Yesterday I wrote these words;
In my personal prayer this morning I had an epiphany…. “I don’t merely speak in tongues — I THINK IN TONGUES!”
What that means is that my mind thinks in a spirit of supernatural possibility….. The Holy Spirit opens my imagination to see, to dream, to expect and to experience the naturally impossible; to believe!
This “thinking in tongues” is a Pentecostal Paradigm, worldview, perspective, or simply a way of looking at life. Suddenly I am overwhelmingly grateful for Grandma Jessie who taught me to see life, to imagine, to think in tongues!
I now realize that many Christians were not blessed with this way of thinking, this way of seeing…. Pentecost — “spirit-filled” — Christianity is to have your mind filled with new possibilities, new solutions — that are above and beyond human design.
I wrote that in the early hours of Sunday morning. I wrote them and then hurried off to service. A service where fellow sojourners “looked up” — not around — to see what was beyond!
Following service I engaged in the holy ritual of “playoffs.” Games designed around rules. Games that applaud the performance of humans. The contrast of those two experiences has even jolted my thinking further.
Once again as I prayed in tongues it was my mind that moved into the Kingdom of Heaven. Here in my little study suddenly the “Kingdom of Heaven” was here and I understood what Grandma spent years trying to explain.
“Quintin, I know that I know that I know! I know down in my knower!”
Somewhere beyond all the rationalism of modern society, somewhere beyond human reasoning, beyond the arguments of theologians, there is a Kingdom whose maker is God and He is beyond our mental constructs.
A kingdom where our performance is not the main event. A kingdom where His reign of love is the focus of all creatures. A place where value does not come from ones talent, but rather from the applause of the One who created you to be loved. Rapturous, filled with wonder, in awe of His love — I sit and enjoy this moment.
Slowly, the fog lifts and I see the culture around me. A culture who generally believes that the essence of a human being is his/her ability to think and perform.
This culture has forced upon us the idea that what really matters is what can be thought — and what can be thought is what can be calculated, deduced, and articulated in formulas. Formulas that can produce products. Products that can be sold.
This, however is a slippery slope towards the “computerization” of knowledge. What matters today is “knowledge,” a knowledge that confirms and conforms to what calculable standards of logic demands. In other words, what counts as knowledge today is only what can be reduced to “information” or “data.”
Data or information that can then be used to accomplish the goals and aspirations of human design. The creation of a human heaven.
Thus, the assumption that reason or thinking is what is the essential basis of humanity has led humanity to look for an absolute of rational thought. So what makes sense or is “rational” must be universal or the same for everyone. So that everyone can be socially successful.
This path of hyper human knowledge has left many people frustrated, feeling marginalized by the reductionism of rational thought to a universal construct.
Pascal says, “the heart has reasons of which Reason knows nothing,” (I think Blaise knew my Grandma.) There is a way of “knowing” that cannot be reduced to cognition or intellectual perception, and certainly not to “data” or facts.
There is a knowledge that is not to be used to produce products for economic advancement, but rather for relational enhancement. The knowledge of another person that would allow us to grow in our friendship, that is real knowledge.
There is a “kingdom” that is beyond our thought, our construct. And interestingly enough more and more of the human race need that to be true. A government that is not of our making. A structure that cannot be duplicated by man. A language that cannot be “hacked.”
Behind the “fire-walls” of eternity there is hope. Even unbelievers want to believe this. Yes, even the most ardent unbeliever is tempted with faith.
Faith that there is a mystery — a code that cannot be broken. Something beyond the human universal, rational mind. Something, someone, wholly other! The author of wonder and awe.
You are probably wondering — “what does this have to do with thinking in tongues?” Am I right?
Well, I am beginning to understand that if you have received the benefits of the formulas of human rationalism then you really have no need for “thinking in tongues.” After all you’ve preformed, and produced and have created your own utopian kingdom. But if you are part of the multitudes of humanity of the marginalized masses you many need to appeal to the “holy other” Kingdom.
“Thinking in tongues” really is about imagining a higher and greater governmental structure. It is counter-thinking! It is counter-culture! I real terms it is “Cross – cultural.”
It is a PROPHETIC MENTAL PRACTICE! It is when the imagination is directed by the prophetic promises of a loving God.
I’m wired to know! Down in my “Knower… I know that I know that I know.”
In my prophetic imagination I can see a future that is other than what the human universal rationalism declares…. there is a coming kingdom whose language is foreign to human reason.
There it is…. I’m thinking in a foreign language! Imagining in a foreign construct. It is beyond rational reductionism!
Wonder… Mystery… here in my “knower I know.”
Join me! Let us “think in tongues.”
Prophetically imagine what God has prepared for today, and the future!
