I decided that I would bring my dad's girlfriend, Karla, to church yesterday with me. She is definitely completely new in the Christian faith and she was confused about a few things. Actually, one of them really got me thinking and I ended up spending a few hours last night searching the internet and reading passages in the bible to find out about it. And, as you probably should have guessed by the title, it is the gift of tongues. The main chapters in the New Testament that talk about tongues are 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14. The bible states the following facts about talking in tongues:

• All of the gifts of the spirit (including speaking in tongues) should NOT be done without being fully informed about them first. (12:1)
• To each person, the manifestation of the spirit is given for the benefit of all. There are many gifts that the spirit can give you, one of them being the gift of tongues. (12:7-10).
• It is GOD who decides which gift we will receive. HE is the one that distributes them to us how he sees fit, and all of the gifts of the spirit that we receive are necessary for us (12:11,18,21).
• The gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues are the LEAST important gifts (12:28)
• Not everyone has all of the gifts of the spirit, including speaking in tongues. (12:29-30).
• If any of the gifts of the spirit are performed without love (i.e. being impatient, unkind, envious, bragging,puffed up, rude, self-serving, easily angered, or resentful, etc.), then they will benefit nobody. (13:1-3, 13:4-7)
• 13:8-13 says that tongues, prophecy and divine knowledge will cease or be set aside and all that will remain will be fiath, hope and love. I do believe that this refers to either after we die or the second coming of Christ. But it does say that love is more important than anything else, and the gifts of the spirit will not benefit us in the future. They are only here right now because we are like children now. Eventually we will become like an adult and set aside our childish ways. To me, this says that the gifts of the spirit are only here because we need them to help us grow.
• The gift of prophecy is greater than the gift of tongues (14:1-5) unless there is interpretation (14:5).
• When you speak in tongues you "build yourself up" (14:4). In the translator's notes in my bible, it says that this term may not have a positive connotation in this context. Why would this be? Because you need to look at the definition of love given in 13:4-7. Love does not brag. Love is not Puffed up. Love is not self-serving. If you are only building yourself up, you are not doing it with love. However, with that said, I do believe it is necessary to build ourselves up. We need to learn. We need to study the word so that we can understand it. We need to go into our room, close the door, turn off our music, close the blinds, and pray to God with nobody to hear us or see us. We need to develop our prayer, because praying is a skill that needs to be developed. Do you think that the first time you ever prayed (if you ever have) that you prayed non-stop for two hours without repeating yourself once? No, nobody has! The first time you pray, it's probably less than 1 minute. But as you go developing your skill, you learn how to pray. In the same way, I do believe that it is necessary to build ourself up.
• Paul wishes that everyone spoke in tongues (14:5). However, not everyone is given the gift of tongues, as stated earlier. Likewise, not everyone is given the gift of prophecy. This passage probably means that he wants us to recognize our gifts, but not that we should try to self-induce them.
• Nobody can understand you when you speak in tongues. It will be the same for the other people in the church as "speaking into the air" (14:6-9).
• People that speak in tongues should also pray for the gift of interpretation of their tongues so that they might benefit others (14:13)
• Those who have the gift of tongues should also pray and sing praises with their mind as well as in tongues so that their mind can also be productive. This is also a way for you to grow in your prayer as well. If you only pray in tongues, you yourself won't know what you are saying and you won't be able to develop your own faith.
• Paul says that he would rather say five words with his mind than ten-thousand words in tongues when in church (14:19). Obviously he is really not putting any importance on tongues when preaching or administering to others.
• Tongues are of no benefit for those that believe, but those that do not believe (14:22-25). This site has a really good explanation of what this probably means in this context:
  (4) It is a mistake to assume that speaking in tongues is an evidence of one’s faith. To the contrary, the persons who seek signs and sign-gifts show their lack of faith. It is a sin for any Christian to seek for signs before he will believe God’s Word. As was pointed out earlier in this study, “tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not” (I Corinthians 14: 22). So you see, the Christians at Corinth were showing that they were weak in faith, and possibly some who identified themselves with the believer had never been saved. The person who seeks any sign, whether it be speaking in tongues or any other sign-gift, is either a babe in Christ or an unbeliever.
  
  Thomas is an illustration of a disciple weak in faith who would not believe without seeing. After our Lord arose from death, He appeared to the disciples. “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:24, 25). Thomas was like the Corinthians, weak in faith, demanding to see the sign (miracle) before he would believe.
  
  Eight days later the Lord appeared again. “Then saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless but believing.” (John 20:27). The doubting Thomas needed a sign, so the Lord appeared to him so that he would not continue without faith. And then He said to Thomas, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20: 29). The Christian who will study the Bible and believe what it says will walk by faith, not by sight or sound.
• The church should be organized, and those who have a gift of the spirit should use it. But tongues should not be used without interpretation, they should be done one at a time, and there should be at the most three people that do this (14:26-28).

All of these points have lead me to believe that what my church has been doing is wrong. I go to a very charismatic church, where they like to encourage people to speak in tongues, to prophesy, to heal others, etc. However, they are not big on making sure that someone is interpreting the tongues AND they believe that everyone can have the gift of tongues. I think this is one of the reasons that I have always felt as somewhat of an outsider when I am there because I see crazy things happening to others and it doesn't happen to me. It could be, like the article that I pasted from said, that I don't need signs to help me believe, like Thomas did. These days, we have the completed works of God all wrapped together nicely in one big book, which we call the Holy Bible. Back then, they didn't have the bible; in fact, a lot of the New Testament hadn't even occurred yet and wouldn't have been written down for up to 30 years later. Why, in these days, with the bible right there in front of us, translated into our modern language, would we need signs from God so that we can keep our faith? HE WILL give us signs, but not when we expect them. Every day I have another prayer answered, or more evidence that God has heard my prayer or more evidence that I should have listened to God instead of doing it my way (which blew up in my face two days ago in my case).

I believe that the gift of tongues, like all of the gifts of the spirit, do exist today. Actually, I do believe that from time to time, God gives me the gift of interpretation of tongues when I am in church. Not interpreting the gibberish that the pastors and all the rest of the congregation call tongues, but the Spanish dialect. Quite often, there are words I know I have never heard before, but I understand what the pastor's message is. Take, for example, the word "cosecha", which means "harvest". The other day, I understood what this word meant when it was said in church. Obviously it's not a common word in any language, and even if it is spoken in context, it would be difficult to understand what it meant. To me, THAT is the true gift of interpretation of tongues that is around today. It is not something that can be forced. Any drunk wandering the streets will be speaking in gibberish, similar to what they do in my church. Do you think he is speaking in tongues? It's very VERY unlikely.

It also got me thinking about when I was in various churches in Canada, before I moved down to Costa Rica. I knew people that I would definitely say were on fire for Christ. They had a passion for Jesus like I had never seen before. But, in all of the church services I went to, there was nobody talking in tongues, there was nobody that fell down, there was nobody that prophesied, nobody that couldn't control the movements of their hands or uncontrollably shaked part of their body. Why is this? Why is it that in my church people are SOO much like this, but in the other churches I have been to, they aren't... at all? The fact is that any of the things that the people do in my church can be self-induced. Anyone can finish the sentence "The Lord says ..." with whatever they want. In fact, the bible speaks about false prophets. Anyone can fall down in church. In fact, I have had people try to push me down because I didn't fall. What's with that? Honestly, that is NOT what God intends. God doesn't intend for almost anyone who goes on stage with a microphone to try to speak in tongues, whether they have the gift or not. In fact, God does not intend for them to do it at all without someone interpreting it, which I actually saw for the first time yesterday. Out of the hundreds of times I've seen people speak in tongues, I saw ONE time where it was interpreted.

These things don't ruin my faith. Seeing people not listening to God's word does not ruin my faith. I would like to say that if they are truly doing it for their own interests that God will show them the way, or He will take the whole church down to proclaim His true message. But the fact is that there are many false religions and cults out there. Everyone says that their way is "the only way". How can we discern between their "only way" and God's Only Way? Well, like the first point that I made from reading 1 Corinthians is that we need to fully inform ourself first. We need to understand the bible. The only way to do this is to read the bible. Do searches on the internet. Join a discipleship group. Go to church and think critically about what they do or say. If you don't agree with them, look it up in the bible. In fact, even if you do agree with them, make sure that it is completely backed by scripture. If it is something that violates an integral part of your salvation through the complete works of Jesus Christ alone, I would highly suggest you seek a different church. If it's something that is wrong that constantly bothers you, you should do likewise.

Never stop thinking critically about anything that another imperfect person tells you. The only perfect source of information is the Bible. Everything you need is in there and nothing that you will ever need has been left out. I do believe in the gift of tongues, but I don't think that it is a very important gift. It is not necessary for your salvation, nor is it a sign that someone's faith. I have actually been thinking all morning about changing churches. It is a pity because there are other things in the church that I really like. The music is spectacular, they are big on developing your faith through various processes (such as classes, excursions, discipleship "families", bible studies, regular prayer meetings, evangelism, etc.). But every day it is becoming more and more "crazy". I think they are starting to cross the line on going overboard on their developing the gifts of the spirit. I'm just going to have to pray about it, and maybe talk to my discipleship family about it and see what they think. Maybe I could even make an appointment with one of the pastors, even though I know they are busy because there are so many people that are members of the church. We'll see what happens.