GBILE AKANNI PROMOTES MYSTICISM

By Akin Ojumu

Clearly and explicitly, the Bible teaches that God wants us to worship Him by engaging every fiber of our being.

Matthew 22:37

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Despite this clarity in what the Bible says about the engagement of our heart, soul, and intellect in worshiping God, Brother Gbile Akanni teaches that the intellectual mind is a hindrance to us building up our inner man. In total contradiction to what the Bible teaches, the man claims that human understanding is an obstacle to our edification.

“It is the deliberate design of God that your inner man will engage with God without the interruption of human understanding to edify yourself, to improve yourself, to grow your muscles in the inner man. You don’t need interruption of people. You don’t even need the interruption of your intellectual mind. Because your intellectual mind does not build your inner man. Your intellectual mind only builds your physical outward man.”

What Gbile Akanni is saying in this video is a gross distortion of 1 Corinthians 12-14. This nonsense is not taught anywhere in the Bible. That this man would even have such a view of 1 Corinthians 14 is evidence that he lacks Biblical literacy.

In several places in 1 Corinthians 12-14, Apostle Paul makes it explicitly clear that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are meant to build up the whole Church and are not for building up our individual selves. God gave the gifts of the Holy Spirit for the common good and not for individual gratification.

Here are few Bible texts that speak to this truth about the purpose of the spiritual gifts.

1 Corinthians 12:7

“To each is given the manifestation of the spirit is for the common good.”

1 Corinthians 14:5

“Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.”

1 Corinthians 14:6

“Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?”

1 Corinthians 14:12

“So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.”

1 Corinthians 14:17

“For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.”

Let me be clear, the “speaking on tongues” Gbile Akanni is talking about in this video clip is not the biblical manifestation of the gift of tongues. What the man is teaching is the gibberish and babblings that the folks in the Pentecostal/Charismatic Movements erroneously call speaking in tongues. 

Biblically, the true gift of tongues is the ability to speak a human language that the person with the gift doesn't otherwise speak or understand. We see this in the first manifestation of the gift of tongues that occurred on the Day of Pentecost. This miraculous event is recorded in the Books of Acts. 

When the Holy Spirit came upon the Christians on that fateful day, the illiterate fishermen and tax collectors from the boondocks of Galilee who, hitherto, spoke only their native tongue started speaking in other languages to the amazement and astonishment of the natives who spoke those languages.

Acts 2:7-11

“And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians – we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

The entire theme of 1 Corinthians 12-14 is a condemnation of the abuse and misuse of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote the Corinthians because they had brought counterfeit spiritual gifts from their pagan religion into the Church of God. 

In order to accurately interpret 1 Corinthians 14, it’s important to understand that Paul was actually de-emphasizing the importance and usefulness of speaking in tongues while emphasizing the greater value and importance of prophesying.

Nowhere does the Bible tell us to suspend our intellectual mind in the walking of our faith. On the contrary, no one can attain the genuine Christian faith without the use of the intellectual faculties of the mind. Only New Age mysticism teaches that “it is the deliberate design of God that your inner man will engage with God without the interruption of human understanding.”

Romans 10:13-16

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.”

Salvation comes by hearing the Gospel preached. When the sinner hears the Gospel, he intellectually processes what’s preached. It’s by the cognitive evaluation of the message heard that the sinner is able to come to an understanding of what’s heard. Subsequently, understanding leads to a decision. While some decide to accept others choose not to. We see this process play out in the Parable of the Sower and the Ethiopian Eunuch.

Likewise, this exact same process is how the believer remains in the faith. Faith grows by the diligent study of Scripture. Spiritual maturity comes by cognitively knowing and intellectually comprehending the Word of God in the Bible.

Yet, Brother Gbile Akanni teaches a completely different gospel, which is no Gospel at all but Gnostic mysticism. That Gbile Akanni is promoting Gnosticism is evident when he said:

“So, when it comes to building the inner man, God deliberately provided that grace of the Holy Ghost. He said, “he who speaks in an unknown tongue does not speak to men.” He speaks to God. He speaks mysteries. He’s interacting with deep, deep, deep, deep secret truths. And it’s not meant for people. It’s meant for himself.”

Christianity is not mysticism. “Deep, deep, deep, deep secret truths” is what Gnostics teach. In Biblical Christianity, there are no hidden secrets or mysteries. Whatever mystery we need to know has already been revealed in Scriptures.

Colossians 1:24-26

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.”

God has given the believer everything he needs to live a full and fulfilled Christian life. And this comes through the knowledge of Him, i.e., the intellectual knowledge that comes by studying and understanding Scripture.

2 Peter 1:3

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”

The Bible is inspired by God. It’s all the Christian needs to build up himself spiritually. People like Gbile Akanni who seek “deep, deep, deep, deep secret truths” by engaging in babbling and speaking gibberish are only dabbling in New Age mysticism, New Thought shamanism, and Eastern occultism.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

False teachings and doctrinal errors are often subtle and difficult to detect, especially coming from a preacher for whom we have great respect. If you care at all about your soul, like a Berean, you’ll pay careful attention to the words that come out of the mouth of any preacher regardless of their prestige and stature. It’s the only way you are going to successfully guard your heart with all diligence.