David Diga Hernandez - Can Every Believer Speak in Tongues?

You’ve heard it said that not every Christian can pray in tongues, but is that really what the Bible teaches? So, can every believer pray in tongues? Is that gift for every Christian? In order to answer this, we have to carefully examine the Scripture because the Word of God is the final authority. Now, when studying the gift of speaking in tongues, you’re going to notice something. You’re going to notice that there are three different expressions of the gift of tongues. This is how I’ve termed them.

Number one: there is the personal tongue. This is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verses 1 through 4. «Let love be your highest goal, but you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives, especially the ability to prophesy. For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won’t be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious. But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them. A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally, but one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church.»

So, a little side note here: it’s important to note that Paul the Apostle is not condemning the gift of tongues. He’s comparing the gift of tongues to the gift of prophecy, saying that the gift of prophecy is better because it benefits the entire church as opposed to just the individual exercising the gift. Now, he does say that the one who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally; you are strengthened in the Spirit when you pray in tongues. So, that’s the personal tongue; it’s self-edification.

Number two: there is the proof tongue. This is the one we see in Acts chapter 2, verses 4-6. «And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. At that time, there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.» So, here we see that when the believers began to speak in tongues, the listeners miraculously heard their own languages as the believers exercised this gift. So, this was assigned to the unbeliever. This is the proof tongue; that’s number two.

Number three: we see the prophetic tongue, and this is the gift of tongues used in the context of a church assembly. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verses 26-28 says, «Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarize. When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, and another will tell some special revelation God has given. One will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you. No more than two or three should speak in tongues; they must speak one at a time, and someone must interpret what they say. But if no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately.»

Now, this is the prophetic expression of the gift of tongues. The way I’ve seen this work is in a church service. There will come a holy reverence over the room; then an individual will stand up and begin to pray out loud in tongues, and then another individual will stand up and give the interpretation for what God is saying through the expression of that gift of tongues. Now, in this portion of Scripture, Paul the Apostle is wanting to avoid fruitless church gatherings, so he did put some boundaries on this specific expression of the gift for the purpose of making sure that everyone who attended the church service was edified.

Can you imagine that you go to a church service, and the worship team sings in tongues, and then the pastor gets up and just prays in tongues for 45 minutes? Then the people at the altar pray for you in tongues for another 10-15 minutes, and you never hear the interpretation of what’s being said? You would leave that place thinking, «I didn’t really receive anything; I wasn’t really edified; I wasn’t helped; I wasn’t informed; I didn’t receive revelation or instruction for my life from the Word of God.» That would be a fruitless gathering. So, Paul the Apostle here is specifically addressing that problem with this expression of the gift. He doesn’t want the collective attention of the assembly of believers to be placed on something that doesn’t edify everyone.

Now, I’ve taught in other teachings very clearly from the Scripture why we should pray in tongues publicly and why we should pray in tongues corporately. In fact, there are examples in the Scripture of praying corporately in tongues. We won’t get into details on that here, but just note that in this prophetic expression, Paul specifically placed these restrictions to ensure that we didn’t have fruitless assemblies when we gathered together. So, you have the personal tongue, the proof tongue, and the prophetic tongue. Let’s embolden the lines of distinction between these three expressions because the Bible does make it clear that there are three expressions.

Notice here that there is a different benefit for each kind of expression. The personal tongue benefits the individual (1 Corinthians 14:4), the prophetic tongue benefits the entire church (1 Corinthians 12:7 and 1 Corinthians 14:26), and the proof tongue benefits the unbeliever (1 Corinthians 14:22). So, you can see that each expression has a different outcome of benefit regarding who it’s benefiting. The personal tongue benefits the individual, the prophetic tongue benefits the entire church, and the proof tongue specifically benefits the unbeliever. Now, look at the different interpretation requirements for each of the expressions.