Is speaking in tongues for today? Well, if you ask the millions and millions of Christians all over the world who speak in tongues, they would tell you ‘yes‘! And that is a fact.
You may say “Well, how do you know that”? Well, of course there have been surveys and studies done about this. Years and years ago, I spoke with David Barrett, who is the author of “The World Christian Encyclopedia.” I believe he’s now with the Lord, but still widely respected within evangelical Christianity for his knowledge of what God was doing all over the world. He told me that Pentecostal/charismatic Christians make up the largest group of Protestants in the world. There are millions.
I have traveled and taught in somewhere close to 80 countries of the world over the last four decades. And, man, I’ve run into a lot of Christians who say that speaking in tongues is a regular part of their prayer life and that they do it all the time! I’m a person in that category. I received a baptism in the Holy Spirit back in 1976 and I spoke in other tongues. I speak in tongues as part of my devotional prayer life just about every single day. It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing that I really wish more Christians could enjoy. I believe many more Christians could if they knew about it and if they studied the Scriptures about it.
Does Speaking in Tongues Make you Better?
Does speaking in tongues make you better? No. Let’s just be honest. Among the people in the Body of Christ who speak in tongues today around the world, some of them are the most flaky people on this planet!
There are some TV preachers who would actually make you think that speaking in tongues makes you a worse person! All you have to do is look at what’s on TV. But let’s not look at TV. Let’s look at the Bible, okay?
What the Bible Says About Speaking in Tongues
I can’t imagine any Christian not wanting all that God might have for them. So investigating tongues in the Bible is worth it, right? I mean, this is not a hidden theme or a hidden idea in Scripture.
Jesus Himself said that one of the signs that will follow those who believe in Him is that they’ll speak in tongues (see Mark 16:17). So Jesus talked about speaking in tongues.
On the day of Pentecost when the Church was born, there were about 120 people speaking in tongues. And you can read about it in later chapters in the Book of Acts when the Holy Spirit fell upon new believers and they began speaking in other tongues.
Then you’ve got a couple of chapters in the Book of 1 Corinthians where Paul discusses speaking in tongues. He corrects some of the misuse of speaking in tongues in the Corinthian Church. There is some Scripture that is worth your while to look into!
My Own Experience of Speaking in Tongues
When I was first baptized into this experience back in 1976,, this Holy Spirit baptism, it was the greatest experience of my life up until that point (other than the day I actually was born again and believed in Jesus Christ). When I think about it, what a blessing speaking in tongues has been in my life!
Oh my goodness, I just honestly wish that every Christian would at least look into it and ask the Lord, “Lord, is this your will for me?” and then go into the Word of God and try to figure it out for themselves!
A Beautiful Prayer
I have actually spoken in the Japanese language on three occasions when people were present.
As I was praying, they heard me praying in Japanese and they told me some of what they recognized. And they understood what I said because they were either fluent in Japanese or they knew a little bit of Japanese. I have said at times in Japanese things like “You are so good!” Well, that certainly is Scriptural! God is good, right? And I’ve said “Thank you very much!” in Japanese, and I couldn’t even say it right now if you asked (because I don’t know how to say thank you in Japanese)!
Another time I said in Japanese, “Come quickly, come quickly, I am waiting for you”. Wouldn’t that sound like a beautiful prayer to be praying to Jesus?
The Most Important Thing
Whole books have been written on the subject of speaking in tongues. I wrote a whole chapter on the gifts of the Spirit in one my books. You can read it here for free. This chapter will tell you just about everything that I know about tongues.
I still love you, and I hope that you still love me! It’s much more important that we love each other than that we speak in tongues. If you haven’t figured that out, you need to go back to 1 Corinthians 13. There are a lot of people in the Body of Christ who have the ministry of being a noisy gong and a clashing cymbal because they’re speaking in tongues but they don’t have love and respect for those who don’t speak in tongues!
Speaking in tongues can be abused. It was in the Corinthian Church. People were speaking out in tongues and there was no translation. So Paul spoke against this. This is not walking in love. This is not edifying other people. He said that if you speak in tongues privately in your own private prayer times, you’ll edify yourself. You’ll build up yourself. It will be a blessing for you but you won’t be offending someone else. Love is the most important thing.
Speaking in Tongues Is For Today!
Paul said I wish that you all spoke in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:5). Well, I wish that same thing for you! I also know this: it will never happen to you if you don’t think that it’s something for today. I hope I’ve at least eradicated that thought from mind. It’s for today!
You’ll never speak in tongues if you don’t believe this is for you. So you need to dive into the Word! I’ve only provided some basic instructions to help you get started! (You can search this website for “speaking in tongues” for more information).
Thank you for asking that question and, again, let me affirm my love for you! Thanks for joining me. See you next time!
