A Testimony By Charles P. Mawungwa

Yes, you read correctly. It’s a testimony about how someone taught me, to speak in tongues.

Background

From an early age, I could dream dreams, discern spirits and hear God in many ways. But I had never spoken in tongues and I didn’t really give it much thought, anyways. I even had the disturbing experience of witnessing a so-called prophet speak in powerful sounding tongues to a mermaid spirit that he said, gave him his powers. 

In fact, I was really concerned by some of the tongues I heard in some of these churches, and the idea that there were some pastors who claimed to ‘teach’ people to speak in tongues really bothered me. How can you teach someone a gift of the spirit. It comes when it comes, and if it doesn’t come it doesn’t come. Right.

Around 2010, I had a dream where the Lord said, go to South Africa on Tuesday and come back on Thursday. Nothing was said beyond that. So on Tuesday, I took a bus to South Africa, and arrived there Wednesday Morning. And that night while I slept, I had a dream where someone laid hands on me and I began to speak in tongues in the dream. 

The voice of the Lord then spoke in that dream, concerning how mightily I would move in that gift. I woke up the next morning, and took a bus back to Zimbabwe. Having travelled all that way, I had expected something more spectacular than a dream, but, I guess the Lord has his ways. I was glad for the dream and the promise, but I still could did not speak in tongues. I did not seek for it. I thought, It will come, when it comes.

How I Received Tongues

In 2015, I went to visit my brother in Christ, and fellow partner in ministry, brother Gabriel Dziya. We used to meet often for fellowship, at his house and at my house. This time I had gone to his house.

So he says to me, “Do you want to speak in tongues?”

I’m like, “I guess. I wouldn’t mind”

Then he said, “You are going to speak in tongues today”

I’m like, “Okay. If you say so”

Look, I am that guy who has never fallen down under the anointing. I have felt the anointing, but never enough to throw me down. And I am not going to fall down just to make the person praying for me feel better. If God wants me down, then let him be the one to bring me down. I know Gabriel is very spiritual and mightily used, but, we’ll see.

So I say, “How do you want to do this?”

He told me that he was going to speak in tongues, and I wold have to repeat after him.

I was like, Oh-oh. Turns out my friend is one of those people who teaches people to speak in tongues. I never liked those guys.

He then explains to me about two methods by which people can receive impartations of the gift of tongues. He told me that one method was by laying on hands, but in one of his heavenly visions he had witnessed a second way of imparting tongues and the Holy Spirit had told him to use it on those people who do not easily respond to the anointing. I am paraphrasing. He also said, when we get to heaven, some saints would actually be taught to speak many other languages by this method of impartation. 

He told me that He would speak a word in tongues, and I would repeat that word, then he speaks another, and I repeat the next word, one at a time and after that, I would begin to speak in tongues.

I understood enough of the word to know that the gift of the spirit can be received by faith through impartations of the laying on of hands, such as in Samaria, or through hearing the word such as in the house of Cornelius. Jesus did say his words were spirit and life, so words can be used to impart spirit. So I got it. It made sense to me.

But spiritual impartations are a big deal. How well did I really know Gabriel. Could I really trust him enough to allow him to minister the spirit to me in such a way.

How I Met Gabriel

I had met Gabriel in a Christian inter-denominational WhatsApp group where doctrinal debates were always heated. I noted that brother Gabriel spoke with some authority on tongues to the extend that when people started posting tongues and asked him to interpret, he began to share the interpretations on the group. But I asked myself, How do I know, that his interpretation is true? How can anyone know?

So I decided to test his gift of interpretation. Scripture says test every spirit, so I test every spirit even the one on me. So I went on the internet and looked for a clip where a certain prophet was casting out a demon and the demon was speaking in tongues. I figured, whether or not this prophet is true or false, the tongues are still fake and/or demonic. So I removed the video, extracted a 15 second audio of the tongues, and said.. brother may you also interpret those tongues. He said, his spirit was failing to connect to those tongues, and that the person speaking them needed deliverance. He passed the test. We later became the best of friends. 

Back to Receiving

Now I was standing before him. A year later. We had grown to know and trust each other in the word and in spiritual things.

He said, “Are you ready”

I said, “I am ready.”

He began to speak in tongues, one word at a time, and I began to repeat the words he was saying. After about a minute of this something happened.

Generally when I pray, I don’t just pray…. I focus on what I want to pray about and then I listen. I listen to my spirit. When I listen I hear words rising from my spirit and those words are the words that I catch on-to and use in prayer. So many times my prayers can be prophetic, in that I will pray for things I did not know about, before I started praying.

However in this instance, I began to hear two streams of words flowing from my belly and out on to my tongue, instead of one. The first one, was the regular English words, and the second one coming out of my spirit was in an unknown language. Brother Gabriel was still speaking and I was still following after him. And then I noticed something, I would hear a word in my spirit, and that would be the next word that he would say. I could now predict the next word that he would say.

So I smiled and said to him, “I can now speak in tongues” So he said, Go ahead. So I listened to my spirit, and the two streams of words began to flow. I then connected to the stream which was in an unknown tongue and began to speak that out, and he connected and joined me in speaking the tongues.

It was exciting.

The Temptation

As I left his house, I continued to speak in tongues, and somehow the unction and voice of the Holy Spirit felt more magnified. The Holy Spirit then told me to visit a certain church. When I got into that church I went into the prayer room, and he began to tell me what each person was praying for, and what I should pray for them. It was amazing. He also showed me two people in there, whom he said were Satanists. They later visited me but that’s a story for another day.

As I went home, later that day, thoughts began to come into my head. These thoughts were unsettling and took away peace from my heart. 

As I was enjoying myself, beginning to experiment and speak in diverse kinds of  tongues, a thought said, “What exactly are you saying in those tongues?”

I paused. “Do you really know what you are saying? What if you are actually praising Satan? How can you be sure that this is of God?” 

They were very strong thoughts and I suddenly just felt this fear and immerse doubt. “How do I know If I am not praising Satan in these tongues?” So I could not continue speaking. I just stopped, and said I will process it later.

The next day, I began to pray and somehow, I could no longer sense that second stream of tongues. For the next few days, during the nights I experienced some nightly visitations from those Satanists I had encountered. But ultimately defeated them, and leant a whole other lesson in the process.

However, the tongues seemed to be gone. Even when later I would try to speak them, they would not come. So I just left it alone and went about with my life.

The Lesson and Result

A week later, as I was sleeping I heard a voice speaking. 

He said, “Stir up the gift that is in you, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind” These words were repeated over and over.

I knew there was verse that speaks of stirring the gift, and I knew there was a verse that speaks of not receiving a spirit of fear, but I did not know that they were directly connected.

The Holy Spirit then began to speak and said, “When Paul wrote this to Timothy, it was because Timothy was going through the same problem that you are going through now. He was afraid to use the gift that he had received through impartation and as a result, the spirit of fear had quenched his gift. Stir up the gift that is in you.”

I was shocked. I had to check the scriptures to see if this message was consistent with the written word. No matter how marvellous a revelation is, if it is not consistent with scripture, I have to discard it, because Jesus said, ’scripture can not be broken’.

I opened my bible and searched and found the scripture.

1 Timothy 2:6-7

6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Oh, so those verses are actually connected. And Timothy had received an impartation of a spiritual gift from Paul. And he needed to stop giving in to the spirit of fear, but to stir up the gift.

I understood clearly. So those thoughts that came and filled me with fear and doubt, those were coming from the Spirit of Fear. That spirit had come to steal this gift from me and when I gave it a chance, it quenched the tongues from me.

So I got up and I prayed, I said, “Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, forgive me for despising your gift, and for acting out of doubt and fear rather than faith. By your grace, which you have given me, allow me to speak in tongues again”

Immediately I began to hear the stream of tongues coming, and I have spoken in tongues ever since.