Category: Speaking in Tongues

My father was a minister of a well-known denomination, and he faithfully taught our family what he knew. The summer that I turned ten years old, I attended a summer camp offered by our denomination. It was for a week and my father had been the organizer and the director of this camp for several years before I was old enough to participate. I remember one of the days, our group of ten girls and the woman who was the leader were in a small shelter with two picnic tables. She asked us to go to Romans 10:9. I’m pretty sure I had read that verse and the following verses before, but this was finally the day I understood and took it to heart. She asked all of us to read verse 9 out loud together. I was born again that day.

The next week I was sitting on the grass in our yard. My friends had gone home and I was putting the croquet items back in the holder. I suddenly realized I was quietly speaking a different language. I stopped and asked myself, what am I doing? I don’t know how to speak another language. I decided that I shouldn’t tell anyone about this.

Fast forward decades when I was first introduced to some of the Biblical truths that were shared by Word Over the World Ambassadors. I was willing to listen because much of what was shared was new to me. I had never heard of speaking in tongues, but there I was seated at a home where I was going to hear it! At my first home fellowship, I sat as close to the door of the home as I could, knowing that I could slip out and be gone quickly if the situation got weird!

My first time hearing speaking in tongues with interpretation at that fellowship was exhilarating, comforting, and it melted my heart to my heavenly Father. I didn’t recognize the languages that were spoken by the people who manifested, but I knew that the languages were legitimate. This couldn’t have been a theatrical staging. It was real edification, exhortation, and comfort from our heavenly Father for each of us in the room! WOW! What have I found! Thank you, heavenly Father!

I can speak in tongues and I understand that God wants us to speak in tongues much to ourselves and in a believers meeting, when we are called upon, to speak in tongues and interpret.

I’m thankful The Way International is in place so faithful believers can teach others who desire to know God and His Son Jesus Christ. I am very thankful to the folks who spoke to me about God’s spiritual truth.

If you would like to know more about speaking in tongues or home Bible fellowships, contact us.

While at my husband’s company holiday party, the entertainment for the evening was a hypnotist. He brought five people on stage to try to get them to do things by putting them in a trance. My husband and I were sitting with another believer couple he worked with. We all looked at each other and agreed that we would quietly speak in tongues to stop this man from hypnotizing people. We spoke in tongues while the man labored over forty-five minutes to get the people on stage to do what he wanted them to do. There were only a few things he could do at first. He began really sweating and working hard to try to operate this spiritual power but was not having good success. After being unable to hypnotize anyone further, he apologized to the crowd in the room and said, “Folks, I’m sorry. I don’t understand this. I just can’t seem to get this going.” We knew exactly why. It was the power of speaking by the spirit of God in a united front of four believers that backed down this man’s devilish power from operating. Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille, our Founding President, once said, “If we knew how powerful speaking in tongues is, we would do it all the time.”

As a young girl, I wanted to know God but did not know where to find someone who could teach me about Him. It was after I graduated from my university that I was invited to a Way Ministry fellowship. I was working as a waitress at the time. There was one particular individual who worked at the restaurant who impressed me. She was one of the only people who would do the dirty jobs we were all supposed to help with, and she did it with a smile on her face. One day, she came bouncing into the back kitchen. I asked her why she was always so happy. She shared some of the Word with me and invited me to fellowship. I found out later that that day was one of her last days at that job. God is never late!

I remember very vividly the first time I heard someone speak in tongues and interpret. I had never heard about speaking in tongues before, and I was amazed by it. I read the chapters in The New, Dynamic Church on speaking in tongues, and I manifested holy spirit by speaking in tongues. Tears of joy filled my eyes!

I know that I can pray perfectly for anything. This is a great comfort to my heart. Several years ago, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. The doctor told me that the disease should be raging in my body, but for some reason it was not. I told him that is because I speak in tongues! I know that speaking in tongues quickens my mortal body.

Psalm 37:4:
Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

I had the privilege to be on LEAD Staff on my interim year in The Way Corps training. On one ten-day session, on the final day of climbing, it began to snow. By the time we got to the rocks we were going to climb, there was three feet of snow on the ground. It was not safe to climb, so we started the hike back to camp. Have you ever been in the woods when a pure white blanket of snow covers the ground? All the paths and most of the familiar landmarks disappear. At one point, we thought we were lost. The gentleman who was leading us down the trail insisted we were in the wrong draw and needed to cross over the ridge to the next draw. I was the coordinator for that session, and I knew God would work in me to do the right thing. I continued to speak in tongues and gather all the five-senses knowledge I could. I distinctly remember hearing that still small voice telling me that we needed to continue on the path we were on and we would find the tents. I shared this with the group. So, what happened? Were we lost? No! We continued in the direction we were heading and found those beautiful, green tents.

Proverbs 3:5,6:
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Serving at LEAD was not a walk in the park. It took a renewed mind, focus, work, and determination to overcome the challenges of living there, but the victories were sweet to the soul (Proverbs 13:19)! I saw in a big way how the rocks in the brook make it sing. Every challenge that is overcome is a joyous occasion. I met my husband at LEAD, made friendships that have lasted over thirty years, and learned even further how to teach God’s Word, counsel disciples, and hear God’s voice.

What God has done for me because of the Word of God I have learned in The Way Ministry is a lot! Speaking in tongues is one of the foundational truths that I learned in the ministry that brought deliverance and continues to.

I was raised in a loving Christian family with a great dad and mom, older brother, older sister, and younger brother. We all faithfully attended a wonderful Christian church, which I am thankful for. I don’t know exactly when I got born again, but it was probably pretty early in life. Going to church was good—it was a positive group of people to be surrounded by—but it seemed like there should be more.

After high school, I remember talking with my brother and his sharing about speaking in tongues. I remember also saying to him, “That is for you; that is for you.” I had heard speaking in tongues somewhere before, but it seemed confusing and out of order. My brother and his wife shared with me about a Bible class, which sounded interesting, so I signed up for the foundational class on Power for Abundant Living. I loved how Dr. Wierwille taught with concreteness from the Bible regarding the goodness of God, salvation, believing, speaking in tongues, and many other life subjects, answering questions I had. I loved when he taught about Jesus Christ and what he accomplished for us, all the way through to Pentecost and the receiving of the holy spirit and speaking in tongues. I wasn’t just supposed to take it by faith like I had heard from others. I really enjoyed the class and how it built on God’s Word, dispelling darkness with the light.

Then, Dr. Wierwille got to those final sessions when speaking in tongues was coming up. The way he taught God’s Word on this subject like he had with others, once again very systematically with “what is available,” “how to receive,” and “what to do with it after we have received,” brought clarity and desire. I spoke in tongues for the first time in that eleventh session of the class, and how exhilarating it was, and still is, knowing that speaking in tongues is concrete proof in the natural realm that I am born again! I don’t have to go by feelings anymore, like, “Am I good enough to be born again?” which can sure come and go.

To be able to speak in tongues in my private prayer life and in a believers’ meeting with interpretation, and to know the benefits of it is awesome! I am very thankful to know the rightly divided Word of God regarding speaking in tongues and many other areas of life. Thank you to The Way Ministry for all the Word of God that has been taught and lived for over seventy-five years and onward!

God is faithful to provide what His believing sons and daughters need. More than eight years before I was introduced to the ministry of The Way International, I asked God for help in my personal life, and He sparked a desire within me to hear and understand the Bible. This desire led me from my family’s traditional church to a variety of churches whose major focus in their church services was teaching the Bible. Early in my pursuit of Biblical understanding, I received the new, spiritual birth by believing God’s Word that He had raised Jesus Christ from the dead and by confessing Jesus Christ as my lord.

My hunger for truth intensified, and I attended several church services each week and listened to many hundreds upon hundreds of hours of Christian teaching programs on the radio during those first eight years. The churches I attended were described as Pentecostal, charismatic, or Full Gospel, and each inaccurately taught the “baptism of the Holy Spirit,” meaning a receiving of the third person of the trinity. Spiritual manifestations sometimes occurred in the church services, and I had a genuine desire to receive what they called the “gift of speaking in tongues.” Pastors and church members taught me, prayed with me, and coached me to receive this “gift,” but it never happened for me over those first eight years of my Christian life. It seemed that everyone had their own explanation of this baptism—what it was and how to ask God with prayers and tarrying for this additional gift. As the years went by, I only became more discouraged and confused as to why God did not give me what they called a “prayer language.”

Then one day at work in another city, I met a young woman who confidently told me she knew without any doubt that the instruction she had received on many Christian doctrinal topics was true to God’s Word. She quoted John 10:10, a verse I had been specifically focused on for quite some time, and told me The Way Ministry could teach me how to pray and how to receive God’s blessings to live the more abundant life that Jesus Christ came to make available. This young woman put me in touch with the Branch leaders in my city, and I began attending fellowship meetings.

Within two months, I learned more clear and accurate Biblical truths on foundational Christian doctrines than I had learned in the previous eight years. I learned there is only one true God, Who is Holy Spirit and the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. I also learned that speaking in tongues is one manifestation of the new birth I had received many years earlier. Toward the end of those first two months of fellowshipping with The Way Ministry, I took the book Receiving the Holy Spirit Today with me on a business trip to another state. As I read it, I understood I had the spiritual ability to speak in tongues and I should stop waiting for something extra from God. I simply began speaking in tongues alone in my hotel room. I knew I was born again of God’s gift of holy spirit, and I could manifest the evidence of my spiritual birth at any time simply by believing to do so. I could pray with my understanding, and I could pray with my spirit.

It was The Way Ministry’s accurate teaching of God’s Word that relieved my years of discouragement regarding the manifestations of holy spirit. God has faithfully provided me true answers on many points of doctrine by the teachings of The Way Ministry for twenty-three years now, and for that I will always be grateful.

From the earliest time I can remember, I have had a curiosity and hunger for learning that continues even now in my senior years. I would follow my mother around the house and help her with her chores just to listen to her talk and teach me about what she was doing. I would copy her, as well as my older sister, because I was interested in what they were doing. Some of the things I learned from them were cooking, sewing, art, and being detail minded. This love of learning continued through my school years, and I was very academically minded. I would often pursue things on my own that I was curious about, like the constellations in the night sky. I learned to identify most of them in the summer sky, the winter in my area being too cold to spend time outside at night.

I was brought up in a Christian church and considered myself a good Christian, but I didn’t have a good knowledge of the Bible, and although I was curious about it and tried reading it starting from Genesis, I didn’t get very far. So, one day during my college years, I decided to try reading it again. This time I started with Matthew. Up until then, I had only heard bits and pieces of scripture verses. I had never seen anything in context. How eye-opening it was to see the bigger picture of the life of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross and his resurrection! For the first time, I really believed what the Bible says, and I know that was when I got born again.

After that, I knew something was different about me, and I wanted to know more but didn’t know where to turn. Eventually I graduated from college and moved to another city to be out on my own. During that time, I tried several different churches, one of which operated speaking in tongues. That was new to me! It was clearly something supernatural, and with the help of leadership in that church, I tried to speak in tongues. But nothing happened. They assured me that it would come over me, but it didn’t. This was probably because I didn’t want to lose control and look foolish like many of the people in that church looked to me.

Then one day I heard a group of people singing songs outside near the apartment where I was living. I went out to see who they were, and they told me they were from The Way Ministry. They invited me to fellowship, and my first fellowship was so different from any church I had ever attended. They were all young adults like myself, and although the setting was casual and in an apartment near mine, when they taught the Word, it was with authority and certainty like I had never heard before. And when they spoke in tongues and interpreted, it was clear that they were in control. There was no foolishness, just wonderful, inspiring messages.

I continued going to fellowship, and one day I told someone that I wanted to speak in tongues. She loaned me the Receiving the Holy Spirit Today book, and I was so excited that I went home and read it that night and spoke in tongues for the first time! I just needed to know that it was up to me to do the speaking. I didn’t need to wait to be pushed into it. I was so thankful to receive my answer about how to speak in tongues. I then sat through the Foundational Class, and it opened to me the accuracy of the Word of God, enabling me to read the Bible and understand it.

Since that time over forty years ago, my curiosity has never abated. I still love learning and reading, especially when it comes to the Word of God. I love seeing the Word fit together so that there is no guessing about what it means. God’s Word is His will, and He never changes.

The thing that I am most thankful for in my life is my gift of holy spirit from Father. I know it is there every time I speak in tongues. I have a personal connection to the Father Who is always willing and able to communicate with me when needed because He created my gift especially for me. God in Christ in me is incorruptible seed and can’t be taken or given away, and that makes me God’s son. I am thankful to have such a loving Father and to be a part of His family. I am thankful for the life of Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille and for the ministry he started and for how those who followed have continued to build on the foundation he started. My life would be worthless to me without God’s gift to me and the ministry that taught me what it means to have that gift.

Speaking in tongues was not something I had heard of until coming to this ministry. When it came up the first time, I was uncomfortable with it. Even though I could read in the Bible that it was something God addressed and made available, because I had never heard of it before, I was stopped in my mental tracks. Finally I realized that I really did not understand it enough. There is no way to remember how many times I read the chapters in The New, Dynamic Church on speaking in tongues. Having very little knowledge to make a decision is not a good place to stay. It can lead to being afraid, which stymies thoughts and understanding and growth.

Right across the hall where I lived in the dormitory, there was an ironing room not often visited, especially by freshmen. I found a spot to talk to God and share my thoughts and hesitations. That room offered a place for me to spend time thinking and reasoning and building believing from His Word. In the ironing room of my dorm is where I finally spoke the wonderful works of God for the first time.

Truth is not determined by feelings. This ministry gave me the tools to understand the Scriptures for myself. The Bible is God’s will and heart to us. We can learn about His gift, holy spirit, and how He designed that gift to work. I am thankful I pursued rather than shying away from something I didn’t understand. This has led to over fifty years of many victories and more to follow!

I am so thankful for The Way Ministry that has taught me the truths of positive believing and the power we have when we speak in tongues. Because of this knowledge I now have peace in my life.

Before I took the Foundational Class, I was very fearful driving and riding on the expressway. Now when I get tense or anxious, I just speak in tongues and I get peaceful.

God always protects us. Whenever an opportunity presents itself in my daily life, I know that if I go to God by speaking in tongues, He will take care of it. He always does.

I have been blessed multiple times over the years since I attended my first fellowship in 1984. That was also the year I took the ministry’s Foundational Class. The thing that I have utilized the most since learning truths from God’s Word is speaking in tongues. One of the benefits taught is that it is rest to the soul. The ability to speak in tongues has brought deliverance to me a number of times.

One example was during a plane flight for a business trip. I had left home not feeling my best, and the pressurized cabin, along with the seating position I was in on the plane, was making me feel both claustrophobic and anxious. Then I remembered that speaking in tongues would bring rest to my soul. I began speaking in tongues and focused on the peace of God. Thankfully, soon afterwards I began to physically feel much better. I no longer had the anxious and claustrophobic feeling that I’d experienced earlier, and I completed the flight and the rest of my business week in prevailing health.

This power of God energized in my life was the result of being taught by my brothers and sisters in Christ in this ministry, who had the care, love, commitment, and desire to teach me, along with others, how to understand and remember truths from God. The example above is only one of the countless times that I have spoken in tongues to bring personal peace to a situation, and I am so thankful to have that power available to me.

I know that no matter what challenges arise in my life, God has my back. He honors His promises, and when I fall short in my believing, there is a loving household that shares with me what the Word says to help me get my actions back on the right path.