Acts 2:4 “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Under the old covenant the saints could not be born-again because Jesus had not yet gone to the cross. In other words they were spiritually dead people, even though righteousness had been accounted to them by faith. And so because they were spiritually dead they could not be filled with the Holy Spirit. Under the new covenant however, the saints are born-again, i.e. they are spiritually alive, for it is the spirit of the saint which is born-again and it is the spirit which has become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). And so because our spirits have been made alive, the saints under the new covenant can be filled with the Holy Spirit. There are many benefits to being filled with the Holy Spirit, one of which is that He gives us the gift of speaking in other tongues. In the above quoted passage of scripture we see the account of the saints being filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and we see that all of them were given the gift of other tongues. Every saint that is filled with the Spirit will speak in tongues, for that is the main evidence for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. So what is the reason that the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of other tongues? In order to understand the reason we need to understand what other tongues is. It is a supernatural language that is given to the born-again spirit of the believer.
1 Corinthians 14:15 “What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.”
In the previous section we looked at what we should pray for with our understanding. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul teaches us that we are called to pray with our understanding, but that we are also called to pray with our spirit. In fact significantly in this passage, Paul places praying with the spirit before praying with the understanding. And so in this section we want to discuss the concept of praying with our spirits.
1 Corinthians 14:14 “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.”
So what is the apostle Paul referring to when He tells us in the previous passage to pray with the spirit? He is referring to praying in tongues, for in the above quoted passage of scripture Paul teaches us that when believers pray in tongues they are in fact praying with their spirits. Paul goes on to teach us in this passage that when we pray in tongues that it is in fact our spirit that is praying, and that our understanding (mind) does not play any part in this type of prayer. And so we see why God chose to give the New Testament saints the gift of tongues. It is so that their born-again spirits can pray directly to God, unhindered by their limited understanding.
Michael E.B. Maher
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