Question – Rudy (Indonesia): Dear Pastor Chris, I just want to ask whether born again Christians must speak in tongues?
Answer: Well, there’s no ‘must’ in any of these things. It’s like asking, “must a born again Christian go to heaven?” You don’t have to go to heaven; you don’t have to. You can choose not to. But, going to heaven will be a great blessing. See? You don’t have to. Well, what I mean by that is: speaking in tongues is a tremendous blessing. Our vocabulary (man’s vocabulary) is not enough. It is not rich enough, it is not holy enough, it is not sanctified enough to communicate the holiest things with God. And so, He gave us a language that is far removed from earthly vocabulary.
It’s a language that is chosen by the Holy Spirit; the words are built in there by the Holy Spirit, they are chosen by the Holy Spirit—they don’t go through our minds. Our minds just cannot reason out the holiest thoughts of God and so He gave us His highest method of communication, and that is the Holy Spirit’s communication. He gave that to us through the Holy Spirit, so that we can use those words that are chosen through the Spirit and communicate with God directly. It’s an awesome blessing, and I find no reason why any Christian who hears about it, who knows about it would want to stay without it. If you don’t know what it means, you may stay without it, but if you get to learn what it is, you cannot stay without it.
There’s no better way to communicate with the Holy Spirit. You know the bible says in Romans 8:26, it says, “Likewise the Spirit (of God) also helps our weaknesses: for we don’t know what to pray for as we ought.” But then it says the Spirit of God helps us, He props us up, props us up through the choice of words that He puts within us. He says [continuing verse 26], “through groanings that cannot be uttered.” And so the One who searches the hearts, which is God, who knows the mind of the Spirit, He says, knows what the Spirit is doing through us, because the Spirit of God is interceding for the saints according to the will of God.
Now, in that relationship in prayer, He says, there are sighs that are too deep for words. We’re praying with sighs that are too deep for words; they’re not put in articulate speech, whether in men’s language or in spiritual language and, yet, the Spirit of God communicates in such a way that God understands the highest thoughts. Now, when those thoughts of the Spirit are put in articulate speech in spiritual language, which we call the language of angels, that’s what speaking in tongues is. That’s why the bible says our minds have no understanding of that language; we can only receive a revelation of what we say when we speak in tongues. So, every Christian should covet to speak in tongues. And, by the way, if you receive the Holy Spirit, that’s all you need to be able to speak in tongues—you don’t learn speaking in tongues.
When the Holy Spirit comes into you, He brings in that language as well. In fact, it’s an outflow from when you receive the Holy Spirit. Once you pray and receive the Holy Spirit, you’re full of Him and the next thing you know, you’re speaking. It’s an outflow of that Spirit through you in spiritual language. So, every Christian should speak in tongues.
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