On Speaking in Tongues

Monday, February 8, 2010

ON SPEAKING IN TONGUES...How to gain an advantage in your own "super bowl" contest.


Yesterday, Super Bowl Sunday, I addressed the richness of Speaking in Tongues (ie how to gain an advantage in your own super bowl) And the saints did win...more than the New Orleans kind...if you know what I mean. :)

What a day!

The second service turned into a lab and was truly special indeed.

As promised here are some things shared and especially the references from scripture that will help you study it further.

An anchor: Jude 20 - "Build yourselves up in faith...pray in the Spirit"

A biblically applicable sense of praying in the Spirit, is praying in tongues, an inner spirit expression to God, that is abundantly available to believers in the pages of the New Testament. (Acts 2:4, see also the specifics and implications of Paul's words in I Corinthians 12-14)

To define briefly: speaking in tongues occurs when we have been filled to overflow with the Spirit of God and our spirit seeks expression beyond what is naturally available - ie our language and our ideas. In speaking in tongues we are simply no longer confined to the limitations of our rationality...."our spirit prays."

The exciting sense of the language of the New Testament is that this is an offering of God to demark the fullness of the Spirit in our lives.

Speaking in tongues can be understood in at least three dimensions:

One - tongues spoken in a public situation, not understood by the speaker/s but understood by hearers without any interpretation. This a a special sign of God's presence and power...and while occuring still, is relatively unusual. See Acts 2:4,6,8,11
*My sister spoke Chinese when the overflow of the Spirit came and it was understood by the chinese lady near her and was of high impact in her life and ministry.

Two - tongues are spoken in a public situation, not understood by the speaker/s nor by the hearers and because of that, need to be interpreted so that people can be edified. (Interpreted is not to be equated with word-for-word translation.) See I Corinthians 14:27-28 - and in fact, the entire chapter. In my experience, there are a number of possible combinations here: the interpreter is quickened by the Spirit to know that what is sensed prior, during, or after, that what that person is sensing is indeed what the Spirit is expressing when the tongues is spoken. Note: it seems most accurate to see tongues spoken as an ascending speech - people to God: ie "God we magnify you and love you." And prophecy as a descending speech - God to people: the Lord's concerns for us, the Lord's heart and directions to us.

Three - tongues spoken privately (when alone, or non-distractingly, softly, when in public). This tongue speaking needs no interpretation to be orderly, although I Cor. 14:13 seems to hint that even in private we may ask God to help us understand.

Special note: I Cor.14 must be understood in the light of tongues spoken in church and in that church apparently often and without interpretation. This is disorderly and does not edify. But note what Paul says I Cor 14:18-19. Wow!

To speak in tongues so others can hear ie in public requires a special annointing and an interpretive understanding, otherwise, our speaking in tongues should be most entirely in private. Why speak in tongues privately?
1. It is a special road to intimacy with God - I Cor. 14:2
2. It is an additional way to pray with strength - Ephesians 6:18
3. It brings personal refreshing and encourages faith -Jude 20, Eph 6:10-18
5. It is a means of enliving not only prayer but also song - I Cor. 14:15

We all need to be refilled rather regularly...because most of us spring leaks and become empty pretty regularly.

So let us live full of the Spirit each day - Ephesians 5:18
let us speak in tongues as the Bible instructs
and win the life advantages it is meant to bring.

Matthew 7:7-11
Matthew 14:29
II Timothy 1:6

David