Teaching Page 2
The Gift of Tongues (part 1)
- by &SF(FF)
What is this "Baptism in the Holy Ghost"? Why do we need the "gift of the Holy Ghost"? Why do we need "tongues"? What are some of the benefits? Ephesians 6: 13-18 "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth, and having on the Breastplate of righteousness: And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace: Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints:"
I chose the above passage to start this teaching because we are living in the last of the last days. We need to be able to withstand in this "evil day" and stand victorious and triumphant in Christ. In all my days as a pilgrim I have never seen the world embracing such evil. Never seen such persecution of the church. Never seen so many of my brother's and sister's in Christ under such attacks, spiritually, emotionally and financially. It is not right that the "kids of the King" should live in defeat, staring up at the clouds hoping Jesus returns before they give up. But why are the King's kids living in defeat? Hosea 4:6 gives us the answer. "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge". Christians should not be destroyed because God has provided us with full provision in Christ. 2 Peter 1:2,3 says "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath (hath is old English for, hey we already got it) given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:" Then in verse 4 we see how to get these gospel benefits "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world"
So what does all of this have to do with tongues? First, Ephesians 6 says that to be able to stand in these last days we need to have on all the armor of God. Second, in 2 Peter 1 we saw that the way to put on this armor is through knowledge - knowledge of God's word, which are "great and precious promises". Lastly, (back to Ephesians) Paul says in verse 18 that our resource for how to get and use the armor of God is through different kinds of praying and specifically "praying in the Spirit", i.e. tongues. There are different kinds of prayer. There's the prayer of faith, the prayer of salvation, prayer of intercession etc. Praying in tongues, also known as praying in the spirit, is another kind of prayer. It is the greatest way to receive revelation knowledge from God for how to use our armor, and be effective for the kingdom of Heaven. Let's find out why by first looking at John 16:12-14, where Jesus says, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." Here Jesus is telling the disciples that one of the things the Holy Spirit will do is reveal (or make understandable) the meaning of Jesus' teachings to his disciples. In the original Greek, there are two words translated word. One is "logos" and it means the "written" word. The other is "Rhema" and it means a word "spoken or uttered", a speech or sentence consisting of several words. Rhema stands for the subject matter of the word. Jesus is saying here that the Holy Spirit will speak to us Rhema about what we have read "logos". Rhema is the revealed word of God in your heart as the Holy Spirit reveals it to your spirit. Proverbs 21:27 says "the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly." The Holy Spirit doesn't speak to our mind (which is a function of the soul), he speaks in our inward parts and that is where our spirit man hears him. Now, regarding praying in tongues, Romans 8:26 says "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself (himself) maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." We don't always know what we should be praying for, but Praise God, the Spirit does! Also the word "infirmities" in this verse literally means tribulation in most all places in the N.T. The Holy Spirit gives our spirit the utterance as seen in 1 Cor. 14:14 where Paul says "For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful." And in verse 2 "For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men but unto God." So we see that if we are faced with a situation that is beyond our understanding or control, we can pray in tongues and the Holy Spirit will give our spirit the utterance to pray in line with God's word and God's will. (God's word and will are the same actually.), providing us divine revelation and solutions to our problems. Do you have problems understanding God's word or how to live a victorious Christian life? Then pray in tongues and God will open wonderful doors of wisdom and knowledge to you.
Did you notice back in John 16:13 that one of the other things the gift of the Holy Ghost provides is that "he will show you things to come"? You know one of the best things a soldier can have is advance information on both what the enemy is going to do and what his commander is going to do to outwit the enemy. Besides the personal prayer use of tongues, some people receive the gift of prophetic tongues (with interpretation). This prophetic use of tongues is for the edification of the church. 1 Cor. 14:5 Paul says "I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying." When a person prophesies in tongues in church, either that person or another person will interpret (in the native, easy to understand, language of the church) what was said in tongues. Verse 3 in 1 Cor. 14 states that this type of prophecy is for "edification, and exhortation, and comfort" for the church. In verse 4 Paul shows the difference between personal prayer tongues, and tongues for prophesy. "He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church". When you pray in tongues you edify yourself. Jude verse 20 says "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,". When you pray in tongues you build yourself up in faith, you edify yourself. When you prophesy in tongues (with interpretation) you build up the faith of the church and edify the church. Praying in tongues will also give you personal instruction of things to come. On Oct. 17, 1989, I was praying in tongues before leaving to go to the World Series. When I finished, the Spirit told me not to go, that I would be in grave danger. Well, I was younger in those days, not as experienced and obedient to the leading of the Holy Ghost, so I went anyway. Before I left I told my wife to pray for me, that I sensed something was wrong. As I left, a little voice said to her "you will never see your husband alive again." She said "Satan you're a liar!" and immediately began praying for me in the spirit. I was at Candlestick Park when the 7.1 earthquake hit. The stadium was swaying, rivets on the steel support girders were popping off and flying like bullets, cement was crumbling and falling down around me. The stadium seemed like it was about to collapse. I stood up and shouted "I plead the blood of Jesus! Earthquake I rebuke you in the name of Jesus and I command you to stop!" Praise the Lord, at least I had enough sense to say that. Now you may be saying, do you really think you kept Candlestick Park from collapsing and killing all the people there? Yes I do. I also believe the prayers of my wife protected me. I didn't get home that night until after Midnight due to the conditions of the roads. My wife and son were camping outside, the inside of the house was in shambles. I should have been home protecting them from the very first if I had obeyed the Holy Spirit. But God was good to us that day, I was home safe and alive, and they were unhurt.
Finally, the gift of the Holy Spirit includes power. Acts 1:8 Jesus says "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." How is this power manifested? John 14:12 Jesus says "Verily, verily, I say unto you he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." This power is manifested in doing the same works, i.e. signs and wonders, that Jesus did. In Mark 16:17,18 Jesus says "And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Where does this power come from? John 16:7 Jesus says "it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you;..." The Comforter is the Holy Ghost. The power comes to us from the gift of the Holy Ghost. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul says in verse 4 that "there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit" He goes on to outline those diversities of gifts in verses 8-10 . There are 9 gifts here and they can be put into 3 groups, with 3 gifts in each group. The first group are the gifts of revelation, 1.) "the word of wisdom" 2.) "the word of knowledge" 3.) "discerning of spirits". The second group are the gifts of Power, 1.) "faith" 2.) "working of miracles" 3.) "gifts of healing". Third, gifts of inspiration, 1.)"prophecy" 2.) "tongues" 3.) "interpretation of tongues". These gifts (aside from tongues and interpretation of tongues which are unique to the New Testiment) were the same gifts which Jesus used in the works he did. Concerning these gifts, Paul says in vs. 11 "But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. Every Christian should be seeking and using the gift or gifts of the Spirit for the profit and edification of the church. Now because verses 8-11 indicate that these gifts are given "severally" to certain individuals as the "Spirit wills", some have said that they shouldn't seek tongues. That God will just give it to them if he decides to. But as we shall see in part two of this teaching, in every instance in the New Testament, when believers received the gift of the Holy Ghost it was evidenced in their speaking in tongues. If you have not received the gift of the Holy Spirit as evidenced in speaking in tongues, if you want to go on to a higher more dynamic and meaningful relationship with your Lord and savior Jesus Christ for service in his kingdom, then you want to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Tongues is not for "proof" that you have received the baptism in the Holy Ghost, rather, it is for power and service for the kingdom of God. It won't make you "better" than other Christians who don't have the gift, because we are all the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor 5:21); but it will make you a more effective Christian. In part two of this teaching we will debunk the arguments against the baptism in the Holy Spirit and explain how to receive it.
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