There is something powerful in being able to speak the language of the people you are among. When I went on my first mission’s trip to Peru, I was semi-fluent in Spanish. It was amazing conversing with the people in their native tongue and they felt honored that I spent time to learn their language. This built an automatic rapport with the people that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. Suffice it to say: language is important. We can be united, or separated by it. Communing with one another in many ways takes shape by our verbal communication. The Lord knew this to be true, thus he confused our language when we sought to overthrow Him from our lives by building a tower. The same goes for our communion with the Lord. We pray with words. We use our native tongues to cry out to the Lord. Thus God gave us the ability to have a language just between Him and us. These words in a different tongue bring us closer to the Lord.
This gift manifests in different ways, as we will see: both private and public. When I talk about this
heavenly language, I am not suggesting we can learn this language, but nor do we have the right to shun it. I’m not saying all will have this gift, but
all can ask for it. It can be a heavenly
language where our spirit speaks directly to His spirit in a mysterious way of
deep connection. Tongues can connect our hearts deeply
to His heart. We can be connected to God without this language, but it
is a deeply intimate form on communion with the Father.
When it comes to this gift, many fear it because of
the weird mystery behind it. Many fear
it because of the abuse of this gift. We like things we can grasp. We enjoy
things we can explain. This truly has no
real explanation except that God wanted it this way. He desired a spiritual
linguistic to connect us to Himself in a different way, so He made it possible. We must search the Scriptures and ask What then is the gift of Tongues and how is
it used?
The
gift of Tongues has two modes; private and public. Both are for edification and
building up. Both are powerful means of communication from and with God. Let us first explore the use in private.
Tongues is a Personal and Prayerful Spiritual
Linguistic (14:2)
There is
something about tongues that deeply connects mans spirit to the Spirit of
God. He is not speaking to men, but
directly to God. Paul suggests that it
is not even the mind that is speaking, but the soul (14:14). “Tongues is not an act of divine ventriloquism but an
act of collaboration.” (Pytches pg. 62). God is not making our mouths
move, but rather our spirit is in collaboration with His Spirit. When we look
through chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians, we see that whether private or public,
tongues is meant for the purpose of edification. Weight is lifted, passion renewed, strength
is given. It is the one gift that the
believer can use at will for personal edification. Also note, when we are
personally edified, we are better set up to be a blessing for others. No matter what realm (public or private) this
language shows up, it will bless more than one person. Once the gift is given,
as long as there is current repentance (and sometimes even if there is not) the
believer can enter into tongues. The gift of tongues for many is so intimate
that they rarely talk about it and never brag about having it. Whether we are more “into the gifts” or not,
the gift of tongues can be given to us.
One of the
most powerful uses for the gift of tongues in way of personal or corporate edification
is in spiritual warfare. Many times, we can’t hear clearly in the midst of
spiritual warfare and thus need to activate the gift of tongues to combat the
enemy in the spirit realm…the places only our spirit can see. Our minds can’t
always interpret the spirit realm, so we need a spirit language to combat it. This language is the gift of Tongues.
Many people have differing opinions
on how tongues comes about and what it symbolizes in the life of the
believer. Some say that tongues is proof
of the filling of the Spirit and the person who doesn’t have it has never (yet) been truly filled. Some say it is a subsequent gift
that can come to any believer at any time.
Some have gone so far as to say it is a symbol of salvation. My personal opinion, as I search the Scripture
on this matter is that it is a gift that is generally given subsequent to the
filling of the Spirit and does not symbolize neither salvation nor the
filling. There
are those whom have been filled who do not have the gift and those who do have
the gift. Developing a box around
the gifts is to define how God chooses to bless. We simply cannot do this. I also believe this to be the case because
Paul himself states he’d rather the people in the church prophesy than have the
gift of tongues.
We’ve
seen the power of the gift of tongues in the private realm, let us now turn to
the public realm…it can be a little less understandable and w hole lot more
confusing here.
Tongues is a Public and Purposeful Spiritual
Linguistic
There are
times in the public gathering of believers when God chooses to use the gift of
tongues corporately for the edification of the body. Tongues,
for the church is a language of building up, not tearing down. It is the
aspect of the gift that cannot happen at will.
In the private prayer life, the person gifted with tongues can move into
that language at will, but in the corporate setting, the Spirit does the urging
and brings about the gift in the public arena. In this too, there must be an
interpreter to bring forth the message for the edification of the church. No
interpreter, no message.
Many wonder why
Paul would say this, after all, when we are alone there is no interpreter. I believe this is a guard against a curse
from the enemy. The enemy can imitate
the gift of tongues. He can manipulate
the mouths of men who do not know God to speak curses over the people of God.
Without someone understanding the words being said, the church could blindly
accept a word that would not be from God.
This rule of interpretation then allows the church as a whole to know
the words spoken over them! There are no
coincidences with God. Everything God does has a purpose. It is not our job to argue on certain
matters, but simply obey. Tongues
happens for a purpose.
Finally, in the
public realm, there are times God gives a person the ability to speak another
native language. They maybe a missionary
to France and have not yet studied the language, but all of the sudden can
speak and understand the language. This
is another, less common display of the gift of tongues. We can see this happening in Acts 2:4. It
doesn’t say “They began speaking the same language of tongues” but rather it
says: “They began speaking in other tongues”
There, the word is meant to be pluralized, showing that they can now
randomly speak to people of other languages.
This usage of the gift of Tongues is for the unbeliever, not the
believer. When God does something like this, the unbeliever can have no
explanation, but God.
The reason
this gift has so much debate is based off of one word: FEAR. A mentor of mine once said: “Fear is never from the Lord” Rob Reimer. We fear what
we do not understand, but God helps us along the way to showing why this gift
is needed in the church as he does with all the other gifts. The enemy knows
the power this gift can have in the life of a believer as well as how it can
build up a church. So he shrouds it with
confusion and causes churches to fight over its usage and meaning. This shouldn’t be!
As we will see
next week, the whole body is needed in order to most effectively push back the
darkness the enemy creates in our world. This includes the gift of
tongues. We need prayer warriors who
wage war against the enemy in the spirit.
We need miraculous words from the Lord to encourage us and to continue
to remind us that He is speaking.
We should never shun the gift of tongues, nor should we make it
something more than it is. God desires
to give good gifts to His children, and so we should expect to receive this
gift, but not have an agenda as to how it shows up in our lives or our
churches.
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