“This is so, because I do not then understand what the Holy Spirit is praying through me. At that time, I am only praying ‘spirit-ually’ — but not understanding-ly! For then, I am merely a non-understanding alias a mind-less tool of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, it is not really me at all that is then doing the praying. But it is the Holy Spirit Who is then praying — in me, and through me, and in spite of me.”
Oral Roberts’s misinterpretation of I Cor. 14:13-14
Oral Roberts was a world-famous Classic Pentecostalist leader at the time he turned Neo-Pentecostalist and joined the liberal Methodist Church. Declares Roberts: “When one uses his new tongue through the Spirit’s utterance, he cannot speak in his own normal tongue at the same time. Paul gives us the sense of this in I Corinthians 14:14, ‘For if I pray in an unknown tongue my spirit prayeth but my understanding is unfruitful.’ Paul indicates here that when one prays in tongues…, his intellect relinquishes active control of the speech centers….
