Ramah and alah
Long before I discovered what
was in my son's textbook, or 9/11, or BlessedCause, before I even knew
what Islam was, I wrote the following.
Please be forgiving about the following.
It was only written for myself, though a few close friends read it at
the time. I wanted to correct typos, rearrange it, etc., but if
I did that it wouldn't be exactly what I wrote long ago.
***************
Ramah and Alah
Aug 2000.... I am soooo
amazed... The things God has been showing me. It started back on July
27th, when an online friend, Dodge, insisted once again that God was
impressing him that I needed to speak in tongues. I talked with him on
the phone and he prayed over me, and my jaw hurt SO bad. This was
embarrassing to me because I felt like, "is this the enemy holding my
jaw or my resistance to the Lord?" neither one I wanted to think was a
possibility. The next day I explained it to Joy as I called her with
the prayer requests. We prayed over the prayers, and my jaw hurt
really bad again. She prayed over me, pain. I called Nellie, we had a
long conversation about tongues. She and Joy both explained to me that
to talk in tongues, one must take the first step in faith and start. I
had always held that if God gave me the gift of tongues, I wouldn't be
able to stop myself from speaking it. But the pain in my jaw clearly
indicated I could be wrong. When Nellie prayed over me it hurt as
well. So once again, I got before the Lord and said, "Lord, I'm going
to do this, but I don't want to do this by myself so please come upon
me quickly" (also lifted up my current burdens first)... I opened my
mouth and began, hating it, because the last thing I want to do is
"fake it"; I was not prepared for what happened. My mind was flooded
with an image as the words came out in song. It was millions and
millions of upstretched arms seeking with such a force and need and
grief and longing. My voice, though I was barely aware of it, sounded
so sweet and it was like all of these voices were crying out behind
it. It was so....POWERFUL. It rocked me. Through this vision was like
a thread that was so thin lacing through it, and it was sooooo sweet,
so thin but so overwhelmingly sweet, and I can't explain it but it had
a taste of sweetbread...I"m not kidding I can't explain it. Except for
the incredibly strong contrast of the sweet thread, the vision was
overwhelming grieving.... the need and seeking was so powerful and
washed over me and my body was shaking and weeping. Words were pouring
out of me but I couldn't even listen to them because I was so swept
away by it all. My grieving went so deep. This was NOT what I had
imagined talking in tongues would be. I had tried to talk in tongues
before, but it came out in song which turned into praise and I felt
that was failure and stopped. I was told by many that talking in
tongues was an interaction with the Lord that was stronger than that
awesome feeling you get when you praise Him with other believers in
church. And I got such intense grieving.
So I called Gary and Nellie an
emotional wreck when it was over. I could hardly get the words out at
first. Lol, Gary started to give me his standard talk to people who
first experience tongues..."Jen we all feel foolish when we first
speak in tongues..." Gary just wasn't getting it, I was SO beyond
being concerned that my words were just mine. Gary also felt that the
"sea" of people was my need to go after the lost... as though I was
one of those people that believed all these people needed me
personally.
But I knew this sea of people, the multitudes, were
also from ages past. I think it was the whole body of Christ, past and
present. It felt like a vision I had long ago, standing on a bridge
over 101 on Santa Rosa St. I was watching trucks and cars coming down
the valley to the bridge beneath me, and suddenly the cars and trucks
looked like horses and carts and people walking on a road... like the
Exodus of people from Israel. I want to add camels but I dont clearly
remember seeing any. This vision I saw of upstretched arms, felt like
that vision, people from ages past.
Anyway it calmed me down, talking with Gary. And he gave me 1 Cor.
14:15 which says: "What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the
spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with
the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding."
This
comforted me greatly because I couldn't understand that I couldn't
"talk" in tongues. It always comes in song. Dale told me later that
people have to enter the inner court of the temple in song and
praise...
The next morning I felt a need to sing again, but apprehensive. I
don't like huge emotional grieving experiences. But I started singing,
and it was like a river coming out of me that flowed back and forth
from me to from the Spirit to from me to from the Spirit, I could
really tell the difference. And I realized I had had to sacrifice my
pride in order to do it. My pride did NOT want to find myself talking
gibberish. But it's obviously done in obedience when I do it. I don't
understand it but it's clearly so powerful.
This second time was so much sweeter.
There was something so...illuminated about each person I prayed for
and saw in my mind. And the words swirled softly around them and fell
on their heads and shoulders like gentle snowflakes. It was AWESOME.
And I was filled with such a love for each one, even my enemies.
MEANWHILE again, I'm singing in tongues, and
I noticed a word keeps coming up that I feared sounded like "alla".
Knowing this is some false god of the Muslims or somewhere, I try to
look it up in Hebrew... know what I found? Where the sound of it is
written as (aw-law)... is the Hebrew word alah*, the title of this
whole thing....which means "to bewail, lament" Exactly what I had a
mental image of in my first encounter in tongues! Exactly what Jer.
6:26 is about.
Problem is, another definition of the word
was to curse. At first I just focused on the lament part because
that's what happened, but it bothered me that the definition included
cursing, and who wants to curse?
Weeks later, I looked up the second word seemed to have a meaning to
it...a word I kept saying and knew it was significant. Word was ramah.
It's the feminine word of "a peal of thunder; the mane of a horse (as
quivering in the wind) - thunder." I guess it kind of freaks me
because when I think of what I said to that atheist, I've referred to
it often as "calling down fire." Alah and ramah are the only two words
I was saying in tongues that I looked up. Ever. I had tried to look up
Eloheim long ago under different circumstances. Couldn't find it.
Aside from those, I've never just looked up the sound of a Hebrew
word.
This is only the start...
[At the time I really didn't like the word "Alah"
sneaking into my prayer language. I knew that word was
considered some kind of god of a different religion and tried to
resist saying it, but couldn't when praying. Only after I
finally looked it up in Hebrew did it cease. No, I was not
praying to Allah, but I believe something was being communicated in
the Spirit about what was about to happen regarding Islam and the
textbooks. Now it all makes sense.]
*Update 4/10/12 - Details regarding
Hebrew word alah
H421
אלה
'âlâh
aw-law'
A primitive root (rather identical with H422 through the idea of
invocation); to bewail: - lament.
H422
אלה
'âlâh
aw-law'
A primitive root; properly to adjure, that is, (usually in a bad
sense) imprecate: - adjure, curse, swear.
It is only used one time in the Old Testament
"Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her
youth." (Joel 1:8)
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