Apprentice 2 Jesus

An Anglicostal Connecting to a Real World

The gift of tongues

Dan

I grew up in a Pentecostal denomination. I was a minister for over 30 years in a Pentecostal denomination. I remain immensely thankful to God for the background I have been gifted and the rootedness I have in a faith that interacts with the Spirit and looks to what God can indeed do today in the lives of people.

One of the marks of my former denomination was “speaking in tongues.” A “second work” of the Spirit. When I was growing up, it was treated as an “end goal.” You prayed at the altar for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. You knew you “got it” when you spoke in tongues. And then… well, you got it.

Got… what?

The Spirit.

Now what?

Come back to church on Sundays, read your Bible…

We didn’t know what to do AFTER the gift of tongues was given. We just knew the “power of the Spirit” meant something.

I do not wish to poke fun at my roots. I am grateful for a belief in prayer, missions, and the working of the Spirit that has impacted the world deeply. However, we looked at the Spirit and the Book of Acts in a very different way than much of the rest of the Church. Some of that was okay. Some of it left us lacking.

Acts 2 wasn’t about the “second work” of the Spirit so we could be empowered for missions. The story is deeper… and greater.

NT Wright points out in his book, The Challenge of Acts, that Luke is demonstrating the battle of God’s way vs. the world’s way. It would be played out in Acts through struggles involving temples. Jerusalem. Ephesus. Athens. When God’s Kingdom came, it was about a new temple era.

God has intended to come and live with us and Luke is demonstrating that action. This is about the homecoming of God.

Pentecost is the new turning point. Jesus and his people together constitute a new temple, a heaven and earth place. This is the launching of new creation. (p. 23)

Acts 2 isn’t about a “next level” of spiritual life for the believer. It is to show the continuation of Good Friday, Easter, and the Ascension. Pentecost is the fullness of the inauguration of the Kingdom become reality on earth. It is about the great turning point in the history of Israel and the world.

As Pentecostals, we were short-sighted in our view of Acts 2. I need the fullness of the picture in my own life… without denigrating my past. The fullness of the Body of Christ is needed in this day. I am grateful for this journey.

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6 responses to “The gift of tongues”

  1. THE GIFT OF TONGUES. REPOSTED ARTICLE. (31) | CROSSROMAN

    […] The gift of tongues […]

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  2. Majik Avatar
    Majik

    I never wanted to “speak in tongues” even though I was “led to the Lord” by a very kind Assembly of God minister and attended a Friday Nite Coffee House in the basement of the church led by his adult son who was about my age and attending AG Bible College in the summer of 1977 when I was twenty years old. I was also being mentored by the husband of the first person that summer who had shared “The Four Spiritual Laws” with me and whose Swedish Covenant Church I also attended, which was the same Gospel presentation that the AG pastor used with me when he led me to the Lord as we sat side by side on the front steps of the parsonage beside the church that he pastored, and which was the same Gospel tract that a few weeks later a Southern Baptist deacon used with me after I’d “gone forward” at the end of a hell fire and brimstone sermon preached at a Sunday evening service.

    My young adult friends at the Friday Nite Coffee House all spoke in tongues and encouraged me to “ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit,” which I did by myself later in the privacy of my own bedroom. But my possibly half-hearted prayer was, “You know God that I’m not too wild about this, but if you want me to have it, OK. ‘Thy Will be done.’ In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen!” Perhaps unsurprisingly, nothing happened.

    I still don’t want to speak in tongues, but I’m as sure as a soul can be that God’s Holy Spirit Does indwell me like Jesus said that He would do if I trusted Him, although it doesn’t always show.

    My life is almost over now at 68 come this Thursday, and I’m not in the best of health either. I figure that I’ll be lucky to make it to 80, even though the Bible says that’s essentially “over time” to the normal “three score and ten” that the average human lifespan is.

    All the Pentecostals and charismatics that I’ve known have never seemed all that different than me with some being more spiritual and some probably less spiritual than me just like the non-Pentecostal and non-charismatics are some more spiritual and some probably less than me.

    What gives, Dan? Did I miss out? Is the “gift of tongues,” like the other spiritual gifts, distributed to whomever the Father wills and not meant for everyone who is a believer in Jesus Christ. Or did I blow it back when I was twenty and am going to have to answer to Jesus for my disregard of something that He had wanted to give me, maybe still wants to give me, who knows?

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    1. Dan Avatar
      Dan

      I wouldn’t stress “tongues.” The Spirit gives gifts as he desires for the common good. I just don’t want to miss the point of the sign of tongues in Acts 2. What God was doing in relation to what we, as Pentecostals, THOUGHT was going on… is so different.

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      1. Majik Avatar
        Majik

        Thank you, Dan. So is the glossolalia that Pentecostals do today the same thing as Acts 2, which seemed to be a miraculous speaking of human languages that the speakers never spoke like if I suddenly started speaking Swahili, or is it the thing that the Apostle Paul discussed in his Letter to the Corinthians, which was described as an unknown language that should be used in a limited manner for communal worship or private devotions, or is it something else? I know this isn’t the point of your post, but you’ve got me thinking about this mysterious spiritual gift that for some reason I’ve never wanted . . . assuming that the modern-day phenomenon is such a thing. Would you care to weigh in? And it’s OK if you don’t want to, but you’re the only “Anglicostal” that I know, and I’ve come to respect your thoughts and opinions.

      2. Dan Avatar
        Dan

        I think the Lord knows. LOL

        I’ve certainly heard missions stories of people speaking in tongues and it ended up being a language that was heard by native speakers. I also know I don’t know what it is when I pray in tongues. I do know it is deep calling to deep.

  3. Majik Avatar
    Majik

    “Deep calling to deep,” huh?

    I looked the phrase up because I wanted to re-read the passage that I imagined in my memory of St. Paul using it, and I was surprised to find that it was David’s poetry from Psalm 42. Maybe what I was thinking of was St. Paul’s reference for the Holy Spirit interceding for us in groanings too deep for words, which is likely an allusion to Psalm 42.

    Anyway, I feel in deep in my chest, actually like a depth in my soul, a connection to the Holy Spirit within me, whatever that means. I guess this is my “deep calling to deep.” I feel this whether in prayer, whatever that means, or not. Our Father, Jesus, His Son, and Holy Spirit are too gentlemanly . . . if I can say it like that . . . to force a “gift” on a person, I have found. He has given me other spiritual gifts, prophesy, I think . . . not that I can predict the future, but because I can’t shake the urge to proclaim the Word of God . . . maybe discernment too, especially of spirits, and I try with varying levels of diligence to use these spiritual gifts for God’s Glory and our good. But enough about me . . . I want to proclaim Him and the Gift that He is to all of creation.

    More power to ya, Dan! And I mean that sincerely and, especially, spiritually. Thank you for engaging with me a bit in conversation that I hope was worthwhile to more than just me.

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