Many of those who "speak in tongues" know that the tongue they speak is not real, yet they still speak it. In 1963 the writer of an article in a Pentecostal paper said that he checked with two hundred tongue-speakers, and every one of them doubted that the tongue they spoke was genuine. Then the writer said that there was no need to doubt and he encouraged them to go on "speaking in tongues." In our summer training in 1963 in the United States, I asked a brother to read this article to the saints. Then I asked, "Do you believe that those of the one hundred twenty who spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost began to doubt whether what they spoke was a genuine tongue or not?" Obviously, none of them doubted. Why was it that two hundred people speaking in tongues all doubted? Because the tongues they spoke were not genuine.

In 1963 I was invited to speak to a Pentecostal group in San Diego. When I was in the meeting, they practiced tongue-speaking and interpretation of tongues. I shared that we should only care for the living Christ and that He should be our focus, our aim, our goal, and our everything. After the meeting, we all came back home; they served us a snack and I went to sleep. The pastor of this group and his wife then took the opportunity to lay hands on one of the brothers accompanying me to get him to speak in tongues. They told him not to speak Chinese or English but to speak anything that he did not know. This brother did not know what to speak, so he could not speak anything. Another brother who was with us told this brother in Chinese, so that the pastor and his wife would not understand, that if he did not speak something, the pastor would never let them go. He advised him in Chinese to speak some nonsense. Then they would be released to go to bed. This brother's wife was an overseas Chinese Indonesian, and he had learned a little bit of the Indonesian language. When he spoke some nonsensical Indonesian, the leader of the group and his wife rejoiced that he "spoke in tongues." The next morning I heard the entire story and told the pastor at the breakfast table that he had been deceived. I told him that the brother he and his wife had helped to "speak in tongues" had actually spoken some Indonesian words he had learned from his wife. Then I said, "Brother, isn't Christ sufficient for us to preach? Why do we need to preach anything like this?"

Another leader in this Pentecostal group told us that he had received the grace to speak Chinese. Then he began to "speak in tongues," and we brothers who were both Chinese did not understand a word he was saying. I told him that I spoke Mandarin, the national Chinese language, and that the other brother I was with spoke Cantonese. I also told him that both of us had traveled throughout China and had heard many different dialects, and we could not understand a word he was saying. This is an example of today's speaking in tongues.

Of the nine items of the manifestation of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues are listed as the last two, because they are not as profitable as the other items for the building up of the church (14:2-6, 18-19). These two are the tail, not the head. The head is the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge, the top two items of the manifestation of the Spirit. Of these nine gifts and those listed in 12:28-30, prophecy as prediction, faith, gifts of healing, works of power, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues are miraculous. All the rest, a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, and speaking for God and speaking forth God in prophecy by the prophets, discerning of spirits, helps, and administrations, are gifts developed by the growth in life as those listed in Romans 12:6-8. The miraculous gifts, especially speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues, do not require any growth in life. The Corinthians did much speaking in tongues, yet they still remained in infancy (3:1-3). However, the gifts developed in life require growth in life, even maturity, for the building up of the church.

First Corinthians 14:4 says, "He who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but he who prophesies builds up the church." Prophecy is mainly to speak for God and to speak forth God. Included in this is the matter of foretelling, predicting. It is when we speak for the Lord and speak forth the Lord that the church is built up. To prophesy, to speak forth the Lord, builds up not only the individual saints, but also the church. Paul goes on to say in verse 5 that he would rather that the believers prophesy because "greater is he who prophesies than he who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, that the church may receive building up."

Verse 6 says, "But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what shall I profit you, unless I speak to you either in revelation or in knowledge or in prophecy or in teaching?" Revelation, knowledge, prophecy, and teaching are all either words of wisdom or words of knowledge. This indicates again that in the church meeting the speaking of the word of wisdom and the speaking of the word of knowledge are the topmost aspects of the manifestation of the Spirit. If you do not have a certain amount of the growth in life, a certain amount of maturity, it is hard for you to speak this kind of word in the meetings. Even to speak the word of knowledge needs a certain amount of the maturity of life. To speak the word of wisdom, you need more maturity and more learning. This means there is the need to develop the ability that you have received at your spiritual birth. This ability is developed by the growth in life. The issue of our growth in life and maturity of life is that we are able to speak the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge for the building up of the church.