Benefits of Speaking in Tongues
The Benefits of Speaking in Tongues
Pneumatology is the study of the Holy Spirit.
Who is Holy Spirit?
Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity. God=The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. These three persons exist in One God. These three persons define who God is. Holy Spirit is a person who has a personality. He is the creative power and spirit of God. At the very beginning of the bible we are introduced to Holy Spirit. In Genesis 1:2 it says that the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. God the Father spoke the Word “Let there be light,” Holy Spirit who was hovering over the face of the waters caused the Word to materialize or be. They worked in unison to create the earth.
Holy Spirit is referred to as Comforter or paraclete in John 14:26
He is referred to as Guide in Psalm 119:105 & John 16:13 & Romans 8:14.
He is referred to as Intercessor in Romans 8:26-27.
He can speak and teach and convict and inspire believers to do God’s work.
He is patient and loving. He is our built in success coach, our inner cheerleader, etc.
Once we accept Jesus as our Saviour and forgiveness takes place, God seals us with the Holy Spirit which is a guarantee of our inheritance in heaven (1 Peter 1;3-5 and Ephesians 4:30). Holy Spirit comes to live within us when we are saved.
As we submit to the Holy Spirit’s leading He produces good fruit in our lives and transforms us into the very image of Christ. Holy Spirit helps us to run our race in this life and fulfill our divine destiny.
There are many gifts that come when we receive the Holy Spirit and one of them is speaking in a heavenly language or unknown tongues. We will look at the benefits of speaking in tongues.
Foundational Scriptures:
Corinthians 14:2-4
Acts 2:4
Acts 2:39
Romans 8:26
Mark 16:15-18
Jude 20
Proverbs 18:14
Peter 1:3-4
When you are baptized in the Holy Spirit, you receive a gift from God—the gift of speaking (or praying) in tongues. Some call praying in tongues, praying in a heavenly language.
This gift is available to every believer. It is a powerful gift that every believer should desire. In fact, here are six benefits to praying in tongues:
Praying in Tongues Allows You to Speak Directly to God
“For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won’t be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious.” –1 Corinthians 14:2
When you pray in tongues, you are praying God’s will, directly to Him. It allows your mind to get out of the way so your spirit can commune with the Father. Praying in tongues bypasses your mind so that you are praying to God spirit to spirit. We are triune beings; we have a spirit, a soul or mind and we live in a body. Our spirit comes from God. Often our mind is full of thoughts of doubt and fear; however, in our heart or spirit we believe. Praying in tongues is praying from your heart or spirit. It is your spirit talking only to God.
It is mysterious because you don’t understand what you’re saying; the devil doesn’t understand what you are saying and neither does anyone else. Think about it, the devil can’t spoil your plans because he doesn’t know what you’re praying about.
I don’t know about you, but I want to keep him in the dark concerning me and my family and God’s plans and purposes for us!
Praying in Tongues Keeps You in Tune With the Holy Spirit
“And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.” –Acts 2:4
Tongues are a gift from God. Notice that the verse says “everyone” was filled. This is not only for special people like priests, pastors, preachers, evangelists, and teachers, but it is for everyone. Praying in tongues allows you to pray the will of God by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. When you pray in tongues, you are yielding to the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. Then you are allowing that same Spirit to pray through you, so you are in tune with Him. Holy Spirit knows the future so when we allow Him to pray through us, He is praying out everything that we will need. It is a much better way to pray.
Also, notice that you don’t speak in tongues and then know you have the Holy Ghost.
No, you believe you have the Holy Ghost first, and then you speak in tongues.
Notice Acts 2:4: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost ” If we stop reading
there, we know that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. But if we continue reading, we find, “ and [they] began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave
them utterance” (Acts 2:4). Speaking with other tongues was a result of those believers having received the Holy Ghost. You receive the Holy Ghost first; then you speak in tongues.
In Acts 2:38-39 is says that this promise of the Holy Ghost is for you and your children and for ALL who are far off for whom the Lord will call. That includes us!!
Praying in Tongues Strengthens Your Spirit
“A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally, but one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church.” –1 Corinthians 14:4
Praying in tongues builds you up spiritually and helps you to live a Spirit-led life. Living a Spirit-led life is living by your spirit and not by our fleshly desires (senses) as the world does. In order to live a Spirit-led life we have to daily crucify the flesh. Holy Spirit helps us to do this.
Linguists tell us that there’s a word in our modern vernacular that is closer to the meaning of the Greek word translated “edify,” and that is the word “charge.” We charge a battery; we build it up. Therefore you could say that praying in tongues charges your spiritual batteries.
Jude 20 says, “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.”
In other words, when a person prays in the Holy Spirit, he charges himself up. He builds himself up like a battery that is charged.
Therefore, when we pray in tongues we are empowered!
Edifying yourself by speaking in other tongues is just one of the many blessings that God has provided through the baptism in the Holy Ghost. And this wonderful blessing, this glorious gift of the Holy Ghost, is available to every born-again believer.
In Proverbs 18:14 it says that the strong spirit of a man or woman sustains him in bodily pain, sickness or trouble. Having a strong spirit is very important in this hour. Praying in tongues strengthens your spirit so that you can endure or withstand hardships or troubles without giving up. We all need to have a strong spirit, this way we will be able to stand against all the wiles of the devil.
Praying in Tongues Allows You to Pray Even When You Don’t Know What to Pray
“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.” –Romans 8:26
Even when you don’t know how or what to pray, you can still pray…in tongues. You can trust your spirit to pray the perfect will of God, regardless of the situation. How many of us want the perfect will of God in our lives? ALL of us! Praying in tongues accomplishes that.
Many times we do not know WHAT to pray for or even HOW to pray for a situation. Praying in tongues answers both of those questions. It takes all the guess work out of prayer.
When you pray in the spirit you may feel or sense things deep inside of you so you may groan or cry or laugh or shout or dance or be silent. Some things cannot be expressed in human words. I encourage you to yield or surrender to Holy Spirit. Let Him help you pray.
Do not be afraid. Knowledge defeats fear. Today you are learning about speaking in tongues. Maybe you saw or heard some people praying in tongues in the past and it was unsettling because you didn’t understand what was happening. Do not let fear hold you back from experiencing and walking in this wonderful gift. Fear is of the enemy.
Praying in Tongues Is a Weapon Against the Work of the Enemy
“And then he told them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved and these miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new
languages.… They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.’” Mark 16:15-18Jesus proclaimed several things that would happen to those who followed Him and continued His work. Speaking in tongues is one of those gifts, and it allows Jesus’ followers to stand against the work of the enemy. If you are a follower of Jesus then ALL these signs should be following you too.
Praying in tongues is a power tool in the spirit realm (Natalie Quote).
It is used in spiritual warfare to tear down strongholds, evil altars, plots of the enemy etc. Why would you not use something that Jesus provided to help you? It’s like a soldier going into battle without parts of his armour. Why would you try to resist the enemy in your own strength? That will never work. This is why Jesus provided weapons for us to use. Praying in tongues is a weapon provided by Jesus for you and me to use. Not praying in the spirit puts you at a disadvantage. The enemy doesn’t want you to pray in the spirit. He wants you to be afraid of it, he wants you to think that it’s not for today, he wants you to feel uncomfortable-he will do anything to take advantage of you. His goal is to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). Jesus wants us to stand against the evil one with ALL the weapons that He has provided for us. Praying in tongues is a weapon against the work of the enemy. In order to be victorious in this life we have to use ALL the weapons at our disposal.
I received this word from Holy Spirit: Do not be prideful wanting to pick only the weapons that you want to use. Stop caring about what people think or say. Stop saying it is not your “comfort zone” to speak in tongues. I am the Comforter, I am your comfort zone says the Lord. It will feel wonderful. It’s not about you, it’s about Me and My plans and purposes for you. I love you and I want the best for you. Do it for me. I would do anything for you. Yield your will to mine and I will take you to wonderful places in Me that you know not.
Praying in tongues empowers you to share the gospel
In Acts 1:8 and Luke 24:49 Jesus told the disciples to wait until they received power from on high or until the Holy Spirit came upon them. It was the Holy Spirit in the apostles that empowered them to be witnesses of Jesus. It is that same Holy Spirit in us that makes us witnesses for Jesus spreading the gospel to friends, family, co-workers, our community, our nation and to the ends of the earth.
2 Peter 1:3-4 states that ALL things pertaining unto life and godliness have been given to us through Holy Spirit. If you do not pray in tongues then you are missing something, you don’t have all things. I want everything that Jesus provided for me, you?
John 20:22 As the Father has sent me so I am sending you and with that he breathed on them and said, ”Receive the Holy Spirit”. If you don’t have the Holy Spirit then you cannot answer Jesus’ commission. The disciples had to wait until they received the Holy Spirit ; THEN He empowered them and helped them fulfill their destiny. Holy Spirit will help you and I fulfill our life assignment too. Praying in tongues is the evidence that you have the Holy Spirit. Faith is evidence based!
Praying in tongues empowers you to share the good news of the gospel with your family, friends coworkers and neighbours.
Praying in tongues is a gift that’s available to every believer. It allows you to pray God’s will to Him. It keeps you in tune with the Holy Spirit and strengthens your spirit as you stand against the work of the devil. Don’t discount this powerful gift from God. Desire it. Embrace it and relish the strength it adds to your spiritual life.
I believe that your desire for receiving the Holy Spirit and praying in tongues has been activated today. 1 Corinthians 14:1 says to eagerly desire spiritual gifts.
Praying in tongues is a spiritual gift. God wants you to have this gift and use it.
Praying in tongues will take you where He wants you to go. Terri Pearsons
When a person prays in tongues, he charges himself up. Kenneth E. Hagin Praying in tongues is a weapon in the spirit realm. Natalie Quote
Kenneth Hagin’s experience of receiving the gift of tongues in his own words:
After I said the prayer with my pastor I had never felt so “dry” in all my life saying that word” Hallelujah”.
Feelings and faith are far removed from each other; in fact, sometimes when you feel as if you have the least faith, that is when you have the most faith, because you do not base your faith on feelings. So I said “Hallelujah” about seven or eight times, even though it seemed as if that word was going to choke me!
About the time I had said “Hallelujah” seven or eight times, way down inside of me, in my spirit, I heard some strange words. It seemed as if they were just going around and around in there. It seemed to me that I would recognize them if they were spoken, so I just started speaking them out! As I did I was speaking with tongues!
I kept speaking in tongues until our church service. I didn’t go home. During that hour and a half that I was speaking in tongues, I had a glorious time in the Lord. You see, speaking in tongues edifies you. First Corinthians 14:4 says, “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself ” Therefore, speaking in tongues is a means of spiritual edification or building up.
Do you want to build yourself up today? Are you feeling weary and want to be recharged? Do you want to receive the Holy Spirit with the evidence of praying in tongues? Do you want to add another weapon to your arsenal against the evil one? Do you desire a fresh touch from God? Then repeat this prayer after me.
Prayer to receive Holy Spirit and tongues:
“Dear Lord, I want to receive the Holy Ghost.” I just learned from Acts 2:39 and Acts 2:4 that “Your Word says that the Holy Ghost is a gift available to every believer. I am a believer. Therefore, I realize that the Holy Ghost is received by faith. I received the gift of salvation by faith. I received healing for my body by faith. Now I receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by faith. And I want to thank You now, Heavenly Father, because I receive the Holy Spirit.”
“By faith, . . . I have now received the Holy Ghost. Thank you God, He is in me, because Jesus promised it in His Word. And I say it with my mouth, because I believe in my heart that I have received the Holy Ghost. Now I expect to speak with tongues, because believers spoke with tongues on the Day of Pentecost. And, thank God, I will, too, as the Holy Ghost gives me utterance.”
“Hallelujah, hallelujah.” Thank you Jesus.
Resources Used:
5 Benefits of praying in tongues: by Terri Pearsons Speaking in Tongues by Kenneth E. Hagin