I Thank My God

I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:

1 Corinthians 14:18

Ever wonder how we can obey 1 Thessalonians 5:17 when it says that we should “Pray without ceasing”? One way to do it is to pray in tongues. Paul also wrote,

I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also.

1 Corinthians 15:18 (portion)

When we pray in tongues, we build up our inner man. It says that we speak mysteries unto God. In fact, one form of prophecy is tongues with interpretation!

God has given His Body such a wonderful gift in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Sure, we receive the Holy Spirit when we are born again, and He regenerates our heart, even as He was given to the twelve in John 20:22. But, that was just a “breath”, as it were. Several weeks later, when the day of Pentecost had fully come (Acts 2:1), He, the Holy Ghost, came as the sound of a “mighty rushing wind”, and baptized them! Surely, this secondary experience was not to be done without, for it was the very reason Jesus went away (John 16:7).

This baptism is different than the water baptism. In water baptism, we are “immersed”, put under neath the water. In the Holy Spirit baptism, we come underneath Him. The difference can be likened to being submersed in a lake to that of coming underneath a great waterfall. Both get you completely wet, but one is going under and one is coming under.

As we submit to the Holy Ghost, and allow our prayer language to be used, to grow and expand, we find we are praying about many things we did not even know about. Situations and divine connections come more readily. The presence of God seems more accessible. The spontaneous flow of wisdom and revelation comes to us that much more easily.

It’s funny, when you think of it. At the tower of Babel, God confused the languages of the people, and scattered them. Today, in the Church, He has called together His company of saints, those with “stammering tongue” and a “strange speech”. What the world cannot understand is that this “babble” is actually a pure speech. Countless are the testimonies of those who have spoken in the tongues (languages) of men, with no knowledge, only to have a native speaker of that language reveal to them what their spirit had prayed.

Surely, praying in tongues is one of the most extremely valuable, and wonderful gifts the Father has given to us. And, yet, Paul says it is the least!

There’s something about the language of the King James Version that captures some of the raw urgency of certain verses, despite the meaning of words changing somewhat over time. The following is one of them. May we all “earnestly desire spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1).