Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

Christ's Continuing Voice in the Church

theme of verses 1-40: "We are looking at the church gathered for and practicing worship in the public assembly." 7 In the congregational set ting, prophecy is the preferred and most appropriate use of inspired speech, since it is the more meaningful and helpful to the most people. Verse 2. Speaks in a tongue. Some versions and translations can be eva sive and even deceptive about what tongues are. For instance: "unknown tongue" (KJV), "strange tongues" (TEV), "a strange language" (Beck), "lan guage of ecstasy" (NEB), "languages that others don't know" (CEV). The Greek word glosse simply refers to a language, and in this context to a language "you haven't learned" (LB) or, as the NIV says in a footnote, "another language." Happily the New King James Version has dropped the word unknown used in the old Authorized Version. That word was italicized, indicating that the translators knew it was not in the original but felt it added clarification. Unfortunately many have overlooked this important point. Because tongues has an archaic ring and an unfortunate reputation, Jack Hayford suggests calling it "spiritual language" 8 -a term I like very much. This section of 1 Corinthians 14, and most of the chapter, is about two kinds of inspired utterances or spiritual communication, so let me offer a brief definition of each. (See also the definitions in chapter 10.) Both kinds of communication are essential, Paul felt, in maintaining the body life of the Church, but they must be kept in balance and exercised properly. • Tongues or spiritual language: The ability to speak, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in a language not learned through nat ural means. This language is sometimes recognized as an actual for eign language. It is particularly a spiritual language for a devotional relationship with God through prayer, and one the speaker cannot use without the enablement of the Holy Spirit. 9 • Prophecy: The ability to speak, through the inspiration and enable ment of the Holy Spirit, an immediate message from God to a specific group of people in the known language of the speaker and listeners. As a teenager, having newly experienced this phenomenon (as I described in the last chapter), I marveled at the beauty of the experience but wondered at its authenticity as strange, unlearned words tumbled out of my mouth. Later I was startled and amazed to hear veteran mission aryW.W. Patterson tell of the Holy Spirit's activities in Indonesia. A great visitation of God occurred in that Southeast Asian archipelago in the early 1900s when many of the nationals were filled with the Holy Spirit and ■ 214 Are the languages spoken as "tongues" literal languages? This rea sonable question is often raised. 10