I was re-reading a College Edition of Voice Magazines published in October 1966, the early years of the FGBMFI. On pages 6-7 and 28 of that issue is the testimony of William Oberg, a spirit-filled Instructor in Education and Director of the Audio-Visual Center at Wheaton College. The article states: “One evening, alone at home, after reading the Word, I launched out by faith and began to speak and the Holy Spirit wonderfully gave me utterance in a new language. I cannot overstate the blessing and the value of this new dimension in prayer.”
“Since December 1965, I have come to know what it means to ‘do what comes supernaturally.’ The Word of God has become my constant diet. My prayer life has become revolutionized. Jesus Christ has become more real than any earthly friend. Again and again I have seen the value of the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church. Having been born again in 1952, I am now beginning to live by the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit even as Paul urged the Galatian Christians. What freedom and release there is in the Spirit!”
What blessed me about William Oberg’s testimony about being gloriously baptized in the Holy Spirit is that he had just read the Word. The Word emboldened him to speak in new, unknown tongues while alone in his house. He and his wife received the baptism in the Holy Spirit as a result of the study of the Word of God because they did not know any “Pentecostals.” There was no laying on of hands, no struggling, no striving, no arguments for or against. They believed that God’s plan for their lives included the manifestation of praying in tongues. The Lord allowed them to witness many transformed lives on their campus as students reached out by faith and they, too, were baptized with the Spirit and power directly by God.
Do not hesitate to pray in tongues at all times. Pray in tongues, today! God wants to bless you, so go pray some more.
Terry H Peters DC
09/24/2007