16. Doesn't The Holy Spirit Speak In My Language?
Chapter 16 Doesn’t The Holy Spirit Speak In My Language?
Alfred Garr Uses Tongues In India In our previous chapter we talked about the Azusa Street revival meetings that happened in Los Angeles. One of the first missionaries from that church was a man named Alfred Garr. Alfred told people that they needed to “speak in tongues” as proof that they had been truly baptized by the Holy Spirit. One time when Alfred “spoke in tongues” at the Azusa Street church someone told him that he was speaking in Bengali—a primary language spoken in India. So later, Alfred decided that since the filling of the Holy Spirit had given him the ability to speak the Bengali language without learning it, then the Spirit was sending him to India as a missionary. Alfred was planning to evangelize the people of India in their own language by using the gift of tongues that he received. So in 1907 Alfred and his wife were sent out from the Azusa Street church as missionaries to Calcutta, India. After he arrived in India he began to “speak in tongues” to the people there—but apparently it was not Bengali because they did not understand him. No matter what he said in “tongues” they did not understand. So Alfred had to give up that idea and use a translator to teach them.
Alfred later wrote this in a report in 1908:
“I supposed God would let us talk to the natives of India in their own tongue, but He did not…I have not seen any one who is able to preach to the natives in their own tongue with the languages given with the Holy Ghost.”(Quoted from Special Supplement to Confidence, May 1908, p. 2.)
Alfred was disappointed that his “gift of tongues” did not give him the ability to talk to the people in their own language, so he changed his doctrine a bit about the meaning and purpose for the gift of tongues. He said that the gift of tongues was a heavenly language instead of an earthly language. He also said that it was the real proof that people had actually received the baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit. He still kept teaching the people in India and also China about their need to “speak in tongues.” This true story about Alfred Garr shows us the confusion aboutthe baptism, the filling and the gifts of the Spirit—and that confusion is still here today. But what does the Bible say about the meaning of these terms? And what does the Bible teach about the gift of tongues?
Confusion About The Terms: Baptism Of The Spirit, Filled With The Spirit & Gifts Of The Spirit In the last chapter we read that “God is not a God of confusion.” But we do know that Satan sure is! He is the father of lies and he loves to create confusion by twisting the truth. Satan hates truth. Remember the tricks and lies he used to deceive Eve in the Garden of Eden? Satan mixed truth with lies and changed the meaning of God’s words—and he still does the same today. So in the last few chapters we have looked at the biblical meaning of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in order to clear up some of the confusion of Satan’s lies and see the true meaning of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. In this chapter we want to take that a step further and also clarify how the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is different than being FILLED with the Spirit. It is also different than the GIFTS of the Spirit. God used different words in the Bible for good reasons, and even though they are all connected to the Holy Spirit, they each have different meanings. So we shouldn’t confuse them or say that they are the same thing.
Baptism Of The Holy Spirit Is Different Than Being Filled With The Holy Spirit In the book of Acts we sometimes see the filling of the Spirit happening immediately after the Baptism of the Spirit, and since they seem to happen at the same time, some people think that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the same as being filled with the Holy Spirit, but it’s not. They are different, and Satan wants to confuse us about them. The Bible can clarify it for us.
How Is The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit Different Than Being Filled With The Holy Spirit?
The baptism of the Holy Spirit happens just ONCE, when we first believe the good news of Christ and become a child of God (1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 1:13).
The filling of the Holy Spirit can happen MANY TIMES, preferably constantly. The Greek verb “filled” in Ephesians 5:18 means: "Be constantly, moment by moment, guided by the Spirit."
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is something GOD HIMSELF DOES, even if we are unaware of it. This happens when he puts the Holy Spirit inside us and places us into the body of Christ.
The filling of the Holy Spirit is something that God commands US to do (Ephesians 5:18 says “be filled with the Spirit”). In other words, WE HAVE TO ALLOW the Holy Spirit to fill us. We can also prevent the filling from happening by grieving the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19; Acts 7:51).
The baptism of the Holy Spirit places us into Christ—into God’s family, the church—and our bodies become the home of the Holy Spirit (John 14:20; 1 John 4:13).
The filling of the Holy Spirit strengthens and guides us daily to do God’s work.
Filling Of The Holy Spirit Was In The Old Testament But Not The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit In the Old Testament, there were many leaders, kings, and prophets that were filled with the Holy Spirit, but not one person received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. That’s because the first time the baptism of the Spirit occurred was on the Day of Pentecost, when the church began. The baptism of the Holy Spirit was a special sign to mark or identify the church, and that is why it didn’t happen until the beginning of the church. So even this fact alone can show us that the baptism of the Holy Spiritis different than the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism Of The Holy Spirit Is Different Than The Gifts Of The Spirit
Some people think that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is basically the same as one of the gifts of the Spirit (tongues). They think that this particular gift of the Holy Spirit is the most important gift and it is the only sign that someone has truly received the Holy Spirit. They believe that if someone hasn’t received this gift, they haven’t received the Holy Spirit yet. The gift called “tongues” (or speaking in other languages) is one of the gifts of the Spirit that is found in the Bible, but let’s first look at how it got started and then consider the purpose of it. We must understand that the gift of tongues is different than the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We’ve already seen from the Bible that the baptism of the Holy Spirit puts us in God’s family when we first believe and that only happens once. But the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to us to use constantly (daily) to help us do God’s work.
What Actually Is The Gift Of Tongues?
People have many different ideas about the gift of tongues these days, but what does the Bible say? Let’s look back again to the Day of Pentecost, which was the first time the gift of tongues was given, and let’s see how God used this gift.
Acts 2:1-9 says: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, becauseeach one heard their own languagebeing spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it thateach of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia…” On the Day of Pentecost, God sent the Holy Spirit to baptize the apostles and other believers, so they would be united into one body with Christ. In God’s eyes they became part of the body of Christ, his family, the church. But since the Holy Spirit is invisible and no one could actually see him, God wanted to show the Jews a visible sign to prove that a brand-new thing had just happened. He wanted to show that the baptism of the Holy Spirit had actually come to pass like Jesus had prophesied it would. So after the Holy Spirit baptized the believers, he also filled them. As we see in other verses, the meaning of ‘filled’ is that the Holy Spirit strengthened and guided them. The Holy Spirit guided their mouths so they could preach the gospel in other languages. The Holy Spirit gives many different gifts and speaking in tongues was one of them. Tongues was a special sign-gift for the Jewish unbelievers who were there (1 Corinthians 14:22) and showed them that God had started a new thing, called the church. This had never happened before. The Bible Says Tongues Are Real Human Languages
Let’s consider Acts 2:6 from above. There we saw that Jews from other countries who were visiting Jerusalem heard the believers speaking in tongues. They were speaking in the languages from those countries. The meaning of the Greek word “tongues” is just simply ‘languages’—human languages that people use every day—but these believers spoke in languages they had never learned. The believers didn’t quickly take lessons on how to learn those languages, but the Holy Spirit gave them that gift or ability instantly, so they could tell the good news to others in their own languages.
Tongues Is Not A Secret Holy Language
Some people think that tongues is some sort of special secret heavenly prayer language that only God and the angels can understand. It may be true that some people occasionally prayed or worshiped God using the gift of tongues, but that was not God’s main purpose! God doesn’t need us to even pray or speak in any language at all in order to understand us! He already knows our every thought before we speak. But as we read Acts 2:6-11 and 1 Corinthians 14:10, etc., it’s clear that God intended tongues (languages) to be understood by human ears, because they were spoken in real human languages that had real meaning to those who understood those languages.
Acts 2:11 says: “…we hear them speaking inour own languagesaboutthe great deeds God has done!" (NET)
Tongues were not meant to be secret words hidden from people. The whole point was that God wanted people to understand what was being said in tongues! In Acts 2 this is very clear. On the Day of Pentecost true tongues (languages) were spoken and we see that people heard and understood exactly what the meaning of these languages were because it was their own languages they were hearing. This is the real gift of tongues. God knew that Satan would later try to deceive people about the true gift of tongues, so God wrote a long, detailed list of all the tongues or languages that were spoken that day so we could see the truth for ourselves. He wanted us to know they were real human languages. Look at the list of “tongues” in Acts 2:9-11 again. These were not unknown languages—they were real live earthly tongues or languages spoken by many people from many countries:
“... “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome...Cretans and Arabs…”
These were Jews who normally lived in many different countries and spoke their own individual languages. But while they were visiting and worshiping in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, they heard the apostles and other believers preach God’s word in their own languages! The apostles didn’t learn these languages first, nor had they been practicing speaking in tongues. The Holy Spirit just filled them and directed them to be able to speak in all these people’s languages. That is what the Bible calls the gift of ‘tongues.’ The gift of tongues is simply the gift of languages—any language. The Gift Of Tongues Allowed Believers To Speak Any Language
So, if Peter was standing near people from Parthia, he was able to speak Parthian. If John was standing close to people from Egypt, he spoke Egyptian. No matter who they were standing near, they were able to speak in their specific language. They were speaking in tongues (other languages) and the people heard and understood them in their own language. So, it is very important to understand that ‘tongues’ here in the Bible is just a word for languages—regular human languages. The miracle was not some new special secret language, but the fact that these languages were being spoken by people who had never learned them before! God gave them that gift instantly. This gift (or ability) to speak in tongues wasn’t something they needed to practice or learn. They could just speak any language they needed to communicate without learning that language. It was a special miracle. The Holy Spirit Knows All The Languages In The World
We know that the Day of Pentecost was celebrated in Jerusalem, in Israel, where the disciples normally spoke Aramaic or Greek. But if Pentecost would have happened today—like in a crowded airport with many foreigners crowded around—do you think the disciples would have been able to speak today’s languages? Yes! Of course! No matter where the apostles would have been, God would have enabled them to speak in that specific language. Today they would probably be speaking Spanish or German or French or Italian or Japanese or Chinese or some other language. The Holy Spirit knows every language in every country and he wants people to understand his message clearly, so the gift of tongues was given to those believers so they could help the Jews from other countries clearly understand God’s message, and not confuse them.
Satan Confuses Us About Tongues. God Does Not 1 Corinthians 14:33 says: “God is not the author of confusion...”(NKJV)
We read this verse before, but it’s worth reading again. Paul wrote this verse in a chapter talking about tongues—because he knew that Satan would try to cause confusion in the church about tongues and disrupt things. The Holy Spirit doesn’t confuse people. The Holy Spirit is our helper and he wants us to understand God’s word clearly—in a language we can understand clearly (1 Corinthians 14:19)—so we can understand the meaning of it and believe it. So on the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit gave the Jews and others an opportunity to hear the gospel in their very own languages, no matter what country they came from. The Holy Spirit was showing them that the gospel was going to become a global message for everyone to understand, not just the Jews.
Baptism Of The Holy Spirit Joins All Believers Into One Family
Later in Acts we see that other people too—the Samaritans and Gentiles—were also baptized with the Holy Spirit, and God used this same gift of tongues as a sign to show that something brand new had happened to these other groups of people also. God wanted to show the Jews that the gospel and the Holy Spirit was not just for the Jews, but for everyone who believed in Jesus. And now God was joining believers from all different groups (Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles) into one family—the church, the body of Christ. This is the work of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:14-22), to join them all into one. So he used the sign of tongues, which was something that they could all see and hear, to mark the joining of all these groups—into one group—the church.
Tongues: The Opposite Of The Curse Of The Tower Of Babel In Genesis Ch. 11 we see that before the tower of Babel, everyone spoke one language. But mankind rebelled against God, so God came down to judge them by dividing them into different language groups.
Genesis 11:6-8 says: “...the LORD said, "If as one people all sharing a common language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. Come, let’s go down and confuse their language so they won’t be able to understand each other." So the LORD scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth…” (NET) So we see that God was the one who invented all the different languages so that people would be scattered and not continue in their planned rebellion against God. That was hundreds of years before Jesus. But when Jesus died and rose again, he provided a way to be part of God’s family again. When he sent the Holy Spirit to earth to live inside his believers, this was the beginning of his church, his family. And his family would not only be Jews, but also Samaritans and Gentiles from all over the world and from EVERY LANGUAGE group in the world. So when the Holy Spirit gave the gift of tongues to the new church, it might have been intended to be a sign showing us that he would unify people from around the world again someday. He had begun the church which would someday have people from every language group. The sin and rebellion of man brought about many languages and separation. Only God could reverse that. He has begun that by creating a new thing called the church—his body, his family—and bring all these languages back together again into one family, the family of God. The gift oftongues itself does not unify the world, but tongues indicated that the Holy Spirit had started thechurch, the family of Christ, which would someday unify many people into one. This unity will finally be fulfilled when Christ returns. Tongues is also a sign for Israel, which we will read about shortly.
Satan Tried To Divide The Corinthian Church With Tongues The Holy Spirit united all believers into one family or body called the church. But we know that Satan doesn’t like unity. He wants us to be divided and separated. So he isn’t happy with the work of the Holy Spirit and he wants to divide the church. But he doesn’t have power to get rid of the Holy Spirit, so he has to find some other way to divide us. In the Corinthian church, it seems like he found a way to use different things, like the gift of tongues, as a way to make people jealous of each other. The apostle Paul wrote them a letter to try to clear up some of their problems and misunderstandings, and that letter or book can be very helpful to us also.
God And Satan Can Be At Work In The Same Place
We have to remember that there is a constant spiritual battle going on in the spirit world which we cannot see. So wherever God is at work, Satan will try to oppose his work, and vice versa. So we should not be surprised to see Satan at work in a church like Corinth. When the Holy Spirit was changing lives and doing wonderful and miraculous things there, Satan was at work in that church too. From the stories in the Bible we see glimpses of God and Satan at work in the same place. (For example: Satan indwelling Judas in the garden of Gethsemane at the same time Jesus was healing the ear of one of the soldiers. (Luke 22:47-51). Also, the demon-possessed slave girl and Paul both doing miraculous things (Acts 16:16-18). The Church At Corinth Had Many Problems The Holy Spirit was at work in the Corinthian church, but they were not a very strong church. They had many problems with worldliness and were weak in their beliefs (1 Corinthians 3:1-3). So Paul warned them about several things. They were proud and argued over which leader was the best, and this caused divisions among them (1:11). There was sexual immorality among them (5:1), and they were taking each other to court (6:1), and some even struggled with the issue of food sacrificed to idols (8:1). This church was weak and divided. Paul said they were like children (infants) in their faith (3:1; 14:20). They were also very confused about the gift of tongues.
Paul Corrected The Corinthians About The Gift Of Tongues And Other Gifts
Paul said that the Corinthian believers had received many gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 1:7) but they were not using them properly. So Paul spent a lot of time trying to give them corrective teaching in 1 Corinthians chapters 12, 13, & 14. Paul was especially trying to correct them and enlighten them about the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues. By the correction that Paul gave them, we can see that the Corinthians thought that speaking in tongues was exciting and a superior gift, and some really desired to receive it. Apparently, some of them did have this gift and they were proud about it and perhaps even looked down on others that didn’t have the gift. Of course, that could make others jealous and divide them. So Paul wrote a lengthy section about tongues to help them understand the truth. His words can help us understand God’s will in this too. So let’s take a quick look at these three chapters and what Paul wrote: A Summary Of What Paul Taught About The Gift Of Tongues:
EVERY Christian receives the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that places us into the body of Christ. We should never think that some believers receive the Holy Spirit, and some don’t. The Bible says that EVERY believer receives the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13).
God alone is the one who distributes the gifts of the Holy Spirit as he chooses. We don’t choose which gift we’ll receive (12:11, 18).
When a Christian believes in Jesus, the Holy Spirit puts them in the family of Christ and they each receive one or more gifts of the Holy Spirit at that time. There isn’t a Christian who lacks a gift. Everyone has at least one (12:7).
All the gifts are for the purpose of benefiting the church as a whole. The gifts are not to bring glory to ourselves but helping others—building them up (12:7; 14:26-27; 13:4-5).
Some people believe that they have to speak in tongues in order to show that they have received the Holy Spirit. But Paul rejects that thinking. He says that not every Christian receives the same type of gift. So not everyone receives the gift of tongues (12:30)! Everyone receives differing gifts.
Real ‘tongues’ are real languages and all languages have meaning. If someone speaks in tongues and there’s no one there that understands that language, then there must be someone who can interpret. If not, then the speaker should keep quiet and not use tongues (14:28).
The man who has the gift of interpretation is like a coworker to the one speaking in tongues. He can understand all languages and interpret their meaning (12:10, 30). He doesn’t learn these languages first, but God gives him that gift or ability so that he can understand any language.
Paul said that if several people speak in tongues at the same time, it would be chaotic and that would give a bad name to the church and to the Lord. An outsider would hear it and think everyone is crazy (14:23).
Paul said that he had the gift of tongues, but he didn’t like to use the gift much in the church, because he was afraid people wouldn’t understand what he was saying. He said he would much rather speak something they could understand. He said that even 5 words in a language that they all understood would be better than 10,000 words in an unknown language, because if there was no one there able to interpret, then no one would understand what he was saying and they would not be strengthened in their faith (edified) (14:18-19).
Paul said that only 2 or 3 men should speak in tongues at one service, and that they should not speak at the same time. They had to take turns. Those speaking in tongues should have control over their mouth. God is a God of order, so the church should function in an orderly manner. The Holy Spirit only does things that are orderly and proper and he is NOT the author of disorder or chaos and confusion (14:27).
The Bible says that women should not prophesy or speak in tongues during a church meeting (14:34-35).
During Paul’s time, they had not received all the revelation of God yet—the New Testament had not all been completely written. The apostles were still prophesying, which means they were still getting new teaching directly from the Holy Spirit for the church, and those things had not been written in the Bible yet (John 16:12-13). So Paul told the Corinthians they should desire those who had the gift of prophecy to do more of the speaking, so they could understand and use that new teaching to strengthen the Corinthians’ faith. Paul said that the gift of prophecy was better than the gift of tongues because if someone didn’t understand the tongues, they could not learn from it and they would not be edified (built up). But if someone could prophecy (teach God’s word), that would edify the whole church (14:4). (We’ll talk about prophecy in another chapter).
Prophecy was better than tongues because those who spoke in tongues only edified their own spirits as God was talking with them (14:2-4). They were not helping others, unless someone who had the gift of interpretation was there to interpret.
Paul and the other prophets used the gift of prophecy to give us God’s word long ago. Today we have all the words of prophecy that he wanted us to have—they have been written down in the Bible. So those words of God should always be more important to us than speaking in tongues (languages) which we cannot understand.
What About Tongues In The Churches Today?
Many churches are divided about tongues today. God is not honored by divisions, but Satan loves it. God does not want to confuse us, so he gave us these instructions in 1 Corinthians 12-14 to guide us in the use of tongues in church. Whether you believe in the use of tongues today or not, we all must submit to his word and the instructions he gave us. To avoid divisions, we should carefully study these chapters that God has given us about tongues. If we would be willing to follow his simple instructions, it would probably solve most of the problems and issues that churches (like Corinth) have with tongues, and the arguments would go away. So no matter what you believe about tongues today, you should at least study these passages again and see for yourselves what God actually says to us. Not Forever
Some gifts of the Spirit are temporary. For instance, according to Acts 1:21-22 nobody today could qualify to be an apostle. Apostles and prophets were foundational gifts (Ephesians 2:20)—meaning they were specifically given for the beginning stages of the church. God also said that the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecywould cease (1 Corinthians 13:8-10). Their purpose was temporary. So many scholars believe that these temporary gifts have ceased. The apostles and prophets finished writing the New Testament and then died. The apostle John was the last apostle-prophet to live and he wrote the last book of the Bible, Revelation. In the 2000 years since then, we have not received any more books of the Bible from the prophets. So the gift of prophecy at least has apparently ceased as the Bible said it would. We’ll talk more about that in a later chapter. A Simple Test
Other people believe the gift of tongues still exists today. If the gift of tongues does still exist, then you can use a simple test to see if someone is using biblical tongues or not. As we have already seen in Acts 2, the true gift of tongues was real human languages that people could understand—they heard the apostles speaking in their very own native languages. About 25 years later, Paul was correcting the Corinthians about tongues and he still confirmed this same idea by saying tongues are languages that all have meaning that can be understood (1 Corinthians 14:7-11). In fact he said that if they didn’t have meaning they would not edify (or build up) the church at all! So if someone really has the gift of tongues today they should be able to go anywhere in the world and speak in any language with people wherever they are. Also, if someone claims they have the gift of interpretation of tongues, and tongues are regular, known languages, then they also should be able to understand and interpret anybody speaking in any language around in the world. It’s a simple test, but it holds true to principles we see in Acts 2 and also 1 Corinthians 14. Remember, Paul made these very important statements about the gift of tongues:
“...if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you... Unless youspeak intelligible wordswith your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just bespeaking into the air....there are all sorts of languages in the world, yetnone of them is without meaning.” (1 Corinthians 14:6-10) Tongues Could Be Like A Noisy Gong Or A Clanging Cymbal
Ok, now we’ve seen all the warnings Paul gave the Corinthians about using the gift of tongues wrongly. He said tongues were intended to have meaning and build people up in their faith. And if there was no interpreter, Paul said the speakers need to be quiet. Paul said it wouldn’t be good if outsiders (unbelievers) would come into a church meeting and hear Christians just making sounds that made no sense. That would be an unloving way to treat people. It would be like someone standing up in church and banging on metal pot, like a “noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). It would be unloving and distractive, and the outsiders would think Christians were crazy and that would give God a bad name (1 Corinthians 14:23). The Corinthians Thought The Gift Of Tongues Was The Most Important, But Paul Disagreed
It seems that the Corinthians thought the gift of tongues was the most important of all gifts, but when Paul wrote the list of the gifts, he put tongues way down at the bottom of the list because he knew that some people were trying to overemphasize tongues. But Paul said that in the church it was more important to use the gifts that teach God’s word, like the gift of apostles, prophets, and teachers (1 Corinthians 12:28;1 Corinthians 12:31 :1 Corinthians 4:14, 1 Corinthians 12:12) and other similar gifts, because those gifts build up the church (Ephesians 4:11-16). The Gift Of Tongues Was A Sign
Paul said that the gift of tongues did have some value IF it was used properly and with an interpreter. But speaking in tongues also had another very special purpose. Paul showed us that one of the main purposes of tongues was that it was given as a “SIGN.”
God used the sign gifts (also called signs and wonders), to prove that the apostles were really messengers sent out from Christ (Hebrews 2:3-4) and that God was starting something new—the church (1 Corinthians 12:13). Some of the sign gifts are: miracles, healing, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. But Paul also showed the Corinthians that one of the main reasons God gave tongues was “not for believers but for unbelievers.”
Tongues Was A Sign For Unbelieving Jews
1 Corinthians 14:20-22 says: “Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. In the Law it is written: “With othertonguesand through thelips of foreignersI will speak tothis people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Tongues, then, are a sign,not for believers butfor unbelievers...”
Paul quoted this passage from the book of Isaiah to correct the Corinthians’ wrong understanding. That passage shows us that tongues was mainly a sign not for believers but for “this people”—meaning unbelieversin Israel. Paul quoted this passage from the Old Testament. During the time it was written, Israel was very rebellious and not listening to God. So God said that he would send foreigners—people who spoke other languages—to invade their land so that Israel would wake up and realize how rebellious they were (Deuteronomy 28:49). Maybe then they would learn to listen—at the point of a spear or sword!! Since Israel wouldn’t listen to the prophets in their own language, God said they would hear the voice of their enemies speaking to them in another language.
That’s exactly what happened in the Old Testament. They refused to listen to God, so God sent their enemies, Assyrians, to invade their land—enemies who spoke a different language (2 Kings 17:23)—a language (or tongue) they did not understand. But God said they still wouldn’t listen or submit to God (Is. 28:11-13).
Years Later Israel Was Still Not Listening To God’s Signs
Many years later, in the New Testament, the same thing was happening again. Jesus came, but Israel rejected him too. Jesus said this about Israel:
“In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "’You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; theyhardly hear with their ears...” (Matthew 13:14-15) The Israelites didn’t listen to God—they rejected Jesus. They crucified him! And so at Pentecost God gave them another sign, much like the sign of languages that Isaiah gave, but now even more miraculous. God sent them the sign of “tongues.” Yes, it was a wonderful sign to the Christians in Jerusalem, because it was a sign that marked the beginning of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the new church age. But it was also a sad sign for unbelieving Israelites. It was sad, because Israel had rejected God again. This time they rejected their own king that they had been waiting for. Was It A Warning Sign?
Some scholars believe tongues was also a warning sign to unbelievers in Israel if they continued to reject Christ. 1 Corinthians 14:22 doesn’t say for sure, but we do know that God did say that he would set Israel aside for a while—and he did (Matthew 21:43; Romans 11:25). Israel was set aside while God focused his work on people of other languages (or other tongues)—the Gentiles. As the church began to grow, it began moving away from Jerusalem and Israel into other countries, like Samaria and Asia. And now, people from many different tongues were hearing the gospel for the first time.
Forty years after Pentecost, in the year 70 AD, the Roman army came and tore down the temple in Jerusalem and killed the priests. The Jews could no longer worship in their temple! Even today, there is still no temple in Jerusalem. Some scholars even believe that the gift of tongues ceased when the temple was destroyed because the Israelites didn’t heed the warning sign that was given to them (tongues). We may not all agree on when or if they ceased, but we all need to heed the warnings in 1 Corinthians 12-14 as to how they should be used in the church. Those instructions are clear.
Love Is More Important Than All The Gifts In the middle of all the instructions about tongues and the Holy Spirit, Paul wrote something very important in 1 Corinthians 13. He says that love is much more important than tongues and all the other gifts (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Because no matter what type of gift we have from the Holy Spirit, if we don’t love our brothers and sisters, then these gifts won’t help the church or edify other believers.
We need to understand that these gifts are not to edify ourselves. God gave the gifts, so we could help (edify) others (1 Corinthians 12:7; 1 Corinthians 14:26-27; 1 Corinthians 14:31; 1 Corinthians 13:4-5). Paul says that if we have love for others, we won’t be concerned about glorifying ourselves like the Corinthians were with tongues. If the Holy Spirit is truly leading us, then we will we have a godly love for others, and we won’t be self-seeking or be envious or boastful or proud. Instead, we’ll be concerned about helping others (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). We will value others above ourselves (Php 2:3-4).
Paul had to say all these things to the Corinthians about tongues (in Ch. 12-14) because apparently some of them were very proud about having the gift of tongues and were showing off. They probably thought they had a better blessing than others. But God doesn’t look at believers that way. God loves all believers the same. All believers have received the same Holy Spirit and we all receive gifts from God to do his work in the church. No matter what type of gift we have, God wants us to love others and use our gifts to encourage and strengthen them. The gifts aren’t to glorify ourselves.
Miracles And Tongues Among The Heathen And Kundalini Power The gift of tongues was a true gift that the Holy Spirit gave to the church. But Satan is a deceiver and he has been using a form of counterfeit “tongues” and experiences among the heathen for centuries in order to deceive them. Witchdoctors, mediums, and spiritists in many places like Africa, South America, Haiti, Greenland, Australia, America, and especially in Asia, also seem to be able to speak in “tongues.” Other religious groups that call out to the spirits or worship other gods like the Hindus, Buddhists, Shinto priests, and even Moslems also have people that practice a type of “speaking in tongues.” This isn’t a new thing—it started centuries ago. Some mutter strange words with their mouths. Some have visions and fall to the ground. Some just sit and chant or hum songs. Many of them are looking for what they call the “Kundalini” power, which they call the “coiled snake.” They believe that this power or energy is like a spirit snake located in their lower spine, and that through prayer and meditation it will coil its way up to their head. When they get this Kundalini power, they experience feelings of pure joy and happiness. There are many teachers and video coaches on the internet (YouTube) in Asia and America that teach people how to experience this Kundalini power. They meditate, pray, or hum songs to open their hearts and minds, and release themselves into the power of Kundalini. And when this power comes, they experience an emotional or spiritual “high” similar to being drunk or using drugs. They often fall down unconscious when the teacher touches them on the forehead. Or they go into a trance as this “Kundalini power” controls their bodies and thoughts. These people can be seen on the videos, rolling around on the floor totally controlled by the Kundalini spirit power. The Bible confirms that Satan also has the ability to do “all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9). He has used them in order to deceive the heathen and unbelievers, so we should not be surprised if he tries to use these powers to deceive people in the church also. So beware.
Test The Spirits
1 John 4:1 says: “Dear friends,do not believe every spirit, but test the spiritsto see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
We read this verse earlier, but it’s a good reminder again here. The Bible says we should not believe every spirit but test them. It also says that Satan tries to disguise himself as an “angel of light” in order to confuse and deceive the Christians in the church (2 Corinthians 11:14). He confused the Corinthians about the gift of tongues, and Paul had to correct them about the purpose and use of tongues. Satan wants to confuse us too, so we need to test everything that we hear by reading the word of God and comparing it carefully. In conclusion, we need to remind ourselves again to watch out for this slippery ‘serpent,’ Satan, who has been very effective in confusing many people in the church (2 Corinthians 11:3-4). He is powerful and very clever—much smarter than we are. So if we want to defeat him, we can’t depend on our own wisdom. We need to carefully study God’s word so we aren’t confused by this deceiver who loves to disguise himself as an “angel of light!” This is spiritual battle against a powerful enemy. We need to put on the full armor of God.