Tongues for the everyday man

S. SEKOU ABODUNRIN


There are some who are convinced that speaking in tongues is mysterious and complex jabbering and as such steer clear of it. The following is written to present to you a look at some internals with the hope that doubts will be dispelled and you’d yield your tongue over for the Father’s use.

You remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus? [See Lk 16: 19 – 31]
I want you to notice the following facts drawn from the passage.

… The rich man also died, and was buried
Lk16: 22b
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham
Lk 16:23a

According to the things that Jesus taught in this passage, when a man dies and is buried, that is not the end. This is because a man said to be dead and buried is spoken of as “lifting up his eyes” elsewhere. This shows that death is a transition.

This man was buried as the passage shows and since the passage is true, we can be sure that this man was truly buried. If you had been there on the day of his burial you’d have noticed that his body was buried, yet it is said that in hell, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off. This could not be his physical eye as that has been buried in the tomb. This shows that the man had another set of eyes that were fitted for use in the new place where he was.

Consider that the man saw with his eyes in hell. You wonder, “what’s great about that, right? This shows that you do not suddenly start seeing with your toe in the spirit realm. This earth is a copy of the realm of the spirit. On earth you see with your eyes, in the spirit realm also there are eyes with which we can see. The difference is that these eyes are spiritual. Just like there is order and pattern in the physical earth, there is order and pattern in the spirit realm.

And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue Lk16:24

You notice that though both the rich man and Lazarus were dead as far as people on earth could see, the rich man talked of Lazarus dipping the tip of his finger in water. This implies that Lazarus, in that other realm had fingers and by extension the rich man had a tongue.

Thus far we have seen that he doesn’t say my eye is thirsty, nor does he say cooling his nostrils will handle this thirst. This shows that just like you quench thirst in the natural through the tongue, so it is also in the spirit - the eyes, finger and tongue in the spirit realm are used for the same purposes that they are used for on earth.

Fingers are part of the hand; hence Lazarus, Abraham, and the rich man must have hands. The tongue, on earth, is situated in the human head, therefore if there is a tongue over in that other realm, we can be assured they are located in the head, only that in this case they are spirit heads. Since the head is the centre of intelligence and reasoning, we can conclude that in his head the rich man possesses intelligence in the spirit realm. This gets interesting. Within the head we have the physical brain, which controls what the physical body can do. Your spirit also possesses a “brain”, and this brain is used for the control of the spirit eyes, the spirit tongue and the spirit finger.

But Abraham said, Son, remember Lk16:25a

Jesus would not be putting a lie in father Abraham’s mouth. What Abraham said therefore must be true – man has a capacity for intelligence and recall of facts without the use of his physical brain. The man was required to “remember”. There is a capacity within your human spirit for obtaining and retaining facts – in fact the rich man could recall the exact number of brothers that he had!

For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. 1 Cor14: 14

We have enough background information to understand and demystify tongues now. Paul said that it is our human spirit that prays in tongues. Then he goes one step further to show that tongues does not proceed from the human mind, for the understanding is unfruitful – so tongues is of the human spirit.

A tongue then is a definite language known to the human spirit, but unknown to the mind of the speaker. It is a language that is generated from the human spirit and it bypasses the mind of the speaker hence it is devoid of mental limitations.

Your spirit uses the spirit mind to generate this language; just like mental energy generates the language you speak every day. Your human spirit, using the mind of the spirit has a language. Your spiritual tongue is used to form these spiritual words, just like your natural tongue forms natural words. The difference is that when you are speaking in tongues, your physical tongue is the physical medium for expressing what your spiritual tongue has to say. The plain truth is that just like your physical tongue can express your mind, your physical tongue through the avenue of “speaking in tongues” can express your spirit.

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance Acts2:4

You now have enough light to shine on this verse. We know that the human spirit speaks in tongues, which flows from your spirit’s own tongue and that your physical tongue can express this out audibly.

The beautiful thing is that the Holy Spirit gives the utterance or energy that drives this whole process. You recognise that whatever the Holy Spirit does, he does by the anointing. This utterance then is really anointing.

The Holy Spirit gives this anointing [utterance] to your spirit, your spirit has the words formed by its tongue, and this is sent to the physical tongue of man bypassing his mind. In simple terms, the anointing of God, communicated to you by the Holy Spirit has been given to your spirit in a process that makes you speak this out in the physical world without the interference of the human mind!

.... to be continued [laughs]