Tongues
and the Interpretation of Tongues
To
another [are given] different kinds of tongues, to another the
interpretation of tongues. —1 Corinthians 12:10
The
manifestations of tongues and the interpretation of tongues are so
closely related that it would be very difficult to deal with one
without the other, and I believe that it will be very profitable for
you if I explain the two together. Why tongues? Why has God brought
this gift into operation? There is a reason. If there were not a
reason, it would not be there.
I
love the concept of “God over all, through all, in all.” I love
the concept that God has all power over all the powers of the
Enemy—in the heavenlies, on the earth, and under the earth. Where
can you go where He is not present (Ps. 139:7–12)?
Why
did God design it all? You must see with me that the gift of tongues
was never in evidence before the Holy Spirit came.
Interpretation
of Tongues
The
Spirit leads and will direct every thought, and so bring into your
hearts the fruit, until the fruit in your own life will be a
manifestation that God is truly in you. May the Lord grant that to
us. That is a very important word.
The
old dispensation was very wonderful in prophetic utterances. Every
person, whoever he is, who receives the Holy Spirit will have
prophetic utterances in the Spirit unto God or in a human language
supernaturally coming forth, so that all the people will know that it
is the Spirit. This is the reason we want all the people filled with
the Holy Spirit: they are to be prophetic. When a prophecy is given,
it means that God has a thought, a word in season, that has never
been in season before—things both new and old. The Holy Spirit
brings things to pass! So when God fulfilled the promise, when the
time was appointed (and it is a wonderful appointment), the Holy
Spirit came and filled the apostles. The gift that had never been in
operation before came into operation that wonderful day in the Upper
Room, and for the first time in all of history, men were speaking in
a new order; it was not an old language, but language that was to be
interpreted.
This
is very profound because we recognize that God is speaking. No man
understands it. The Spirit is speaking, and the Spirit opens the
revelation that they will have, without adulteration; God’s word
flows through the whole place.
Tongues
are a wonderful display of this; they are to revive the people; they
are to give new depths of thought. If you ever want to know why the
Holy Spirit was greatly needed, you will find it in the third chapter
of Ephesians. You will be amazed. The language is wonderful. Paul
said that he was “the least of all the saints” (Eph. 3:8), and
yet God had called him to be a “minister” (v. 7). His language is
wonderful, and yet he felt in his heart and life that there was
something greater, that the Spirit had him, and he bowed his knees
unto the Father (v. 14).
You
cannot find in all the Scriptures words with such profound fruit as
those that ring through the verses of Paul’s remarkable prayer in
the Holy Spirit. He prayed “that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19), and “that you…may be able to
comprehend with all the saints” (vv. 17–18). He prayed that you
may be able to ask and think, and think and ask, and that it will not
only be abundantly but that it will also be “exceeding abundantly
above all that” you can “ask or think” (v. 20). There is a man
closing down and the Holy Spirit praying.
To
this end He brings you together that He might pour into you the
hidden treasure, for it is in you. God has refined you, first
cleansed you, made you just like a vessel that He might dwell in you
and make all His acquaintance with you, that the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit should be primary over you, and you should just be
exalted in Him, not in yourself, but He should have the glory.
The
Reason for Tongues
You
may have heard that three years ago I was in Los Angeles. God’s
blessing was upon those meetings. Some of you remember blessings
received. But since the time I left, you have not known what I have
done, because you have not been with me; you do not live with me. I
might have lost anointing or favor with God. I might be like many
people today who have lived holy lives and have received holy
language, but now are living in a backslidden condition, a life that
is not worthy of the language. There are people today who have lived
holy lives, preached sanctification, and their language has been
helpful, but something has come in the way. They have kept their
language. They have lost their zeal and fire, but they still hold
onto the language. This can take place in anyone’s life. So I ask
you, you who think you stand, “take heed lest [you] fall” (1 Cor.
10:12). You cannot play with this. I would like you to know that the
speaker is no good unless he judges himself every day. If I do not
judge myself, I will be judged (1 Cor. 11:31). It is not sufficient
for me to have your good word; I must have the Master’s good word.
It is no good to me if I look good to you. If there were one thing
between me and God, I would not dare to come onto this platform
unless I knew that God had made me holy, for they who bear the
vessels of the Lord must be holy unto the Lord (Isa. 52:11). And I
praise God because I know:
His
blood can make the vilest clean,
His
blood can make the vilest clean,
His
blood avails for me,
His
blood avails for me.
Holiness!
Whiteness! Purity! Zeal!
“Grieve
not the Holy Spirit whereby you are saved,” but “let everything
be done decently and in order” so that God will have preeminence in
all things and Christ will reign over the house, even His house, of
which He says, “Whose house you are if you hold fast the profession
of your faith without doubting.” So God is bringing us this morning
to this holy place to bring us to see that we must only obey the
Spirit.
When
a Prophet Is out of God’s Will As I said, you do not know what has
taken place in my life since I was here. When the good people of the
Angelus Temple wired to see if I could give them June or July, they
did not know that I was still living in the center of God’s holy
will. Because I am only a man, it is possible that I may have grieved
the Spirit. When I got up to speak here, what I said might have been
only formal language without unction, nothing that would move the
people. In this type of situation, someone in the place—and this is
what tongues are for—someone in the place who is hungry for God and
cannot rest because he is not getting the cream of the truth would
begin travailing and groaning in the Spirit and speaking in tongues.
Another person would travail in the same way, receiving the
interpretation of these tongues, and would arise and give that
interpretation, thus lifting the people where the prophet could not
because he was out of the will of God.
To
Know the Mind of God
Then,
you ask, what about situations in which you are preaching and
prophesying and we are all getting blessed, and then we have tongues?
From
time to time as I speak, I am so full of the glory and of the joy
that my body is more full than my language can express. Then,
instantly, the Spirit pours forth His word in tongues, and the power
of God just lifts the whole place into revelation and words of life
far beyond where we were.
Therefore,
the church is to come together so that in the Spirit, the power of
God can fall on Mary or John or William or Henry and move them,
until, with the power of God moving through them, the people get the
mind of God.
How
to Use Tongues Correctly
In
the fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, we have very definite
instructions about tongues: If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there
be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But
if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let
him speak to himself and to God.(1 Cor. 14:27–28)
There
are three types of tongues, and the spiritual law concerning them is
laid down in the Scriptures. But before we come to that, we must
understand verse thirtytwo of 1 Corinthians 14, or else there will be
no success in this place: “And the spirits of the prophets are
subject to the prophets.”
Yield
to the Holy Spirit
Unless
you adhere to this word, every assembly where you are will be broken
up, and you will cause trouble. Until you come to a right
understanding of the Scriptures, you will never be pleasing to God.
You are not to consider, under any circumstances, that, because you
have a spiritual gift, it is right for you to use that gift, unless
the unction of the Spirit is upon you.
You
have to be very careful that you never use tongues and interpretation
in confusion with prophecy. When prophecy is going forth and the
truth is being heard and all the people are receiving it with joy and
are being built up, then there is no room for tongues or
interpretation. But just at the time when the language in my heart
seems too big to express, then tongues come forth and God looses the
whole thing, and we get a new purpose in that. So you who have this
wonderful gift of tongues must see to it that you never break in
where the Spirit is having perfect right of way. But when the Spirit
is working with you and you know there is a line of truth that the
Lord desires to express, then let the name of God be glorified.
You
see, God wants everything to be in perfect order by the Spirit. That
is why Paul said, “If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two
or at the most three” (1 Cor. 14:27). You will never find me
speaking if three have spoken before me. And you will never find me
interpreting any word in tongues if three have spoken already. This
is in order to keep the bonds of peace in the body so that the people
will not be weary, because there are some people who have known
nothing about what is right.
Unless
you come to the Word of God, you will be in confusion and you will be
in judgment. God does not want you to be in confusion or in judgment,
but He wants you to be built up by the Scriptures, for the Scriptures
are clear. If the Lord reveals truth to me, and if I have said
anything previously in relation to this that has not been absolutely
scriptural, I will no longer say it. I allow God’s Word to be my
judge. If I find that anything I have said is not scriptural, I
repent before God. As God is my Judge, I never say anything unless I
believe it is the sincere truth. But if I find out later that it is
not exactly in the most perfect keeping with the Word of God, I never
say it again. I believe there is a place to come to in which, after
we have repented of a thing, we never have to repent of that thing
anymore. I pray that God will give us that kind of superabundant
revelation of common sense. It is because there is not a
superabundant revelation of common sense that everybody is using
nonsense. May the Lord help us to be true to God first; then, if we
are true to God, we will be true to ourselves. Let God be first in
the choice of our desires and our plans. Jesus must be glorified.
In
1 Corinthians 14:30 we read: “If anything is revealed to another
who sits by, let the first keep silent.” I hope that someday the
church will so completely come into its beauty that if I am preaching
and you have a revelation on that very thing, a deep revelation from
God, and if you stand, I will stop preaching at that moment. Why?
Because the Scripture says that if, when a prophet is speaking,
anything is revealed to someone in the audience, let the first hold
his peace and then let that other one speak. Then the Scripture
says, “For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and
all may be encouraged” (v. 31). This refers to the one who is
preaching. He may be led to hold his peace while one in the midst of
the congregation speaks his line of thought that is divinely
appointed; then, after he finishes, another may have a prophecy, and
he may get up, and so on, until you may have several who have
prophesied and you have such revelations in this manner that the
whole church is ablaze. I believe that God is going to help us so
that we might be sound in mind, right in thought, holy in judgment,
separated unto God, and one in the Spirit. Imagine all the people in
this place being comforted and edified and going away from the church
feeling that they have been in the presence of God, just because they
have been obedient to the will of God.
Allow
me to say this, and then you judge it afterward. You are not in the
right place if you do not judge what I say. You are not to swallow
everything I say; you are to judge everything I say by the
Scriptures. But you must always use righteous judgment. Righteous
judgment is not judging through condemnation, but it is judging
something according to the Word of God. Righteous judgment is not
focused on criticism, but righteous judgment judges the truth of
something. In this way, the church may receive edification so that
all the people may be built up according to the Word of God. That is
the right judgment. Perhaps not everyone will affirm and believe what
I have to say about this. However, I truly affirm and believe,
because God has thus revealed it to me, that the words “Let there
be two or at the most three, each in turn” (1 Cor. 14:27) mean
that very often the speaker will not have finished his message after
giving the first insight. So often I have seen in an assembly of
believers that the first person has spoken and the Spirit of the Lord
has been mightily upon him, but the anointing is such that he did not
finish his message with his first insight of truth, and he realizes
that he is not through with that message. He speaks in the Spirit
again, and we feel that the tide is
higher.
Then he speaks a third time, and the tide is higher still, and then
he stops.
This
has led me to believe that “each in turn” (1 Cor. 14:27) means
that one person may be permitted to speak in tongues three times in
one meeting. In our conferences in England, we very often have nine
utterances in tongues, but there will only be three people speaking.
You can have nine, but it is not necessary unless the Lord is
prompting it. Sometimes I find that the Spirit will take us through
in prophecy in such a way that there will not be more than one,
sometimes two people speaking. If I am correct, and I believe I am
correct when I say this, when we are full of prophecy, the Spirit has
taken our hearts and has moved them by His power. When this happens
to me, I speak as fast as I can, but I am not expressing my own
thoughts. The Holy Spirit is the thought, the language, and
everything; the power of the Spirit is speaking. And when the power
of the Holy Spirit is speaking like this, there is no need for
tongues or interpretation because you are getting right from the
throne the very language of the heart and the man. Then when the
person’s language gives out, the Spirit will speak and the Lord
will give tongues and interpretation, and that will lift the whole
place.
“At
the most three.” Don’t say four or five, but three at the most.
The Holy Spirit says it.
Now,
three things are important before we go further.
Three
Types of Tongues
There
are three types of tongues, and this is where the confusion comes in;
this is where the people judge you, and this is where people have
gone wrong. I know, and every person who interprets tongues knows,
that there is an intuition of divine appointment at this time. Every
person who has been given the interpretation of tongues when they
have had nothing before them except the glory of God will agree with
this. Now, the first type of tongues is when people are receiving the
Holy Spirit, and they speak in tongues as an evidence of their
baptism.
There
is another approach to tongues when you are in a prayer meeting. You
need to know exactly one thing: if you are in a prayer meeting when
people are praying in the Spirit, never seek the interpretation. The
Scripture declares it clearly: “For he who speaks in a tongue does
not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in
the spirit he speaks mysteries” (1 Cor. 14:2). You will find that
in a prayer meeting people will pray and speak in the Spirit, but it
will be unto God and not for interpretation. Do not try to seek
interpretation, for if you do you will find it is wrong. Never under
any circumstances expect tongues to be interpreted where it is
continually routine—the same and the same and the same. It is a
spiritual language, but it is not a gift. What is it? You will find
that it is adoration. It happens when the soul has been in a real
definite position with God. Do not seek interpretation.
The
third type of tongues is for interpretation. What type of tongues is
this? “Different kinds of tongues” (1 Cor. 12:10). What are these
“different kinds of tongues”? They are languages with perfect
syllables. When a person gets up with a perfect language by the
Spirit, you will find it is decisive, it is instructive, it is lovely
to hear, it is divine in its appointment. It has to have
interpretation because God is speaking to us in words that are not in
our native language.
Tongues
are to bring forth revelation and power in the church, to save it
from lack and from being bound. Tongues and interpretation are for
liberty among the people, to lift the saints and fill the place with
the glory. God will open this to you; you will see what it means to
have people among you full of the Spirit, and you will long to get
the Spirit’s mind.
The
Interpretation of Tongues
Now,
what is the interpretation of tongues? Interpretation is given by the
same Spirit who moved the person with tongues. They are so moved by
the power of the Spirit that they are in a place where they know that
what God was burning within had to come out. It is a common
occurrence for me, after I give an interpretation, to meet people at
the door as I go out who say, “Oh, that interpretation was lovely!
I had it, too.” Another will come and say, “Oh, that
interpretation was beautiful! I had it, you know.”
I
have had three in one meeting say that to me. “Oh, the
interpretation was lovely! I had it.”
Is
it true? No. There is no truth in it at all. Why? No interpreter has
the interpretation, not one. I haven’t got it myself. Then what do
they have? They have the spirit of it. They knew it was the spirit of
it, and they knew it was according to the mind of God. They got the
sense of the knowledge that God was speaking and that it was the
Spirit, and they knew it was right. The interpreter never has it.
Why? Because he is in the channel where the Spirit is breathing every
word. He does not get the word, the sentences and everything,
ready-made. The Spirit breathes the whole thing, and the interpreter
speaks as the Spirit gives utterance (Acts 2:4). So it is as divine
and as original as the throne of God.
I
want to show you the difference between genuine and false tongues.
There are some people who get up and speak in tongues who give a
little bit of tongues, and then a little more, and a little more, and
they repeat themselves. Never give interpretation to such
foolishness. There are other people who get up and profess to
interpret it, and they stutter and stammer, giving a word now and
then. Is that interpretation? No. Do you think that the Holy Spirit
is short of language? If you are stammering and stuttering and giving
a word of interpretation now and then, don’t believe it. It is not
of God. What is it, then? People are waiting while some word in their
minds comes forth, and they are giving you their minds. It is not
interpretation.
I
say all these things to save you from foolishness, to save you from
people who want to be somebody. The Holy Spirit has shown me that all
the time He is helping me, I have to be nothing. There is not a place
where any man can ever be anything. It is in the death, union, and
likeness of Christ that He becomes all in all. If we have not gone to
death in the baptism of the Spirit, it shows me that we are
altogether out of order.
The
Spirit of the Lord has been speaking to you. I have felt the unction,
I have realized the power, I have been speaking as fast as I could
get it out, and the Spirit has given everything. For once in our
lifetimes, we have been in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We have
been where there has been the manifestation of the glory, where God
is speaking to our hearts, where He is bringing us to a place of
inhabitation in the Spirit.
We
need to cherish this meeting as a holy meeting with God. See that you
are built squarely on the authority of God. See that your testimony
on salvation, sanctification, the gifts, the baptism, is biblical.
Then you cannot be troubled by the Enemy. You will be above the
Enemy; you will be able to say to the Enemy, “Get thee behind me”
(Matt. 16:23 kjv), and he will get!
What
are you ready for now? Are you ready for anything? Don’t forget
you have to go over the top. The top of what? The top of yourself,
the top of your opinions and fancies and whims and foolish acts. You
have to dethrone them; you have to have a biblical building; you have
to be in the Scriptures. “For God has not given us a spirit of
fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).
When
people say to me, “Oh, I have nervous symptoms; I have a nervous
weakness,” I know immediately that only one thing is wrong. What is
it? It is a lack of knowing the Word. “Perfect love casts out
fear.” And there is no torment, no fear, in love (1 John 4:18). I
want you to get the Word of God into your heart until the demon power
has no power over you. You are over the powers of fear. Then I want
you to understand that
the
baptism of the Holy Spirit is a love beyond any you have ever had;
you are to have power after the Holy Spirit comes, and it is power
over the Enemy, over yourself, and over your human mind. Self has to
be dethroned, Christ has to be enthroned, and the Holy Spirit has to
enlarge His position.
Go
over the top and never slide down again the back way. If you go, you
go forward, and you go into victory from victory, triumphing over the
Enemy, having liberty in your captivity (see Ephesians 4:8), rightly
rejoicing in the triumph of God.
Faith
is the victory (1 John 5:4). Faith is the operation in your heart.
Faith is the stimulation of the life of the Master. When you stand in
faith, you are in a position in which God can take you to the place
where you are “over all” (Luke 10:19) by the power of God.
Believe that no power of the Enemy will have power over you. Rebuke
him. Stand on the authority of the Word and go forth into victory. I
want you to be saved, healed, and blessed through what God’s Word
says.
