Tongues first appeared in the 19th century (in the 1830’s in the Shaker Movement in England and America and also among Joseph Smith’s Mormon followers in New York, Missouri and Utah) but it was not until the early 1900’s that the Pentecostals began to place great importance on the doctrine of tongues. (The Portable Seminary, Pgs 531, 532)
What has surprised me, as I have looked into the practice of tongues over the last few years, is the fact that the great men of old somehow did not realise that there was such a thing as speaking or praying in tongues, outside of what we see in the Bible.
After the Azuza Street Revival in 1906, the Pentecostal movement really began to take off and people were flooding into the churches.
When I read this, a big question hit me – why were people flooding into the churches all of a sudden and yet prior to the Pentecostal movement taking off, people appeared uninterested in church? What was it that was drawing the people? Were these people aware of their need for a Savior? Was their salvation real? Were they sincerely seeking God, or were they just seeking the sensationalism of all that was happening and in fact not at all wanting to come to the glorious knowledge of our gracious Savior, Jesus Christ? There are many people in the churches today, who are not born again and in fact want nothing to do with God, but they love the sensationalism because it makes them feel good.
Stephen Flurry of “The Trumpet” asks the question:
“But is the presence of “speaking in tongues”—or glossolalia, as it is termed technically—evidence of God’s Holy Spirit? Or are these outlandish manifestations of emotional shouts, dancing, speaking gibberish, and fainting spells a ridiculous and dangerous counterfeit?”
I have read many books on prayer, written by Spurgeon, the Unknown Christian, Madam Guyon, Matthew Henry and others and they all seemed to think that praying in the spirit, meant that we were to wait on the Holy Spirit to place things in our hearts that we were to pray for. They also took time to focus on the greatness and awesomeness of God and as they did, the Holy Spirit would start moving within their hearts, revealing the Father to them more and more. The result was that when they opened their mouths it was praise and worship coming out from the depths of their hearts, rising up to God, telling Him how great He is and how much they loved every bit of Who God is. They somehow didn’t realise that there was a greater way to pray – in tongues!
Scripture on SPEAKING in tongues
If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.
1Cor 14:27-28
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.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 as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:1-4
And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.
Acts 19:6
So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.
1Cor 14:39
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
1Cor 14:18-19
I see many Scriptures where it mentions “speaking in tongues”, but cannot find one Scripture that speaks about “praying in tongues” and there is also nowhere in Scripture that we are told that if you speak in tongues you have more power than someone who does not speak in tongues.
Can tongues be taught or learnt?
Some time ago, I was watching a video by an extremely well known television show host on the Christian TV channel and he was telling his audience that if they were not yet speaking in tongues, to take words like a baby… take syllables and just start speaking them, like “la, la, la, ha, ha, ba, ba,” etc and then start saying them really fast and they will be speaking in tongues. I was totally shocked. Tongues is a gift and not a silly babble. Tongues, according to Scripture is a language – a human language. In other words if I went to China and God gave me the gift of tongues, I would be ministering to the Chinese there in their own language – how amazing is that?
I have always been someone who did most of my praying in tongues, until the Holy Spirit started showing me things in the Word of God. Now I realise that there are so many people who simply do not know how to pray, but are able to spend hours praying in tongues, not knowing at all what they are saying, but they feel good, because they are “Praying”. How many people who are constantly praying in tongues, would be able to pray absolute meaningful prayer for 15 minutes straight? I realised that praying in tongues was actually what I term “lazy praying”. When you don’t know what to pray, just pray in tongues.
I am not totally against tongues, but definitely against the prominence that it takes in our prayer time before God.
People we need to really be asking the Holy Spirit to guide us in our praying and not just babble on because we don’t know what to pray.
An interesting thought and hope it brings comments and raises discussion.