16/02/2025
TONGUES & INTERPRETATION
- Kenneth E Hagin
One time I was preaching at a camp meeting in southeastern Oklahoma. As we were leaving one evening, it began to rain. My wife and I gave a woman who was standing there a ride home.
The woman said, “I belong to another church, but we live nearby so I have been coming to this church. I want to ask you a question. First of all, let me tell you that my son was in the Army, and after the war he stayed in Germany for a while in the occupational forces. He came to get me the other night at this meeting and he asked about you, Brother Hagin, because at the end of your sermon you spoke in tongues.
“My son asked me, ‘Who was that fellow talking in German?’ ”
The woman said, “I told him, ‘That was Brother Hagin.’
“Then I asked my son, ‘Was Brother Hagin speaking in German?’
“My son said, ‘Yes.’ ”
The woman continued, “Then my son said, ‘Then another fellow got up and translated the message for him.’
My son could speak quite a bit of German himself, so he understood the message you gave in tongues, Brother Hagin.
“I asked my son, ‘Did the fellow who translated for Brother Hagin do all right?’
“My son said, ‘He did fine. He did not translate it exactly — word for word — but he gave the meaning of what was said.’ ”
The woman said, “I told him you didn’t know German. You don’t, do you, Brother Hagin?”
I said, “No. I don’t know a word in the German language.”
The woman continued, “I told my son that you didn’t know German and that it was tongues with interpretation. I told him that you were speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and that this other man was also inspired by the Holy Spirit of God to interpret what you said.
“When I told him all of this is in the Bible, he asked, ‘Are you sure?’
“I told him, ‘Yes, I don’t know much about it, but I have been learning since I have been coming these few nights to the camp meeting.’
“My son said, ‘I believe I will keep on going to these services.’ ”
The woman concluded, “My son isn’t a Christian, but that made a great impression on him.” Thank God for the supernatural gift of diverse tongues.
I was holding a meeting in 1960 in Mesa, Arizona. The pastor told me about a young Jewish boy who attended their church. This Jewish boy had joined the Air Force. He didn’t have too many friends, so a young Pentecostal boy befriended him and began to associate with him some. He invited the Jewish boy to go to church with him, but he wouldn’t go because he didn’t believe in Christ — that He was the Messiah.
But then the Jewish boy said, “Well, I shouldn’t be that way. After all, you are the only one here who has befriended me. I’ll go with you.”
So he came to that Pentecostal church. A woman there got up and spoke in tongues. The pastor who was usually used in interpretation said that he didn’t get any interpretation. He waited, and no one else got the interpretation. This same woman was also used in the gift of interpretation of tongues, yet she never interpreted the message.
The pastor said, “After I waited for a few minutes, we just went on with the service. After the service was over, I was shaking hands with the folks at the front door, when this Jewish boy said to me, ‘Who was that woman who talked to me?’
“I said, ‘What do you mean?’ ”
The boy said, “That woman who got up in the service talked to me. She talked my language. She even called my name! She told me what I had been thinking. She told me that Christ was the Messiah and that I should believe on Him.”
The pastor told the young Jewish boy, “That dear woman is a widow. She only has about a fifth-grade education. She takes in washings for a living. She doesn’t speak any foreign languages.”
The pastor called the woman over and introduced her to the Jewish boy so he could tell by talking to her that she was a very uneducated woman.
The Jewish boy said, “I’ll have to think about this.” He came back the next Sunday night and was born again.
This young Jewish boy received Christ as the Messiah and his Saviour as a result of that woman standing up and giving a message in tongues. She wasn’t praying; she was delivering a message in a known tongue.
All talking in tongues is not prayer, regardless of what someone may tell you.
It is true that one phase of speaking with tongues is prayer.
Tongues can be used in prayer. In fact, no one will ever have a completely successful prayer life without praying in tongues. You may have been mighty in God without praying in tongues, but you will be more powerful in God by praying in tongues: “For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries” (1 Cor. 14:2).
Moffatt’s translation of First Corinthians 14:2 says when a person is speaking in tongues, “. . . he is talking of divine secrets in the Spirit.” God has devised a means whereby we may speak supernaturally to Him. By speaking in tongues, man can talk divine secrets with God.
- Spiritual Notes
Tongues are divinely coded languages for discussing mysteries with the Almighty God! (Dav-Emmanuel O D)
