Is tongues necessary?

[Guest Greg Davies]

Since you dont want to share the tongues experience then the gift you have is edifying yourself.

scripture did speak truth then. (1 Corinthians 14:4)

amen

There's an old saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In Eph 4:15 and 16, we find this principle elequently expressed in terms of the body of Christ being edified by what each of us contribute.

The point is this: if we individually are not edified, we cannot edifiy one another. This process is activated by the love of God which is shed on our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which, according to Rom 5:5, is given to us.

Like any gift, He must be received. Just like salvation is given through the Cross, but it must be received. How? By faith!

Ex, this is how you can receive the Holy Spirit, pray in tongues, and be filled with the love of God: BY FAITH!

So receive my brother, and may the joy of the Lord be your strength.

Sincerely, Greg.

[Sherman]

I tried to read this with an open heart, because even though I don't believe this "gift" is still in effect today, people that I respect do, and say they speak in tongues.

I've read this (and others like it) and no matter how hard they try, those that speak in tongues always come off as feeling/acting/saying or in some manner end up coming across as they are somehow more superior than those who don't.

"those who are really filled with the Holy Spirit"

"those who are really walking with the Lord"

"those who want more from the Lord"

Guess I must be one of Sherman's wet blankets, since some how I'm not advancing the kingdom.

I certainly don't feel that way, and I think every day that you are here at Worthy you are advancing the Kingdom. . .

Thanks Cobalt , I know, I should have left line off, because the first part is what I was really getting at. Its not even that I think they mean to imply those things.........but statements like the above do imply it.

those who are really filled with the Holy Spirit speak in tongues, those that aren't don't believe so they don't speak in tongues , just reverse the sentiment from the first part of the statement and the second part I just added is there if you meant to imply it or not. It really makes me sad..................and because the implication is there, you start to doubt yourself, giving satan that opening to tell you, nope see your not saved, you don't speak in tongues..................maybe I should just stop reading these threads, they depress me so.

I too did not mean to imply in any way that you are not filled with the Spirit, much less not being helpful in advancing the Kingdom of God. I believe there are many Christians that are filled with the Spirit, though they do not pray in tongues or prophecy. Though, I believe, they could if they believed it was for today for them. Not only that, but being filled with the Spirit is not a one-time event, but something that potentially comes and goes, or increases and decreases depending on the will of the Lord and upon our will and desire.

And by the way, speaking in tongues has nothing to do with salvation. Our salvation is completely dependent upon the grace and forgiveness of God purchased for us with the shed blood of Christ. It is he that has nailed to the cross the judgements against us because of our sins. He took upon Himself our unrighteousness, so that we can wear His Righteousness. He has died for all of our sins, past, present, and future, those we repent of in this life and even those that we will carry with us to our grave and not repent of until we stand before Him in judgement. He has exchanged His righteousness and reward with our unrighteousness and punishment. Hallelujah! We accept this by faith and thus no longer fear death or hell, because Jesus has saved us!

I do hope that you'll be encouraged to be increasingly filled with the Holy Spirit.

[damo1]

damo1

1 corinthians 14

38 but if anyone ignores this he should be ignored

39 therefore my brothers desire the ability to prophesy and do not prevent others from speaking in tongues

40 but everything must be done in proper orderly way

so are we going to argue against what is written in gods living word and ignore what paul says he very simple to uderstand gods living word and the bible never lies or never has miss led any one and if this was not ment to be hear for even me to read i think this would have been taken out of every bible that is printed and sold and even given threw out the hole world

i only know of one bible is their another one being sold that i do not know of can any one enlighten me and point me to this other bible that is being sold as i would love to have a read of this my self

paul says do not stop any one or prevent any one from seeking to speak in tongues did he tel those that he preached to in his time speaking in tongues is not of god and we do not want you to seek this gift ?

i use this in my personal life i use my god given gift threw worship on sunday morning as we al sing in our own natural gift threw worship and we use this also in our prayer meetings salvation or what ever else wants to be thrown to confuse a person that uses this gift should not happen but it just shows me how some are imature and wil not be open or allow them selves to have a teachable spirit its as if you have to come down on those that do speak in tongues and try to correct just like some one i know who has been teling most that the only bible we should have is the king james version and get rid of the other bibles we have as they are all wrong each person should be given a freedom of choice when it comes to this topic and no one should have the right to judge that brother or sister if you have had nothing but a bad experinace and feel that you are going to curse god if you seek the gift of tongues seek for knowledge and wisdom and ask the holy spirit to help you walk in this as he is their to guide you if you are truely of god and you truely seek the father and honor all that was done for you on the cross

but do not look down on me because i speak in tongues and belive with all my heart and with al my soul to what it says in gods living word so please tell me where is this other bible that i have not yet seen in my local christian book store

[exrockstar]

Since you dont want to share the tongues experience then the gift you have is edifying yourself.

scripture did speak truth then. (1 Corinthians 14:4)

amen

There's an old saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In Eph 4:15 and 16, we find this principle elequently expressed in terms of the body of Christ being edified by what each of us contribute.

The point is this: if we individually are not edified, we cannot edifiy one another. This process is activated by the love of God which is shed on our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which, according to Rom 5:5, is given to us.

Like any gift, He must be received. Just like salvation is given through the Cross, but it must be received. How? By faith!

Ex, this is how you can receive the Holy Spirit, pray in tongues, and be filled with the love of God: BY FAITH!

So receive my brother, and may the joy of the Lord be your strength.

Sincerely, Greg.

edify ourselves before we can edify the church?????

scripture says (not me):

1 Corinthians 14:22

Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers;

no matter how you slice it, one cannot dodge what scripture says.

someone said earlier "that it was for their church." However many times you point at the idea that

it was a SIGN, one doesnt get it.

A sign is to prove or show the validity of something. can it be the validity that Christ was the Messiah and accepting

Him as your savior may be a good thing?

Some of these messages that ive heard is that it's that there is a bad seed in the church. lol.

some say God has "extra" things to say. some say that God said to "hold fast."

I suppose the bible wasnt enough.

If you speak in tongues in a church full of believers then who does it benefit?

the church?

If you want to edify the church with tongues then go stand in the middle of Grand Central Station, NYC and

start talking (showing the sign) to UNBELIEVERS. Will a tongue speaker take on such a task? nope.

Will this happen behind closed doors and in churches....of yeah...of coarse.

speaking tongues in a church will not benefit anyone.

why would a church need a sign?

theyre already saved...or are they?

[Guest Greg Davies]

You left something out. That is 1 Corinthians 14:27,28

27 If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret

28 But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God.

This clearly gives guidelines for speaking in tongues in church. They are to do so by two or three and that by course, and then one is to interpret the tongues. If there is no interpreter, then that person is to only pray in tongues while praying to God.

Why was this teaching given for inside the church, given your conclusions that tongues are only for a sign and the church needs no sign? I don't know. Ask God.

I love it when someone sees the whole picture. Excellent response Butero!

In II Peter 3:16, we see that Paul's letters can be hard to understand and I think, Ex, you have hit on one of these passages. Verses 22-25 in I Cor 14 is one of the most baffling phrases in the Bible and I can only see one way for it to make sense and be in harmony with the rest of scripture.

Tongues are for a sign to those believers who don't believe (verse 22) that they have been filled with the Holy Spirit. The unbelieving or unlearned mentioned in verse 23 must be unsaved people who would naturally think that the unknown tongue is crazy; they are unlearned.

In verse 22, prophecy is for the believer, one who is convinced that they are filled with the Holy Spirit, so they have confidence to speak the rhema word. In verse 23, prophecy is for the unbeliever or unsaved to convince them that God is in us and they will come to repentence.

Is that clear as mud? Its the only way it makes sense to me.

Let me simplfy it a little more. Verse 22 is talking about two groups of believers. Verse 23 is talking about unbelievers or the unsaved.

Greg.

[exrockstar]

Tongues was a sign for the unbelieving Jew.

I dont expect for many to get it. I also dont expect for many to research it or crack their bibles open. I have told this to Cobalt yet he has passed it up.

When Paul says 1Cor 14:21

In the law it is written:

With men of other tongues and other lips

I will speak to this people;

And yet, for all that, they will not hear Me

He is quoting the Old Testament. Isaiah 28:11

read v14 in Isaiah 28. The writer says "14 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men,

Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem."

The whole section is talking about the Jews.

which now opens this scrip[ture a little more:

1 Corinthians 14:22

Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers (unbelieving Jews);

Christ came to offer salvation to the Jews and continued.

seems like personal experience usually over-powers scripture.

[Guest Greg Davies]

Tongues was a sign for the unbelieving Jew.

I dont expect for many to get it. I also dont expect for many to research it or crack their bibles open. I have told this to Cobalt yet he has passed it up.

When Paul says 21 In the law it is written:

[Christ_Sheep]

Is it neccessary to speak in tongues? I was a guy whom thought that the only sure-fire way to know that I was a Christian was to be able to speak in tongues. And that lasted for quite a few years. I am 24 years old now, a far cry from being old, however, I will say this. It is ONE of the signs that the holy spirit has touched a person, but not the only one. Furthermore, I happen to speak in tongues and I can't really tell you the date of when it happened but it just did. Also in scripture it did talk about the gifts of the spirit, there are seven if I am not mistaken, and interpreting tongues seems to be the more valuable one, as it is mentioned in the scriptures that one whom speaks in tongues does speak to god directly yes, but the one who interprets benefits more people by their ability to sign out tongue speaking, which to me, lets me know that it is not a mandate; but nonetheless, it is beneficial.

[Guest Rapturebound]

Is it neccessary to speak in tongues? I was a guy whom thought that the only sure-fire way to know that I was a Christian was to be able to speak in tongues. And that lasted for quite a few years. I am 24 years old now, a far cry from being old, however, I will say this. It is ONE of the signs that the holy spirit has touched a person, but not the only one. Furthermore, I happen to speak in tongues and I can't really tell you the date of when it happened but it just did. Also in scripture it did talk about the gifts of the spirit, there are seven if I am not mistaken, and interpreting tongues seems to be the more valuable one, as it is mentioned in the scriptures that one whom speaks in tongues does speak to god directly yes, but the one who interprets benefits more people by their ability to sign out tongue speaking, which to me, lets me know that it is not a mandate; but nonetheless, it is beneficial.

Tongues is vital. It is the Holy Spirit praying through you. It has many benefits. The Holy Spirit knows exactly what to pray about a situation, so He can pray a perfect prayer. The next important thing is the devil is unable to react to something he can not understand. The Holy Spirit praying through us goes directly to the throne of God. Speaking in tongues will edify you also and build you up in your most Holy faith. I would not say that one gift of the Spirit is more important than the other, but praying in tongues only benefits the individual where interpretion benefits the whole body. It edifies everyone.

Blessings

[vicki-aka-bebe]

HI, JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT ALL I KNOW IS THAT I BELIEVE THAT TONGUES ARE FOR TODAY. I ALSO KNOW GOD IS THE SAME TODAY AND YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW,, BUT FOR ME ALL I KNOW IS THAT I PRAYED AND ASKED GOD FOR ALL HE HAD FOR ME THAT WAS TRULY OF HIM, AND I WAS PRAYING ON DAY AND I FELT TONGUES COME ... I JUST STARTED PRAYING IN TONGUES.. THAT IS WHAT I CALL MY PRAYER LANGUAGE ..... TONGUES THAT ARE SPOKEN OUT LOUD IN CHURCH IS TO BE INTERPRETED TO EDIFY THE CHURCH... AND I HAVE SEEN THIS HAPPEN ALSO.. AND WHEN IT DOES THE WHOLE CHURCH IS QUITE AND THEN WE HEAR THE INTERPRETION. AND I DO BELIEVE THAT IT IS A SPECIAL PRAYER LANGUAGE BETWEEN ME AND GOD EVEN THOUGH I DONT KNOW WHAT I AM PRAYING BUT I KNOW THE HOLY SPIRIT DOES AND THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS.... I HAVE HEARD ALL THE DEBATES OVER THIS AND I CAN SEE THE POINTS THAT ARE BEING MADE ... JUST DONT AGREE.. AND I DONT PRAY IN TONGUES ALL THE TIME AND I DONT KNOW WHEN I WILL IT JUST HAPPENS... AND AS I SAID FOR ME I KNOW I WOULD OR COULD NOT DO THIS ON MY OWN, I DO NOT WANT SOMETHING THAT IS NOT OF GOD AND I KNOW THAT THIS IS.. AND I DONT THINK IT MAKES ME BETTER THAN SOMEONE ELSE OR THAT U HAVE TO SPEAK IN TONGUES TO BE SAVED OR FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT OF GOD.. AND I THANK GOD FOR ALL THAT HE HAS GIVEN ME ... SISTER VICKI