Susy Smith wrote: “Don Basham tells in his book, Handbook on Tongues: Interpretation & Prophecy, of a man he knew was the speaker at a Christian meeting: ‘At one point he stopped his message and began speaking in tongues. This was immediately followed by an interpretation of the tongue by someone in the audience. Then the man resumed his message. After the service, a Frenchman came up to the speaker and told him that the message in tongues was in the French language and that the interpretation that followed had been a perfect translation in English of what had been spoken in French. But neither the speaker nor interpreter knew any French.'” It should be noted that these miracles tend to occur in an atmosphere of expectation where, in some settings, they may even be commonplace. Certainly, they have tremendous persuasive value for both the faithful and curious newcomers. But outside the doors of these churches, they don’t get much airplay. And most who experience these moments are likely hesitant to talk about them for fear of appearing silly. Given the fundamental and dogmatic leanings of most of these churches, it seems like these miracles are not being targeted for greatest effect. In fact, they appear to reinforce the insular cul-de-sac nature of these churches as be-all and end-all establishments when, in fact, in some ways, they might be contributing to an ultimate disempowerment of humanity at the same time they fill a void for the individuals involved. Do they, in effect, keep people stuck circling the airport in a holding pattern? What is Creator’s perspective?

What your question is describing is the irony of, on the one hand, recognizing the importance of the divine and how fervently people want to believe, but how difficult it turns out to be, to be a witness to direct evidence that God is real, God exists. What those churches provide is at least an intermittent experiencing of a miracle for people who live in a largely secular world, if only in its day-to-day functioning, as people do not wear their heart on their sleeve, so to speak, and go around as visible believers in most cases. Because people are so disconnected from the ability to communicate with the divine realm directly, there is a need for the next best thing which is to have the comfort of companionship with fellow believers and to feel they are part of a spiritual community, if only on Sunday or Saturday, as the case might be, with a religious service of some kind and a gathering of kindred spirits. The fact that a miracle might happen and be witnessed is a special blessing and a kind of reward that is very nurturing and a powerful reinforcement of personal faith. So even though they themselves might not be able to speak intelligibly in tongues unknown to them, the witnessing of others who can do so is a tangible demonstration, in their way of thinking, of divinity in action and is the next best thing. To them, having seen a miracle is just as powerful as being a personal conveyer of a divine message, and that is the purpose for the phenomenon to begin with, to be witnessed at least by more than one person. There is an element of exclusivity created by the high strangeness of the phenomenon itself and often the way such worshippers conduct themselves. There is a kind of ritualistic aspect using group hymn singing and exhortations to raise the energy level. That can be challenging and even off-putting to many, especially those not used to letting go with abandon themselves, so it will not be their cup of tea, so to speak, and it will make it difficult for such gatherings to grow to a very large size because of the specialized focus on creating a visible miracle in action. This is limited from the divine end as well because the more such a group or gathering grows in size, the more it will consist of those with modest or minimal belief, perhaps coming to kick the tires, so to speak, not really being ready to participate because their vibration is not a match to a high belief quotient of one who can speak in tongues, and this can limit what is allowed to happen if too many doubters are present. So such an enterprise will inevitably be insular and self-limiting in its influence. This is simply the challenge of faith, that it will always represent a balance between doubt and belief given the rules of engagement, that we must limit our visible presence and effect on things except to believers themselves, who are at a high level of understanding and acceptance, and that is a high bar.