CHANTS OR RANTS? - by Sammy Góld

One Sunday, during a powerful prayer session, a brother suddenly stood up. He closed his eyes. Raised both hands. Started shaking his head. Then came the sound. “Shalalalalalalalalalalala... rrrrrrrr... kashandabaraba... shaaaa!” The brother was going hard. Very hard. The person beside him moved away. The person behind him started looking at him. One sister whispered, “This brother has entered another realm.” Another person shouted, “Receive it!” And because church people can be very supportive, someone even started praying harder because the brother had apparently raised the spiritual temperature of the entire room. Then, after several minutes, he suddenly stopped. Opened his eyes. And quietly asked the brother beside him: “Abeg, which prayer point are we on?” Funny? Yes. But it also raises a serious question. What exactly are we doing when we pray? Before anyone misunderstands me, I am not saying speaking in tongues is fake. I believe spiritual manifestations can be genuine, and I am not here to tell anyone that their personal experience with God is automatically false. But we need wisdom. Because not every sound made during an intense prayer session is necessarily a spiritual language. Sometimes people become emotional. Sometimes they become carried away by the atmosphere. Sometimes they imitate what they have heard other people do. And sometimes, if we are being completely honest, some people simply don't know what they are doing. The problem is that we have created an environment where questioning anything spiritual can make you look like you don't have faith. So everyone keeps quiet. Someone starts shouting. Another person joins. Then another. Before long, the prayer meeting sounds like a competition of who can produce the most dramatic spiritual vocabulary. And everybody is shouting: “The Spirit is moving!” But is He? That is where discernment becomes important. Christianity does not teach us to switch off our minds because we are in a spiritual atmosphere. The Bible itself teaches believers to test things. Because something can look powerful and still be misunderstood. Something can sound spiritual and still be emotional. And something can be genuine without needing to become a performance. You don't have to scream louder than everyone else for God to hear you. You don't have to shake violently for your prayer to be powerful. You don't have to produce unfamiliar sounds because the person beside you is doing it. And you certainly don't need to manufacture a spiritual experience because you are afraid of looking ordinary. God is not asking you to impress the congregation. He is asking for your heart. Because what is the point of shouting for thirty minutes in church and spending the next six days living completely opposite to what you prayed? What is the point of sounding spiritual in public while privately refusing to forgive? What is the point of speaking about the Spirit while lacking the character the Spirit produces? Maybe we need to stop asking only, “How powerful did the prayer sound?” And start asking, “What kind of person did the prayer produce?” Because genuine spirituality should eventually become visible in your life. Your prayer should affect your attitude. Your worship should affect your character. Your encounter with God should affect the way you treat people. So yes, pray passionately. Cry if you need to. Shout if that is genuinely your expression. Speak in tongues if you genuinely have that gift. But don't copy another person's experience just because everyone is watching. And don't laugh at someone simply because their expression is different from yours either. Discernment is better than mockery. Because sometimes it may be a genuine spiritual experience. Sometimes it may be emotion. Sometimes it may be imitation. And sometimes, honestly... it may just be Brother Tunde forgetting which prayer point we are on. (Funny) The goal is not to sound spiritual. The goal is to genuinely know God. ©️ Sammy Góld

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