Can Everyone Ride a Bike? - Part 2

Continued from previous post

3.  Having love is infinitely more valuable than tongue speaking.

This statement sounds so sensible at first glance. But let's look further.

Riding a bike not only keeps you fit but gives you the feeling of freedom and mobility outdoors as well. If you're a non cyclist like me, you could attempt to get the outdoorsy experience by taking a walk or going for a drive. But biking enthusiasts will tell you that nothing beats watching the world go by while cycling down the open road, feeling the sun on your face and the wind in your hair! 

To say we'll take the love minus the tongues is like trying to achieve the outdoorsy experience without getting on a bike. Is it possible? Yes. Is it the same? A definite NO.

Love is the trademark of the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, God's love is poured into our hearts (Rom 5:5). Who is the Holy Spirit? He is the Spirit of Jesus. The fruit of His Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance,kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Love is the natural outcome when the Spirit of Jesus fills us up on the inside. How can we say love is all we need and then reject His Spirit who brings it? Isn't that like 'killing the goose that lays the golden eggs'?

Many people accept the Holy Spirit but recoil at the tongue speaking bit. 'Why tongues?' you may ask. It's a valid question. There seems to be so much controversy and confusion when it comes to tongues. Can't we simply discard it?

When the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, their experience included speaking in an unknown tongue. When the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit, they also spoke in unknown tongues, which convinced their Jewish brethren that God had called the Gentiles too. All the apostles spoke in tongues. Peter spoke in tongues. Saul, who later became Paul, spoke in tongues. Since then, Christians too have been speaking in tongues. It is unthinkable to separate tongues from the Holy Spirit baptism. We can't discard it; it's part of the package.

Various people have tried to explain but either tend to oversimplify it (The devil can't understand what you are saying in an unknown tongue - it's kind of a secret code to communicate with God) or offer some complicated reasoning (Since the tongue is the smallest but most dangerous member of our body, the Holy Spirit has to take control over our tongue through tongue-speaking). 

Do you know something? Nicodemus couldn't comprehend the new birth. He thought one had to go back into the womb and be reborn. The disciples didn't get the kingdom of God. They believed they had to overthrow the Roman government and make Jesus the  king. The Pharisees didn't understand why Jesus challenged them to tear down the temple which He would rebuild in 3 days. They assumed He was referring to the Jerusalem temple. How could they know He was talking about His body?! So if at first you don't understand the significance of tongues, you're not alone - you're in good company!
 

Paul teaches that he who speaks in an unknown tongue is speaking to God, not to man (1 Cor 14:2) It is the spirit that's praying. It's a mystery because the mind can't comprehend what the spirit is saying. It's like you arrive in a foreign country and you hear the people speaking in their native tongue. You hear the words but you don't understand the meaning. Are they speaking rubbish? Of course not! It sounds like gobbledygook and that's because it's completely alien to you. Paul says the natural man can't know or receive the things of the Spirit. He tries to understand using his human wisdom but fails because only the Spirit of God can unravel spiritual mysteries (I Cor 2:10-12) .The mind and the spirit operate on different levels.

Do you know how one acquires a language? First, you have to learn up some vocabulary, then study the syntax and rules of grammar. Generally, that's how adults approach language learning.  You understand what you speak before you speak it. But when you are baptized with the Holy Spirit, it's the reverse. You speak FIRST, and then the understanding follows. Interestingly, that's how a child learns his first language or mother tongue! He often mimics/repeats the sounds he hears but does not understand it until much later. (In applied linguistics, it's called first language acquisition.)

I saw a mother lead her toddler to walk on a stretch of cement blocks. For each step, her mother counted out aloud and her little one would repeat after her. Mother would go, "One!" and the wee one would go, "One!" She went up to twenty something and I marvelled because the little girl had absolutely no clue what she was saying but mimicked her mother perfectly. She was repeating what she was hearing but the understanding of numbers would only follow later in life.

How amazing is that? Our relationship with God begins with a new birth, followed by acquisition of a new language. The Holy Spirit becomes our tutor to develop our spiritual understanding of what God has in store for us.

4. Leave tongues out of communal prayer unless someone can interpret.

The writer says, "I believe the primary place for the exercise of this gift is private personal prayer and Paul allows its use in community only if there is an interpreter." I think many people share the writer's view - that Paul was against tongues if there was no ready interpretation. But did Paul really mean that?

Read I Cor 14 carefully to understand the context behind his exhortation. It's very important that we don't miss what Paul is saying. Paul was writing to the believers in Corinth about the haphazard way they were exercising their spiritual gifts and how this was making their meeting together as a body of believers both disruptive and distracting.

Context of I Corinthians 14 (Read it here)

• Those speaking in tongues were doing so without consideration for other believers present. Many were beginning to feel left out because they could not understand or follow, so they wanted to ban tongue speaking altogether.
•  Many were prophesying in a rather disorderly fashion. They would either all speak at once or interrupt one another before they even finished. Their excuse was that they were being controlled by the Spirit and could not resist Him.
• Some women had taken to asking questions that could be answered at home by their own husbands. It was inappropriate for them to do so in such meetings and adding to the lack of decorum.

Paul's response was practical and to the point. His exhortation was meant for those who were contributing to the problem.  

Seek and Develop Your Gift   

1. Speaking in tongues is elementary. The understanding MUST follow. Without it, the message in tongues (be it revelation, knowledge, prophecy or word of instruction) will forever remain a mystery. If your spiritual gift is not being shared in a meaningful way to those present , what good is it? How will the people receive or respond to what the Spirit of God is saying? Quit thinking like children and start thinking like responsible adults. 
2. Pray to interpret what you are speaking. Desire and develop your gift. The best gifts are the ones that edify the body of believers. Come with a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation with the purpose of building up the believers. Let tongues be interpreted, if not, then do it quietly and let it be just between you and God.

Be Orderly

If some of you are going to prophesy, don't all do it at the same time. Take turns so that everyone can listen without distraction.The Holy Spirit does not control you which means you can start or stop what you are doing. Limit the number of people prophesying. Let 2 or 3 prophets speak and allow the others to pay close attention and consider carefully what was prophesied.

 Maintain Decorum

We need to curb unnecessary questions that some women are raising in church. Culturally, it's more appropriate that these women reserve their questions for their husbands in the privacy of their homes. 

Paul did not set HARD and FAST rules for where and when we should speak in tongues. He was merely correcting the wrong perceptions the Corinthian church had concerning spiritual gifts and in this case it was tongues and prophecy. It makes no sense for Paul to discount tongues when in the 1st two chapters of 1 Cor. he so carefully explains the inferiority of man's wisdom vs God's wisdom, and how only the Holy Spirit can give us understanding of heaven's secrets. He NEVER implied that there are other gifts (gift of prophecy) more important and relevant than tongues. If he thought that way then he wouldn't have said, "I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you'. Paul obviously believed in tongues and practiced it more than the others. But if the tongues we speak are interpreted, then others can understand and agree with us and everyone present will be edified and blessed.

Let's put it another way. Suppose there are many diseased and dying people in the congregation. Paul's exhortation would mean we ought to seek the gifts of faith and healing that would definitely edify the people rather than parade our prophetic gift before them. We can be so caught up in prophesying that we neglect asking God for gifts that will best help them. Will the non-believer who walks in be more convinced by a string of prophecies than one miracle or healing? That's why Paul exhorts us to desire earnestly the best gifts.

I've noticed that the very people (teachers/pastors/theologians) who teach that Paul wants us to stop praying publicly in tongues almost NEVER encourage prophesying in the church. When they suppress tongues, they inevitably suppress the prophetic gift too. Every spiritual gift proceeds from the Spirit of God. He is the same spirit that raised Jesus from the DEAD and that Spirit is residing in YOU. Tongues is the key that RELEASES the reservoir of living water stored up in your inner being. During Paul's time people were so proud of their tongue speaking that they failed to receive the other spiritual gifts. Today, we are so proud of NOT speaking in tongues that we fail to receive the other spiritual gifts too.

If the Spirit of God chooses to manifest a message in tongues in one person, He is fully capable of manifesting the interpretation in the same person or another individual.  So, don't dismiss any message in tongues but ask the Holy Spirit to give the interpretation so that the whole body of believers may be blessed. Be willing to be used of the Lord. Every gift of God is good and necessary for our lives.

Too many churches wouldn't recognize the Holy Spirit even if He showed up in their Sunday Service. Some put Him on a leash and then wonder why He doesn't move in their churches. Others invoke His name in order to appear more spiritual. Many a times, the Holy Spirit has been quenched and grieved by so called learned leaders of the church. The Holy Spirit is an infinitely great gift. He is not just for the individual but also for larger gatherings. He desires to come and minister through you to the larger Body of Christ. Activate that gift in you and don't hold back when He leads you to speak, prophesy or heal the sick. It's high time to invite the Holy Spirit back in our churches ON HIS TERMS, not ours.


(to be continued..)