PRAYING in TONGUES is SCRIPTURAL!

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,  (Jude 1:20 ESV)

Are you praying in the spirit or just with your mind?

14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. (1Cor14 ESV)

15What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.  (1Cor14 AKJ)

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;  (Eph 6:18 AKJ)

18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all: 19 Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. (1Cor14 AKJV)

39 Why, brothers, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. (1Cor14 AKJV)

44While Peter yet spoke these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. 45And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. 46For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.   Then answered Peter, 47Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? (Acts 10 AKJV)

38Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call. (Acts 2 AKJV)

I STOPPED but I STARTED AGAIN!

Soon after my deliverance in September 1984, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit.  I had never heard of praying in tongues.  As I was singing “Alleuia!” with other Christians, up from my belly flowed a new tongue! 

About four years later, when a relative told me “it was not for today”,  I stopped for about five years.  In that time, I noticed my enthusiasm for my faith was dwindling.   I was dry! 

On September 27, 1992, a prophesy from the platform was given in English. THIS PROPHESY WAS FOR ME, though hardly anyone knew me!  I fell on my face before God!  

1 Corinthians 14:24-25 (NKJV)

24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all. 25 And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you.

I began to attend to this church.  When I was worshipping, I said to the My Savior that I wanted all the gifts He had for me.  Immediately, I started speaking in tongues!  I have been speaking in tongues, ever since!

MY STROKE

In May of 2015, I had a stroke.  I could not speak a sentence of English, but I was praying in tongues!  It is from the Spirit that tongues is birthed.  My natural language was not coming out!   Yet, I could pray in ever-flowing tongues.   This was marvelous to me and shows the difference between the spirit and the mind.

BORDER PATROL 

One day, while near to the border in Texas,  I did some “spiritual warfare” prayer at a place that needed it.  When I left, I did not go the way I had planned to go.  I thought I was making a mistake!  But the Spirit was guiding me.  All of a sudden, I found myself again in “warfare” prayer – and in tongues – and I didn’t know why.  But it was intense!  Next day, I heard on the radio that in that town where I prayed, the border patrol was attacked by the drug cartel.  Guns were firing but NO border patrols were hurt in this incident!   I knew why I was praying so fervently!  Praise God!  

Now, in my mind, I would have been reasoning.  Should I pray this … or that?  It doesn’t make sense … or maybe it does?  And I would have wasted a whole lot of time, just deciding what to pray.  But praying in the Spirit, I don’t have to use my sometimes faulty reasoning!   I just go with the flow of the Spirit.

I thank my God that I speak in tongues, just as St Paul did!  The perfect will of God is done through my prayers. 

And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.  (Romans 8:27 BSB)

The Holy Spirit can’t be wrong!   In our turbulent times, how do you know how to pray for a given situation?  The Spirit,  if you are willing, will override your shallow mind (compared to God’s mind!) and pray for things that are incomprehensible!  

Romans 11:33 (NKJV)  Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

1 Corinthians 1:25 (NKJV) Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the   weakness of God is stronger than men.

I am willing to seem like a fool for the LORD.  Through me being willing to speak in tongues, the LORD could accomplish rather phenomenal things!  

So that’s why I pray in tongues!  Maybe now, you can too!  

Keep Asking, Seeking, Knocking

9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for [a]bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,

“how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”  (Luke 11 NKJ)

A WORD TO THE WISE:

There are many false prophets around today!   The devil counterfeits and uses mantras and false tongues.  Do not be deceived!  Be diligent! KNOW the WORD OF GOD because that is TRUTH!