{"id":14324,"date":"2023-11-12T17:32:37","date_gmt":"2023-11-12T17:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=14324"},"modified":"2023-11-12T17:32:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-12T17:32:37","slug":"the-sound-of-the-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/14324\/the-sound-of-the-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Sound of the Spirit”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

Some months ago, Brother Wendell mentioned to me in one of his letters the “revelation” that not all who receive the holy Ghost baptism speak in tongues. This is something you had already talked about earlier, briefly, during one of the meetings, saying that you prefer calling it the “sound of the spirit” instead of “speaking in tongues”.\u00a0\u00a0As I was reading the tracts and other materials on goingtojesus.com<\/a><\/span>, I saw that some of them have already been rewritten, in a way that the text would not suggest that the sound of the Spirit must be “speaking in tongues” every time someone receives the holy Ghost.<\/span><\/p>\n

I remember that your booklet “Speaking In Tongues At Spirit Baptism” (which is now called “The Sound Of The Spirit At Spirit Baptism”)* used to start with a paragraph in which you made it clear that your stance (that you had back then) on the significance of speaking in tongues was NOT a revelation from the Lord, but rather something “you think you have the Spirit on” (using Paul’s phraseology from 1 Corinthians 7).<\/span><\/p>\n

I wanted to ask you, Pastor John, if you could share a bit more extensively about how the Lord has shown this new revelation to you.\u00a0\u00a0Is there some written or audio material with you expounding on it?\u00a0\u00a0Also, I assume that you weighed the possibility that along with rewriting the tracts and booklets, you might also mention in these redone writings what you used to believe and teach about speaking in tongues, and how God has led you to change your doctrine.\u00a0\u00a0If you did think about this, how have you come to the conclusion that you wouldn’t make any reference (at least as far as I can tell) to this change.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the reasons I’m asking you about this is because I have already translated a number of tracts into Hungarian, some of which have been changed now, and I’ve been thinking and praying about what is the right way to go about this.\u00a0\u00a0Should I just rewrite the text, or maybe leave a note about the changes? Should I have the new “New Birth”** tract printed and redistributed to every home in my town?\u00a0\u00a0I’m not expecting you to tell me what to do, I’m just letting you know what I’ve been thinking and praying about. Maybe if you shared about your experience, I could gain some wisdom from it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zoli<\/span><\/p>\n

==========<\/span><\/p>\n

Hello, Zoli.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I have always known that the sound which the Spirit makes when it enters a heart is not always a clear, discernible language.\u00a0 The sound made by the Spirit other than a language, I felt,\u00a0was covered in the scripture that says, “He will speak to this people with\u00a0stammering lips<\/u>\u00a0and another tongue” (Isa. 28:11).\u00a0 It never seemed quite adequate to say only that speaking in tongues was the sign of the new birth and not to mention the “stammering lips” part of that verse.\u00a0 But at the same time, to mention stammering lips every time I said speaking in tongues seemed too wordy.\u00a0 It was a minor problem for me, in the big scheme of things, but still, it never felt perfect.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, it struck me that what Jesus said was not that speaking in tongues was the sign that the Spirit had entered, but just a “sound”:\u00a0 “The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear its sound.\u00a0. .\u00a0.\u00a0\u00a0So is everyone who is born of the Spirit\u201d\u00a0(Jn. 3:8).\u00a0 That “sound” may certainly be a distinct language, as at Pentecost, but it might also be some other sound.\u00a0 Jesus’ point was only what he said, that there is always a sound.\u00a0 He meant nothing more.\u00a0 That was a new\u00a0thought to me.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

For the brothers and sisters who did not speak in a clear language when they received the Spirit, it is comforting to know that whatever sound the Spirit made through them is sufficient.\u00a0 Some have been told that they do not have the Spirit because they have not spoken in a clear language!\u00a0 I do not want to leave the impression with anyone that I agree with that!\u00a0 So, it feels more perfect for me to say only what Jesus said, namely, that we would hear a sound.\u00a0\u00a0I rewrote my tracts and my book on receiving Spirit baptism because I do not want to discourage any child of God who has not spoken in tongues, though the Spirit did make a sound when they received it.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

To say in tracts or books that speaking in tongues is the sign of the new birth may not be so far off the right track that they must be rewritten or that an explanation for the change is required.\u00a0 The\u00a0Lord would have to lead you on that.\u00a0\u00a0I felt the need to rewrite my tracts and\u00a0my\u00a0book\u00a0because I want to\u00a0make my work perfect, as Jesus commanded me to do many years ago.\u00a0 To please the Master is our goal.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I hope that helps.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

==========<\/span><\/p>\n

It does help, thank you for your answer, Pastor John. What I assumed or felt was pretty much what you’ve just explained: that you felt it was necessary to clarify what you had always meant when you spoke about speaking in tongues as the “initial evidence” of the new birth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

May God help you and help all of us to be perfect reflections of His heart and His thoughts towards our brothers and sisters, and towards the world. In our deeds, in our words, in all our ways.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Zoli<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 Going to Jesus.com – The Sound of the Spirit at Spirit Baptism<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

**\u00a0 Going to Jesus.com Tracts – The New Birth<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Pastor John, Some months ago, Brother Wendell mentioned to me in one of his letters the “revelation” that not all who receive the holy Ghost baptism speak in tongues. This is something you had already talked about earlier, briefly, during one of the meetings, saying that you prefer calling it the “sound of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14324"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}