There are so many aspects of the sign and revelatory gifts that people attempt to practice today. Since the beginning of the 1900s there have been sincere Christians who have felt that apostles and prophets tongue speaking, and the performing of miracles by Christians, was the today. And after 1900 years of church history, suddenly they seek to reintroduce them to the church. But they haven't got the real thing. Many of those people – the Pentecostal movement, the Charismatic Movement – may be saved, and may be sincere, but when it comes to the revelatory and sign gifts they make great mistake, and that’s a shame. These gifts are not given today. Here are a few factors concerning tongues that are simply not complied with today:
1. The tongues of the Bible were real languages. Today, they are never real languages so far as we know. They are ecstatic languages. They artificially produce sounds. What happened in New Testament times is certainly not seen today.
2. The person gifted with a tongue understood what he was saying, if it was a real revelation from God. He was given the gift of the language which he had never learned and he understood its sense and its meaning. If he didn't understand its sense, and its meaning, though he may still be uttering the language, he was to remain silent.
3. There must be an interpreter, a second person, who must corroborate the meaning of the tongue, so that everyone would know it was a proven and true miracle.
4. Only two or three tongue speakers, at the very most, were ever to bring a message in a worship service.
5. The people who speak in tongues are part of the platform party. They are among the leaders of the church. For corroboration they can turn to the one ‘that sitteth by’.
6. Their utterances were never for themselves, but always for the whole assembly. There is no such thing as private tongues, just for me.
7. It must be done – and there are two powerful verses about this in 1 Corinthians 14 – in such a way that there is order and harmony. Everything must be done in accordance with Christ's command, given through the apostle Paul.