Speaking in tongues

1 Corinthians 14:2 NLT

"For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won't be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious"

Christians today (including me) hold firmly to the power of prayer, particularly "speaking in tongues" (secularly defined as Glossolalia, it is the fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables that lack any readily comprehended meaning to the human ear).

Romans 8:26 NLT

"And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words."

Christians hold that speaking in tongues vocalizes the groanings of the Holy Spirit within us and helps us to pray precisely in line with God's will. This assures of answered prayer.

However, my direction today is different.

Speaking in tongues has been traditionally held by the new age pentecostal church as an evidence of an indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, since we need to fulfil Jesus' spiritual terms for accessing the kingdom of God (as stated in John 3: 3,5), we are to be born again (v3), and born of "water" and the "spirit" (v5). The 3rd condition of that list is being "filled with the Holy Spirit".

For more teaching on the above see "what does it means to be born again?" in this blog

So in continuation of my premise, the contemporary church has substituted as evidence of the Holy Spirit, the manifestation of a new nature and new life, with the ability to speak in tongues.

In other words, the church is saying, "you don't need to manifest the character of the Holy Spirit, which is holiness, to be identified as "Spirit filled", you merely need to be able to speak in tongues and you are in!"

This has confused many, and so holiness, the fruit of God's free gift of Salvation which is accessible by faith, and potently active through manifest, verifiable changes in the life of the individual, has been portrayed to be a reward which we work for and achieve through our own efforts assisted by the "compulsory evidence" of speaking in tongues.

The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:2 quoted above, alluded to the mysterious nature of the act of speaking in tongues.

He begins his admonition with a conjunction "if". In other words, he agrees that NOT ALL BELIEVERS MAY HAVE THE ABILITY TO SPEAK IN TONGUES!

Believers should not feel under pressure to manifest the gift of speaking in tongues. It, like many other spiritual gifts, is given by the Holy Spirit and therefore allocated according to God's will and discretion.

We must never forget that the goal of salvation is holiness, through the knowledge of God's Word and the corresponding conviction of the Holy Spirit towards life change. This is all by faith.

Says Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:19 NLT
"But in a church meeting I would rather speak five understandable words to help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language"