Cat got your tongues? - Utilizing the gift of tongues
The spiritual gift of speaking in tongues is a very powerful gift. It allows you to speak mysteries unto God which can affect your life and those around you in surprising ways. Many have the mistaken notion that since speaking in tongues takes the least amount of faith to walk in, it is the least powerful gift and therefore it goes under utilized. This is a huge shame since it means many believers are not taking possession of the edification that God would have for them.
When you speak in tongues you are essentially praying to God. Think about what is possible when you pray in your native tongue. A prayer can go anywhere and touch anyone. Prayer knows no boundaries and miracles can be made manifest and doors opened. The problem when we pray in our native tongue is that we infected with pride and that pride infects our prayers and we can ask for things out of our own selfish desires. It is not so when speaking in tongues because it is a gift of the Holy Spirit and there is no pride involved. Imagine praying like Jesus did in the gospel of John chapter 17. Speaking in tongues is the grace of God for you to communicate with God without any hinderances.
Paul wrote, “I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all.” (1 Corinthians 14:18) Paul is not insulting these people, but emphasizing through the example of his own walk the importance of walking in this gift. The number one reason the gift of tongues goes under utilized is because we choose not to use it. Paul chose to walk in the gift to its fullest, so let’s look at what the Holy Spirit accomplished through Paul. Paul ended up writing half of the new testament and through the centuries has ministered to billions of people! The gift of speaking in tongues was a foundational element in Paul’s life. What would happen if we fully utilized the gift tongues in our lives?
The effects of speaking in tongues is mainly seen when we are not speaking in tongues. For example, let’s say you are harboring bitterness in your heart towards someone and you have been faithfully been using the gift of tongues. Since bitterness is a sinful behavior, you need to be cleansed of it or it will tear you down. When we gather to ourselves such sinful behaviors, we do it because we like the feeling it gives us. It makes us seem justified in our own eyes or it becomes a defensive mechanism that we use to avoid a painful truth. The Holy Spirit will pray through us in tongues to ask for those things which we ourselves will not ask because we don’t want to let go of our sinful behavior. Then God will start arranging circumstances so that you will come before Him with a willing heart and you may be cleansed. So you are sitting there with bitterness in your heart and you are praying in tongues and then suddenly out of left field things start happening which catches your attention. You say to yourself, “Gee, that was weird.” As you go along you start to see a pattern like a hand is guiding you somewhere. Eventually everything comes into focus and you are brought to a place where you see the truth and you can make a choice. The neat thing about speaking in tongues is the fact that the bulk of it goes uninterpreted to your own mind and through this God spares you the anxiety of thinking about what you asked for by the Holy Spirit! If you knew you had to go through some rough times in order to bring you to a place of humility, would you pray for those rough times? This is part of God’s grace to bring us where we need to be by the most gentle way possible.
Speaking in tongues will also affect what you pray in your native tongue. As noted before, the Spirit will ask for things that we are not aware we need which results in us being set free. That freedom in turn will affect what we pray because now our eye is clear and we can see things as they truly are and in turn means we stop praying selfishly. You will notice more of your prayers are answered because you are lined up with the will of God.
Speaking in tongues is a powerful gift! Here is a testimony that happened to me when I was praying in tongues.
One day I was feeling down and slightly depressed, but a determination arose in my to not accept what the devil was laying on me. Every child of God experiences the oppression of the enemy, and sometimes you just get plain tired of the devil’s constant poking. That day I finally got tired of it and I laid down on my bed.
I lifted my hands toward heaven and prayed. It started out slow and soft; it was all in tongues. Gradually it grew more intense and fervent. I could tell the devil was trying to hinder me, but the more he tried the more fervent I became. This battle in the spirit went on for quite some time. I knew God was hearing me, and I was expecting an answer, but I didn’t know how He would answer me.
The door was closed, the drapes were pulled, and the lights were off making the room dark. Looking in the direction of my feet, I suddenly noticed something coming toward me. It was moving very slowly. I became terrified. Several times I said, “What is that!?” At first, it was like looking at car lights through a dense fog, but the closer it got the clearer it became. I was physically paralyzed with fear. I tried to move parts of my body but couldn’t--not even a twitch! The fear was overwhelming.
Suddenly I recognized who was coming toward me. It was Jesus. He was sitting on a white throne, dressed in white robes draped from His shoulders to His feet. The right sleeve of his robe was pushed up on top of His shoulder making His right arm bare. His arm was strong and had great definition to it and it was resting upon the armrest of His throne. There was a crown on His head and He had an angry look on His face (it is difficult to describe). His eyes were aflame with fire--I mean literal fire! The fire in His eyes is what frightened me the most. Om that moment, I learned what it means to fear the Lord.
There I was before the Lord, gripped with fear and unable to move. I don’t know if He brought me into His throne room or if He brought His throne into my room. For I could see both at the same time.
As I was watching Him I also saw demonic spirits out of the sides of my eyes. They were dull green and blue in color, like sewage. I became acutely aware how they were hindering me. It was if they had grabbed my arms and were trying to pull me down.
His throne stopped a few feet from the end of my bed and He slowly raised His arm and pointed in my direction. He spoke a name which I could not understand and then said, “release him.” Instantly after He spoke those words, every demon spirit that was hindering me, with the speed of light, departed from me. My body physically shook and lifted straight up off the bed six inches as they let go of me. An unusual feeling welled up within me as I was set free, It was like pulling up weeds next to a good plant, where suddenly the good plant has all the light in the garden to grow in. My eyes grew wide as the grand canyon. Jesus then slowly lowered His arm and departed exactly the same way He came.
So what can we do to more fully utilize this gift? There are many segments of time in our daily lives in which basically nothing happens or we are filling that time with a secondary activities. What would happen if we redeemed those segments of time by speaking in tongues? Let’s say you have a half hour drive to work and you spent that time speaking in tongues, what blessings would you be calling down from God for that day? How about when you are in the bathroom or weeding the garden? These activities lend themselves to speaking in tongues because you are alone. If you add up all these time segments, it may surprise you at the amount of time you could spend speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues will open up the flood gates of God’s mercy and make the will of God manifest in your life like a waterfall that refreshes.