How to Authentically Speak in Tongues

[Caroljeen]

A future post will explain why most initiations into speaking in tongues just produce babble that is of the flesh. But my OP will identify 3 proven principles for genuine glossolalia. Admittedly, the Holy Spirit cannot be limited to a specific operation formula. For example, when I was speaking in tongues at age 16, a visiting Lutheran pastor interrupted me to say he was an interested spectator who didn't believe in modern speaking in tongues. I didn't argue with him, but merely touched him gently on the forehead and he just exploded in other tongues!

(1) Praying in tongues is a form of praying in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:14). So to speak in tongues authentically, it is advisable to first learn to "pray in the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:18; Jude 20) in your own language. Paul makes it clear that praying in the Spirit is a key to waging effective spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:11-18). Praying in the Spirit is spontaneous Spirit-directed prayer as opposed to consciously formulated prayers of intent.

(2) The expression "lost in praise" designates a particular type of praying in the Spirit that is often a launching pad for speaking in tongues. Being lost in praise is a type of intense longing for God in which the eruption of joy triggers spontaneous and uncontrolled praise in one's own language. It is the Lord who guides the praise: "O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise (Psalm 51:15)." This type of praise is superior because it reflects and derives from "the inner being" and "my secret heart" with which I am usually out of touch (51:6). Much of what we pass off as praise is forced and mechanical; so the Spirit's intervention is needed to create a "willing spirit" (51:12)." If our worship is too much of a head trip rather than a heart eruption, we may lose the Holy Spirit as an active force in our lives: "Do not cast me away from your presence and don't take your Holy Spirit from me (51:11)."

(3) To learn to pray in the Spirit, one should first learn how to "walk in the Spirit." Walking in the Spirit is often misunderstood as mere conscious obedience to God's Word, when in fact it is more mystical than that--the believer must master the art of being "led by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25)." Unless the believer has mastered this art, they will not experience all "the fruit of the Spirit (5:22-23)."

In my next planned post, I will share my testimony of how I learned to pray in the Spirit.

That's not how "speaking in tongues" happened in the Bible.
That's not how I first spoke in other tongues.
You are making it too difficult.

 

[cjab]

You should realize that the vertical pronoun is needed in personal testimonies.

The correct term here is "personal pronoun," and the sentence is also a pleonasm (it didn't need to be said as it is self-evident). I have always wondered whether an insufficient (or at least a not overdeveloped) grasp of English and a proclivity to use too many words is also conducive to speaking in tongues. Is there a correlation here, or am I being cynical?

Rhetoricians and theologians usually prefer their mother tongues. Few will manage to persuade anybody of anything in an unknown tongue. Just imagine the intellectual chaos that would have resulted if the apostle Paul had written all his letters in an unknown tongue. Doubtless it would have impressed, but at what cost?

What then is the advantage of speaking in tongues, or is it really something that is required to "get on in the church?"

 

[YeshuaFan]

That's not how "speaking in tongues" happened in the Bible.
That's not how I first spoke in other tongues.
You are making it too difficult.

Tongues were real human languages not known by those speaking them, and were only given to those to use in a local assembly, before canon was completed

 

[Caroljeen]

Tongues were real human languages not known by those speaking them,

Thank you for your response. I understand this gift of the Spirit somewhat differently than you do.

Tongues which are given by the holy Spirit could be real human languages or an angelic language.

and were only given to those to use in a local assembly,

Tongues, as in the gift of tongues, was given to edify a individual believer or to be used as a message to the assembly that was meant to be interpreted by someone who had the gift of interpretation of tongues. 1 Cor 12

before canon was completed

The evidence of tongues and the gift of tongues are for individual Christians and through these individuals can also be used to edify the local church body throughout all time until Christ returns.

 

[tbeachhead]

There is so much error and presumption here:

Tongues were real human languages

This sentence is meaningless...What is a "real human language?" As opposed to a fake one? What other kind of language is there? This is a cessationist claim to counter Paul's choice of words in 1 Corinthians 13, "If I speak in the tongues...of angels."In other words, the cessationist chooses to argue with Paul out of complete ignorance. Do angels not have languages? Has the cessationist now told the Holy Spirit what gifts He can confer? Tongues is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is not a gift of the cessationist to control by gratuitous and ignorant criticizing.

not known by those speaking them,

This is not necessarily true. The language spoken to Paul on the road to Damascus was known by Paul who heard it as Hebrew, but his traveling companions did not understand the language...as on the day of Pentecost when the 120 spoke in a language they didn't know, but the hearers all heard, each one in his native tongue. Jesus, the speaker, knew as Paul did what He was saying. The companions alone were baffled.

and were only given to those to use in a local assembly, before canon was completed

This is an outrageous lie, and an insult to the Spirit and the gift. By whose law was it taken away?

At Cornelius' house, all spoke the same language. All spoke in tongues. There was no interpretation...and no "assembly."

In Ephesus, all spoke the same language. All spoke in tongues and there was no interpretation...and no "assembly." Twice, the tongues came with the baptism of the Holy Spirit as on the Day of Pentecost, and was the sign that the Baptism had occurred.

You've been lied to, and you believed the lie.

Years ago I posted a link to a recording of me speaking in tongues. What is your reaction:

 

[tbeachhead]

When you say, "It ended when the canon was completed..." do you suppose that everyone speaking in tongues suddenly stopped? John was on Patmos when he penned the last tittle. Who informed the Christians in the Levant or in the Maghreb that tongues should cease? Do you suppose the Pope of Rome issued an inspired Bull declaring that no more, at the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, should anyone speak in tongues? Do you suppose there were consequences to someone who spontaneously spoke in tongues when the Holy Spirit came on him? Or do you suppose the Holy Spirit complied with your misunderstanding out of respect for you?

Do you realize your doctrine is presuming to know that the hundreds of millions of Pentecostals around the world are in error, and it's based on your own. ignorance of the gift itself and the Giver? Doesn't that bother you at all?

 

[Mike McK]

A future post will explain why most initiations into speaking in tongues just produce babble that is of the flesh. But my OP will identify 3 proven principles for genuine glossolalia. Admittedly, the Holy Spirit cannot be limited to a specific operation formula. For example, when I was speaking in tongues at age 16, a visiting Lutheran pastor interrupted me to say he was an interested spectator who didn't believe in modern speaking in tongues. I didn't argue with him, but merely touched him gently on the forehead and he just exploded in other tongues!

(1) Praying in tongues is a form of praying in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:14). So to speak in tongues authentically, it is advisable to first learn to "pray in the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:18; Jude 20) in your own language. Paul makes it clear that praying in the Spirit is a key to waging effective spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:11-18). Praying in the Spirit is spontaneous Spirit-directed prayer as opposed to consciously formulated prayers of intent.

(2) The expression "lost in praise" designates a particular type of praying in the Spirit that is often a launching pad for speaking in tongues. Being lost in praise is a type of intense longing for God in which the eruption of joy triggers spontaneous and uncontrolled praise in one's own language. It is the Lord who guides the praise: "O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise (Psalm 51:15)." This type of praise is superior because it reflects and derives from "the inner being" and "my secret heart" with which I am usually out of touch (51:6). Much of what we pass off as praise is forced and mechanical; so the Spirit's intervention is needed to create a "willing spirit" (51:12)." If our worship is too much of a head trip rather than a heart eruption, we may lose the Holy Spirit as an active force in our lives: "Do not cast me away from your presence and don't take your Holy Spirit from me (51:11)."

(3) To learn to pray in the Spirit, one should first learn how to "walk in the Spirit." Walking in the Spirit is often misunderstood as mere conscious obedience to God's Word, when in fact it is more mystical than that--the believer must master the art of being "led by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25)." Unless the believer has mastered this art, they will not experience all "the fruit of the Spirit (5:22-23)."

In my next planned post, I will share my testimony of how I learned to pray in the Spirit.

If you have to have "principles" to speak in tongues, then it's not Biblical tongues, as, in the Bible, tongues were a move of the Holy Spirit, not something man initiates.