Speaking in Tongues

It can be hard to make ourselves understood when we don't speak the same language as the person we are communicating with. In the same way, for our Ely and District CAP Debt Coaches and befrienders is can be hard to engage effectively with clients who have a very different kind of lifestyle to our own. People can be scattered and isolated by barriers of language, race, gender, society and many more.

Genesis 11: 1 - 9 (NIV)

11 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

The people of Babel tried to build a tower that reached the heavens to defy God and as a symbol of their own pride - because of this pride they were scattered and their languages confused, resulting in different people with different cultures.

Acts 2: 1 - 12 (NIV)

2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

In Acts, on the day of Pentecost, the disciples receive the Holy Spirit and proclaim the work of God and those listening to them hear their own language spoken. By acting God's will rather than through pride or rebellion, the scattering and confusion of Babel is reversed and all who listen are united in the message from God of Christ crucified, the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit regardless of their language or cultural background.

When our debt coaches and befrienders are bringing this message to our clients, when we speak the message of God, we don't need to have a gift of language or persuasion or the ability to speak in tongues. We may not know what words to say, we may not see what the result of our words are, but God is present in our words and acting through what the listener hears, overcoming any human-made barriers with the universal message of love.

Prayer

Please pray for all our Ely and District CAP Clients, especially for those who feel isolated because of real or perceived barriers. Pray that the universal message of love would be heard in the words of the team and bring comfort and peace in place of confusion.

Please pray for our debt coaches, John and Pat, and for the befrienders, for the hope, care and support that they bring to all our clients and for the empowering strength of the Spirit to face the different situations they meet.

Pray that we would all have the courage to speak the message of God's love, to know that He is at work in our words even if we don't see the results.