PHONOLOGICAL AND TRASFORMATIONAL MYSTERY - PART 4

Reference: 1st Corinthians 14:2 New Living Translation (NLT)

"For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won’t be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious."

It is of crucial importance to grasp that Peter's message that followed on the day of Pentecost was not the interpretation of their tongues; it was the proclamation of the great commission based on prophetic utterances declared by prophet Joel, which means that the details of his prophesy was being made manifest. To that effect, Acts of the Apostle 2:14-17 reads:

"Then Peter stood up with the other eleven apostles and in a loud voice began to speak to the crowd: "Fellow-Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me and let me tell you what this means. These people are not drunk, as you suppose; it is only nine o'clock in the morning. Instead, this is what the prophet Joel spoke about:

This is what I will do in the last days, God says: I will pour out my Spirit on everyone. Your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams" (GNB).

From my observatory and conclusive analysis based on the above versified passage, we can comprehend that Peter's message was NOT proclaimed on the basis of demonstrating the gift of interpretation of tongues, but on the basis of revealing another gift of the Spirit which finally came to pass on the day of Pentecost. Are you with me? So he made reference to the gift of Prophesy with the operational significance. That's the reason he said, "Fellow-Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me and let me tell you what this means" (Verse 14).

In other words, Peter proclaimed, "I want you to fully grasp the meaning of the divinely-inspired event", not the interpretation of the tongues. So while the details of the three gifts, namely "speaking in various kinds of tongues", "interpretation of tongues" and "prophesy" differ within the context, the process of the prophesy uttered by prophet Joel began when "the tongues of men" and "the interpretation of the tongues" were witnessed as the manifest event on the day of Pentecost.

Now here is the summary of the pinpoint accuracy:

1. A sound of a mighty rushing wind from the sky & divided tongues like fire filled the whole house where the believers gathered [Sign of tongues - Acts 2:1-3].

2. Peter and the believing disciples spoke in diverse tongues [Gift of tongues - Acts 2:4].

3. The interpretation of the tongues was revealed by the large crowd that gathered [Ability to interpret tongues - Acts 2:5-11].

4. Peter's message made reference to the fulfilment of a prophesy which was demonstrated in the prophetic utterance of Prophet Joel [Great commission and gift of prophesy explained - Acts 2:14-42].

Beloved, on the day of Pentecost, as they were all filled with the Holy Spirit who inspired and enabled them to begin to talk in other languages, there were Jews living in Jerusalem, and religious people who had come from every country in the world. When they heard this noise, they gathered as a large crowd. They were all excited, because each one of them heard the believers speaking in his or her own language" (See Acts 2:5-6).

This clearly implies that the interpretation of their tongues came from people from every part of the world, who were resident in Jerusalem, which can be said to mean that the Spirit of God summoned the ability to demonstrate the interpretation of tongues to come forward from all these locations: 

"Parthia, Media, and Elam; Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia; Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Rome, Crete and Arabia, Egypt and the regions of Libya near Cyrene."

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit (Jude 1:20 ESV). Stay tuned for part 5. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Deuteronomy 18:2; Isaiah 55:10-11; 2 Kings 15:12; Jeremiah 29:10-11.

Exuberant Declaration:

As a superior god on earth, functioning with a supreme mentality, I thank my God that I speak with tongues more than millions of Christians all around the world. Blessed be God!