Kenneth Copeland uses Romans 8:26 as proof that people speak in tongues.\u00a0 I understand that tongue-speaking has ceased (I Corinthians 13:8-10). I don’t know what Romans 8:26 is saying so I can’t denounce it to a friend who believes she can speak in tongues.\u00a0 Separate from the question I want to say thank you for your site.\u00a0 It is an excellent study aid for me.\u00a0 I am a member of Christ’s church.\u00a0 We don’t have many brethren here. There is one small faithful congregation in a county of over 200,000, so it is nice to have a site like this that I can turn to.<\/p>\n
God Bless.<\/p>\n\t
“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God<\/em>” (Romans 8:26-27).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Let’s first take note of what is not said. Paul talks of prayers, but he doesn’t say anything about praying in another language (speaking in tongues). Paul talks about the Spirit making intercessions for us, but he says nothing about the Spirit speaking through us. More to the point, the intercessions the Spirit makes on our behalf to God, the Father, cannot be uttered.<\/p>\n
The word\u00a0sunantilambanomai<\/em>\u00a0(helps) is a compound word of\u00a0sun\u00a0<\/em>(together),\u00a0anti<\/em>\u00a0(against), and\u00a0lambanomai<\/em>\u00a0(support). It refers to someone who is there at your side through good and bad times to give aid and comfort. It is someone who is sharing life’s burdens with you.<\/p>\n
The word\u00a0huperentugchano<\/em>\u00a0(intercession) refers to someone acting as an advocate, such as a lawyer in a courtroom or today’s patient advocates in hospitals. Paul is not saying that the Holy Spirit physically moans, but rather that the Spirit helps us communicate our emotions to God when words cannot adequately express what we desire. Such a view of the Holy Spirit is found in the Old Testament as well, “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem\u00a0the Spirit of grace and supplication<\/strong>; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn<\/em>” (Zechariah 12:10). What is being expressed here is that when we pray, we may not adequately state what we wish to ask of God, but we should not be concerned about that because the Holy Spirit of God Himself will express for us what we cannot fittingly express for ourselves.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Kenneth Copeland uses Romans 8:26 as proof that people speak in tongues.\u00a0 I understand that tongue-speaking has ceased (I Corinthians 13:8-10). I don’t know what Romans 8:26 is saying so I can’t denounce it to a friend who believes she can speak in tongues.\u00a0 Separate from the question I want to say thank you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1510,142,141],"class_list":["post-31772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-prayers","tag-speaking-in-tongues","tag-tongue-speaking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1894,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-tongues-still-in-existence-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":31772,"position":0},"title":"Are tongues still in existence today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Are tongues still in existence today? Answer: When the gift of speaking in tongues was first mentioned in the Bible, the people found it a wonder. \"And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?\" (Acts 2:8). Hence, the proper definition\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18563,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/speaking-in-tongues\/","url_meta":{"origin":31772,"position":1},"title":"Speaking in Tongues","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Acts 2:1-11 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I received several questions in recent days regarding speaking in tongues \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0People wanting to know what it was, what is the heavenly language, what is the unknown tongue \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But probably more than anything else, they want to know if you must have the gift of tongues\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10447,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-balaams-donkey-speaking-in-tongues\/","url_meta":{"origin":31772,"position":2},"title":"Was Balaam’s donkey speaking in tongues?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was speaking in tongues done in the Old Testament? The reason I ask is that talking in tongues is nothing more speaking in a language not known to the user. I know it won't be a critical or applicable statement, but didn't even a donkey speak in tongues with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83748,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-speaking-in-tongues-for-communicating-with-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":31772,"position":3},"title":"Is speaking in tongues for communicating with God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: May God continue to strengthen you guys in Jesus' name. Amen. You may not be aware, but many issues arise with the topic of speaking in tongues here. A brother recently sent me some voice notes discussing speaking in tongues with a man. He explained that speaking in tongues,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1730,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-an-unknown-tongue\/","url_meta":{"origin":31772,"position":4},"title":"What is an unknown tongue?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 21, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is unknown tongues a heavenly language or does it mean a language not known to people but for God? Answer: The phrase \"unknown tongue\" only appears in the King James Version in six places in I Corinthians 14. If you look carefully you will notice that in all six\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10535,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-speaking-in-tongues-and-prophesying-similar-gifts\/","url_meta":{"origin":31772,"position":5},"title":"Are speaking in tongues and prophesying similar gifts?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: With talking in tongues, some of the time it says they talked in tongues and prophesied. Was that part of talking in tongues, or separate? I always get confused. I know in I Corinthians 14:22 mentions reasons for each, but I don't know if they are separate. Answer: Speaking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}