Ray Found Clarity Through the Word of God

When I was about 12 years old (1950/51I) I played cricket with other kids on the Mornington Beach, Victoria. One day we went inside a large tent filled with seats, some older kids talked to me, but I don’t remember now what they said, but no doubt, they were talking about the Lord. Later in the New Year, I was in our back yard yelling out “Glory Hallelujah” because I did love the Lord, and a gibberish language flowed out of my mouth, I didn’t know what it was at that time. My brother Pat called me and as I spoke to him, that same gibberish came out. He hit me across the ear and said “Stop your gibberish and wash up for lunch”. I became a much happier person I know that, nothing worried me, but I didn’t associate it with the gibberish language I had just spoken.

When I grew up, I was sick of the Catholic Church. I hated the idols, when I’d look at them I‘d cringe. When I had a shave, I used to look in the mirror and say, “Lord, grant me strength to see the day through” and at night as I brushed my teeth I would say “Thanks Lord”. I always knew that someone was looking after me, and my family. I only had about 50% of hearing in my right ear so when I asked customers for their details I’d always have to look at their faces. Some days, as I went to ask how to spell names, this gibberish would flow out. They would look at me startled! My reply would be “Sorry about that but every now and then I get tongue-tied and my words come out jumbled up”. This gibberish would just happen, not because of any particular reason...

When two men from the Revival Fellowship presented the Gospel message to me they said, “Believers would speak in tongues”. My ears pricked up so I invited them in. Then they showed me from the Bible God’s salvation message. I went to meetings for about 5 weeks and got baptized on 21st October 1984. I still didn’t associate hearing speaking in tongues, with that gibberish language I spoke. God answered my prayers spoken in English many times for healings and other family needs. Then on the 13th December 1985, I was praying for the Holy Spirit, as I had done many times over that year, and I spoke in a fluent very different tongue! It was several weeks later when I was talking to Lois that my new fluent tongue just flew out of my mouth; she wasn’t interested so I just bit my tongue. Then a few minutes later, it happened again and Lois said, “stop that rubbish and speak English” All of a sudden it went BANG! “Hey that’s what the gibberish language I had was!”. That’s what happened to me when I was 12 years old! That was GREAT! Now I really enjoy doing it! Praise the Lord.

Ray is a member of The Revival Fellowship - Adelaide, South Australia