Praying in Tongues: What Billye Brim Taught Me About Unlocking a Spirit-Led Prayer Life

Our heavenly Father so longs for our fellowship that He gave us “tongues,” a heavenly prayer language, to speak to Him.

Think of it, you have been given access to communicate with the Creator of the universe!

Praying in the Holy Spirit is the doorway to the supernatural and produces heaven’s results. Your prayer life expands when you pray in tongues, and it is a visible sign that God is here with you.

Tongues is the language of heaven, it is downloaded into your Spirit by the Holy Spirit. This language will change the world and change you into the image of Jesus. Tongues is accompanied by the fire of God. When you are baptized with the Holy Spirit, there is also a baptism of fire that takes place in your life. When you receive the gift of tongues you receive your own individual flame that is personalized for only you.

After Jesus ascended into heaven, His disciples returned to Jerusalem and went to an upper room where they were to wait for what Jesus told them would be the baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:3-8). In the upper room when the fire came at Pentecost, they were all speaking in tongues:

When the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:1-4 ASV).

Your Own Voice

When you are praying in tongues, your voice is identified by your heavenly Father. That’s why it is so vital that we come into the throne room and lift up our voice with confidence to God as we pray in tongues.

Police identify criminal suspects by searching for fingerprints. The fingerprint identifies the individual who could have been part of the crime scene. After doing some research, I found out that the human voice is just as exclusive as a fingerprint. Voices may sound alike, but no voice is identical to another. Every person has his or her own distinctive sound. It’s your own voice print that identifies who you are in God.

Your prayer language is uniquely your own, and it won’t sound like someone else’s prayer language. Sound waves are not limited to this natural realm. They go beyond the realm of the natural and into the realm of the supernatural. Maybe you’ve been praying in tongues about a situation and nothing seems to have changed—I urge you to keep staying in the spirit because the sound that is rising from your voice in prayer is making adjustments in the spirit realm.

As pray-ers, it is important that we don’t focus on what is happening around us that is limited to our five physical senses. We need to keep our mind on things above and see situations from the right hand of the Father where we are seated in heavenly places in Jesus.

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth (Colossians 3:1-2 NASB1995).

The more you yield yourself to praying in the Holy Spirit, the more your prayer language will develop. I have noticed that in my own life when I first began praying in tongues, it was very short syllables; and now that I am older, my tongues have developed and matured. It’s similar to when a baby is first learning to speak and the child just says a few short words like mama or dada. It’s cute to hear at first, but when that baby grows up into an adult and still speaks only baby words, it’s not very appealing.

When you pray in tongues, God wants you to develop your prayer language. One way that has helped me develop my prayer language is by praying with pray-ers who are more experienced than me.

I used to pray with a wonderful woman named Pastor Karen Mosely, who was a seasoned woman of prayer who lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We prayed together three times for three hours each before she made her official transfer to heaven. Whenever we prayed together, she would pray for three hours continuously. After a few hours of praying with her, I thought to myself, Is she ever going to stop for a break? My mouth is so dry! I need some water!

At one moment during our prayer time, I stopped and let her just keep praying without me. At that time, I felt pushed to my limitations in prayer. It reminded me of when I played basketball. I remember physically feeling as if I couldn’t run anymore, but I would push through those feelings to keep playing. My endurance would increase because I pushed my body beyond my own restrictions. That’s what it felt like when I prayed with Pastor Karen; the longer I would pray with her, the more perseverance I had in my own prayer life. Even though she was more disciplined in her prayer life; I noticed that after we prayed together, my prayer tongues became more developed, more mature.

How I Received My Prayer Language

When my grandmother, Billye Brim, prayed for me to receive my prayer language in the Holy Spirit, I opened my mouth wide because I thought another voice was going to start speaking through me; it was terrifying! I remember Mimi saying, “What are you doing? You have to move your mouth!” By faith, I moved my mouth and started speaking words that didn’t make sense to my mind. Even though I didn’t understand the language that I was praying—I felt a new power!

When you pray in the Spirit, it may sound foolish to your own understanding but don’t let that discourage you from yielding to it.

Do you want to begin to pray in tongues and receive your heavenly language? Or maybe you already have but it isn’t easy for you to pray? You may even be a pray-er but you feel stuck in your prayer life, like you’ve hit a brick wall? If so, just say these words out loud: “Father God, thank You for sending Jesus for my salvation; I would like to have more of the Holy Spirit upon my life. So, Jesus, I ask that You baptize me now to be filled with Your Holy Spirit and receive the evidence of speaking in tongues.”

By faith start moving your lips and yield to those expressions that are flowing from your spirit. Find a place where you can be alone and start praying out loud in your new heavenly language. For instance, when a baby is learning to communicate, he has to exercise or practice the language that he is learning. This is the same way when you pray in your heavenly language; as you apply yourself, it will become easier. Praying in tongues will build up your prayer life:

But you, my delightfully loved friends, constantly and progressively build yourselves up on the foundation of your most holy faith by praying every moment in the Spirit (Jude 20 TPT).

Stay Dependent

It’s so important to know that after you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you have to continue to stay dependent on Him. Keep receiving from the Spirit because this isn’t just a one-time event—we are to keep being filled with the Spirit. The more you give out spiritually, the more you need to stay filled by praying in your heavenly prayer language. This is a beautiful thing because it keeps us dependent on Him. It’s always essential to know that the foundation of prayer is dependence, that’s why we always need to keep going to the throne of mercy and grace for help in time of need. Stay filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit.