1 Corith 14

Prophecy and Tongues -
If you speak in a tongue then your talking to God.
You're uttering mysteries in your soul.
But no one understands.

Prophecy is to deliver a message from God, not necessarily predict the future.
But if your prophesying then your speaking to men and it's to strengthen, encourage, and comfort them.

If you speak in a tongue then you build up yourself.
If you deliver the message then you build up the church.
I would rather you build up the church.
Whoever prophesies (gives a message from God thats understandable) is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless someone can interpret what you said so that the whole church could be built up.

The focus of all of this is to build up the church. To build up each other.

So if when I come, I speak in tongues, what good is that unless I bring some sort of new revelation, a new thought, or new information to help, or a word of instruction?
It's like playing an instrument, but only using one note. If they use a trumpet to make the battle call, but it's not clear, then nothings gonna work. If it's to gather people together and build each other up, but no one has any idea what was just said, then you just made a lot of noise, talked to the air, and wasted time.

There really are alot of languages, and each one has it's purpose. For foreigners that don't understand what is being said, it works. But again that's to build up the church. Focus on things that you can do that will build up those around you.

So based off of that, if you speak in tongues pray that you can interpret it. I can pray with my spirit and speak in tongues, and it's good for my spirit, but doesn't help my mind any. So I could sing with my spirit or sing with my mind. I can be thankful in the same ways. It was never meant to be barren intellect or thoughtless emotion but both working together. But if I only use the spiritual, how can an outsider or someone else look at my praise and say that it's good, agree with it, and praise God because of it, if they have no idea what's going on? You might be praising God, but the other man is not built up.

I thank God that I speak tongues more than you, so you know that I have experience and authority. That I'm not just blabbering because I'm jealous or am afraid of what I don't know. I do it more than you and I would much rather say 5 words that you can understand that would help you than blabber on in tongues for a day and half and you have no idea what's happening.

So the focus of all of this is this, to build up each other and the church. The body of Christ to be strengthened with words and power. It doesn't matter what your doing, if this isn't happening and it's just confusing people and making people think your crazy. Stop doing it. Simple enough. The focus is on God and on building each other up.