I admit, it took me a while to decide to add this one to the series. Speaking in tongues is kind of a loaded topic in many circles. However, it is an important and powerful “tool for a life of prayer,” and at this point I can’t imagine my prayer life without it. So here we go!
This will be part 1 of a two-parter. In this first post, I’ll share the story of my own experience and briefly describe different kinds of tongues found in Scripture.
My Story with Tongues
I grew up in an environment where tongues were acknowledged but rarely practiced. When I started hearing tongues, I was really intrigued, but also scared. I imagined that if I started speaking in tongues it would mean losing control and acting like a person possessed or in a trance. And of course, my insecure control-freak self was terrified of anything “weird”. However, I was still hungry for more of God so I couldn’t reject tongues completely. After all, it’s a GIFT of the Spirit, and God only gives good gifts, so it’s a good thing and it’s right for me to desire it.
One night I was in a ministry service at a house of prayer and the one leading it, Jake Hamilton, announced that the entire room was going to pray in tongues, and everyone who didn’t already have the gift of tongues was going to get it. I thought that would be great, but I honestly didn’t have much faith for it so I decided not to focus on tongues and just speak worship to God under my breath.
For a couple minutes, English words of praise and love were pouring out of me… then it was suddenly Something Else. The best way I can describe it is that it felt like my words were unraveling and something else was pouring out of me, just as fluidly as the English had been.
Jake asked the room how they were doing, and the girl next to me told him excitedly, “I don’t know what I’m saying!” He said, “Great, let’s ask now for interpretation.”
Immediately what popped into my mind was that I was just saying “I love You,” but I dismissed that thought as obviously too simplistic. At that moment Jake said, “It can even be as simple as ‘I love You’!”
Okay. Sold. This is real.
As I began to study the topic of tongues in Scripture, especially 1 Corinthians 14 (nearly the whole thing is about tongues–this is practically your “one stop shop” on the subject) I grew in confidence that this is a beautiful gift that the Holy Spirit gives to strengthen His church.
Three Kinds of Tongues
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul refers to “various kinds of tongues” (verses 10 and 28). We can see several different kinds of tongues in Scripture and our own experience today confirms this. You could probably make a case for more, but for now I’ll break it down into three categories:
1. Foreign tongue (another human language)
This is when God gives a person the supernatural ability to speak a human language they have never learned. This seems to be the first expression of tongues we see in Scripture. At Pentecost in Acts 2:1-13, those gathered in the upper room are filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to speak in “other tongues,” such that the crowds gathered in Jerusalem from many different nations can all hear them preaching the gospel in their own native language.
“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance… And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.”
(Acts 2:4, 6)
I’ve known people today who have ministered in this form of tongues. It’s great for evangelism! One woman I know speaks many languages fluently, and a number of them she learned spontaneously through the Holy Spirit when she needed them.
2. Public tongue (needs interpretation)
Public tongues is a bit of a combination between the gift of prophecy and the gift of tongues, when the Lord gives an individual a message in a tongue to deliver to a group. The group is then to wait for someone to have the interpretation of the tongue, so that everyone may hear what God is saying and be encouraged.
“When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.”
(1 Corinthians 14:26-28, see also 1 Cor. 12:7-10, 12:30, 14:5)
The first time I heard tongues, I was a child in church with my parents. Someone in the congregation stood up during worship and loudly said something I couldn’t understand. The room got quiet, and the worship leader said calmly on the mic, “If you’re wondering what’s happening, that was a tongue, and we’re waiting for the interpretation.” After a few seconds, someone else in the room stood and gave an interpretation. It was simple, encouraging, and biblical, and the room went back into worship.
Recently, one of the young moms in our midst has been getting more and more interpretations of tongues. She sees visions of words clearly in the air as someone is praying in tongues. This gift has so encouraged and strengthened our community!
This isn’t the only kind of tongues, or even the most common, but Paul spends a lot of time emphasizing it because, like prophecy, it builds up the Body, and that is a chief goal of all the spiritual gifts. Paul certainly loved and valued tongues as a personal prayer language (“private tongues” below), but urged the church to ask God for interpretations so that they could all be strengthened (1 Cor. 14:6-19). I look forward to the day that this is all the more common in our church gatherings!
3. Private tongue (personal prayer language)
This is the form of tongues that is most common. You may hear it called a “prayer language” or “praying in the Spirit”. This is what Paul says to do when there is no interpreter: “speak to himself and to God” (1 Cor. 14:28). It’s not a public proclamation, but just between you and God.
“For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit… The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself…”
(1 Corinthians 14:2-4)
That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to let other people hear you! In some contexts, especially in a setting where it’s accepted for people to all pray out loud or under their breath and not really listen to each other (like in a prayer room), it’s totally fine for you to pray in tongues “privately” in public!
In the next post, I’ll cover a few points of Paul’s teaching on tongues in 1 Corinthians 14 and how to use the gift of tongues in your prayer time.
