TONGUE SPEAKING: PRIVATE PRAYERS

The use of prayer tongues in the private prayers of believers is one of the practices taught in some Pentacostal and charismatic groups. Here are five advantages to praying in tongues given by Kenneth Copeland Ministries along with respective proof texts and my comments:

    1. “When you pray in tongues, you are praying God's will, directly to Him. It allows your mind to get out of the way so your spirit can commune with the Father.” (I Corinthians 14:2)

The whole context of I Corinthians 14 involves Paul's teachings regarding the proper use of the spiritual gifts in a group setting. Therefore it is somewhat of a stretch to apply those same principles to the situation of one's private prayers. Secondly, if one reads the whole chapter, it becomes very obvious that Paul's overwhelming goal is to de-emphasize that church's stress on tongues and point them to the importance of prophesying instead. Thus, verse 2 needs to be read as a marked contrast to verse 3.

In addition, just because verse 2 says that one praying in tongues is doing so directly to God, that does not at all imply that other prayers in recognizable languages are somehow not being directed to Him. Paul's meaning is that prayers in tongues are only understood by God and are nonsense to anyone else hearing them.

Thirdly, in three of the stated advantages to tongue-praying (#'s 1, 2, and 4), it is mentioned that such prayers are “praying God's will.” That may well be true, but it is never stated as such in the New Testament. And even if that is so, it certainly doesn't place them on a higher plane than regular prayers. Remember that even Jesus followed his prayers in Gethsemane with the proviso “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” And that is the surest pattern we have to go on.”

Finally, the so-called advantage of your mind getting out of the way during such prayers is completely contradicted by what Paul says in 14:14-15: “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unproductive. What should I then do? I will pray with the spirit but also with the mind...” I suppose it is possible to interpret these words to say that these are two mutually exclusive categories of prayer, each of which should be employed at separate times. But that is an absurd interpretation because it would be saying that any prayer that employs one's mind is an un-spiritual prayer. The only acceptable interpretation is that Paul is saying he will pray using both his mind and spirit at the same time, in other words, in a recognizable language.

    2. “Tongues is a gift from God. It allows you to pray the will of God by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. When you pray in tongues, you are yielding to the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. Then you are allowing that same Spirit to pray through you, so you are in tune with Him.” (Acts 2:4)

Again, the context of the passage cited is the one-time event at Pentacost and almost certainly involves a different sort of tongue-speaking as the present situation (see my post on Tongue-Speaking: Pentacost). And even if the same principle can be said to apply here, this verse actually contradicts the contention of the Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Their statement starts out in the right direction by saying that tongues are a gift from God since that is exactly the thrust of Acts 2:4. But that is quite different from then stating that you are the one who is “empowering” the Spirit and “allowing” the Spirit to work through you. Acts 2:4 says nothing about the apostles doing anything at all; it is the Holy Spirit's initiative throughout.

    3. “Praying in tongues builds you up spiritually and helps you live a Spirit-filled life.” (I Corinthians 14:4)

The contention that tongue-praying helps you live a Spirit-filled life is an editorial comment found nowhere in the cited passage. More importantly, though, is that the whole of verse 4 must be taken into account, not just the first half: “Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves, but those who prophesy build up the church.” In other words, if you want to selfishly demonstrate a gift that benefits only you, why aren't you instead seeking to exercise a gift that builds others up instead?

    4. “Even when you don't know how or what to pray, you can still pray...in tongues. You can trust your spirit to pray the perfect will of God, regardless of the situation.” (Romans 8:26)

If that were so, then why did Jesus not pray in tongues in Gethsemane instead of doing so in recognizable words and then handing it over to God for His will to be done? It appears that is the pattern we should follow to ensure that we are praying God's will at all times.

The second problem with quoting Romans prove a point is that tongue-speaking and tongue-praying are mentioned nowhere in the whole letter. It is only an unproven assumption that the “sighs, or groans” in that verse refer to tongue-speaking. Instead, the whole passage makes perfect sense in the context of “normal” prayers in which we need guidance as to what to pray for and how to word our thoughts. We can rely on the fact that God knows what we are trying to say, even before we voice it.

    5. “Jesus proclaimed several things that would happen to those who followed Him and continued His work. Speaking in tongues is one of those gifts, and it allows Jesus' followers to stand against the work of the enemy [i.e. the devil].” (Mark 16:15-18)

This last point is without a doubt the weakest of the five. Unless one happens to be relying solely on the King James Version of the Bible, consultation with any modern translation will indicate that those verses of Mark were added at a much later date and do not even belong in the Bible. I won't go into all the reasons why that is true. But if you are interested, read my post on The Ending of the Gospel of Mark.

Even if one chooses to treat these verses as genuine, they do not at all say that it is tongue-speaking that is enabling us to stand against the devil's works. Actually, it is the only sign of the five listed in that passage that does not involve combating various forms of evil.