Good morning to you all. i have been confused about this issue of speaking in tongues. As a christian i initially believed dt speaking in tongues is a divine gift dt a believer recieves from God/Holy Spirit. But on friday, i was listening to the radio wen a pastor was preaching, and he said dt if u spend 3 to 4 hours speaking in tongues for atleast 1 week,dt u'll learn hw to speak in tongues.

The other day, a crusade was held near my house nd the pastors were praying in tongues nd then a group of hausa cobblers dt came to buy food stuffs infront of my house started laughing. When we asked them why they were laughing, they then pointed out dt some of the things dt those pastors were speaking is there hausa dialect..i was like seriously!

Now my questions are...Is speaking in tongues a divine gift or is it something u just learn?. Secondly, is der mabey,a book or guide dt a xtian can read nd den becomes an expert in speaking in tongues? Finaly,wt do u undstnd by speakng in tongues?

cc: lalasticala,seun

WalterEmmanuel:
Good morning to you all. i have been confused about this issue of speaking in tongues. As a christian i initially believed dt speaking in tongues is a divine gift dt a believer recieves from God/Holy Spirit. But on friday, i was listening to the radio wen a pastor was preaching, and he said dt if u spend 3 to 4 hours speaking in tongues for atleast 1 week,dt u'll learn hw to speak in tongues.

The other day, a crusade was held near my house nd the pastors were praying in tongues nd then a group of hausa cobblers dt came to buy food stuffs infront of my house started laughing. When we asked them why they were laughing, they then pointed out dt some of the things dt those pastors were speaking is there hausa dialect..i was like seriously!

Now my questions are...Is speaking in tongues a divine gift or is it something u just learn?. Secondly, is there mabey,a book or guide dt a christian can read nd then becomes an expert in speaking in tongues? Finally,wat do u understnd by speaking in tongues?

cc:lalasticala

Speaking in tongues is a gift from God, that is not learnt or taught, any preacher that does such is a fake!
The utterances that are made are given by the spirit and unknown to the speaker, the speaker just looses his tongue and speak Acts 2:4. That may also interest you to known that science agrees with speaking in tongues. Check this out:

The passionate, sometimes rhythmic, language-like patter that pours forth from religious people who “speak in tongues” reflects a state of mental possession, many of them say. Now they have some neuroscience to back them up.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania took brain images of five women while they spoke in tongues and found that their frontal lobes — the thinking, willful part of the brain through which people control what they do — were relatively quiet, as were the language centers. The regions involved in maintaining self-consciousness were active. The women were not in blind trances, and it was unclear which region was driving the behavior.

The images, appearing in the current issue of the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, pinpoint the most active areas of the brain. The images are the first of their kind taken during this spoken religious practice, which has roots in the Old and New Testaments and in Pentecostal churches established in the early 1900s. The women in the study were healthy, active churchgoers.

[size=19pt]“The amazing thing was how the images supported people’s interpretation of what was happening,” said Dr. Andrew B. Newberg[/size], leader of the study team, which included Donna Morgan, Nancy Wintering and Mark Waldman. “The way they describe it, and what they believe, is that God is talking through them,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/health/07brain.html?_r=0

By the way, I speak in tongues.