Confused about Speaking in Tongues

[psimmond]

When I speak in tongues, I think it sounds like Arabic; however in the Charismatic church I used to attend, I noticed that mine sounded like the pastor’s, and his sounded like the lady’s sitting in the pew in front of me, etc.

To be perfectly honest, I feel like I’m just stringing nonsensical syllables together. Also, I notice that when I speak in tongues, I always begin the same way, “Asa lama….” (Maybe this isn’t significant since I always begin my English prayers with “Dear Lord…”

Should I record a short audio file, post it on the internet, and see if anyone recognizes it as a real language? (Of course if it’s some language from Northern Africa there’s a pretty good chance no one familiar with the language is going to stumble across my post.)

My fear is that my gift of tongues is nothing more than meaningless sounds that I’m manufacturing, and if this is the case, I don’t want to tell people that I speak in tongues or continue doing it any longer.

Have any of you wrestled with this? Have you tried to verify the authenticity?

[TK]

Hi psimmond--

Do you believe that your "tongue language" MUST be an actual earthly language in order for it to be valid? I think that question needs to be addressed before much more can be said.

TK

[psimmond]

I know people talk about prayer languages and angelic languages, but my studies of tongues leads me to believe that they are in fact languages used by different people groups and they are given by the Spirit to help us bridge language barriers.

I just don't see any other purpose for a gift of tongues. When I pray, English seems sufficient, and when the deep feelings inside of me cause me to groan, I believe my heavenly Father understand exactly what each groan means.

[steve]

I don't think tongues is always an earthly language—or at least not one that would be recognizable by anyone who has occasion to hear it being spoken. Paul said (of the one speaking in tongues) "no one understands him." (1 Cor.14:2). The same verse says that the speaker in tongues "does not speak to men but to God." This would give the reason you could not find for speaking in tongues even if it is not a known language: Only God needs to understand it. Speaking in tongues is not a means of communicating with people of other languages, but of "praying," "blessing [God]" and "thanksgiving" (1 Cor. 14:14-17).

We only know of one occasion (which could be unique in scripture, for all we know) when speaking in tongues was actually understood by the hearers. Of course, that was on Pentecost, and on that occasion, it did not seem to be necessary for communication. Peter seemed to have no problem communicating with that same multi-lingual crowd by speaking a single language that they all knew (probably Greek). Unlike tongues spoken in the church, which is for edification of the speaker, and (with interpretation) edification of the church, the miracle of Pentecost served as a "sign" to the unbelievers (1 Cor.14:22)—not, apparently, as a means of passing along information that could not otherwise have been communicated.

[Homer]

Hi Psimmond,

Not long ago there was a rather long discussion of tongues here at the forum. You can find it here:

http://www.theos.org/forum/viewtopic.ph ... it=Tongues

God bless, Homer

[TK]

I know people talk about prayer languages and angelic languages, but my studies of tongues leads me to believe that they are in fact languages used by different people groups and they are given by the Spirit to help us bridge language barriers.

I just don't see any other purpose for a gift of tongues. When I pray, English seems sufficient, and when the deep feelings inside of me cause me to groan, I believe my heavenly Father understand exactly what each groan means.

I agree with Steve here-

If you were to determine that your "tongue language" is NOT an actual language, would you conclude that you were simply faking it, or rather simply mistaken? If you are faking it, you should be able to determine that now, and cease accordingly.

But I suspect you are not faking it all, and that if you are not actually speaking a known language, then you are simply speaking in an "unknown" language. by the way, if you ARE speaking a known foreign language, what good is it if there are no foreigners around to hear it?

TK

[psimmond]

I really appreciate your guys' replies! I'll check out the scripture references later when I have time.

If I spoke flawless Arabic during a church service, an unbeliever (let's say one who only speaks Arabic or one who speaks some English although Arabic is his first language) might be mighty impressed and attribute this to God. Then again they could wrongly attribute it to me studying the language for several years at a community college.

I still don't know if what I'm saying is a real language, but if y'all are right then this issue isn't relevant. Now the question is, do I even have a gift of tongues?

I've never spoken this "language" in public and I don't use it when praying. I've spoken it in front of my wife on a few occasions when we've discussed tongues, but not to prove to her that I had the gift; my purpose was to show her that in spite of my doubts about the genuineness of what I'm doing, I can sound the same as our charismatic friends.

I guess since I doubt the authenticity, it will be best for me to assume I don't have the gift. If it's real and God wants me to use it, He'll have to let me know. I believe there are a lot of false manifestations out there being attributed to God and the last thing I want to do is displease God by adding to this. I'm sure my Charismatic friends would advise me to ignore my doubts and just use it, but in this case, I think I'd rather be safe than sorry.

(Maybe the fact that I doubt the authenticity, is all the proof that I need that it's not authentic...then again the heart is deceitful...ugh, I'm giving myself a headache )

[Paidion]

...if you ARE speaking a known foreign language, what good is it if there are no foreigners around to hear it?

That makes sense, TK. But sometimes God's ways do not make sense to us human beings. I still recall hearing Greek spoken in a Pentecostal church where my aunt was supplying as a preacher.
The woman who spoke in Greek did not know a word of Greek (This was "xenolalia" according to Homer). I didn't understand much of what was said, but I did hear repeated many times the words "λεγει ὁ κυριος" (says the Lord). The translation ("interpretation") contained the words "thus says the Lord" many times. There were no Greek speaking persons in the audience. But I, myself, was utterly amazed. I wished I had had a tape recorder to tape the utterance and analyze it.

So why did God speak Greek through the woman? As far as I know, no one else in the audience knew any Greek. Did God do it just to astound me, that I might know for certain that He sometimes intervenes in the affairs of mankind today?

[psimmond]

Hi Paidion,
Just to make sure that I understand you correctly, you're saying that the woman who spoke Greek didn't know the Greek language and the person who interpreted the Greek into English also didn't know the Greek language, right? So both of these people were exercising supernatural gifts.

If it's true that neither of these people knew the Greek language and that the language being spoken was definitely Greek (you were able to verify that at least some of it was Greek), then this would seem to prove that the gift of tongues is at least sometimes a known human language.

[Paidion]

There's no doubt in my mind, that it is sometimes a known human language.

Case #2
This one is second hand, but also shows that tongues is sometimes a known human language.

My sister, who was a Pentecostal, was at church at Calvary Temple in Winnipeg (A PAOC church). At one point in the meeting, a man rose and "spoke in tongues." Then he stopped and just stood there. The pastor asked, "Is there an interpreter?" No response. Silence. Then the pastor said, "Sit down, Brother. You are out of order." The man sat down, and the meeting continued. After it was over, a Chinese man came up to the front, and asked the pastor if he could speak to the man who was speaking in Cantonese. The pastor initially said, "No one was speaking in Cantonese." Then he realized who it was. As it turned out, the tongues speaker had given the gospel in Cantonese, and the result was that the Chinese man accepted it, and became a disciple of Christ. The pastor apologized to the audience, admitting that he had made a huge mistake. It wasn't the tongues speaker who was out of order; it was the pastor.