Speaking in tongues. This is one area that the church has misled many believers. I`m not going in to tackle the issues, at least not right now. But I`m going to try to write about it as God has taught me, and I`ll only go as far as I know.
One thing that I misunderstood about speaking in tongues was that it wasn't for everybody. That some people can and some people cannot speak in tongues. And if you wanted to speak in tongues, you needed some spiritual "maturity". I put that in quotes because in retrospect, I did not understand that either.
True, there is a connection between speaking in tongues and your spiritual maturity, much like a connection with warriors skillfully wielding their swords. Also, God does not 'discriminate' between those who can and cannot speak in tongues. As Dr. Creflo Dollar put it, it wasn`t as though the Corithians could speak in tongues but the Ephesians could not. No, it is an ability you get as a born again christian, having received that Life-giving Spirit within you; it is the evidence of the Spirit of God.
As God's kids, we are just like Him. We create, move things around with our words. How many of you see the effects of your self-confessions in your lives? Both the good and the bad. That is why God tells us to guard our hearts with all diligence because out of it flows all the issues of life. How? By our tongues - the power of life and death is in the tongue. That is why the bible says the one who has control over his tongue has control over his body.
But allow me to focus on something very special about the Holy Spirit within us.
The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the innermost parts of his being (Proverbs 20:27)...the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2)
When God said in Christ we have become of the same Spirit, bone and flesh of God, he wasn't joking. As born again christians, we are intimated connected with God. Paul even calls this a deep mystery. The depths is deeper than any revelation you get about a marriage convenant.
But see, this bond between man and God isn't there for nothing. Praying in the Holy Ghost is literally praying in the Holy Ghost. It is amazing. The full power and presence of God praying in you and through you with perfect knowledge, perfect understanding and perfect words.
There is no need to trivialize things into "well, we don't know all things, so God prays through us". It is true, but it is not the big picture. See that oneness, unity and bond between the creator and the created creating together. If God is for us, who really can be against us? With God, we have overwhelming victory in all things.
When I, by the grace of God speak in tongues, I come against all powers of darkness, gods and dominions causing things that are not of God in my life and even beyond me to move. I move with the Father. In short, I'm with Abba running things lol.
But seriously, speaking in tongues in part of your identity as the new man under the second Adam. We are different from what we've known, the bible says peculiar, so don't let the devil tell you lies about what you can do, or cannot do.
"...put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Colossians 3:10). We are growing to become like God, so lay hold of all God has for you, get into praying in the Holy Ghost.
