BY Argie Simonis
On the previous message we started talking about the gift of tounges and here we will complete it, including the interpretation of tounges.
Faith moves against the flesh and by faith you enter the spiritual realm. When you pray in tongues and do so by exercising faith, it is like a switch that turns on your holiest faith. In the letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of mysteries and of the hidden wisdom of God:
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world to our glory:" 1Cor. 2:7
Paul was revealing what had been a mystery until then. God explained these mysteries to him and took them out of the realm of mystery making them simple for everyone. Have you ever considered how Paul accomplished this and became the author of almost half of the New Testament? You can see a lot of this in Galatians and the book of Acts starting with chapter 9, where it talks about the apostle Paul. He was a Jewish disciple of Gamaliel, one of the greatest teachers of the Law. He persecuted Christians by consenting even to their death. Then he had his personal encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, where he saw that light and fell from his horse.
According to the first 2 chapters of Galatians, Paul said that he went down to Jerusalem once and saw Peter, but from there he went out into the deserts of Arabia and stayed there for 3 years and then returned as the apostle Paul starting the ministry and his missionary journeys. Paul, like most Jews of that time, could memorize the first 5 books of the Old Testament and also knew the rest of the books very well. He knew the Scriptures, but while being Saul, he had misinterpreted them. He saw everything through the eyes of the Law and not through the grace of God. So I believe that during those 3 years he was speaking what he knew from the Scriptures but the Holy Spirit was revealing to him all these mysteries that he wrote about. Paul wrote half of the New Testament revealing these mysteries. How did he do that? He says that he spoke the hidden wisdom of God in mysteries:
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world to our glory:" 1Cor. 2:7
And he himself was the one who, writing to the same audience, in the same letter (1 Corinthians), see here what he says:
"For he that speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not to men, but to God: for no man understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries." 1Cor. 14:2
It may be something you do not understand, but you speak in the tongues of men and angels and here it says that you speak mysteries in the Spirit:
"For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful." 1Cor. 14:14
He also writes:
"Why let him that speaks in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret." 1Cor. 14:13
So when you pray in tongues you need to pray to receive the interpretation and here it refers to the gift of tongues that takes place within the church. In the same letter we also read:
"I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all:" 1Cor. 14:18
He spoke in tongues outside the church more than all of them combined! And I say outside the church because Paul himself had said:
"Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." 1Cor. 14:19
The reason I say all this is because some claim that you should only speak in tongues only if you can also interpret in the Church, but here we see Paul speaking in tongues to himself and not to the Church.
The gift of tongues can work on a personal level, privately, in the same way that it works in the Church, just as you can ask God for interpretation in the same way that you ask it in the Church.
I believe one of the reasons, not the only one, but one of the reasons that Paul received all this revelation upon the grace of God that many others just missed, was because he was speaking what he knew from the Scriptures, praying over them in tounges and asked God for the interpretation. He believed that in his spirit he had the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16) and prayed that this spiritual wisdom which was "stored up" in his born-again spirit would form his mind to see that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament and that we are no longer under all these regulations and ordinances of the Law and that there is a new way we can have a relationship with God through His grace!
Therefore, I believe that one of the primary ways Paul received all these revelations was by praying in tongues and asking for their interpretation. The field of your perception will be clarified and expanded and if you pray for the interpretation as well, the Spirit of truth will lead you to the truth and reveal to you the future (John. 16:13).
It is also very important to remember that when you pray in tongues it does not mean that the first thing that will come to your mind is also from God. This needs attention! You should check everything through the lens of God's Word. As with prophecy, for each word given it should be discerned:
"Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge." 1Cor. 14:29
If you are very new to the faith and do not yet know God's Word, go to someone spiritually mature and share with them those thoughts that came to you after praying in tongues. Go to someone who has studied the Bible and has the wisdom of God, and let him discern whether what you heard was God speaking to you.
You can evaluate your thoughts through the Word because the word of God is living, and active, and searches the reasonings and thoughts of the heart (Hebrew 4:12)
It will determine if your thoughts are from God or just from yourself.
The gift of tongues is one of the most powerful tools God has given us and I believe that is why the devil fights it so much. Some may oppose you for speaking in tongues, especially religious people.
"Why, brothers, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues." 1Cor. 14:39
Without the baptism of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts, it is like trying to put out a fire with a water pistol! You need power to do this, the power that Jesus spoke of:
"But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come on you: and you shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1:8
Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment