How to Pray in the Holy Spirit

Article by Jason Meyer Pastor, Minneapolis, Minnesota

I spent five years immersing myself in the sermons of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. It was truly a transformative season in my life. What was the biggest takeaway? The answer may surprise you. He taught me how to pray.

“We must come face to face with our tendency to try to pray on our own.”

Those who really knew Lloyd-Jones will not find that answer surprising at all. His wife once said, “No one will ever understand my husband until they realize that he is first of all a man of prayer and then an evangelist” (Bethan Lloyd-Jones). In particular, Lloyd-Jones, as a man of prayer, taught me how to pray in the Holy Spirit.

My hunger for learning how to pray in the Spirit came from a perplexing problem. I read Ephesians 6:18, “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” This text really bothered me because I could parse the words and diagram the grammar, but I had this nagging sense that I was not experiencing the reality of it. Lloyd-Jones served as a mentor for me in making this verse a living reality. He led me on a three-stage guided tour of discovery: (1) what it is not, (2) what it is, and (3) how it is done.

What Praying in the Spirit Is Not

First, he helped me see what praying in the Spirit means by contrasting it with its polar opposite: praying in the flesh. Prayer in the power of the flesh relies upon human ability and effort to carry the prayer forward.

We all know what it is to feel deadness in prayer, difficulty in prayer, to be tongue-tied, with nothing to say, as it were, having to force ourselves to try. Well, to the extent that is true of us, we are not praying in the Spirit. (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Living Water: Studies in John 4, 99)

How do we overcome this difficulty in prayer? Praying in the flesh calls upon human ability and effort to push past the difficulty. If we are tongue-tied in prayer, we may try to overcome that difficulty with a stream of many words. Jesus warned us against thinking we would be heard because we use many words (Matthew 6:7). If we struggle with wanting to give up after a short time in prayer, we may focus upon how long we pray. Success in prayer does not depend upon how much time we can log in prayer. Sometimes people try to overcome deadness in prayer by focusing on how well we can pray. We subtly trust in having perfectly composed, doctrinally correct prayers that rely upon the right diction, cadence, language, emotion, or volume.

These attempts to push past the difficulty in the power of the flesh are attempts to imitate the liveliness that the Spirit gives in prayer.

The Spirit is a Spirit of life as well as truth, and the first thing that he always does is to make everything living and vital. And, of course, there is all the difference in the world between the life and the liveliness produced by the Spirit and the kind of artifact, the bright and breezy imitation, produced by people. (Living Water, 99)

If praying in the flesh is the counterfeit or imitation of praying in the Spirit, what is the genuine article? The second part of the guided tour was discovering what praying in the Spirit is.

What Praying in the Spirit Is

Here is the key difference: in the flesh, we are pushing the prayers forward, while in the Spirit, we feel caught up in the way the Spirit carries the prayer forward. Praying in the Spirit is experiencing the Spirit of life bringing prayer to life.

“Sometimes praying in the Spirit will not feel electrifying at all. It will feel like groaning.”

Praying in the Spirit means that the Spirit empowers the prayer and carries it to the Father in the name of Jesus. The prayer has a living quality characterized by warmth and freedom and a sense of exchange. We realize that we are in God’s presence speaking to God. The Spirit illuminates your mind, moves your heart, and grants a freedom of utterance and liberty of expression.

Lloyd-Jones frequently used stark contrasts to make his point. He did not often go back and nuance the contrast between praying in the flesh and praying in the Spirit. He did not plot different degrees of experience; he simply posed sharp polarities to help us see the difference between the two.

It is helpful to acknowledge that there are varying degrees of experience when it comes to praying in the Spirit. It does not feel like revival every time we pray in the Spirit. There are varying experiences of feeling carried along or pushed forward. Sometimes praying in the Spirit will not feel electrifying at all. It will feel like groaning. The Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us according to the will of God (Romans 8:26–27).

I remember going on a bike ride where there was a gradual incline for the first half and a gradual slope down for the second half. I sometimes think of that as the experiential difference between praying in the flesh and praying in the Spirit. Praying in the flesh feels like an upward climb in which we are having to power up the hill. Praying in the Spirit reflects the reality of the downward slope. Obviously, there are degrees of decline. But the basic awareness of a downhill energy and momentum are present in all of the different degrees of a downward slope.

When we pray in the Spirit, according to Lloyd-Jones, we experience being carried or driven in prayer to God by the Spirit, but how is it done?

How to Pray in the Spirit

Praying in the Spirit has three aspects: (1) admitting our inability, (2) enjoying the creation of a living communion with God, and (3) pleading the promises of God with boldness and assurance.

Step One: Admitting Our Inability to Pray

We should start with confession: we must admit our inability to pray as we ought. We must come face to face with our tendency to try to pray on our own. We start with the recognition that prayer is a spiritual activity, and the power of the flesh profits nothing at all. We should feel our dryness and difficulty and confess to him our dullness, lifelessness, and spiritual slowness and sluggishness (Living Water, 86).

But this step is not passive; it is the act of yielding ourselves to the Spirit. Confession leads to expectation and prayerful anticipation.

Step Two: Enjoying Living Communion with God

You are aware of a communion, a sharing, a give-and-take, if I may use such an expression.

You are not dragging yourself along; you are not forcing the situation; you are not trying to make conversation with somebody whom you do not know. No, no! The Spirit of adoption in you brings you right into the presence of God, and it is a living act of fellowship and communion, vibrant with life. (Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Soldier, 100)

The place where you pray seems to be transformed. I start out praying in my living room, and suddenly I sense that I am in the throne room.

“The result of the Spirit’s work is that we bow before God as humbled children of God in awe of God.”

One of the key differences here between praying in the flesh and praying in the Spirit is that you don’t feel the need to rush to say anything when you pray in the Spirit. The living reality the Spirit creates is the awareness of God’s presence. Experiencing his presence will seem much more important than any petition you are going to make (Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Soldier, 82). But the Spirit will not lead you merely to rest in God’s presence in a passive way. There will be a holy boldness to plead the promises of God.

Step 3: Pleading with Holy Boldness

The result of the Spirit’s work is that we bow before God as humbled children of God in awe of God. We don’t bow before an unknown or far away god, and we don’t skip into God’s presence with breezy familiarity. We come with an awakened sense of intimacy and awe.

The Spirit also breathes bold life into our prayers — a holy boldness that pleads the promises of God with God in the presence of God.

The beauty of this boldness is that it is a humble and holy boldness. There is no presumptuous sense of demand.

Do not claim, do not demand, let your requests be made known, let them come from your heart. God will understand. We have no right to demand even revival. Some Christians are tending to do so at the present time. Pray urgently, plead, use all the arguments, use all the promises; but do not demand, do not claim. Never put yourself into the position of saying, ‘If we but do this, then that must happen.’ God is a sovereign Lord, and these things are beyond our understanding. Never let the terminology of claiming or of demanding be used. (Lloyd-Jones, The Final Perseverance of the Saints, 155)

Don’t Quench the Spirit

Lloyd-Jones once said that the quickest way to quench the Spirit is to not obey an impulse to pray. This point is very, very personal to me, so let me tell you a story from my own experience.

“Lloyd-Jones once said that the quickest way to quench the Spirit is to not obey an impulse to pray.”

Once I was driving home from working at UPS. I worked the night shift during my doctoral days and never seemed to get enough sleep. I was driving home very early one morning, around 4:30, and falling asleep at the wheel. I tried everything to stay awake. I turned up the radio and tried to sing along. I even slapped myself. The next thing I knew, I woke up in my driveway. I was more than a little shaken. I didn’t know how I got there.

I walked inside the house now eerily wide awake, and as I walked into our bedroom I noticed the strangest thing: my wife was wide awake, too. She would normally be asleep, but instead, she was sitting up in bed waiting for me.

She said, “Hi, honey, how was your drive?”

I said, “It’s funny you should ask. I really struggled to stay awake on the drive home. In fact, I don’t know how I got here.”

She said, “Yeah I figured. . . . ”

“Okay,” I said, “please continue!”

“Well,” she said, “I woke up at about 4:30 very suddenly, and felt this intense prompting to pray. I figured you must be struggling on the road since that is around the time you normally come home. So, I prayed for you.”

I think I am still alive, and typing these words, because my wife did not quench the Spirit in that moment. She obeyed the Spirit’s prompting to pray. I hope this story gives you a greater sense of what is at stake in prayer. Our tendency to quench the Spirit is not a small and inconsequential problem. Let us give ourselves to the reality of praying in the Spirit and renounce the temptation to try and pray in our own strength. And let us, after Lloyd-Jones’s example, always obey every impulse to pray.

Appendix 2: What Is Praying in the Spirit? From www.Christianity.com

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/prayer/what-is-praying-in-the-spirit.html

What Is Praying in the Spirit?

Praying in the Spirit is prayer with divine help. It’s trusting in faith and relying on God to hear, understand, and act. Praying in the Spirit is a gift to be received through faith in Christ Jesus.

Praying in the Spirit is prayer with divine help. It’s trusting in faith and relying on God to hear, understand, and act. Praying in the Spirit is a gift to be received through faith in Christ Jesus.

Scripture about Praying in the Spirit 

• “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (Ephesians 6:18).
• “But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,” (Jude 1:20).
• “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” (Romans 8:26).

Meaning of Praying in Spirit

According to John Gill’s commentary, prayer, “when performed aright, is performed ‘in the Spirit’; with the heart, soul, and spirit engaged in it. It is put up with a true heart, and a right spirit, and without hypocrisy; in a spiritual way, and with fervency, and under the influence, and by the assistance of the Spirit of God.”

Praying in the Spirit is distinct from praying in tongues.

Some teach that praying in the Spirit is synonymous with praying in tongues. But as tongues is a gift of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8-11), not a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), not every Christian can speak in tongues. Yet, Paul instructs Christians to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions,” (Ephesians 6:18). Therefore, we can know that praying in the Spirit is distinct from praying in tongues.

Praying in the Spirit is relying on the Spirit in prayer.

“The beginning of understanding what it means to pray in the Spirit is accepting Paul’s words: ‘We do not know what we ought to pray for….’ (Romans 8:26),” Alan Wright said.

The context around this verse portrays an intimate relationship with God through prayer, patiently trusting God to hear, understand, and act:

“But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 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. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:25-28).

Prayer “is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you,” not to burden his people with rules and rituals, but for a relationship with Him. And while “praying without ceasing”  is a command of God, the Holy Spirit enables and empowers His people to pray. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Praying the Spirit is praying secure in your position as an heir of God.

In Matthew 6:5-8, Jesus describes religious hypocrites who prayed in public places to be seen by other people, rather than praying in the Spirit before God. He talks about the pagans who pray also, but in a ritualistic way with specific, repeated words. Jesus told his disciples to pray differently, being confident that God sees them and knows what they need even before they ask.

“Only inasmuch as you know that God is your Father can you pray with intimacy rather than with religious ritual. Part of what it means to pray in the Spirit, therefore, is to pray with the help of the Holy Spirit who is constantly reminding you of your position as heir of God. You’re God’s child and, as such, you’re a co-heir with Christ. You can pray with the power of a child of God to a perfect Father,” Wright said.

Praying in the Spirit is valuable and possible for every Christian.

Dr. Michael Milton discussed praying in the Spirit in his Crosswalk article.

“Praying in the Spirit is an indispensable part of the Christian life,” he said. “Opinions admittedly vary about the exact meaning of praying in the Spirit. There are assorted theological claims about how to ‘achieve’ prayer in the Spirit as if the admonition is a skill to be acquired. It is not. It is a gift to be received, a life to be lived… Prayer with divine help is praying in the Spirit.”

He went on to explain:

“‘Praying in the Spirit’ is altogether a divine activity that one appropriates through faith in Jesus Christ and in His finished work on the cross… To pray in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, and worship in the Spirit (‘in Spirit and in truth,’ John 4:24) is to come before the Lord according to His appointed means—that is through the One whom the Spirit magnifies, the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:26-27), depending on His revealed Word and pleading as a lesser creature to our glorious Creator.”

Appendix 3: 12 Power-Packed Reasons to Pray in Tongues from https://blog.kcm.org/

https://blog.kcm.org/12-power-packed-reasons-to-pray-in-tongues/

12 Power-Packed Reasons to Pray in Tongues

August 10, 2021

We have been given a life-changing gift—the gift of praying in tongues.

In Mark 16:17, Jesus tells us about this gift. He lays it out—authority in the unseen spirit realm, authority to operate over demons, and authority to have open access to the realm of the Holy Spirit—to speak with new tongues.

Tongues is the Master Key to operating in the Kingdom in a higher dimension and accessing the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Everything the Spirit does and every way He does it can be touched through tongues. In other words, whatever you need, tongues will take you there.

That’s why Kenneth Copeland says, “The most important thing a man or woman of God can do in prayer is to pray in other tongues.”

Believers should be sign-producing machines, and it all begins with access to the supernatural. Whether you’ve never experienced this type of prayer or do so regularly, you need to know these 12 Power-Packed Reasons To Pray in Tongues.

1. Tongues Is Evidence of the Infilling of the Holy Spirit

 “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” –Acts 2:4 (NKJV)

Speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Throughout the New Testament, we see this illustrated time and again. See Acts 2:4, 10:44-46, and 19:1-6.

There is so much power in the infilling of the Holy Spirit—power that is meant to flow out of every believer to bring the realities of Jesus to others. It’s reason enough to want to pray in tongues!

If you’re a believer, and you haven’t been baptized in Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, today’s your day! Pray this prayer:

“Heavenly Father, I ask You according to Acts 19:6, to fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I have been born again, and now I want this precious gift You offer. In Jesus’ Name, I receive the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Amen.”

Now speak! The Holy Spirit will give you a new language. For help, call 001-817-852-6000 to talk to one of our trained prayer ministers.
 

2. Tongues Is Direct Contact With God

“For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.” –1 Corinthians 14:2 (NKJV)

When you pray in tongues, you are in direct contact with God. It’s your own private language with Him that no one else understands. It is a sharing of intimacy between just you and Him. God has given the Church a divine, supernatural means of communication with Him that is so power-packed, we would be missing out if we prayed in our own language alone.

Now, it is important to remember that praying in tongues is NOT meant to replace praying in your known language, but to add to it. We’ve all experienced times when we’ve come to the end of what we can accomplish through natural prayer. That’s when we move over into tongues.

On this powerful way of communicating with God, Kenneth Copeland says, “Praying in the spirit is a divine secret between God and me. It is my future. It is my heritage. It is my destination. It is the vision of my life being prayed out and given root to before it is ever made known to this natural world.”

3. Tongues Reminds Us of the Indwelling Presence

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever…for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” –John 14:16-17 (KJV)

Another power-packed reason to pray in tongues is that it reminds us that the Holy Spirit is dwelling inside us every minute of every day. When challenges arise, that reminder will shut down all the outside voices and build our strength to see ourselves as He does—victorious.

4. Tongues Is for Spiritual Edification

“He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.” –1 Corinthians 14:4 (NKJV)

Spiritual recharge? Yes, please! That’s one of the power-packed reasons to pray in tongues. When you pray in the spirit, you experience a spiritual boost the way a battery does when it is plugged in. When you’re feeling low on faith, pray in tongues and get a power-packed recharge!

5. Tongues Helps With Our Weaknesses

“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.” –Romans 8:26 (NKJV)

Do you have any weaknesses?

There is help! That’s just one of the power-packed reasons to pray in tongues. The Holy Spirit will help you gain strength in any area where you are weak. You are strong in the Lord and the power of His might! So, whenever you’re feeling weak, insufficient or defeated, pray in tongues. The Holy Spirit is inside you to meet that need.

See 16 Scriptures About Praying in Tongues HERE.

6. Tongues Is Praying God’s Perfect Will

“The Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” –Romans 8:27 (NIV)

Have you ever come before the throne of grace, but felt like you didn’t even know where to start?

Praise God, the Spirit always knows. A time of uncertain prayer can become a power-packed one when we move into praying in tongues. When we do, we’re doing the talking, but He gives the utterance (Acts 2:4). In this way, we can be certain that we are praying God’s perfect will and we eliminate the possibility of selfishness entering into our prayers.

7. Tongues Enables Us To Pray Out Mysteries

 “For one who speaks in an [unknown] tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding].” –1 Corinthians 14:2 (AMPC)

You are meant to have inside information! And you can. Praying in tongues is how God gets it to you. It is the way we can pray out mysteries, which we also refer to as divine revelation. When you don’t know what to do, God will tell you through praying in tongues. Tongues is a mystery master and a problem solver. What kinds of things will He reveal?

• The bottomless things of God (1 Corinthians 2:9-10):
• The Word
• Redemption
• Spirit beings.
• The Mysteries of the World:
  • Nature
  • Finance
  • Art
  • Music
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Military strategy.
• The Mystery of the Future:
• “He will show you things to come.” (John 16:13, KJV)
• God’s plan for your destiny.  

You’re never alone. Whenever you need help, the answer is only a prayer away. That’s why Gloria Copeland says, “Praying in the spirit makes you smarter than yourself.” And that is a power-packed reason to get praying in tongues!

Watch as Kenneth Copeland shares how praying in tongues brings answers from the inside out.

8. We Can Interpret Our Tongues

“Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.” –1 Corinthians 14:13 (KJV)

As if praying in tongues was not power-packed enough, we have also been given the ability to interpret our own tongues. When we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit in our spirit is speaking through us to God. When we interpret the tongue, it is God speaking back to us through the Holy Spirit. All you have to do is ask God to help you with the interpretation. It may not come immediately, but it will come. And it will always be in line with God’s Word.

9. Tongues Gives Us Spiritual Refreshing

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” –1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NKJV)

We all need rest! Physically, emotionally and spiritually, we need a time of rest and refreshing to be effective. That’s why doctors will often recommend a rest cure for various ailments. Overworking and stress can take a toll, and a time without continual spiritual refreshing will do the same. One power-packed way to bring a spiritual refreshing is praying in tongues. It will take the pressure off when you need an answer. Be refreshed! Pray in the spirit and receive what you need from the Holy Spirit.

10. Tongues Stimulates Our Faith

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” –Jude 20, NKJV

We need to continually stir up and stimulate our faith. Along with reading the Word of God, praying in our known language, and listening to faith-filled teachings, praying in tongues is another way to stimulate our faith and stay strong and fresh for battle.

11. Tongues Gives Thanks Well

“I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding…. For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified.” –1 Corinthians 14:15,17 (NKJV)

A grateful heart is not only honoring to God—and He is worthy—but it will accelerate your promotion and increase. Praying in tongues gives thanks well. It helps you to locate your love and gratitude toward God. Complaining is a sign of ungratefulness, and inevitably, if you continue on that road, you will eventually turn your complaints against God. Tongues helps express love and worship when words in your known language fall short. Tongues is not a substitute for praise in your known language, but when you need to stir up praise and worship in your heart, it will always help you set your sails in the right direction.

12. Tongues Magnifies God

“For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.” –Acts 10:46 (KJV)

Perhaps of all the power-packed reasons to pray in tongues we’ve covered today, the most important very well may be that tongues magnifies God. When God becomes bigger—in your eyes, in your mind, in your ministry, in everything in your life—every doubt and fear will disappear, and your faith will abound beyond anything you could have ever imagined. He is worthy to be magnified above all else. He is worthy to be praised.

Let these 12 power-packed reasons to pray in tongues ignite a fire within you to stir up the dynamite power of the Holy Ghost inside you. When you discipline yourself to a life of praying in tongues, doors to the realm of the spirit will open to you, and you will never again imagine your life without your holy prayer language. Enjoy this precious gift of salvation!

Watch as Kenneth Copeland teaches you about the powerful results of praying in tongues.

Related Article:

16 Scriptures About Praying in Tongues

Appendix 4: Praying to Receive the Gift of Tongues from https://www.missionariesofprayer.org/

https://www.missionariesofprayer.org/2021/06/praying-to-receive-the-gift-of-tongues/

Praying to Receive the Gift of Tongues

If you already have the gift of tongues then you do not need to read this post.  This is for people who have prayed and are still waiting to receive this gift.

First things first, you need to be saved.  If you don’t have Jesus as your Lord and Savior and receive the Holy Spirit, then it will never happen for you.  You can find out more about being saved here.

I’m not going to make you read a long post to get the information.  Here is how you do it…

It’s simple.  How do you do it?  Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give you the gift of tongues.

If you have already done that and it still has not happened….You just start doing it on your own at home.  Start with 5 minutes.  Do it everyday then ramp up to 15 minutes.  Then the next day you do more.  I know some of you right now are thinking that this doesn’t make sense.  You’ve thought it was a gift and you would be hit by a lightening bolt from heaven and it would just flow.  Right?  Well, it’s like that for some people and for others it didn’t happen like that.  They just started on their own and then it grew from that.

….But I sounds stupid…I know!  LOL  Keep going.

—–

If you want the story behind this you can read further but I just shared above what you need to do in case you don’t want to read how this happens.

This is my story.  I’m sharing it so you know there are more than one ways to get this gift…

I was saved in a conservative church that believed tongues is demonic.  They also believed in the Cessation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  That the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not longer in operation.  Once I started flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, not to be confused with the fruit of the Spirit, was the moment I realized that what I was being taught was not true.  How can you tell me something doesn’t exist when I am clearly living it?

So, I went on my quest to find out about tongues.  Even though I was serving in my conservative church I would go to Pentecostal churches on a Wednesday and Saturday so I could learn more about it.  It seemed as if this was a gift where someone would need to lay hands on you for you to “be filled”  and that’s how it would happen.  I also thought that anyone who could start and stop this at will was FAKE.  LOL  Because you can’t turn on and off the Holy Spirit.  Right? Just letting you know where my head was at the time.  In my head I thought this can only happen one way and if it didn’t happen like that then it wasn’t real.

I was excited to learn from the “Wednesday church”  That they were doing an entire month teaching on the Holy Spirit and as part of the teaching they were going to be laying on hands and praying for people to receive the gift of tongues.  I couldn’t wait!!!  I showed up the following Wednesday ready to run to the altar and receive this gift.

As the pastor starts calling people to come forward, I don’t think my butt made it 3 inches off the seat before I heard the Holy Spirit say “SIT DOWN”

*****Please do not miss this.  If I can already hear the Spirit of God, I have visions, prophesy, word of knowledge, word of wisdom.  Then I ALREADY HAVE the Spirit of God********   This is going to give someone freedom.  This is evidence that I am ALREADY FILLED.  Think about it.

So what kind of filling am I looking for???  It’s like asking God to give you something you already have

I’m just not seeing the manifestation of ONE thing.  I already have everything else.  I am telling you this because some of you are already flowing in all the other gifts.  This then is just one more so do not think that you are somehow lacking or missing out if this doesn’t happen right away.  Or begin to question your salvation.

On with the story..I sit back down and the Holy Spirit says to me “Witch, 9 O’Clock”  Don’t remember the exact time right now but whatever it was it made my head turn to look in that direction and my eyes fell on this woman 2 seats over from me.  I knew then that this was an assignment for me and there was no “getting filled” happening that day.  Oh no, God had another plan.  She was there to work her witchcraft, stealing things in the spirit as God released blessings to the people.  So my job was basically to block her from doing whatever it is she thought she was going to do there.

Sigh.  I remember thinking ok well I guess it won’t happen for me today.

Check this out….the pastor is on stage preaching that there are people that are afraid to come forward because they think something bad will happen like witchcraft.  He said this is some religious mindset from conservative churches that witchcraft is rampant when gifts of tongues are in operation and the demonic is very active.  He’s criticizing people who think this way and says it’s nonsense and never happens.  Oooooooooh the IRONY!    LOL  Because here was this one conservative sitting in his audience stopping the very thing he says never happens from happening.  You can’t make this stuff up!

So I sat there and blocked the witch the entire service.  You should’ve seen her looking around trying to identify who was blocking her.  LOL  She knew what she was trying to do was not happening.  Everytime she looking in my direction I was looking straight at the pastor “Hallelujah-ing” and she had no idea it was me.  Then she gets up and changes her seat position to another spot and I continued to block her.  I sat there and watched her until she got frustrated and picked up her purse and left.

The following Wednesday I go back and God tells me to stand in the back of the room with my back against the wall.  This time I could hear in the spirit the fighting between the angels and the demons.  What does that sound like?  Have you ever watched those movies with the bar room brawl?  People crashing into tables, being thrown into walls, glass smashing?  Yeah, that’s what it sounded like.  But this was in the spirit.  I could hear the angels wings whizzing by my ears.  It was LOUD.  And no one else in the room seemed to be picking up on what was happening in the spirit.  An all out war because of this move of the Holy Spirit in the room.

They were all peacefully worshiping God and my eyes were opened looking all over the room because I could hear the smashing, whizzing, punching.  But remember now, I’m the one there wanting to be “filled”.

Please know, I didn’t have any of these abilities prior to being saved.  All of this got activated after salvation.  But somehow I was still walking around feeling “less than” because I wasn’t struck by the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.

This happened for the whole month of this Holy Spirit teaching.  I was there to do the warfare while everyone else received this gift.  I can tell you that this happened many times after that as well at other churches.  It just never happened for me the way that I was hoping, praying and thought for sure it would be based on my desire.

Why am I telling you this?  I already had it, I just needed to start doing it.  No one had ever told me that before.  No one had ever explained it to me like that.  I mean, how simple is that?  If you read the post on the 4 Administration of the gifts of tongues you will see that #3 and #4 are private manifestations of the gifts.  These are the ones that you can do on your own at your home.  So I am telling you to do that.  You are not getting filled because perhaps you are already filled. (mind blown emoji)  Just.  Start.  Doing.  It.  I waited 15 years, praying for this before this reality hit me.  And, if you think about it I was manifesting the other gifts of the Spirit.  But it never clicked in my mind that I already had this.  It’s like saying I’m a little pregnant.  NO!  I’m pregnant.  If you have the Holy Spirit you have everything that comes with Him.  If you are already manifesting several of the other gifts that means you already have this, you just need to tap into it.

I came to this realization years later when I was going through a very difficult season.  I had prayed every prayer there was to be prayed, fasted, and still there was no breakthrough.  I kept asking God to give me this gift of tongues with no response.  I started doing research on it to find out all that I could find out and happened upon this video teaching that said “just start doing it”.  Yes, I thought that was ridiculous!

But, I was so desperate that I did it.  I sounded stupid!  5 minutes.  Then a few days went by and I did it again.  It sounded a little different from the days before.  Then a few more days and I did a little more.  Then I found this person who was doing a speaking in tongues challenge and she said do 1 hour each day.  Well, that sounded like an eternity to me!  So I continued doing it and ramped up the time over the course of a month.

The day I realized it was actually the Holy Spirit and not me faking it

I was driving to pick up someone and I decided to do it in the car while driving.  So it sounded the same but when I crossed the county line into a different county it changed, then when I went into another county it changed again.  I knew I wasn’t doing it on purpose.  So now when I travel I always do it because you are actually speaking to different angels in different regions.  It doesn’t sound the same. Think about it people in Africa don’t sound like the people in England.  It’s a different dialect.  You’re speaking to angels in different regions; therefore, it’s going to sound different. (1 Corinthians 13:1) Do you travel?  Try it.

What I notice when I speak in tongues

I have such wisdom, understanding, knowledge, clarity, it helps me interpret dreams and visions, I get breakthrough in the spirit.  A dear friend of mine, from the conservative church, I hadn’t seen in 2 years we started talking and she told me that I was a completely different person.  She wanted to know what I was doing because I seemed so much more mature spiritually…speaking in tongues.  That was the only thing that changed in the 2 year period.  When I am praying if I run out of things to pray in my natural mind, I pray in tongues and sure enough the Holy Spirit will give me points that I missed.  Works every time.

Code language the enemy doesn’t understand

You know when you speak in English or pray in English the people around you know what you are praying and so does the enemy.  When you are praying in tongues you bypass them and the prayer goes to God and the angels and no one actually knows what you prayed.  It keeps your requests secure.  it’s like an encrypted line for communication.

It’s your spirit that should be doing it and not your mind

So, when I just started doing this I would think of what I wanted to pray in English and then I would pray in tongues thinking with my head while doing it.  This is not how it works.  Tongues is a function of the spirit man.  Not the flesh or your mind.  So you should be able to read a book, watch TV and process information with your mind while praying in tongues.  It’s 2 different parts of your makeup. <<<read that again until you get it!!!  You are not controlling what you are saying in tongues.  If you try to do that you won’t be able to do it longer than 5 minutes.  When it is your spirit you can pray for hours because your spirit man never gets tired, but your mind will get exhausted.

The Longer you go the more you tap into the supernatural

When you start praying in tongues for long periods of time you will notice once you get past the 1 hour mark you start to tap into the supernatural.  Your tongues will change.  The more you do it the longer you can go.  Highly recommend this if you are a control freak and you are still trying to control it with your mind, the longer you go you will break out of this habit.  You will notice that you will have knowledge of things that most people don’t.  Is it an instant thing?  No.  But others will notice that you have more wisdom than most people.

Aren’t you afraid you will tap into something demonic?

Well, let’s see…in order for that to happen this would mean that I already have demons in my environment.  So tongues is not the problem.  Tongues would be the least of my problems and I need to cut off the access that demons have to my life before tapping into tongues. Cast out those demons.

Interpretation of Tongues

It’s another gift and you should pray to receive it as well once you start praying in tongues.  It doesn’t say translation it says interpretation.  This means that someone can speak in tongues for a long time and the translation is a very short one.  It may appear more was said but that is because it’s not a direct translation, it’s interpretation.  Hope this makes sense.

When I started praying for the interpretation I noticed that how I spoke in tongues changed.  So, I would be praying in tongues, then I would switch into English, then I would go back into tongues, then I would switch back into English.  That’s when I realized that the English was actually the interpretation of what I was praying in tongues.  I notice this only happens when I am praying with others and the Holy Spirit wants them to know what I am saying.  Otherwise, I don’t switch back and forth.  And, this is biblical as well because it says when you are praying in public you should have an interpreter.  The interpreter can be you and God can give you the gift.

Tongues while prophesying works the same as well.  Tongues.  Gift of Prophesy.  Tongues again.  Back and Forth.  If you see someone doing this, they are actually interpreting what they are prophesying in tongues.

Discerning of Spirits

This is another gift of the spirit that will actually help you to discern if someone’s tongues are demonic, from the Lord or it’s fleshly.  Ask God to give you this gift as well.

Another funny story is that before I started speaking in tongues I had the gift of discerning spirit so I would be able to discern the demonic tongues very easily.  I remember I got invited to a prayer meeting with over 100 intercessors and of course they were so sorry for me that I didn’t pray in tongues but told me I could pray in English while they started praying in tongues.  I sat quietly listening to them.  Let me tell you!!!  I’ve never heard so many demonic tongues in one room.  My goodness!  The hairs on my arms were standing up.  I couldn’t wait for it to be over.  When they invited me to come on to their prayer line and pray with them in the mornings, I smiled graciously, took the card with the information and dropped it in the trash as soon as I got home.  In my mind I was thinking, you all are sorry for this poor little conservative Christian that I don’t speak in tongues but you can’t discern demonic tongues and witches in your prayer meeting???  Oooooooh the irony!   At least half the room were tapping into demonic tongues.  It was really bad.  I remember sitting there suiting up in the Armor of God waiting for it to be over so I could escape.

The Giant Misconception about Tongues

You see what was happening in that room with those intercessors is that they believe if you don’t speak in tongues you don’t have the Holy Spirit.  This is just not true.  1 Corinthians 12:7-11 says there are 9 Gifts/Manifestation of the Holy Spirit.  Tongues is just one.  So to assume someone doesn’t have the Holy Spirit because they don’t have this one is false.

Spontaneous Tongues

So now that I’ve shared all of this with you I can say for a fact that you can start and stop tongues. And, that is not fake.  It all depends on which one of the administration of the gift is in operation.  There are times when I am listening to a message or someone praying and the message is so deep that I just break out in tongues.  I can’t explain it.  I don’t know why I do it.  But it hits something in my spirit and it is like an involuntary spontaneous response to the message I am hearing or reading or seeing.  Has this happened to you before?  It’s like my spirit man responding to what I hear.

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I am praying this helped you.  Again this post is for those of you who have prayed and you still have not received this gift even though you desire it.  Perhaps you are already filled you just need to start doing it.

Of course, if you are not saved, this is not for you.  You need to go and read this one on the Holy Spirit and receiving the Holy Spirit before you can even begin to do this.

Blessings