I have a book on my desk entitled "Around the World with 80 Words". It professes to give the 80 most important words in 25 of the world's most spoken languages. For a self proclaimed linguist like me the book is a dream come true. I actually keep an additional copy in my bookshelf at home. Now and then I find myself flipping through it just for fun. The knowledge actually came in handy one time when I ran into a Romanian family at a church where I was speaking.
Words are fascinating things. We use them to describe things, to order food, for singing, for romance, and the list goes on. Some even find pleasure in making up new words. Sometimes when I can't think of the right word in English I can describe in better in Spanish and vice versa. There is a word for almost everything in some language or another.
Yet sometimes our human words are not enough. We need to express something that we can't quite articulate. Perhaps our prayers need to go to a higher level than human thought can convey. We need to reach beyond the natural and communicate with a God who is supernatural. For such times, God gives us the gift of tongues.
The word tongues in this context means languages. For those times when we don't know how to pray, God prays through us in a language we can't understand. He speaks things into existence that we would never know to speak. He may be reversing the course of a disease or rearranging our future, who knows? What we do know is that the God who knows all and sees all is speaking his will into existence through a vessel that is yielded to him.
The supernatural gift of speaking in tongues is, without a doubt, one of the most misunderstood things in the Bible. Because of lack of understanding, many have simply tried to dismiss it as irrelevant or not available for us today. Yet speaking in tongues is certainly real. Those who have experienced it know just how real it is.
I recently had a man try to convince why tongues was not real. His basic premise was that speaking in tongues is just babble or incoherent nonsense. I know the difference, however, between a true language and psychobabble when I hear it. In times of prayer I have heard other people speak in some of the most beautiful languages imaginable. I once heard a man praying in fluent Hebrew and another man praying in a Chinese dialect. Another time I saw two people who spoke only English speak intelligibly to one another in a language that neither knew for several hours after a time of prayer. They both later testified that during this time they could neither speak nor think in English.
There have been many reports of someone praying in an unknown language without realizing that a visitor who stood by understood them to speak in his or her native language. The words they spoke, when translated, were either an explanation of the gospel message, how real God is, or something similar.
Yes it is a mystery. The Apostle Paul confirms this when he says that "the Spirit speaks mysteries through us." (I Corinthians 14:2 -paraphrased) But oh how wonderful the experience! There is nothing greater than being filled with God's spirit. The experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues is real, relevant, and available to all who would desire it.
Still skeptical? Why not ask God to prove himself to you today? Tell him that if the Holy Spirit baptism if for you today, you want it. I promise you will not be disappointed.
Respectfully Yours,
Sullivan Jones
