The whole truth about speaking in tongues, the sign and the gift.

Growing up Baptist, I had never actually heard anyone speak in tongues.  It was a  

subject that both terrified me and excited me. What would it be like? What did it 

feel like? 

But then, there were some people that told me that tongues had ceased being used 

by God when the Bible as a complete book was put together. Furthermore, they 

said, if it did happen now, it was of the devil. So, then I'd think, "well, I don't want 

to go to hell." 

It wasn't until later in life, after I was born again, that the Lord began to show me 

some things. 

1) Everyone that is born of the spirit will speak in tongues at least once in their 

lives. This is called "the sign of tongues."

Mark 16:

 15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

According to Jesus in this passage, everyone who Biblically believes in him will speak with new tongues. It's a sign of being born of the spirit. This doesn't mean we learn a different language than your own. It means to supernaturally speak in a language that you've never learned before. It is God speaking through you. 

This is further proven by what Jesus said in John 3:

8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Some have tried to say that this is saying it is the changed life of a Christian that others will see when we're born again. While, Philosophically, this is true, that is not what Jesus said here.  He said when a person is born of the spirit, there will be an accompanying sound. 

When people were born of the spirit in scripture, the only sound that is commonly referred to- after they are born of the spirit/baptized with the Holy Ghost is that they spoke in tongues (Acts 2:1-4, Acts 10:44-46, Acts 19:1-7). 

In Acts 8 there are two instances where people are spiritually born again, but it doesn't say they spoke in tongues. In the first instance, verses 14-19, the warlock had already seen miraculous healings and demons cast out of people (verses 5-13). Yet, he hadn't offered money to be able to do it. But, when he witnessed the spiritual births of these people, he saw and heard something that impressed him enough that he was willing to pay to be able to do cause what was happening. When he heard these people that he'd known for years begin to speak in languages that he knew they did not know, it blew his mind! 

This is what happened on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). There were at least 17 different languages being spoken that day (verses 9-11), if not more by these 120 uneducated Galileans. The crowd knew that they didn't have the education required to know all these foreign tongues. It got their attention. 

The second instance (verses 26-40) was Philip meeting the Ethiopian Eunuch. The Eunuch would be baptized in Jesus name and filled with the Holy Ghost. Again, it doesn't say that the Eunuch spoke in tongues, but if there was enough power of God there to catch Philip away to a completely new location miles away, and it happened all the other times someone received the spirit in scripture, then it must have happened to the Eunuch, as well.  After all, in the mouth of two or three witnesses,(Deuteronomy 19:15) God's word is confirmed. There are at least three definite instances of tongues accompanying the new birth. Why should we not believe it happened the other times? 

2) There are two types of tongues: Angelic and Human languages. 

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels... (1 Corinthians 13: 1)

This means that when a person speaks in tongues it can be one of the hundreds of languages in the world, or it can be an angelic language. If this were not so, then Paul, under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, would not have written this verse in that way.

3) There is a difference in the Gift of Tongues and the sign (or evidence) of tongues. 

1 Corinthians 12 explains that there are different gifts of the spirit, but the same Lord who gives them out severally (as He wills to whom He wills). It is in this context that Paul asks the often misused question,"Do all speak with tongues?" (Verse 30). He is discussing spiritual gifts and we do not all have the same spiritual gifts, so naturally, the answer to Paul's question is no. 

But, this in no way negates Jesus' proclamation that these SIGNS shall follow them that believe (tongues included) and that there would be a sound accompanying everyone's spiritual birth- and that the scriptural example of that is tongues. 

Yes, when someone is born again they will speak in tongues. But, they may or may not ever speak in tongues again. It depends upon what gift of the spirit the Lord wants to use them in at any given time. And, for you Bible scholars, it can be we are used in different gifts in different places depending upon what the Lord needs to be done within any given body of believers.

4) Tongues are also used as a prayer language.  

26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27)

There are times when we are in prayer (for ourselves or for others) when our own languages just aren't enough to express how we feel or what we are trying to say. Times when the spirit of God within us will just take over our prayer and pray for us in a language we do not know. Even if that language sounds to us like nothing more than groaning or gibberish. 

5) A little explanation about 1 Corinthians 14. 

A) This section is referring to what happens in a service corporately. 

B) The 120 did not have interpreters on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). They were all speaking in tongues and not one of them stopped to give an interpretation. It was the crowd that was standing there that heard their own languages being spoken that gave the interpretations to those around them. There was no interpreter in Acts 8, 10, or 19 either. Does this mean that one of the Apostles should've stopped the move of God? No!

C) If you've ever been in service when the gift of tongues and interpretation is operating, you'll understand that there's a difference between this and normal speaking in tongues. You see, normal speaking in tongues is us (through the spirit) praising, praying, and worshipping God. When tongues and interpretations happen it is the total opposite- it is God speaking to us as a church body! 

What I call a "holy hush" comes over the congregation. Simultaneously, or shortly thereafter, someone will begin to speak in tongues loudly and with unnatural authority. You can feel the presence of God in a much more powerful way. When they finish, either they or (usually) someone else, will begin giving the interpretation of the tongues. This interpretation edify's the whole church (what Paul referred to in 1 Corinthians 14).  

D)At any time in a church service, any or all of these things may be happening. At the altar or in the pew, someone may be speaking in tongues as they receive the Holy Ghost. Someone else may be praying in tongues. Some praise or even sing in tongues as a form of worship to Jesus. All of these are individual experiences between the person and God and require no interpretation for the larger body of Christ to hear. None of it is out of order or breaks 1 Corinthians 14. 

Paul was not saying that any of this was out of order. The Corinthian church simply had a lot of people who were trying to operate in tongues and interpretation at the same time. It also had people who were trying to speak in tongues as a way to be seen by others (of course these were not real tongues). Paul was correcting these errors in 1 Corinthians 14. But, he also said: 

39 Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.

40 Let all things be done decently and in order. (1 Corinthians 14:39-40)

So, those who try to say tongues have ceased are wrong. Those who say that a service with tongues that are not interpreted is unscriptural are wrong. 

There is a sign of tongues. All will speak in tongues that are born of the spirit. 

There is a gift of tongues. This is used in personal praise to God, personal worship of God, and personal prayer with God. And sometimes in a service, tongues go forth from God with an interpretation to the whole body of believers.  

I pray this helps you to understand what's happening in folks who speak in tongues at home and at church. 

The trouble with the "Apostolic Pentecostal" movement.

First of all, I'm sorry for having been away for so long. We've had a lot on our plates and our minds. Life is hard. Life is frustrating. I work 60+ hours a week. I am a full time college student. I have a wonderful wife, two grown daughters, a grand daughter, and 4 animals at home to care for. Granted, they do as much caring for me- if not more- as I do for them.

Yet, we live in a fallen world. We live in a world that, in Paul's words, is "wax(ing) worse and worse." 2 Timothy 3:13

Terrorism is on the rise. Entertainment is where people hide. "Me first," is the people's cry! Politics, for the most part, has become a push to give out "candy" to people in order to gain votes and stay in power. We are on the brink of WW3, as ideologies war for control of the world, and our politicians don't seem to want to stand up for anything at all.

What's worse, people are looking to Government programs and education to fulfill their inner needs. They jump from bed to bed, trying to find "the love of their lives." When all that fails, they turn to drugs and alcohol and sex for the sake of fulfilling their own desires.

In the midst of all of this, stands the church. An entity that is supposed to care for people in every way. We are supposed to care not only for the souls of people, but for their physical needs, as well.In the heart of every true believer is a desire to worship the one true God in the midst of a gathering of our fellow believers. So, we get in our cars and take our families to buildings where "the church" is supposed to meet for the glory of God. And the vast majority of the time, we wind up leaving disheartened and discouraged. Why is this?

Rather than being encouraged to operate freely in the spirit of God- and as part of the body of Christ- God's people are told to sit down, shut up, and let the real ministry (translated as titled preachers and singers) operate. Rather than being challenged to go deeper in the Lord and let him teach us through the power of the Holy Ghost, we are told to "be on the same page as the church leadership." In other words, get our beliefs from the professionals who are better than we and just blindly obey.

We are told that God loves everyone. But yet, in practice, we are shown that God seems to love some of us more than he does others. The rich, or well off, are allowed to get away with things that those of us in the poor masses would never be allowed to get away with- and still stay active in "the ministry" by virtue of their "giving heart". When people are sick, they don't even get a phone call, much less a personal prayer- unless it is a big tithe payer.

Preachers now are either spiritual cheerleaders who tell us that God is a spiritual Santa Claus who can't wait to bless us from his bag of goodies- thus eliminating God's judgement from the scriptures, or they are so hardcore that they add to the word and make everything- including wearing certain colors- a sin. Some are too educated for us common folk and only speak with high sounding words that few can comprehend. Others only know four sermons and go back and forth between these four from differing angles to the point where people leave because they're spiritually starving from lack of getting all the spiritual nutrients needed to feed their spirit man. Some pastors are egomaniacs. Some are control freaks. Almost none allow the spirit of God to have full reign in a service. much less the lives of their flocks.

We are told that God is a forgiving God. We are told that when we are born again, ALL things are made new. Yet, in practice, if a man doesn't have a family Pentecostal pedigree (or a large bank account), the "leadership" of the church will use their past sins to keep them out of the calling God is laying on their lives.

We claim to be the book of Acts church. But are we really?

While it is true that the early church taught and practiced Acts 2:38 salvation (as we do), and they taught and believed in only ONE God (as we do), yet, we are not having the same world changing results that they did. Why is that?

The early church reached out to the lost and the hurting- going so far as to sell all they had and trust the spirit's leading of the church leaders to care for the needs of everyone. We, on the other hand, take up special offerings to fix up a perfectly good bathroom so that it looks pretty to the upcoming conference goers- while at the same time, talking down to the folks in the church that are in need of food, rent, utilities, and a good friend.

The early church stood up to political leaders and spoke the word without fear or favor. We kiss up to political leaders and push our convictions under a rug, all so we can keep tax free statuses and favorable zoning for our properties.

The early church gave their lives to Jesus and their all to people. We can barely push away a plate, much less spend hours tarrying at the altar for the sake of lost souls.

The early church cared for the needs of others. We seem to care only for the needs of the building and the privileged few.

The early church practiced holiness by getting as close as they could to Jesus and allowing him to live through him. We "practice holiness" by proclaiming man-made and barely if at all scriptural rules.

The early church practiced a definite leadership structure that lifted up the family structure (God-husband, then wife, then children). We tell people that Structures were a cultural thing and not for our now enlightened society.

The early church had men preaching and teaching to all and did not allow women to preach at all, while they could teach other women. (1 Corinthians 14:34, 1 Timothy 2:12, Titus 2:1-5, etc)

Rather than encouraging Sunday school teachers to pray and seek God to tell them what to teach their classes (thereby letting God use their gifts), they are given programmed books that skim the surface and make it "easier" to teach. Many preachers now would rather download a sermon from the internet than seek God for a fresh word to help their hearers.

If we are ever to see the results that the early church saw. If we are ever to actually BE what we say we are, then we need to hit our faces, repent, and make wholesale changes to nearly everything we do. We need to study out and learn the principles and actions of the early church and then let God use as (as HE sees fit- not as religions says) to reach out to a very lost and very dying world. Then and only then, will we have a book of Acts revival.

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