I love working on my computer and am constantly finding ways to improve my techy experience. On YouTube I watch various experts who give me advice on how to do things better. I constantly hear them say,” This is my favourite app.” They are not saying that things won’t work without that app, but with it you can speed things up and improve your IT experience.
I was thinking this morning; “What is my favourite app in my God experience?” What tool has the Lord given me to advance my pursuit of the Lord to speed things up and improve my spiritual experience? I would say easily that ‘speaking in tongues’ is my favourite tool, my favorite app. I’m not saying that you are not a Christian without it. You can get by without speaking in tongues, but with it, you can turbo boost your spiritual experience.
When I first got saved back in the day, I knew nothing about the things of the Spirit and God started on me with a clean slate so to speak. There was nothing to undo as far as my understanding of spiritual things. The Church I went to was Pentecostal, where they encouraged the gifts of the Spirit. At the first service I went to, I heard someone speak in tongues and then another person gave the interpretation according to 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
As soon as I heard this manifestation, the hair stood up on the back of my neck. I had been searching for something supernatural all my life and here it was in the church. I just knew this was real and was something from God. I was told that this was all part of the package given to all God’s Children. This was the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Since I had only just become a Christian, the leaders said I should first be water baptised before they would pray for me to be filled with the Spirit. I didn’t like this idea much, but they gave me scriptures and books to read that explained everything and booked a date for my water baptism.
A few months later I was baptised in water with great expectation. There were 2 of us being baptised and as the lady with me came up out of the water she spoke in tongues fluently. I was excited. “What type of language was I going to speak?”
After I came up out of the water, nothing happened, so they prayed for me with the laying on of hands. After a few minutes I got a couple of words like. “Dah dah dah.” I felt God’s peace, but what was this? It sounded nothing like the language the other lady spoke in. The leaders encouraged me to keep speaking and assured me this was of God, so I went home and kept practicing, but there was no change. It sounded like baby language. “I want my money back.” Lol. The Devil really gave me a work over and filled my mind with doubt.
I decided to go back to the Pastor the next day and have prayer. He counseled me and said that this was God. When you ask the Father for the Spirit He will give Him too, you so believe. The Pastor did feel to say that if we are faithful in the little things that God will give us more. Matthew 25:21.
He said praise God for what you have been given and don’t despise the day of small things. If you are faithful with what you have been given, He will bless you with more. Later I could see that this was all a lesson in humility for me. He prayed for me again and I left there holding onto those 3 same words.
There was a park next to the house so I walked around the gardens praying in tongues. Praise the Lord things began to change and soon I had “Dah Dee dah.” Hallelujah. Then I had “Dah Dee Doe.” Suddenly there was a release within and rivers began to flow and since then I have never looked back, and speak and sing fluently in tongues whenever I want too. This is indeed my most favourite app in my Spiritual toolkit.
Right from the ‘get go’ I have spoken in tongues a lot, especially as I walk from place to place. I’m not doing it out loud for everyone to hear, but quietly in my prayer interaction with God. I found out early that speaking in tongues is the Holy Spirit interceding through me to God according to Romans 8:26
“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
This is not the tongues that is mentioned in the 9 gifts of the Spirit that is used in Church Meetings, but the tongue used for personal use, the tongue that edifies us. Paul referred to this sign in his letter to the Corinthian Church when he said that he spoke in tongues more than all of them. He was using it all the time to receive revelation from the Spirit.
We don’t know what we are saying when we speak in tongues but we are told that we can ask God for the interpretation. I believe they are the Words of the Holy Spirit who is God. You may not be able to understand Chinese but if the word of God is spoken out in that language, is it any less powerful? When you speak in tongues, it’s the words of God even if you don’t understand it.
Another Game Changer for me was, when the Lord revealed to me that tongues is not just me speaking to God but Him also speaking to me. In Isaiah 28:11 it says that with other tongues will God speak to His people.
“For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people,”
Its not just us speaking to God in the Spirit but Him speaking to us. Since I became a Pastor I have loved preaching and sharing the revelations that God has shown me, especially after praying in tongues along with the reading the word. I can remember exact spots where the Spirit downloaded a word to me while I was praying in tongues on my prayer walks. Tongues is like computer software where there is an upload and a download of information.
This is a vast subject and is often attacked by religious people. Many say that tongues is now done away with or that it is not for all Christians. If this tongue is for edifying us then why would God want to give it to some and not others? Its for all those who believe. They also get it mixed up with the sign of tongues and the gift of tongues. Not everyone is used in the Church in the Gift of tongues or prophecy for that matter, but we can all speak in tongues on a personal level.
When Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit at the River Jordan its not surprising that the Devil came straight after to tempt Him in the wilderness. I have seen the same with so many who have asked for the baptism of the Spirit and have spoken in tongues but soon afterwards have doubted when the Devil came to snatch the word away, just like in the parable of the sower and the seed. The birds came immediately to eat up the seed sown.
When I don’t know what to do or feel under attack I will pray in tongues more, believing that the Lord will speak to me and He has never failed me. Sometimes I get an answer of peace and other times I will get an answer in the still small voice or a scripture will jump out at me from the bible.
Something else I have seen is that tongues can be a translation but most of the time it’s an interpretation. I have seen tongues spoken in Church in a language that no one understands and it is translated by another (who also doesn’t know the language) in the exact language word for word. It just so happened that on that day someone from that country came into the Church and needed a word from God. This was a sign from Heaven.
Most of the time though our tongues are no earthly language and one word in tongues can mean a lot more than we think. When the finger of God wrote on the wall in Daniel’s day it was in a language no one understood and it was only 4 words. The Prophet Daniel was called to give the interpretation. He said that those words meant that the King had been weighed in the balances of God and found wanting. That his kingdom had come to an end and would be divided. That very night Babylon was captured and the King died. The interpretation was far more than those 4 words.
When we speak in tongues there is a lot more being said than meets the ear. I personally believe that the Devil doesn’t understand what we are saying, for it’s a secret code between us and God. When I was in the army once I was a signalman on the radio and we sent messages that were scrambled so that no one who listened in could understand what we were saying. It was unscrambled at the other end. This is one of the reasons why the Devil vehemently opposes speaking in tongues for he can’t understand what the Lord is saying to us or us to Him.
Because I see the immeasurable benefits of speaking in tongues I do it all the time. Indeed it is my favourite App (application) and has helped enrich my relationship with God over many years. I thank the Holy Spirit often for this amazing gift. “Where would I be if it weren’t for speaking in tongues?” I was so messed up from drugs when I first became a Christian that I couldn’t think straight, but Praise God when I spoke in Tongues the Spirit was bypassing my mind and interceding for me. He healed my mind and turbo boosted my prayer life. I was able to pray all the time quietly under my breath.
I love spending time with the Lord speaking in tongues and quoting scripture as I do so I deliberately walk to town often through the park instead of driving in my car. The walk does me good and as I walk it gets the adrenaline going so that I’m far more alert. For me speaking in tongues is indeed my most favorite App.