The Holy Spirit Encounter

Tongues of Fire

Today we will talk about my favourite subject, tongues. Lets just right into this.

The best place to start is to talk about what exactly speaking in tongues is. Speaking in tongues is a New Testament phenomena where a person speaks in a language that is unknown to them. Speaking in tongues can be a known language like when the onlookers heard the apostles speaking in their native tongue. "And when this sound was heard, a crowd gathered, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing those in the upper room speaking in his own language or dialect. They were completely astonished, saying, “Look! Are not all of these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears in our own language or native dialect? [Among us there are] Parthians, Medes and Elamites, and people of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia [Minor], Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and the visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes (Gentile converts to Judaism), Cretans and Arabs--we all hear them speaking in our [native] tongues about the mighty works of God!” ACTS 2:6‭-‬11 AMP
It can also be an unknown language, this is known as your prayer language, the language that only God knows. "In the same way the Spirit [comes to us and] helps us in our weakness. We do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it as we should, but the Spirit Himself [knows our need and at the right time] intercedes on our behalf with sighs and groanings too deep for words."
ROMANS 8:26 AMP

Now that we know what tongues are, let's get into the nitty-gritty of tongues. Many people dismiss the gift of speaking in tongues due to their misinterpretation of 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Here we see Paul scolding the people of Corinth for focusing solely on speaking in tongues because those around them can't understand therefore it doesn't edify the church. Just from that people automatically ride off speaking in tongues because they either:
A) don't read any farther after that
B) ignore what comes after that
After Paul scolds them for emphasizing speaking in tongues, he turns around and praises them for speaking in tongues and encourages them to speak in tongues, with one stipulation: when speaking in tongues they need to explain to the church what it is they said and bring an interpretation, or someone else needs to interpret.

So yes, speaking in tongues is a relevant spiritual gift and is a legitimate form of worship.

When it comes to speaking in tongues there's a lot of room left for interpretation and speculation simply because the Bible doesn't talk a whole lot about speaking in tongues and what it does say can be found to be incredibly confusing, like what we just discussed about 1 Corinthians 14. There's also issues like:
-Is speaking in tongues the initial evidence of salvation?
-Does everyone have the capability of speaking in tongues?
-Is speaking in tongues still relevant?
-what happens if an interpretation doesn't come?
- how does one speak in tongues?

We will discuss all these issues and more in the next series about the Holy Spirit, but for now, I'm not going to over-load you. Today we will just leave it at the bare essentials.

Father, I just pray Your Holy Spirit over everyone reading this. I just pray you will give them an understanding to all they have read thus far.
In Christ's precious and Holy Name, I pray, amen.