ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: TONGUES
G’Mornin�? Folks!
A couple of days ago, in one of the pieces on Praying God’s Will, I made a rather inappropriate comment about the “silliness of those walking in this dimension,�?referring to folks who live in the midst of opposition to the operation of the Holy Spirit with an attendant opposition to the demonstration of the Holy Spirit in the speaking in or with other tongues. The statement came out of some personal frustration in dealing with religion and religiosity, and reflected poorly on me. My apologies for any offense caused.
I often take to task (at the command of the Holy Spirit) leaders within the body of Christ for their compromise of God’s word, and their watering-down of truth. That understandably brings consternation and opposition directed towards me, and that I gladly accept as the consequence of delivering what to many seems a very hard word.
That does not justify, however, slamming individuals who are only acting with personal integrity upon that which they have been taught, nor engaging in name-calling or the belittlement of folks who believe they are acting in faith. I began leading people to salvation in Jesus Christ nearly sixty years ago in my early childhood. Salvation is not simply a matter of getting one’s “fire insurance�?taken care of so they don’t go to Hell. Salvation encompasses a process of redemption that brings people back from a life of zero relationship with Jesus Christ all the way to total fellowship in love, union, and the operational authority lost with the fall of Adam and Eve.
To diminish one’s walk with the Lord because they have not come to the same place of experience and understanding is to do so in a wrong spirit and attitude. The Disciples came to Jesus wanting permission to rebuke and/or put to a stop those who were not teaching the “fullness�?of truth they had come to. In fact, they had adopted a religious spirit against the Samaritans who were not receptive to them or their teaching, and asked permission to “command fire to come down from heaven and consume them.�?/FONT>
Jesus�?response to them was clear and unequivocal, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.�?/FONT>
That said, I am rebuking myself for having editorialized and unnecessarily impugned the integrity of folks whose understanding has not yet come to encompass a realm I have known and walked in for the better part of a lifetime. My responsibility before the Lord is to share the life He has built in me and led me into, and to invite others into a realm of spiritual living that knows no bounds. It is the Holy Spirit’s responsibility to reveal truth in the inward heart of a person and to draw them onward. Except that happen, my sharing falls on deaf ears; and I cannot open ears myself that the Holy Spirit does not open.
Jesus frequently said, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,�?or alternatively, “He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith.�?/FONT>
Well, now that we have all of that out of the way, maybe we can get on with today’s discussion. Pour yourself a cup of some good java or some really healthy tea (
Hehehehehehe…�?.) and let’s fire up this day.
I frequently make reference to speaking in tongues, and have talked in the last few days about the fact that this is a realm of prayer (among other things) in which a person can pray perfectly in the will of God. Speaking in tongues, however, opens up a vista of spiritual life unavailable any other way. It is that vista I would like to discuss.
As Jesus prepared to depart this earthly realm following His resurrection from the dead, He called His Disciples together to commission them and send them forth. (The word, apostle, incidentally, literally translates to �?U>one set apart, commissioned and sent forth.�?
The first thing He says (Mark 16:15-16) to them is, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.�?/FONT>
But Jesus doesn’t leave it there. This is critically important for understanding. He then makes clear that He never expects anyone to go forth at His bidding without His physical presence, without their being empowered to fully demonstrate that HE was the sender, HE was the commissioner, HE was the reason they were going forth to preach. After all, when Jesus was physically present, He did absolutely everything He was about to empower them to do in His name and His onoma.
So He says to them, “And these signs shall follow them that believe (notice that the evidentiary proof of these signs is their belief in Him and His operational authority in them): In my name (onoma) they shall cast out devils (the actual word is daimonion: demonic beings, as opposed to the Devil); they shall speak with new tongues (glossa: a language not naturally acquired through academic learning and study); they shall take up serpents (ophis: metaphor for “sharp-tongued, wily, deceitful men or women�?or “an artful, malicious person�?; and if they drink any deadly thing (thanatos: poisonous or death-dealing), it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick (arrhostos: sickly and infirm), and they shall recover.�?/FONT>
Just a few verses later, Mark tells us, “And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.�?/FONT>
Mark’s gospel account leaves out mention of something Luke reports that Jesus said where He gives instructions to the Disciples (now the apostles). (See Luke 24:49)
“And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on High.�?/STRONG>
So, what was “the promise of my Father�? John puts it like this, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.�?nbsp; (John 14:16-17)
So “the promise of my Father�?was the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. Thus, “power from on high�?/FONT> was to come from the Holy Spirit. The Disciples were instructed by Jesus NOT to go out and preach “until ye be endued with power from on High.�?nbsp; Luke confirms in Acts 1:4-5 what John writes in his gospel.
One of the most unfortunate and false doctrines perpetrated in some sectors of the body of Christ is the teaching that once you accept Jesus Christ, you are automatically “filled with the Spirit.�?/FONT>
Jesus�?statement to the Disciples makes clear that is NOT true. He does say that the Holy Spirit “dwelleth with you.�?/FONT> This is where the differentiation occurs in what Jesus says. Once the Holy Spirit has come, and they have been “endued with power from on High,�?Jesus says, “[He] shall be (future tense) in you.�?/FONT>
In order for the Holy Spirit to “be in you,�?they were instructed to wait for a separate experience which would take place in Jerusalem. I’ve never been able to figure out how someone can teach that once you accept Jesus Christ, there are no other experiences that await you when Scripture and history plainly demonstrate otherwise. If it is necessary for us to accept Jesus Christ as a life-changing turnaround, repent of our sin (that’s one event) and be baptized in water (as a separate event), how is it that the third event (being filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit) suddenly becomes automatic.
It wasn’t automatic for the Disciples. It wasn’t automatic for the early Ekklesias. Scripture plainly makes clear the fact that when the apostles taught on the Holy Spirit and being filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit, they laid hands on those who were to receive, and a new and separate experience took place for the believers �?one in which the evidence that it took place was speaking in previously unknown languages (tongues). (Acts 8:15, 17, 9:17, 10:44-45, 47, 11:15-17, 19:1-7)
Now, consider what happened to them when they did as Jesus instructed them. They headed to Jerusalem and gathered together with 120 other disciples (many more than the eleven remaining [Judas was dead] from Jesus�?first call for disciples). Luke’s account in the book of Acts records a really interesting error that the Disciples made prior to being “filled with the Holy Ghost.�?nbsp; It highlights something that still happens in the body of Christ today among folks who are not filled with the Spirit.
In Acts 1:15-26, we read where Peter (he was still his old, brash self �?not yet filled or empowered by the Holy Spirit) stands up in the midst of the gathered and waiting believers and tells them they need to appoint someone to replace Judas. They all agree that this would be a good thing, pray together, and then cast lots �?essentially gamble �?with the lot falling on one of those gathered, Matthias by name. The end of the chapter says that they then “numbered [him] with the eleven apostles.�?/FONT>
Funny thing. Jesus didn’t! Neither did the Holy Spirit. It was a mistake they would never make again. In fact, the one chosen by the Lord to fill out the original twelve came later when the Pharisee, Saul, who was persecuting the Christians and putting them to death, was arrested by the Holy Spirit on the road to Damascus. The change that came in his life was so dramatic, and the experiences that he was given in walking and talking with the Lord Jesus Christ �?supernaturally, I might add �?were such that Paul later wrote that he was among those chosen who saw Jesus in person “as of one born out of due time.�?/FONT>
Paul later attests to this fact as he opens up virtually every one of his epistles, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God�?�?/FONT> or with similar words.
Apostles (and prophets, and evangelists, and pastors and teachers) are not called by the will of man. They are not chosen by man �?not true apostles, anyway. One does not bestow apostleship or prophetic calling or anything else among the five ministry gifts by the choice of man (or men). In order for the calling and subsequent ministry to have the necessary life and evidentiary proof following indicating that the Lord is backing that person up, the calling MUST come by and through the Holy Spirit. Men and women can attest to it and bear witness to the fact that they see the calling and the anointing, but without the Holy Spirit initiating that calling and commission, those who go forth do so under their own steam.
It is the primary reason why we have so many dead, lifeless churches and dead, lifeless preachers and would-be pastors or church leaders in the body of Christ. I can’t tell you how many folks I’ve met throughout the years who made an intellectual decision to become preachers. They thought “it would be a good thing to do,�?despite the fact that they were neither called, commissioned, appointed or anointed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Their intellectual decision took them to seminaries (cemeteries) where they received their D.D. degrees or Ph.D. degrees by the recognition of similarly academically-recognized men or women, and then took the leadership of churches under the guise that they were called and sent by the Lord.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with a D.D. or a Ph.D. after someone’s name. It just means you’ve passed a set of required academic courses of study in order to get that degree. It DOESN’T mean you’ve been called by the Lord. In fact, if you’ll pardon my boldness in saying so, these degrees don’t impress the Lord one iota. Degrees don’t bring the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Degrees don’t bring the presence of the Lord. Degrees don’t result in the Kingdom of God being enlarged and established. Degrees only bring esteem for the person and the academic institution that bestowed those degrees.
The Holy Spirit only brings esteem to the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul wrote, “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.�?/FONT> (I Corinthians 1:27-29)
Well, I’m sort of off-track here, and we need to get back to the topic at hand. I’ve had folks ask me many times why speaking in tongues is such a critical part of the evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The apostle James put it like this in his general epistle:
“And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.�?nbsp; (James 3:6-8)
What happens when a person is filled with the Spirit is that the one thing they cannot control is taken over by �?yielded to, actually �?the Holy Spirit. Instead of their speaking by their understanding and learning, the Holy Spirit begins to speak through them, bypassing their intellect and their thought processes, and glorifying the Lord in a language they cannot normally speak or understand.
On the Day of Pentecost, it was the single greatest evidence to onlookers that something supernatural had taken place to the gathered believers in Christ. Acts 2:5 -13 tells us,
“And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.�?/STRONG>
Thus, there were seventeen (count them) different languages spoken among a group of gathered believers whose native tongue was the Aramaic dialect of Galilee �?a rather coarse, colloquial dialect generally spoken by the unlearned and unschooled of the region.
I’ll never forget the first time I was in a gathering of believers where we were praying and praising the Lord. I opened up as usual and began to praise the Lord in a language I had never heard or learned. At the close of the gathering, a young couple came up to me and said, “Where did you ever learn to speak such gorgeous Japanese? That was so marvelous! We haven’t heard Japanese spoken that way except when we lived in Japan, and then only among a group of highly-educated upper-class Japanese business people.�?nbsp; I told them I’d never heard Japanese spoken to the best of my knowledge, and certainly had never studied the language. The magnificent praise that came forth in that unknown tongue (for me) was the proof to that young couple that the Holy Spirit was real, and that He was indeed speaking through me.
That experience has been repeated more times throughout the years than I can count.
Speaking in tongues, praying in tongues, or prophesying in tongues all have different purposes and objectives. I don’t speak in all these different languages because I’m on some kind of “bless me�?trip. There is sovereign design and purpose behind it. Tomorrow, I’ll try to address some of the reasons and purposes why this is an essential step in the growth of every Christian, and why those who don’t press through the resistance of their minds, their natural understanding and their fleshly desires until they receive the Holy Spirit miss out on a dimension of life in Christ that exceeds their wildest imagination.
I’ll share with you as well some experiences I’ve had with folks who have accepted Jesus Christ and gone for years without any understanding of this realm of the Spirit, who have subsequently received the Holy Spirit and experienced an empowering that dramatically changed their lives forever.
I’m an Extremist! I’m extreme enough to believe God can do ANYTHING �?for me -- AND for you.
Blessings on you!
Regner A. Capener
R & DC MINISTRIES
Ekklesia House
RR-15, Box 6180
Mission, TX 78574-9589
(956) 583-5355
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