It is always amazing to me
that Apostle Paul in writing to the church at Corinth stated that he did not
want them to be ignorant about the manifestations of the Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 12-14 in context).
Yet, the very thing he said that he did not want the church to be ignorant of
seems to be the very thing a large percentage of the church is ignorant of.
I remember Rev. Kenneth E.
(Dad) Hagin used to say in his teachings that there are two reasons why folks
are ignorant about subjects in the Word of God:
1.
No Teaching
2.
Poor Teaching
Unfortunately, the church
has been victim of both a lack of teaching and poor teaching about the
Manifestations of the Spirit, and Tongues in particular.
At the root of most of the
issues and confusion over Tongues in the church, even among those who believe
that Tongues are still for today, (cessationists
of course do not believe that they are) is that most do not understand that
the New Testament speaks of two different manifestations of Tongues:
1.
Private Tongues –
(or Personal Tongues) Your Prayer Language for your own Worship & Prayer
Life.
2.
Public Tongues –
This is the Public Gift that works in conjunction with the Gift of
Interpretation of Tongues in a Public Setting, with the two together equaling
the Gift of Prophecy. Prophecy does it in one step, Tongues &
Interpretation does it in two.
Today I was mediating on 1
Corinthians 12-14 from multiple translations and came across this:
“I’m grateful to God for the gift of praying in tongues that he gives us for praising him, which leads to wonderful intimacies we enjoy with him. I enter into this as much or more than any of you.” 1 Corinthians
14:18 The Message (emphasis mine)
From this verse in the
Message it is quite clear that Apostle Paul is speaking here about the first
manifestation of Tongues that we have defined…Private Tongues. I want you to
pay close attention to the wording that The Message brings out:
·
Paul is grateful
for the Gift of Praying in Tongues. (note this is not a Public Message that
needs to be interpreted).
·
Paul said that
God gave us this ability (Praying in Tongues) for Praising Him! We can Worship
in Tongues (our Prayer Language) and we should.
·
When we exercise
Praying in Tongues both for Prayer and Praise it leads to Wonderful Intimacies
with Him.
·
Paul admitted
that he entered into this practice (exercising his prayer language for both
prayer and praise) as much as or more than any of the rest of the Corinthian
church.
Obviously if this was a
bad practice, Paul would not have engaged in it as much as he did; nor would he
have encouraged them to operate in it. Wasn’t it Paul who said: “Follow me as I
follow the Lord”? We should be following his example in this.
Now if you treat this
Manifestation of Tongues the same as the Public Gift of Tongues, you are going
to be greatly confused. That is like trying to play Baseball with Football
rules. There is much more to Tongues than many of us have thought, believed and
in far too many cases practiced.
Sometimes it is just fine
to either pray or praise in the Spirit (other Tongues) without there being an
Interpretation, especially in a BELIEVERS MEETING. Maybe not in a crusade…but
amongst Believers…it should be an accepted and expected practice. After all,
didn’t Paul also say:
“For one who speaks
in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.” 1 Corinthians
14:2 NASB (emphasis mine) (some
translations use the word secrets instead of mysteries)
We need the manifestation
of both Private Tongues and Public Tongues. They need to be clearly defined as
to their intended purposes as well as how they should function in our midst;
decently and in order. You see when it comes to Tongues…there is more than many
think.
