Speaking in Tongues

  

Acts 2:2-4

“Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting… They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them… All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues [languages] as the Spirit enabled them” (NIV).

 

When the apostles and those with them were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they all began to speak in other tongues. Each spoke in a language that was not their own. A language they had not learned through study or adopted by living in another culture. The languages that the Holy Spirit empowered them to speak were languages spoken throughout the world. The Holy Spirit did not empower the apostles to speak gibberish or meaningless babble. The apostles were not speaking nonsense when the Holy Spirit filled them with divine power.

When you hear a Christian praying or prophesying gibberish or meaningless babble, they are not praying or prophesying in the Holy Spirit. They are speaking words contrived by the power of their human mind. What do I mean by gibberish or nonsensical babble? I mean, the sound coming off their tongue is not an intelligible language. It is not a language that exists or has ever existed. Have you ever heard a Christian supposedly speaking in tongues by repeating the same incoherent sounds over and over again? When a Christian is genuinely praying in the Holy Spirit, an intelligible language is rolling off their tongue. A language unknown to the one praying in tongues, but a language nonetheless. The Holy Spirit does not speak gibberish or mumbo jumbo. He knows every language in the world, and that is how he prays through the Christian vessel.

Some say they are speaking a heavenly language when they are speaking in tongues. But the Scriptures do not support that theory. Some believe that because the Apostle Paul mentioned the language of angels in his writings (1 Cor. 13:1), the language spoken by the Holy Spirit through a baptized believer must be a heavenly language. I disagree. Paul did not say that angels have a unique language; he was trying to make the point that love is important. When angels spoke to the prophets and saints, they always spoke in that prophet or saint’s native tongue. The languages the Holy Spirit enables baptized believers to speak are genuine languages. They are languages from the many cultures spread across the earth. Some of the languages may be from cultures that no longer exist. Nonetheless, they were once genuine and intelligible languages that people spoke. You may think a language spoken by one culture may be no more than gibberish and nonsensical babble to another culture. That kind of thinking is arrogant. Every language ever spoken is intelligible to those who speak it. A person from one culture may not comprehend the language from another culture, but that does not make it an inauthentic language. An unintelligible language to one is comprehensible to someone else. But gibberish and nonsensical babble are neither an authentic nor intelligible language.

When the Jews who were staying in Jerusalem from every nation heard the noise the Holy Spirit made when he came to baptize the apostles, they were confused, so they gathered together to investigate (Acts 2:2, 5-6a). They could hear the apostles speaking in their languages (Acts 2:6b). These Jews and converts to Judaism were from Northeastern Persia, Iran (Parthians). Media, east of Mesopotamia and northwest of Persia (Medes). Elam, north of the Persian Gulf (Elamites). Mesopotamia, between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers (residents of Mesopotamia). Jewish homeland (Judeans). Districts in Anatolia—the Asian part of modern Turkey (Cappadocians, Pontic Greeks [Pontus], Asians [minor], Phrygians, and Pamphylia). Egypt, Libya, and Rome. There were inhabitants from the island of Crete (Grecian Jews) and Arabs. The Jews who heard the Christians speak in other tongues were hearing them speaking in their native languages (Acts 2:8-11). The disciples' native languages would have been Aramaic and some Greek. This is why those who heard the followers of Jesus Christ speaking in their native tongues were amazed (Acts 2:12).

When a Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit, they will speak in a foreign tongue. There will be no need to force it. Another language will flow from the tongue of the believer without effort. If a Christian tries to force himself to speak in tongues, they will be speaking gibberish. It will be a false manifestation of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the enabler; the believer is the vessel. When a believer is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, they should pray to God in tongues as much as possible.  

 

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