Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Gift of Tongues

Rereading 1 Cor 14, I now think Paul was using sarcasm and irony to uplift the resourcefulness of "prophecy" (both foretelling and "forth-telling") above tongues. I believe he is actually belittling the use of tongues - or at least the dependency on it to be used to personally edify.

Read it and try to hear a harsh, yet instructive tone. I think it makes sense and creates order - rather than the chaos that has been experienced historically trying to continually recreate an Acts 2 scenario.

Just sayin.

Like the Old Man on Top of the Mountain

God is very hard to hear. This creates a dilemma in my faith - or does it? Wait. It is faith.

I don't hear often what I sense is the Creator's voice and appropriate directive(s). I often sense the directive and proceed. Sometimes I look back and realize that it was not what I thought it was going to be. Most of the time it seems right.

But every once in a long while, I hear God speaking directly to me. I realize the Jim Jones, David Koresh, Warren Jeffs problem. But when I hear, it is through the voice of others - through community - through friends.

Yesterday provided one of these rare and phenomenal occurrences. I simply thought/whispered (don't know how to describe it, otherwise) something only I knew about (within that room). I asked that if this were something I needed to have addressed, that it would have to come through someone else. Within minutes, someone spoke to me in a direct and in an encouraging way. The challenge within their encouragement was not detailed, but personal and specific enough. And it wasn't like a newspaper horoscope, that was a universal dilemma that everyone thinks is only addressed to them.

This could only be explained (which I don't always attempt to do), by a personal, creative entity - goes by the name of YHWH. I cannot successfully convey the magnitude of what happened with words typed out with a keyboard.

My faith is fortified. My fear (the right kind) is heightened. My commitment is deepened.

"To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit..." ~1 Corinthians 12:8