Praying in TonguesSýnishorn

Day 3:Why Should You Speak in Tongues?

Jesus said in Matthew 12:34:

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

Whatever your heart is filled with is going to be reflected by what comes out of your mouth. If your heart is filled with unforgiveness, words of unforgiveness are going to come out of your mouth. Likewise, if your heart is filled with anxiety and fear, words of anxiety and fear are going to come out of your mouth.

If you apply this principle to the book of Acts, we see that every time a person’s heart was flooded with the presence of the Holy Spirit, tongues came out of their mouths. This is an irrefutable pattern from Acts 2 through Acts 19. The very first example took place when the 120 followers of Christ were in the upper room in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. The Bible says:

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

— Acts 2:4

Notice it says, “...The Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). They were filled with the Spirit, so words of the Spirit came out of their mouths. That is what happens when anyone experiences this second work of God’s grace. When a person is baptized in the Holy Spirit, the tongue of their spirit is loosened, and they begin to speak their spirit in a heavenly language we call tongues.

Tongues are not mere gibberish — it is your human spirit speaking to the Spirit of God. Tongues are spiritual words flowing up from your heart and out of your mouth. It is a very real, legitimate prayer language.

Each of us are three-part beings. We are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a physical body. The apostle Paul makes this clear in First Thessalonians 5:23. Although most people are aware of and focus on the body because it is the part of us we can see and experience physically, the soul and spirit are also very real and need just as much attention as our bodies.

Your spirit is the very core of your being. It lives in your body, thinks and makes decisions through your soul, and longs to communicate with the Spirit of God. The deepest, most intimate level of communication you can have with God is spirit to spirit, which is exactly what the baptism in the Holy Spirit makes possible.

Think for a moment about this: What language do Germans speak? They speak German. What language do Italians speak? They speak Italian. How about French or Spanish people? That’s right — the French speak French and the Spanish speak Spanish. With this in mind, what language do you think your spirit speaks?

The language of the human spirit is spirit, which helps us better understand what Jesus said in John 4:24 about those who worship God, who is a Spirit, must worship Him in spirit and in truth. God is a Spirit and the deepest part of you is spirit. Therefore, to talk to God in the most effective way, we must communicate with Him using our spirit. That is what the baptism in the Holy Spirit makes possible! The Holy Spirit falls upon you, loosing the tongue of your spirit and enabling you to speak, or pray, in a spiritual, heavenly language.

When you pray in the Spirit, or in tongues, you bypass the limitations of your mind and speak directly to the heart of God.

To reiterate, speaking in tongues is not mere gibberish — it is truly the language of the human spirit crying out to God in the purest language possible. Does that mean you should no longer pray in your own native language? No! Praying in the language you understand is also crucial because it develops your mind, helps you to know the will of God, and grow a closer, more personal relationship with Him. According to Scripture, you are to pray with your mind and your spirit — using both your native tongue and the gift of heavenly tongues the Holy Spirit provides (see First Corinthians 14:14,15).

In our next devotion, we will discuss the incredible benefits that come with baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues!

Questions to Consider:

1. Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit and received the gift of tongues? If so, how would you describe your experience? How has this deeper level of intimacy with the Spirit changed your life? How would you encourage a friend to seek to be baptized in the Holy Spirit?
2. If you have not yet been baptized in the Holy Spirit but would like to, you can! All you have to do is ask — that’s what Jesus Himself says about the Holy Spirit in Luke 11:9-13. Take some time to read this passage and get quiet with the Lord. Repent of any sin in your life and ask Him to baptize you in the Holy Spirit. It may take a bit of time and practice, but soon enough you’ll be praying in your own heavenly language!