Why do you pray in tongues?

[ChildofChrist]

Hi, I'm new to praying in tongues and I'm wondering the reason why some Christians pray in tongues and what happens when you do.

If you want to put down your insight, feel free and if anybody has had an experiences with speaking in tongues, I encourage you to put down your story if you feel comfortable with doing so

 

[B-A-C]

1 Cor 14:5; Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying.

1 Cor 14:18; I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all;

1 Cor 14:39; Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues.

Rom 8:26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
1 Cor 14:14; For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
1 Cor 14:15; What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.

Eph 6:18; With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,

 

[Brother Paul]

Hi, I'm new to praying in tongues and I'm wondering the reason why some Christians pray in tongues and what happens when you do.

If you want to put down your insight, feel free and if anybody has had an experiences with speaking in tongues, I encourage you to put down your story if you feel comfortable with doing so

I would like to share an insight I have received. There are three forms of "tongues" mentioned in the New Covenant writings....

a) the tongues as displayed at Pentecost was God speaking to man...in this case every hearer from all over HEARD them as if they were speaking in THEIR own language

Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?

8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,

10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,

11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

b) then there is a kind of tongues where people are speaking to God (the do called prayer language) which is NOT an earthly language (for NO MAN understands it)

1 Corinthians 14:2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.

In this form God is not speaking through man to men but a man is speaking mysteries of the heart unto God

c) the third kind are foreign languages which require an interpreter

 

[Hekuran]

Personal experience: I often get completely stuck in prayer. My thoughts, feelings, fears and desires collide inside me and I get clogged up altogether. Two good ways for me to get out of this are first to read through the psalms or church liturgy and follow the prayers of those who have gone before us.

Or to pray privately in tongues, bypassing all my thoughts and letting my spirit do what it needs to do. This often gets me back on an even keel.

That's in conflicted times. It's also a way of praising God when I've run out of words and thoughts.

Not saying this us how it should be for anyone else, just how it is for me.

 

[Brother Paul]

Personal experience: I often get completely stuck in prayer. My thoughts, feelings, fears and desires collide inside me and I get clogged up altogether. Two good ways for me to get out of this are first to read through the psalms or church liturgy and follow the prayers of those who have gone before us.

Or to pray privately in tongues, bypassing all my thoughts and letting my spirit do what it needs to do. This often gets me back on an even keel.

That's in conflicted times. It's also a way of praising God when I've run out of words and thoughts.

Not saying this us how it should be for anyone else, just how it is for me.

This has worked for me as well....sometimes you just cannot put your feelings into words or there seems to be too much going on.

 

[ChildofChrist]

Ok that's a relief, I'm not just speaking gibberish! It's nice that Jesus would give us this gift, I've never spoken in tongues in public like in church but I do it in private, I can't seem to speak in tongues by will but sometimes it comes out when I pray or sometimes randomly when I'm in a praise Jesus mood! It sounds a bit choppy when I speak so I'm not sure if I need to practise as I don't do this very often. Sometimes I feel a little like I'm acting crazy when I do this so I'm not too confident about it.

 

[Brother Paul]

Ok that's a relief, I'm not just speaking gibberish! It's nice that Jesus would give us this gift, I've never spoken in tongues in public like in church but I do it in private, I can't seem to speak in tongues by will but sometimes it comes out when I pray or sometimes randomly when I'm in a praise Jesus mood! It sounds a bit choppy when I speak so I'm not sure if I need to practise as I don't do this very often. Sometimes I feel a little like I'm acting crazy when I do this so I'm not too confident about it.

I also have only experienced this when moved by the Spirit in prayer but I do remember a ministry near by where the pastor held tongues class and taught the whole congregation to practice daily. I did not find this biblical.

 

[ChildofChrist]

Anybody can imitate tongues, you cannot learn how to do it, you either can or can't! Maybe you can only "unlock the gift of tongues" after being in prayer for a while or something moves you and awakens the Holy Spirit

 

[Hekuran]

I also have only experienced this when moved by the Spirit in prayer but I do remember a ministry near by where the pastor held tongues class and taught the whole congregation to practice daily. I did not find this biblical.

Oh my word!

Speaking in tounges is a simple gift, not a skill to be perfected.

Tempted to imagine the pastor running miracles classes: week one, walking on mud, then thick custard, progressing to walking on soup before walking on water to graduate.

 

[David1954]

I took my son to Assembly of God throughout his childhood. Because they teach baptism in the Holy Spirit.

But, they tell the children growing up in their church to fake it.

That is disgusting.

 

[Sue D.]

@David -- kids / anyone / should never be told to fake 'it'. That Would be disgusting.

 

[Brother Paul]

@David -- kids / anyone / should never be told to fake 'it'. That Would be disgusting.

I agree Sue! When Churches or Pastors do these things it brings shame to the name. Onlookers and skeptics cry charlatan....fraud....and generalize such things to all believers.

 

[Blake H]

That must be Peter Popoff's church.

 

[David1954]

@David -- kids / anyone / should never be told to fake 'it'. That Would be disgusting.

Indeed.

 

[PearlB]

Hi, I'm new to praying in tongues and I'm wondering the reason why some Christians pray in tongues and what happens when you do.

If you want to put down your insight, feel free and if anybody has had an experiences with speaking in tongues, I encourage you to put down your story if you feel comfortable with doing so

Hi there, to answer your question I pray in tongues for a couple of reasons; firstly and most often when I want to pray but don't know what to say, then usually after I pray in tongues I can then pray in English. Secondly I have sometimes prayed quietly in tongues in support of another person who has been ministering to somebody. Another reason is that I believe it can be like a personal prophecy to yourself in order to build you up in the faith. I also sing in tongues sometimes and love to do that because then the Holy Spirit seems to take over my very mediocre voice and makes it sound beautiful - well at least to my own ears - and the tunes and rhythms are often so lovely I don't want to stop. This is how it all started for me.

Until I was baptised in the Holy Spirit I couldn't do it. And my first manifestation of it was in my kitchen; I just started to sing in tongues and I recognised that what I was singing was repeating - like verses - same tune but different words. This went on for quite some time until the tune was locked inside my head. After that I began to sing the same tune in English and immediately wrote down the words. I never wrote down the tune but I can still sing 'my song' which I later realised is a personal prophetic word which I still sing to myself.

 

[PearlB]

Anybody can imitate tongues, you cannot learn how to do it, you either can or can't! Maybe you can only "unlock the gift of tongues" after being in prayer for a while or something moves you and awakens the Holy Spirit

When I do it it sounds like a proper language with commas and full stops and I find my hand moving animatedly as they sometimes do during an ordinary conversation.

 

[B-A-C]

Anybody can imitate tongues, you cannot learn how to do it, you either can or can't! Maybe you can only "unlock the gift of tongues" after being in prayer for a while or something moves you and awakens the Holy Spirit

Probably partially true, anyone can fake anything right? Some people even fake being a Christian, so why should faking tongues be any different?

But you can fool some of the people some of the time, you can't fool all the the people all the time. You can't fool God any of the time.
Eventually if you're a fake Christian, people will know. It's usually pretty easy to spot after a period of time.

For those who are familiar with tongues, it would be hard to fake. It isn't really gibberish like people say.
I don't speak Japanese, I don't speak French, I don't speak German, I don't speak Hindi, I do speak enough Spanish to get by. But even though I don't speak those languages.
If someone was speaking one of those languages, I could tell you which language they were speaking. I could tell you if they were speaking French or Spanish or German.
It's much the same way with tongues, there is a certain cadence, even some words and phrases recognizable and being said by someone else thousands of miles away
by people who never met this person. In my opinion, it would be extremely hard to fake.

 

[Dave M]

you folk that speak tongues praise the Lord for your gift, I do have a question for you, as Ray says you can tell if it is the real deal... can you also tell if the tongues are from a bad spirit, I have herd tongues before, and sometimes its just encouraging most of the time,,, yet I remember one time it was not encouraging but more of a interuption and just did not seem right i could not help buy wonder about that time

 

[B-A-C]

can you also tell if the tongues are from a bad spirit, I have herd tongues before, and sometimes its just encouraging most of the time,,, yet I remember one time it was not encouraging but more of a interuption and just did not seem right i could not help buy wonder about that time

I have never seen it, but I suppose it's possible. There are rules about speaking in tongues in a public setting. ( 1Cor 14 ) if it is disruptive, and it doesn't edify the church, then it's not from God.

 

[Mayflower]

I made some mistakes when I was new to having my prayer language. I didn't understand them fully yet when I received them and thought someone would be able to interpret....and when I graduated Teen Challenge back in around 2010, I went back to a church that didn't believe in them as a prayer language.

I stopped praying in tongues for quite a few years, because I got scared I was speaking gibberish. I would always hear them in my head when I prayed though.

I know they are real, because my prayer life only deepened since I let loose and trusted God with them. You will know your tongues are genuine by the good fruits it brings in your spiritual walk. I know I found myself grow closer to God speaking in them. I still don't go long periods of times in just tongues. But I'll be praying in English, then pray some in tongues. I'll recognize some words like "shalom" and "Selah", but I really do not know what I am saying. I am okay with that more then I used to be. I'll notice sometimes when I am praying for someone, their name will come up while praying in tongues too.