Lynne Little Ministries - Higher Realm
This podcast features a wide-ranging concentration of subjects from Christian apologetics, to mankind's relationship with God and His with us, and exploring our roles within the contemporary church as well as society at large. We facilitate open dialogue with straightforward examinations of foundational Christian beliefs. Special focus will include recovering from, and moving forward through, any type of profound loss from the Christian perspective.
Lynne Little Ministries - Higher Realm
The Present-Day Ministry of the Holy Spirit - Part 7 - Heavenly Language: Why Your Prayer Life Needs an Upgrade
The supernatural realm fascinates us all—but there's a profound difference between dangerous occult practices and the authentic spiritual gifts God offers believers. In this seventh installment of our Holy Spirit series, we dive deep into one of the most misunderstood and powerful spiritual gifts: speaking in tongues.
Why does Scripture consistently show people speaking in tongues when they receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Through examining key passages in Acts, we discover how this heavenly language serves as the initial evidence of Spirit baptism—a distinct experience from salvation. The apostles witnessed it with the Samaritans, Cornelius' household, and the Ephesian disciples, establishing a clear biblical pattern.
Speaking in tongues isn't just a one-time sign but serves multiple ongoing purposes in the believer's life. As a prayer language, it allows for supernatural communion with God that bypasses human understanding. When we don't know how to pray, the Spirit intercedes through us with "groanings too deep for words," praying the perfect will of God. This gift also helps tame our natural speech, bringing our words into alignment with God's heart.
While deeply personal in private prayer, tongues functions differently in public settings. Paul valued this gift tremendously yet emphasized the need for interpretation in corporate gatherings. Genuine manifestations of the Spirit always glorify Jesus rather than creating bizarre spectacles or drawing attention to individuals.
Have you been seeking a deeper connection with God? Are you curious about the supernatural realm but wary of counterfeit experiences? The gift of tongues offers authentic access to spiritual communion. Join us next week as we explore how to receive this precious gift of the Holy Spirit. Subscribe now and share this episode with someone seeking to understand spiritual gifts from a biblical perspective.
You are listening to Higher Realm with Lynne Little. Our program highlights biblical strategies for moving through life's difficulties and finding your path to healing. We tackle issues particular to those who have experienced painful loss in any form. Lynne is the founder and president of Lynne Little Ministries and the author of Missing Lisa, A Parent Grieves and Finding God in Death and Life A Passage Through Grief. Now here's Lynne.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to Part 7 in our series entitled the Present-Day Ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2:In the last episode, we discussed the reality of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. We examined incidences of the apostles first receiving and then being used as instruments for others to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and we introduced the topic of the gift of speaking in tongues as the initial evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Today we will discuss the scriptural evidence for this phenomenon and the purposes of this interesting spiritual gift. These purposes include tongues as the initial sign of the baptism, tongues as one of many spiritual gifts, the gift's usefulness in prayer, the fact that this gift is used differently in different settings and, finally, its power to help tame the tongue. Now, the gift of speaking in tongues is not the only spiritual gift that comes through the Holy Spirit. In fact, there are many more, each of which is unique and serves a specific purpose. In an upcoming series, we will investigate these other gifts in depth, but this episode will first present clear evidence that speaking in tongues is the initial sign of receiving the Holy Spirit baptism. So let's begin by examining several scriptures about this gift. Last week we quoted the words of Jesus in Mark 16: 16 through 18. What he said at that time to his disciples is worth repeating in this context. "And these signs will accompany those who believe In my name. They will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up serpents with their hands and if they drink any deadly poison it will not hurt them. They will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover. In speaking this at this time, jesus was paving the way for the gift that was to come.
Speaker 2:To be clear, being baptized in the Holy Spirit and being saved are separate events. Acts 8: 14-17 bears this out. "When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them. They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. So two different experiences salvation and baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2:Another proof of tongues present at the Holy Spirit baptism is found in several passages in Acts 1: 10.44-46. They record a portion of Peter's sermon to the Gentile Cornelius' family. "While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word, and the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles, for they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God Again. More evidence of a separate experience is found in Acts, chapter 19, 1 through 6. It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus and found some disciples. He said to them did
Speaker 2:you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said to him no, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And he said: "Unto what then were you baptized? And they said Unto John's baptism. Paul said John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in him. Who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.
Speaker 2:Paul, the Apostle, expounded on this gift in the book of 1 Corinthians. Here he cites speaking in tongues as one gift among several. In chapter 12: 7-11 he says, "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit to another, faith by the same Spirit to another, gifts of healings by the same Spirit to another, the working of miracles to another, prophecy to another, discerning of spirits to another, different kinds of tongues to another, the interpretation of tongues, but one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills."
Speaker 2:In addition to a sign of baptism, tongues are useful as a prayer language. In 1 Corinthians 14: 14-15, Paul states, "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit and I will also sing with the understanding. Well, why is his understanding unfruitful when he prays in tongues? Describing this gift of tongues, paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14, 2,. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. Indeed, no one understands him. He utters mysteries in the spirit. This suggests that praying in tongues allows for a deeper intimacy in prayer, one that bypasses human understanding. More importantly, it depicts a form of praying that the enemy of our souls cannot understand, of praying that the enemy of our souls cannot understand. Imagine the advantage of having a direct line of prayer to God that is in the language of heaven.
Speaker 2:Romans 8:26 tells us that praying in tongues helps us to pray the will of God. The Amplified Version puts it best, "In the same way. The Spirit comes to us and helps us in our weakness. We do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it as we should, but the Spirit himself knows our need and, at the right time, intercedes on our behalf with sighs and groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because the Spirit intercedes before God on behalf of God's people, in accordance with God's will." Now, the phrase groanings too deep for words in the Greek is literally groanings which cannot be uttered in articulate speech. There are times when words just fail us even as we pray. When we are in that kind of extremity, the Holy Spirit comes alongside and prays the perfect will of God through us, with the gift of tongues.
Speaker 2:In 1 Corinthians 1: 18-19, Paul emphasizes the value of the gift in his private prayer life. "I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you, tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. Here Paul is differentiating the gift's use in different settings. In private prayer, the need to understand what is being said is less necessary than in praying in tongues in a public setting. Instructions given by Paul spell this out 1 Corinthians 14, beginning in verse 6.
Speaker 2:"Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge, or prophecy or word of instruction? Even in the case of lifeless things that make sound, such as the piper harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes? Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? So it is with you. Get ready for battle. So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. Undoubtedly, there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. If, then, I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I'm a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker is a foreigner to me. So it is with you.
Speaker 2:Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church. For this reason, the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say." What does Paul mean by the word interpret? Isn't speaking in tongues a language that is unintelligible to humans? Well, the answer to that is yes, unless God grants us the ability to understand what we're speaking, and this is the spiritual gift known as the interpretation of tongues. Someone will speak a message in tongues, and shortly after, god will give the interpretation to someone. This is not a translation, but rather a supernatural understanding, given in a non-language in our case English of what was spoken, of what was spoken. This type of understanding also greatly aids our private prayer
Speaker 2:It may happen rarely, but provides a major benefit when it does. We'll go into more detail later, but Scripture does direct us to pray for this gift. Although there is ample scriptural background for the existence and purpose of this one gift, the topic has drawn the ire of factions opposed to this. Why does speaking in tongues engender such intense conflict? Could it be that the gift of speaking in tongues is an important gateway to the supernatural?
Speaker 2:Mankind craves the supernatural. There's an innate hunger, an inborn desire to see and experience a force or intervention beyond us. This hunger has given rise to the current interest in and preoccupation with the occult in many forms Astrology, demonology, witchcraft and wizards, hallucinogens, extraterrestrials, crystals, new age religions, spiritualism, wicca, satanism and so forth, all in an effort to satisfy that hunger. People's attempts to evoke or create supernatural events can result in undesirable phenomena, because the concept of dark forces holds certain influence. Such manifestations will certainly lead to the capture of the individual to that influence and to a grievous end.
Speaker 2:Contrast the instruments of spells, curses and incantations with the lovely gift of the angelic language of heaven, known as speaking in tongues. Worship and praise to God, reciting scriptures, witnessing and testifying of the goodness of God to others, encouraging and consoling others, all of these activities are intensified as the individual yields their speech to God. We read in James 3:6, God's view of the uncontrolled tongue. "The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell. Yielding our tongues to the Holy Spirit is the elegant solution to this dilemma. The ability to control our tongues is directly correlated to the amount of time spent praying in this heavenly language. It helps us to check our words. This is, of course, our decision, by an act of our will, to allow this to flow through us. Just as in natural speech, we can choose when and where to speak, and also if.
Speaker 2:But to make an important distinction the supernatural, as orchestrated by the Holy Spirit, is never weird. It may surprise, even stun or create a sense of wonder, but it is not squirrely. When people substitute their own emotions for the actual work the Holy Spirit, we witness some ridiculous excesses. People acting hysterically or rolling on the ground allegedly under the power and leadings of the Spirit, are acting out of their own desire to call attention to themselves. Nonsensical spectacles such as these have earned the practitioners the moniker "holy rollers With the primary mission of the Spirit to lift and extol and magnify the Lord Jesus, any activity that detracts from this should be viewed with skepticism. There's always a caution that the things of God will not be understood by many. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:14,. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised." Those deeply spiritual tenets will best be received by those who earnestly seek them, as 1 Corinthians 15 admonishes us to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.
Speaker 2:The first step to walking in the life of the Spirit is to make Jesus the Lord of our lives. If you haven't yet made that commitment, would you be willing to pray with me? Our starting place is to recognize that we are all sinners in need of grace. The Word of God tells us in Acts 3:19,. "Repent then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. God offered humanity freedom from sin and its consequences when he sent his Son as a sacrifice At the cross. Jesus accepted the punishment for the aggregate sins of mankind. He died and rose again, offering forgiveness and the promise of eternal life to those who believe in him.
Speaker 2:The path to a new life is so simple. Romans 10: 9 tells us. "f you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus. I believe his death on the cross paid for my sins. Death on the cross pay for my sins. I believe he rose from the dead in victory. Jesus, today I invite you to live in my heart, forgive my sins and teach me how to walk in newness of life. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, tell someone. Why not us? Lynnlittleministries at gmailcom. Next week we'll discuss how to receive the precious Holy Spirit. Blessings on your week.
Lynne:Thank you so much for listening. Lynne Little Ministries is a 501c3 whose mission is to assist those who have suffered loss and to help them discover hope, peace and restoration. For books, resources or to make a tax-deductible donation go to lynnelittleorg.