Romans 8:26-27 “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” This episode talks about what "praying in tongues" means and why you would want to use it. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Praying In The Spirt
Romans 8:26-27 “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
Praying in tongues is something that I have always found strange. My dad has been involved in a Catholic Charismatic prayer group ever since I was little. However, it was not part of our everyday life. I attended a group once for a few minutes as I was there for a different reason. It turned out the thing I was there for was in another room. While I was there I remember thinking that I had no idea what was going on. Everyone was praying out loud, all at the same time. I grew up in the Catholic Church and I was not used to spontaneous praise of our Lord. We prayed in church out loud, but we all prayed the prescribed prayers from the order of Mass book. In this meeting everyone was saying different things and all at the same time.
I have come to learn that what they were doing was praising the Lord. They were all expressing out loud how grateful they are to the Lord and praising His holy name. Now that I am adult and understand better what it is they were doing. I have joined a Catholic Charismatic group and have come to love the various parts of a prayer meeting. Today I would like to talk about talking in tongues. I think this is something that many people do not understand. However, since the verse above talks about it, I would like to explain my understanding about it. I think if more people understood what it is and that it is from the scripture, then it may make it seem less weird.
I remember when I first started to look at this differently was when I was at a Catholic women’s conference. The speaker was talking about how she had always prayed for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but that she always add, “except for the gift of tongues. That one just freaks me out.” She was a counselor at the time and she worked some really difficult cases. She had this one client, a young teenage boy, that got right in her face and screamed at her. She felt scared at that moment and decided she needed more of whatever God had to offer if she was going to help all the people she wanted to help.
So, what is the gift of tongues anyway? This is when the Holy Spirit speaks to God directly through our voice. It is not usually a language that anyone else can understand. For instance, the verse above says that “the Holy Spirit intercedes for us through wordless groans.” You, the person speaking in tongues, does not even know what you are saying.” I love how the verse says,, “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” The Holy Spirit knows what we want and what the will of God is. He can pray for what we want in a way that it will align with the will of God. I find this truly amazing.
Do you ever feel like you don’t know what to pray for? You know you need prayers, but things are such that you have no idea how to pray. You can see pros and cons to both sides and you are not sure which is actually best for you. Or, you child is in trouble and you love your child with all your heart. You don’t want them to be in trouble and at the same time you do want them to learn that actions have consequences. Maybe you have lost someone and you don’t know what to do about that. You feel like God has let you down and you don’t know what to say to Him. There can be so many examples of times when you are not sure what to pray.
I heard about a deacon who was approached after church one week by a woman. This woman told him that her husband of 20 years had just left her for another woman that he worked with. He just left her and the kids all of the sudden. The deacon was speechless. He had no idea what to say to this woman or what to pray for. It is hard to know what someone needs when there is so much going on. The deacon asked the woman in she would mind if he prayed in the spirit (another way to say pray in tongues) over her. She agreed. He told her that he was going to pray over her in the Spirit for 3 minutes. After he did, she said thank you and went home. The next week after church, she went up to him all excited and said that she felt so much better. She said she didn’t know what he said to God but over the week she had this overwhelming feeling of forgiveness for her husband. Now, he hadn’t asked for forgiveness, he was still with the other woman, and she was still sad and upset, but she had forgiven him. She was so amazed that she asked the deacon if he would pray in the spirit for 3 minutes for her husband.
Remember, this is one week later. Can you imagine having the level of forgiveness in one week that you want someone to pray for your husband who just left you? The deacon agreed. The following week the husband came back to the wife. He said that he had no idea what he was doing. He did not want to be with the other woman. He told his wife that he knew she probably couldn’t forgive him, but if she could he really wanted to come home. The thing is, she had already forgiven him. Because she had already forgiven him, she was able to hear him when he apologized and asked for forgiveness. It all worked out. Can you imagine 3 minutes of praying in the Spirit two separate times and this family was reunited. The Lord is that powerful. Praying in the Spirit is that powerful.
Hopefully this has helped take some of the weirdness out of praying in the Spirit. I love praying in the spirit for several reasons. First, I don’t have to know what to say. It takes the pressure off of me to know the right words or the right thing to ask for. Second, the Holy Spirit knows my heart and prays according to God’s will. Imagine being able to pray for God’s will. I mean we can pray for God’s will to be done, but the Spirit can pray specifically for what God’s will is. He see’s into parts of our heart that we can’t see. We may be praying for a relationship to last when He knows in our heart that God doesn’t want us with that person and if we could be honest with ourselves, neither do we. The third reason is because no one knows what you are praying for when you pray in the spirit. That conversation is strictly between and the Holy Spirit and God. And if it is only between you and God then that means even the devil doesn’t know what you are praying for.
I feel like if the devil doesn’t know what I am praying for then it is harder for him to mess it up. It is hard for him to make his move when he doesn’t know what I want or how I am going to get it. Maybe that is part of the reason God reveals things to us one step at a time. If the devil knows everything about our lives and were we are headed, he has plenty of time to mess it up. He can plan his strategy and play the long game. If he is just learning things one step at a time like we are, then he always on the defensive. I have no idea if that last part I just said is true. I know the devil can’t understand prayer when praying in the spirit. I don’t know if the devil has anything to do with why God reveals things slowly. It was just something that came to mind when typing this and it seems to make sense to me. God is a mystery and He always will be.
I have spent this whole episode explaining what “praying in tongues” or “praying in the Spirit” is and why it is important. If you are interested in learning more about how you can get the gift of praying in tongues you could go online and get more information. I will also put my email address in the show notes. I would be happy to talk more about it and answer any questions. We all have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. We have the gift of tongues inside of us as well. I will put a link to a video in the show notes that you can watch if you are interested. There are three things that are required for you to pray in tongues. You must ask for the gift. God is not going to impart this gift on someone that does not want it. If you want it, it is available to you. The second is that you must believe that you can receive it. St. Agustine’s quote is powerful here. ““Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe.” Before you receive the gift you have to have faith that you will receive it. Third, you have to surrender your vocal chords. You have to surrender your ego of looking or sounding strange. You have to just start talking in sounds that don’t make sense to you. Almost like when you talk to a baby. You know how when you talk to a baby you make sounds like “goo goo gaa gaa.” Do something similar. There is no correct way to pray in tongues. No two people sound exactly the same. It doesn’t matter the sounds you are making. What matters is that you are handing over control of your sounds to the Holy Spirt. You don’t have to do this in front of others. You could practice in the car, or in the shower. I promise you, if you want to pray in the Spirit, God wants you to. He is willing to give you the gift, all you need to do is step out in faith and surrender.
Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord we pray that you search our heart. If we want the gift of tongues we pray that you give us the courage to ask and the courage to turn over control to the Holy Spirit. Lord, we love you and we know that you are amazing. The fact that you give us a way to communicate our desires as they align with your will is extraordinary. You have thought of everything. We appreciate that when we don’t have the words the Holy Spirit can search our heart and speak on our behalf. Lord, I ask that you grant all those that are listening a supernatural understanding of “praying in tongues.” I pray that they heard this episode with an open mind and an open heart. Lord, we pray all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name, Amen.
My Email is Catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com
Video:https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=encounter+tv+speaking+in+tongues