Kevin McQuoid © 2021
God's word given.
Who speaks in tongues?
The short answer is: anyone who God has given to do so.
How does one speak in tongues?
The short answer is: by the holy spirit of God coming on you, and gifting to you the speech.
Can we learn to speak in Tongues?
The short answer is: no, it can only come in our speech through the power of Gods holy spirit.
What is tongues?
The short answer is: tongues is a known language, If you speak in tongues you speak a foreign language to you.
Can tongues be understood at all?
The short answer is: yes, it will be understood by anyone who knows the particular language you have been given to speak by God.
Is there tongues that cannot be understood by anyone?
The short answer is: no, by the very nature and purpose of speaking in tongues, it will be an existing language.
How can one understand the tongues of those who speak what God has gifted them?
The short answer is: someone will have the same holy spirit gift from God, but in the line of interpreting the tongue, or foreign language being spoken, if not, someone has to pray to receive the gift to do so; generally if that is not available, the one who speaks the tongue should either keep silence and not speak, or it may be a case of some one who only thinks they are speaking in tongues, in that case they may have learned some gibberish nonsensical babblings, and not from the holy spirit of God.
If anyone can’t speak in tongues, does that mean they have not had the holy spirit of God come on them?
The short answer is: no definitely not, I have heard and read some people claim this to be the case, they are in error; the Author has had much to do in experiencing the Gifts and activities of the Holy Spirit, yet I do not speak in tongues, I have tried the learning to speak in tongues doctrine of some, and I can do it, but know it not to be any Language at all, certainly not a Gift from God!
2
Simple to find, easy to study, Acts 2:1-11, and 1Cor 14.
I use the “Emphatic Diaglott” which is a word for word translation of the original manuscript of the New Testament, from the original Greek text to English.
Acts 2:1-2, here sets the scene.
Verse 3. The holy spirit power of God manifests it self as a flame.
Verse 4. “And they Were all filled with the holy spirit, and began to speak in other languages”,------ simple as that, no delay, no having to learn how to speak, no gibberish syllables, but straight into being able to speak an other known language, by the power of the holy spirit.
Then “As the spirit gave them utterance”----- this means as we will see, that each Apostle was given to speak a different language.
Verse 5. Tells us, at that time, there were seriously pious men visiting Jerusalem, and they were Jews from every Nation, (Now we can see why Jesus told the Apostles to be in Jerusalem at a certain time, and to receive the holy spirit, it was timed for this visit of these pious men, that they would be impressed by what was to unfold, it was for their benefit, in God and Jesus trying to convert them to Christianity).
Verse 6. Here we learn for sure what tongues are! Every one of those pious men heard the Apostles speaking in their own language, and as in verse 7, these Apostles were only uneducated Galileans.
Verse 8. Backs up that the tongues being spoken were of the languages that these pious men from all nations were born into.
Verses 9-11 is a list of the nations and tongues that they were of.
Verse 11. Confirms that tongues are a known language, and what is spoken is of the great things of God.
There is no doubt to the understanding person of God, as to what is being said in this book of Acts.
Before we go to 1Cor 12 and 13 and 14 to further study important knowledge on this subject, have a look at verses 16-21. We learn here that many things are available in today’s times, for those who have been given gifts of the holy spirit, and know that the last days and latter days have come on us from the time of Jesus crucifixion, until the time of his return, and through the millennium. so the faithful can believe in the activities of God’s holy spirit being active on who God chooses it to be, today times.
3
1Cor 12:1 Note here that it is recognized that there are Spiritual people, this is that some people are more spiritually aware than others; this of course means God wards, or to matters of Deity.
Verse 4. Tells us that there are varieties of gifts from God, not just one but many.
Verse 5. Says that there is also a variety of services, and also from God. (Yahweh).
Verse 6. That there is also a variety of workings; and all of these things that any of us may have they are all from God.
Verse 7. Is saying that everyone who gets these gifts, that it is a manifestation of the spirit of God on those who God chooses to bestow his spirit on: and it is for the benefit of all, not just for our own pleasure, but to share with all people of God, and any other people, with the hope that they may believe that there is our God (Yahweh).
Edit --- Let me elaborate on this; It is written that not all people will get the Gift of speaking in tongues, yet they may get the Holy Spirit of God come on them in other ways, so then to say that you have not the Holy Spirit of God come on you because you do not speak in tongues, is an error: We read in 1 Cor 12:7 that, God has chosen to give the Gift of Tongues to these ones, for a particular purpose, and in this case it is to help convince these very pious Jews, that these people that are speaking all the different tongues, that the Jewish men recognise as their own tongue, that these Apostles have some sort of influence over them, enabling them to do so, and that the Jewish men may believe that these people who are calling themselves after Jesus the Christ have some powers given them from God, therefore alerting the Jews that the Apostles are of God, and that if they are of God then this Jesus the Christ that they follow must be of God also! Remember: these very pious Jewish men from all Nations, are very much into observing the Laws of Moses, and now God is bringing to be his New Covenant in Jesus Christ, and is saying: no longer observe the Mosaic ways, observe the ways of the Good News that Jesus brings; the message is still not recognised even today 2011, by the orthodox Jews, and so God has blinded them because of their unbelief: however, we see that God has given the Apostles the use of speaking in Tongues, by his power of his Holy Spirit, for a purpose, and see that all this was done as a preplan of Gods, remember that Jesus Christ had told the Apostles to be in Jerusalem at a certain time? And this to receive the Holy Spirit! Well look at that time, it was as written, to coincide with the time that these very pious Jews were to visit Jerusalem, and look at these Jews, very much up holders of the Mosaic laws, they are very influencial, well respected men! This means that if God can convince these men to change from Mosaic to Christian, then they in turn can convince many or all to change, and see that they also are from many different nations, so the change would go wide spread through the known world at that time. ----Yes there was great purpose in the gifting of tongues to the Apostles at that time: it is clear that God gifts to those he will for purpose, that Tongues is not given to anyone just to horse around with for a bit of fun! Therefore Tongues is not just the utterance of uninteligible babbling gibberish, which is what some people these days teach.
I have a small experience I would like to share, and my thoughts to go with it; During the start times of my calling from God, and when the Holy Spirit was strong on me, I experienced something that until recently left me wondering, but since then with understandings that God has given me I have come to understand what happened in my case, this is what happened: I was Praying, and all of a sudden out came some strange words, I got such a shock at it and felt that I must have been being lazy in my speech, I felt disrespectful to God because of it, and because of that I put fervent concentration into what I was praying, and have done so ever since: now I understand that as written, God will give some people what to pray, that is my experience also, God will also give people who can't or don't pray as they should, the ability to pray in tongues, as is written: in my case God gave it to me what to pray, and I believe that the slipping in of those several words unknown to me, was part of Gods work on me to be fervent in prayer, and to watch closely what words I was using, therefore knowing what to pray, and doing so fervently, and also in spirit of it, there was no need for me to be speaking in tongues from there on in. Now we read that even those who pray in tongues pray a language that if some amongest them have been given the Gift to interpret, then the tongue spoken is understandable and all can share what is being said. --- Lets proceed on.
Verses 8-11. Tells us that there are many different Gifts all coming from the same spirit of God, in other words you won’t get these genuine spirit gifts from the weaker spirit workings of the Devil.
Verse 10. Clearly shows that these gifts are given individually, not all people will get the same gift, as
Verse 11. Shows these gifts from Gods spirit, are only distributed to people as he pleases, and what ever gift we maybe graced with is God decision as to what it will be.
Verse 28. Shows those who God has placed in order, starting with the first placement, in his congregation, note that the importance of speaking in tongues is last and least in Gods congregation, backed by verse 31. It is important to realise this because of the doctrine of those who are in error, who teach that you haven’t had the holy spirit if you can’t speak in tongues, simply not true! Chapter 14 will show up their error of understanding Gods word.
Verse 29. Shows that we are not all placed the same in Gods congregation.
Verse 30. Not all get the same Gifts.
Verse 31. Starts to tell us to desire the better more useful gifts: we will see as we go along with this that Tongues is not such a desirable gift, for example Prophesying is of more benefit than Tongues, and when we see and know these things from Gods scripture, we will realise and know that God does not demand that we speak in Tongues as some teach.
4
The first part of Chapter 13 deals with Love, that no matter what gift we may have, if we don’t have love we are nothing, as in v2.
Let’s go to Verse 8. This starts to tell us that no matter what gift we may have been graced with, that it will be done away with, made useless.
Verse 9. In this day and age we only have a partial knowledge in Matters of Deity, as also we only have partial power of Gifts, we therefore have not the full measure of the Gift God may give us.
Verse10. Jesus Christ (Yeshua). He is the perfect one.
Verse 11. Showing how when we are children or in our now stage in matters of understandings and knowledge of Deity, we think as we do, but maturity is coming.
Verse 12. Further to v11, we don’t see clearly at present, but when we see Jesus Christ Face to Face, we will see clearly and in Maturity of Spirit.
So we only have these partial Gifts as Edification, Exhortation and Consolation to people of God until the return of Christ, when we will no longer need the Gifts, but all will be in full measure.
Verse 1. Pursue love and be desirous of the spiritual gifts, but rather that you may Prophesy.
So here it shows that Tongues are not so desirous, certainly not commanded by God that we speak in tongues as some teach.
Verse 2. Backs that up, and needs to be understood in context, as some get it very wrong, and say that tongues is only understood by God himself, this we already have proven to be error of doctrine as in Acts Chapter 2.
Verse 2. “For he who is speaking in a foreign language, is not speaking to men, but to God; for no one listens; but, by the spirit he is speaking mysterious things”. Now we need to be clear on understandings. In context this verse is written as if there is no one present to interpret what the one speaking in tongues is saying, all else written in Gods scripture gives the understanding that tongues is a known language to those nations concerned.
Verse 3. Tells us that Prophesy is of value to the people of God, where as in v2, and especially if no one interprets, then speaking in Tongues is of no value to the people: we have to remember that speaking in tongues is a known language, and what it is saying is about Deity, the great things of God, this so that others who’s language it is will hear, and for those who don’t know the language, if someone interprets others will see that God is active amongst them, and hear what he says through the speaker. (This has great value of course, but not without interpretation). And as it says in v9, without interpretation, you are only speaking to the air.
5
Verse 4. This backs up the facts that with out interpretation the speaker of a tongue edifies himself, which means he improves himself morally, but goes’ on to say the better thing to do is Prophecy, because he who prophecies edifies the congregation, therefore improving morally the congregation.
What has become obvious at this point even is that, there is no command of God or no demand, or no great importance for anyone to have to speak a tongue.
Speaking a tongue is a random gift, given to whom the Holy Spirit decides: and as written, no one has control over the holy spirit of God, its comings and goings.
Verse 5. “I am willing indeed, for you all to speak in different languages, but rather for you to prophecy; for greater is he who prophecies, than he who speaks in different languages; unless, indeed, he should interpret, so that the congregation may receive edification”. --- This makes it clear, there is no commandment to speak a tongue, and in fact it is not even so desirable as other things. Now remember this is Paul teaching, and he says he is willing, or the Greek word translates “wish” and that is not a command, or a demand, to speak a tongue.
The reason I bring this out in understandings, is that some people have it, that verse 5 is a command from God, that we speak in a Tongue, and that we are not truly Christian unless we do, that, if we are truly Christian, then we will have the Holy Spirit on us, and the proof that we have is the being able to speak tongues: then they proceed to teach people to speak in what they call tongues, which is a flow of syllables, for which there is no interpreter! Anyone can do it Holy Spirit or not, it’s up to your ability to speedily think of a bunch of syllables, and just speak them as they come: but it’s not any language, and it’s not what Gods word tells us, at all.
I would like to bring out the truth of Gods word, that people will not be deceived by false or deceived doctrine.
Paul goes on in verse 6. And he is revealing that if anyone speaks a Tongue it will be a recognized intelligible language of man, it will have a message, and without that, there is no profit in anyone speaking in a tongue, this is how the original Greek manuscript has it. “And now Brethren, if I should come to you speaking in various languages, what should I profit you, unless I shall speak to you intelligibly, either by a “Revelation,” or by “Knowledge” or by a “Prophecy” or by a “Doctrine”.--- Now this with certainty indicates what is in the speaking in tongues, and remember, Paul could speak many tongues.
Verses 7-8.
Paul is making clear to us that, if tongues are not intelligible they are nothing, and no one will or would be able to understand.
Verse 9. “So even you by the tongue, if you do not give intelligible speech, how shall it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking to the air.” Paul is telling us here the obvious, and if you your self don’t understand what you speak, if there is no interpreter, or interpretation, and you never can understand your speaking, then you are just speaking to the air! Babbling unintelligible Gibberish. ------- Please, don’t delight the Devil by following False and deceived teachings, of
6
Speaking in tongues, it must make such a fool out of those ones, speaking to Deity in a babbling unintelligible tongue, certainly shows them the deceived of the Devil.
We must discern truth from deception, and deception comes through men, from the Devil and his fallen Angels, he is as written “The Father, of all liars”, just as Jesus the Christ told the Pharisees.
Verse 10. “It may be that there are so many languages in the world, and no one is unmeaning;
Verse 11. “If, then I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be to the speaker a Barbarian, and the speaker will be a barbarian to me.” This then meaning, if you speak a tongue without any meaning you are irksome to those you speak to, and also irksome to yourself.
If you read on in Chapter 14, Paul has much to say about the subject, all of which teaches that speaking in tongues is an intelligible language with a message, that there must be an interpretation or if not for the speaker to remain silent (v28). That it is not a command from God to speak tongues, nor is it considered to be the most desirable Gift.
The Gift of tongues comes with the bestowing of the Holy Spirit of God to some, but not all, and those who receive the Holy Spirit will have the fact manifest in some way, generally by one of the Gifts, But don’t be deceived, you can receive the Holy Spirit and have it actively working on and with you, and as Gods word tells us, you may not have received the Gift of speaking in tongues!
Speaking in tongues provided it is not false, is a manifestation of that one having the Holy Spirit, yes, but what of the one who knows another language, and uses that to falsely claim that he has the Holy Spirit? How much importance or faith should we place then on that statement: - Speaking in tongues is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit?
It is easy for the deceiver to get his deception in, he as written is subtle.
And as in verse33 of Chapter 14 tells us “For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints.” And if you read verse37 “If anyone assume to be a prophet or a spiritual person, Let him acknowledge the things that I write to you, that they are commandments of the Lord;” --- this is not a commandment that all are to speak in tongues. Edit --- The commandment in this case is what we are told to do, if we receive any gift!
Verse 39. “Wherefore, Brethren, earnestly desire to Prophesy; and forbid not to speak in foreign languages; -- v40. “But let all things be done in a becoming manner, and according to order.” – clear enough to understand, Prophesy takes precedence over Tongues showing speaking in tongues is not a commandment, and as v40 says let all things be done in a becoming order, in other words don’t learn to speak babbling gibberish, and deceive yourself, or others, that you are speaking tongues. Edit --- Note that even though Prophesy is more desirable that speaking in Tongues, it to is only desirable and not a command to actually do it!
But forbid no one who does speak a tongue, to do so.(v39)
My advice to those who have learned to utter unknown words, is to take it to someone who is not bias, let them listen and discern what it is that you utter.
Once again I say, sort out your deceiver! And Jesus Christ tells us through Paul the Apostle, In 1Cor 11:31-32. "If however, we examined ourselves, we should not be judged; but being judged by the Lord, we are corrected, so that we may not be condemned with the world." --- This means we should look at where we are going in matters of Deity, look at ourselves personally, and ask ourselves if we are keeping to the truth of Gods word, are we being lead away from Gods word, by the crafty enemy, --- If we do this, and if we see any error, we must then allow God to correct us; but if we don't allow correction in matters of error, then Deity will judge judgement on those. Judgement in the scriptures in context means to have a reward or punishment judged on who ever is judged.
The Devil is the ruler of this world at present, and will be until the return of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:2. "In which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the Ruler of the Authority of the Air, of that spirit now operating in the sons of disobedience." --- The Ruler of the Authority of the Air, is the Devil, and the Sons of Disobedience, are all those, and amongest others, who should be Christians, yet are disobedient to Deity, and picked off by the Devil. These are those the Devil gets into, dressing himself as an Angel of light, yet deceiving the churches.
Eph 6:11. "Put on the complete Armour of God, that you maybe able to stand against the crafty ways of the enemy;" --- the Enemy is the Devil and his followers.
This study has been bought to be, because of the teaching of some on the internet, from their Church. Now this, a study of Gods word from Scripture/Gospels, by God's persuasion to do so, bringing correction from God, and bringing Peace between the teachers in error, and God in his mercy.
Kevin McQuoid.
God's word given.
