I think you misunderstand tongues. Are you Pentecostal?
Dessert
At one time, I considered myself to be charismatic, but I moved on to the greater gifts which are church centered and are much more mature. It is my experience that those who stay at the tongues level rarely mature in their faith. Many, even pastors fall away from the faith. I have seen pastors who through ârevelationsâ believed that God was telling them to divorce their faithful wife, to join up with a sexy young lady 20-30 years younger than himself. And, worse than that remain in the pulpit. I have seen pastors who through ârevelationsâ match up couples who did not know each other, and who were clearly poor matches, and all of them to my knowledge divorced each other within a few years, and are now âunchurchedâ. Yes, some will consider joining a house church but are cautious. It was clear that the overriding factor in the pastorâs choices were those that he believed were fully faithful to himself, and those who were immature, that were likely to be influnced to be faithful to that pastor. I know a young lady who has gone through three such marriages that ended in divorce that were set up by revelations of some pastors.
On the other side, among those who deny that the Holy Spirit is empowering the gift of tongues today, I have seen many of them mature deepily into the fruit of the Holy Spirit and have remained steadfast in the Lord.
The best case would be one who is employing his or her spiritual gifts and are maturing in the fruit of the Spirit. Unfortuneately this is rare.
So, in short, I believe
That spiritual gifts are for today, but much that is out there is simply human based faking. And, yes I used the gift of discernment before reading my shopping list. So, no I was not tempting the Lord ( Acts 5 ).
If God is truly empowering tongues in a congregation, then he will be empowering the other gifts too like miracle worker, healing, teaching, preaching, evangelist â Many if not all these gifts are missing.
Hebrews 2:4 (New International Version)
God also testified to it [salvation] by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Do you really think it is Godâs will only to give the church the most immature gift? And, not give the church all the mature gifts?
Why are the mature gifts missing in pentecostal - charismatic circles?
That one is to move onto the gifts that are church centered, leaving the childish behavior behind.
That Paulâs instruction on prayer tongues must comform to Jesus teaching on prayer â ie the prayer closet.
Yes, there is public corporate prayer, but that is only with interpretations and lead by elders â note Peter as an apostle would be an elder.
And, yes from reading Acts 6 & 7 it is clear that Stephen did NOT speak in tongues. In fact we are told specifically what his sign gifts were, faith, miracle worker, and evangelist ( read Acts 7 ).
Acts 6:8-10 (King James Version)
8And Stephen,
full of faith and power, did **great wonders and miracles **among the people.
9Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
10And they were not able to resist the** wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.**
1 Corinthians 4:6
Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying,
âDo not go beyond what is written.â Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.
Paulâs example is to speak five words that could be understood vs speaking a lot of words in church that could not be understood.
Matthew 6:6
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Another characteristic of pentecostal - charismatic circles I think is displeasing to the Lord is anti-intellectualism. God wants us to worship him in truth, that requires us to use our minds to discern and discover truth. The Lord plainly says, âlet us reason togetherâ.