By Pastor Pam Sheppard

When posting on facebook on this hot topic about 6 years ago,  I recall that the responses were clearly impulsive, sudden argumentative reactions of tongue talkers taken aback and even outraged by my position on this subject. It was as if the commentators did not even give themselves time to think and meditate on my post before responding. I was shocked. Readers actually sat down in the early morning hours —took time away from their busy schedules— to post quite a few rather lengthy rebuttals, as if it was a major sin to even question tongue speaking.  The commentators seemed irrational in their protest, as if themselves, under the influence of evil spirits.

Tongues is certainly a volatile issue, to put it mildly. Nevertheless, it seems that I may have “touched on something” here.  So I wonder, “why are the demons so upset, simply because I am obeying the spirit by “trying everything spiritual, including “tongues”?”  I have personally confronted the religious demon on several occasions. I have even cast out various demons with much success. I have written several books that  deal with unveiling Satan’s wiles and strategies, so my work and agenda is not new to the enemy. In fact, it has been proven to me that demons can recall every sentence on each page of all 8 of my books–a feat that is impossible even for me, the author of them. I have to search the table of contents to find what I am looking for.

Perhaps I did not get attacked for writing books, because tongues, though mentioned, is not the primary emphasis of the book. As I reviewed several commentaries, it appears that when I indicated that I had reservations about tongues for two decades, perhaps I did not make myself clear. You need to know that I did not originally question the tongues that others spoke, but only my own “tongue.” Nor did I mean that I originally believed that tongues was from the devil.

In truth, I once loved to speak in tongues. It certainly did I  sooth my flesh. In that regard, speaking in tongues is self edifying and self gratifying. I am a conversationalist—a preacher and a teacher of the word of God as well— so I tend to be articulate.. Even so, in tongues, I can utter non-stop for hours. You need to be aware that chanting, transcendental meditation and yoga have the same pleasant and even ecstatic effects upon the flesh.

Laboratory research has proven that tongues and other forms of mental passivity give the frontal lobe of the brain a real rest. This is because the mind is literally unfruitful when tongues is uttered, even more unfruitful than the state of sleep. Our minds work pretty well during sleep, as evidenced by the quality of our dream life. However, when I speak in tongues, all thinking actually stops until I cease from speaking. Even if I were to try to babble out something, my mind would be thinking of the next babbling sound to utter.

However, not so with tongues. All thought comes to an end as the utterances roll off of the tongue like water. Not at all concerned until recently about the legitimacy of the overall tongues movement in our time, my original concern was totally personal. Simply put, I questioned whether or not I myself had received tongues in the correct spiritual manner.

To explain further, I wondered why tongues did not “come upon me” as I witnessed the speaking in tongues of others and along the same lines, I wondered why I seemed to have so much control over my own utterances. I spoke tongues regularly, but in my own personal life, I never attributed my spiritual growth to it. Actually, I personally found effects upon my flesh. Rather, correction and chastisement of fires of refinement as opposed, no spiritual benefit to it other than its soothing I have grown in Christ by submitting myself to the Holy Ghost, groomed and strengthened in the to uttering by the fires of a prayer language.

A particular incident is noteworthy. The year was 1985. I was travelling on a narrow, country road in upstate New York on a very cold, bright and sunny winter morning. Since it was bitter cold, I had the heat blasting— but on top of that, the sun was shining directly on me through the car windows, in all of its brightness. I was very warm but not sweating. Then there was the sound of the tires on the road that made a repetitive sound every few seconds–kerplunk, kerplunk, kerplunk.

As a former student and practitioner of relaxation therapy, aka hypnosis,  I was trained to impart the imagination and visualization of heat accompanied by a monotonous tone of a hypnotic voice  as mesmerizing tools to “put a person under.” In short, I became hypnotized by the heat and the repetitive sounds of the tires on the road. While in an altered state of consciousness, I heard a hypnotic voice repeat, “follow that car.” I also felt a push forward, as though attempting  to take action and  follow the car that came from behind and passed me.  What transpired is that an  invisible being had compelled me to cross the solid line and kill myself while I was in a trance. I was about to obey that voice when my hands gripped so tight on the steering wheel that I couldn’t move them if I wanted to. My hands actually froze—locked tightly so that all I could do was drive straight ahead. My eyes were opened the entire time and I saw it all, yet I was hypnotized.

Suddenly, as I awoke out of the trance, a huge truck whizzed right by me in the opposite lane. I realized then, that if I had followed the car, I would not have been alive today to write about this. I would have crashed head on into that truck. There were about 5 cars behind the truck as well. Others would have certainly died that day. When I got home, I spoke to a close “significant other” who rather casually remarked, “as I was sitting at my desk today, I saw a vision of you. You were riding in a car and the sun was shining very brightly on you. I didn’t know what was going on so I just “prayed in tongues.”

Consequently, for 20 years, this incident was my main proof that tongues was a “prayer language.” I found a supportive scripture taken “out of context” in Romans 8:26 as my so-called “confirmation”, namely, that we know not what to pray for as we ought and that the Holy Ghost prays the perfect will of God for us. Yet I ignored the rest of that scripture, namely, that the Holy Ghost does this with groanings, and not with tongues. The scripture clearly states that the groanings “ARE NOT UTTERED.” Speaking in tongues is AN UTTERANCE, so I believe we are in error when we stretch Romans 8:26 in order to confirm that tongues is a “prayer language.”.

So that you know, the enemy is famous in the use of what Christians call “confirmation,”—a subject of a future article. Within my own congregation, I witnessed how tongues spontaneously came upon others and how “ecstatic” the experience was for them. In my case, it was neither spontaneous nor ecstatic, and I wondered if “it should be.” On the contrary, when I spoke in tongues, it was rather “conversational, and “though it felt good, I rarely became ecstatic or emotional. I also noted that among the tongue talkers within the congregation that I pastored, I could find no fruits of the spirit. In fact, some church members were seriously demonized, others suffered from mental illness. In short, every Christian drug addict among us were prolific in the speaking in tongues.

 I perceived a problem with that.

Since I began to take a serious look at tongues in 2007, I decided to temporarily stop speaking in tongues until I was assured. Strangely enough,   although I  have successfully restrained myself from speaking in it for 10 years, there are rare occasions when I literally have to strengthen my will power against blurting out tongues at isolated times during a day. On occasion, I could  feel it in me, as a slightly compulsive and impulsive desire to literally “cut loose” with it.

This “phenomena” had not occurred since I first spoke in tongues in 1983, as I always uttered by the desire of my own will. Actually I was normally rather neutral about it. Now that I have both questioned it and refused to utter, sometimes I momentarily experience  a strong urge to speak in tongues, which I fight. This is NOT a comfortable feeling. I can hear you tongue talkers now, screaming at me through the airways, “you are grieving and quenching the Holy Ghost, Pam. Give in to your compulsion and “let it roll!!!” Well,  I vowed that until I know without a shadow of a doubt that the tongues that I speak is of God, I will not speak in tongues.  Ten years have passed.  The compulsion pressured me less, yet I suspect it is not fully extinguished. Even so,  I do not yield to it. For when the compulsion comes, all that bursts through my mouth is about 10 seconds of “Ba,ba, ba, ba,ba” By the way, I did some research and discovered that Satan’s followers affectionately call him “Ba Ba” in a similar way that we call our natural father’s “Daddy.” In my memory, every tongue talker that I have heard will say “Ba Ba!!!!!”

Another problem that caused me to “raise my eyebrow” is that the majority of people in the church I once pastored  and those I met from other churches who spoke in tongues bore no spiritual fruit of holiness. I relate to the words of James where he questioned, “how can bitter and sweet waters come out of the same cistern?” For example, in my own congregation as well as those known to me as members of word of faith and pentecostal churches, I simply could not understand how people who were obviously hypocritical, legalistic and even mean-spirited could be so prolific in a language inspired by “the Holy Ghost.” Isn’t the Holy Ghost grieved and quenched by sin?

Good question. Then too, if a person does not walk in love, Paul explains that tongues are useless. (1Corin 13) Singling out no person other than myself, as a single Christian woman, fornication remained a stronghold for me as a babe in Christ. Like the Corinthians, I also ignorantly carried over practices from “the dumb idols” of occultism for quite a few years, so when Paul warned the Corinthians to flee fornication, he spoke to me also. Yet, even at the weakest and most compromised stage of my own spiritual walk, I consistently remained fluent in tongues.

So, until 2007, I had no suspicion  that tongues could be “of the devil.” Even so, I would not be the first to share such a supposition. Tongue talkers have been accused of “having a demon” by countless professing Christians and non-Christian. So what is going on “today?” In terms of “what is going on in my life today, this week, I cast out 8 Hindu deities from one former yoga practitioner who is a Christian: Shiva, Hakini, Savashiva, Isha, Vahni, Vishnu, Rakini and Brahma in the name and by the authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Practically each of these demons came out ranting at me using its captive to speak in tongues—a very similar sound to the tongues that I have heard uttered among those who profess to be speaking “a prayer language.”

Not that I believe this, but for the sake of argument from a “devil’s advocate” position, suppose there is a true tongue spoken and interpreted today and I am simply one of millions who received tongues in the wrong way.  I have had a lot in common with the Corinthians for I too unknowingly worshipped at the altar of pagan gods, aka demons. Since the Corinthians were saved, Paul did not suggest that demons be cast out of them but only that they “interpret.” If no interpretation, then no speaking. This is simple. It has been 10 years of no tongue utterance on my behalf and I have had no demons cast from me. The Apostle Paul suggested that the person who speaks in tongues should also seek to interpret. I sought to interpret for 25 years and my prayer was never answered. Therefore, I heed Paul’s counsel and I simply will not speak in tongues without an interpreter. Actually, I will never again speak in tongues because I suspect that tongues spoken in the last century are demonic.

Tongues and Mental Health

I belong to a very small, rather elite group of professional therapists who used counseling to set people free from demons.  One of those people was Kurt Koch from Germany.  I was reading his book published in 1973 where he presented a discussion, comparing real mental illness to being demonized.  Tongues  entered into the discussion as a sign of possession!

There is a lot to learn from Koch.  Sure, he was an “I accept Jesus” person, yet he had a lot of cases and so his findings are important.  What gets me is the connection he makes to tongues as a sign of being demonized.  Here are the words of Koch:

The greatest difference, however, between psychosis (mental illness) and occult subjection is the ability of a possessed person to speak in a foreign language while in a state of trance. This is not to be confused with genuine glossolalia, a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is rather a demonic counterpart to speaking in tongues. I know of both witch doctors and spiritistic mediums who are able to speak in foreign languages while in ecstasies or in a trance. I can give you an example of this from Australia. A missionary friend of mine with whom I once worked, told me of an incident he knew about where six tribal witch doctors, following a long ceremonious procedure, finally began to speak in foreign languages with voices not their own. If I had the time I could go on to describe further characteristic differences between psychoses and possession. The conflict one meets with possessed people involve realms which transcend rational thought and understanding.

Finally, I personally believe that tongues have ceased.  The reason I believe that all tongues spoken today is a counterfeit is based on simple logic and basic commonsense. I found that as I conducted research for the book “the fake Jesus,”  tongues actually DID cease as Paul told the Corinthians that they would.  History reveals that tongues ceased for 19 centuries. Think about it. No Christian needed or ever heard of “a prayer language” for 1900 years!!!!!.

Why did tongues cease?

Well, simply put, its purpose had been fulfilled.

Here is a quote from the Fake Jesus: Fallen Angels Among Us.

“God Himself brought forth many languages to hinder the building of the tower of Babel. In Genesis 11, we read that because of the people’s rebellion, God confused the language of all the earth so that the people would not be able to understand each other’s speech, How ironic and counter-rebellious on the part of Maitreya. As Satan’s representative of endtimes, Maitreya plans to do just the opposite in Mystery Babylon, which includes the organized church.  Maitreya’s goal is to cause all who speak in different tongues to hear him in ONE tongue. This is a complete reversal of God’s actions to hinder the tower of Babel. This is blasphemy to the nth degree.  Anyone who does not close the door to self-induced passivity is at risk of becoming reprobate.”

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