1 Corinthians 14:4-28 “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. … (27) If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. (28) But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God.”
One who speaks in other tongues also builds himself up in his spirit, i.e. they become that much stronger in their spirit. It is of great benefit to the believer to grow strong in spirit, for you will recall that our Lord Jesus, when He walked this earth, also grew strong in spirit (Luke 2:40). Weak Christians have weak spirits while strong Christians have strong spirits. All believers come into the kingdom of God as babes in Christ, and it is our spirits that are born into the kingdom as babes. And so, it is our spirits that need to grow and mature in Christ. One of the ways in which we enable our spirits to grow, is by praying in the spirit. So why is that? The reason is because our spirits understand the language that they are speaking. Remember that when we pray in tongues, that it is only our minds that are unfruitful. And so, our spirits are edified as they hear what God the Holy Spirit is giving them to pray to the Father. The scripture quoted above, says that when we speak in tongues that we not only speak to God, but we also speak to ourselves at the same time. The “ourselves” that the scripture is referring to, is our spirits. The bible teaches us to desire the sincere milk of God’s word, so that we may grow thereby (1 Peter 2:2). And so, every word uttered in tongues has the effect of feeding our spirits on the pure word of God, and that word spoken causes our spirits to grow stronger every time we pray. The same scripture also tells us that we edify our spirits when we speak in tongues. The word translated “edify” means to build up.
Michael E.B. Maher
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