When I was a little boy growing up in Salisbury, Rhodesia, I remember my mother singing lots of her favourite love songs while she was busy in the kitchen, and I heard them while I was outside playing with my toys. Songs like: When it’s Springtime in the Rockies, A kiss is still a kiss as time goes by, I’m an old cowhand from the Rio Grande, On the Isle of Capri, Down Mexico way, Be a little forgiving take me back in your heart, I’ll be loving you always, Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me, and many, many more.
Then she got saved, and sang songs like: The lily of the valley, I tried the broken cisterns Lord, and Happy day that fixed my choice, etc. Then she wanted to get filled with the Holy Spirit, and as the preacher was on his way to pray for her, my brother and I were naughty, and she spanked us, and ended up in a very bad mood. When Pastor Price prayed for her she went into some kind of dream where she was in the sea, and the waves were coming over her. Then she felt she had drowned. (When she was young her daddy drowned in Illovo Beach, South Africa, while saving a girl from drowning).
Then it seemed like, far away someone was speaking in tongues. That person just kept on and on speaking in tongues for a long time. Then she got curious as to who was doing that. When she woke up, she found it was herself speaking in tongues, and she was lying on the floor! The pastor said she had a mighty baptism in the Holy Ghost.
Many years later when we were having house meetings in Bulawayo, every now and then she would speak in tongues, and expect someone to do the interpretation. But there was no interpretation. When I was a teenager I remember going with my mother to a ‘Keswick’ meeting somewhere outside of Bulawayo. There were about a hundred people there from all different churches. Then during prayer time, mother started speaking in tongues! I thought: “No mother, don’t do that here! These people don’t believe in that sort of thing!”
After the meeting, when we were outside, I remember seeing Pastor Bob Beatty speaking to my mother. He was a missionary from America. She told me later that he was asking her what languages she spoke, etc. Apparently she was speaking in some African language that he had learnt, to minister to a particular tribe in Rhodesia. Some years later, in the early 70’s, I remember Bob Beatty inviting me to sing at a mission station somewhere near Gwelo.
In the late 70’s I remember Pastor Marks inviting me to sing at his church outside of Que Que. I remember the church building being next to the main road between Bulawayo and Salisbury. There were banana palms behind the church, and the pastor’s house behind the banana palms. Before going to that church, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me the words of the Apostle Paul in the Bible. “Let him that speaketh in tongues, pray that he might interpret.” (1 Corinthians 14:13). Then I realized that my mother should have asked the Lord for the interpretations when she spoke in tongues. She had the anointing on her, so it was her responsibility to do the interpretations as well, and not expect someone else to do it.
In one of the meetings, I invited people to come forward for healing. I seem to recall there were six people. The last person I prayed for was a woman. I laid my hands on her shoulders and prayed for her. Then she started speaking in tongues. So I said to her: “Now, give the interpretation.” There was a bit of a silence. Then she said: “The Lord has forgiven your sins.”
Straight after that I gave an invitation for people to received Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and about twelve people came forward.
The next morning, my wife and I were sitting in their living room talking to Pastor Marks, when the phone rang. We heard half the conversation. Apparently some woman who was in the service the night before, was asking Pastor Marks what languages the other woman spoke when I prayed for her. He explained that she spoke English and a bit of the local African language, then he asked her why she was inquiring. She said that last night the woman spoke in Hellenic, and with her being Greek, she understood what she was saying. So he asked her what she had said, and she replied that she spoke in Hellenic, then she said the same thing over again in English!
So Pastor Marks explained to her what happened on the day of Pentecost, how the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke in various languages the people knew, who had come to Jerusalem from all different parts of the world. (Acts chapter 2, in the Bible).
Many times since then, the devil has attacked me, telling me that my sins are not forgiven. Beloved, the devil is a liar. Keep serving God, as best as you know how, and we’ll meet again on the streets of gold, in a land where we’ll never grow old!