ZA MAGAZINE // seek truth.

Some topics within the Christian faith have become quite controversial and have been avoided as a result. Sometimes our fear of how others will react to our doctrine and teachings leads us to share sparingly and with trepidation, although we know from experience that they will be blessed as result of what we convey to them.

The spiritual language of tongues is one of those controversial subjects that is rarely discussed for fear of repercussions. This subject is broken into two parts/articles. First, this article will boldly cover what tongues is, where it comes from, and why it exists. The second piece will be posted later this month and will cover the present usage of tongues and how you are to grow in your spiritual language and cultivate the spirit within you.

Tongues: The Beginning

The gift of tongues is first displayed in the book of Acts, during a powerful prayer meeting where the followers of Jesus were gathered together to seek the Lord, as Jesus had instructed them to do upon his departure from the earth following His death, burial, and resurrection. Before Jesus left, He made a promise to them what would come to pass if they would gather themselves together. He said:

Acts 1:5,8
5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Sure enough, when the disciples gathered together to pray shortly after Jesus ascended to Heaven, the Word of the Lord held true and the disciples did receive power and were baptized with the Holy Spirit. Here’s the account, penned by Luke:

Acts 2:2-11
2-4 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

5-11 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome,
both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.

And the Scripture continues that there were jokes made of their erratic speech, which was defended by Peter, who proclaimed with great certainty that the men speaking in tongues were not drunk on wine, but in fact, they were drunk on the power of the Holy Spirit, which had led them to speak.
This moves very well into what should be discussed next, what the language of tongues is and where it comes from.

Tongues: What It Is, Why It Is, and Where It Comes From

What
Tongues is a spiritual language. It is a communication with God that is unchanged by our own thoughts, desires, or concerns. When we pray in tongues, it is not our minds that lead us to speak, but it is our spirits prod us to speak.

Why
Paul declared that he was glad to be able to pray and sing in tongues under the power of God (1 Cor. 14:15, 18), and stated that the language of tongues is for personal edification (1 Cor. 14:4), as it is good for our spirit to commune with God’s Spirit. He wanted all to speak to God in tongues (1 Cor. 14:5) while stressing that this language was effective for intimately connecting with our Father.

Paul also says that the language of tongues can be useful as a sign to non-Christians (1 Cor. 14:22) that God has power and can speak through His people in mighty ways that our beyond physical creation or comprehension.

Where
We see in the Acts account above that the Holy Spirit ‘filled them,’ which led to the utterance of many tongues. It was the Holy Spirit’s presence and movements within the disciples which made those men to shout out in abnormal speech. So, one necessity for speaking in tongues is being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps you’ve not heard of Him. As Jesus was departing from the earth post-resurrection, He told the disciples that it was good that He was going away so that the Comforter (also known as the Holy Spirit, Spirit of truth, the Holy Ghost, and the Spirit of God) could come in the name of Jesus and testify of the Christ, bringing “all things to remembrance” for the saints (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit is a powerful necessity in our Christian life, as He is with us and within us as a pacifier for the present until we’re with the Father for eternity.

I’ve heard it said that the language of “tongues is an outward sign of an inward occurrence,” and I tend to agree. As speaking in other tongues and spiritual languages is merely a result of the in-filling of the Holy Ghost, then it is true that tongues is simply an outward manifestation of God.

Part 2

As I said earlier, the next article will cover the present usage of tongues and how we are to grow our spiritual language and cultivate the spirit within each of us. I look forward to seeing you back here soon! Thanks!

Photo accompanying article was taken by Flickr user paullew. The original photo can be found here, and was distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license.