Misconception #5: Tongues are just the ability to speak in a foreign language
As I said, sometimes when you speak publicly in tongues, someone may understand you. But when you speak mysteries in other tongues to God, no man can understand it (1 Corinthians 14:2). And I want to add something else: Satan can’t understand you either! That’s why the devil hates tongues so much and fights it so hard—because he doesn’t know what you’re praying. You’re speaking divine secrets with the Father, and Satan’s completely in the dark concerning what you two are talking about!
Years ago at a Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship convention, we invited ministerial students to a banquet. Students from 14 different universities attended the banquet, as well as many denominational ministers.
During the banquet, we conducted a panel discussion. Several of us ministers were on the panel, as well as a psychiatrist and a medical doctor. I answered the questions on tongues that the audience presented. Brother Oral Roberts answered the questions on healing. And some of the other ministers answered questions on other topics. The questions about tongues accounted for nearly 70 percent of all the questions submitted.
Some of the seminary students were preparing for the mission field, and they asked this question: “Why must we attend school to learn the native language of the country God called us to? Couldn’t He just give us their foreign language through the gift of tongues!”
These students misunderstood the scriptural use of tongues. They wrongly assumed speaking in tongues is always speaking in someone’s native language.
But that’s not the scriptural purpose for tongues at all. Tongues are not a substitute for missionaries learning foreign languages. Tongues are a supernatural language given to us by the Holy Spirit so we can talk to God!
Now, it’s true that at times the Holy Spirit may give you an unknown language in tongues to speak. That is, it’s an unknown language to you.
1 CORINTHIANS 14:14
14 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but MY UNDERSTANDING IS UNFRUITFUL.
That word unknown is italicized in the King James Version of the Bible. This means it wasn’t in the original Scriptures. The translators added it for clarity. The original manuscript said, “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth. . . ” The translators added the word unknown to clarify that some tongues you speak may not be unknown to others, but it is unknown to you.
Paul specifically refers to tongues of men, which can mean foreign languages. He says, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels.” (1 Corinthians 13:1). Most often we speak in heavenly languages when we speak divine secrets to God. But it is also possible to speak in the tongues of men.
I remember the time a Foursquare pastor told me about a memorable experience he’d had along this line. Years earlier, he’d traveled down to a Foursquare mission station in Mexico to bring provisions. During his week-long stay, this pastor preached every day. After he preached, the people came around the altar and prayed.
“During a time of prayer around the altar,” the pastor told me, “I witnessed one of the most glorious sights I’ve ever seen! A dear little old Mexican woman who didn’t have a tooth in her head got filled with the Holy Spirit. Her face lit up like a neon sign in the dark, and she began to praise God fluently in English! “At first when I heard the old woman speak in fluent English, I thought she knew the language. But then I learned that she’d never been to school a day in her life! It was such a thrill to listen to her magnify, worship, and praise God in a language known to me but completely unknown to her!”
Several American missionaries have told me similar testimonies. For example, sometimes in ministering the baptism in the Holy Spirit to people on the mission field, they’d hear them speak in English as their “unknown tongue.” As I said, I’ve personally spoken a number of different languages of men as I was praying or giving a message in tongues. I didn’t know I was doing so at the time, but someone else understood what I said and told me afterward.
For instance, in 1954 I was holding a meeting in New Jersey for A. A. Swift, an old-time Pentecostal minister. Brother Swift was 72 years old at the time. He and his wife had gone to China in 1911 as missionaries. I ministered frequently in Brother Swift’s church, and whenever I spoke a message in tongues, he’d interpret.
Brother Swift had developed the gift of interpretation of tongues beyond anyone I’ve ever seen. In all my years of ministry, his interpretation of tongues was the most beautiful display of that gift I’ve ever witnessed.
You see, spiritual gifts can be developed through use. Certainly a person can develop his ministry as he learns to wait before God and yield to the Holy Spirit. And so it is with the gifts of the Spirit.
You can learn to be more yielded to the Spirit of God in the operation of spiritual gifts.
During that service at Brother Swift’s church, I gave a message in tongues, and I knew I was speaking some kind of oriental language. After the service, we went next door to the parsonage to have a bite to eat. As we sat there, Brother Swift said to his wife, “Mother, did you understand what Brother Hagin said when he spoke in Chinese tonight?”
Sister Swift replied, “Yes, I did.”
The couple sat there and talked back and forth to one another in Chinese for a few minutes. As I listened, I noticed a number of words I’d used when I spoke with tongues. Brother Swift said, “It’s been many years since we were there, but you spoke in a dialect of a nearby region, not a dialect where we lived. I understood about 50 percent of what you said.”
Well, I didn’t know I was speaking a Chinese dialect. I just knew I was yielding to the Holy Spirit as He gave me supernatural utterance in tongues!
It doesn’t make any difference whether you speak in a tongue that is a language of men or of angels. When you speak in other tongues, what matters is that you’re speaking an inspired-utterance.
Tongues Used as a Sign
So at times, people can speak in an unknown tongue that someone in the congregation understands because it’s given in his native language. Or sometimes the message in tongues is directed specifically to a certain person in his known language, but unknown to the one giving a message. However, in these cases, the message in tongues is given for a sign.
Consider what happened on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the 120 in that upper room. I’m sure some of those people weren’t speaking in languages that could be understood by man. Nevertheless, various people who were present in that crowd did hear their own language spoken.
But notice that even when all those people gathered to see what was going on, not one got saved until Peter got up and preached! Not a single person got saved as a result of hearing folks speak with tongues!
The gifts of the Spirit, including the gift of tongues, don’t save people. That isn’t their purpose. No, the purpose of these supernatural gifts is to be a sign to get people’s attention! Once God has someone’s attention, that person is more open to the Gospel!
Living as a Christian in this World 