Communication

Stuck On Holy Joe Jargon

by Ramona Cook 
12/20/21
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This seems to me to be a subject that we as Christian communicators should consider.

Often as some Christian fellow is speaking to me about how poorly someone received their message, I note that they are using an expression understood by some people but not understood by all people.

Today, not that many people are tuned in to the expressions that we as long time Church goers understand. So without thinking through what the other person is hearing, we present what we are thinking is communicating.

For one instance: One of my friends is often concerned because of the response she gets when she asks someone if they have received the Holy Ghost. She is each time speaking to a person who has already confessed Jesus as their Savior. The response she gets is, “Yes, I have received the Holy Spirit.”

What she is really asking them is whether they speak in an unknown tongue. Of course Scripture does not support that idea which she has in her vocabulary, and it is not the way she in fact believes it.

When I have spoken to her about the terminology she is using not being understood by the one to whom she speaks, she gets irritated. She informs me that she knows we receive the Holy Spirit when we ask Jesus into our hearts but she is asking if they have received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in an unknown tongue. That is NOT however, the way she is presenting the question.

So why is she not willing to adjust her jargon? If the WAY we say it does not communicate then we need to clean up the question so that the one to whom we speak does understand.

I am not suggesting we change the truth in any way. But communication of our message is a lost cause if the one to whom we are speaking does not understand our lingo.

There is a vast difference in “Do you have the Holy Spirit?” and “Have you received the infilling of the Holy Spirit with speaking in an unknown tongue?”

This is a doctrinal issue with many denominations. I am not addressing Denominational Doctrines. I am speaking about the teachings of Scripture.

In the last chapter of John, Jesus, after His Resurrection, breathed on the Disciples and said to them, “You receive the Holy Ghost.” It was a command that He performed by breathing on them and imparting to them the Holy Spirit.

Scripture teaches us that when we confess that we are a sinner and need salvation, and we ask Jesus to save us, that He indeed does and we are THAT moment sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Then He told them to go to Jerusalem and wait for Power from on High.

When THAT POWER came, it was the Holy Spirit coming in power resting upon them and they all spoke in other tongues.

It is erroneous to say that unless a person speaks in tongues that they do not have the Holy Spirit in their hearts.

It is likewise erroneous to say that there is not a subsequent infilling of the Holy Spirit, and that there is no speaking of unknown tongues.

There is Scripture to indicate that not all Spirit filled persons speak in tongues.

Personally, I suspect that there are at least two types of “tongues.”

One is for literal messages, like on the Day of Pentecost when people from many Nations heard the message of salvation in their own native tongue coming from the mouths of Jews.

The other is a tongue for prayer, mostly private prayer. But then, this is what I glean from my reading of the Bible texts.

So my conclusion is: that it is the wrong question to ask anyone who has accepted Jesus as their Savior if they “have” the Holy Spirit, when what is really meant is, “Do you speak in tongues?”

Those terms are not synonymous and little wonder that there is confusion on the subject.

There are many such terminologies that we use and fully understand as long time Believers but they don’t compute to the people who are not familiar with our use of Holy Joe Jargon.

I respect Holy Joe Jargon, but we must take note if the way we present a subject is being understood by the hearer.

Ramona: 12/19/2021