UTTER THE UTTERANCE

Wednesday 14 May

For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, Isaiah 28:11 (NKJV)

And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; Mark 16:17 (NKJV)

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:4 (NKJV)

It never ceases to amaze me how much opposition there is against something that the Apostle Paul said he did in the early church ‘more than you all’. Many in the Body of Christ put little or zero emphasis on speaking in tongues. Why? A lot of the resistance comes down to a lack of knowledge and understanding on the matter. I personally believe that if clarity could be attained in this subject, the kingdom and the world would benefit greatly as a result. Stay open minded as we take a closer look at this together.

Firstly, what was Isaiah seeing in his vision? Think about this for a moment. If you had never seen anyone speak in tongues before you might describe it the same way. ‘Stammering lips and an unknown tongue.’ This means he even heard it, but couldn’t work out the language. He saw and heard something that no other Old Testament saint ever did. Not only that, but it was approximately 700 years before ‘other tongues’ came into being after the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost! Then it reads ‘He will speak to THIS people.’ What people? The New Testament saint.

The word speak here is ‘dabar’ in Hebrew which has a connotation of ‘UTTER’. Keep that somewhere. Jesus Himself said of the believer ‘THEY shall speak with new tongues’. Who? Them that believe. The word for SPEAK, ‘laleo’ in Greek also has one of the meanings as ‘UTTER’. So Isaiah and Jesus were both referring to the same thing when it came to speaking with new or other tongues. Isaiah said God would utter. Jesus said ‘they’ would utter. How do we reconcile these two statements?

This brings to Acts 2:4. Guess what the Greek word for SPEAK is in this verse? Laleo, which we now know means UTTER. Now watch closely. Remember what Isaiah said? He (God) will speak i.e. UTTER . Then we see ‘as the Spirit gave them UTTERANCE.’ The Greek word for this is ‘Apophthengomai’ which means something remarkable.; ‘An elevated discourse or discussion.’

In other words, a high level conversation between you and God through the Spirit. Stay with me.

So what did they UTTER? God’s UTTERANCE which is a higher way to speak and communicate. Not low level human language that has been tainted and corrupted. This was a pure and unadulterated language.

So just to confirm, speaking in tongues is high level communication. Spoken by us to whom?

1 Corinthians 14:2 says ‘he who speaks in an unknown tongue does not speak to men but TO GOD.’

Apostle Paul said ‘though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels’… So ‘tongues’ is also an angelic language. It is the language of the Spirit.

So we can see that Isaiah and Jesus’ statements were both equally correct. We would UTTER but the Holy Spirit would give the UTTERANCE. He speaks through us while giving us the heavenly words to say.

Jesus told them to ‘wait in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high.’ What were they waiting for? The Bible is clear: to be filled with the Holy Spirit and UTTER words of a new ‘glossa’ i.e. language as HE gave them UTTERANCE.

Every Christian has the INDWELLING of the Spirit but not all have the INFILLING of the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Why? Because not all have heeded Paul’s instruction to every believer ‘Don’t be drunk with wine wherein is excess, but BE FILLED with the Spirit. It’s time for every Christian to start praying in the Spirit and UTTER the UTTERANCE.

APPLICATION

Do your own personal study of the scriptures in this devotion, put aside all preconceptions and simply let the Bible interpret and reveal itself.