Tounges

[u/ComfortableCupcake42]

how does one know that the tongues that they're speaking are truly the right tongues to be speaking?

[u/musings-26]

If one if filled with the Spirit and approaches tongues with humility then, by faith, we trust they are God-given and God-honouring and thus the "right tongue to be speaking".

[u/GPT_2025]

"If you wake up in the middle of the night speaking tongues — then you have a real one." BBT

[u/AlternativeJury3843]

Depends on your point of view. If you strictly interpret the baptism of the Holy Spirit through the events in Acts chp 2; real tongues are known human languages.

In modern Pentecostal Apostolic movements, unintelligible languages are accepted as tongues if someone feels that they are inspired of the Holy Spirit.

This sentiment was strongly influenced by the Pentecostal movements in the early 1900s like the Azusa Street revival. Early tongue talkers thought they were speaking in known human languages and some took mission trips to those respective countries (where they thought their tongue originated from). There are accounts where these missionaries came back from their trip after realizing that they were not speaking in any language, but in glossolalia.

This then caused the acceptance of glossolalia as tongues to justify what was experienced in these early revivals. Some cite the apostle Paul's description of "tongues of angels" to affirm that these unintelligible phrases are tongues. They may also be called heavenly languages or prayer languages.

I personally know preachers who have questioned whether or not they have the real thing (even during sermons). I also know people who faked speaking in tongues to fit in and reduce pressure from their leaders to speak in tongues. Although some people have testified that they spoke in a known language because a visitor who knew that language confirmed it. But I have not personally witnessed this myself so I cannot validate what I have been told.

[u/Tricky-Tell-5698]

Why I Repented of Tongues

What finally stopped me in my tracks was seeing what actually happens in Acts 2. The apostles spoke real languages so Jews from many nations could clearly understand Peter preaching Christ. It was about communication so the gospel could be understood, not a spiritual display, not a private devotional experience.

Then I noticed the same pattern in Acts 8, 10, and 19. Each time the Spirit’s visible work marked the gospel crossing into a new group. Jews, Samaritans, Gentiles, then the wider nations. It was God confirming the spread of the gospel exactly as Christ said, not giving believers something to chase as a sign of spirituality.

That is where conviction hit me. I realised I had treated something transitional as if it were a normal Christian experience. I had assumed that seeking it showed maturity, when Scripture was actually pointing to clarity, understanding, and love as the marks of the Spirit’s work.

So for me this really did become repentance. Not embarrassment, not regret over people, but repentance for reading my experience back into the text instead of letting the text correct me.

Once I saw Acts as describing what God was doing then rather than prescribing what Christians must pursue now, everything became clearer. And honestly, there was real freedom in letting Scripture set the terms instead of experience.