Why the Holy Spirit Isn’t Afraid of Calvin: A Charismatic-Reformed Case for Manhattan

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By Al Ngu, MDiv (RTS Orlando)

While studying at Leicester University UK, I was invited by the Christian Union to a charismatic house church. There, I encountered experiences I had never known as a Christian: people speaking in tongues and prophesying. My friends and I—fellow believers—were eager to know whether we could receive these gifts and whether they were biblical. After studying Acts 2 together and hearing their explanation, we paired up, and they laid hands on us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The first time, I received nothing. But the second time, I felt the power of God come upon me. I began speaking in a strange tongue, overwhelmed with joy and peace.

Decades later, I found myself in an RTS New York City classroom during a History of Christianity lecture. Alongside a classmate, I spoke up in defense of the ongoing gifts of the Spirit, engaging a professor who held to cessationism. In those moments, we sensed the Spirit’s presence. Both experiences were real. Both were the work of the same Spirit.

The church need not choose between them.

For too long, charismatic and Reformed tribes have treated each other like rival street gangs. One side quotes 1 Corinthians 14; the other counters with Ephesians 4:11-13. Both miss the point: **the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 8:11) is the same Spirit who inspired the Westminster divines.** Congruence, not compromise, is the biblical answer.

My wife and I have planted three churches on two continents—each time watching prophecy sharpen strategy, tongues fuel prayer vigils, and healing anointings follow elder-led, expositionally-driven services. The pattern is clear: **Reformed theology guards the fire; charismatic fire spreads the theology.**

Yet Manhattan remains a spiritual desert for this synthesis. The island boasts 200+ evangelical congregations, but only a handful hold both the *sola scriptura* of Geneva and the *dunamis* of Pentecost. Young professionals stream into the city chasing ambition, only to discover Sunday services that are either theologically rich but experientially sterile—or experientially electric but theologically shallow. Both leave them hungry.

That’s why we’re praying to plant a reformed charismatic church in Midtown: a congregation where the five-fold ministry of Ephesians 4 equips every member, where expository preaching anchors Sunday gatherings, and where Friday-night prayer rooms expect the Spirit to interrupt with words of knowledge for the barista who just lost her mother. We want the CEO and the concierge to sit under the same elder-qualified teaching and the same manifest presence.

Critics will object. “Charismatics chase experience.” Fair—unless experience is tethered to the *regula fidei*. “Reformed types quench the Spirit.” Also fair—unless quenching means testing every spirit (1 John 4:1) under the authority of Scripture. The early Puritans practiced both: Jonathan Edwards catalogued the Northampton revival and wrote Religious Affections to discern true from false fire. We stand in that stream.

The book I’m writing argues from Scripture, history, and neuroscience that **the gifts and the doctrines are not rivals but dance partners.** Tongues without TULIP become emotionalism; TULIP without tongues becomes academic idolatry. Together, they form a gospel ecosystem where justification by faith fuels justice in the streets, and miracles magnify the God who ordains whatsoever comes to pass.

Manhattan needs this witness now. Post-pandemic anxiety, AI-driven loneliness, and cultural fragmentation have created a perfect storm for supernatural hope. Imagine a church where a hedge-fund analyst receives a prophetic word that leads to ethical reform in his firm—and sits under a 45-minute exposition of Romans 8. That’s the congregation we’re raising support to launch in 2026.

Will you pray? Will you give? Will you move? The Spirit who hovered over the waters still hovers over the Hudson—and He’s not afraid of Calvin.

*Al Ngu graduated with an MDiv from RTS Orlando in May, 2025. He and his wife have planted churches in Asia, and the U.S. Follow the journey at:

https://www.tiktok.com/@alngu2?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

YouTube UCrBq6n8KpEAgyfljEA0Wzzw ]

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Faith is the key that unlocks heaven’s storehouse.

/ Al Ngu, MDiv / Leave a comment

Mark 5:24–34 (ESV)

24 And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

The faith of this building woman healed her from her 12 years of bleeding problem as she touched Jesus’ rope. You know why? After pushing in in the midst of so many men and women in the state of being dirty and shameful and rejected by society because of her bleeding problem, Jesus saw her faith. It is her faith in Christ that gave her a strength encouraged to push through a crowd that would’ve rejected her. In spite of the social stigma because of bleeding, she overcame it and pushed it through, and Jesus saw that faith.

Why did Jesus say “Woman your faith has made you well?

And that’s why Jesus said woman it’s your faith that healed you. Of course it’s not only her faith alone because it is her faith Christ as the Savior & healer that opens the door of healing. Faith in God does not bring healing per se, but rather it is the faith in God that opens the door for Jesus to release the healing. Because without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Hebrews 11:1 (ESV)

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Faith is assurance of things we hope for, and the heart conviction of the things that we do not see yet. Conviction and assurance go hand in hand and there’s definitely the work of the Holy Spirit only know something achievable by human effort. We can preach we can exhort but deep down conviction and assurance comes only from God.

And without faith it is impossible to please God.

Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

And whoever would draw near to God must believe he exists and that he awards those who seek him. Our God is a very motivational God, it is his desire to reward those who seek him. He doesn’t want us to travel without any motivation and he knows this is more than just a motivation but this is actually a reward.

The concept of rewarding is a very much a divine godly attribute and we must understand that better.

It’s no shame to seek after God’s reward as long as we are seeking him. And seriously it doesn’t make sense if we just seeking after God’s reward or blessing without seeking him. That would be totally childish and unacceptable.

Pastors, we need to encourage our folks in church to strengthen and grow in their faith through preaching

So that our people will grow in their faith which will release the power of God in the supernatural. This can be best achieved by preaching and also by exhortation ad ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit amen.

Romans 10:17 (ESV)

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Faith comes from hearing the word of scripture, hearing the word of Christ. Especially the spoken word of Christ creates faith in our spirits. The more we listen to the word of Christ the more we grow in our faith. In a sense it is different differently manifested and its effect through preaching the word of God depending on the spirit of the preacher which is shaped by his theological understanding and background. For example a reformed conservative preacher orthodox type will expound the word of God in great exegesis doesn’t quite produce the kind of faith for the supernatural example healing. On the other hand a charismatic pastor may be preaching with lesser exegetical understanding but with greater intuition in the realm of the supernatural will release more faith in the supernatural like healing and so forth. Therefore the congruent power of the word reformed theology in the charismatic gifting is phenomenal way to go fourth.

1 Corinthians 2:4–5 (NIV)

4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

This is where the rubber hits the road. Paul said, “ my speech and my message were not with wise and persuasive words, but a demonstration of the spirit’s power.” Now that word demonstration is something tangible, feeling, perception or encounter with the Holy Spirit. Because Paul is saying his preaching comes with a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit and that is exactly all of us preachers and pastors need to develop and acquire. So that we just don’t preach intellectual mind sermon, but one that carries the power of the Holy Spirit. It is really interesting Paul said that this is for the purpose that our faith may not rest on human wisdom come upon God’s power. It is not God’s wisdom but God’s power.

The demonstration of the power of the Spirit of God in the souls of the congregation as we listen to the preaching of the word, something begins to stir within us and it is the conviction of the Holy Spirit and it is the power of God to stir our minds and souls and open our eyes . And I simply love to see more of that. And Paul also writes in the scripture thereafter regarding things that eyes have not seen nor ears heard what God has prepared for those who love him and that is an astonishingly profound statement.

1 Corinthians 2:9–10 (ESV)
9 But, as it is written,

              “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, 
  nor the heart of man imagined, 
              what God has prepared for those who love him”—

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

And that’s the result of what he calls in verse 10– things that God has revealed to us by his Spirit. It is only revealable by the Spirit of God or Holy Spirit. And that’s precisely why preachers should move in the gift of the power the spirit of God.

A sense of Faith preaching with destiny goal and preaching it’s based on the promises of Jesus for his disciples. This will go a long way.

Mark 16:17–18 (ESV)

17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”