The Gifts of Tongues. What is it?

 

Speaking in tongues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

 

There are a lot of confusion in the gift of speaking in tongues. Lets go through the bible and see what the bible says about it. Speaking in tongues is a New testament gift, meaning prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus, the gift of tongues has never before been given. Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Samuel, John the Baptist did not speak in tongues. Even in the ministry of the disciples, they were given the authority and power to heal, and caste out demons but tongues was not available then until the resurrected Jesus told them to wait in the upper room, and then at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came on man, that was when tongues were available to man.

 

Biblical world view

We will address some of the questions that we have today about the gifts of the holy spirit, and part of the manifested gift is the gift of tongues. I would also suggest that the reason there are so many confusions on tongues is due to how people read the bible. As we are living in the physical world, a lot of us has interpreted the bible based on the experiences they have had, and making judgement on the meaning of the bible’s word, based on their experiences in the world. This is profound. We do this far more often than we think. Image when God said we shall raise the dead, caste out demons. Most of us who has not raised the dead (me included) have a hard time seeing that we have the ability to raise EVERY dead person presented to us. I say “Every” to strike an awareness of what we might be beliefing. In our mind we might think we might raise some, but that maybe dependent on God, his Will, dependent on the condition, or that might be dependent on our faith? See we have a whole list or reasons why it won’t work. And where does these ideas and concepts come from? It comes from our lack of experience in seeing people do that, and we based our theology in what we see. Because in our mind “seeing is truth”. Whereas according to the bible. The word of God is truth. 

 

John 17:17

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

 

2 Tim 2:15

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

 

The word is truth, means what it is saying is the reality. What is said is the true of how things are and should be. So in order to have a correct worldview, and a correct belief system, we need to base our belief on what the word of God has said.

“And view the world via the word of God, and not view the word of God through the world.”

 

If we have this as a foundation, we will be able to see clearly behind the smoke and mirrors that the devil has pulled over us and understand the power of that is available to us, in Christ Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

So lets talk about tongues, and address some of the confusion that we have based on some misconceptions that is out there.

 

What is the gift of tongues?

1 Cor 14:2, 4

2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries….. 4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.

 

We need to understand what Tongues actually is. Lets draw some truth from the above scripture. The gift of Tongues COULD NOT be understood by man, including the person who spoke it. It is spoken to God. It is not gibberish, but it has meaning in the spiritual and those meaning are unknown to man, as they are mysteries in the spiritual, spoken to God. These mysterious words is spoken for the “edification” or building up of the person himself. So whilst the content is mysterious, the effects are spoken for the edification of the person who spoke it.

 

Who can speak in tongues?

Mark 16:17-18

And these sings will accompany those who believe, in My name they will drive out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well.

 

According to the truth that Jesus depicts to us, if you are a believer you can speak in tongues. (you can do much more!) But you may say, I believe in Jesus but I don’t speak in tongues! Well then Jesus must be wrong, and you are correct? If you think I don’t think that! Well the reason you are not speaking in tongues, is technically you are not a believer, in the sense that you belief Jesus died for you, but you don’t believe that when he says you have the ability to speak in tongues, you can, and because you do not believe, your action follows your belief system. And you therefore do not pursuit in speaking in tongues. Because in your believe system, its not for everyone and more specific its not for you. This is contrary to the word of God. as you read on, you may have a wrong understanding of tongues and hopefully the explanation given here will be able to help you understand and receive.

 

But doesn’t the Holy Spirit give gifts according to his own will? Do all speak in tongues? Which means we may not all speak in tongues? I will address the passage in 1 Cor 12:30 in the following article.

 

Who controls the speaking of tongues? Me or the Holy spirit?

In the above passages if you can understand this clearly. Tongues is spoken by the PERSON. Meaning the person has absolute control over the speaking of the tongues, he can start, he can stop, and he can continue to speak in tongues if he so desires. It is a one time and perpetual gift, it is an ability. Like you riding a bike, once you have it, you don’t lose it. You don’t suddenly know how to ride a bike, and then next minute you lose the gift of riding the bike. Once you have it you have it.

Some people misunderstands, out of ignorance and incorrect teaching, that the Holy Spirit takes over your mouth and speaks in tongues. This is incorrect. As seen from the bible, “THEY spoke”.  In that, it is not a supernatural taking over by the holy spirit and that he takes control of your tongues and forces or compels you to speak out words.

 

Acts 2:4

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

 

If you read all the above scriptures in context, the speaking in tongues is an ability. And the person has control over it. Like you speaking normally in your native language. You need to decide to speak out the words, and you control if you want to speak or your don’t want to speak. When you say “ how are you?” or when you say “Thank you” this doesn’t come out automatically, but you made a conscious decision to express those words. In the same way, the gift of tongues operates in the same way. You need to make a conscious decision to speak in tongues. You speak it. YOU.

 

1 Cor 14:27-28

27 If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. 28 But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.

 

The context here is Paul is addressing the church in Corinth, as during their congregation meeting, people are speaking in tongues a loud, from one corner to another, and there is disorder in the meeting. Paul is addressing this, and telling the people if you are going to speak in tongues, let it be done one at a time, and lets keep it to 2 or 3 people. Just image in your church today the pastor is addressing the crowd, then some guy stands up and speaks in tongues, you wait for him to finish his interruption, and then another person down the back starts to speaks. And this goes on for more than a few times during the meeting. This is what Paul was addressing. The reason I am bringing the spotlight on this passage is. The Holy Spirit is NOT interrupting the meeting by bringing disorder, if you belief the idea that the Holy spirit takes control of your mouth and speak in tongues, then Paul will be wrong to try and correct the people of the Corinth church, because if tongues are controlled by the Holy Spirit, then Paul is saying Holy Spirit don’t disrupt my meeting! The reason that Paul is addressing the people at the Corinth church, is because the people are in control of speak in tongues. It is an ability, “a gift”. A gift like a person that has a photographic memory, it is a gift in that it is an ability. And it is an ability that can be used at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and for the wrong reasons.

(you will see Paul addressing speaking in  tongues and in comparison to prophesying in the context of a congregation meeting).

 

Is this all gibberish?

1 Cor 14:2

2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for NO  man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries

1 Cor 14:14

14 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.

As Paul explains it in 1 cor 14. The gift of tongues cannot be understood by man, (without the gift of interpretation), it means that the MIND of MEN does not comprehend what is being said, including the person who spoke it. It is like a man who only speaks English going over to China, and the people speak to him in Chinese, even with the best of intentions he is not ABLE to understand what they are saying. Tongues It is not a man’s language, it is spoken to God. So in context the gift of tongues, is like that man who only speaks English, goes back to England, and God has given him the supernatural ability to speak Chinese, the people in England does not understand a word he is saying, and he himself doesn’t understand it either. Tongues is the language spoken to God, and when spoken it is speaking mysteries that activate God’s power in our life, that builds us up. You may ask how do you know that this is true? This goes back to our belief system. Do you interpret the bible through the lens of the world, or do you interpret the world through the lens of the bible? Where do you base your foundation of truth? This is what the bible says.

 

How do you speak in tongues?

In order to speak in tongues, which is a manifestation of THE GIFT, the holy Spirit, you first must receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit. One cannot receive from God without believing on God that he is giving. The truth is he has given, we just need to ask in order to receive it.

 

Luke 11:13

13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

 

James 1:6-8

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

 

So when you ask, believe that God gives, and because he has given when you have asked, you therefore have it. In faith, believe you have received it. Now because the Holy Spirit is given to you, and the bible says believers shall speak in new tongues, then as an act of obedience and an act of faith, open your mouth, and speak out by faith and in faith, that what you are speaking out is the mysteries of God which the Bible has spoken about. Read this paragraph carefully, because to the carnal mind this may sound like this is all made up in your own mind. But read carefully the scripture passages. Speaking in tongues, is spoken out in faith and by faith. You will find that the other manifestation of the gift of the holy spirit is activated and operated in the same way.

 

Can I learn tongues?

Lets clarify this, because to learn something can be understood in a few ways. you CANNOT acquire tongues by learning it. It’s a gift. By definition a gift is given, and not earned by efforts. Ie when you receive a “money gift”, it is given to you, not because of your efforts, but because the giver wants to give it to you, the money acquired via effort is called a “wage”. So you can’t earn a gift by efforts. But what you can do is, learn to be more effective with the gift that you already have. It is like the muscles that we have, every person has the same muscles that Arnold Schwarzenegger has, its just that we have not developed them to the extent that Arnie has, because of his frequency of use. The more you use your gift, the more proficient you are with that gift. This goes with all the gifts of the spirit. The frequency of use, allows us to perceive the reality of God and his power that works in us. In practice it is not so much learning how to belief in the word of God, it is how to remove your unbelief regarding the word of God.

Tongues is one of the most powerful manifested gifts of the holy spirit, it is not a lesser gift, but it is a very practical one, as speaking in tongues edifies yourself. Paul speaks in tongues more often the others.

1 Cor 14:18

18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all.

The devil fights hard with lies about speaking in tongues, as its one of the most practical ways to uplift and edify oneself. It is the swiss army knife of our victory walk, and it is the standard issue for the army of God.

Why talk about Tithe and Giving?

Why Tithe and Give?

Was watching the God Money and Me seminar by Paul De Young, from my home church, Life Church. I want to honor leadership for the dedication to the flock in bring this teaching to the church. Finance is such an important area for the body of Christ, and the lack of understanding in this area, really hammers our effectiveness to spread the gospel. During the seminar, a lot of the question so far comes with the viewpoint about how much we are to give to God? is it before tax, or after tax. There are many parts of the scripture that talks about tithes and offering. Many people are asking because they genuinely do not know what the bible says about giving. But more over I feel there are many that is coming from an attitude or mindset that says, “HOW much do I need to give back to God?” It’s like our response to taxes, what is the absolute legal minimum we can pay the government in taxes?

 

The attitude is, I want to be obedient and go by the book and give what is Required and ONLY what is required. Because some belief Tithes and offering, like taxes, it’s a system that TAKES AWAY resources that we have personally, and hence limits our financial ability to allocate resources to our desires, our family, our retirement, and all the good stuff that we could do with that money. Ultimately the belief is, Tithes and offering is a system that affects us negatively financially, it’s a sacrifice, it is a tax from God. at least this is what I used to think religiously.

 

I would presume like myself, the reason most people are asking all these questions about the tithe and offering, is based out of the incorrect motivation that see Tithe and offering as a “Giving”, meaning when you GIVE, you GAVE, and it is GONE. It a sacrifice, it’s an expense, and it takes from you.

 

Why would the father ask us to give a tithe?

Let’s explore this, why would the loving father in heaven, gives his sons and daughters a command to tithe and give? Is it so that he can take things from us? Limits us? Make our lives harder than it already is? To humble us? No! He did not give this law to us to humble us. He gave us this law so that he can set us up for Success.

 

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Malachi 3:10

 

You see when you give, what you are doing is, you are saying, God I trust in you. You are real. You are my source, I do not rely on the sweat of my brow to eat, I am relying on you to be my provider. “Giving” is not an EXPENSE. It is a Supremacy INVESTMENT. Like you invest in a fund, when you transfer the money to the broker, you are not sad because your bank account now has less money, you are excited because the investments have fantastic returns. When you “give”, your money does not disappear, it comes back in many folds.

 

When you tithe, “God will “pour out a blessing” on you. Do you know what this means? It means the blessing like Abraham has, that when he departed with Lot, he told Lot to choose whichever part of the land he liked, because it doesn’t matter, I Abraham has the blessing. I plant in the desert, and it will flourish just as well, because I have the blessing of God on me.

The blessing comes from the finished works of Jesus.

I am not saying you need to give tithe or offering in order to be blessed. You ARE blessed because of the divine Exchange, when Jesus took your sins, and he gave you his righteousness.  

9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. 2 Cor 9:8.

You are blessed because he HAS ALREADY Blessed you, and you receive that Blessing when you believe he has already done it.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: Eph 1:3

However what I am saying is the Tithe and Offering is one of the predominate Channel for God to enable the financial blessing that is already on you, to reach you. 

God provides for us when we give.

6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Cor 9:6-8

 

In 2 Corinthians Its simply saying, you give little, you get little, you give more you get more. And as you give, GOD is able to bless you, that you are in abundance, in all things, at all times, having sufficiency for every good work. The coverage is very universal.

 

10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 2 Cor 9:10-11

 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38 

We have both Seeds as well as Bread in our resource basket.

When you are a sower, God is the one who gives both Seeds to you, as well as Bread. When you sow into the kingdom of God, God will provide for your needs and more. As a person sows, he does not look at what is in his hands, he is looking at the eventual crop that is coming at harvest time. The sowing system is a supernatural system. It is beyond the natural.

 

The question we are really addressing, is not how much we should give. But “Do I trust God to be my provider?” Is he going to meet me where he said he will, with all sufficiency for all things? Does he provide bread, as well as seed to those who sows? That is the challenge we are faced with, is God legit? Because that is what his word says.

 

Do we give everything?

Well do we go all out in giving everything I have? You do not want to sow your bread and eat your seed. And as he gives bread as well as seeds, it does mean that there are some resources which are for your living, and resources that are for you to sow. You want to be prudent, and know in your season, what things are for your living, and what resources are for yours to sow, it takes wisdom, knowledge and understanding to tell the difference. No one gets it right absolutely all the time. But we have grace to learn, and in time with experience we all become better farmers.

 

Havesting

I used to be a sower, that does not harvest. Meaning I will give, and not be expecting any returns from my giving. However, God does not reap for us. We need to be expecting a harvest and looking out for a harvest. When you sow, expect a harvest, when you sow expect a return in whichever forms that it comes. If you are sowing seeds, but not expecting anything to come back, you are not harvesting, and whatever efforts you spent in planting, if you do not reap, you will not have fruit. The harvest does not fall in your lap. Harvest needs to be reaped. And by reap, I mean, expect to succeed in the area of finances, my it be your investments, your career, your business, may it be in whichever form, ask God what you need to be reaping, and God will give you ideas and insights into where your sowing is ready ripe and ready to reap.

 

Conclusion

So, in conclusion if you feel that you are having trouble in giving. This most probably is because we have a limiting mindset, that we think when we give, it is taken out of our life, and its gone forever. This is a wrong understanding of what a tithe or offering does. God never intend to take things away from us, his intention for us is to give us more, give us abundance, and the tithe is a "channel" and means to do that.  

We don't "give" in order to "get", so that we can horde the stuff for ourselves, We give to get, so that as sons we can be more effective for God to have influence on this earth. 

The big Picture

Money is only a medium of exchange in this world. We do live in an economic world, and it does take finance to move things here. But this will all pass away, in heaven they use genuine gold for pavement. If we understand that our ability to create or acquire wealth is given to us, so that we can establish God’s covenant on earth. (Deut 8:18), it does give us a better perspective for the whole goal of the above, sowing and reaping is not so that you can hog more, its so that we can be more effective people for the kingdom of God. That we make disciples of all nations telling them about the good news that the war is over, God has won, we are now redeemed.