I thank my God I speak with tongues
more than you all
© Byrl Keith Chadwell, March 25, 2009
1Co 14:2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto
men but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
1Co 14:4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself;....
1Co 14:14 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth,..
1Co 14:18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:...(Paul)
Regardless of any other lessons, arguments, or thoughts in chapter 14 of 1st Corinthians, these are some key facts that need to be isolated and amplified for the Church of Jesus Christ in the earth today. For it has been my experience that without these specific points being isolated and amplified, it is easy for us to be drawn away with repetitious, never ending arguments and thereby be distracted.
Therefore, let me isolate, summarize and amplify several of the key points Paul made in verses 2, 4 and 14 above, regarding the biblical tongues Paul referenced in these verses.
1. To speak in an unknown tongue is to speak not unto men.
2. To speak in an unknown tongue is to speak unto God.
3. No man understands this unknown language.
4. To speak in an unknown language is to speak in the spirit.
5. Speaking in the spirit is a mystery to man.
6. To speak in an unknown tongue edifies the one speaking.
7. Praying in an unknown language is your spirit praying.
It is not my purpose here to teach, argue or otherwise discuss the public utterance of tongues or the "who", "what", "where" or "how" of biblical tongues, public or private. I must leave that to others as God directs. However, it is my purpose to discuss the need for and the absolute imperative for continuous use of the God given, God ordained individual, biblical tongue for the private prayer and worship life of Christians today.
If God has given it to you, use it! If not, seek Him for it.
1Co 14:18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:... (Paul)
In a public meeting or a public place.....NO! In his private prayer life!
Praying in tongues in his private prayer life was obviously a priority to Paul. So much so, that he prayed in tongues in private more than any of his contemporaries. His statement, in 1 Cor. 14:18 (above) and the fruit of his life and ministry should be enough to, at the very least, ask WHY?
Why? Just to hear his head rattle with words he could not understand? Or, was there some extremely important spiritual basis for him to pray in tongues "more than you all"?
It is obvious from his writings that he knew it was because God was praying through him, bypassing the weaknesses of his carnal mind and flesh? Paul had received the Spirit of God who would at anytime, anyplace, as Paul would humble himself and permit, pray through him. Paul knew such prayer in tongues would be in the Spirit and always would be in accordance with the will of God.
The question is not why he did it...but rather why he or any other Christian would not humble themselves under the mighty hand of God and defer their lips to their maker as was God's intention? (Romans 8:26-27)
We Christians have been asleep, deceived, lied to. Our own carnal minds and flesh resist speaking in biblical tongues to the utmost. Even Christians (those we call Charismatic's, Pentecostals, and such) who can open wide their mouths at any time and pray in the spirit, generally, do not spend that much time praying in the Spirit. We have exalted ourselves and set ourselves in that place where God should sit. Our deceitfully wicked hearts have said:
Psa 12:4 ....With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our
own: who is lord over us?
Can we prevail in prayer using our own carnal wisdom or our own words from our own lips without the Spirit? NO!!
Yes, but only if we are led of the Spirit we can pray and prophecy, in any language known to us.
I concede, gladly, that we should come to a maturity Paul spoke of where the need for tongues will pass away. When that which is perfect is at hand. I too would rather that we all come to a maturity level that we could all prophecy with assurance all of the time without doubt or concerns. However, until we all come to that perfection, that stature and measure of Christ unto manifest, mature Sons of God we must not yet be so presumptuous.
Christ in us the hope of glory....it is our calling to become sons of God without need of further rebuke in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation, ready then to revenge all other disobedience, but only as the Father may direct. Refined in the fire and then, like Jesus, ready to speak and do only those things we see the Father do".
However if we are honest we know we do not walk in the Spirit to the degree that we now, always, pray in accordance with the will of God in the languages known to us? Not always.....
Rom 8:26-27 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. And he that
searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Isa 58:13-14 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy
pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the
LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor
finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride
upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob
thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Psa 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the
desires of thine heart.
(your heart or Spirit man not your carnal flesh)
John 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (you...your Spirit man)
The "Sabbath" and "my Holy day" (above) speak of entering the rest of God, which is His work in us, not of rules of law or liturgical issues.
Isa 28:11-13 (NIV) Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues
(Biblical tongues per Paul in 1 Cor. 14)
God will speak to this people, to whom he said,
"This is the resting place, let the weary rest"; and, "This is the place of
repose"- but they would not listen. So then, the word of the LORD to them
will become: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little
here, a little there- so that they will go and fall backward, be injured and
snared and captured. (And so it has been with the Church)
The only way we can now be assured by the scripture and by the Spirit of God that we can delight ourselves (our spirits) in the Lord, and always be certain that we are speaking Gods words and not our own words is to pray or sing in the Spirit. That is; "biblical tongues". This is the rest wherewith we can cease from my own works and can cease speaking our own carnal words with total assurance and just REST, trusting the Holy Spirit to always pray through us and accomplish His will, in us and through us.
What is wrong with that picture? Nothing, the perfect will of the Father lacks nothing and we can add nothing except our permission for Him to both work in us to will and to do His good pleasure in our hearts and through us toward others, by giving him our unclean lips. It is a cooperative project. God will not do it without us, and we can not do it ourselves. As we willingly give to Him our unclean lips, He will sanctify them with a coal off of the alter.
Isa 6:5"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
When we will always pray in accordance with the will of the Father, when we will do this in one accord, then will the Lord be glorified in the earth by his Church and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. The zeal of the Lord will perform this.
Look around.... by our fruits, we are known. We are currently a derision in the world, we are objects of scorn to the ungodly. The world has little or no fear of the Lord, and little acknowledgement and almost no respect for the Christ in us. As a whole, even the church knows little of the true hope of their calling which is; "Christ in us, the hope of Glory". For His name sake, God will not allow this to continue much longer.
Where is the fear of the Lord? Where is the Church that is to show forth His glory in the earth? Where is the Church that has been obedient to Jesus, even unto the daily death of our old nature? Where is the Church that has humbled themselves before the mighty hand of God as little children and is now ready and qualified to revenge all disobedience, because our obedience has been fulfilled?
Where are the Sons of God in the earth without need of further rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation? Where is the Church that Enoch spoke of that are "to be the judge of all, and that are to give a decision against all those whose lives are unpleasing to God, because of the evil acts which they have done"? Assimilated into Babylon! Will we now come out of her and return and not be partakers of her judgments. Have we lost the true vision of our high calling in Christ Jesus in this generation also, or is there still hope?
Creation is in travail, waiting for the manifestation of the Sons of God. The world is going to hell in a hand basket. Yet we sleep in the night, unaware of the brightness of the new day of the Lord, even as gross darkness covers the earth. We have drunk from the cup of trembling for our iniquities. We have few who guide us in truth. Too long we have had famine in the land for the hearing of the true word of God. We are a Church that is desolate and spiritually we are famished.
Awake Church, awake!!
Isa 51:16-23 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.
These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?
Thy sons have fainted; they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.
Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:
But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
Eph 1:17-19(BBE) That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may
give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;
And that having the eyes of your heart full of light, you may have knowledge of
what is the hope of his purpose, what is the wealth of the glory of his
heritage in the saints,
Jude 1:14-20 (BBE)
The prophet Enoch, who was the seventh after Adam, said of these men, The Lord came with tens of thousands of his saints, to be the judge of all, and to give a decision against all those whose lives are unpleasing to him, because of the evil acts which they have done, and because of all the hard things which sinners without fear of God have said against him.
These are the men who make trouble, ever desiring change, going after evil pleasures, using high-sounding words, respecting men's position in the hope of reward.
But you, my loved ones, keep in memory the words which were said before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, How they said to you, In the last days there will be men who, guided by their evil desires, will make sport of holy things. These are the men who make divisions, natural men, not having the Spirit. But you, my loved ones, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, and making prayers in the Holy Spirit,
Php 2:13-15(AMP) [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while [10] effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and [11] delight. Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining [[12] against God] and [13] questioning and doubting [among yourselves], That you may show yourselves to be blameless and guileless, innocent and uncontaminated, children of God without blemish (faultless, unrebukable) in the midst of a crooked and wicked generation [spiritually perverted and perverse], among whom you are seen as bright lights (stars or beacons shining out clearly) in the [dark] world,
Wait in Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high?
Sounds familiar, but that was then (some say). Yes... "for then", and yes for now. We would do well to repent and remember our roots and then get re-connected to the vine again as a body, for without Him we can do nothing.
Eph 6:17-18 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure.
Rom 8:26 So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.
Rom 8:27 And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will.(6)
Rom 8:28 We are assured and know that [[10] God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.
1Co 14:18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: (Paul)
Mar 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they
cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
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