Speaking in Tongues
There was another occasion where Henry Garlock went to a village in the area to try and free a prisoner who had been kept captive by that particular tribe. He didn't know their language, he just knew that this man, one of theirs, had been captured.
And so he snuck into this village, saw this man in his prison and tried to help him to escape. But a couple of guards saw him, spread the alarm and again a large crowd gathered around him. They called on the witch doctor to come and make his verdict on this white man who'd come and tried to have his way here in their tribe.
And Garlock said he couldn't understand it, it was a different language and so he tried to follow what these men were saying. And he could tell that the people just wanted to kill him and probably eat him being a cannibalistic tribe.
Then he said that the witch doctor came and laid his wand down at his feet, which was an indication that he now had a chance to speak. And he said as plainly as if he had spoken in perfect English he was saying with contempt “before we kill and eat you, let's hear what you have to say.”
Holy Spirit Manifestation
And a scripture came to him. It was Mark 13:11 where Jesus says “Whenever you're arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say, just say whatever is given you at the time for it is not you speaking but the Holy Spirit.”
And so he says he began to just talk and he felt the Holy Spirit take control of his tongue. He said from his lips poured a torrent of words that he'd never learnt. He said he didn't even know what he was saying but he spoke for a few minutes and when he had finished there was dead silence. And once again these people seemed to change their mind, they came to him and said please do not harm us, we see that your God is fighting for you, how can we atone for mistreating you? And so he asked them for the prisoner and they released the prisoner to him and off they went.
Now I'm not a Pentecostal, I come from a Methodist and now Nazarene background. But when I read about the Holy Spirit coming in Acts chapter 2, it seems to me that the disciples didn't start speaking random syllables that nobody could understand but they began speaking in languages so that all sorts of people in the town could understand them been their own language.
And I've heard stories of this happening, of somebody praying and believing that they're praying in English but then somebody nearby says “I didn't know you could speak Italian, how could you pray in Italian like that?” And the person says “I didn't!” There was obviously the Spirit allowing different tongues to come from this person's mouth.
Spiritual Tongues Manifestation
That seems to be what happened to Henry Garlock here. Filled with the Spirit he spoke in a tongue that he didn't understand because the Spirit was the one speaking through him.
I believe that those are the strange tongues that we see in the New Testament. It's God using different tongues, different languages even through people who don't know how to speak them to touch the lives of the people in that context.
Do you want to pray in tongues? Do you want to speak in tongues? Well maybe you need to pray for God to give you an opportunity to do it in this way. Maybe you need to say to God, ”Take my mouth, take my tongue, use me and speak through me!” And may it be that at the right moment he will give you words even if they're in a different language to touch somebody who needs to hear God's word through you.
Those are the type of tongues that really do God's work in this world so let's covet them, let's want them and let's be open to God working through us in this way.
And maybe something amazing will happen as we do speak in a tongue like this, as happened to Henry Garlock.
