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by aintnorock on December 12th, 2005

aintnorock

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What purpose does speaking in tongues serve?

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  • by Shabba on December 12th, 2005

    Shabba

    The basis of speaking in tongues is firstly that it is not something done by the person - it is an ability afforded by the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person's life, just like all of the other spiritual gifts.

    To put it in my simplest paraphrase, speaking, praying and singing in tongues is like a hotline to God. The bible says that the spirit 'groans with utterances that man cannot understand,' but yet God understands.
    The one thing with human language is that it has limitations. Take the english word 'love'. There are no fewer than five different words in the original Greek that are translated into 'love', and yet 'love' is a pathetic, incomplete description of each. Therefore you could say that tongues are God's language, without limitation. It gives him a perfect picture of your spirit's cry. The other thing with this is that often you don't know what you're saying, so your spirit may be asking for what you really NEED, when you are praying for what you WANT.

    Speaking in tongues is believed by most pentecostal churches to be a sign of baptism of the Holy Spirit, as exampled by the twelve at the Pentecost, when they all began speaking in different tongues.

    There have been cases where people have spoken out in other human languages that they had never studied - grammar perfect. This is what is supposed to have happened at Pentecost, and it amazed the people because they saw these simple men speaking different languages. This is also classed as the gift of tongues.

    An extension of tongues is the gift of interpretation of tongues, where a believer is given knowledge of the meaning of the utterance. Unless several separate people confirm the same words, though, it comes down to a matter of trust - do you trust the person's interpretation?

    Comments

    • This confirms what I already knew. Thanks.

      aintnorock

      by aintnorock on December 13th, 2005

    • Useful since some churches teach this - "hotline to God" is goofy: God knows. Spirit "groans" doesn't imply human noises.

      Thom64

      by Thom64 on April 1st, 2006

    • Amen.

      Anonymous too

      by Anonymous too on September 27th, 2006

    • This is a great answer, but biblical references would be very helpful.

      kobrak

      by kobrak on February 17th, 2010

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