Why can’t i speak in tongues as a Christian

Acts 13
Good News Translation
Barnabas and Saul Are Chosen and Sent
13 In the church at Antioch there were some prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon (called the Black), Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (who had been brought up with Governor Herod[a]), and Saul. 2 While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said to them, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul, to do the work to which I have called them.”

3 They fasted and prayed, placed their hands on them, and sent them off.

In Cyprus
4 Having been sent by the Holy Spirit, Barnabas and Saul went to Seleucia and sailed from there to the island of Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues. They had John Mark with them to help in the work.

6 They went all the way across the island to Paphos, where they met a certain magician named Bar-Jesus, a Jew who claimed to be a prophet. 7 He was a friend of the governor of the island, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor called Barnabas and Saul before him because he wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But they were opposed by the magician Elymas (that is his name in Greek), who tried to turn the governor away from the faith. 9 Then Saul—also known as Paul—was filled with the Holy Spirit; he looked straight at the magician 10 and said, “You son of the Devil! You are the enemy of everything that is good. You are full of all kinds of evil tricks, and you always keep trying to turn the Lord's truths into lies! 11 The Lord's hand will come down on you now; you will be blind and will not see the light of day for a time.”

At once Elymas felt a dark mist cover his eyes, and he walked around trying to find someone to lead him by the hand. 12 When the governor saw what had happened, he believed; for he was greatly amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

In Antioch in Pisidia
13 Paul and his companions sailed from Paphos and came to Perga, a city in Pamphylia, where John Mark left them and went back to Jerusalem. 14 They went on from Perga and arrived in Antioch in Pisidia, and on the Sabbath they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law of Moses and from the writings of the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message: “Friends, we want you to speak to the people if you have a message of encouragement for them.” 16 Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and began to speak:

“Fellow Israelites and all Gentiles here who worship God: hear me! 17 The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors and made the people a great nation during the time they lived as foreigners in Egypt. God brought them out of Egypt by his great power, 18 and for forty years he endured them in the desert. 19 He destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan and made his people the owners of the land. 20 All of this took about 450 years.

“After this[c] he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. 21 And when they asked for a king, God gave them Saul son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin, to be their king for forty years. 22 After removing him, God made David their king. This is what God said about him: ‘I have found that David son of Jesse is the kind of man I like, a man who will do all I want him to do.’ 23 It was Jesus, a descendant of David, whom God made the Savior of the people of Israel, as he had promised. 24 Before Jesus began his work, John preached to all the people of Israel that they should turn from their sins and be baptized. 25 And as John was about to finish his mission, he said to the people, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not the one you are waiting for. But listen! He is coming after me, and I am not good enough to take his sandals off his feet.’

26 “My fellow Israelites, descendants of Abraham, and all Gentiles here who worship God: it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent! 27 For the people who live in Jerusalem and their leaders did not know that he is the Savior, nor did they understand the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Yet they made the prophets' words come true by condemning Jesus. 28 And even though they could find no reason to pass the death sentence on him, they asked Pilate to have him put to death. 29 And after they had done everything that the Scriptures say about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from death, 31 and for many days he appeared to those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now witnesses for him to the people of Israel. 32-33 And we are here to bring the Good News to you: what God promised our ancestors he would do, he has now done for us, who are their descendants, by raising Jesus to life. As it is written in the second Psalm,

‘You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.’
34 And this is what God said about raising him from death, never to rot away in the grave:
‘I will give you the sacred and sure blessings
that I promised to David.’
35 As indeed he says in another passage,
‘You will not allow your faithful servant to rot in the grave.’

36 For David served God's purposes in his own time, and then he died, was buried with his ancestors, and his body rotted in the grave. 37 But this did not happen to the one whom God raised from death. 38-39 All of you, my fellow Israelites, are to know for sure that it is through Jesus that the message about forgiveness of sins is preached to you; you are to know that everyone who believes in him is set free from all the sins from which the Law of Moses could not set you free. 40 Take care, then, so that what the prophets said may not happen to you:[d]

41 ‘Look, you scoffers! Be astonished and die!
For what I am doing today
is something that you will not believe,
even when someone explains it to you!’”

42 As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to come back the next Sabbath and tell them more about these things. 43 After the people had left the meeting, Paul and Barnabas were followed by many Jews and by many Gentiles who had been converted to Judaism. The apostles spoke to them and encouraged them to keep on living in the grace of God.

44 The next Sabbath nearly everyone in the town came to hear the word of the Lord. 45 When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; they disputed what Paul was saying and insulted him. 46 But Paul and Barnabas spoke out even more boldly: “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we will leave you and go to the Gentiles. 47 For this is the commandment that the Lord has given us:

‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
so that all the world may be saved.’”

48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the Lord's message; and those who had been chosen for eternal life became believers.

49 The word of the Lord spread everywhere in that region. 50 But the Jews stirred up the leading men of the city and the Gentile women of high social standing who worshiped God. They started a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and threw them out of their region. 51 The apostles shook the dust off their feet in protest against them and went on to Iconium. 52 The believers in Antioch were full of joy and the Holy Spirit.

Then they were able to interpret it, my point exactly. If no one can interpret then they must keep it to themselves.




Yes, but without interpretation, then it is either for yourself or a sign to unbelievers.[/QUOTE]
Without an interpretation it is not a sign for unbelievers because they will not understand a tongue of Angels.

I believe God gave and still gives what I needed. My experience is not at all yours. People seem to often seek something that is not their's to have when it comes to the gifts.

Paul must have been of two minds then, because he stated he prayed in tongues more than any of them.

Perhaps then he should have gone around prophesying like Saul...although that did not do Saul much good... or maybe Paul might have said, 'I don't want such a minor gift. I wish to have only the big gifts and the special gifts.'

Yeah. That must have been it and that part has been left out of the passage.

I don't know what you are talking about. What you say might as well be a foreign language. Or, perhaps it is just what you do and do not believe that comes through what you profess as 'experience.'

We, after all, see through a glass darkly but perhaps some get a glimpse of better things and understand more. Paul did.

You could never get close to a truthful assumption about me. But that won't stop you.

We should be clear on the fact that there is actually NO scripture that states tongues is the least of the spiritual gifts.

People refer to I Corinthians 14 when they try to sell the belief that tongues is 'the least of the gifts'. Paul was not talking about tongues but was comparing them to prophecy in the context of CORPORATE worship. Prophecy can be understood by all and all can therefore benefit whereas everyone speaking in tongues and not being understood is not orderly and not edifying to all.

Here is what Paul actually had to say regarding the gift of tongues:

I would that you all spoke with tongues but rather that you prophesied: for greater is he that prophesies than he that speaks with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying. (I Cor 12 and 14 are addressed to worship as believers together)

That, would actually put tongues on the same level as prophesying, as edification of the body was/is the goal and not using gifts, when in public, for your own benefit.

Paul also said Forbid not to speak in tongues I Cor 14:39

Paul said he wanted everyone to be speaking in tongues. That, does not come across as discouragement but rather identifies tongues as very important.

I will tell anyone who cares to listen, that there are reasons tongues are so frowned on today. First off, God is not the author of confusion and confusion as per the Corinthian church is easily seen in many churches today. They would do well to heed the instructions on the proper use of tongues.

And another and more important reason, is that the devil HATES the proper use of tongues and the power of God that genuine tongues represent and that are effective against the devil.

It is not true that tongues are the least of the gifts when they are comparable to prophecy, as Paul states, which many mistakenly believe is the highest gift a person may have.

It is actually childish, IMO, to put people in the place of the Spirit of God and think you need someone to go between you and God in the form of some 'prophet' when God is willing and able to teach you through His Spirit Himself as He promised He would.

Best to understand why we have the Holy Spirit in the first place. There are enough charlatans running around now

who says you can't?

when God knows you're ready you will Speak in Tongues.

why?

you have the desire to.

Speaking in Tongues is very powerful and not only edifies you as a Believer in God but it also is a Powerful way to Pray.

it speaks Mysteries that only God only understands that benefits both yourself and the Body of Christ.

be Encouraged, it will happen!

Does anyone think or believe that perhaps it is God Himself who has put the desire to speak in tongues into the heart of the OP?

Whether or not she has had bad advice is not the question.

The answer is simply that tongues are for all but as we see all do not want them. So no, all do not speak in tongues. For that matter, some have a bad motive for wanting to speak in tongues.

I do not think that is the matter to be attributed to the OP

Do not be like someone who sees a drowning person and refuses to throw them a lifeline because they do not care for ropes.

I pray that God makes His purpose clear to the op and that she receives what she desires so earnestly and that God would bless her and comfort her heart.

God bless you Elo,

True statement. Telling a person to "Talk baby talk", or speak "nonsense sounds" practically GUARANTEES that if you DO "Speak in tongues", they'll be PHONY.

if one's "Gift of tongues" (or Prophesy, or WOrd of WIsdom, or Word of Knowledge, is Interpretation of tongues) is IN ANY WAY RELATED to their own thought process, or they have ANYTHING TO DO with producing the message that they speak beyond simply speaking that which the Holy Spirit speak to their mind, the "gift" is PHONY.

do you know of any gifts used correctly or only that which is phony? Do you speak in tongues?

God inspired Luke to record NT conversion experiences in detail of which speaking in tongues is evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 2, 8 (implied) 10, 11, 19) These accounts in the Book of Acts establish a precedent for every situation. Therefore it was not necessary to mention every detail in all cases such as the scripture you reference, Lydia, the jailer, the Ethiopian, etc. The same principle is seen in the Gospel accounts regarding Jesus' miracles, etc. If all details were included in every instance there would not be enough room to contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25)

That is simply an assumption to dismiss a separate account that doesn't record the gift of tongues. It is confusing for some because they take most of Acts as prescriptive when there is much in Acts they ignore to to prescribe to themselves. It is descriptive as it tells you of different accounts. Different accounts include tongues and some do not. You must determine what is prescriptive and descriptive.

Let me ask do you hold all the gifts?


1 Corinthians 12:4-11
New International Version

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

I think you mean Normative or Descriptive. Some would have you believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit only happen in three verses in three chapters. FYI the Book of Acts was not written in cha[ter and verses that were added much later. The gifts of the Holy Spirit were so much a part of the early church Paul taught on them in 1cor chapter 12 through 14.

Yeah, but that isn't what was being debated. It was baptism of the Holy Spirit in relation to tongues.

The baptism in the Holy Spirit is the empowering of the Holy Spirit, which we see in the book of Acts. Those who were baptized in the Holy Spirit spoke in tongues or Prophesied. Tongues and prophesying are not the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, it is evidence of one who is or has been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Power to be a witness will be the effect from this experience

I've "spoken in tongues" since 1973, but NEVER addressed a congregation in "Tongues", so I'd be one that DOESN'T speak in tongues in the 1 Cor 12 sense. I have, however been burdened to "Interpret Tongues" in a congregation, and very occasionally to speak prophesy. However, as I've said before, the PRIMARY EFFECT of the "Baptism in the Holy Spirit" (to use AG vernacular) was the sudden ability to teach Bible for several hours in various Home meetings for over a decade. NOT something that I could ever have done before.

I'm curious as to what prophecy you spoken?

31 You should set your hearts on the highest spiritual gifts, but I will show you what is the highest way of all.

define what makes a gift the highest?

Hint: it serves the full body, tongues does not do that since most are from the flesh.

Paul gives the order of most important to least:

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:28-31, English Standard Version)

The answer to each questions is NO

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:28-31, English Standard Version)

Do all speak with tongues? clearly the answer is NO.