Before deleting my posts on Facebook about this, I wanted to copy over my comments to the blog. Here are some reasons, according to Scripture, I don't speak in tongues:There is a lot in Romans 8 about persecution, and there is much in that chapter about the Holy Spirit indwelling a believer. Verse 26 says the Spirit intercedes for us with "groanings too deep for words". People often use that to support a "private prayer language" (a phrase not found in Scripture.) Sorry to tackle this today, but I have been thinking about the Holy Spirit and what the Bible says about speaking in tongues--thinking back on certain memories where charismatic Christians have said I was "lacking" because I had not had "the baptism". Once, when I lived in NYC the first time at age 25, David Wilkerson would not let me join the choir at Times Square Church, because I did not speak in tongues. This is a true story! They would invite people to go downstairs after the service to "get the baptism". Thank God, I never went. They were also "slaining" people "in the spirit." I did not know what that meant at the time, but I knew I did not come to church to get "slain." I never got "slain." There was so much PRIDE that went along with those who had been "slain" and "spirit filled." I had been visiting Times Square Church, because I lived in the theatre district at the time. I thought I would join the choir, but in order to join the choir I had to be interviewed by David Wilkerson. He asked about my upbringing and favorite Bible teachers. I told him I had been raised Baptist and sermons by Charles Stanley had meant a lot to me. He did not approve and let me know I was not yet ready to join the choir. I had not been "baptized"; there was a "second filling" yet to come, so I was lacking. Well, thank the good Lord above for setting me free from all of that ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE. I never went back to that church. Some of David Wilkerson's sermons were very good, but "my Bible says" :-) I am lacking in no good thing in Jesus. Who would have ever dreamed when I was 25 that I would end up leaving the entertainment business to do mission work in Venice Beach, surrounded by people speaking in tongues, telling me virtually the same thing David Wilkerson told me. I was lacking, because I had yet to speak in tongues. Their "tongues" were acquired through yoga meditations. How could the "groanings" of the HOLY Spirit mean "speaking in tongues" when God promises to do this for every single believer [intercede with "groanings too deep for words"] in Romans 8, and not every Christian speaks in tongues? It cannot mean speaking in tongues. I have attached a photo of a man at Venice Beach who also speaks in tongues....He trembled one day--literally trembled--when I offered him a free ticket to see "The Passion" movie with a group of us (when many tickets had been donated to me for free to take the psychics, etc. from the boardwalk to the movie). He trembled at the prospect of getting close to Jesus. Knowing this man, Abraham, he has probably spoken in tongues again today, there on the boardwalk at Venice Beach.
It is noteworthy that in Revelation, we have no mention of anyone speaking in tongues. Obviously in Rev. 5:9 where people from "every tongue" will be worshiping Jesus, it means language. There is no mention of a "private prayer language" for all of eternity in worship to Jesus either. Whatever tongues is in the life of some Christians, I will admit, I don't understand it. I don't see its use in the life of a Christian according to the Bible. I am just thankful that I am COMPLETE in Christ, not lacking in any good thing (according to the Bible.) That is good enough for me. Pictured above is a group of Christians, sharing the Gospel with people at Venice Beach with me on a day mission trip, answering questions according to the Bible, happy to be living for Jesus...with no one in the group having ever spoken in tongues. I truly want to know--what is the point of the tongue speaking in the life of a Christian? I really don't get it.
1 Corinthians 14 has "tongue" and "tongues" mentioned. Why the difference if it is all just babbling? There is a difference, because one meant "language" (1 Corinthians 14: 18), and this is what Paul spoke. This was for the purpose of spreading the Gospel. The other was actually a pagan practice, which still exists today in pagan spirituality, and it is found in 1 Cor. 14: 4. Can a Christian have such a pagan practice? Of course. How is God glorified when we speak in a "tongue" just like the psychics and people practicing satanic spirituality with their "private prayer language"? Doesn't it concern you that they are also feeling sensory exhilaration when they speak in this babbling? Christians call it the "Holy Spirit" and so do the psychics who don't know God! The occult refers to the Holy Spirit, too, but He has a different meaning, just like they have a different "Jesus". For the Christian, we are to pray as Jesus of Nazareth told us to pray. We have one baptism of the Holy Spirit for ALL (Eph. 4:5) who have been regenerated in Jesus. There is no such thing, according to the Bible, as a "second filling." Nothing of that whatsoever. The Day of Pentecost is over, and we have the Bible now to guide us, not experience. The "gift of knowledge" was what the writers of the Bible had. God gave people the gift of "tongues" at Pentecost to spread the Gospel. Babbling like psychics is not of a God who commands us to love Him with all of our MIND. A fruit of the Spirit is "self control." I believe a "private prayer language" of babbling is of Satan, now that I have studied the Scriptures more closely. It is a practice that could never edify the Body of Christ without an interpreter, and Jesus did not teach us to pray in this way.
If we need a "private prayer language" to communicate with God, why didn't Jesus have one? Why didn't He suggest such an experience when He taught us how to pray by givinng us the Lord's Prayer? If we are supposed to be so scared of Satan that we need some sort of gibberish that he cannot understand (and neither can we!) and only God knows, wouldn't that be in disobedience to the Lord's Prayer when Jesus taught to "pray this way" giving us an example of coherent communication with His Father? Also, the Bible clearly states to "let our requests be made known to Him", not gibberish. Isn't it disobeying the Bible to not talk to God in a way we would talk to a Friend, since Jesus says He is our Friend? Is it biblical to be so scared of Satan that we cannot even pray as Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's prayer, because we don't want him to hear? (HOW SILLY!) The Bible teaches that we are totally protected from Satan in Jesus. If anyone tells us, "You need a private prayer language Satan cannot understand," all we have to say in response is, "That is not Biblical. Again, Jesus did not teach us to pray that way."
