There is the tendency for believers to think that once a prophetic word goes forth then it is reason enough to go to sleep or literally sit and wait for the word to come to pass. However, a careful study of this chapter (1Kings 18) and other passages in the bible would reveal that a prophetic word is actually ‘a prayer topic’ or a prayer guide. As Paul told his spiritual son Timothy in 1st Timothy 1:18:

 “ This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare’’. 

The phrase ‘good warfare’ in the verse quoted above almost implies that without the prophetic word released on Timothy’s life, he was going to wage a bad warfare in prayer. A ‘bad warfare’ could also mean a warfare that lacks direction, probably not in the will of God and therefore would yield minimal or zero results. But when a prophetic word is pronounced over one’s life, this person is empowered with divine insight concerning future matters to know what to pray for and what to pray against because he/she has received a prophecy that indicates what to expect in the near or distant future. 

In the chapter under discussion, the word of the LORD came to Elijah saying: “Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth’’. This prophecy can be divided into two parts: the first one is the responsibility that Elijah was given by God and the second is God’s responsibility towards fulfilling the word. The instruction God gave Elijah was for him to go and present himself to Ahab. The assumption is that once Elijah has carried out his responsibility then what is left is for God to move and send rain on the earth. But that wasn’t exactly what happened.

Later in the same chapter, after Elijah had proven to the people that the LORD was more powerful than Baal, this is what he told King Ahab, “go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain” (1 Kings 18:41). The prophet was simply telling the king to go and make merry or celebrate the fact that there was rain coming. His exact words were ‘… for there is the sound of abundance of rain’. Prophets are known to be people specially gifted with heightened spiritual senses. Hence, if Elijah said there was the sound of abundance of rain, then maybe he could hear this sound with his ears (spiritually). This was enough proof that the rain was surely coming and that he had every right to probably join the king to eat and drink in anticipation of the end of the drought. But no, that wasn’t what happened.  

After Ahab left the presence of Elijah, the prophet travailed in prayer in such a posture that it appeared he was petitioning God to do that which the LORD hadn’t intended to do. The bible describes Elijah as bowing to the ground and putting his head in between his knees. That is a very uncomfortable position to be in. However, this was the prophet’s prayer posture. He sent his servant 7 times to check if the rain had started. This indicates wrestling in prayer; it indicates determination and persistence in prayer until the desired result manifests. This should be our attitude towards praying about prophecies we receive. It is not the time to go to sleep. It is time to wage a good warfare. I hope you noticed that the prophet told the king to go and eat and drink in wait of the fulfilment of the prophecy but he didn’t join in the merry making. This was because the primary recipient of the prophetic word was the prophet and it was his responsibility to wage a good warfare until the prophecy came to pass. 

Earlier, I mentioned that Elijah proved to the people that God was more powerful than Baal. This is how he did it. Elijah threw a challenge to 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah on Mount Carmel. The challenge was for them to slaughter a bull and call on their gods (he would do the same) and whichever ‘god’ responded by sending down fire to consume the ‘sacrifice’ was to be regarded as the true God. He called for this challenge because the people had become divided on the issue of which god to follow. Elijah posed this question to the people, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21, NKJV). I found the ESV’s translation of this verse to be more interesting. It said “how long will you go limping between two different opinions?”. This paints a perfect picture of lukewarmness. It suggests that these people were neither here nor there by deceiving themselves that they were both here and there at the same time. By not choosing one position, they had chosen both positions at the same time, which is no position at all. Because of this, Elijah had to prove to them that God is greater than Baal so that they could make up their minds. 

The prophets of Baal, prepared their bull and called on the name of Baal from morning till noon and there was no response. They limped around the altar on which the bull was laid in a bid to get the attention of Baal, also to no avail. Elijah began mocking them. He asked them to shout louder for Baal was probably meditating, busy, on a journey or asleep. The part where Elijah states that Baal might have been busy doing something else is translated differently by some versions of the bible. Some actually quote Elijah as saying that Baal was probably relieving himself at the time his prophets were trying to call on him. If it is so, then, it appears Elijah resorted to crude joking and sarcasm just to make the point that Baal was no god at all. 

When it was his turn, Elijah prepared the bull and put it on his altar. His altar was made up of 12 stones: each representing one of the 12 tribes of Israel. He dug a trench around the altar as well. He asked the people to fill four jars with water and pour it on the altar 3 times. At this point the bull was probably soaking wet and according to the account the water filled the trench he had dug around the altar. After all this, then Elijah said a very short prayer. In comparison to what the prophets of Baal did, it seems Elijah spent more time preparing the ‘sacrifice’ than he spent praying and calling on the LORD. The words he said in the middle of this prayer are of great interest to me and of grave importance to the topic under discussion. He said, “let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word”. This implies that every single thing Elijah did in this contest he heard it from the LORD. The confidence he exuded while taunting the prophets of Baal was because he had received a sure word from the LORD that indicated that he was going to win the contest. Therefore, the procedure he followed in preparing the altar for the bull and even the water that was poured on it were all prophetic instructions from the LORD. Despite this fact, he still prayed before the fire came down. 

Receiving prophetic instructions from God and carrying them out alone didn’t produce the desired results. Elijah still had to pray for fire to come down after obeying the word of the LORD that came to him. 

When you receive a prophecy, you have received divine insight to assist you in waging a good warfare. When you receive prophetic instructions, it doesn’t always mean you will receive your heart’s desires right after you carry them out. You need to pray, give thanks to God, and ask him to do that which he has promised to do. The idea that receiving a prophetic word means it is time to go to sleep while the word automatically comes to pass is not consistent with scripture. In the Bible, people prayed earnestly for prophecies to come to pass and we should learn to do the same.

Credit: Feature image by @frankfmx on Instagram

This is quite complicated don’t you think so? It is difficult to understand with the human mind and understanding. This is why most people make a mockery of tongues. Speaking in tongues has always attracted mockery from people who don’t understand its place in the church. The first time it was spoken, onlookers thought the apostles were drunk.

As already stated, speaking in tongues dates back to the day of Pentecost. In fact, speaking in tongues was the evidence of the gift Jesus Christ asked the apostles to wait for. That being said, it is crucial that I state that the speaking of tongues was not recorded anywhere in the Old Testament. Neither are we ever told Jesus himself spoke in tongues. However, Isaiah, the same prophet who prophesied the birth of Jesus, prophesied about tongues. He said in Isaiah 28:11 that ‘… by men with stammering lips and strange tongue will He (God) speak to this people’. Paul confirms that this verse was in reference to the speaking of tongues in 1 Corinthians 14:21. Is it not amazing that Isaiah did not only speak about tongues, but he emphasized the point that it will be a means through which God will communicate to people? Speaking in tongues is a language through which God himself speaks to either the speaker or a group of people. To buttress a point I made in the first paragraph, tongues is spoken by a person who doesn’t understand what he is saying, in some cases, God picks it up and sends the meaning back to the person or to a group of people gathered.

A careful study of the subject of tongues, especially in the book of 1st Corinthians, reveals that believers can experience tongues in two major ways. The first of which is to use tongues as a prayer language, the second is to use tongues as a way to enter into the prophetic. A good understanding of this fact will put an end to most of the controversies surrounding tongues. In 1st Corinthians 14:13, Paul said that anyone who speaks in tongues should pray that God would grant him the ability to interpret it. He said this right after he made the point that it was his wish that every believer spoke in tongues and more importantly, prophesied. However, speaking in tongues and interpreting it is equal to the gift of prophecy. He also went on to state that, anybody who speaks in tongues openly to a congregation must be in the position to interpret it or there must be someone in the congregation to interpret it. If there is no one to interpret the tongues, the speaker should sit down and speak to himself and to his/her God. All these tell us that one can experience tongues as a prayer language and in other cases as a means to the prophetic. The latter is very much encouraged by the Apostle Paul. We can all speak in tongues. We can all prophesy. The key here is to have a strong desire for these gifts and God will honor the desire if it stems from faith in him by granting us graciously what we so desire.

The question is often asked, is speaking in tongues the sole indicator that one has received the Holy Spirit? Before I make any emphatic statement, I would like us to examine three events – all in the book of Acts. The first time that the apostles, together with the other believers spoke in tongues, the bible says the Holy Spirit had descended on all who were in the room and there were visible cloven tongues of fire on their heads. They spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The second event is the story of Peter’s visit to the house of Cornelius. This was a total shocker because Cornelius was a Roman centurion, and hence, he was the least likely candidate to receive the Holy Spirit. However, in this story, while Peter was still expounding the word of God to Cornelius and his household, the spirit of God fell on them and they all began to speak in tongues and prophesy. The last event is recorded in Acts 19, where we see Paul interacting with some disciples at Ephesus. He asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit, they said no. So he laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in tongues and they also prophesied. What is the point here? From all indications, it seems in the New Testament, when the Holy Spirit comes upon a believer or when he/she is baptized in the spirit, he/she first speaks in tongues and in some cases prophesies. Primarily, the individual receives power when the Spirit comes upon him/her; the power to do what the spirit leads and this includes speaking in tongues. However, I am not saying one cannot interact with the Holy Spirit or encounter him unless he speaks in tongues. In the Old Testament we see the spirit of God come over so many people and yet none of them spoke in tongues. However, in some cases, when the spirit came over some people, they prophesied. Case in point, when the Spirit came upon King Saul and he prophesied.

I was astounded to hear Dr. George Arthur say in a sermon that for 1600 years, the speaking of tongues was prohibited in the church. Nevertheless, there were a few individuals who did speak in tongues. Therefore, the Pentecost experience lasted for only 200 years. This shook me. The question is why and how did this happen. I believe some verses in the Bible, taken out of context in their interpretation, contributed to this. I am going to do my best to share a few of such with you:

Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? … 1st Corinthians 12:30

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease… 1st Corinthians 13:8

In the first verse, Paul was talking about the fact that not all of us operate in the same gifts however, our individual gifts come together to edify the church. That is why he asked, ‘do all speak in tongues?’. The tongues Paul talks about here is the special gift of tongues. We all should speak in tongues however, there are people with a special gift of tongues which is often characterized by the ability to interpret it. The second verse is also often quoted to support the assertion that tongues ceased right after the era of the early apostles. I have one response to both arguments. My response is found in 1St Corinthians 14:39. In that verse, Paul says ‘So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues’. This implies that tongues-speaking must not be prohibited by any believer or denomination of the church. In the second verse, the apostle mentions that tongues shall cease. It isn’t clear what he means or when this shall happen, but one thing I do know is that we are in the same covenant with God as Paul was. Therefore, if he said nobody should forbid speaking in tongues, then this instruction very much is relevant to us today. It couldn’t be that the apostle contradicted himself in the same epistle to the Corinthians.

Paul is not the only one who emphasized the need for believers to speak in tongues. Jude in Jude 1:20 also said believers must build themselves up in their most holy faith, praying in the spirit. Praying in the spirit is another term for speaking in tongues. This can be seen in Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians where he told the believers to pray in the spirit at all times (Ephesians 6:18) and also in 1st Corinthians 14:15.

Speaking in tongues is highly relevant in our walk with God today. It launches us into the realm of the manifestation of the spirit like nothing else. Just as Jude said in the verse above, we build up ourselves in our most holy faith when we speak in tongues. This is to buttress what Paul said in Corinthians about how speaking in tongues edifies the believer. Speaking in tongues is intimacy with the Most High God. It is like you and God have your own secret love language. I will urge all of us to desire and ask God to grant us the ability to first speak in tongues (those who don’t speak it) and (those who speak it) the ability to interpret it which is equal to the gift of prophecy.

One thing that I have realized Christians rarely talk about is the faith and humility required to speak in tongues. The truth is, the Holy Spirit gives you utterance when you speak in tongues, therefore you must have faith in him that he is addressing the burdens of your heart accurately or better than you would if you prayed in any human language. It is difficult to appoint another person to make an appeal on your behalf unless you believe that that person will better articulate your grievances than yourself. This is why it takes a lot of faith to speak in tongues. It takes a lot of faith in the Holy Spirit. The truth is, we are not ever articulate enough to communicate our own burdens and desires to God aptly. It says in scripture that we don’t know how to pray as we ought to so the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. See? The Holy Spirit is a better prayer warrior than you are. If you can understand it, then you can muster the humility and faith that is required for one to speak in tongues.

Tongues is also a unifier of the body of Christ. It brings people of different cultural backgrounds together by giving them a common language. Again, Dr. George Arthur said, “tongues is the antithesis of Babylon”. Meaning, tongues is the direct opposite of what happened during the construction of the tower of Babel. While in those times God gave the people different languages to cause disunity, in our time he has given us a strange language to unify the church. The first time the believers spoke in tongues, there were people from different parts of the world represented there. And all of them could hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. Some of the people came from Cyrene and Lybia (Africa), Judea, Cappadocia, Rome, Pontus, Asia etc. They all drew near to the upper room and were later addressed by Peter. That day 3000 of them gave their lives to Christ. Now, this reminds me of another controversy surrounding the speaking of tongues. Most people are of the view that it is not tongues until it is a human language spoken by someone somewhere in this world. For example, if I’m Ghanaian, my tongues should probably be in Italian. This assertion is based on what happened on the day of Pentecost where people from different parts of the world could hear the believers speak their own language. Concerning tongues, Paul said in 1st Corinthians 14:2, that “one who speaks in tongues speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit”. Therefore, tongues are not supposed to be understood by human beings. However, we see that on the day of Pentecost people could hear the believers speak their own dialect and language. I believe this was supernatural and it may happen in some instances especially when the Holy Spirit wants to use tongues as a sign to some unbelievers. However, it is not always the case that when you speak in tongues then you are speaking some foreign human language. It doesn’t always work like that.

There are a 1000 and 1 more things I could share on speaking in tongues but space and time won’t allow me. When I set out to write this, I only wanted to prove that speaking in tongues was highly biblical and still relevant in our time. But while writing it, I was convicted to pray for all who read this to either start speaking in tongues if they don’t already, and to those who speak, to ask God to help them interpret tongues and prophesy. I pray that we all have an encounter with the spirit after reading this article.

See? So this is why Ghana may never go into the production of cars. Because other countries produce cars at a lower comparative cost and therefore we would have to concentrate on the production of goods that we have comparative advantage in. All I am trying to say is this, to the layman, the government of Ghana must attempt producing cars and assist private companies like Katanka. But this seemingly intelligent suggestion doesn’t make economic sense. Therefore, what seems logical to the layman isn’t logical in the field of Economics.

When it comes to religion – Christianity to be specific – people do not understand this simple idea. People do not understand the fact that what is completely logical in Christianity may come across as nonsense to them because they aren’t Christians. It is simple, just know that once you are not a Christian, certain things Christians do will never make sense to you so you just have to respect that and move on. I am saying this in connection with the recent frenzy about what men of God say. I think nowadays, too many journalists go to church for the wrong reasons (to fish for catchy headlines). Archbishop Duncan-Williams prayed a few months ago, commanding the cedi to rise! Well, I don’t particularly know what inspired him to do that but I was shocked when he became a laughing stock after that. Wait, shouldn’t we be laughing at the people who were trained in school to fix the problem and are in the position to do so but are fumbling badly like they were being electrocuted?  He is a man of God, what do you expect him to do? Pass a bill? Implement government’s policies? Clearly, he did what he was supposed to do and maybe if we all did same this country would be a million miles away from where we are. It isn’t as if he declared a fast and required everybody to stop working and pray? He just said a simple prayer and this prayer, when its answer materializes, will be beneficial to all of us. So what’s up with all the demeaning comments? For some mysterious reason, people believe prayer is a cheap getaway for lazy people and being prayerful simply means inactivity. Really? It is the bible that stated that faith without works is dead.

Let’s discuss the merits of that command the Archbishop uttered. He said ‘I command the cedi to rise’. This is a statement of authority which can only come from someone with spiritual oversight and jurisdiction over a particular area. What is wrong with this? Oh yeh, I get it, he was speaking to an inanimate entity and expected it to obey his voice. Excuse me, have you heard about Jesus Christ? Jesus was out there speaking and commanding invisible things like the wind. He cursed a fig tree. He healed an epileptic boy, not by casting out epilepsy, but by casting out a demon. I am not saying that every single physical occurrence has its roots in the spiritual world, but a lot of them do. I am more concerned about the fact that some Christians came out to openly deride the man of God. My question to them is this, is the bible a fable to you? Jesus said he who has faith can command a mountain to be uprooted and be thrown into the sea and it will happen. Well, maybe you are right when you assume He was speaking metaphorically. If He was, then it is only right for the man of God to command a mountainous economic situation. Remember what I said earlier, logic isn’t absolute; it varies from field to field. So what is logical in a particular worldview may be irrational in another.

As I stated earlier, people tend to assume that prayer gives prayerful people the impression that things are happening for them supernaturally hence they can fold their arms and look into the skies and manna would pour down. This isn’t correct. What prayer does sometimes is it sets physical processes in motion. The tree that Jesus cursed started withering from the roots gradually. Let’s look at the creation story for example; it is recorded in two different chapters in Genesis: these are Genesis one and two. Chapter 1 contains all the commands: the ‘let there be’s’ and the ‘calling forths’. But chapter two contains an account of the physical processes that were underway for the commands to materialize. Let’s take for example the creation of plants or the calling forth of vegetation. In verse 11 of chapter1, we see God command the earth to sprout vegetation. Nevertheless, in verse 5-7 of chapter 2, the bible says because there was no rain, plants couldn’t grow. So God caused a mist to hover on the earth thereby watering the earth which created an enabling environment for plants to grow. This is what the creation story in chapter2 of Genesis gives us: a detailed account of what transpired after God commanded. This goes to support my earlier point that commanding things spiritually(Prayer) comes to begin or even quicken physical processes. What if the Archbishop’s prayer was actually meant to give ideas to the economic team at the Central Bank of Ghana? What if it was going to quicken the process? A command is a command but there are things that work in the background to make it materialize. And this is seen vividly in the creation story.

On the other hand, we have seen many things happen in the church that don’t even make logical sense in Christianity. It seems the church is the last place to think. The truth is, you need to know the bible for yourself and weigh what you hear in church by it. As the bible itself said, in the last days there will be an eruption of false teachers and prophets. Therefore there is the need to be guarded with the truth of the word of God. Believers must think. Thinkers must believe. Nowadays, people seem to be drawn by miracles and signs and wonders more than the unadulterated word of God. On TV these days, we see so many churches airing deliverance sessions and it is an awful sight mostly. This is what a friend of mine, Abotsi, calls ‘prophetic journalism’ or ‘spiritual journalism’. These prophets seem to enjoy interviewing demons that are manifesting through people. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t like to be in a church where I would hear the voice of a demon more than the voice of God through my pastor. They spend countless minutes having discourses with demons meanwhile Jesus and Paul didn’t waste time on demons at all. They cast them out immediately; Paul and Silas cast out a demon from a girl who was even speaking the truth about them. The truth is you can’t trust the words of a demon. So to prevent confusion, shut them up and cast them out. I believe that a deliverance-centered ministration won’t waste precious time on one case but would want to deal with one quickly and totally before moving on to another. A lot of these things, I believe are just for showmanship.

Anyway, let’s just respect the fact that the activities of people who hold a different worldview may never make sense to us if we are not believers of that worldview. Also, the best way to judge if someone is doing what his worldview dictates, is to look at the originator. In Christianity, Jesus is the originator. So if Jesus didn’t interrogate demons, then it isn’t biblical to do so. But if Jesus spoke to inanimate objects, we SHOULD do same.

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK.