Category Archives: Spiritual Gifts

-Speaking in Tongues: Interesting Medical Research

Posted on by
Reply

The University of Pennsylvania has been conducting tests viewing brain images of people while they were speaking in tongues. I found reference to this in the January copy of Charima Magazine (pg. 15). A complete article on this research can be read at Newswise with this link, including the following important quotes:

“We noticed a number of changes that occurred functionally in the brain,” comments Principal Investigator Andrew Newberg, MD, Associate Professor of Radiology, Psychiatry, and Religious Studies, and Director for the Center for Spirituality and the Mind, at Penn. Our finding of decreased activity in the frontal lobes during the practice of speaking in tongues is fascinating because these subjects truly believe that the spirit of God is moving through them and controlling them to speak. Our brain imaging research shows us that these subjects are not in control of the usual language centers during this activity, which is consistent with their description of a lack of intentional control while speaking in tongues.”

Newberg went on to explain, “These findings could be interpreted as the subject’s sense of self being taken over by something else. We, scientifically, assume it’s being taken over by another part of the brain, but we couldn’t see, in this imaging study, where this took place. We believe this is the first scientific imaging study evaluating changes in cerebral activity — looking at what actually happens to the brain — when someone is speaking in tongues. This study also showed a number of other changes in the brain, including those areas involved in emotions and establishing our sense of self.”

Well it least I found it interesting. It doesn’t really affect our Biblical or Spiritual understanding of the gift of Tongues.

-A Different Vision Of September 11, 2001: “The Face of Jesus”

Posted on by
Reply

9/17/01 THE FACE OF JESUS

Friday, I Saw the face of Jesus,

While I was listening to the special service at National Cathedral;
and tears were flowing down his cheeks.

Sunday, I saw the face of Jesus,

While I was worshipping at church; and tears were flowing down his cheeks, while thousands were filing past him in sorrow–those who died in the acts of terror–
and they did not recognize him.

Then I saw the terrorists, they were celebrating while they walked together, until they saw Jesus, then there was terror in the eyes of the terrorists–they fell on their knees–some on their faces, raising their arms and pleading.

Then I saw the face of Jesus, and he was shaking his head in disappointment,
and they were gone.

Later during the service, I saw the face of Jesus again, and he was smiling–as hundreds of people came before him–men and women–and he hugged them, and he kissed them, and welcomed them. They were celebrating,

Then I saw the Face of Jesus once more,
and he was laughing and celebrating with them.

-A Divine Appointment For Healing-A Personal Testimony

Posted on by
Reply

As I went out my front door Monday morning headed for work, I was discouraged and conflicted. I was thinking, “I should have gone to church yesterday and got prayer, I don’t feel any better and yet here I am going to work”. I had been sick for 2 1/2 weeks with pneumonia, gone to the doctor twice and the medicine didn’t seem to be helping. I was really weak, kept on trying to work, crashed and did nothing on the weekends, missed church two weeks in a row. Yet, here I was going out the door headed for work.

I looked up, as I was almost to my van parked on the street, and I could not believe my eyes! Here right in front of me was a couple taking their morning walk. Not just any couple, but a couple who are in charge of one of the ‘healing rooms’ at our church. I had no idea that they lived close by. I immediately blurted out “could you pray for me?” They looked up with a confused look on their faces at first. After five minutes or so of prayer in the street, I went on my way to work praising God and convinced that I was healed.

Ten minutes down the road I started feeling a whole lot worse. I was hacking, coughing, and wheezing up big globs of stuff, getting weaker by the second, and I couldn’t stop coughing. Disappointedly I remarked, “Lord, I thought you would heal me!”. Then came a clear word into my mind: “Yes, but I have to clear out your lungs first”. After that, I cooperated with the hacking and praised God in the midst of it.

I started gaining strength in the afternoon, in the midst of working a very full and strenuous day. In the evening I was nearly back to normal, and by the next morning it was finally behind me. Praise God.