Paper Pentecostals

There is something special about authentically speaking in tongues by the Holy Ghost. He is doing it, not you. The person speaking in tongues contributes no control or direction to what is being said; his or her mouth, lips, tongue, etc., are moved by an invisible agent. Yes, you probably get there through an emotional ecstasy, but in that ecstasy there is a divorce between your control over your voice mechanism, which is relinquished, and the Spirit's use, which is picked up. The Pentecostal speaks, but is not the one speaking. He or she sits as a witness to it, not the performer.

A tongue speaker who self-manufactures his or her own babbling is, well, not much more than a wannabe. Still has to find the contrition, the humility, the horror of his or her rebellion and usurpation of God's lordship over their lives, i.e., His life that is animating them. When they surrender and submit to Him and are accepted by Him, the appropriate gift will come.