Numbers 11 : 25 - And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spoke to
him, and took of the spirit that [was] on him, and gave [it] to the seventy elders: and it
occurred, [that], when the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, and did not stop.
1 Samuel 10 : 9-10 - And it was [so], that when he had turned his
back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that
day.
And when they came there to the hill, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God
came upon him, and he prophesied among them.
Acts 2 : 4 - And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit,
and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
ave you ever tried to learn a language other than
your native tongue? I suppose many of us have had an extra language as a subject to study
at school, but it is one thing to learn a language as an academic subject and another
thing altogether to try and converse intelligibly with a foreigner. Having come from an
English speaking background to live in a country that has another language as its native
tongue, I have come to realize how difficult it is to try and learn to speak in a
different tongue.
Part of the problem arises from the fact that you tend to learn all the new vocabulary
and verb tenses and declensions and when you want to say something in the foreign language
you carry out a quick translation in your mind. You have to take what you wanted to say
and pass it through the computer of your brain, and then speak out the words that your
brain sends back to you, hopefully with the correct accents and pronunciation. But it is
not an easy thing to do and most of the time you look to see if you can find someone who
can speak your language so that you can hold some kind of conversation or express what it
is that you want.
Yet what is really amazing is that you see little children, who have barely learned to
talk, and they can speak perfectly without struggling with the words or the accent. It is
their native tongue and it comes naturally to them. Why is this? It is because they don't
think in terms of words and grammar, they think in terms of expressing what they want or
feel, in the language they have learned. We considered in our last study that speech comes
from a deeper source than the mind. Your language has been formed in the inner recesses of
your heart and comes out freely when you speak.
But this is not a discussion on how to learn a new language, it is a look at how the
Holy Spirit grants to us an ability to bypass our thinking process and speak a language
under the control of a deeper force than the human spirit. And in case you may think that
this was a unique experience for the early Christians or that it no longer exists, we have
included a few scriptures in our daily reading that show us that the speech center
has
always been affected when God moved on man by His Holy Spirit.
In the Old Testament we do not read about anyone speaking in other tongues, but we see
many cases where people who came under the influence of the Holy Spirit began to speak
out. In our first reading we are told that God spoke to Moses and instructed him to gather
70 men together from the tribal leaders in Israel. God said that he would take of the
Spirit that was on Moses and also give it to them. In Numbers 11 we read of what happened
when God did this. We are told that all of the men began to prophesy. In other words they
began to speak out loud under the direction of the Holy Spirit. We are not told what they
said, but since prophecy is a speaking out under the control of the Holy Spirit, one
wonders whether they were not actually doing the same thing that the disciples did on the
day of Pentecost.
The same thing happened when Saul met a group of prophets. Samuel had told him that
something was going to happen to him when he met them. And we read that God did two things
to him. Firstly he gave him a new heart, and secondly the Spirit came upon him and he
began to prophesy. What happened when he received a new heart? We are not sure, but quite
obviously it must have made some kind of change in him that was obvious to everyone. But
the most significant thing that happened was that he began to speak out under the control
of the Holy Spirit.
We saw in our last study that our natural speech is contaminated by the sayings we pick
up from the World. And then there are also the thoughts that go through our minds, which
cause us to add extra things to our speech. When we become angry our speech is affected,
and very often we find words coming out that are not always up building or helpful. We also
saw that if we could control a person's tongue, then we could control the whole person,
like a ship's rudder controls the ship.
It is not at all unusual then for God to take control of a person's tongue when His
Holy Spirit is allowed to influence them. In the Old Testament the sign of God's Spirit
coming on someone and influencing them was the act of prophesying - a control of their
speech. In the New Testament a similar experience took place, but it was different. Not
only was their speech affected, but they also began to speak, not in their native tongue,
but in tongues other than their native tongue.
Why the difference? Maybe God was trying to show that the way the Holy Spirit comes to
New Testament believers is different to the way He came to Old Testament believers. In the
Old Testament the Holy Spirit moved upon people at different times but did not necessarily
take up a permanent residence in a person. In the case of Saul the Holy Spirit left him
when he turned his back on God. But Jesus told His disciples that when the Holy Spirit
would come as the promise of the Father, He would not only come upon them like in the Old
Testament, but He would also come to live in them permanently.
Now as New Testament believers we have the Holy Spirit living inside us from the moment
we are born again. And what happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, is that His power
rises up from within and pours out through our lips in a language that is not our native
tongue. It is a sign that God has taken complete control by His Spirit, and it permits us
now to speak out words that are totally under His control and are free from the
contamination of the world and the thoughts that come from our minds.
In fact, when we speak in other tongues, we have a direct link to our spirits that
bypasses our mind, emotions and will completely, so that they cannot interfere with it.
When a person speaks in tongues, it is their spirit within speaking, with the Holy Spirit
providing the words that are spoken. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14:14
For if I pray in an [unknown]
tongue, my spirit is praying, but my mind is unfruitful.
But the most important part about speaking in tongues is what he says in verse 4 of
that chapter
He that speaks in an [unknown]
tongue builds up himself
You see, speaking in other tongues is a built in water pump. We have seen how we can
tap into the power that is in our spirits and cause the water of God's power to flow forth
from us. We also saw that we can use words to draw out and release that power. But we need
a water pump to cause that water to rise up the column of the pipe and pour out from us.
When you speak in tongues this is exactly what happens.
Now if you have received the Holy Spirit in this way and can speak in other tongues,
you have an ability that allows you to 'prime' your pump and cause the water to gush out.
But as we saw before, it is possible for the pipe to drain and be empty. So it takes a
while of pumping to get the water up to the surface before it starts to come out. Have you
ever tried praying in tongues, and everything seemed dead? You just do not sense the
presence of the Lord at all. It feels like you are cranking the pump handle and no water
is coming out? Well that is exactly what is happening. Nothing will come out until you
have raised the 'water' level.
Most people give up at that point. They are too lazy to carry on pumping. They would
rather go to a meeting where the Spirit of God is moving or where someone else can lay
hands on them and prime their pump for them, so that they can pump without any effort. And
it usually works. While they are in the meeting there is a flow and they feel the joy of
the Lord rising up and they sense his power pouring forth, and it is so easy to speak in
tongues that you feel you can do it for ages. But when they go home it is all over and
before long it has all drained away again and so they have to go back to the meeting where
they can get it again. They have in actual fact become nothing more than Holy Spirit
'junkies.'
You don’t have to be in this situation. If you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in
you and you have experienced the breakthrough in the Spirit that has enabled you to pray
in other tongues, then you can draw water from your own cistern and keep pumping until it
flows out to others. But it will take a bit of effort on your part at first. It will mean
that you must spend a certain amount of time every day praying in the Spirit - in other
tongues. When you first try this it will be hard going. You are trying to raise the water
level from the underground stream within to the surface. You might have to pray in tongues
for an hour or more to accomplish this.
Usually by the time you have prayed for 15 minutes you feel like you have been running
a marathon. But you will find that your experience is very similar to a marathon runner.
The runner starts out with great gusto but after a while the energy level is drained and
he starts to become weary. Any successful runner knows that this is not the time to give
up. If he continues to push himself beyond the point of total exhaustion, suddenly
something miraculous takes places. He experiences what has become known as 'Second Wind.'
He suddenly experiences a new burst of energy and feels that he can carry on running
forever without growing weary.
The same thing will happen when your pipe finally fills and the water of the Spirit
starts to pour out. Suddenly praying in tongues is no longer an effort. You feel a surge
of power take place and the words begin to pour forth and a wonderful sensation of the
presence of the Lord takes place. Now you feel you could carry on praying for hours and in
fact you don't want to stop. You find that new things begin to arise up from your spirit
and you might begin to see visions from the Lord or experience gifts of revelation or
power. Whatever gifts of the Spirit have been made available to you come to life and you
find that the Lord is very real to you.
Now if you make an effort to continue this process on a daily basis, you will find an
amazing thing. Tomorrow when you start praying, instead of going through the difficult
process all over again, you start praying and suddenly there is an almost immediate flow.
You don't have to go through the long process of praying it through and getting the second
wind. You see you have filled your pipe, and it has not drained yet. So all you need to do
is start pumping and the water comes out immediately. Now instead of pouring all your
efforts into coming to a place where the anointing of God's Spirit is flowing forth from
you, you can start to pour that anointing out in prayer to meet the needs of others.
As you maintain this on a daily basis you find that instead of needing to receive a
'priming' from others and receiving prayer from others, you will be the one pouring out to
others. When you go to a meeting you will be one of those ministering to other people and
instead of going to get you will be going to give. This should surely be the pattern and
the norm for all of us. But it cannot be unless we are prepared to take the time daily in
the presence of the Lord.
If you are a believer and have not yet received the ability to pray in tongues then you
are a believer lacking what is probably the most important gift available for you
personally. The other gifts of the Spirit are for you to minister to others, but the gift
of tongues is the one gift that is given exclusively for you to help you in your spiritual
life. Paul said that speaking in tongues builds up the one who is doing it. He also said,
"I want you all to speak with tongues." In verse 5 of 1 Cor 14 and in verse 18 he said,
"I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than all of you." This gift is for you and God wants you to accept it by
faith and start using it to draw the water of the Spirit from the underground streams
within you, so that you can not only meet you own needs, but flow out to meet the needs of
others.
