The Importance of Tongues

Tonight I want to speak about a subject that is controversial and not fully understood by most believers including that who have it

That is the ability to speak in other tongues

We are a charismatic group, but just to clear the air, let me ask this up front

Is there anyone here that has never spoken in tongues or cannot speak in tongues

Reason For Speaking in Tongues

Ok my next question is When do you speak in tongues and how often do you speak in tongues

Why do you speak in tongues? What motivates you to do it?

Ok I am going to give you a list of reasons to speak in tongues and when you can use it effectively

The Baptism of the Spirit

Firstly, speaking in tongues usually accompanies the experience known as the Baptism of the holy Spirit.Do you all remember the first time this happened to you?

It usually happens when you are baptized in the Spirit. This is the experience of most folks. But not everyone continues to speak in tongues afterwards. I was an exception

The Main Principles

Ok lets get the main principles out of the way.

1. Speaking in tongues is good for you

1 Corinthians 14:4 He that speaks in an [unknown] tongue builds up himself; but he that prophesies builds up the church. [GBMV]

Jude 1:20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, [GBMV]

Even the great apostle Paul felt the need to speak in tongues

1 Corinthians 14:18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than all of you: [GBMV]

You see, speaking in tongues is a kind of exercise for the spirit.

Diet And Exercise

Now if you. consider health in the body, what are the two main elements that are needed to remain healthy? They are diet and exercise. Even just 10 minutes of exercise is good for your body. Just going for a walk for 10 minutes a day will do you a lot of good.

But to be the most efficient machine God created you to be, you must keep every part of you healthy, not just the body. The soul and the spirit should also be kept healthy.

I explained all of this in some detail in my book New You For a New Era where I dealt with how you can work on each part to make it healthy. You can read the whole book online here:

https://gbmbooks.gbmi.co.za/view-book-details/?title=New%20You%20For%20A%20New%20Era

If you are not a contributing partner, you may have to purchase this book from our bookshop. Each part has a way to be fed and a way to be exercised and we also need to deal with sicknesses in each part.

But the key to being healthy does not lie in getting medical treatment. Doctors cannot heal you - that power lies inside you and comes from your spirit. If you maintain good health, sickness should not get hold of you. And this applies to body, soul, and spirit.

I speak in the book about healing these parts and how it can be accomplished in the book. But the key is to make your whole being function at peak efficiency. This is what good health really is.

So, for the spirit, you need to exercise it, and speaking in tongues is one of the best ways to do this.

Now imagine if you lay in bed all day and never got up and moved about? Do you think your body will be able to maintain health? No, it cannot because exercise is essential to life, keeping the body moving.

Spiritual Exercise

So surely if this applies to your body, it also applies to your spirit. You should speak in tongues every day to keep your spirit healthy.

In addition, if you desire to carry out some form of ministry, your spirit must also be involved. And speaking in tongues is listed amongst all the higher-level ministries.

1 Corinthians 12:28 And God fixed in place in the church, in the highest rank apostles, second in place prophets, third in place teachers, then miracles, next gifts of healings, helpers, directors, and a variety of different tongues.

When this scripture says not everyone will speak in tongues it does not conflict with what Paul said here:

1 Corinthians 14:5 I want you all to speak with tongues, but I would prefer it if you prophesied: for the one that prophesies is greater than the one that speaks with tongues, unless they interpret, that the church might be built up. [GBMV]

Not everyone uses tongues as a ministry. You must seek the Lord for this, as I did. To fully utilize tongues in this way, you will also need to be able to interpret.

You can interpret your own tongues

1 Corinthians 14:13 Therefore let he that speaks in an [unknown] tongue pray that he might [be able to] interpret.

Most of the time, we use tongues in prayer. But we can also use it in worship. This is when you use tongues in your singing to the Lord. I have written hundreds of songs and the Lord has given me the ability to do this. But not everyone can do this easily.

But there is nothing to stop you from making up a melody. The trouble is to find the right words to use with the melody. This is where tongues become useful.

You can make up any melody you prefer and sing to it in tongues, and your spirit will provide a set of words to go with the melody.And you are singing in the Spirit.

It is a wonderful feeling and lifts you up into the heavenly realm and HIs presence. Of course, you do not understand what you are singing, but it does not matter - you are singing to Him

We got into the habit of doing this every time we have a worship session. We start out singing songs that are written with words and melody, and then we go into spontaneous worship in the Spirit.

This can go on for a while as the Spirit leads. Here, tongues helps you break out of the world around you to enter into His presence in the Spirit.

Spiritual Warfare

One thing that many folks miss is the ability to use tongues in spiritual warfare. When demon powers attack you and bombard your mind, you can use your tongues to resist them.

Now, some folks have taught that demons cannot understand tongues, because it is a private prayer language between you and the Lord. But in reality, only other humans cannot understand, unless you are speaking their native tongue, as happened at Pentecost.

But I learned to use tongues to rebuke the devil and found it very powerful. The Scripture says that the tongues we speak are the tongues of men and angels.

1 Corinthians 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and do not have [agape] love, I have become [like] a noisy brass [instrument], or a clanging cymbal. [GBMV]

Since demons were once angels, they understand tongues and know all human tongues.

The first time I tried this, I was trying to rebuke demons in English, and it did not seem to carry enough power. So I decided to switch to a tongue that I had.

If you have the full gift of diverse tongues, you should now have a series of different tongues you can use. The first one the Lord gave me, which I share in my story, was an African click tongue.

Because it was so guttural and felt like it had power behind it, I decided one day to use it to rebuke demons. And a fantastic power and authority arose in me, and the demons obeyed.

Now I use it all the time in spiritual warfare.

2 Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare [are] not fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of fortresses;)

When Satan attacks your mind and tries to build a fortress there, rebuke him in tongues and tear down that thing in your mind. If you have never done this, try it next time you are under spiritual attack.

When I feel it rising up in me suddenly, and my voice gets louder, I know that my spirit inside is coming against the demon powers.

Remember that your spirit knows exactly what is happening in the Spirit. It is in contact with the Holy Spirit 24/7. That is why praying in tongues is so powerful.

Praying His Will

Your spirit knows God's will, so when you bring a prayer request, you know it is correct.

With our minds, we often pray the wrong things because we do not have all the facts. But your spirit knows everything.

So, when praying for someone else, instead of telling the Lord their need and asking Him to do something, I hold them up in my mind while I pray in tongues, and I know my spirit will pray the right thing.

Sometimes, we may bring someone into bondage by praying for what we believe they need. Always remember that when you pray in tongues, it is your spirit that is praying.

1 Corinthians 14:13 Therefore let he that speaks in an [unknown] tongue pray that he might [be able to] interpret.

It is so much easier to let your spirit do all the work instead of racking your mind for the right things to say.

Most Important Reason

Now, here is what I consider probably the most important reason to speak in tongues. When you speak in tongues, it is your spirit speaking

, even though God has given the words.

If you pray in tongues for a while, you will eventually get to feel like a bystander listening in. And you will, as it were, stand there listening to your spirit speak.

In the natural, we all have unique voices when we speak, and if you know someone well, eventually you get to recognize their voice. If they called you up on the phone, you would probably know who they are without them introducing themselves.

And if they were busy talking in a group with others speaking at the same time, you would be able to pick out their voice and know they are there speaking.

You could then focus on that voice and listen to what they say. Now we all go through life hearing lots of voices in our heads. Many of them are voices from the past, or the voices of people who influenced us.

These voices are all there while you pray in tongues because your mind remains active. But as you learn to hear the voice of your spirit, you can separate it from all those other voices.

God Speaks in Your Spirit

This is very important because when God speaks to you, He will always speak in your spirit, and then your spirit passes the message to your mind. If you have not learned to recognize the voice of your spirit, you may not know that God is speaking to you.

But once you recognize that voice, God can speak to you anytime. Imagine you are walking down the road. Then imagine Jesus is by your side. If you know the voice of your spirit, Jesus could speak to you as you walk.

He could say something like, “Let’s turn left here.” Or he could say, “Stop.” In the Scriptures, this is called walking in the Spirit.

Ok, so what causes you to recognize the voice of your spirit? Simply this - spending long periods of time speaking in tongues. It increases your spiritual sensitivity.

Voice of the Holy Spirit

The voice of the Holy Spirit and your spirit are not the same. But the Holy Spirit will always speak through your spirit. He may, on rare occasions, bypass your spirit and speak directly into your mind, and very rarely will He speak in an audible voice.

If you desire to move into a more prophetic ministry and get revelation from the Holy Spirit, you can only develop this by praying in tongues extensively.

Remember that God is a spirit, and therefore He communicates to your spirit. Your spirit is the key to all of these things. Because it is continually in contact with the Holy Spirit, and it alone knows the language of the Holy Spirit.

When demons inject thoughts into your mind, they do it directly from the outside, bypassing your spirit. So when you feel a strong influence bombarding your mind, it is not likely the Holy Spirit, because He speaks from deep inside.

Praying Extended Periods

Praying in tongues for an hour at a time is not easy.If you have managed that, then try to maintain it. I compare it to drilling down into the ground to tap into an underground stream. Your spirit is an underground stream through which the Holy Spirit flows.

And sometimes it takes a while to break through to that underground stream. In the natural, you will usually need to drill through solid rock first. But eventually, you break through to the underground stream.

If this happens after praying in tongues for a while, it means you have now broken through to where you can tap into the spiritual resources that God has put in you by His Holy Spirit.

Spiritual Second Wind

When this first happened to me, it was an exciting experience. It had felt tough, like I was drilling through rock. But then, suddenly, I hit a gusher.

And now pictures started coming up from deep inside, and I felt a surge, like I could go on praying forever.

The best thing I could use to describe it is something that runners experience that they call the Second Wind. A runner goes through a time of exhaustion as they run. But if they persevere they suddenly get a new surge of power

and then they feel like they can keep running forever.

This second Wind that happens in the natural can also occur in your spirit if you persevere in tongues. Then, once you have broken through in this way, it usually does not have to be repeated.

The next time you come to pray in the Spirit, there is no more struggling or drilling through solid rock. You can very quickly get in the Spirit and start to receive revelation from the Lord in the Spirit.

Essential For Prophetic Ministry

It is an essential place to be if you wish to flow in prophetic ministry. Never discount the importance of praying in tongues. And then you can use tongues to receive prophetic direction from the Lord.

To do this, you must come to where you can interpret your tongue. This is not an automatic gift, but you must reach out and take it from the Lord using the Hand of Faith.

Interpreting Your Tongues

I want to end tonight on interpreting your own tongues. When tongues are used in ministry, they are usually accompanied by interpretation. This process has come to be called in Christian circles, ‘giving a message in tongues.’

Often in a church meeting, one person will give an utterance in tongues and then another person will interpret the tongues. Remember that interpretation is not translation.

So when there is a message in tongues, the interpretation will come like a word of prophecy. It is an explanation of what was said in tongues.

Now, if you learn to interpret your own tongues, you can receive a message from the Lord in tongues, and the interpretation will be a message for you.

I often use this same process when I get a word for someone else. If you have had a video chat with me and I ended by giving you a word from the Lord, you probably first heard me speaking in tongues before the prophetic word.

This allows me to hear from the Lord regularly. I always record these words on my phone or also on my Apple Watch.

Then, if it was for someone else, I can send them the recording after the chat.

If it was for me I save it, and then put it through a transcriber program to get a text version. My phone is full of these recordings because I use this all that time while ministering to others.

Importance of Tongues

Tongues is a gift that did not come to me automatically after the baptism, and when I sought the Lord for it, I promised Him that I would use it every day, and I still do that. I could not live or minister without the gift of tongues.

There are few activities I carry out that do not include it. So never despise the value of this wonderful gift. It is the one gift that you can use for yourself.

I hope this study was helpful for you tonight and that you learned something. For now, if I can do nothing else, I want to encourage you to speak in tongues often and for more extended periods of time.

Use it in everything you do in the spiritual life. Your spirit has been recreated and cannot make mistakes, but your mind can miss it and fail you.

Go try it out this week. If you have never had a spiritual second wind experience, ask the Lord for it and push through in tongues until it comes.

I have learned to use tongues as a kind of primer. You know, you get those old taps that reach underground water. And often before you can get the water out, you need to prime the pump.

Well, prime your spiritual pump by speaking often in tongues. You can do it while driving your car, and you can even do it under your breath at work while busy with other things.

Your mind is still free to do things while you pray in tongues

but if you start the process you may find it just begins to keep. flowing

You will find this so valuable you will not want to live without it

ok love you guys. Have a wonderful blessed week

<-Chapter 27   Chapter 29->   Show Condensed Version

Post A Review For This Book