Many in the early Church were gifted with tongues, but over time the gift became rarer. The problem was, quite simply, that if someone spoke in tongues, he would unintentionally take up all the spiritual space of the congregation as a whole, which would not derive the least profit from the gift. The best explanation for God’s gift of tongues to the early Church lies in the necessity of teaching newly-converted Christians to pray with their heart rather than just externally, as they were likely to have been used to doing. But the Church soon discovered a deeper way to educate the heart, for She was concerned to cultivate the inner man. She discovered the invocation of the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And little by little, the Prayer of the Heart replaced the gift of speaking in tongues.The Jesus Prayer is a way of praying in the spirit without losing any control of the spirit, and, therefore, without running the risk of usurping the space of the other members of the Body of Christ.http://orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/on-the-gift-of-speaking-in-tongues.aspxWhat is the benefit of practicing Jesus prayer? Why is it called as prayer of the heart?
I find that An Orthodox website teaches that Jesus prayer replaced one of the gift of Holy Spirit,e.g. speak in tongue? Do you agree with this teaching? ( To me, this teaching seems a bit nonsense. How can the gift of Holy Spirit replace by something else? Can we replace the gift of healing,faith,prophescy, teaching,etc with something else? It seems not sensible....)
