The Spirit and the Mind

 DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

THE SPIRIT AND THE MIND

1 Cor 14:13-17

13 For this reason anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind. 16 If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say "Amen" to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? 17 You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified.

NIV

We continue to get more clarity on the gift of tongues. First, we notice that when the Spirit manifests the gift of tongues, He will accompany it with the gift of interpretation. Of what value is speaking in an unknown language if no one understands what is being said? But this is not up to people, or the flesh, it is the working of the Spirit, and He works all things for the common good. Therefore, we must think that tongues will not be heard unless an interpretation is available. We cannot know this in our humanity, but the Spirit knows all things and works always in union with the Father and the Son. We could then be sure that any manifestation of tongues will always be perfectly aligned with the word of God as the speaker in tongues gives praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. When what the speaker in tongues is completed, then what he said to God, in praise and thanksgiving, is shared in our native tongue so the whole congregation knows the words the speaker in tongues was saying to God. This fits right in with the other instructions telling us that tongues is man talking to God and prophecy is God talking to man. It is also interesting that Paul makes this point about when we pray in tongues our spirit is praying, but our mind should be praying as well. Again, this fits with other instructions in that tongues is not just babbling in the air with meaningless sounds, but it is an intelligible language that someone could understand if they were a member of the language group. There are hundreds if not more different languages and dialects throughout the world. Once again, speaking in tongues is not flapping of the tongue and lips into the air with just noise. So then, when the Spirit urges one or manifests the gift of tongues while speaking in an unknown language, we will be praising and glorifying our Lord God Almighty with our minds. The fact is that the Spirit does not take control of our mouths or our minds, we partner with the Spirit when we are inspired to speak in tongues, and we use our mouths and our mind to give praise and thanksgiving to God.  Then in partnership with the Spirit, someone understood, and that may even be the same person who spoke in this unknown language will give the proper interpretation so that all men are edified or built up. Everything when done in conjunction with the Spirit will always edify, it will always build up, reconfirming our faith. everything about these gifts fits well with offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable, which is our spiritual act of worship. Therefore, we worship God with our words, whether in tongues or English and with our spirits and our minds. Then we will be loving God and worshipping God with our whole being.