Touré Roberts - How To Speak In Tongues

What I want to leave you with today, and I believe in this season, may be one of the most important expressions of the Spirit, and this expression of the Spirit is Thomas, his Thomas. It’s interesting; it’s almost as if he saves the best for last. If we go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, kind of at the end of verse 10, he talks about the discerning of spirits. Then he goes on to talk about different kinds of tongues, and he says, «to another, the interpretation of tongues,» various different kinds of tongues, and «to another, the interpretation of tongues.» So, let’s talk about that for a second. He says, first of all, there are a variety of tongues. Tongues literally means languages, not this crazy thought. Tongues means languages. So, the first type of tongue is your natural language. It’s what you were taught; it’s what you grew up understanding. It could be English, it could be Spanish, it could be whatever you came from; it could be Farsi, it could be Arabic, and that’s a language that you were taught. So, that’s one type of tongue, and this is a tongue that man taught you.

Then, there are other tongues. If you go to Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit fell on the day of Pentecost, it says all those who were in the upper room began to speak with other tongues. These were known languages, but they were languages that they did not learn, so that was the miracle of tongues at Pentecost. They weren’t talking to God, which we’ll get into; that’s the third type of tongue. They were speaking known languages, and it was a miracle because people thought, «How do they know?» They were communicating to people in the birth language of those they were addressing, and that was the miracle. In other words, there were some—these guys were Jewish; they spoke Hebrew—but they were speaking in African dialects, in Asian dialects, and all of this without ever having learned those languages. So, that is a supernatural release of language in the individual’s life, but this is a known language. Although it is supernaturally induced, it is still human language, right?

So, we’ve got language as it relates to what we’ve learned, our parents taught us our language, our culture influenced our language. Then, there’s spiritual, supernatural language, where you can speak a language that you did not learn, right? That’s what we saw at Pentecost. But then, there’s another type of language, and this is what I want us to focus on because I think this is a very important expression of the Spirit, particularly now. This particular language is what I like to call a heavenly language. If you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 13, it gives you a little bit of insight into it. In chapter 13, verse 1, Paul says, «If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels,» so we know that there are men’s tongues—the first two that we talked about are the tongues of men. Even though you can supernaturally know a language that you had not been taught, it’s still a man’s language.

But then, there is the angelic or heavenly language, and that’s what I want to spend my time on because I believe it is imperative that all of God’s children understand and embrace this expression of the Spirit. It is not just for a few; it’s for everybody. It’s a spiritual language, and I want to spend these last two or three hours talking about it. So, let’s look quickly at 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verses 1 through 5. In verse 1, it says, «Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts.» The word gifts is actually added; it says, «desire the spiritual,» which is how it’s really worded. It says, «But especially that you may prophesy.» He’s promoting prophecy over all the gifts, and I understand why, because prophets will tell you.

It says, «For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God.» This ultimately means that this is personal. I’m not speaking to you. If I speak in tongues—and I try not to, but if it comes, I’ll just do it. I’m not ashamed of it, right? But know that if I ever speak in tongues, I’m not talking to you. So, if you are ever offended by it, you really shouldn’t be, because this is not a conversation between us. You heard it, but it had nothing to do with you, I don’t think, unless it was a devil in you, then I was talking to God about you. I’m kidding! But when I pray in tongues, when I speak or pray in tongues, I’m talking to God, right? That’s what it says. This is important, and you’re going to see why it can be greatly argued that tongues are for everybody. How they said, «For he who speaks,» verse 2, «for he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God.» He says, «For no one understands him, not supposed to.» It says, «However, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.» Oh, there’s so much there! He speaks mysteries. Some of the needs that you have are oblivious to you. Sometimes you don’t…