Does the gift of tongues make prayer more effective? Does it make you more powerful in the Spirit? A commonly held view in much of the Church is that God is more inclined or more able to assist you if you pray in tongues. Is this true?
FIRST AND SECOND CLASS PRAYERS
I’ve shared this story before, but I’ll share it again because it’s a perfect example of the mistaken belief that prayer in tongues is more powerful than ordinary prayer. On Christian radio I heard a minister tell how he’d been praying for a half hour about something important, but it seemed to him that God wasn’t paying attention, so he began to pray in tongues, he said, and suddenly felt that he was getting through to God via the Holy Spirit. The heavens had opened up, and now his prayer had power and was getting God’s attention.
I have to wonder why this man doesn’t pray in tongues all the time, if that’s what get results. Why bother to pray in English?
Does it make sense, scripturally, that God will sometimes only listen to prayers or take action if those prayers are in tongues, or that God is more likely to listen to you if your prayers are in tongues? Doesn’t that idea diminish the power of prayer in everyday language? Doesn’t it make those without the gift into second-class Christians, whose prayers are not all that important to God?
NOT A POWERFUL LANGUAGE
As I’ve already discussed in this series, the record of Scripture makes plain that the gift of tongues-the real, Biblical gift-was never an expression of the Holy Spirit through the speaker’s mouth. It was never a Holy Spirit language, neither was it ever a powerful heavenly language. If it were either of these, Paul wouldn’t have made the statements he made while correcting the Corinthian church. For example, he declared that an un-translated expression of tongues is a waste of breath:
Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air (1 Corinthians 14:9).
Speaking into the air! What a put-down for those who think they’re saying something of cosmic importance! Moreover, Paul put the efficacy of the gift into clear perspective with numbers:
But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue (1 Corinthians 14:19).
If the gift of tongues really had great power and caused the Lord to take notice, Paul would not have made the above statement. He said that ten thousand words in a tongue are without value, without interpretation. Five words in every-day language are more powerful than ten thousand in a tongue, says Paul.
Here’s another example of Paul limiting tongues:
If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God (1 Corinthians 14:27-28).
If speaking or praying in tongues came from any powerful expression of the Holy Spirit-expressions which according to modern claims would accomplish great things- Paul would not have made such statements. Instead he would have encouraged the use of the gift with or without interpretation, without limits or controls.
THE REAL THING
The miraculous gift of tongues was an expression of the speaker’s own spirit, ideally and particularly as a sign of judgment on the unbelieving Jewish nation which had rejected Christ:
Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature. In the law it is written:
“With men of other tongues and other lips
I will speak to this people;
And yet, for all that, they will not hear Me,” says the Lord.
Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers (1 Corinthians 14:20-22 NKJV).
THE END OF CESSATION
Cessation is a double-edged sword for the modern tongues-speaker, though this is not commonly realized. If tongues were a powerful heavenly language spoken through the believer-one which presumably will not and cannot cease-Paul would not have said that tongues will one day cease:
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears (1 Corinthians 13:8-10).
THE WITNESS OF SCRIPTURE
Read through the New Testament, including the book of Acts-the book which represents what’s seen as the most spiritual and powerful age of the Church; the very generation which saw Pentecost and a multitude of miracles-and you will not find one single prayer uttered in tongues. There are no prayers which needed interpretation, and there is no suggestion that prayers in tongues accomplish great things or make things happen. In any discussion on prayer or miracles there is no command or recommendation that prayers should be in tongues in order to get results. Surely, if prayers in tongues were more effective, Paul and other apostles would have stated so. It would be a serious omission to fail to teach the churches and future believers how to make God pay attention, if that were possible.
DID PAUL SAY THE HOLY SPIRIT PRAYS FOR US IN TONGUES?
In a previous post I covered the claim that according to Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul said the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we pray in tongues. Here’s the passage in question:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God (Romans 8:26-27).
If this passage is really telling us that the Holy Spirit intercedes by the use of the gift of tongues, the clear implication is that the rest of us are left out of the blessing. The Spirit of God doesn’t pray for us at all: we’re on our own. This is unbiblical nonsense.
The first thing to notice in this passage is the term “wordless groans”. Genuine tongues were, and should be, uttered in “words” (1 Corinthians 14:19) but Paul in this passage speaks of the Holy Spirit interceding with “wordless groans”. The KJV translates is this way:
…the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
When something cannot be uttered it cannot be expressed in words or even in any verbal sound at all, since that is the definition of “utterance”. This passage, then, is not speaking of the gift of tongues at all. It’s saying that the Spirit prays for all believers through our own spirit, even when we don’t know what to pray. Words are not needed in this case.
Secondly, there’s no mention here of tongues or unknown languages. These terms are not used, and neither is the word “gift”. If these words were being used Paul would be excluding those who don’t speak in tongues, and would be saying to those saints, essentially, “Your prayers and your feelings don’t matter to God as much as those with the gift of tongues. He isn’t going to help you in your weaknesses. He is not going to pray for you. He doesn’t search your heart. You’re out of luck, unless you get the gift!”
WELL ENOUGH
Paul, in attempting to correct the Corinthians in their mistaken use of tongues, speaks of a gift which gives limited results-not powerful ones:
“…how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified “(verses 16 and 17).
In this example, Paul is saying that the tongues speaker-one who, he says, is praying with his spirit only- is not only mystifying the hearers, but is merely giving thanks “well enough”, a term representing adequacy only. There’s no powerful expression going on here. The non-tongues speaker can give thanks just as well, or even better, because others will understand too.
TRULY EFFECTIVE PRAYER
Here’s what James had to say about prayer:
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (James 5:16b).
It’s righteousness which has clout in heaven, not unintelligible prayer. As I noted, you can read through all the epistles, not to mention the words of Jesus Christ, and in any discussion on prayer, or any situation involving sickness or persecution or poverty or any kind of trouble, you will not find any encouragement to pray in tongues. Angels always spoke the languages of those they ministered to. Any words from the Spirit were always in ordinary language. Here’s an example from a man inarguably filled with the Spirit:
Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).
Here, Paul spoke to God, begging Him to heal his sickness, but said nothing about praying in tongues in order to get God to listen to him. And even if he did, it didn’t work. You would think that Paul would use this as a perfect example of praying in tongues in order to get God’s attention, and to persuade the Lord to listen and to answer the request, if that were possible.
The Lord answered Paul, but not in tongues. Why would He? What would be the point of God saying something Paul could not understand?
SOMETHING NEW?
The common answer to Biblical observation such as this is that “God is doing something new”. This is the way that Biblical truths are avoided, altered or augmented. If that’s your conviction, good luck. You can never be sure whether what you’re hearing and doing is true or not, unless you’re prepared to tether your beliefs to the eternal Word of God found in the Bible. If what’s happening in some churches today is “something new”, then the often-stated goal of returning to New Testament spirituality is not being achieved.
Fuel for Faith 