Why Tongues?
To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:8-10 NIV)
It’s strange that so many people are against the gift of tongues for one reason or another. Maybe it’s because it’s so unusual, or maybe it’s not done properly.
For example, I visited a church once and during the sermon, an older woman in the congregation suddenly broke out into tongues at the top of her lungs and at the same time she started to literally roll around on the floor. I had grown up in a very formal Methodist church, so I thought to myself, “that is a crazy woman.” The same kind of thing must have been happening in the church at Corinth because Paul wrote this:
Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction? Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air…
If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me. So it is with you...
For this reason… the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say….
… I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. (1 Corinthians 14:6-19 NIV)
So in other words, Paul is saying that every Christian should speak in tongues, and speak in tongues a lot, but unless we can also understand and interpret what we are saying, we shouldn’t be speaking in tongues out loud in church.
One church I attended taught that tongues were “of the devil.” But the verse that always bothered me with that was where Paul said that he spoke in tongues more than anyone. (1 Corinthians 14:18 NIV)
Paul spoke in tongues AND he had a ministry filled with miracles. Most preachers I know of with miracles in their ministries also speak in tongues.
David Roberson, is a Pastor in Tulsa Oklahoma. In his eBook The Walk of the Spirit, the Walk of Power, David explains how his life was transformed and miracles began to happen when he began to speak in tongues for eight hours every day. (Roberson 1999)
Today, I want to look at what the Bible says about speaking in tongues.
The first scripture I want to look at is in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 28. Beginning in verse seven, Isaiah says:
Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions. All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth. (Isaiah 28:7,8 NIV)
Isaiah is talking about the religious leaders in his day. They are drunkards, he says, and not good teachers at all. He continues:
“Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast? For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there.” (Isaiah 28:9,10 NIV)
These drunken teachers are teaching as though the people are babies. They merely teach “rules rules rules.” No life changing wisdom or insight here. So God has a solution to this:
Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people, to whom he said, “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”; and, “This is the place of repose”— (Isaiah 28:11,12 NIV)
The teachers are drunk, they never teach anything but rules, and the rules aren’t helping anyone, so what is God’s solution?
He would speak to the people with foreign lips and strange tongues, and it would be a place of rest for the weary.
That’s a very interesting solution, however, Isaiah ends verse 12 with this:
but they would not listen. (NIV)
So, God offered to give them a solution. He offered to give them a strange language and that strange language would become a rest for the weary, but they wouldn’t even try it. They wouldn’t listen.
Sometimes, in the Bible, we read that God often asks his people to do things that seem a little strange.
God told Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days, and then on his right side for 40 more days. (see Ezekiel 4)
God told Joshua to have the priests walk straight into the Jordan River, which was at flood stage at that time. (see Joshua 3)
God told King Jehoshaphat to defend the nation of Judah against three enemy armies by marching up to them singing praises to God. (2 Chronicles 20)
God asked Joseph to marry a girl who was not only pregnant with a child that wasn’t his, but she was also denying that she ever slept with anyone!
Do you see what I mean? Sometimes, God asked his people to do strange things. So, it shouldn’t surprise us too much to read that here, in Isaiah, God was asking the people to speak in a strange tongue!
“I know it sounds weird but if you will just speak in this strange language, you will find rest; you’ll have peace…”
But they wouldn’t listen. So Isaiah continued:
So then, the word of the Lord to them will become: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there—so that as they go they will fall backward; they will be injured and snared and captured. (Isaiah 28:13 NIV)
Isaiah said, they won’t listen, so nothing’s going to change. The drunken teachers will continue teaching rules, rules, rules, and more rules, and it won’t help them at all. In fact, all these rules simply will make the people fall backward, be injured and snared and captured.
Today we still have churches that teach rules rules rules rules and more rules. We call that kind of teaching “legalism.” Legalism is a problem, because although it sounds very good, very moral, it gives the people no power to overcome sin. As we saw in Isaiah, even the teachers themselves had no power over their addiction to alcohol.
Many years later, in the book of 1 Corinthians, we see that Paul quotes from the book of Isaiah to get a point across to the people at the church in Corinth. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, Paul says:
Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. In the Law it is written:
“With other tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 14:20,21 NIV)
So Paul quotes the passage we just read in Isaiah. And he explains that when Isaiah was talking about “other tongues and lips of foreigners,” he was actually talking about the gift of tongues.
Paul talks quite a bit about tongues in 1 Corinthians, and the first thing we learn is that, just like Isaiah told us many years earlier, rules are for baby Christians, whereas tongues will help baby Christians grow up. Paul wrote:
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God…
This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words…
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:10-14 NIV)
So, here, Paul says that the Holy Spirit would search the thoughts of God the Father, then the Holy Spirit would explain these God thoughts to Paul and other mature Christians, using “Spirit-taught words.”
So, so far what we know about tongues is:
One- when we speak in tongues, we grow up from being baby Christians to mature, grown up Christians
Two- when we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit is our teacher
Let’s look at some more things that happen when we speak in tongues. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, Paul says:
...anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 14:2 NIV)
We already know that as we speak in tongues, we’re really speaking out loud what we hear the Holy Spirit whispering to us.
Now we learn that as we speak out loud the words we hear, we are speaking back to God.
Speaking in tongues is a circle conversation. The Holy Spirit tells us the thoughts of God, those beautiful mysteries that most humans can’t understand, then we open our mouths and repeat these beautiful spiritual words back to God.
He speaks to us, we speak to Him, He speaks to us, we speak to Him- all in another language.
It’s lovely. And Romans chapter 8 tells us a fourth thing that happens when we speak in tongues:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. (Romans 8:26,27 NIV)
This is so exciting!! When we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don’t know what to pray for, but it doesn’t matter anymore because He’s praying for us!
The Holy Spirit not only searches the Father’s heart, He also searches our hearts and so now He not only knows our deepest needs, He also knows the Father’s will for us and He starts to intercede on our behalf!!
We wonder all the time- what’s God’s will for me?
I’m not just talking about God’s overall will for our lives either, I’m saying that sometimes we find ourselves torn over making a certain decision.
And we are afraid because our decision could affect other people- we don’t want to hurt anyone. And we don’t want to hurt God. We want to know- God, what do you want me to do in this very situation that I find myself in right now?
We spend a great deal of time thinking about it; stressing over it, discussing it, and reading books and articles to help us figure out what we should do …
but now we see that when we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit tells our spirit what the will of the Father is for us …
in every situation that we could ever find ourselves in!!! That’s exciting!!
So again,
One- when we speak in tongues, we grow from baby Christians to mature, grown up Christians
Two- when we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit is our teacher
Three-when we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit speaks to us and our spirit speaks back to Him
Four- when we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit not only tells us the will of God for our lives, He also prays for it to happen!! He helps us find the purpose for our lives!!
And now the fifth thing that happens when we speak in tongues:
1 Corinthians 14:4:
Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves (NIV)
The word edify comes from several root words that mean “to build, a building, a temple, a family…” (Strong 1983)
Jude uses the same idea when he wrote his letter and warned the people that there were bad teachers in the church. These teachers sound a lot like the teachers Isaiah was talking about. According to Jude, these teachers…
Were ungodly people
Were clouds without rain (no power)
Perverted the grace of God for a license for immorality
Were grumblers, faultfinders, and boasters about themselves
Followed their own ungodly desires and did not have the Spirit.
So Jude warned the true Christians to be different than the teachers. He said:
But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. (Jude 20,21 NIV)
There it is: build yourself up … edify yourself. That’s the fifth thing that speaking in tongues does for us. What does that mean? It builds our inner “temple” and makes us a good place for the Holy Spirit to live. Following Jude’s logic, if we edify ourselves by speaking in tongues, then we will become the exact opposite of the teachers without the Spirit. We will…
Be godly people
Be filled with power
Appreciate the grace of God
Be praisers, encouragers, and humble
Be filled with the Holy Spirit and eager to follow His desires
Just like Solomon’s Temple took some time to build and prepare, it will likewise take time for us to build our inner temples. It takes time to see the changes happen, but as we continue to speak in tongues, we will begin to see the changes.
As the Holy Spirit fills you more and more, that’s where all the power is. Miracles will begin to flow. Jesus said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” (Acts 1:8 NIV)
So again, here are five things about speaking in tongues:
One - when we speak in tongues, we begin to grow up from being baby Christians to being mature, grown up Christians.
Two - when we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit is our teacher. Several years ago, I made it my New Year’s Resolution to speak in tongues more throughout the day. I did this for several hours every day, just under my breath as I went about my work. The major change that I noticed that year was that the Bible was making more sense to me than ever before. Passages that I never really understood, suddenly I understood. What happened? The Holy Spirit was teaching me- He became my invisible teacher of the things of God.
Three - when we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit speaks to us and our spirit speaks back to Him. Even though our minds don’t recognize the language, our spirits do. When we speak in tongues, we’re speaking the native language of our spirit, and we’re speaking the language of God Himself. Sometimes it’s hard for us to speak in tongues because our minds are telling us it’s gibberish… a waste of time. But we have to overrule our minds, because it’s not gibberish to our spirits- our spirits are thrilled to hear the Words of God in their own native language. For our spirits, tongues are life. Jesus said:
The Spirit gives life: the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you- they are full of the Spirit and life. (John 6:63 NIV)
Four- when we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit not only tells us the will of God for our lives, He also prays for it to happen!! He helps us find the purpose for our lives!
And five - when we speak in tongues, we build a nice inner temple for the Holy Spirit to come live in, and where the Holy Spirit is, there is the Power of God.
We grow up, we have a teacher, we speak the language of God, we find God’s will for us, and we have the power of God – what a wonderful gift God gave His children when He gave us the gift of tongues.
References
Roberson, Dave. The Walk of the Spirit-- the Walk of Power: the Vital Role of Praying in Tongues. Dave Roberson Ministries, 1999.
Strong, James. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Original, with References to the English Words. Baker Book House, 1983.
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Comments
Post a Comment