Speaking In Tongues for Christians #2

The Holy Spirit gives GIFTS

The Holy Spirit gives us Spiritual Gifts and ABILITIES: a Word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretations of tongues. The Holy Spirit decides the measure and manner by which we express this spiritual language that relates heavenly ideals, patterns, and imperatives (1 Cor. 12).

TONGUES: Tongues for private use will edify the one praying. That means Speaking in Tongues builds you up inside. When you don't know how to pray as you should, the Holy Spirit inside of you takes over and begins to pray.

The Gift of Tongues is probably the most underrated Gift of the Spirit. It is a supernatural utterance in a language or languages (earthly or heavenly) which the one doing the speaking does not understand. It is a miracle of speech (Acts 2:4-8; Acts 8:14; 9:17; 10:46; 19:1-6; 1Cor 12-14).

Speaking in Tongues is a revelatory gift that is received by faith and stirred up by an act of the will. Tongues supersedes our logical mind and opens spiritual channels of revelation.

Tongues "Glorify God."

The Gift of Tongues may be used to witness (Acts 2), to pray (1Cor. 14:2), to sing (1Cor. 14:15), to give thanks (1Cor. 14:16-17), and to praise the Lord (Acts 10:46). It is a sign to the unbeliever. Through this gift, the Holy Spirit prays through a believer making intercession according to the will of God (Rom. 8:26-27). It helps us to pray correctly, especially when we don't know what to pray. Tongues brings us into partnership with God and quickens our receptivity and understanding of what is happening in our lives.

THE MINISTRY OF TONGUES: A message in tongues may be given in congregational meetings. If given as a public utterance to the Body, it require interpretation. That interpretation may be given by the someone else, or by the giver of the tongues.

INTERPRETATION of TONGUES: Paul emphasized that in public arenas, the Gift of Tongues must be interpreted so that everyone could benefit (1 Cor. 14). Tongues and interpretation of tongues can be used publicly and for our own private usage. This process of interpretation of tongues is like prophecy in that it originates out of the spiritual realm - it comes spontaneously out of our belly (we do not consciously process it), and out through our mouths without premeditation, one word at a time.

This is a supernatural Gift of the Spirit where the Lord uses our vocal chords and our voices to speak in our language what has been spoken in tongues. Paul explains that interpretation of tongues is equal to prophecy (I Cor. 14:15). He says this gift helps us to profit (14:16). God says for us to pray for this gift if we speak with tongues (14:5), and for us all to speak with tongues (14:5 &13). Paul said LET someone interpret (v. 27). There should be SOMEONE to interpret but it does not have to be a CERTAIN one; neither should there be competition (I Cor. 14:27).

The gift of interpretation of tongues was set in the Church (I Cor. 12)

• This gift is NECESSARY (v. 22)
• This gift was never taken out of the Church
• This gift was used all down through Church history
• Paul taught the church at Corinth to use this gift (I Cor. 14).
• This Gift is not the ability to translate languages, nor is it the repetition of Scripture. This Gift interprets the essence of the meaning of God.

Even though we cannot understand it (unfruitful because it bypasses the logical mind - LB). Logic demands repeatable and measurable information. Speaking in tongues ignores and quiets our logical mind that always tends to want to rule over and dominate.

Tongues is the only Gift of the Spirit that is said to strengthen (build up) the inner man (heart/soul - Jude 20).

Dr. Carl Peterson, M.D. did research at ORU in Tulsa, OK. He discovered that as we pray in the Spirit, the brain releases two chemical hormones (called endorphins and enkephalons) that give a 35% to 40% boost to the immune system. His studies show that this secretion is triggered from a part of the brain that has no other apparent activity in humans and is only activated by our Spirit led prayer and worship. Dr. Peterson explains that praying in the spirit affects the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, endocrine glands, and the total immune system. The entire autonomic system seems to be affected by speaking in tongues.

It must be the Spirit of God speaking soundlessly within - that is what brings him in and makes him accountable to God. A.W. Tozer.

^[1]Ancient manuscript of the Testament of Job 49:1-50:3

Tongues is an entrance point to an exchanged Kingdom lifestyle of power and effectiveness.

BUT, don't stop there! Tongues are not the ultimate experience (as some denominations claim). It is more like "spiritual kindergarten." Tongues (for private use) are essential as a vehicle for the Holy Spirit to bring us into the ultimate purposes of finding His presence and living in Dominion. We use Tongues to draw closer to God, to dispossess strongholds in our mind, and to take possession of our thought patterns. Tongues can also provide an entrance for intimacy, connecting prayer, and worship.

TONGUES OF MEN: Tongues can be an unknown tongue or it can be a known tongue of men (a language that we personally do not know). The crowd at Pentecost heard their own languages. Others have often told me that I spoke in Japanese, Spanish, etc. Those who understand the natural language have the natural translation (rather than spiritual interpretation) of what is spoken. The one speaking does not understand.

TONGUES OF ANGELS: (1 Cor. 13:1) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. (1 Cor. 13:1). Notice the emphasis in this passage (the only scripture about tongues of angels) is mainly about communicating God's heavenly language of love through all our life.

Little is actually know about angelic tongues. The following text comes from a Jewish book called Testament of Job (dated between 100BC-100AD - meaning it may have been written near the same time as 1 Corinthians c.50-60AD). Scholars believe this book was written by a member of a liberal Jewish sect known as the Therapeutae. In this "story" we understand what was being considered in Paul's day to be "tongues of angels."

In extra Biblical sources, we find that Job's three daughters wrote hymns: "... Hemera... chanted a hymn to God in the hymnology of the angels. As she chanted she allowed "the Spirit to be written.... And then Kassia('s)... mouth received the dialect of the angelic principalities and she praised God for the creation of the high places...And then the other daughter named Almatheia-Keras...chanted in the dialect of those on high... she spoke in the dialect of the cherubim, glorifying God..." ^[1]

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Let's learn together and build the Third Day Church! Thanx.

Your online pastor, Dr. Kluane Spake