HOW TO SPEAK IN TONGUES

A guy named Max Pool is a guest on the “Praying Medic” blog. He details his search for the “gift,” with its attendant frustrations, then addresses others as to the pros and cons of speaking in tongues. But if you are already “all in,” he will show you how to manifest this gift.

Before I begin with your surefire remedy, I’d like to remind you that no one, if no one, in the scriptures ever “learned” to speak in tongues. The other gifts, when they are truly miraculous, are also not a learned process. Remove all the disciples from the methods of speaking in tongues, and how many charismatics are left? You, perhaps, would continue in the movement?

In any case, first you have to be “distraction free”. Find a quiet place. (Like maybe the upper room prayer meeting on Pentecost? Silent like that? Hmmm.) It has to be totally isolated.

Next step. Open the mouth. (Oh my gosh, thanks Max). Not really. open your mouth and begin to produce syllables and word sounds. (There it is. The deception has been set.) He says, “Many people incorrectly believe that God’s gifts are given to us all at once and in their entirety…” (Really? That’s exactly my belief, Max, based on the scripture example. And your scripture, please?)

Use the example of a baby learning languages. It is forgotten that the disciples gathered in the Upper Room were far from babes in Christ. They knew him, they walked with him, they saw his glory. This is not a crowd of babies. Come on, Max, is there anything better than that?

Okay, so I won’t speak fluently at first. I will keep saying the same syllables and words. Alright. Upgrade to. And the next step:

Listen to the clues. Hmm? Listen to what he is saying and watch the words he is “seeing” in his mind. Like a billboard or a sign. There will be new words. Your vocabulary will grow slowly.

And so? Ask God for more faith if he begins to doubt or dries up in the experience of him. God will do that, and the flow will continue.

next, Don’t worry. Don’t think about it too much. Just let it happen. What comes out, comes out. It’s a spirit thing, not a brain thing.

And that’s how you speak in tongues.

Yes, and that is why young children can now be taught the same method. And it’s happening, oh, it’s happening. Children, brought up correctly, know how to “prophesy” now too, and even perform “miracles”. A new generation of Pentecostals is on the way. Fully taught, but experiencing only themselves.

Perhaps even more revealing than this article is the response in the comments section below:

A reader wants to know why, for many years, he has not progressed beyond three words. (Seriously.) Max comforts her on her plateau and calls her a saint for her willpower, the fact that she keeps going, even without progress. Then this horrible, horrible advice:

“Let’s say one of your basic sounds is ‘ma’. Then just practice reading the alphabet in order: ba, ca, da, fa, ga, etc…”

Help us, Lord.

Another reader: “I pray in tongues and say about nine syllables over and over again. I once prayed for seven to nine hours straight with a lunch break and got an interpretation… I believe that praying in tongues not only builds us but also God. We actually minister to Him!!! So amazing!!!”

Do you see where speaking in “tongues” leads an individual to a new revelation, one that not even the apostles knew anything about? Not impressive. I say again: Help us, Lord! Bring your people back to your Word!

THE TRUE LANGUAGE

Have you ever tried to imagine how tongues, biblical tongues, languages, really came to be? It was miraculous, but as normal as a teaching gift. It just appeared. The gift belonged to the recipient and she knew he could use it at any time. He did so. Not everyone had this gift. Paul assures it. And those who did often magnified it, wanting the church to look at them.

That is where Paul’s Corinthian instructions came in and curbed their use, making the Corinthians hungry for better things. The tongues ceased from hunger. After a while, no one asked for it, no one received it.

I reaffirm that most languages ​​today is a learned behavior that anyone can do. But even if it could be proven “supernatural,” remember that pagan religions have a counterpart.

Could a missionary from a new tribe suddenly receive a word from God in the language of that tribe? Maybe. This would be a miracle. God can do miracles. But I can guarantee that missionary would soon be learning the language of his people the old-fashioned way. If the gift is anywhere today, it is a minor temporary manifestation, not the normal practice of the church today, and it is not a significant practice even in the first century church.

THE OTHER GIFTS

What about the other gifts? I believe that if tongues could be proven to have ceased, proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement would collapse. People would stop kidding themselves. They would critically examine all the other claims made by the gift-mongers and conclude that Paul was right again: “Now,” as now, at this present moment, “faith, hope, and love abide.” The rest are gone.

There are many who believe that tongues have ceased and who do not follow that faith with the belief that all the gifts They have gone. John Macarthur, from whom I have drawn so much wisdom on these matters, is one such person.

The way he and others try to hold on to the miraculous gifts of the first century is to redefine them. Prophecy for them is “preaching.” Knowledge to them is, well, “knowledge.” And according to that text of 1 Corinthians 13, they say, these will be around until that which is perfect comes. And what is perfect is that state of things which will accompany the coming of Jesus.

I tend to be more extreme. To me, prophecy is a miraculous receiving and giving of God’s revelations, necessary until a full revelation came, as it eventually did. The gift of knowledge, by the way, is more than just reading someone’s mail, psychic statements about their address and bank account. I think it was also a miraculous way of knowing spiritual truths. Through this knowledge and prophecy, the Word of God was communicated to the apostles who eventually gave us the writings we call the New Testament.

Follow his line of reasoning. All of these gifts are all around us, she says, but even with all of them, we only know part of them. Our vision is blurry, but there will come a time when it will be as if we are seeing eye to eye, unlike one of our dark metal mirrors of the first century. There will come a time when I will know him the way he knows me, that is, fully.

And is it not said that the Scriptures are the way by which a man can be fully instructed in the ways of righteousness, complete only in them? Why do we minimize Scripture in our haste to move on to something better? Couldn’t the Scriptures be exactly what Paul was referring to, even though he didn’t know it, speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit?

Ephesians 2:20 says that the church is actually built on the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets. The doctrines were given to the prophets, passed down to the apostles, written down, and passed down to us.

But I mentioned other gifts. We tend to think that the Corinthians list is exhaustive, ignoring the Romans list. I counted nineteen God-given gifts for his church. Some were temporary, some have stayed. How do we know which are which? Read the rest of the Scriptures, then take a quick look at church history.

Here are all nineteen, for those interested.

1. Apostles

2. Prophets

3. Evangelists

4. Shepherds

5. Teachers

6. Ministry

7. Urgency

8. Miracles

9. Cures

10. Givers

11. Leaders

12. Helpers

13. Administrators

14. Words of Wisdom

15. Words of Knowledge

16. Faith

17. Discernment of spirits

18. Flip flops

19. Interpretation of Languages.

And that’s it? Not necessarily. But this topic diverts us from the course of this book. I want to look at the gifts that Scripture and history tell us have ceased, then try to figure out what we should be seeing in the church today if they seem to have reappeared over the last hundred years.

I ask, if you were the enemy, would you want to infiltrate the vast body called the church, your sworn enemy? How would you do it? Wouldn’t you start with a lot of teachings that are like the ones the church teaches, to get an audience of the faithful? Then would you not deviate from there until you had brought many of those faithful ones into infidelity? Sounds logical to me. It has not happened?

And would you not seek, as prey animals do, the weakest, those who remain behind? Perhaps those who have been taught that experience is more important than doctrine? Wouldn’t He then give them the experience they cry out for, even if they must overlook the doctrines they once cherished?

Yes, that would be a smart way to do it.