A passage of Paul’s letter to the Romans is commonly held up as “exhibit A” in support of the practice of “praying in tongues”. However, when you really look at it closely, you see that these verses have nothing to do at all with 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 tongues speakers are correct to invoke this scripture as a reason to pray in tongues, it means they’re blessed above all believers, which is their claim, because it means the Holy Spirit is praying for them, but by implication not for the rest of us. Is this true? Does the Spirit pray for some believers and not others?
TONGUES: WORDS AND SOUNDS
First, notice that tongues were or should be uttered in “words”:
“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).
Now look at the second part of verse 26 of our featured text, as quoted in the above NIV version:
“… the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans“.
Here’s the same phrase in the KJV:
“… the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered”.
The NASB words it this way:
“… the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words“.
It’s not possible for humans to audibly pray or speak without words and without utterance, any more than we can walk without moving our legs. In Paul’s letter he’s saying that when the Spirit intercedes for us there is no audible utterance. It’s wordless in terms of the use of our mouths. It’s devoid of any spoken expression on our part. The Spirit doesn’t pray through our mouths in tongues, in words, in audible groans or sounds at all, but in our hearts and our inner being. He prays within us to the Father.
A further implication of this is that the Spirit prays for all of us, not just for those who claim to have a gift. Paul says in verse 27 that the Spirit prays “for God’s people”. He doesn’t pray only “for some of God’s people”:
“… the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God“.
Are you one of God’s people? If you are, the Spirit intercedes for you. When we’re in despair or confused and unable to pray coherently or not even able to say anything whatsoever, the Spirit prays silently to the Father on our behalf. That’s the message Paul has for us in his letter to the Romans.
DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT PRAY IN TONGUES?
When we hear someone speaking in what they believe to be a supernatural prayer language today, are we hearing the words of the Holy Spirit? Are those unidentifiable words and sounds really packed with power from the Spirit of God?
WORDS YOU AND OTHERS CAN UNDERSTAND ARE MORE POWERFUL!
But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue (verse 19).
This is quite an indictment on the claim that the Holy Spirit speaks through tongues. If He does, Paul would be saying here that ten thousand words spoken by the Creator of the universe have no power and no meaning. Paul would also be saying that five of his own words are more powerful than ten thousand words from the Holy Spirit. Obviously that would be arrogant and almost blasphemous.
Paul goes on to set firm limits on the use of speaking in tongues. Can he really be limiting the expression, the power and the will of God? He says that:
“If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret” (verse 27).
But Paul-what if the Holy Spirit wants to speak through more than three people? What if the Holy Spirit wants to speak through everybody at once-as happens in some modern churches?
No, Paul is not limiting the words of God, and he’s not mistaken. He’s limiting the words of man, which could have been spoken through a language not common to the church. In this case, he required an interpreter, so that the rest of the church could be edified. He goes on:
If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God (verse 28).
Again, if tongues were really the Holy Spirit speaking, Paul, God’s man of the time, would never have presumed to essentially tell the Holy Spirit of God to “sit down and be quiet”. More than that, Paul here says that the speaker should simply speak to himself, and to God. Again, it is not God speaking to the saint, it’s the saint speaking to God. A language known by the speaker and others would be far more fruitful, which is why Paul said the following:
“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding” (1 Corinthians 14: 14-15).
CONTROLS AND LIMITS
In Paul’s discussion on the gift in his first letter to the Corinthians, he set very clear controls and limits on the use of the gift. Why would he do that if it were the Spirit of the living God speaking? Ask yourself, was Paul trying to control and to limit the Holy Spirit? If you think he was, you have a very low view of the man who “turned the world upside down” in the first century, by spreading the gospel against all odds.
MAN SPEAKING TO GOD, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND
Paul says in verse two of the same chapter not that you will be speaking the very words of God, but that you will be speaking “to” God:
“For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God” (1 Corinthians 14:2).
You will not be speaking to other people because they will not understand you, and they will not be edified. You will not be benefitting them at all, says Paul. There is, therefore, no “powerful prayer” here from the Spirit of God. In fact Paul does not at all encourage praying in tongues. but says that speaking in a tongue – a language not understood by those present – is speaking to God only, because only God will understand.
The NIV of the Bible quotes Paul in verse two as saying that tongues speakers are “speaking mysteries by the Spirit”. It assigns an upper-case “S” to the word “spirit”. But the Greek word “spirit” here is the same one used in other places to speak of the human spirit. Other and older translations, such as the KJV and the NKJV translate this to refer to the spirit of the person speaking. In either case, even if the speaker is “in the spirit” he or she is speaking to God, not the other way around. Their words have no power of their own beyond what they personally intend. Paul states this himself, when he says:
Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine? (verse 6).
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 