A most dramatic instance of “tongue talking” happened in a Baptist Church in this area that didn’t practice “tongue talking”. The local churches had recently been defeated in a “wet/dry election and local businesses in the county were going to start selling alcoholic drinks in a few weeks. To save embarrassment I won’t name the particular Baptist Church or the county. A stranger, 35 or so years old, showed up one Sunday and quietly took a seat in the back. The service started with the opening prayer and singing.
Suddenly a young woman stood up and spoke in a strange, nearly guttural, almost tonal language. It was easy to see she was laboring under a supernatural force because she was red-faced, sweating, visibly shaking and her voice rang with power. Just as she finished speaking the stranger jumped up, ran stumbling and crying down front, collapsed to his knees at the altar and started feverishly praying.
The Pastor joined him, a strange, brief, endlessness passed, they stood up and the man excitedly, with tears and great gratitude, said God had saved him. The congregation was stunned into quietness. He gradually settled down a bit and explained what had happened.
He was from Oklahoma. He had been raised by Cherokee Indians. He was a hell-raising sinner but had started attending a church in Oklahoma with a Christian friend once in a while and God had started drawing and convicting him. Somehow he had heard the county had gone wet, he had taken his savings and, on the run from God, he came here to open a liquor store.
On “impulse” he had decided to come to that Baptist Church that Sunday by himself. The young woman knew only English yet she quoted (Prov. 1:23-29 esp. bearing down on V.26) and told the young man this was his last chance, the Holy Spirit would quit drawing him, God would never be back again and she had spoken in the Cherokee language.
Conclusion: Tongue talked, person saved, tongue interpreted, it’s scriptural, case closed. As far as I know; that congregation, individually or as a group, never tried to cultivate that spiritual gift of tongues and it was never repeated again. As a matter of fact, the matter was never talked about very much even among the members of that congregation.
Conclusion: embarrassment, doubt, fear, unbelief, ignorance, denial, spiritually too hot to handle; who knows? A few days later the stranger took his savings, left and has never been heard from again. (Heb. 13:2) Maybe an angel guided him here to teach proper “tongue talking” but the church could not grasp the message. (Rom. 11:8 & 33-34) WHO KNOWS?
#1 The tongues of men: part two: (John 10:35) Jesus said; “the scripture cannot be broken.” (Heb. 13:8) “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and forever.” Jesus does not change and the scripture cannot be broken SO: this same keeping of order (Acts 2:1-12) in a tongue talking service given in (1Cor. 14:27-33), “one after the other with an interpreter”, had to have been followed when the Holy Spirit was first given at Jerusalem.
There were at least fifteen different languages spoken by the Apostles who did not know the languages so there had to be an order of speaking or it would have been nothing but confusion, “raving as lunatics”.
(Acts 2:1-47 esp. V.11 keywords: speak in our tongues) (V.1-13) God, through the Holy Spirit, anointed the tongue (unlearned foreign languages) speaking and (V.14-21) Peter explained the prophesy that led up to the tongue speaking THEN: (V.22-36) Peter preached the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. NOTE: (Acts 4:13) The scripture portrays Peter as an uneducated, Jewish fisherman. (V.11 keywords: speak in our tongues) The same people who had heard the tongues were now listening to Peter preach.
(V.7-8) “And they were all amazed (to astonish) and marvelled (to wonder, by implication to admire, have in admiration), saying one to another, Behold (see), are not all these which speak Galileans? And how (in what way) hear we every man in our own tongue (language, dialect), wherein we were born?”
It is obvious all the apostles spoke (V.5) to the (2Ki. 17:16-23) Jews whose ancestors, the ten northern tribes naming themselves Israel who had rebelled against God until God had let them be overrun and they had been disbursed (now commonly called the diaspora) throughout the Assyrian empire in 722 BC, now called BCE. They had adopted the language of their various nations to survive and through their generations they had abandoned/lost their Jewish language but had clung desperately and fervently to their Jewish religion in their adopted language. It was these individual Jews greatest dream to go to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish feasts when they could afford it.
That is why they had made the trip to Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost. It is obvious there was an order, taking turns, in the apostles preaching. How could anyone have understood anything if a huge crowd of people listened to fifteen different languages at the same time??? GOOD GRIEF! God expects us to have enough sense to figure out what He has plainly said; (V.5) “are not all these which speak Galileans”!
(V.37-41) The people questioned Peter’s message, he told them how to get saved and about three thousand people were saved. AND:
(V.42-47) This first church was semi-disorganized and did some strange things (according to today’s standards), they prayed together, ate together, worshipped together, were of one accord and God added to the church daily such as should be saved. (1Cor. 14:1 keyword: charity) Sounds like they had charity (brotherly love, benevolence, affection, good will, love feast) doesn’t it? Have you noticed in your church when the Christians are in/of one accord (unanimous mind) toward God people get saved and/or Christians move closer to God?
(Acts 19:1-10) Sometimes there was some catching up to do. Paul found a group of about twelve believers in the baptism of repentance John the Baptist had preached. They were at Ephesus and did not know the Holy Spirit had been given. Paul explained about Jesus, baptized them in the name of Jesus, laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, they spoke in tongues (unlearned foreign languages) and prophesied.
Paul went on to speak boldly in the synagogue at Ephesus and formed a group of believers out of that synagogue that obviously became the local church at Ephesus. After Paul left there he later wrote them a letter of instruction. If you wish to read it read Ephesians.
If you will read closely throughout the New Testament you will see many local churches were founded when members of various Jewish temples and synagogues were saved, left Judaism and formed Christian congregations. (Acts 19:1-10) Perhaps there is still some catching up to do concerning the three types of tongues!
FALSE TEACHING: There are denominations and congregations that deny all tongue talking. They say that particular gift isn’t given any more and if a tongue talker shows up they are made unwelcome. (Eph. 2:8) The faith to be saved is a gift; every part of our relationship with God is a gift from God, (1John 4:8) God’s charity—love—agape;—God’s kind of Personality gives gifts SO: how in the world can someone say; “Nope He don’t give that gift anymore! Get the scissors out boys ‘n we’ll shore nuff cut thatun’ outta the Bible!”
Some congregations simply ignore tongue talking; some congregations sound like a bunch of lunatics; and very few congregations practice tongue talking scripturally. Have you really, really considered all the things a Christian can worship other than God? Check it out sometime, look at how some Christians act, and you will see the possibility there are people who worship their local church, their preacher, their denomination and its doctrine, or even their spiritual gift instead of God. Think about it!
Our attitude: There is a great and raging debate, an argument, or a sullen silence concerning the filling of man by the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues that has been an ongoing struggle (Acts 2:12-13) since the Holy Spirit was first given. This uproar is caused by (Acts 7:51) resistance to (Acts 19:2) and ignorance of the Holy Spirit (2Tim. 2:15) and God’s Word. It is of the greatest importance that every Christian answer for himself, by God’s word, all his own doubts and questions about the Holy Spirit and tongues.
Attitude is important; “I may not like it, I may have heard or been taught different, I may have been just flat out wrong, but if it is from God, according to His Holy Bible, through the Holy Spirit, I will accept it. I may never be blessed with that particular gift but I will accept the fact other Christians are blessed with the gift of tongues.”
The desire to have that gift, to hear or participate in tongues spoken and interpreted, OR: to speak with tongues if an interpreter is there to interpret, OR: to silently speak an unknown tongue between you and God, OR: to interpret a spoken tongue if it is spoken IS strictly between God and you and everybody else needs to keep their nose out of it.
CONCLUSION: (1Cor. 1:12-13 & 3:1-11 esp. V.3 keywords: ye are yet carnal) If it were not for CARNAL CHRISTIANS instigating denominations (2Tim. 3:1-17) through jealousy over gifts, ignorance, pride, envy, malice, heady (rash), high-minded (inflated with self-conceit, lifted up with pride) and divisions every church house (Matt. 21:13) would be called Jesus’ House of Prayer (1Cor. 12:1-13) and each would have its healer, miracle worker, spirit discerner, tongue talker, interpreter and etc.
(Acts 2:42-47 esp. V.46 keywords: one accord) If every member of each single congregation were of one accord and all congregations were of one accord according to God’s Word and led by the Holy Spirit there wouldn’t be any denominations/divisions, the church would present a united front in civil elections and get unholy laws rescinded. The church would present a united front in witnessing, helping the poor, and etc.
The geographical locations of various church houses (their separation from each other) would be determined by the distance the Christians could travel instead of being separated by belief and practice.
That way there wouldn’t be three churches in a city block or up a country road each one-third full, preaching different things, separated by their gifts, jealousy, belief/disbelief, anger, disobedience and divisions while lost sinners shake their heads and wonder; “Why in the world would I want to join with any of that grumpy, quarreling, lying, backbiting, hypocrite bunch. I’ve got enough trouble in my life without adding that mess to it.“
(Acts 2:41-47) With a united front every Christian would be a member in any church house he decided to attend at any particular time (John 13:34-35) and he or she would be loved (Rom. 8:9-17) and treated as a blood brother (Jesus Blood). (1Cor. 12) Then God might just give back the true spiritual gifts in full Holy Spirit power. That would be something wouldn’t it? SO? What is the (Rev. 3:7 think about David’s life, especially what he wrote in Psalms) key? (given nine paragraphs below)
REMEMBER THIS: (Prov. 6:16-19) Three of the seven abominations God hates are; a proud look, a false witness that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord (quarrel) among the brethren. Quarrels about doctrine (teaching) given in scripture brought about denominations AND that makes one wonder what the judgment will really be like!
#1) (1Cor. 2:16) “But we have the mind (the divine intellect, the feeling) of Christ.”
#2) (Phil. 2:5-8) “Let this mind (to have the sentiment, to set the affection on, to think) be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
#3) (2Cor. 13:11) “Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind (to have the sentiment, to set the affection on, to think) live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.”
Three, the Biblical number of completion! SO: The only possible conclusion is that we Christians are to think like Jesus and let His sentiment and affection BE US. (Eph. 2:19-22) Individually and as a group Christians are to be a habitation of God through the Holy Spirit! DO YOU SEE ANY OTHER WAY WRITTEN ANYPLACE IN GOD’S WORD? There is a question though. Why do so many individual Christians fail to have the sentiment and affection Jesus has? Why do so many Christians fail to think like Jesus?
Read the six above paragraphs again. While we are all aggressively defending our denomination, method of worship and gifts has anyone ever taken the time to ask Jesus what He thinks about all this? Of course not! (Luke 22:8-20) This is an astonishing scripture. Jesus ate the Passover supper with His disciples according to Jewish Law. Nobody had a clue (1Cor. 5:7) that Jesus was the Living Passover.
NOTE: Let me, the writer, say this now. I did belong to a denomination, name on the book and all that. They started trying to tell me what I could or could not write and I removed my name from the church membership book. As I said in the article About the Writer God, through the Holy Spirit, is the Author (1Cor. 12:11-18) and I am merely one of the bodies Jesus uses to accomplish His purpose. (Rev. 20:15) My name is in God’s book of life and that is all that counts. Yes, I attend a church, pay my tithes and etc. there but God knows my heart is anchored in Him. They understand and support my situation where I attend. END OF NOTE.
The Jews had ceremoniously celebrated Passover by killing a sacrifice ever since they had been freed from bondage in Egypt, (Rom. 6:9-10) but this Living Passover was the eternal Passover that would be sacrificed only one time.
All future Jewish Passover celebrations would be without meaning UNTIL (Rev.19:11-21) Jesus comes again to rescue Israel at Armageddon then (Zech. 13:6) “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.“
(Rev. 1:7 keywords: they also which pierced him) Jesus might even say to the Jews; “Back when you celebrated your prophetic Passover and in your spiritual blindness you killed your authentic Passover sacrifice of which all the others had been but a prophesy of My coming.”
(Luke 22:17-20) (V.17) “And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:” (V.19) “And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.”
(V.20) “Likewise also the cup (V.17 they had already divided it among themselves) after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” “This do” is a commandment to be fulfilled in the future, OURS, because we are, right now, the future.
Jesus knew how proud, defiant and divided the Church would become and that broke His heart! SO: He gave the Church a blistering lesson in humility! (John 13:4-17) It was Jewish custom that the lowest ranking servant in any Jewish household was the one who washed visitors’ feet. (V.4-5) “He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments (robe, cloak); and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.“
(V.13-15) “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought (must, figuratively: to be under obligation) to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should (expected, duty, necessity) do as I have done to you.”
Read the COMMUNION commentary and you will understand why these three things (foot washing–>humility; partaking of the bread–>Jesus’ body; and partaking of the wine–>Jesus’ blood) must be done by your congregation. What if you had in some way saved a bunch of people’s lives and also their children from a raging inferno and they didn’t care enough to commemorate what you had done; how would you feel? How does Jesus feel when you don’t commemorate what He did?
(Eph. 421-32 esp. V.30 keywords: grieve not the holy Spirit of God and 2Pet. 3:7-18 esp. V.9 keywords: the longsuffering of God to us-ward) <-PLEASE READ THESE SCRIPTURES IN THEIR ENTIRETY BECAUSE YOUR ETERNAL DESTINATION DEPENDS ON YOUR REACTION TO THEM.
Surely you can see how it must break Jesus’ heart to see His (Rom. 8:13-17) blood-kin family (Jesus’ blood) separated over a stupid family fight (denominations) over foot washing, communion, tongue talking, can a Christian backslide to the point his or her name is taken out of the book of life or not, is baptism without born again enough to have your name entered into the book of life and a bunch of other things (2Tim. 3:16) Jesus had done, preached and taught. How do you feel when your family or friends quarrel and say those things that cannot be taken back and the fellowship and unity is destroyed? Awful, isn’t it?
(Gal. 5:13-16 keywords: V.15 bite and devour and V.16 Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh) This denomination business is not brought about by the Holy Spirit (2Tim. 2:15 keywords: rightly dividing: defined: to dissect in the smallest detail) so it is obviously caused by carnal men who are too deliberately ignorant and spiritually deaf to rightly divide (dissect in the smallest detail) God’s Word.
They are too proud and stubborn to admit when they are wrong, too arrogant (Eph. 4:3-13 esp. V.3 & 13 keyword: unity) to work toward unifying God’s Church, too self-righteous to see that some other Christian may know something they don’t personified (Jer. 23:1-2) by Pastors who teach and preach their way is the only truth (2Thess. 2:7-15) and you for believing it without checking if what they preach is according to God’s word.
It is just as hard to convince a Christian their belief is wrong according to scripture as it is to convince someone, example a devout Jew or Muslim, that their way of worshipping God is the wrong way. (Gen. 3:1-7 & 2Cor. 11:13-15) Satan, the devil, is an unholy spirit who can convince people their method of worshipping God is the correct way and nothing can shake that belief!
(1Pet. 5:8-9) And, of course, the devil stirs it all up and gallops triumphantly through the whole Church (Rev. 12:9) deceiving and (Rev. 12:10) accusing the brethren of their sins before God day and night (2Pet. 3:9-11) while Jesus (1John 2:1) our advocate (intercessor—like a lawyer) suffers embarrassment and shame (2Pet. 3:9-11) because Christians will not repent of those above mentioned sins.
(1Cor. 1:10-13 keywords: V.10 that ye all speak the same thing and V.13 Is Christ divided?) (Eph. 5:1-18 esp. V.2 keywords: sweetsmelling savor—>smell) Take a Holy Spirit smell of division and you’ll see how it stinks in God’s Holy nostrils.
“Writer, that’s hard talk!” Answer: When has a preacher or teacher from another denomination been permitted to address your congregation? When has your congregation gone to worship God and fellowship with a congregation of another denomination? When has one been invited to come to your Church? When have you told a member of another denomination, or even your own congregation in public that you love them in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Here’s some advice; if you won’t tell a Christian brother or sister of any denomination in public that you love them you’d better not say it in Church! Because (1John 3:14-15) “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.” (1John 4:8 & 16 then 17) “God is love” AND “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.” and Jesus always said it in public.
Remember? (1Cor. 2:16) “But we have the mind (the divine intellect, the feeling) of Christ.”
Jesus spoke at length just before the last time He would cross the brook Cedron to go into the Garden of Gethsemane where the temple guard from the chief priests would take Him and the high priest would engineer His murder because of jealousy.
The whole Church, at that time, was with Him and Jesus spoke to the whole Church, their present and future, which is US, you, me, the whole Church today and from now on. (John 14:8-9) Phillip asked Jesus to show him the Father. Can you imagine yourself having the nerve to ask someone like Jesus to show you God?
Can you imagine Jesus’ tender look and quiet words; (John 14:8-9) “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me Phillip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;” (John 14:16-18 & 23) Jesus went on to unmistakably identify Himself as the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit would work within them and us.
(John 15:12-17) (V.12) “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” THEN (V.17) “These things I command you, that ye love one another.” (1John 4:8 & 16) God is love. Please read (1John 3:1 thru 4:21 esp. 4:17 keywords: because as he is, so are we in this world) and underline or highlight every statement about love in Matt., Mark, Luke and John.
(John 16:22) Jesus made you and me the sweetest, most tender, the greatest promise that could ever be made; “but I will see you again”. Jesus had said in (John 14:17) that the Holy Spirit is truth and in the words of His prayer just moments before He crossed the brook Cedron to go into the Garden of Gethsemane (John 17:17) Jesus asked God to; “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
THEN (John 17:26) the last thing Jesus said in His prayer to God the Father; “And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” SO: (1Cor. 1:13 keywords: is Christ divided?) Now what? The key to God is Love, Worship, Praise, Humility, Obedience, Truth, Unity!
Do YOU want a study project for God that will benefit you? Look up every usage of those 7 words; LOVE, WORSHIP, PRAISE, HUMILITY, OBEDIENCE, TRUTH, UNITY or words like them, example OBEDIENCE= OBEY and HUMILITY= HUMBLE; in the above paragraph in your concordance then go there in the scriptures, Psalms, Proverbs and the N.T., read each place where they are used, examine yourself with honesty and pray as you go. I can’t change you but I can tell you where to go so God can.
As you can plainly see from the above Biblical information Jesus did not bring a religion, He did not bring a dead law with no life in it, He brought the offer of a living, personal relationship with God founded, based and built on love! (1John 4:8 & 16) Founded because God is love, (Rom. 5:8-9 & Gal. 2:20) based on the fact that Jesus loved us enough to die for us and (all through the N.T.) built by keeping your relationship with God alive and well through the Holy Spirit by the 7 activities given in the key to God.
How much do you love God/Jesus? Do you love Him enough to witness about His love, grace and mercy to lost people? (Eph. 2:22) We are to be a habitation (a dwelling place) of God/Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Do you love God/Jesus enough to physically say out loud in your prayers; “Oh great God/Jesus please take my hands, my feet, my eyes, my tongue, my money, my time my all and do with them as you will. Send me Lord. Let me go do it.” If you say that and mean it you will be absolutely astonished by what God/Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, will do with your life.
When you accomplish everything that is in the above four paragraphs do you know what you get to say to God/Jesus? (Luke 17:10) “So likewise ye, when ye have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” Do you know what God/Jesus will say to you? (1Cor. 2:9) “Come with Me, I’ve got something to share with you that’s so special you can’t even imagine it.”
PRAISE GOD, GOD BLESS YOU AND MAYBE WE’LL GET TOGETHER YONDER IN GLORY IN THE PRESENCE OF JESUS.