Why Pray in Tongues?
Communication is the oxygen of relationships.
When a bride and groom say “I do” during their wedding vows,
it’s not the end of their relationship. It’s the beginning! After the “I do,” they get to enjoy a God-blessed honeymoon, and they spend the rest of their lives getting to know one another and deepening their relationship.
The same is true in our relationship with the Lord. When we say, “I do” to Jesus, it’s the beginning of an eternal relationship! To experience a dynamic two-way relationship with the Lord, we must engage in heartfelt communication, prayer, with Him on a regular basis.
As believers, not only does God give us the ability to communicate and pray to Him in our everyday language, but when we are filled with the Spirit, one of the first benefits we receive is the ability to pray in tongues. This is sometimes called praying in the Spirit, a heavenly language, a spiritual language or a prayer language.
So, let’s talk about this heavenly prayer language—this speaking in tongues. Unfortunately, tongues often gets a bad rap and becomes the elephant in the room because there is either a lack of knowledge on this topic or because there is confusion and misinformation circulating among Christians. You can put your mind and heart at ease. Speaking in tongues is a good gift from our good God! Speaking and praying in tongues won’t put you in a trance, grow hair on your chest, make you cluck like a duck or turn you into a snake charmer. God will never force it upon you, but if you are thirsty and desire to enhance and deepen your relationship and communication with the Lord, open up your heart and let’s take a thorough look at God’s Word to learn more about this heavenly language of tongues.
Communicating With God
The Bible describes praying two ways—with our mind and under standing in our everyday language and with our spirit in tongues. Let’s look at it.
1 Corinthians 14:15 (AMPC) says:
“Then what am I to do? I will pray with my spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will also pray [intelligently] with my mind and understanding; I will sing with my spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will sing [intelligently] with my mind and understanding also.”
Let’s look a little deeper at these two types of prayer.
When we pray with our mind or understanding, we pray in our everyday language. For example, if English is your primary language, that is the language you understand and use when praying with your mind and understanding. When we pray with our mind and under standing, we can pray about many things using the knowledge we have and by asking God for things according to His Word.
Most people pray with their mind and understanding and it’s wonderful, but there are limitations to praying with our understanding because we don’t have the full knowledge or understanding on many things that need prayer. We also need to pray with our spirit in tongues.
I spent the first three years of my Christian life praying from my heart with my mind and understanding. All of my praying was done in English, since that’s the only language I knew. I looked up scriptures and prayed according to what God has promised in His Word. I saw marvelous answers to prayer. God is faithful to His Word. I have journals full of prayers I have written down and answers He has performed. I still enjoy praying with my mind and understanding according to God’s Word as He lays things on my heart. While this form of prayer is very fruitful, once I began to pray in the Spirit in tongues, I felt my prayer life had been turbo charged and I was able to pray about things I had no natural understanding on with great precision and according to God’s perfect will. Praying in tongues deepened and broadened my prayer life. When we pray with or from our spirit in the heavenly language of tongues, we can pray about things that our mind doesn’t know how to pray about.
Being able to pray both with our mind and understanding and with the spirit is the best of both worlds!
(Note: To “pray with the spirit” is a reference to praying in tongues, as you can see from the context of 1 Corinthians 14:14, below.)
1 Corinthians 14:14 says: “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.”
Our mind doesn’t understand the prayer in tongues, because it does not originate in our mind but in our spirit. Our mind or under standing is unfruitful when we pray in tongues, but our spirit is very fruitful and edified, as we will see through our study.
Praying in the spirit in tongues is an exhilarating experience. In this type of prayer, there is a definite flow back and forth between the Holy Spirit and our spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us the utterance to speak words from our spirit, and we simply yield to Him and speak those words. In other words, praying in and with the Spirit is not one-way prayer where we generate all of the talking to God. It’s a two-way type of prayer where we are listening to the Holy Spirit’s prompting in our hearts and yielding to His leading and then verbalizing things to Him in our heavenly language.
To further build your faith and help you understand more about the subject of speaking and praying in tongues, let’s look for common denominators on what happened when people in the Bible were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Different Kinds of Tongues
Christians have espoused all kinds of crazy and comical things about speaking in tongues, and it’s given the real expression of the Spirit a black eye. We’ve heard humorous stories about people being told they should say “keys to my Honda” over and over or “yabadabadoo” to prime the pump. That’s what we call, cray-to-the-cray! If anyone ever tells you to do that, just say “sha-no-no!” The truth is, we don’t manufacture or manipulate the ability to speak in tongues, we simply yield to the Spirit and the words He gives us to speak.
Some people don’t know what speaking tongues is, so they dis miss it completely. Others think that those who speak in tongues don’t have control over themselves and go into some kind of a trance. There are those who think it’s spooky and mystical. Still, others believe that speaking in tongues doesn’t exist any longer. Again, let’s look at what the Bible teaches.
The Bible describes varieties of tongues and shows us examples of people speaking in both the tongues of men and the tongues of angels. Sometimes, when a person speaks in tongues, it’s in a recognized language. Someone on earth knows the language; although, the person speaking in tongues may not know the language. Sometimes when a person speaks in tongues, it’s an unknown or unrecognized language, the tongues of angels. Again, it’s not our job to figure out or manufacture speaking in tongues. Our job is to yield to the Spirit, and He will give us an utterance in tongues—either the tongues of men or angels. Let’s look into the Scriptures…
1 Corinthians 13:1
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
1 Corinthians 12:7-10
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
1 Corinthians 12:28
And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.
What is the Purpose of Praying in Tongues?
Many people have lumped all reasons for speaking in tongues together into one basket, but we can see from Scripture that there are at least two different purposes for speaking in tongues.
The first purpose for speaking in tongues that we can see in the Word of God is the public gift of tongues, which is used for ministry purposes in the local church or the assembly of believers. This gift of tongues is given when God desires to share a message of encouragement, comfort, or edification with a group of believers, and the message in tongues would require an interpretation. This might also be called the public manifestation of tongues. This manifestation is used, as the apostle Paul said, for ministry “in the church.”
Another Biblical purpose for speaking in tongues is the private gift of tongues, which is used for personal prayer or edification. This might be called the private manifestation of tongues and does not necessarily require an interpretation. This manifestation is available for every believer, as the apostle Paul said, “to edify himself.”
In the scriptures listed below, write the word “public” or “private” in the blank space to describe which manifestation of tongues the particular verse implies.
1 Corinthians 12:28-30
"And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?"
The keywords in this passage are “in the church.”
1 Corinthians 14:2
"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."
The keywords in this verse are “to God.”
1 Corinthians 14:14,15
"For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my under standing is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understand ing. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding."
The keywords are “my spirit prays.”
1 Corinthians 14:26
"How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification."
The keywords are “whenever you come together.”
1 Corinthians 14:4
"He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church."
The keywords are “edifies himself.”
1 Corinthians 14:18-19
"I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all; yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my under standing, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue."
The key here is the contrast between verse 18 and verse 19.
Can you see the Scriptures teach both the public and private sides of speaking in tongues?
It is true that not everyone will have the public gift of speaking in tongues to convey a message. The public gift of tongues is given and directed as the Spirit desires.
It is true that every believer may have the private gift of speaking in tongues to pray or sing to the Lord. This is given by the Spirit to edify all believers who yield to Him. If you are a born–again, Spirit filled Christian and you have not yet spoken in tongues, this benefit is available to you today if you will simply yield to the Lord and allow yourself to speak or pray in the language He gives you. We’ll describe this more throughout this chapter.
What are the Benefits of Praying in Tongues?
There are numerous benefits to praying with the Spirit in tongues.
Here are a few:
If you’ve wanted to be more effective in your witness for Christ and in having His boldness to live a Christ honoring life, pray ing in tongues builds and strengthens you on the inside.
If you’ve ever wanted to praise the Lord from your innermost being and felt your natural language was inadequate, praising God in tongues is a great blessing.
If you’ve ever wanted to thank God for all He has done for you but felt you didn’t have an extensive enough vocabulary to do it justice, giving thanks in tongues brings a great deal of satisfaction.
If you have ever wanted to talk to God heart to heart, but you couldn’t seem to find the right words, speaking to the Lord in other tongues gives your heart a full expression.
If you’ve ever wanted to pray about something but you just didn’t know how to pray, the Holy Spirit will help you pray according to God’s perfect will.
If you’ve ever been in a demanding season or felt spiritually weary and needed to charge or recharge your inner man, pray ing in tongues along with spending extra time in God’s Word will charge you up.
The Holy Spirit helps us talk to God from our heart of hearts through speaking in tongues.
As mentioned, speaking in tongues in our private lives is also called a prayer language or praying or speaking in the Spirit. When we exercise this prayer language, we literally bypass our mind and intellect, and we pray (or sing) straight from our spirit to God.
Speaking to God in our prayer language is like having a direct hotline to God, and our prayers and speech are not clouded by our thoughts, emotions, or feelings. As we pray in the Spirit, we receive a great spiritual blessing.
Some of you may be like me, you need things broken down and explained at a kindergarten level. I know I do. Many, many years ago after I was filled with the Spirit and our family was out fishing one day, I stared deep into the lake and pondered the life of a fish and this little parable was born. I hope it helps you see the benefits of speaking in tongues.
Parable of the Fish
Speaking in tongues is like a fish who lived in a lake . . .
A certain woman was out fishing one day and she had this thought, “I wonder what goes through a fish’s mind,” she wondered, “when he bites into a worm, gets hooked and starts to travel at mach speed through the water, his eyes bugging out of his head, (which apparently they do all the time) and his dorsal fin at attention on threat level five?”
She imagined the whole scene.
Before the fish can say goodbye to his family and friends, he’s yanked through the water with his lip half ripped off, screaming “Whoaaa!” The next thing he knows, he’s flying through the air with the greatest of ease—that is, before he bangs up against a boat. He must wonder if he’s been abducted by aliens or is tripping on some bad weeds.
It doesn’t take him long to realize he’s not in Kansas any longer, no water on his scales, no weeds, minnows or clams to harass. Once inside the boat, before he has a chance to catch his breath, someone without any manners puts him in a straightjacket grip and starts to give him what feels like a root canal or lip injections. He thinks he’s going to die a terrible death, when suddenly this mannerless person jerks one last time. The fish feels excruciating pain and then instant relief as a hook is ripped from his lip!
As he looks around he realizes this kingdom is completely different. Much brighter than the lake and oh, so huge! And these beings, humans, they speak in a strange tongue. His only language is “fish speak.” If only he could talk in the human tongue, he might say, “I come in peace. My fish mean no harm. Release the death grip,” or something like that.
The next thing he knows, a young human is talking to him. “What did you do, skip school? Ha-ha, get it? School? School of fish?” No response from the fish. That didn’t stop the human. “You should have listened to your parents and not talked to, or uh, eaten strange worms!” (The human is doing a whole stand-up routine, yet the fish never blinks.)
An older human must have felt some compassion as he tells the fish, “It’s ok, little buddy. Everything is going to be fine. Don’t worry; I am going to put you back in the lake. When you go back, tell all your friends, ‘Don’t eat worms!’ That’ll save your life! I have many other things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them now.” The fish nods in compliance, not because he understands, but to save his scales.
Once back in the lake, the fish swims away like a bat out of you know where and thinks to himself, “No one will ever believe this.” He rehearses his explanation, “Hey family, friends, guys, I uh, well, uh, I had an out-of-lake experience. There’s another kingdom beyond the surface of the water! No, I didn’t ‘see a bright light’ or a ‘stairway.’ Don’t laugh! I’m not kidding. The humans exist! I was there. I heard them. They talked to me. Hey, ya’ll ever heard of speaking in human tongues? If we could just learn their language . . . it could be a game changer. No, I didn’t hit my head. It’s not a cult. No, I wasn’t in a trance. I didn’t smoke the weeds. Seriously, c’mon, does anyone believe me?”
After this imaginary parable went through the woman’s head, she thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if the fish could talk to and learn from the human? After all, the fish only knows what he can see, taste, and touch in his own lake. Little does he know how massive the kingdom of the human really is and how many other lakes, rivers, and streams, not to mention oceans, mountains, valleys, and deserts there are. The human could tell him so many things that would protect him, help him and lengthen his life, if only he could speak a little human!”
Let him who has ears to hear . . . hear.
It’s a simple little story, but the truth is, we’re a lot like the fish! Obviously, God (as represented by the human in this parable) and
His kingdom are so beyond our human understanding. As humans (repped by the fish), our knowledge base, reference points, and our human language are so limited. If only we could speak in God’s language (tongues!), the quality of our communication and interpretation of God and His kingdom could be so enhanced.
Did you follow all that? (I know. Theologians are now rolling over in their graves.) It’s not a perfect illustration, but there are some parallels.
God has not only given us the ability to communicate with Him in our everyday language, but He’s also given us the ability and super natural advantage of being able to communicate with Him in His language, the heavenly language of speaking in tongues. And what a blessing that is!
Beth Jones
