TONGUES: LANGUAGE OR GIBBERISH?
Don Hawley
Whether some people like it or not, the gift of speaking in tongues is a God-given gift. Some denominations are prone to give less emphasis to, or even ignore, those gifts of the Spirit they do not feel comfortable with. The gifts they feel uncomfortable about are those that tend to be more spectacular, such as miracles, prophecy, healing--and speaking in tongues. Interestingly enough, I have yet to find any church leaders who have a problem with the gift of giving. I submit it is dangerous to pick and choose according to our whim. We would do well to speak carefully about that which God has seen fit to give his people as a blessing.
ARE "TONGUES" A TRUE LANGUAGE?
Yes, the Bible makes that eminently clear. At the time of Pentecost there was a definite need to reach people who spoke different languages.
How can this be? they exclaimed. For these men are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking all the native languages of the lands were we were born! Acts. 2:7.
I have personal knowledge where such needs are still being met in our own day. God hasn't taken back his gifts as some would have us believe, it's just that we haven't appreciated them and allowed God to utilize his gifts in our midst.
A few years ago a missionary I personally know of served in the highlands of New Guinea, perhaps the most remote area on earth. The natives there were still eating Grandma's body instead of burying her. Missionaries faced real danger. One day this particular missionary was walking down a jungle trail when he suddenly found himself surrounded by warriors with drawn bows. He knew that he was about to die, but before the arrows flew he shouted out one word. Immediately the bows were lowered and his life was spared. Only later did he learn that the word he shouted out involuntarily had great meaning for those natives. He was given only one word in their language, but it was enough to save his life.
Just a few weeks ago I attended a renewal meeting that was preceded by a prayer service. One of the speakers for that evening was in that pre-service, and he was greatly strengthened to hear a lady praying in a little-known language he had learned in the mission field. She, of course, had no knowledge of what she was praying--just that it was an "unknown tongue."
Yes, the gift of tongues can engage a known earthly language.
SPEAKING IN UNKNOWN TONGUES
Paul didn't have the fear of speaking in tongues exhibited by so many today.
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 1 Corin. 14:18.
I wish you all had the gift of "speaking in tongues." 1 Corin. 14:5.
Never say it is wrong to "speak in tongues." 1 Corin. 14:39.
Paul points out a problem with speaking in tongues.
If your gift is that of being able to "speak in tongues," that is, to speak in languages you haven't learned, you will be talking to God but not to others, since they won't be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit but it will all be a secret. 1 Corin. 14:2.
Of course since speaking in tongues is a gift from God, there is a solution to the problem.
If someone is given the gift of speaking in unknown tongues, he should pray also for the gift of knowing what he has said, so that he can tell people afterwards plainly. 1 Corin. 14:13.
God doesn't always allow the one speaking in tongues to know what he is saying. What then?
No more than two or three should speak in an unknown language, and they just speak one at a time, and someone must be ready to interpret what they are saying. But if no one is present who can interpret, they must not speak out loud. They must talk silently to themselves and to God in the unknown language but not publicly. 1 Corin. 14:27, 28.
What if one is home alone and there is no one to interpret speaking in tongues? Then, as Paul says, they are speaking to God, and he understands. This is what many refer to as their "private prayer language."
TONGUES THE ONLY SIGN OF THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?
Although some groups teach that one hasn't been baptized in the Holy Spirit unless they speak in tongues, I personally reject that idea. I was baptized by the Holy Spirit several years before I spoke in tongues. Even now, I have never given a message in tongues publicly; that is not one of my spiritual gifts. I do, however, praise God at home in my own private prayer language.
RECEIVING ONE'S PRIVATE PRAYER LANGUAGE
Paul says that one who speaks in tongues "helps himself grow spiritually." Once I realized that speaking in tongues is a legitimate gift of the Spirit, I was willing to receive such a gift although I wasn't particularly drawn to exercising such a gift in public. However, since the gift could help me grow spiritually, I wanted to have my own private prayer language.
For some years I prayed earnestly for this gift, sometimes with tears. But I definitely demanded it on my own terms. None of this "pump priming." I wanted it to come spontaneously, shocking me in the process. I wanted the "real thing." God would have to do it my way or not at all. So it was not at all. It is dumb to tell a sovereign God what he has to do; he is very unlikely to accede to our demand.
Finally, while attending a conference in Toronto, Canada, I was having dinner with a wonderful old grandfatherly minister from Australia. I won't take time here to tell how we met, but it was certainly providential. Now I mentioned my longing to have my own private prayer language.
"No problem," he replied. "After we finish eating I'll come to your hotel room and pray for you to receive. I feel sure God will bless your request."
Somehow I knew there was going to be some "pump priming," but I had already committed myself. I honestly believe the unwillingness to do anything to receive is a matter of pride and control. And why should God bless one who is prideful and unwilling to trust in divine control? Is our Lord not trustworthy? Has he not promised we will not get a stone when asking for bread? We can be so hardheaded.
Well, I lost my pride and gained my prayer language, and it blesses me from day to day.
Now my wife had a different experience. She isn't as hardheaded as I am, but still she prayed with tears for years without receiving her own prayer language. She didn't have some grandfatherly person to help. Then one day she was reading a book on the gift of speaking in tongues, and came to a place where the author asked the reader to put the book down and simply receive. Bunnie did so, and immediately she began to speak in a beautiful unknown language! She came into my study still in tears for the wonder of it all. Now it is helping her to "grow spiritually."
IS IT A REAL LANGUAGE?
Now I want to address one more point, and as a result many who speak in tongues may be inclined to stone me. However, since my address is not on this epistle I am going to proceed.
Critics of the gift of tongues have taken recordings of those speaking in tongues to be analyzed by language experts. The latter have stated firmly that what they hear doesn't have the syntax of an actual human language. I tend to agree. Even when we don't know a foreign language, we usually can discern it is such just by the sound. One can almost hear the nouns, verbs, and adjectives. I do not hear that in the spiritual tongues I listen to.
To me this poses no great problem. If God gives a person a message in tongues, he is also able to interpret it; either for the person speaking or the one interpreting. I'm sure none of us knows or speaks the language they speak in heaven; that will come with our arrival there.
When I speak in my private prayer language, I am speaking from my heart rather than from a grammar book. The Holy Spirit knows my heart, and he has promised to translate my offering into heavenly language.
The Holy Spirit helps us with our daily problems and in our praying. For we don't even know what we should pray for, nor how to pray as we should; but the Holy Spirit prays for us with such feeling that it cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows, of course, what the Spirit is saying as he pleads for us in harmony with God's own will. Romans 8:26, 27.
By the time my prayer language reaches God's throne, it is beautifully crafted. Praise God! Don't let religious tradition keep you from experiencing this gift of the Spirit.