The Holy Spirit and your tongue

Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

     Tower of Babel.  Genesis 11:1 says, "Now the whole earth had one language and one speech."  During the time after the worldwide flood, everyone was united in tongue and wished to make themselves a tower "whose top is in the heavens."(v.4)  They desired to make a name for themselves and protect themselves from becoming scattered "over the face of the earth."(v.4)  The problem was, God had instructed them to "fill the earth" in Genesis 9:1.  So, the Lord came down to them and confused their language, making it impossible for them to understand each other; thus calling it Babel, meaning confusion.

     The New Covenant Plan.  I Corinthians 1:10 says, "Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."  When taking a gander at the world around us, we see a massive amount of confusion between individuals.  The confusion I refer to is not centered around various physical dialects, but spiritual speech.  When looking out at the vast "Christian" community one could not say we are all speaking the same thing.  Just take Rich Hill as an example.  With a population of just over 1400 people we have at least 10 different churches, five within a couple blocks of each other.  Does that not seem strange??  Under the New Covenant we understand that God desires that all believers, whether in Russia, Rwanda or Rich Hill to again have a united tongue.  But, how is this possible?

     Pentecost.  Acts 2:3-4 says, "Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."  When the Lord chose to send His Spirit to earth He could have chosen any path or any method.  When the Spirit came to earth He came as a tongue, resting upon each believer, causing them to speak in a way they never had before, creating unity in the many different groups of people.  This same unity is what Paul requests of believers in Philippi when he says, "fulfill my joy be being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." Phil 2:2  The only way such unity can occur is when the Holy Spirit is directing the tongue(not to be confused with "speaking in tongues" as some groups promote, which I will address in a later article, but the submitting control of your tongue to the Lord to use for His good.)

     Two tongues.  Let me close by stating that every individual can have two different tongues; one set on fire by the Holy Spirit and one set on fire by hell. James 3:6  May Christ lead you and direct you in how to allow the Spirit to control your tongue, thus creating unity amongst believers.