4 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ABOUT SPEAKING IN TONGUES

“Tongues was given to people in Bible days to spread the gospel to the different parts of the world. It's not for us today is it?”

- Tongues are still for today because the great commission is yet not fulfilled. The Greek was fairly spread over the known world in Bible days, as is the English nowadays, but there are many different people with other languages that needs to be reached with the gospel today. Why would God give the early church something he wouldn’t give us nowadays? He’s no respecter of persons (Acts. 10:34). We must understand that speaking in tongues is not only an angelic/ heavenly language that cannot be understood without an interpretation. To speak in other tongues, is also God giving you a language you’ve never mastered before - and making you fluent in it for the gospel’s sake. A great part of spreading the gospel and fulfilling the Great Commission includes speaking in tongues. Mark 16:17 “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues” “Doesn’t the Bible say ‘If I speak in tongues that no one understands, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal’”? - No. Why would God give us the gift of tongues for us to be clanging cymbals? Why would God give us something that we need to be so careful to use? Paul said that we become like a clanging cymbal if we are speaking in tongues but have not love. As he also refers to if we prophesy, understand all mysteries and have all knowledge, give to the poor, and have all the faith in the world but have not love, we are nothing - we are a bunch of nobodies. It is funny in this scripture, because never does people compare a prophet to be a “nobody”, but people compare the speaking in tongues as being a “clanging cymbal”.

“Is not speaking in tongues without interpretation pointless? Because the Bible says ‘he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.” - You got to understand that speaking in tongues serves a greater purpose than just for interpretation.

* Tongues are for a sign to the unbeliever (1 Corinthians 14:22)

* Tongues are for prayer and singing in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:15)

* Speaking in tongues edifies us personally (1 Corinthians 14:4)

* Tongues helps us to pray (Rom. 8:26)

* Tongues brings prophesy, interpretation & preaching (1 Corinthians 12:10, Mark 16:17)

Paul never undermined the speaking in tongues, and never did he accuse them for speaking too much in tongues. In fact he spoke in tongues more than any of them (1 Corinthians 14:18 “I speak with tongues more than you all”). To be frank, you can not operate in the gift of interpretation, without the gift of tongues. Remember that “the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you” (1 Corinthians 12:21). I would like to be so bold to say, that if there is a church without anyone in it speaking in tongues, that church has rejected a member of the Body of Christ.

Paul rather confronted the structure and order of that church, than accusing them for speaking in tongues. Paul never purposed to hinder the church from speaking in tongues - 1 Corinthians 14:39-40 “Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order.”

It’s so easy to take a Bible scripture like this one out of context and use it to bash the speaking in tongues. Surprisingly do I never hear anyone using the scripture from the same chapter “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak” as a reason to silence the women in the churches, but they use other scriptures to silence the speaking in tongues? Most of us know that Paul told the women to keep silent because they disrupted the order of the church service by asking questions. That’s why Paul said “let them ask their own husbands at home”. If Paul really meant that the women had to be silent in church, why did he then let the women pray and prophesy in the church (1 Corinthians 11:5)? We all know what Paul meant to say when he corrected the women of the church, but often misunderstand what he said about the speaking in tongues.

“Well, tongues is a gift. It’s not for everybody. I can be born again without speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues is not the only sign of being filled with the Spirit”?

It is a gift, but I disagree - it is for everybody. Jesus said “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him”. If anybody, at anytime, would ask for the gift of tongues, God promised to give of His Spirit! It is for everybody! Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:5 “I wish you all spoke with tongues”. It might not be the only sign of being filled with the Spirit, but it’s one of the signs, so why wouldn’t you want it? Why would you not want to receive one of the gifts of the Spirit - the speaking in tongues? If God has offered you different gifts, why won’t you seek them in your life?

On the Day of Pentecost there was 120 people gathered in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came as a rushing mighty wind and filled the house, and not one disciple was left over - all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and not one of them said “I do not want to speak in tongues”. Instantaneously they were filled with the Spirit, and as a result they all spoke in tongues. Not a few, not half of them, not the majority of them - all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance!

Yes you can be born again without speaking in tongues, but being born again is not the same as being filled by the Spirit. In Acts 19 some people had recently come to believe in the gospel and was baptized in water, but Paul asked “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”

And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied (Acts 19:6)

As you can see, it is possible to be born again and believe in Jesus, but yet not having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The speaking in tongues is not only for some, or the real “holy ones”, it is a gift that can be given to every man. The Bible says that while Peter preached, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. (Acts 10:44-46)

- Jakob Wendesten