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TONGUES: HOW DO I GET IT?
Tongues has been a controversial subject. The use of it has been lost by mainstream Christianity over the centuries. Therefore, it has become on oddity and something to be afraid of. Some pastors even tell their congregations that tongues are "of the Devil." If that is true, why did Paul say "I wish you all spoke in tongues." I Corinthians 14:5 While Paul goes on to say that in the public setting, prophesying is more valuable because it is in an understandable language, it cannot be denied that he believed the gift of tongues was desirable and used it himself. Most of the time, one uses tongues as a private prayer language. Only speak out in public using Tongues when told to do so by the Holy Spirit. The benefits of speaking in tongues is addressed in Tongues: Why do I Need it? The Gift of Tongues is usually manifested after the believer has received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit . The believer, one who is saved, must believe in tongues with all their heart and be ready to receive it just like they've received Salvation and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is by Faith. This gift may be blocked by unbelief or lack of understanding. People can even desire it, and try hard to "get it" but it just doesn't happen. One receives tongues by taking action, by "vocalizing." What do we have to do to have regular speech? While I don't really know the mechanism, it seems that air goes over the vocal chords and sounds come out. Since I was one of the people for whom tongues didn't easily come pouring out, I'd like to tell you my experiences in coming to vocalize tongues and share the advice and instruction I received. I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit while at a retreat in 1999. At the time, tongues was mentioned but not stressed. From the unique experience I had upon receiving the Baptism, I knew with all my heart that I had received. So I didn't get bent out of shape that Tongues did not come pouring out of my mouth. I had never been around people who spoke in tongues so I put the idea on the "back burner." Contrary to what some believe, I did not and do not believe that one HAS to have the manifestation of speaking in tongues as a proof that one had received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. However, I do believe that tongues is available to all believers who want it. As I did additional study, I came to believe that all those who receive the baptism should be able to have a personal prayer language. I prayed about this but "nothing happened." I began an active quest to find out how one can appropriate this gift of the Holy Spirit. We came from a church background that didn't believe in speaking in tongues. Over the years we came to recognize tongues as valid in New Testament times, but we didn't consider it something for modern times. In more recent years, the doctrine changed to recognize that some people do have this gift but it was not encouraged for use in a public setting. The main reasoning behind this seemed to be that "we do not have a history with it, we don't know how to administer it, and it's better not to play with something we don't completely understand at this time." Coming from this background, I didn't know with whom I could talk about this. Therefore I started with a search on the web. I found a lot of pros and cons of the Tongues phenomenon. Some articles said it is a thing to be desired while others think it is a work of the Devil. I found very little helpful information. Only one article briefly touched on the actual "how to vocalize in tongues." It still didn't work. Because of the difficulties I had, I want to answer some of the questions you may have. My husband and I attended a series at a church given by a visiting evangelist. After the last session he administered the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. At that time, my husband began speaking in tongues, and recognized it as something he'd had for a long time and never understood. (At this point, one could question if Mark had already received the baptism and didn't know it. I personally think that we shouldn't question God.) The evangelist told me there was no reason why I could not have this gift too. The advice was to believe and work at it. I felt kind of lost. I began trying but nothing out of ordinary came out of my mouth. I prayed each day but still nothing happened. I began seeking the answers more diligently. One friend said he had had the prayer team at his church pray about it; apparently a block of some kind was removed and he received his prayer language. I send an email to a national ministry whose doctrine includes Tongues. I told of my frustrations and asked for advice on how to get started. I wrote "I have sought for but not found much information on the actual "how to get started with speaking in tongues" and other real info. Most articles discuss only the validity of the doctrine, not the mechanisms. ...I have been told to just relax, ask God for it, and receive. I have been told to start making noises, to exercise my vocal chords with guttural sounds. Or to being rapidly praising God and letting it flow into another language... None of these have worked." The response was one of encouragement and believing. In addition, they did explain that in some cases people repeated a syllable or syllables and it flowed into a language. I quote from the prayer ministers at Andrew Wommack Ministries "Praying in tongues is something we do by faith. You only have to believe it. This may not seem to address it, but you do have to say something. Just opening you mouth will do nothing unless you use your voice. We have heard of different things people have done to 'jump start' their language. You have to get used to speaking something. One girl who saw the Lion King started saying Hakuna Matata a couple of times and then went into her own prayer language; one woman received it in the bathtub; one woman just started saying ahhhhhhhh and got hers, one engineer asked us to give him a syllable to start with -- we made one up like 'ta" and then he said "ta ta ta ta' and then spoke his own language after that; one woman started saying hallelujah and thinking about Jesus and got hers, and others just open their mouth and it comes fluently." This gave me encouragement that I did indeed have this pray language. I just needed to "do it." I took myself out to the hot tub with my Bible, the printout of the email, and my belief. I was determined to stay in their until I received it (or shriveled up like a prune). I had the hot tub temperature set about about 100 degrees so I could stay in for a prolonged period. I decided to attempt one of the suggested syllables. I repeated "ta, ta, ta, ta, ta," As I was quickly repeating this, it began to kind of trail off into a whispery, whistley, sibilant sound of air rushing past the lips. In other words, I thought my attention was drifting. I pulled myself back together and started over again. After the third time, I decided that my mind wasn't wandering. But what was this "s,s,s," sound because it certainly wasn't words. I remembered a friend once saying that one had to use their vocal chords. This is what I wasn't doing. So, while doing the swishing sounds on the 4th try, I threw sound into the mix. I forced air over the vocal chords. I think my first word was "gah." I continued to repeat the three words that I first received. Others were soon forthcoming. As I continued, I could tell that the syllables would change, apparently vocabulary was being added. To give you readers a laugh, one of my first words was "oink." I wonder what that means to the Holy Spirit? I am finding on reflection that I had a lot of possible manifestations of this gift long before November 11, 2001. Many times in the past I remember doing this sibilant whistling under my breath. That makes me wonder if I could have vocalized it had I only known. People always speak of tongues as a verbalization. Therefore, I was expecting something to come pouring forth and did not recognize any other signs. I now know that tongues can be said out loud, whispered or even silently. I have since seen others administer the Baptism of the Holy Spirit . They encourage the Believer to seek tongues. The method for helping someone receive is for the Encourager to speak slowly in tongues. He/She asks to Believer to "repeat after me." The Believer listens and while the Encourager is still talking, begins to repeat the syllables. It sounds odd to be talking and listening at the same time but it is possible. The purpose is to activate tongues. In most cases, it won't take too long before it is noticed that the Believer is no longer repeating the same syllables but is saying something entirely different. And he can begin to turn it on or off. One question I had was about speed of the tongues talking. My first few words we slow and drawn out. Then it got faster and faster, kind of like my tongue was running away with me. Over time, I learned to go faster or slower as desired. I have continued to study the gift of tongues (as both a prayer language or public Tongues & Interpretation). We must have faith and receive. I firmly believe that this gift has helped me in my spiritual life and relationship with God. For more information on the benefits of speaking in tongues, read my article called Tongues: Why do I need it? If you earnestly desire this gift, I wish you well. May God bless you! Love, Virginia |
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