Filled with the Spirit - UBM [David Eells]

Believe me, I won't send you another long email like this one. I have basically let out a whole bunch of things that were heavy on my heart to tell you personally. Thank you for taking time out to read what is heavy on my heart. Now, go back to work so I can share in your fruit for Christ (smile) until I am where you are ... maybe not with the same exact gift, but with some gift, whatever it is, besides singleness. Through your ministry, for the very first time, I see "speaking in tongues" in a new light (the way God's Spirit prays for you and through you according to God's will and according to what He knows is best for you), and am praying to receive that gift in such a way that I know it's not me making noises on purpose, but that it's truly God's Spirit.

God will fill you with His Spirit and gifts. Trust Him.

Love and blessings,
David

NOW FOR A BRIEF UPDATE (9/26/08): Brother David, I had been praying earnestly, almost to the point of tears, to receive the Spirit's gift of praying in tongues like I had never asked Him before. I had always said, "God, if it is Your will that I speak in tongues"... because of the way I was taught to interpret [1COR. 12:7-13], but now, I was asking, seeking and knocking, knowing for certain that it is God's will that ALL of His flock pray in tongues; and the Scripture which God gave me to put me at total peace in knowing that He is not going to permit my flesh to utter noises on purpose, as I feared it would, but that He would manifest the genuine gift to me was [LUKE 11:11-13]. At that moment, I stopped waiting on God to move my lips, and just moved them by faith myself, letting out whatever would come out, with no regard for what was said. I knew from then on that my Father would never give me a serpent or a scorpion (or a fleshly utterance) in place of the genuine gift of the Holy Spirit if I would only let go of such a thought. What followed after submitting my thoughts totally to this conviction was a high level of excitement and anticipation that was built up in me, followed by a few sounds, followed by a prayer in tongues which seemed to be repeated sound patterns initially, but later, more and more variable.

Approximately one week later, after I began to KNOW without a doubt that I was indeed praying in tongues and not just making fleshly noise, it was during a time of praying in tongues that my mind suddenly shifted to my two credit cards, and I had the sudden urge to grab them (one was in my car, so I had to go out late at night and get it), tear them to pieces, bring their balances to $0, and call to cancel them both -- something I had been hesitant to do for over a year until that moment. Now, I will never use a credit card again.

A few days later, I testified to a friend of mine that I had received the gift of praying in tongues, knowing from {LUKE 11:11-13} that God would never give me poison if I ask Him for the Holy Spirit. I had previously told him, a few weeks prior to this, when he asked me, "What do you think about speaking in tongues?" that I was learning more and more about it from UBM and beginning to earnestly desire it ever since I heard for the very first time that it is the Holy Spirit who, knowing exactly what I need and what the perfect will of my Father is for me, prays for me and through me in a perfect prayer of faith which my Father imputes to me and answers by granting every petition prayed for without the interference of my doubtful fleshly mind. I told him that the way you explained praying in tongues to me suddenly made it worth more than all of the riches in the world which no Pentecostal had ever explained that way before to me, except to tell me, "If you have never spoken in tongues, then you have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit". It was not enough for me to hear that, for it only served to create a defensiveness in me that said, "This doctrine is what makes Pentecostalism its own separate denomination", for I had always been against denominations and any doctrine I concluded was not of God but of men who created the denominations with doctrinal error mixed into each and every one. This doctrine was one I wrongly labeled "error", though not as serious an "error" as "once saved, always saved", "pre-tribulation rapture", and some others.

The purposes for this priceless gift of praying in tongues, as you shared, were exactly what I needed to hear to cause me to renounce my rejection of it and to suddenly and passionately cry out to God for it! Truthfully, I probably had this gift for a long time, but just never exercised it except once or twice without faith while in "defensive mode", but never exercised again, afraid that I was only making noise to impress those who were praying that I would receive "the Spirit's baptism with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues". From then on, I thought, "I will never make a sound like that again unless Your Spirit forces my mouth to speak". It never happened that way, and so I went on for many years without that gift until now. Tonight (a week later) for the first time, I listened to your audio, "The Holy Spirit and Tongues", and you are teaching things which I never took time to learn before -- things which I will be certain to present to others who are perhaps where I was. You did not display the same "elite" attitude which I received from the Pentecostal people who were there to tell me what I could not possibly have (the baptism of the Holy Spirit) unless I spoke in tongues. One of these ladies, whom I had not seen in four years since working with her at a local retail store, used to approach me often, for about a year, asking me, "Chris, have you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues yet?" I recently ran into her (about three weeks ago, before I first prayed in tongues), and at the right time too, because I was able to share with her that God had been unlocking multitudes of truths to me regarding these end-times, the latter rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and multitudes of other truths, including (this one I saved for last, for I knew how much it would excite her) the gift of praying in tongues. She was in a hurry, so she took down my phone number and gave me hers, and tonight before typing this email, she called me and I testified to her that God poured out the gift upon me. When she asked me, "Who taught you about it?" I replied, "I never heard it presented in such a way as Brother David Eells, at UnleavenedBreadMinistries.org, presented it, and I desired it earnestly like I never desired it before". Glory be to Jesus! I pray that God will help me to testify to her in such a way that I come across as Christ would to her, and not as one who would say, "You should have presented it to me this way!"

I pray that God will make me careful not to cite a denominational creed, but to actually cite the Scriptures while explaining the purposes of the gift so that those who hear will know this is not something to go without. Why would anybody not earnestly desire the prayers of God's Spirit, Who sees what we need and prays in such a way that God will impute His prayers to us as perfect prayers of faith every time??? And after seeing how much the Spirit's prayers benefit us, why would anyone then not "pray without ceasing"???

Anyway, God has added to your ministry's fruit by teaching me what I needed to know before I would earnestly hunger for His gift and believe {LUKE 11:11-13}. By the way, speaking of {LUKE 11:11-13}, it was God Himself who gave me that Scripture, not you. Tonight, two weeks later, I am hearing an audio from you where you mention that Scripture, and I am saying, "There's my confirmation!" All glory belongs to Jesus for sending me to you, my UBM family! I had to testify!

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