The moment I first heard people speaking in tongues, I was baffled…to say the least. I had never heard of the gift of tongues, and I was amazed to see this manifestation of the Holy Spirit right before my eyes. However, my past in the occult left me cautious to welcome anything that seemed out of the ordinary. I started to search for scriptural evidence of this gift, and what I found astounded me! The Bible verses that exist on this topic are so detailed. There’s no room for interpretation, and yet I managed to have never heard of the gift of tongues! After meditating on these Scriptures, I came to realize that this gift was perfectly normal, and what was abnormal was the people who rejected it.
I never prayed to receive tongues. I was watching a teaching by Patricia King, and she started to talk about the gift. After listening to her, I thought how neat it would be to have a private prayer language to speak with God. I just couldn’t understand how I would go about speaking in another language. Was the Holy Spirit going to grab my tongue and start moving it for me?
Patricia said at the end of the teaching that if the Holy Spirit was in us, the gift of tongues was too (Mark 16:17), and all we had to do was open our mouths and let it out. It finally made sense, but I was afraid of what was going to come out. I ignored my fear, and surrendered my tongue to the Holy Spirit. When I opened my mouth there were a few mumbles, and then it became stronger. I could hear what sounded like real words that I had never heard. I prayed in the Spirit for two hours that night. I guess you could say I had a lot of built up things to say to God!
In the days following, I really wanted confirmation that this was from God, and not just something in my head. I asked Him to confirm that it was a gift from Him, and I said, “if it’s not from you, I don’t want to do it.” One day, I kept saying a word that sounded like “makoya”, so I decided to see if I could find anything. Of course, I didn’t know how to spell what I was saying, but I typed my first guess (makoya) into reference.com, and this is what came up! This was the first confirmation. I also had confirmation in certain Bible verses that the Lord led me to. For instance, Matthew 7:9-11, which basically says that if we ask God for something good, He is not going to give us something bad. I also noticed how this prayer language made me feel. I would start to feel confident, and a new authority would come into my voice. Even when I switched to English, my English prayers would be stronger. This is supported in 1 Corinthians 14:4, which says that tongues is for edifying ourselves.
Do you speak in tongues? What was it like when you first started? If you aren’t speaking in tongues, don’t fret! I don’t hold the belief that it makes someone any less of a Christian, but I do believe that everyone who has been baptized into the Body of Christ can do it. What’s holding you back?
Signs and Wonders Ministry put up an article of mine: www.signs-and-wonders.org/sidharth
Do read it.
There are things I’d disagree though. Will send a mail with what I taught on it sometime back.
Sid
Comment Submitted: February 3rd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I personally do believe that everyone who receives the Spirit baptism will speak in tongues, but I do not believe they’d be able to operate in after the initial experience and that too by their will until they receive the Gift of tongues.
The confusion arises because many people receive the gift of tongues along with the Spirit baptism.
I spoke in tongues when I received the Spirit baptism, but I couldn’t speak in tongues for many months. Later on a lady placed her hands on me and I received the gift of tongues. Not everyone can operate in the gift of tongues. Paul asks us, “Do all speak in tongues?”. The answer is an obvious “no”.
Acts 2, Acts 10 and Acts 19 relate to the evidence of the Spirit baptism. While 1 Cor 12 and 1 Cor 14 are dealing with the Gift of tongues. They arent the same.
Comment Submitted: February 3rd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I agree that the gift of tongues is available to those the Holy Spirit wishes to convey it upon. There are many gifts of the Spirit, but I don’t believe we are equipped with or given all of them. Sidharth’s reference to Acts 2 gives us the situation where (verse 4) it states that they (apostles) were all filled by the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other (different languages) tongues as the Spirit kept giving them clear and loud expression (in each tongue and in appropriate words). Because Jeruselem (verse 5) was filled with Jews and other men from every country, the sounds that the Spirit kept giving the apostles was heard and understood by all in their own dialect (tongue). 1st Corinthians 14, verse 5 states that “Now I wish that you might all speak in tongues but more especially to prohesy. He who prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues, unless he should interpret (what he says) so that the church may be edified and receive good from it.” Many times in my 20+ years as a Christian, I have been to churches where it appeared that every staff person on stage could speak in tongue. At least they made “sounds” to that effect. However, no one ever was able to tell us what was said. I believe from scripture that if someone has the ability to speak in tongues it is so another may be able to understand even if it is not their native tongue being spoken. Speaking in tongues is a great and wonderful gift when used in public that edifies and doesn’t bring about confusion.
Comment Submitted: February 3rd, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Sorry, Eric, you do not have a clear understanding on speaking in tongues. There are a lot of wrong assumptions you have made.
(1) 120 were assembled in the Upper Room and they all spoke in tongues, not just the apostles. And this is what shook the city.
(2) The 120 weren’t preaching, they were glorifying God or in other words praising God.
Tongues do serve as an evidence in the Spirit baptism, if you will give me your e-mail ID, I can mail a clear teaching to you.
But again, not everyone can operate in the Gift of tongues. The Gift of tongues can be used for personal devotion or public. In personal devotion, we can pray in tongue and praise God in tongues, but this shouldn’t be done loudly and in public unless you have the sister gift of interpretation.
However, in public one can speak in tongues only when either he or someone else in the assembly has the gift of interpretation of tongue.
I have thorough knowledge of this.
Do mail contact me…You could use the prayer request column on my site, if you don’t want your mail ID on the net.
Sidharth
Comment Submitted: February 3rd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Sidharth,
Thank you for your follow-up. I appreciate the clarification of the “120″ and not just the apostles. My main discussion point was as you pointed out. I completely agree that one can praise the Lord in tongue and you have stated correctly when and how it should be used in private and public places. I will forward you my direct e-mail for further discussion. We all grow in the Lord daily and I’m certainly one of them that doesn’t mind sharpening my ax when it gets a little dull.
Comment Submitted: February 4th, 2008 at 9:02 am
I believe in tongues and gifts of the Spirit, but I haven’t really asked for it because of two primary reasons:
1. I was brought up in a cessanist environment.
2. I was once in a Pentecostal church that wanted to ‘teach’ me to speak in tongues by having me repeat the ‘tongues’.
Yes, I’m a little scarred in this aspect.
Shalom!
Comment Submitted: February 4th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Sicarri,
You aren’t required to ask for it, but there’s no need to be afraid of it. I hope you will continue to seek God on this, and remember that speaking in tongues is not a requirement for Salvation.
Comment Submitted: February 5th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Wow, this is a very interest subject for me, since I was raised as a Christian and believed in God for a fair number of years before I was water baptized and received the gift of tongues. Interestingly enough, I feel that I received an in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit (particularly in the realm of prophecy and dreams) several months before I was baptized. After baptism, it took a while for me to get comfortable with speaking in tongues, but now I couldn’t imagine living the Christian life without it. The strength and faith I receive in my spirit from praying in the Spirit, and the clarity of mind and body that follows, is incredible. What a magnificent God we serve!
Comment Submitted: February 9th, 2008 at 12:17 am