Speaking in tongues

[Guest LDStudent]

Speaking in tongues is a spiritual gift, provided there is an interpretor for the sake of edification. If there is no interpretor, I see no point. What good does it accomplish for the body?

[Guest JasonH]

Speaking in tongues is a spiritual gift, provided there is an interpretor for the sake of edification. If there is no interpretor, I see no point. What good does it accomplish for the body?

That rule is for speaking tongues in a public place like in a local church or meeting or on the streets. Paul said he spoke in tongues more than any of them (the Corinthians) do you think he had interpretor every time? I think not. He was clear that when you do it you don't know what you say, but he still did it, a lot. Don't be so strict about it my friend. You may not know what you say, but God and the spirits around you surely do. If you let the Holy Spirit speak through you regularly in prayer it will do more than you know. Its just not the way to edify one another, so don't do that. It doesn't mean don't do it at all unless you know you have an interpretor.

Besides How you gonna find an interpretor if you're affraid to speak in toungs unless you know you have one? One will never be found that way.

[MrLuke]

Besides How you gonna find an interpretor if you're affraid to speak in toungs unless you know you have one? One will never be found that way.

Haha, so true!

[a god in training]

Hello to all.

Might be a weird question but I am concerned for the fact I have never spoken in tongues, nor felt "drunken" in the spirit.

I have heard stories from people in prayer for a long time and it happening to him. While I have had sensational prayers, it still hasnt happened.

I just want to know how and when it happened to you. Any stories, because this might be helpful for me and possibly others.

Peace.

When dealing with different or strange tounges, as they have come to be called, we must move forward with caution. We must ask ourselves: What is the purpose of praying or speaking in some unknown tounge? The Bible states clearly in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 that unless there is someone translating, you must keep quite, speaking to God alone. Paul tells us that he would rather say 5 words in a language he knows and others understand that speaking 1000 words in some unknown tounge.

Everything that comes from God will edify us. How are we being edified, illuminated, or improved by speaking a language that we infact do not understand ourselves. And if we don't understand, will the people who listen interpret that? And if no one understands, is there any task being accomplished? We must remember that there are two spirits at work here. God's, and the devil's. Remember, that if it doesn't edify, it doesn't come from God. And if it doesn't come from God, where does it come from? The devil.

Now, don't get me wrong. I believe in the gift of tounges. But we must not distort what the Bible tells us. Acts 2 tells us of a remarkable outpouring of the spirit, resulting in the bestowal of the gift of tounges on the apostles. What tounges did they speak? Strange, unknown languages? No. They spoke Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, etc. There were many people there from many backgrounds, and each heard the apostles speak in THEIR own langauges, which caught them offguard, for they asked amongst themselves: Are not these men Galileans? Yet they speak to us in OUR own tounges.

Therefore, the Gift of Tounges is NOT speaking in strange, unknown languages, BUT, it is speaking in languages that exist so that others may hear and understand the Good Word.

[Floatingaxe]

Speaking in tongues is a spiritual gift, provided there is an interpretor for the sake of edification. If there is no interpretor, I see no point. What good does it accomplish for the body?

There are two manifestations--one which needs an interpreter (ministry), because it is for the congregation, and the other, which is prayer, and it doesn't require an interpreter (grace). Its purpose is for the edification of the believer. God is good!

[Davve]

Hello to all.

Might be a weird question but I am concerned for the fact I have never spoken in tongues, nor felt "drunken" in the spirit.

I have heard stories from people in prayer for a long time and it happening to him. While I have had sensational prayers, it still hasnt happened.

I just want to know how and when it happened to you. Any stories, because this might be helpful for me and possibly others.

Peace.

When dealing with different or strange tounges, as they have come to be called, we must move forward with caution. We must ask ourselves: What is the purpose of praying or speaking in some unknown tounge? The Bible states clearly in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 that unless there is someone translating, you must keep quite, speaking to God alone. Paul tells us that he would rather say 5 words in a language he knows and others understand that speaking 1000 words in some unknown tounge.

Everything that comes from God will edify us. How are we being edified, illuminated, or improved by speaking a language that we infact do not understand ourselves. And if we don't understand, will the people who listen interpret that? And if no one understands, is there any task being accomplished? We must remember that there are two spirits at work here. God's, and the devil's. Remember, that if it doesn't edify, it doesn't come from God. And if it doesn't come from God, where does it come from? The devil.

Now, don't get me wrong. I believe in the gift of tounges. But we must not distort what the Bible tells us. Acts 2 tells us of a remarkable outpouring of the spirit, resulting in the bestowal of the gift of tounges on the apostles. What tounges did they speak? Strange, unknown languages? No. They spoke Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, etc. There were many people there from many backgrounds, and each heard the apostles speak in THEIR own langauges, which caught them offguard, for they asked amongst themselves: Are not these men Galileans? Yet they speak to us in OUR own tounges.

Therefore, the Gift of Tounges is NOT speaking in strange, unknown languages, BUT, it is speaking in languages that exist so that others may hear and understand the Good Word.

I wanted to speak in tongues, and in a matter of months, I did. Did I have some kind of special experince, of course, everybody that I know of that has received what is called "The Baptism of the Holy Spirit" has had one.

Sorry to say, I wish I hadden't.

All I have seen tongues do is make people and congregations turn inward and get "Superior" attitudes to those around them. Then as of nessessity, the emphisis of the pastor and the people shifts to the Holy Spirit over and above Jesus Christ himself I was in among them and I thank God that I no longer am.

My relationship with Jesus Christ has exponentially increased since I have stopped speaking in tongues and renewed my simple faith in Jesus and the finished work of the cross.

Don't leave the simplicity that is in Christ.

Daave

[Giaour]

From John MacArthur

It is very clear in Acts 2, that God gave to the Apostles the ability to speak in languages that they did not know. As a result, it says, people were hearing in all different kinds of languages, the wonderful works of God. Now, I believe that the purpose of that gift was to establish the fact that a supernatural presence, a supernatural message, was to be proclaimed. It call the attention of everyone who was hearing this.

Some of the people concluded that they were drunk because it was early in the morning, but it collected the people around the phenomena of that wondrous ability to speak in those languages which they didn't know--that was a Holy Spirit miracle. Then when the crowd was all gathered, Peter stood up and preached in a language that everybody understood and in his own native tongue the gospel of Jesus Christ and 3,000 people were saved and the Church was born.

I see in that then that the tongues were a sign, a sign of the miraculous power of God. A sign of supernatural presence which drew the people together and made the message that was preached more powerful, more acceptable, more authentic in their eyes. So, in that occasion we see it clearly as a sign that God was speaking and when God got their attention, then came the message of the gospel. By the way, if you follow that through, I believe "tongues" probably occurred in Acts 8 even though it doesn't say that, but where you have the church moving out into Samaria, and then in chapter 10, definitely occurred when the church moves to the Gentiles, and then later on in 19, when John the Baptist's disciples were brought into the church, you have it again.

I believe in the Book of Acts the reason that you have the "tongues" repeated again is because every time the next dimension of people were added to the church it was important that they have the same phenomena so that they would know that they were being added to the same body. So that the sign given of the Day of Pentecost was repeated at each new phase of the church.

Do you remember that the gospel was to go forth and they were to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the world? When the gospel came to the Samaritans there was the same phenomena; when it came to the Gentiles there was the same phenomena; when those who followed John the Baptist were brought in, they saw the same phenomena. Peter came back and reported (you remember) to the council that "on the Gentiles came the same thing that came on us." So as the Lord built the church they had this same sign, the same supernatural sign so that the Jews would not think that they received something special that Samaritans and Gentiles didn't get. So, it was a sign gift.

Now you come into 1 Corinthians 12-14, it is still a sign gift but it was being perverted in the Corinthian Church, and I believe that it was being mixed and mingled with a lot of ecstatic speech that was a part of the pagan religion of that day. It was still (if it was used properly) to be a sign gift.

Paul, then in 1 Corinthians 12-14 regulates it. He says how it is to function, he first of all introduces it as a gift in chapter 12. He tells at the end of chapter 12 that it is an unimportant gift. In chapter 13 he says "love" is much more important. In chapter 14 "edification" is much more important. He says, "Women are never to exercise it. It is never to more than two or three people. It's never to be without interpretation." But it doesn't change the nature of it--it was a sign gift--a sign of the presence of God and a sign that God was about to speak so that when the speaker spoke they would know it was from God.

In that sense it is a sign that we don't need any more because when a speaker speaks today we know whether he is from God or not by how he is consistent with Scripture. I don't need "signs and wonders" to attest to a prophet--if he sticks with the Book I know he speaks for God. But in that day when there was no New Testament to compare him with, God gave, as it says in 2 Corinthians, "the gifts of an apostle, and signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds" (12:12).

So, "tongues" was a sign gift (and I am giving you a condensed version, again you can get the book on "Tongues." I hate to keep saying that, but it there available if you want one--pick one up "on me."). But the gift of "tongues" was a sign gift.

Now, I believe it has ceased. I believe that it has passed away. 1 Corinthians 13, "Whether there be tongues they shall...(and it uses a reflective form of the verb) . . . cease by themselves." I believe when the end of the Apostolic Era came--tongues ceased. I believe that you can chronicle through the history of the church the cessation of tongues--they didn't exist, except in aberrant forms.

It was revived in the early part of the 1900's and brought back in as if it were some legitimate gift--it is my conviction that it has no place in the church today--no place. It was part of the "Signs of an Apostle," such as healing, and the gift of miracles, which I see as "dunamis" (Greek) or the gift of "power"--that is, to cast out demons on the spot--at will.

So, I think that it was one of those temporary gifts that passed away, was used to signify the spokesman for God who were speaking, so that the people would know they spoke for God, which we now know by whether they stick with the Word.

Now you say, "Now, what is it that people are doing today?" Well, I think, the people who are speaking in what they call "Tongues" could be explained in many ways:

1. I think much of it is learned behavior, just learned behavior--they learned how to do it. They are in a group that does it, in fact, I have heard it in many places around the country, I have listened to it on tape. When I was working on the book I got involved in studying some of the reports of it, and it is very interesting that much of it is the same language and the same repeated symbols--it is a non-language, but it is very often learned behavior.

2. It can also be explained as sort of mental perocisms (sp) where you sort of flip out in a sort of self-hypnotic situations.

3. Some of it can be demonic.

There are other explanations, but I see that it has ceased from a Biblical viewpoint, and has no function in the church today.

[Floatingaxe]

Now, I believe it has ceased. I believe that it has passed away. 1 Corinthians 13, "Whether there be tongues they shall...(and it uses a reflective form of the verb) . . . cease by themselves." I believe when the end of the Apostolic Era came--tongues ceased. I believe that you can chronicle through the history of the church the cessation of tongues--they didn't exist, except in aberrant forms.

What are the temporary gifts? There is no gift which is not in use today. There has been no end to any gifts. The end of the gifts occurs when Jesus returns and there will be no more Church! As long as there is the Church, the gifts remain available to her. There is no Age of the Apostle! We are the Church of Jesus Christ--the same Church that existed at Antioch, the same Church that existed at Corinth, at Rome, etc. There is no difference.

[Joshua-777]

One very important thing to remember, Never seek to duplicate someone elses experience, the Holy spirit works differently in people, and uses people differently, and dont limit the relationship you have with God, to the feeling of it, as we so often do, God is more than a feeling, times we wont feel him, and he will use us in powerful ways, times we will feel him, and he will use us in powerful ways, He is not limited to what we feel of him, he is much more beyond.

I recieved toungues a week after I was saved, I was reading 1st corinth 12-14 and I prayed for the gift, and recieved it that minuite, and I've had it ever sence.

One important thing to remember is that not all will recieve it, each gift us used for edification, tougues is used for self edification, God gives gifts to who he wills, to some the gift of prophecy, to some the gift of knowledge, to some interpritation of toungues, ect. We are the body of Christ, each gift God gives us is to edify the body, so the arm God would use differently than the eye. Not everyone will recieve the same spiritual gifts. Now, toungues may be a sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but it is not the only sign, God will give gifts as he wills, and which ever one he wills. My advice to you would be to fast and pray about it, and keep your sight on Jesus, The Holy Spirit will bless you with a gift, when he is ready.

[Grace1479]

This is also one of my greatest desires. But God knows best and He works with every person in a different manner. After all, He knows us even better that we know ourselves. I will keep asking for it, but I'm not so obsessed with it as I was. The gift as Esther said was on one stage more important to me than the Giver Himself. Now I try to focus more and more on God, and if it's His will, I will receive the gift of tongues.

bless you.