Speaking In Tongues

First read all of 1 Corinthians 14: 1-40 talking about tongues.

One of the gifts of the spirit is the gift of tongues. However the proof of the filling of the Spirit is not the gifts of the Spirit, but Jesus said you will know them by the fruits of the spirit. So to say that a person has the holy spirit or has the evidence of the holy spirit because of tongues is false. There are only 3 examples in the book of Acts speaking with tongues and many examples in the Bible of people being filled with the Holy Spirit.

When it comes to tongues being used in the Bible, God gives people the supernatural ability to speak languages of the world that they had not formerly known……for the purpose of spreading the Gospel.  That’s what happens in all three examples of tongues that you find in the only 3 examples in the whole Bible in the book of Acts.  Acts Chapter 2, Acts Chapter 10, and Acts Chapter 19.  Those are the only examples of tongues in the whole Bible like I said.  Paul only mentions tongues in one part of one book, even though he wrote 14 books of the New Testament.  Matthew never mentions it.  Mark mentions it one time where Jesus says you will speak with other tongues.  Luke never mentions it in his Gospel, though he does in Acts of course.  John never mentions it at all in any of his writings, neither does Peter. It isn’t mentioned at all in the Old Testament of the Bible.  So churches that make tongues their gospel I believe that’s not Biblical. There are a lot of counterfeit examples of tongues going on out there to look out for. Paul says one word of God is worth a thousand of mine in 1st Corinthians chapter 14. Paul is dealing specifically here with a church that was making tongues the priority and neglecting the real gift, which was Prophecy.  That’s why he says in 1st Corinthians 14 verse 1, “Pursue love and desire Spiritual gifts, but especially that you might prophecy”. Now he contrasts Prophecy – the greatest gift – Prophecy doesn’t just mean foretelling the future, it means preaching with tongues because he says in the next verse, in verse 2 “For he who speaks in a tongue doesn’t speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however in the spirit he speaks mysteries”.  Then read verse 3 and 4….see what Paul is saying? Then he says to seek those gifts that build up the church in verse 5, that the church might receive edification.  Well then he tells us edification comes from prophecy, which you read in verse 12. So from the preaching…so he says all through the book that the real emphasis ought to be on speaking so people understand the Gospel.

Remember it doesn’t make you any more a Christian to speak in tongues. Remember the Bible does not say that we are known by the gifts of the Spirit.  Jesus said you’ll know them by there fruit.  The fruit of the Spirit is not tongues. Today in 2014 tons of people try to make it seem like the proof you have the Spirit is tongues, and it’s not true. It’s just not true if you follow the Bible. Remember the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peac, ect ect…… Tongues are not even in the list! So people who get that mixed up their doctrine is flawed. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:19, “Yet in the church I’d rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue”. Meaning why speak in a way nobody can understand? It doesn’t help at all. So Paul is saying when you speak make sure others can understand. When people are translating as those up front were speaking…That’s the gift of tongues.  But for people who all speak English and understand each other, and one of them decides to start babbling and let someone else translate, why would God use that technique? The Lord never did that or used that technique with the Apostles at all.