Well, obviously Jesus doesn't walk around anymore because he's in heaven. But that doesn't mean there aren't miracles. And I don't mean the smaller, everyday miracles - I mean the miracles that you can't deny or make up and the ones that people find hard to believe without a strong faith.
One of my good friends, Hannah, has had a few experiences with speaking in tongues. She has a tremendous faith and is one of the people that I really admire. That's something that is relatively rare nowadays and I asked her to talk about it a little bit for my blog. This is her email.
"The first thing that I want to say about tongues is that it is a gift-- similar to other spiritual gifts like prophesy, healing, hospitality, discernment (1 Corinthians 12:7-11) in that practicing and developing tongues is crucial if you want to experience the gift the way god designed it. I would encourage anyone who wants to learn more about the gift of tongues to read 1 Corinthians 12-14. Scripture is the best ways to find out about the things of God. He WANTS you to know the truth (John 16:15), and WANTS to give you wisdom (James 1:5).
The gift of tongues in the bible is almost always mentioned with the Holy Spirit. These two things relate closely. For example in acts, 10:44-46,
“the circumcised believers who had come with peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the gentiles. For they had heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.”
To Peter, the fact that the people were speaking in tongues (other than their own language) was a sign that God was there. This agrees strongly with 1 Corinthians 14:22 saying that “tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers […]”. What is the gift of tongues then? Romans 8 says
“In the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with god’s will.”
Tongues are communicating with God through your spirit.
After attending a church where I experienced the gift of tongues for the first time, I was skeptical and had to find answers for myself. After absolutely exhausting the bible looking for information on the gift of tongues, my question changed from “Are tongues real?” to “How could god use the gift on tongues in my life?”. If you believe that the bible is true, there is no way that you can say that tongues don’t exist. The bible talks extensively about this gift.
Because of 1 Corinthians 14:5 which says, “I would like everyone of you to speak in tongues,” I prayed with a pastor about receiving the gift of tongues and God blessed me with this gift. I’ve been asked many times what this was like. The best way to describe it is like when you were a little kid in school and you knew the answer to a question in class. But, you had to raise your hand and wait till the teacher called on you. Every thing in your being called for you to shout out the answer, but instead you had to sit and raise your hand. You are reaching as high as you can and practically jumping out of your seat. This is how it feels when god gives me something to speak in my spiritual tongue. Yes, you must open your mouth and speak. No, it is not uncontrollable—there’s fair warning and instruction, however, when Paul says, “[…] do not forbid speaking in tongues. But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” and in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 saying, “do not put out the Spirit’s fire”(NIV) or “do not stifle the Holy Spirit”(NLT).
As I prayed, I immediately began to speak in my own tongue. Out loud. God works in mysterious ways, and this I believe is one of them. Paul explains how the gift of tongues “edifies himself” as opposed to prophecy which “edifies the church”. He says that he would “rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue”. This helps to let us know where the gift of tongues fits in our lives. In no way do I believe that it is a matter of salvation, but I am completely convinced that it is from God and is real.
There is much more I could say about the gift of tongues and this is by no means exhaustive, but I hope that this maybe sparked your curiosity about this wonderful gift from God."
- Hannah
Just a little thing for us to think about. Remember what our God is capable of, because I know that sometimes I forget. Until next blog...
- Bradley
Wait, what is the gift of hospitality?
ReplyDeleteIsn't hospitality being kind and, well...hospitable?
haha sorry :)
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I'm still gathering and synthesizing my thoughts on the actual post, but meanwhile:
I don't understand how hospitality and discernment are gifts of God.
I feel I can be kind and welcoming (etc.) without that being a gift of God....I mean, does that mean that if we don't have God's gift of hospitality, then we won't be kind?
Also, discernment, which the dictionary defines as acute judgement. In general, I don't think this is a gift of God, but the vagueness of the term "judgement" makes me think I'm missing some kind of context?
Some people have an uncanny gift for hospitality. Just because you're a hospitable person doesn't necessarily mean that you have the gift of hospitality though. But, if it's especially pronounced in your personality then it could be a gift from God.
ReplyDeleteSpiritual discernment is a little easier to understand. All believers are given discernment from the Holy Spirit whether it's a “spiritual gift” or not. We have the ability (from God) to see things in a different light than people who don't have the Holy Spirit. God gives us special understanding into spiritual things that aren't easy to understand for people who don't have the spirit. However, some people are especially gifted with this and can use it to discern other spiritual things. They have a really amazing knack for reading someone’s spirit. Some people with spiritual discernment know when there’s a dark spirit in the room or when angels are present. Angels and demons are very real creatures. Some people don’t think that there is a spiritual realm here on earth, but I think the Bible makes it very clear that there is a constant spiritual battle going on. People with spiritual discernment have a keen insight into the spiritual realm and sometimes can feel what’s going on in it.
That’s just my interpretation of it but I’m sure there are several other opinions as well. I hope this helps!
I don't understand how to ask you to write about something anonymously on this blog so I'm just going to comment and hope you see this. Bradley, will you give advice on how to keep your faith strong? My sibling is agnostic and is continually telling me my faith is wrong. My sibling is very convincing and I fear I will lose my faith. I know the usual "read your Bible", "have Christian friends", "pray", "do devos", and "attend church". I feel like that isn't working and I am just drifting farther away from Christ. So, can you make a post about how to keep your faith in an enviornment that isn't 100% on fire for God? I would forever be thankful and I know that is a hard question.
ReplyDelete