Devotion 8 Reasons for You to Speak in Tongues
8 Reasons for You to Speak in Tongues
by James F. Linzey | Aug 16, 2022 | Faith, Spirit-Led Living, Spiritual Gifts, Supernatural & Dreams
Charisma Media archives
If a person were to ask, “Why speak in tongues?” couldn’t we also ask, “Why pray?”
The Word of God shows a definite value in praying with an unknown tongue. Jesus tells us that “it is necessary always to pray” (Luke 18:1, MEV). Later, in speaking of prayer, Paul mentions two types of praying. There is praying with the understanding, when our minds guide the prayer in asking petitions from God.
Then there is praying in an unknown tongue, in which case the Holy Spirit guides the prayer in utterances unknown to the human mind. Paul tells us, “I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding” (1 Cor. 14:15, MEV). Both kinds of prayer are important, but praying in the Spirit will often be more efficacious in accomplishing the will of God.
The value of praying in the Spirit is emphasized by Paul who clarifies that the Holy Spirit “helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us” (Rom. 8:26, MEV). Since we do not know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit Himself helps us know what to pray for.
He makes intercession according to the will of God. There we have the two-fold privilege of the baptized believer—we can pray with our own understanding, or we can allow the Holy Spirit to guide the prayer according to His own will.
The last mention of tongues in scripture is Jude 20 where it says not to stop. After Jude we have the Revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John the Divine, but it is not discussed there. The command to continue speaking in tongues in Jude was given in AD 70, 37 years after the church was established on the day of Pentecost. So if tongues ceased, where is the historical line drawn in scripture where it says “stop?”
The New Testament era continues from the Revelation of Jesus Christ onward, and it is not over until Jesus returns. The Second Coming is the event at which the apostle Paul said that prophecy and tongues will cease (1 Cor. 13:8).
In AD 54, Paul commands the Church to speak in tongues in Eph. 6:18, 21 years after the day of Pentecost, showing continuance as Jude shows 16 years later. When one says “Tongues was only for the establishment of the Church,” we can reply, “Not 21 or 37 years after it was established.”
If we can say that Jesus was a “lunatic, liar or the Lord,” for claiming to be God, certainly we can say that pastors who decry tongues are “lunatics, liars or loutish” for denying that this present age is the New Testament era.
Any Bible scholar—liberal, evangelical or fundamentalist—will tell you that the New Testament era remains from the day of Pentecost to the Second Coming. But unlike standards of centuries ago when all pastors were Bible scholars, today many pastors descry scholarship and know little about it. Because we are in the New Testament era, every teaching, exhortation and command in the New Testament is relevant for the church today. Many pastors have “thrown scholarship under the bus” and teach false doctrine.
So, what is the value of speaking with tongues? Speaking in tongues is in the Bible for a reason. God will hold each of us responsible to answer whether our own lives have been lived in accordance with the Word of God. Speaking in tongues, sometimes referred to as praying in the Spirit (the terms can be used interchangeably), is a form of prayer.
In this prayer, a Christian yields completely to the Holy Spirit in worshipping Christ and receives from the Spirit a supernatural language. Speaking in tongues is a way of praying which frees the Spirit to operate within the speaker.
Speaking in tongues also carries responsibility. When most people think of glossolalia, or tongue speaking or the language of the Holy Spirit, they have a tendency to ask what the purposes might be for such a supernatural manifestation. The specific biblical purposes for such a language are many. Harold Horton, in his book The Gifts of the Spirit, page 31, presents eight scriptural purposes for speaking with tongues:
- It is the scriptural evidence of the baptism with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4, 19:6)
- It is a means for men to speak supernaturally to God (I Cor. 14:2)
- It is a way for believers to magnify God (Acts 10:46)
- It is a means for men to edify themselves (I Cor. 14:4)
- It is a way for our spirits as distinct from our understandings to pray (I Cor. 14:14)
- It is part of the gift of interpretation of tongues that edifies the church (I Cor. 14:12, 13, 5, 26)
- It is a sign to them that do not believe (I Cor. 14:22)
- It is one of the gifts divinely appointed for our profit, as a manifestation of the Spirit (I Cor. 12:7, Acts 2:4).
The prayer in an unknown tongue does not necessarily have to be an utterance in a language understood by someone present to hear it. Sometimes that happens, and the one hearing the language is spoken to directly by God. But the Word of God is quite explicit that anyone “who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit” (I Cor. 14:2). When we speak with a tongue given us by the Holy Spirit, we are speaking directly to God and He is the only one who needs to understand us.
Dr. Jonathan Goforth, missionary of the Canadian Presbyterian Church and used mightily of God in Manchuria, wrote, “the Scriptures convey no other meaning than that the Lord Jesus planned that the Holy Spirit should continue among us in as mighty manifestation as at Pentecost.”
James F. Linzey received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biblical Studies at Vanguard University of Southern California (1979), and a Master of Divinity degree at Fuller Theological Seminary (1983). He hosted Operation Freedom television and radio programs worldwide on the baptism with the Holy Spirit. He authored The Holy Spirit, A Divine Appointment in Washington, DC, and with Charisma author Verna M. Linzey co-edited Baptism in the Spirit by his father Stanford E. Linzey, Jr. He is the chief editor of the Modern English Version Bible translation. Listen to the full episode of “The Value of Speaking in Tongues” with Chaplain Jim Linzey on the Charisma Podcast Network here. Visit one of his websites at Pearls of Gold, the Poetry of Verna Hall Linzey.
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 – The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
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Devotion John 10:33-38 In All Things Praise God
John 10:33-38 – “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? 35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? 37 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
““We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” These men who were accusing Jesus and wanted to stone Him to death did not accuse Jesus of blasphemy for doing the works of God. They wanted to stone Him for saying the words that God had given Him to say. And worse, these were in their own scriptures. They didn’t comprehend what Jesus was trying to teach them. The works and the words of Jesus come as one from God. The works verify the words and the words verify the works. It would have seemed too far to stone Him for healing a leper, or a lame man, or a blind man. It would have been an outrage to the people to stone Jesus for raising a man (who had taken care of his sisters) from the dead. The people would not have countenanced that. Yet as divine as the works were that Jesus did, just as divine were the words, the teachings that He gave them. In fact the works bore witness to the words He spoke. Jesus did, and said, as the Father had instructed Him to say and do. Just as those who reject Jesus also reject the Father who sent Him, those who reject the words of Jesus reject Father God.
Job, from the pain of his trial said “Shall we actually accept good from God but not accept adversity?” Despite all this, Job did not sin with his lips.” (Job 2:10b) Job understood that everything in life, both good and bad had to be run past God before allowed to be put into his life. So, whether good or seemingly bad (truly who are we to judge what comes from God?), God should be, God must be, be praised through all. We never should judge the works or words of God.
In Matthew 5:45 (“so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”) Jesus states that blessings in our lives come from the Father. We are reminded by the Apostle Paul that discipling likewise comes from the Lord and that we should view it not without the knowledge that God disciplines us as He deems correct. (Hebrews 12:7-11)
James takes us deeper and tells us to “consider it all joy” in our various trials because the end of it is for the completing and perfecting of us under the direction of God. (James 1:2-4) Since we take such full pleasure of the blessings from God, shouldn’t we also take pleasure in the trials knowing that always His loving eyes are upon us? All comes from the same God. We must trust Him through the blessings and the trials, God is unchanging through eternity.
So the Pharisees wanted to pick and choose what to accept of God and so many stumbled and missed the blessing of their Messiah. In much the same way do many in our day stumble and miss eternal life through Jesus. Let us discern by the Holy Spirit the things of God and accept it all to the glory of our God and Savior Jesus. Praise the Lord!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 – The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
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Devotion John 10:22-33 Accusing Others Of Their Own Sin
John 10:22-33 – Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” 31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” 33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
The Festival of Dedication was once called the Feast of Maccabees and is today called the Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights. Remembering that these feasts are in commembrance of an event or person in which God gave a victory. Hanukkah is remembering when the Maccabees overthrew the Seleucid empire whose king Antiochus Ephiphanes profaned the Jewish Temple by setting up a pagan god in the temple to be worshipped. This is an act that will be repeated by the Antichrist. (Matthew 24:15-16) The Maccabees retook the temple and the temple was rededicated to the one true God. This happened during the period between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
According to rabbinic tradition when the Jews were reclaiming the temple they could only find one small jug of olive oil that only had enough oil to light the menorah for one day. Instead the oil lasted for eight days which the Jews considered a miracle. It is to celebrate the rededicating of the Temple and the miracle of the one day of oil lasting for eight days that Hanukah lasts for eight days. Another name for Hanukah is the Festival of lights.
It was at that time of this Festival that the Jews approached Jesus and asked Him (demanded of Him) when Jesus would plainly tell them if He was the Messiah or not. Jesus replied “I did tell you, but you do not believe.” Jesus pointed that the things He had done and said were evidence that He was the Messiah, but they did not receive the signs and rejected His words. Yet both were working in union to declare the majesty of Jesus. The both bore witness of who Jesus was. All who were seeking the Lord, who were truly relying on the scriptures to lead them to the Messiah, would recognize Him by the signs He performed and the works He did. Those who had right hearts would recognize Jesus and follow Him. Those whose hearts were not for God would not recognize and would not follow Him and thereby lose their souls.
All who heard and heeded Jesus’s words and saw the signs He was giving as proof of who He was, Jesus said would have an eternal life that no being could take it away from them because it was God Himself who gave them the eternal life. Brothers and Sisters, what God gives to us no one and nothing can take from us. Like our salvation, what God gives is between us and God and no one and nothing can come between us and God, as long as we cling to Him and His promises. The love of God, the joy of God, the peace of God that He has given to us is always and forever ours and cannot be taken away, just as the eternal life He gives us cannot be taken away. Cling to faith in God and in His Word and be safe. Who can push God back to separate Him from us? No one and nothing can. God has put in His bond within those who believe in, obey and follow Jesus. No one and nothing can push God from us. We are safe as long as we love and so believe and obey Jesus. Now, and forever.
Because these men, who could quote the scriptures but never had scripture illuminated to them by God did not believe in the only Son of God, they could see but not understand the signs and the words that Jesus gave them. Committing the sin of unbelief they accused Jesus of being the sinner. This is what sinners still do. In the absence of rightness in their souls they accuse others of what they are doing. Liars think all others also lie. Cheaters think all others cheat. These priests who blasphemed God by teaching error to the people thought Jesus was a blasphemer. They were blind and deaf to the ways of God. Titus 1:15 “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.”
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 – The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
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