“If I had a ten–thousand tongues, I just couldn’t praise [God] enough!”
As a person who is ever trying to decrease my unbelief and increase my faith, a major feat that’s developed in this growth process for me has been the ability to speak in tongues. Yes – I unapologetically can speak and pray in a language that is unknown to me. A language which I believe is of the Kingdom of God. A language where the Spirit of God intercedes on my behalf with utterances that cannot be understood by man as expressed in Romans 8:26:
“Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
The thing with experiencing something new in one’s Christian walk is that if you’re truly zealous for ushering in the Kingdom of God in a new and exciting way amongst His people, you will most assuredly want others to experience what you are experiencing, too. You’ll desire that all can speak in tongues and experience the gifts the Spirit freely gives to all born again believers. It’s not that you’ll try to forcefully waterboard a person into it; it’s that you’ll want to share the experiences of a closer commune/relationship with God. Unfortunately, people fear what they can’t understand.
I should know – because I was once one of those people. But fear is a strong word – one that I’ll replace with another word that’s just as strong: contempt. I can honestly say that I readily disregarded speaking in tongues at one very recent point in my life. I had read 1 Corinthians 14 – an entire chapter of the Bible Paul wrote to specifically concentrate on prophecy and tongues as gifts of the Holy Spirit. Yet despite its emphasis, it fell on deaf ears, blind eyes, and mute lips as it was relegated to be nothing more than a moot point.
I had faith in God. I believed in Christ. They’ve both dealt with me pretty well, so why did I need this extra gift? I didn’t need to illustrate it as an outward sign or proof of my faith.
If I may digress for a second to prove a point – I’d like to talk about FreeCell. You know the game – it comes free on all PCs as a card game where the goal is basically to bring order out of chaos. If I may say so – I’m a beast at this game! I’m currently, on a 14-game winning streak. I’ve made it a habit to play at least four times a day to decompress and reset my mind before and after a long day’s work. But I didn’t always know how to play. I avoided it when it was more popular because I didn’t understand it. Just merely seeing the icon would bring contempt in my mind. Why? Because it takes smarts and patience to play it successfully. Two virtues and attributes that although I knew I possessed, I couldn’t readily manifest whenever I played.
When I first started playing out of boredom one day, I became frustrated whenever I’d lose… and when I lost, I LOST! I mean, I would lose in streaks equivalent to how I win now! What man’s ego can take that?!! Who would consistently suffer through consecutive losses for the sake of getting better at something that’s not even really that important?!!
When the Black Cat’s Got Your Tongues
Bad luck from failures
and misplaced belief in omens
steal gifts of tongues.
But it’s important to me now. While I mentioned that it helps clear my mind from work, it also keeps it sharp.
Now go back and reread this little diatribe but this time, replace “FreeCell” with “speaking in tongues.” It doesn’t necessarily fit in every point I’ve made, but it does express my attitude and current standing on the importance and presence of speaking in tongues in my life now. When my carnal mind – full of so much earthly wisdom that it gets in its own way – begins to overthink as I’m preparing to pray, I can just speak in tongues. Every single thought I have is and can then be instantly transmitted to God because as quickly as I can think of a person or situation I want to pray for as I’m speaking in tongues, it’s just as quickly presented to God… perfectly.
An unknown language requires a most holy faith as indicated by Jude 1:20:
“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.” (emphasis added)
The latter part of this scripture is one that brings division and heated debate amongst believers; but I tell you from experience, my faith at one point was not most holy. I had more faith in the unknown language of Street Fighter II games than that of the Holy Spirit. What do I mean, by that? I’m glad you asked!:
In my final years as a video gamer, Street Fighter II was my go-to game. I knew all the moves and the phrases that went along with them (which were mostly non-English phrases representing the diverse cast of characters within the game). I was so immersed in these foreign languages, that when I decided to speak in tongues, all I could hear were the most complex expressions such as, “Tatsu maki senpu kyaku”: the phrase that Ken and Ryu spoke when executing their hurricane kicks!
Biting Your Tongues
Word on the streets says
Fighting tongues is as eas’ly
Said as it is done.
A few more unintelligible phrases from Chun Li and M. Bison flowed in my mind, too – but the embarrassment of where my carnal mind was at that moment hampered and restricted my tongues in cheek:
Tongues in Cheek
I kept my tongues in
Cheek until a leap of faith
Sprung a leak in me.
As such, I was very reluctant to open my mouth because I didn’t want my “most holy faith” to sound like it had been built on the foundation of a Capcom fighting game!! To make matters worse, I was in an environment where I could hear many others speaking in tongues and became intimidated. It reminded me of the time I took my first typing class in high school. I couldn’t focus on what I was doing because all I could hear were my classmates typing together. There was even one guy sitting next to me blazing away on his keyboard who never even seemed to care as much for school as I did. Yet and still, he seemed far more advanced than me in the moment. Now, although I couldn’t see his screen nor anyone else’s for that matter, my pride got in the way, and I froze up. From what I could hear, it felt like everyone was typing away like pros while I fumbled to target my oversized fingers on the right keys.
This very same feeling flooded back over me. But the people I heard praying in the Spirit weren’t necessarily any more spiritual than me – they just had more exposure than me. Many times, it’s not about whether someone is smarter or more spiritual than us; it’s about what they’ve had access to that we haven’t. I used that same logic when I was younger to explain to my classmates that I wasn’t smarter than them when I answered a tough trivia question no one else knew. I didn’t want them looking at me like I was so different (and hence, a target to be bullied!), so my rebuttal boiled down to me just being exposed to some useless facts that they’d never heard of before. It had nothing to do with the size of my brain versus theirs. The point of this second digression is that speaking in tongues and one’s faith in general is exactly the same. My spirit has the same capacity as the next wo\man’s.
To make a long story short, I managed pushed forward out of a zealousness to experience God in a new way… and I’m on a 17–win streak. I can speak at the drop of a dime now… and like many things that we accomplish individually within a shared experience– if I can surely do it, then a la Ryu and Ken’s famous rising dragon punch: I’m “SHO–RYU–KEN” (sure you can), too!
The Glossary of Glossolalia
Glossin’ over the
Gift of tongues is a slick–tongued
Trick of the devil.
