Encountering God Through Prophecy and Tongues

I have a long history with prophecy and tongues. Most of it negative and distrustful. It was weird and uncomfortable, and I associated it with red-faced preachers with big hair. But as I grew in my faith I slowly developed a yearning for more of God and a deeper experience of his presence. So I began to actively seek the gift of tongues. I prayed for it and then waited for something to happen. And waited. And waited...

I eventually learned from other Christians that, while some people have an experience where they just get zapped and wake up speaking in tongues, most have to cooperate with the Spirit by opening your mouth and beginning to speak.

And so over the years I had periods where I tried to speak in tongues. I’d babble a few words, which mostly felt like they dribbled just past my lips and fell to the ground. And the entire time my mind was listening and critiquing what was coming out of my mouth. “That doesn’t sound like a word…”

It was actually about 16 years after I initially began to seek for the gift of tongues - after I’d been the pastor here for a couple of years - that it finally happened. I was sitting in my office and felt that familiar nudge to ask for and begin speaking in tongues. That for some reason the Spirit was telling me this was important. Over a period of a few weeks I would try several times a week to pray in tongues but with the same effect. It felt forced and false. I couldn’t disengage the intellectual part of my brain that wanted to analyze what was happening.

One day I began once again to try. I was growing frustrated by this point and was becoming convinced that this gift just wasn’t for me. I’d been trying for several minutes to pray in tongues and was just on the verge of giving up, when I felt the Spirit say “persist”. So I continued on, and almost immediately I felt like the Spirit gave me a word - one that I’ve never heard and that wasn’t English - and say “pray this”. I began to just pray that word over and over, and within just a minute he put the interpretation of the word in my mind. I knew what I was saying, and in that instance my intellectual resistance was obliterate and I opened my mouth and language gushed forth from my innermost being. I had no idea what I was saying, but I could sense joy and praise rising up. I had a powerful encounter with the living God.

This went on for a while. I was almost afraid to stop bc what if I couldn’t do it again? But I quickly learned that with the gift I could control it. Beginning and ending any time I desired.

The next several weeks and months were filled with me using and rejoicing in this new gift. But like with any new present, the shine began to wear off. I used the gift less and less. My old suspicions about people prophesying and speaking in tongues drifted back in. I never doubted my tongue-speaking, but I started having reservations about others. As the pastor of the church, not only did I begin to close myself off from these gifts but I closed the church off in the name of being “seeker friendly”. There’s nothing wrong with being seeker friendly, but if a genuine move of the Spirit turns someone off then I’m not sure how much they are seeking - and tongues and prophecy are some of the least weird things they might see in church!

Why is it that these two gifts in particular are so decisive in the church? Why are they such a source of confusion and disagreement?

Confusion regarding terminology used to describe spiritual experiences. To the cessationist, prophecy merely refers to preaching the word. But even among Spirit-filled people, Pentecostals would say my experience with tongues was my baptism in the Spirit - even though I was already saved. Charismatics would say I was filled with the Spirit. The truth is that we often bring our own predispositions and understandings to the word and force the word to fit within those boundaries. Regardless of the terminology one uses, I think with an open mind the gifts of tongue and prophecy really aren’t that confusing.

Often connected to excessive emotionalism. What I most dislike about the gifts of prophecy and tongues is that they come packaged in people! And sometimes people carry baggage and learned - and strange - behaviors. I remember watching an interview recording in 1995 between Peter Jennings from ABC News and John Wimber. Wimber’s church was just exploding and there were so many reports of signs and wonders. And often when the Spirit would fall on people they would shake like a leaf, or fall down, or shriek. Jennings asked Wimber why, and I love Wimber’s honest answer. He said these people came from seriously messed up lives with all kinds of religious and spiritual baggage. John had this unique ability - which we need to cultivate - to separate the authentic move of the Spirit from the emotional response of the people.

It’s weird. It makes us uncomfortable. Did you know that God‘s highest priority for you is not to make you comfortable, but to make you Christlike. If weirdness turns you off, if you are only going to do those things that are comfortable or fit within your definition of what is normal, you will end up being about an inch deep in your faith. Because the way that God grows us is by often nudging us into the places of discomfort. If weirdness turns you off, have you ever read the Bible? How would you like to have John the Baptist over for Thanksgiving dinner? He ate locust and honey - what are you going to do?!

Anyway, these gifts that are intended to be a rich blessing and to facilitate an encounter with God are often times looked at with a jaundiced eye and dismissed – even among those who claim to be open to the Spirit.

But in playing it safe with the Spirit, how many blessings are we missing out on? How is our experience of God limited when we silence the voice of the Spirit among us? I’ve called the sermon this morning Encountering God Through Prophecy and Tongues. Over the past many months God has been impressing upon me how important this dimension of our walk with him is. God desires to reveal himself to us in the present, never in contradiction to scripture, but that we might gain hope and courage in this present moment. Are you hungry for an encounter with God today?

If you have a Bible - I encourage you to bring a Bible even though we put the words on the screen - turn to 1 Corinthians 14.

1 Corinthians 14:1 “Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy.”

The apostle Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts in chapters 12 and 14 sandwich an entire chapter on the primacy of love in the Christian life. That no matter what gifts you possess, no matter what you sacrifice for the gospel, no matter what Herculean effort you go to, if you don’t have love everything else is an effort in futility. It’s important to say plainly that whatever your thoughts are about spiritual gifts - and tongues and prophecy - it pales in comparison to God’s call on your life to do everything from love. Powerful spiritual gifts are invalidated by an unloving spirit.

What are tongues and prophecy?

1 Corinthians 14:2–3 “For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody understands them, since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.”

Tongues is the spiritual enablement to speak in a language you’ve never learned. That language could be of human or heavenly origin. But whatever the origin, what is being said is unknown to both the speaker and the listener. Prophecy is the spiritual enablement to discern a word from God that is relevant for a particular moment. And while it is a word from God, it will always yield to and never contradict the written word of God. Prophecy is God’s immediate message for a particular time and situation.

But we also see something about the audience or direction of each gift. Those who speak in a tongue are not speaking to people but to God. The direction is upward. Those who prophesy, on the other hand, speak from God to people. The direction is downward.

And so tongues, when interpreted, should generally sound like, “God you are amazing. I love you and praise your name.” Prophecy will generally sound like, “Child, I am with you. I love you and will see you through.”

We should be careful about drawing rigid lines. I often pray in tongues as I’m praying for someone, waiting for God to give me a revelation or direction for prayer. My prayer or prophecy isn’t an interpretation of the tongues, but tongues allows my mind to become open to hear what the Spirit is saying. I know of others who will combine praying in tongues and then speaking prophetically. But I think Paul is laying out general guidelines.

What is the purpose of tongues?

1 Corinthians 14:13–17 “Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive. What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also. Otherwise, if you say a blessing with the spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say the “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since the outsider does not know what you are saying? For you may give thanks well enough, but the other person is not built up.”

Tongues is a form of prayer. Sometimes moments come into our life where words fail us. Some trauma we witness (Fordyce). Some disaster that strikes. We see wars and plagues and personal family tragedy and we simply don’t have the words. It has been an enormous comfort to me in moments like this to be able to pray in tongues. To bypass the limitation of my rational mind and allow the deepest part of me to pray.

Tongues is a form of praise. There have also been times when my heart becomes so full of joy that I feel I’m going to bust, and again my words feel inadequate for what I’m feeling. And so I praise in tongues. Very often as Brooke leads us in worship - and she does such a good job of choosing gospel centered songs - that I just begin to praise God in tongues because of the joy welling up in me.

Tongues is for self-edification. Tongues, when practiced privately, builds up the speaker. 1 Corinthians 14:4 “Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves...” And this is totally ok. When we come to church our focus should be on God and on others, not ourselves. But in our private prayer life, it is good and needful to edify your own spirit. To build up yourself. A fairly recent study among those with chronic depression found that that who speaks in tongues have less severe depression. It is for the self-edifying purpose that I believe anyone can ask for and receive the gift of tongues.

So this is what Paul gives as the purpose for tongues. What about the purpose of prophecy?

1 Corinthians 14:3–4 “On the other hand, those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation… those who prophesy build up the church.”

Prophecy is for building up, encouraging, and consoling. These words in Greek carry shades of similar meanings, the main point is that prophecy should strengthen the church. It should bring comfort to those who are in trying circumstances. Those who have lost a loved one or who are facing financial crisis. In moments of pain people need more than our best thoughts or our clever counsel. They need a word from God!

Prophecy should put courage into people to step out in faith or to keep going and to not quit. If someone is considering a major life change, like taking a new job or getting married or leaving a job for ministry, and someone came up to them and said, “I know this may sound weird, but I was praying and I feel like the Lord wanted me to tell you ‘I am with you in your new venture, don’t be afraid’”, how encouraging do you think that would be?

I’ll tell you a very recent story of how a prophetic word strengthened me. I do a class on Wednesday called Foundations. We had had a couple of weeks off because my wife made me go to Canada, and turnout was way down and I was just struggling with whether or not I was connecting with people. On the way home, I began facing the frequent doubts about being in ministry. I don’t see much fruit. Maybe I’m out of place or God didn’t really call me to ministry. He did remind me before I pulled into my driveway that I don’t get to pick what my fruit looks like, but it didn’t feel all that helpful at the moment.

I sat down to watch some TV before bed when I felt my phone vibrate. It was a message from someone who was in class that evening, my friend Brandi. Here is what she said:

“Hi Kevin. Sorry for keeping Julie out so long... I wanted to tell you, rather, two things: 1. As far as i can tell, you have no reason to shame, doubt, and/ or not have confidence in yourself. 2. Often, you confirm what the spirit is telling me... 2.1 This evening, you might not have thought you were doing a good job.. being thorough enough, but you reiterated what the Spirit has been telling me throughout this week... so fact is, you were doing a divine job indeed. 2.2 I had no questions because you covered them in your teachings. 2.3 I want you to have something tangible to see.. that though you may be unaware, you provide that outward/ exterior evidence of the internal/inward promises of God through your teachings. You are doing more of his work than it may appear to you. ... So I think you should not shame or be so critical of yourself. Of course, it is better to be exalted by God than by ourselves, but I think it is equally important not to shame or misjudge yourself.”

I don’t know if Brandi thought she was giving a prophetic word in the moment, but how encouraging do you think that was for me? I sat down to watch TV that evening with my sails pretty well empty. And in just a matter of second, they were full again through the breathe of the Spirit. By her words - the Spirit’s words - I felt strength enter me again.

I believe God wants this to be a regular part of our Christian experience. I’m convinced God desires to speak to us, to encourage us, to lead, guide, and direct us. He wants us to encounter him in all his glory and fullness. Let’s don’t settle for scraps when God wants to lay a feast before us!

Let me just close by circling back around to the beginning, that what drives all of this spiritual activity and divine encounter is love - the love of God, and love for God and for one another. I’ll close with Paul’s final word on the subject of tongues and prophecy. 1 Corinthians 14:39–40 “So, my friends, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues; but all things should be done decently and in order.”

Maybe some of you are struggling with deep depression. You feel a constant sink hole inside you. Why not ask God today for the gift of tongues? Because of its personal edification nature I believe God would give anyone this gift.

Whether you realize it or not, you are surrounded by people - like me - who need encouragement or consolation. Why not ask God to give you the gift of prophecy so that you can offer his words of life to others?