Untapped Tool of the Apostolic: Supernatural Language Ability

Even though an apostolic person or a missionary can be sent anywhere, many times, they are sent to different nations, languages, tribes, and tongues. Often, an apostolic person will travel all over the world.

Something the Lord has been teaching me is that the language barrier between peoples is a result of sin. When the people in ancient days built the tower of Babel, they were in rebellion together in unity against God, so the Lord confused their languages and scattered them to keep them from uniting together against Him (Gen. 11:1-10).

From that time on, there has been racial division and language barriers that resulting from man’s unified rebellion against God.

However, when the Lord poured out His Spirit in Acts 2, He brought together the nationalities and languages of the earth with the gift of tongues. As the apostles spilled out of the upper room prophesying, there were many different nationalities gathered together and each heard them prophesy in their own language.

Some people say that those listening understood the disciples as if they were speaking in their own language, and others say the disciples were actually speaking the languages through the utterance of the Holy Spirit. I think it could have been both.

When the Bible mentions the gifts of the Spirit, it mentions both “diversities of tongues” and the “gift of interpretation.” There are many ways that these gifts can play out, but I think that one way is an actual gift of speaking a foreign language that you only know by the Holy Spirit (diversities of tongues), and another way is understanding what a tongue is saying as though someone is speaking your own language (gift of interpretation).

I believe that there is a gift of tongues that is available for every believer to edify their own spirit (I Cor. 14:4), but that there is also a gift of diversities of tongues and a gift of interpretation that can be operated in at various times like the other spiritual gifts listed in I Corinthians 12. These gifts of diversities of tongues and of interpretation may not always be actual foreign languages, but they may be a prophetic utterance in tongues that can be interpreted for the edification of the body.

Also, praying in tongues unifies the body of Christ in any language or people group to pray together in unity by the Spirit. Even today, if you go to any nation in the world, believers can pray in unity when they pray in tongues, because each one speaks the mysteries of God (I Cor. 14:2). God is the one leading the prayers of the people through one unified language that is not in rebellion against God, but is in absolute unity with His will and purpose.

I also believe that the Lord can give a gift of learning and understanding languages for the mere fact that we are no longer under the curse of sin from the Tower of Babel, but we are now under the blood of the New Covenant and under the grace of the unified language given at Pentecost.

It is also my opinion that speaking in tongues often aids language comprehension, interpretation, and communication. I have also heard of scientific studies proving that speaking in tongues uses a specific part of your brain that is not used for any other purpose.

Frequently, I try to understand a language that I have never studied or spoken, and many times, I can understand the general topic of conversation just by dialoguing with the Holy Spirit. Once, I correctly interpreted Indonesian into English by the Spirit, and also dreamed in French and German even though I have never studied any of those languages. I also have some level of fluency in four other languages which I have studied, plus the ability to understand languages that are in similar language groups to those four original languages.

I am not saying this to boast; however, I am saying this, because I truly believe it is available for those who ask for it, but that not many people have ever thought about it. Some may say that I have a natural language ability and that may be true, but I also believe that there is a supernatural gift that is available for those who will lay hold of it. It is biblical. I believe also that many who are called to other nations get overwhelmed and feel disqualified with language learning, but I believe that we can move into the realm of faith like what happened in the book of Acts and the reversal of the curse through the New Covenant.

I have heard of many people who have spoken a foreign language by the power of the Holy Spirit in one instance or interpreted in another. Also, I have heard of those who have been downloaded with an entire language—I am still asking for this one!

I also believe that this is an untapped gift for the use of the apostolic that can be claimed for the mere fact that God has removed the curse of the sin of Babel by the power of the Blood of Jesus. We can now walk in the authority of the power of the Holy Spirit who knows every language on the earth. He can equip us with the ability to communicate cross-culturally and across the barriers of language if we will ask Him.

God’s will is for every nation, language, tribe, and tongue to come into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Granting a supernatural ability to overcome the language barrier is nothing for Him.