What Is Praying In Tongues?

What Is Praying In Tongues Mean? Is Praying In Tongues A Prayer Language Between A Believer And God?

Question: "What is praying in tongues? Is praying in tongues a prayer language between a believer and God?"

Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!

The mystery of the Pentecost manifestations of Acts 2 have captured our imaginations for almost 2000 years, just as the 'Shekinah' presence of the OT have captured the imagination of the Israelites for nearly two thousand long years. Yet many things regarding 'tongues' remain a mystery which God is revealing more and more progressively from the Scripture as the day of the Lord is drawing nearer and nearer to us more than ever before.

I want to clarify one important thing in this article, that is, tongues in general means, "Glossolalia", it is the most commonly accepted term for speaking in tongues. It comes from the Greek words meaning "tongues" or "languages," and "to speak."

Even though we describe all tongues speaking as tongues, yet we should understand that it is divided in to three main category where it is used,

(i) TONGUES OF PERSONAL PRAYER LANGUAGE: This is a private prayer language that comes as a gift along with the gift of the Holy Spirit to every believer who seeks for it, that stays with a believer for the rest of his life to connect to God in an intimate way, worship him and speak the mysteries of His will back to Him for their lives and bring it supernaturally in to existence. It is used as a personal and intimate prayer language towards God which is a private gift, of which the Scripture clearly indicates it as "he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, no men or angels understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries", because God understands every sound and syllable made by the praying person in this category of tongues (1 Cor 14:2).

First Corinthians 14:2 says, “For he who speaks in a ‘tongue’ addresses God, not man; no one understands him; he is talking of divine secrets about his own life, others around him and for all the needs of this world in the Spirit to be met by God through His hand with proper worship, thanksgiving and praise added to the prayerful supplication in a way that everything that God hears is accepted perfectly by Him and is about to be fulfilled.” (Abi's).

This type of tongues cannot be used in public setting unless interpretation comes through themselves or other person which will show that the gift of tongues [(i.e.) different kinds of tongues and interpretation of tongues (1 Cor 12:10)] is in operation which was directed by God towards the public worship edification or public evangelism to gain the lost. Unless it is meant by God specifically to bring edification in the public Church meetings or used as a sign to speak in the native language of the hearers in an Evangelistic meetings, such public tongues cannot manifest at will according to speaker's will or desire except in the will of the Holy Spirit, who will use anyone according to God's will who is called to hold the gift of public tongues and is used by God to bring a change and make a difference for God on earth to establish His Kingdom (1 Cor 14:4, 5, 13, 22-25; 12:11).

Private tongues should be used only in private setting between men and God even when it is allowed in the public setting (1 Cor 14:39-40). Thus, "praying in the spirit" is typically used to refer to glossolalia as part of personal prayer.

(ii) TONGUES OF PUBLIC EDIFICATION AND DEMONSTRATION: It is used in public for the Church so that the congregation can be edified and many times as directed by God, it will be also used by Him in public evangelism to gain the lost making it as a sign from heaven to them that have not yet believed (Acts 2:5-13). Take notice that the private fellowship of the first Church meeting suddenly after the invasion of the Holy Spirit, becomes a evangelistic public meeting to win the lost through the apostles and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why this particular gift of speaking in tongues was in operation which brought a miraculous message of God from heaven to these seeking unsaved people to gain them in to the Kingdom of God as it is a sign gift to unbelievers (1 Cor 14:22; Mark 16:17).

Nobody being uninformed and confused about this particular sign gift of God from heaven which comes in to operation to win the lost, should ever compare it foolishly with the private tongues which none but God only understand, to demand it foolishly along with the gift of the filling of the Holy Spirit that comes with the evidence of speaking in private tongues to God which only He understands. None should wrongly cite the first Pentecostal phenomenon as the evidence of a true baptism of the Spirit because they should not forget that a private fellowship time of believers was by divine appointment have become a public service where a public tongues was used by God as a sign to seeking unbelievers (1 Cor 14:24).

I would say, that the first Pentecostal meeting was conducted by God the Holy Spirit and the Trinity together by their own choice through the apostles and apostolic disciples. Thus in operation, it was the first Church meeting that suddenly through a mighty outburst of sound from heaven and accompanied with tongues spoken as a sign to unbelievers, was a unforgettable unique time where a private meeting without any previous notice from God was converted in to a public meeting where sign tongues for winning the lost in to the Kingdom of God was let loose by God. This sign tongue would be for the purpose of communicating God's Word with a person of another language who are not yet saved (Acts 2:6-12). So this one time unique meeting cannot be made as a principle, but rather an exception. In the house of Cornelius the same type of outpouring of the Spirit happened through Peter and his apostolic team, but nobody except the apostles understood that these new believers who have believed have spoken in private tongues that praises God (Acts 10:44-48).

In the same public tongues, there is a operation of it only within the Church which is not a sign tongue to unbelievers but rather a public edification tongues to believer which must be interpreted by a tongue speaker by praying for the interpretation or must be interpreted by some other person who has the interpretation gift if available which is what Paul implies as a direct prophesy from God for the encouragement of believers (1 Cor 14:26-31). Thus within the Church, using public edification tongues for saints without creating confusion by shouting without control and then blaming it on God or boasting about it in order to attract people towards themselves or acting as though it is public tongues when by the flesh they start to speaking in private tongues, are some of the pitfalls that need to be addressed in order to uphold the apostolic order which would be in accordance with 1 Corinthians 14:33 which says, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” Thus this "gift of tongues" refers to a glossolalic utterance spoken by an individual and addressed to a congregation of, typically, other believers (1 Cor 14:13, 5, 27-31), or to unbelievers in their own language of mother tongue or in any of the know language to them to convey, reveal God's message to them directly (1 Cor 13:1; 14:22).

Thus glossolalia as part of personal prayer and glossolalic utterance spoken by an individual and addressed to a congregation, are two different things that should never be mixed to cause confusion to the uninformed or unbelievers because of lack of understanding regarding tongues.

(iii) TONGUES OF ANGELS FOR SPIRITUAL DEMONSTRATION: The third category of tongues are the tongues of angels which God lets us speak many times to wage spiritual warfare against the fallen evil angels or command the good angels in the army of angels who are ready to serve us the sons of God who are led by the Spirit of God as a pre-training for what is supposed to happen for eternity ahead (Rom 8:14; 1 Cor 13:1; Eph 3:10; 6:12, 18-19; Rev 22:9; Heb 1:14; Psa 104:4; 103:20-21; 1 Tim 5:21; Isa 54:17; Rev 12:9-10; Zec 3:1-5; Php 3:21). This third category of tongues is that which the Lord gifts all those willing intercessors who have submitted themselves for the Lord's will to be done through their lives (1 Tim 2:1; 4:5; Psa 72:15), to often use them to pull down strongholds and bring change to the very atmosphere of earth in nations around the world (Ezek 22:30; Jer 51:20-23; 1:9-10; 2 Cor 10:3-6). This third category of tongues may be used in any believers life, unknowingly to wage spiritual warfare for their own lives when they pray to God regularly in tongues to edify themselves and grow spiritually for the Glory of God (1 Cor 14:18).

These are not normal tongues, but may come out of us as loud commands or decree in the authority of heaven spoken directly to the angels in the heavenly places. These may also come as a rebuke from the Lord to the evil angels and a demonstration of God's wisdom to them. The Lord gets glorified in the spiritual realm the most, through willing surrendered vessels who are used in this manner.

Passages Cited For Praying In Tongues! 

Though there are four primary Scripture passages that are cited as evidence for praying in tongues in the New Testament: which are Romans 8:26; 1 Corinthians 14:4-17; Ephesians 6:18; and Jude verse 20, yet we should understand that it does commonly describes all the three main category of speaking in tongues which can be either directed towards God, fellow humans or the angels. But specifically the phrase “praying in the Spirit,” indicates speaking in tongues mainly as a prayer to God which is done through the personal prayer language, and not only that but also along with it any prayers that come in even know languages directly under the influence of the Spirit which Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 1:20 mentions, I mean the prayers that will build faith within and wage warfare in the Spirit that causes destruction and damage to Satanic kingdom of darkness that works against the children of God.

In short, all Spirit directed prayers are those that the Scripture calls as "praying in the Spirit". Some would like to reason out and say that Romans 8:26 to mean that it is the Spirit who “groans,” not believers. But they should understand that on the day of Pentecost the Spirit of God gave utterance, but it is the believers who began to speak with other tongues (Acts 2:4), this shows that even when the Spirit of God groans within which "cannot be expressed” to give a proper meaning to our mind or to others, it is the believers choice to express from within us what the Spirit wants to express through us, though it might not be an intelligible word or understandable groans to our mind.

If faith is not there, all of it will look like a meaningless babbling that has no value, but in reality God understands everything and rewards those who work in faith. When the very essence of speaking in tongues is uttering words, that which cannot be uttered even with words are expressed with a groans or sighs which carries meaning and expresses to God the intent for which it is expressed (Acts 7:34). So on one should limit God by the reasoning mind which will quench the Spirit of God (2 Thess 5:19).

What About Counterfeit Tongues? 

It is true that many of the cults and world religions also report occurrences of speaking in tongues/praying in tongues, where we know for sure that the Holy Spirit is not gifting these unbelieving individuals.

I for sure as a Christian who have experienced praying in tongues, I find it not only to be very personally edifying, but also I received it based on my faith and practice on Scripture (Gal 3:14). In other words, faith brought me to experience tongues, and not the other way around. Here is my Testimony of how I received it from God: SPIRITUAL COKE REFRESHMENT For The Soul AVAILABLE! Thus we must must seek our experiences in light of the Scripture and also view our experiences through the filter of the Word of God so that we may remain in the factual reality through the truth by faith, not interpret Scripture in light of our experiences which wrongly leads to deception many times.

Just because demons are able to counterfeit the gift of speaking in tongues, should not keep us from this supernatural experience of seeking the Baptism of the Holy Spirit by faith. For example, just because counterfeit currency is on circulation doesn't mean we should stop using true currency which is nothing but foolishness and fear that comes because of lack of experience in this field. But if you ask a expert what to do in such a situation, he will introduce the counterfeit among the true currency and make you understand the fine difference in identifying it, thus by making you understand the fine differences between the true and the false, we learn by experience not to be deceived by the external appearance. God does the same with the true gift of baptism of the Holy Spirit which we receive through the heaven's currency of faith which pleases God (Gal 3:14; Heb 11:6), and will expose his children to the counterfeit that people receive by deception to make the true believers understand the fine difference and also warn other believers from being deceived. This should cause us to compare even more carefully our belief and experiences with Scripture (Acts 17:11), and not make us run away from the true in fear of deception, as God has guaranteed never to get anybody be misled in to false counterfeit when they are seeking from His hand the Gift of the Holy Spirit directly (Luke 11:9-13). Are you seeking God for the gift of the Holy Spirit?

Certain people want to bring fear to the mind of the seekers saying, speaking/praying in tongues can be a learned behavior. They say that through hearing and observing others speak in tongues, a person can learn the procedure, even subconsciously. If this is the case, God himself would have warned the believers to be careful about this learned behavior which can contagiously affect his children's spiritual lives, but no where in the Scripture the apostles or even Jesus speak about this precious gift of the Holy Spirit and tongues in a negative way even for a fraction of a second.

Also the feeling of “self-edification” can be dismissed by some skeptics as natural when the human body produces adrenaline and endorphins when it experiences something new, exciting, emotional, and/or disconnected from rational thought, if that is the case, how about people like St. Paul who used the tongues for self-edification for years down the line so much in his life that he began to boast about speaking more than the entire Corinthian Church which was obsessed with the gift (1 Cor 14:18)? If apostle Paul had no excitement and refreshment after the initial days of experience with the filling of the Holy Spirit, definitely he would not have continued to speak in tongues so much more to boast it before the tongue crazy Corinthian believers who were misusing it? So we know that the rivers of living water that flows through the tongue speaking prayers towards God for self-edification and for building a awesome spiritual house for the Glory of God never ever decreases to supply the excitement when a person is disciplined enough to use it by faith daily day by day, year after year.

Praying in tongues is not what determines salvation, but something that a believer receives along with salvation or after salvation. Praying in tongues is not what separates a mature Christian from an immature Christian, because receiving a gift is no big thing as everyone is eligible as a child of God to receive it, but only those who receive it and use it consistently to receive the benefit of self-edification and use it to edify others to win souls and likewise build them up spiritually for the Glory of God can be appreciated as those who are wise and ready to receive their eternal reward of rapture and the eternal glory that follows it (Prov 11:30; Matt 25:10; Luke 21:36). Thus those Brothers and Sisters in Christ who practice consistently the private prayer language towards God for self-edification and who desire to excel also in the edification of the Church which is the Body of Christ on earth are worthy of our love and respect for now and for eternity.

Much Blessings...

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