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Why Tongues?
The Gift of diverse kinds of Tongues serves two purposes, One – it is our spirit’s prayer language and two – God can use the Gift of Tongues to speak to us and through us and that may or may not require the Gift of Interpretation of Tongues.
Tongues as Our Heavenly Prayer Language
You see beloved, when we pray in tongues, it is our spirit that is praying, our minds are totally clueless to what we are praying about and that really offends the flesh (the un-renewed mind as well as the human intellect).
2 For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. – 1 Corinthians 14:2 NKJV
Our human minds want to be in control all the time just as they have been since the fall of man.
14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. 15 What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding. – 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 NKJV
Praying with or in the Spirit and praying in Tongues are one and the same. As humbling as it for the mind to take a back seat, it is vitally important that it submits to the spirit; praying in tongues is one way in which our newly recreated spirit (indwelt by and baptize in the Holy Spirit) takes the lead in our lives. Our minds take their rightful place of subservience to our spirit and consequently our bodies would follow suit. No wonder the Word of God also tells us that when we pray in tongues we are edifying ourselves.
4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, - 1 Corinthians 14:4a NKJV
Every time we pray in the Spirit, that is, when we pray in tongues, we are building ourselves up in our most holy faith (Jude 20).
Since it is the Holy Spirit who helps us to pray in tongues by giving us the words to speak out, we can rest assured that when we pray in tongues, we are praying according to the perfect will of God and we know that if we pray according to His will, He hears and answers us in the affirmative.
When we pray with our understanding we are limited in what and how we can pray but when we pray in the Spirit, we pray perfect prayers.
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us[b] with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. – Romans8:26-27 NKJV
We are encouraged to pray in the Spirit always, and this we can effectively do through the Gift of Tongues.
18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints— Ephesians 6:18 NKJV
Every believer who is baptized in the Holy Spirit should pray in tongues as much as they can and realize the benefits of doing so. However, this should be done privately or in a structured or orderly setting. We need to be considerate of others and of what is currently underway in our gatherings.
The Holy Spirit does not force us to speak in tongues against our will, neither does He take control of our faculties and cause us to randomly speak in tongues and/or convulse, act weird and stuff. Reasons ranging from immaturity to incorrect teaching to traditions of men and or even outright deception could very well be the cause of such unseemly behavior.
When it comes to the Gift of Tongues, The Holy Spirit gives us the “utterance”, that is the “words” in a language unknown to us and WE do the speaking. Just like it happened on the day of Pentecost, it was the 120 disciples who did the speaking as the Spirit gave them the utterance.
So beloved, if you are waiting for the Holy Spirit to force your mouth open and to take control of your tongue and cause you to speak in tongues, you’ll be waiting in vain. If you are waiting to “feel” something, you might be disappointed at best or misled at worst.
We must remember that our walk in Christ is one of faith; we do not go by what our five senses tell us, we live by what the Word of God says. It’s no different when it comes to the Gifts of the Spirit; we believe God’s Word and step out in faith. For fear of being deceived, many have shied away from this Gift of the Spirit. Meditate on His perfect and endless love for you and every ounce of fear will dissipate. Your Father is well able to keep you from being deceived, trust Him, He is so good! It is the enemy who doesn't want us to be able to pray the mysteries of God in our spirits and wreak havoc to his diabolical schemes.
We have the Lord’s promise of sending us the Holy Spirit; let’s believe that once we ask Jesus to baptize us with the Holy Spirit, He does it and so by faith, we can open our mouths and start to speak out the foreign sounding syllables that we hear in our spirits knowing that it is the Holy Spirit who is giving us the words.
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The beauty of this gift, unlike the other 8 is that we can operate in it at any time, we can start and stop at will. No wonder the apostle Paul said He spoke in tongues more than the entire Corinthian church put together and that He chose to speak to the church in a known language and not in tongues so they could be edified (1 Corinthians 14:18-19). He also encouraged believers not to forbid speaking in tongues.
39 Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues. 40 Let all things be done decently and in order. – 1 Corinthians 14:39-40 NKJV
TO BE CONTINUED>>>
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