a committee to step in and overrule a sovereign work of God.

I believe they’ve been overruled. We need the fire of Pentecost now more than ever€”on the mission field and in all our churches here at home.

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma and an award-winning journalist. He writes a column for Charisma Online twice a week.

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