Later on, at the Faith Bible School, I was being taught another form of aggressive speaking in tongues directed against the devil. These “war-tongues” were of a totally different nature to what I experienced out there in the woods in 1982. What I learned now was an ability I had not had before. On one occasion someone laid hands on me just over the navel (that is where the spirit is supposed to reside). After that, I began an intense stream of “war-tongues.” In addition, I received a special word in my war-tongues which I had not had before. I felt as though a kind of power had been transferred to me from the person who laid hands on me.
The other speaking in tongues which I had directed towards God (though it had often become rather aimless) was also changing character now. Sometimes, it became as though an engine was being started. “The engine” would start if I had forced myself to speak in tongues for some hours, and once I had got it started, it would run by itself.
Since I have come out of these things, I have not had any particular problems in getting rid of this compulsive speaking in tongues. There was a period when I stopped speaking in tongues altogether, and I would only pray with words I understood. Since then, I have slowly come back to a quiet speaking in tongues when I feel the urge to thank God in this way. But I will never again force myself to speak in tongues.
I have met others who have had problems later on because they had abused the gift of tongues. One young fellow told me that he began to get compulsive words that kept coming to him repeatedly. This frightened him because he felt it was something blasphemous. These compulsive words kept coming if he spoke in tongues.
Another young man told me that speaking in tongues would force itself upon him against his will. It was as if “the engine” started up on its own accord, and he felt terribly uncomfortable about the whole thing. Another time, I met a former fellow student from the Faith Bible school who was being pulled in two directions between a hard Faith-position and another much softer personality. Suddenly, he made a definite decision and went all out and took his stand as one of the Faith movement. He started the above-mentioned kind of speaking in tongues and immediately he became so hardened, that he was practically inhuman. It was completely impossible to get through to him, and he had become hardened to the point that normal feelings of compassion seemed to have vanished.
This type of misuse of speaking in tongues is likely to postpone recovery for an ex-member. However, refraining from tongues is a most scary proposition for many ex-members. They have been indoctrinated into believing that their spiritual, mental and physical well-being is highly dependent on speaking in tongues regularly and a lot. I was scared myself that there would be nothing stopping the devil from attacking me head-on unless I did my regular speaking in tongues.
Later I realised that an unsound speaking in tongues is no protection against the devil anyway. Upon stopping the misuse of tongues, what did hit me more than anything else were the thoughts and feelings which I had repressed by the misuse of tongues. As they have to be sorted out sooner or later anyway, a continued misuse of tongues will only delay a healing process. I believe that any true gift of God may be rekindled later, when the person has been healed and has matured in spiritual discernment.
