Are You Bi-lingual? part 2

When it comes to things of God, less is not more.

Too often I’ve heard men and women of God say, “If there’s more, I don’t want it. I’m content where I am.” I don’t think that’s what Paul was referring to when he said he learned to be content in every circumstance. It seems sad to me that anyone who is a Christian and loves God would not want everything he desires to give us. 

It’s like a child that receives a present from his parents and plays with the box. It’s cute for a while but it is less charming as they get older. The parent giving the gift wants their child to enjoy the entire gift.

Likewise, I believe that rejecting something that the Father wants to give us is foolish. Tongues is only one of the gifts, we should desire them all. Today, we are continuing the post topic from last Friday’s post. 

On Friday, I described my first exposure to someone speaking in tongues and I offered an explanation on at least two different forms of the gift. For the majority, we will never need the gift of tongues (foreign language), or similarly interpretation, but a heavenly language that allows us to pray in the Spirit is to be desired because it edifies us personally (1 Corinthians 14:4).

Although I prayed for the gift of tongues, I didn’t receive it until an evening I was at a church meeting and someone gave a word of prophecy - there were gifts available for each person there, we simply had to have faith to receive it. I was determined not to leave that place until I had the gift, so I went up for prayer. I didn’t tell anyone what I wanted, the Father knew and that was enough. I received the gift of tongues but what came out of my mouth was not a stream of words, rather just one word that I repeated over and over. It sounded gibberish to me. I wondered if I had been hoaxed.

All the next day, I was plagued with self-doubt. I certainly didn’t feel edified and it still sounded like gibberish – like I was making up sounds. I went back to the church for a meeting the 2^nd evening and at the start of the service, the speaker asked for testimonies from the previous night. I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to testify that I had received the gift of tongues. I didn’t want to because:  a. I didn’t feel like I was speaking in tongues because I only had a few sounds, not a whole language and, b. It was a charismatic church where it seems that everyone is already speaking in tongues and then I’d have to admit that I didn’t have the gift. I listened to the Holy Spirit and I gave testimony and when I did, more sounds filled my mouth.

Tongues, like the other gifts of the Spirit are supernatural. They can’t be understood by thinking like the old man but because we are a new creation, the old man is dead (dead, dead, dead, dead, dead) and we have the mind of Christ, consider if the Father has been offering you a gift that you’ve refused because you haven’t understood it.

What prevents you from using the gift of tongues, or asking for the gift if you don’t have it?