Praying in Tongues

Few topics have caused as much disagreement in the church as the subject of the spiritual gift of tongues. It is in many cases simply dismissed or outright rejected for whatever reasons people have chosen to believe about it. Some have said, it’s of the devil, or that there is no need for that today, or it passed away with the early church.

Yet, the scriptures undeniably discuss the subject of speaking in tongues at length, often in parts of the Bible that many today have chosen to ignore or dismiss.

Is Speaking in Tongues Real?

Having received and used the gift of tongues in my own personal prayer life for over 45 years, I have absolutely no doubt of its validity, and I am fully convinced that it was given by the Lord for the benefit of every child of God, no exceptions.

And I contend that the gift of tongues has been viciously attacked since the dawn of the church specifically because of the immense power and blessing it releases into the believer's life.

Power to Witness

The Promise is Unto You

There is a spiritual power that is released into the lives of those who pray in other tongues. And this gift is intended for every believer.

Every person who has ever been called by God to the salvation of Christ has been promised the full gift of the Holy Ghost. This includes, and goes beyond, the indwelling of the Spirit received at salvation; it promises the manifestation of the Spirit through the gift of tongues. Peter said, the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Peter was speaking to a crowd who had just witnessed 120 people speaking in other tongues. They knew exactly what he was talking about when he said “and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Benefits of Praying in Tongues

First of all, we must understand that speaking in tongues is praying.

This is Paul the apostle discussing the gift of tongues with the Corinthian church, who evidently had some misunderstandings about it. He points out that if he prays in an unknown tongue, his spirit prays, but his understanding is unfruitful. In other words, he does not understand what he is praying when he prays in tongues.

This was one of the roadblocks in my own life to receiving the gift of tongues. For some reason, I just thought that if I spoke in tongues I would certainly understand what I was saying. But no, the truth is that a person speaking in tongues does not understand what they’re saying.

Now, there is a thing that the Bible speaks of called interpretation of tongues, but that comes under the category of ministry gifts, like the gift of prophecy. It’s referred to as tongues and interpretation. But with the simple gift of tongues, the person praying does not understand what they’re praying.

We Don’t Understand, but God Does 

No man understands him; however in the spirit he speaks mysteries. That means hidden or secret things. He is speaking something that God understands. This is why praying in tongues is often referred to as the believer’s private prayer language.

He is speaking mysteries, hidden or secret things, that he doesn’t himself understand, but God does. Why would this be something we would have any reason to do? We would do it because it allows us to pray for things that are above our understanding, but not about the Lord’s.

Praying the Will of God

Uttered means “articulated in understandable speech.” We articulate it in speech that we don’t understand, but God does.

By praying in tongues we allow the Spirit of God to pray through us for the saints according to the will of God.

Praying in tongues is not insignificant. We are submitting ourselves to the Lord to pray for the things He wants. And we don’t even know what’s being prayed for. It’s one of the most unselfish forms of prayer that we can pray.

They Spoke with Other Tongues

There is something important to notice here. It says that **THEY** spoke with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. They did the speaking. The Holy spirit gave the words to speak.

This is another misunderstanding about the gift of tongues. A person who speaks in tongues is the one who does the speaking. Many who have desired to receive this gift have been under the impression that the Holy spirit would do the speaking. They believed that the Holy Spirit would just take them over and move their mouths to speak in a language they didn’t know.

The Holy Spirit does not do the speaking. He gives the utterance, that is, He gives us the words to speak, but we by faith speak those words out. The Holy Spirit does not take over people. He is a perfect gentleman. He does not force anyone to do anything, by overriding their freewill.

So, if we are waiting for the Holy Spirit to take us over and speak through us, we will not receive the gift of tongues, because He speaks words to our spirit, and those words come into our mind, and we speak them out. We do the speaking. He gives the utterance.

By Faith

The point here is that to speak in another tongue by the Holy Spirit, we must take a step of faith and speak the words we hear in our mind. The Holy Spirit will give us those words but He will not speak them for us.

The Prayer Closet and the Church Assembly

The gift of tongues may operate in the church assembly, but for the most part it is given to us for our private prayer times, that is, in the prayer closet alone with God.

In churches that allow the gift of prophecy to function in the meetings, the gift of tongues and interpretation act as the equivalent of prophecy. Someone gives a tongue and they or someone else follows it with an interpretation. This is the same thing as prophecy. And not every believer is called to operate in the gift of prophecy.

But the simple gift of praying in tongues that’s available to every child of God is intended for personal prayer times alone with God. Every born again believer can do that. In fact, that is the main purpose of the gift, praying to the Father in secret. Prophecy in the assembly is seen by people. But prayer time in the closet is not seen by people because it is done in secret.

The Gift of Tongues is not Automatic

Some have said with sincerity, I know the gift of tongues is in the Bible, and if God ever wants me to have it, then I’m open to receiving it. The problem with that sincere statement is that people who approach the gift of tongues in a casual manner rarely receive it, because it must be sought. God gives us what we desire, not what we wish or just think about.

My Own Experience

In my own case, and everyone’s experience is different, it took me nearly a year of seeking the gift of tongues to finally receive it. The delay was caused by my own misunderstanding of how these things work.

I thought that the Holy Spirit would just take me over and cause me to speak in tongues if I just gave Him the slightest opportunity. But, as I mentioned earlier, the Holy Spirit does not take people over. The belief that He would do that hindered me from receiving.

I thought I would understand what I was saying if I spoke with tongues. Wrong again. So I was waiting for something to come into my mind that I could understand, and then I would somehow speak with tongues. That hindered me.

Until I received a teaching on the subject similar to what has been shared in this lesson, I could not receive what I was asking the Lord for. God will not bend to our incorrect understanding of things and just go ahead and give us what we want. That’s the reason for most unanswered prayers. We try to pray according to our misunderstanding of God’s ways, not in line with His word, and we expect Him to answer us anyway. No, it’s His word that He responds to.

What if I Get the Wrong Spirit?

This is a concern that some have because they were told by some well-meaning person that tongues are of the devil. They will say things like, you’d better be careful about those tongues, you might get a devil.

This passage in Luke 11 makes it clear that if we ask our heavenly Father for the Holy Spirit that He is going to give us what we asked for, and not something else.

And in addition to that, there is no place in the Bible where a person ever asked for the Holy Spirit and received a devil, or any place where the devil ever inspired someone to speak in tongues. If those were things that really happen, then there would be some examples of it in the Bible.

Once I knew these things, these Biblical explanations of the truth about other tongues given in this lesson, I immediately stepped over into the experience of speaking with other tongues, fluently, just like I had been doing it for years.

Study the subject, pray about it, and God will give you the gift that He promised to give as many as the Lord our God shall call.