Position Does Not Equate Anointing

Book title: Holy Spirit and the Gift of Tongues in the Church

Author: Deborah Uzoma

Publisher: Cel-Bez Publishing Company Ltd, Owerri

Year published: 2020

Pages: 89

Reviewer: Adjekpagbon Blessed Mudiaga

Deborah Uzoma's spiritually uplifting book titled "Holy Spirit and the Gift of Tongues in the Church," gives great insight concerning many opinions about what speaking in tongues mean in an individual's life and the church, generally.

The 89-page book is made up of seven chapters with different focal topics. They are, namely; "Who is the Holy Spirit?," "Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost," "Workings of the Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments," "The Fruit of the Holy Spirit," "The Gift of Tongues," "Can Speaking in Tongues be taught?" and "Benefits of speaking in tongues," respectively.

An experienced reader that has had an encounter with the Holy Spirit and has been blessed with speaking in tongues, may probably have a better understanding of what it means to be "Filled with the Holy Spirit" and when the "Holy Spirit is in-dwelling" in someone's life, as he reads the book. lt could enlighten him about what the two aforementioned concepts are, in the life of a Christian or non-Christian.

From all the biblical portions cited in the text, and various testimonies given by some messengers of God about their encounter with the Holy Spirit, at one time or the other, it shows the author did very wide research on the diversity of what the Holy Spirit is; the importance of its in-dwelling in one's life, and how it manifests in our daily interactions and activities with fellow humans.

She points out certain things that could deny someone from receiving the Holy Spirit. One of them is pride. According to her, "No matter how graced and blessed you have attained in the society and church, if you are proud, the Holy Spirit cannot reside in you."

However, at page 69 of the book, the author avers that, "It is your desire for speaking in tongues that propels you to speak." But the reviewer has a different opinion and experience about this assertion. The Holy Spirit does not make every person who desire to speak in tongues, do so. Some do not even think about it, but receives it unexpectedly in very strange ways and environment too.

For instance, a personal experience the reviewer had at a Baptist Church in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1991 where worshippers do not speak in tongues as all orthodox churches are known for, is a pointer to the fact that, one may not desire to speak in tongues, yet the Holy Spirit can get any person arrested and make him speak in tongues any where any time. This is because, while the reviewer was simply praising and thanking God in the midst of other worshipers at a Baptist Church, he received the gift of speaking in tongues, to the astonishment of other disciples present.

The choir was singing a popular English song that goes like this: "Glory be to God in the highest, halleluyah...," when suddenly, the reviewer who wax singing along among other members of the congregation, felt a cool presence in his body. He tried to shake it off, but he could not. Thereafter, he noticed that he could no longer sing the simple song he was singing with the choir. Strange sounds began to emanate from his mouth whenever he tried to continue to sing. Those that were familiar with the sounds, said he was speaking Arabic, which he neither learnt nor was he a Moslem. He did not desire to speak in tongue and had never ever spoken in tongues before that unexpected incident occurred at an orthodox church.

Nonetheless, the author is right as she points out at page 67, that "It is wrong to gather believers and start teaching them tongues. Those that do this lack knowledge and understanding of the Holy Spirit. Teaching how to speak in tongues is similar to plagiarism. Those who learnt tongues speak carnally and not of the divine."

To buttress what the reviewer says about not desiring to speak in tongues but received the gift as a personal experience, this is buttressed by the author at page 73 of the book.

At the quoted page, she rightly says "Spiritual encounters are personal and may not happen to everyone." This aptly corroborates the reviewer's aforestated experience of speaking in Arabic tongue the very first time at an orthodox church of all places. 

Pentecostal church members are known for speaking in tongues, not orthodox church disciples.

Moreover, various benefits that both Christians and non-Christians can gain from the Holy Spirit are vividly beamed on by the author. The book says individuals and the church have better opportunities to excel if they live righteously to attract the Holy Spirit visitation in their life. It also pinpoints that, when one is truly divinely visited by the Holy Spirit to speak in tongues, the gift last forever. This is very true, based on the reviewer's experience aforementioned. 

Divine visitation by the Holy Spirit that anoints your tongue to speak in a language that is unknown or incomprehensible to you, last forever, unlike carnal learning of tongues from some misguided folks, who copy how others speak in tongues, and think they are truly anointed. This type of plagiarism has been generating laughter from the reviewer from time immemorial, whenever he sees some unenlightened folks mimicrying the tongues of others, while claiming to be divinely blessed to speak in tongues.

Furthermore, the author's diction is very simple to understand. She has done a great job that is worthy of commendations. But there are some lapses in certain areas of the book. One of such lapses is the lack of concord in terms of using capital letters at the beginning to spell common nouns and verbs, such as oil, spelt as "Oil," and joy spelt as "Joy," etc in the middle of some sentences. Perhaps, it is for the sake of emphasis. But even if it is for such reason, such words ought to have been properly written with small letters at the beginning of their spellings, and either italicized or made bold with darker contrast from the other words, in the sentences they are used. The reviewer also frowns at some portions where there ought to be full stops, after each biblical quote brackets, that are left without full stops in the book. The rules of punctuation marks are highly fundamental in the writing of any literature - be it religious, scientific, historical, apriori reasoning and so on and so forth. These defects should be corrected before reprinting subsequent copies of the book. All these notwithstanding, the noteworthy messages in the book are not diminished. 

The author, Deborah, is a graduate of English and Literary Studies, from Imo State University, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. She holds a diploma in Theology. She is an ordained and practicing Evangelist. Her works have been published in the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) series, literary blogs and tabloids in Nigeria.

Interested readers may contact the publisher of the book (Cel-Bez Publishing Company Limited) via this phone number: 08035428158, to order for copies.