Speaking in Tongues and falling out

[Beauty4Ashes]

I think people are getting manifestation of the Holy Spirit and gifts of the Spirit confused. They are different things. (Manifest = to show, reveal) Since we are talking about tongues I will start there. The gift of tongues is actually “divers kinds of tongues” which means many kinds of tongues. If you have the GIFT you are able to speak many DIFFERENT tongues/ languages.

There is also the gift of faith, healing, wisdom, knowledge, etc. If you don’t have the gift of faith, healing, wisdom, etc does that mean you don’t have faith or you can’t heal yourself (i.e. pray for a headache to go away) , of course not! The gifts of the spirit are special endowments of supernatural energy. Every believer can operate in faith, healing, wisdom, etc; however, the actual gift is something “extra”. With that being said, every believer can speak in tongues, just like every believer can operate in faith, wisdom, healing, knowledge, etc, but if it is not your gift you will not have that “extra power” from the Holyghost.

Remember when Jesus said that we would be given the power to cast out devils, heal the sick and more? That was to every believer; not just to those believers with special gifts. It is ok if you never operate in all of these things, every believer has a different measure of faith, and that is what we are judged by. “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (KJV Rom 12:3)

As believers we are not going to agree 100% about interpretations of the Bible; that doesn’t make any of us right or wrong. Every believer is in a different place/level in God. Someone might be living on the milk of the word while another is on the meat. You can only live by what God has shown YOU. As long as you continue to seek God and the full understanding of His Word He will continue to reveal the deeper things of Himself.

 

[Princess4real]

I think people are getting manifestation of the Holy Spirit and gifts of the Spirit confused. They are different things. (Manifest = to show, reveal) Since we are talking about tongues I will start there. The gift of tongues is actually “divers kinds of tongues” which means many kinds of tongues. If you have the GIFT you are able to speak many DIFFERENT tongues/ languages.

There is also the gift of faith, healing, wisdom, knowledge, etc. If you don’t have the gift of faith, healing, wisdom, etc does that mean you don’t have faith or you can’t heal yourself (i.e. pray for a headache to go away) , of course not! The gifts of the spirit are special endowments of supernatural energy. Every believer can operate in faith, healing, wisdom, etc; however, the actual gift is something “extra”. With that being said, every believer can speak in tongues, just like every believer can operate in faith, wisdom, healing, knowledge, etc, but if it is not your gift you will not have that “extra power” from the Holyghost.

Remember when Jesus said that we would be given the power to cast out devils, heal the sick and more? That was to every believer; not just to those believers with special gifts. It is ok if you never operate in all of these things, every believer has a different measure of faith, and that is what we are judged by. “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (KJV Rom 12:3)

As believers we are not going to agree 100% about interpretations of the Bible; that doesn’t make any of us right or wrong. Every believer is in a different place/level in God. Someone might be living on the milk of the word while another is on the meat. You can only live by what God has shown YOU. As long as you continue to seek God and the full understanding of His Word He will continue to reveal the deeper things of Himself.

Excellent post!

 

[MrsHouston]

I am still confused as well. And it seems like so many folks are Pentacostal or CoC who experience this. I guess it is something I need to continue to pray on.

I hope I didn't mislead anyone with my post. I was just quoting what the bible says about the subject matter.

I'm a member of the Church of Christ and I've never experienced speaking in tongues. Nor do I know of any members of the CoC who have or believe that it's done today. As Lauren450 said, in bible days it was done differently than what someone may see in some churches today. It's not done in the Church of Christ.

 

[MrsHouston]

THis is a good post. I have been confused about tongues for a long time. It seems to me that modern-day tongues isn't anything like what was in the Bible.

1 Corinthians 14:26-27
Orderly Worship

26What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 27If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret.

I've never seen tongues interpreted like it is said in the Bible.

28But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.

The gift of tongues in the New Testament was for building up and edifying, and to profit the church. There seems to be no purpose today, aside from a person's personal speaking to God. But that is supposed to be silent. I guess I'm still confused.

I soooo agree.

 

[Nice & Wavy]

I feel you, I'm there also wondering why we don't have it like Christ did back in the day, when he told us that Greater works shall you do.

What Christians have to understand is signs and wonders are not for the believer. I don't need God to ever show up in a pillow of fire or a cloud of smoke. My faith is way beyond that and if I did witness something like that. I'm not going to flock to a church or a man just because he did something out of the ordinary. The scriptures you references deals with that. God wants you to follow him and trust him based on his word, not a sign and a wonder, or a tongue, or someone falling out.

If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then will I hear from heaven and heal their land.

I believe when we the church separate ourselves from the world we'll see God show up greatly. When we put a difference between clean and unclean and holy and unholy.

Today the church does everything the world does and then some and we expect God to be pleased.

Let's bring it home let's look at our own life, what are we doing that God is not pleased with, what can we give up or let go.

Remember the shortness is not in GOD it's in us.

Amen...you hit the nail on the head!

 

[Sweet C]

Laying hands on people and them falling out

What is this about?
In my life as a Christian while in the Church of Christ I kinda judged this I believe that this was a baptist thing people running around shouting and screaming and passing out. And people laying hands on others and they falling to the floor I thought all of that was an act a show. I am now trying to open up my mind and I don't know where to start with this one. Is it real? What are these people feeling? What makes you just fall?

Please don't condemn me because 1 I really am not judging and I honestly don't know what to believe here. I really would like to know individual experiences and I would like to be enlightened and I feel safe in asking here.

*Part 2*

Sorry, ladies, it has taken me a while to get back to this board, but I promised part 2, and as a woman of God, I will keep my word.

The laying on of hands goes back to the OT. In the OT, we see the laying on of hands to pass down a blessing (Gen 48:8-20), ordination (Num 8:10-11), pass down authority (Num 27:18-23), and on sacrifices (Lev 1:4). In the NT, we see Jesus laying hands on children to bless them and pray for them (Mt 19:13) and to heal the sick (Lk 4:40), while in the NT church, we see the laying on of hands is utilized in healing (Acts 28:8), set apart people for leadership or a specific task or work in the ministry (6:3-6:6, 13:3), receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:16-17), and receiving gifts of the Spirit (1 Tim 4:14).

Now the falling out part is something that is not specifically exhibited in scripture and is something I have seen occur whether someone has had hands laid on them or not. The only thing in the scripture that is close to this is when people fell upon their face in the presence of God or to reverence God (Joshua 5:14), when the presence of God fell upon people to prevent them from doing something (2 Chr 17:10), and to reverence a man of God (Acts 10:25).

You have some people who just like to fall out period, particularly in the American church, and the reason why we have “catchers”, is so that the church won’t be held liable if someone falls and hurts themselves. You don’t see this overseas in places like Africa, when you see people fall out, there are no catchers, so if they are falling just to be falling they will hurt themselves. Like you, I was always skeptical of people falling out. Maybe b/c I grew up in a Holiness church, and I saw people who would run around and shout, and then all of a sudden fell out, and I am thinking, you have got to be kidding me? I remember this one man who would fall out precisely at 11:47am (give or take 2 mins) every Sunday, and one time I guess he fell wrong, cause when he hit the ground his face quinted really bad, and he waited a few weeks, b/f he went back into his routine again. B/c of these instances, when I did get saved, I was quite determined that if the Lord wanted me to “fall out”, he was going to have to do.

Based on my own experiences, I have basically come to the conclusion that is not about falling out at all, its just a response that can happen when encountered with the presence of God being heavily upon you. You see I have fell out, and no one has touched me or laid hands on me and no catchers. And I have done so sometimes when people have laid hands or me, and sometimes when people haven’t laid hands, but spoke a Word into my life that was confirmed in my spirit. None of these times have I ever been hurt or even needed a catcher, I just know that it’s a church liability issue, and that is why leadership and ushers fulfill this role.

 

[Mocha5]

Based on my own experiences, I have basically come to the conclusion that is not about falling out at all, its just a response that can happen when encountered with the presence of God being heavily upon you. You see I have fell out, and no one has touched me or laid hands on me and no catchers. And I have done so sometimes when people have laid hands or me, and sometimes when people haven’t laid hands, but spoke a Word into my life that was confirmed in my spirit. None of these times have I ever been hurt or even needed a catcher, I just know that it’s a church liability issue, and that is why leadership and ushers fulfill this role.

SweetC,

Thank you for this post. It really is about the presence of God. ANYTHING is possible in His presence: scripturally based or not. I remember before I was born again, the whole phenomenom of speaking in tongues and resting in the spirit was sooo strange to me. But as I grew in Christ, He began to let me comprehend and see more and more of His power. So I am VERY careful about negating someone elses experience with Him however strange it may seem to me. To do this would be putting limitations on Him. At the end of the day, any experience that causes you to clearly want to magnify His name even more is good, holy and of Christ. PBuckley, I pray that God shows up for you and shows out!!!