Friday, December 13, 2013

TONGUES?

HOW ANYONE CAN SPEAK IN TONGUES, GUARANTEED: COMPREHENSIVE STUDY
Excerpt from the book: "The new you and the Holy Spirit" by Andrew Wommack

Chapter 16
Speaking in tongues is not something you do just once to prove you've received the baptism in the Holy Spirit; it’s a powerful tool to edify yourself spiritually. Whenever you pray in tongues, you build yourself up on your most holy faith, and you keep the love of God active and alive in your heart. As you speak forth hidden wisdom and believe for interpretation, revelation knowledge will open up and supply answers you couldn’t get any other way. That’s why the devil has fought so hard against this gift! He’s afraid of what would happen if speaking in tongues ever became part of your daily Christian life.

The Holy Spirit inspires the words, but you have to say them. “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). Notice that the Spirit gave them utterance. It’s not just purely the Holy Spirit speaking through you. He gives you a prodding and a desire, but you must do the talking.

It’s similar to how the gift of teaching works. If l stood Before a group of people and prayed “God, please speak through me, but don’t let me say anything that's not of You", and then waited for Him to make me speak, l’d never say anything. lt’s my responsibility to step out in faith and start talking. God inspires the messages, but they come out through my personality, vocabulary, and mannerisms. God doesn’t speak in a Texas drawl; I do! The holy Spirit supplies the content and I deliver it!
Fear short-circuits your ability to speak in tongues. You might have trouble at first, if you worry about it or try to analyze what you’re saying. The Holy Spirit is inspiring you to speak, but it’s your fear that’s blocking it. Yield your tongue to the Holy Spirit, and then speak forth by faith the words He gives you.
BREAKTHROUGH!
For months, I struggled to pray in tongues. Even though I was convinced it was of God and wanted it, I had a hard time receiving my prayer language.
A man came over to my house in an attempt to help me. He asked, “If you repeated something I said in Spanish, would you be speaking in Spanish?” I nodded. “Then if I spoke something in tongues and you repeated it, would you be speaking in tongues?”
“Yes, but I don’t want to just repeat something; I want to speak in tongues on my own!” He kept insisting, so finally I gave in. However, l stopped after only getting through the first couple of words. Embarrassed, I told him I wasn't doing a good job repealing what he said. He argued, “yeah, but you were speaking in tongues. That wasn’t English!” By then I had reached my limit. “No, I don’t accept that. I wasn‘t speaking in tongues!” He just threw up his hands in a frustration and left.

Immediately after this, I was on my way to minister to someone. In desperation I declared, “God, l’m just going to start talking. l believe that You are going to help me speak in tongues. Then l began making up nonsense words and saying them out loud. It seemed silly to me, so I didn’t feel very good about it. However, I realized that I’d said two words that did sound pretty decent. Since they seemed like a real language to me, I figured they must be tongues. So, I took those two words and started speaking them over and over again all the way to my destination.

Upon arrival, l experienced the best time of ministry I’d ever had before. l was convinced it was because I'd been praying in tongues. On my way home, I started praising God and decided to pray using those two words some more, but I panicked when I couldn't remember them. After struggling so long to pray in tongues, I had forgotten the only two words I’d received!

Then Thought, "I will just get another two." So I started the process over again until another two words came. After using them for a while, l added a couple more. Within a few moments, I was speaking fluently in tongues!

Looking back, I know now that l could have spoken in tongues all along. However, l was under the false impression l that the Holy Spirit would come upon me with such force that
l wouldn't be able to keep myself from blurting out in tongues. When that never happened, l discovered He doesn’t work that Way. The Holy Spirit was just waiting for me to speak out in faith the words He'd been gently inspiring me to say. Now it's your turn to do the same!

- LET ’S PRAY

“FATHER, THANK YOU FOR BAPTIZING ME IN THE HOLY SPIRIT! I‘M SO GRATEFUL YOU GAVE ME THIS WONDERFUL GIFT. PLEASE HELP ME TO WALK IN ALL OF ITS BENEFITS.

“THROUGH SPEAKING IN TONGUES, I CAN DRAW ON THE POWER YOU'VE PLACED WITHIN ME: FOR REST AND REFRESHING, FOR BUILDING MY FAITH AND KEEPING MYSELF IN YOUR LOVE, AND FOR REVELATION KNOWLEDGE AS INTERPRETATION COMES.

“I AM A BELIEVER! YOUR WORD SAYS, ‘THESE SIGNS SHALL FOLLOW THEM THAT BELIEVE; IN MY NAME SHALL THEY CAST OUT DEVILS; THEY SHALL SPEAK WITH NEW TONGUES’ (MARK 16:17). BY FAITH, I WILL SPEAK IN TONGUES FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, IN JESUS ‘NAME. AMEN! "

FATHER IS PROUD OF YOU!

Now, by faith, say out loud those sounds coming up from deep within. You’ll be talking in a language unknown to you, but the Holy Spirit is the one inspiring it. You'll be speaking in tongues! Go ahead – practice a while! Enjoy yourself in the Lord! If you aren't fluent right away, don't worry – God is proud of you! When little children start to speak, your parents know what they're trying to say. Even though it's baby talk, they are please. Your heavenly father is proud of you, even if your tongue is fluent yet. If you'll just keep using it and not worry about yourself so much, tongues will begin to flow out of you on hindered! As your brother in the Lord, I welcome you to the Spirit filled life!

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10 REASONS FOR SPEAKING IN TONGUES
http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/supernatural/17419-10-reasons-for-speaking-in-tongues

1. THE MANIFESTATION THAT CAME WITH THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS SPEAKING IN TONGUES. It wasn’t the wind, fire, noise or feeling of God’s presence that was evidence of the gift being received but a spirit language—believers began speaking languages of the Spirit they didn’t understand. It was God’s plan for the gift to function as a spirit language for His children (Acts 2:4, 11; 1 Cor. 14:2).

2. JESUS COMMANDED US TO RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. When Jesus commissioned the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Father, He didn’t say, “Do this if you feel led to do so, or if it fits in your doctrinal or denominational beliefs, or if you have the time, or if you are so inclined, or if you feel comfortable about it.” No! Jesus commanded them to wait until they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Since Jesus put such importance on their receiving this gift, that’s more than enough reason for every Christian to seek God until they receive it too (Acts 1:4; 5:32; John 14:16-17; Eph. 5:18).

3. THE SCRIPTURES EXHORT US TO BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT AND TO PRAY IN THE NEW TONGUES OF OUR SPIRIT LANGUAGE. Our spirit language enables us to live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, be led of the Spirit, have the fruit of the Spirit, manifest the gifts of the Spirit and go from glory to glory until we are transformed into His same image (Gal. 5:22-25; Rom. 8:14; 1 Cor. 12:7-11; 14:15; Eph. 5:18; Acts 19:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).

4. A SPIRIT LANGUAGE IS THE GREATEST GIFT THE HOLY SPIRIT CAN GIVE A BELIEVER. Jesus is the greatest gift God could give for the redemption of the world, and the Holy Spirit is the greatest gift Jesus could give to His church. Of all the resources in heaven and the eternal universe, nothing is more valuable, beneficial or important for the Holy Spirit to give the individual child of God than her own spirit language (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:4).

5. OUR SPIRIT LANGUAGE ENABLES US TO HAVE SPIRIT-TO-SPIRIT COMMUNICATION WITH GOD. Humans are spirit beings clothed with flesh-and-bone bodies. While man’s sin deadened the spirit, Jesus brings the spirit back to life by imparting His everlasting life into us. The Holy Spirit gives us a spirit language so we can communicate directly with God (John 4:24; 1 Cor. 15:45; Gen. 2:7; Rom. 5:12; John 3:3-5, 16).

6. PRAYING IN TONGUES BUILDS AND INCREASES OUR FAITH. Faith is the medium of exchange for all heavenly things, just as money is the medium of exchange for all earthly things. A major way to increase our faith is to pray in the tongues of our spirit language (Rom. 12:6; Jude 1:20; Mark 9:23; Matt. 9:29).

7. PRAYING IN TONGUES ACTIVATES THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. It’s vital and beneficial to have each of the spiritual attributes become active and mature in us. Praying in tongues helps us fulfill God’s predestined purpose for us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Gal. 5:22-23; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Cor. 13:1-13; Rom. 8:29).

8. PRAYING IN OUR SPIRIT LANGUAGE IS THE MAIN WAY WE FULFILL THE SCRIPTURAL ADMONITION TO “PRAY WITHOUT CEASING.” Christians can pray in tongues at any time. If we are in a place where it isn’t convenient or wise to speak out loud in tongues, we can pray with our inner man without making an audible sound (Eph. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17; Matt. 26:41; Luke 18:1; 21:36; 1 Cor. 14:15).

9. THE HOLY SPIRIT DIRECTS OUR SPIRIT LANGUAGE TO PRAY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE WILL OF GOD. Probably the only time we can be assured that we are praying 100 percent in the will of God is when we are praying in our spirit language. God always answers requests that are made in alignment with His will (Rom. 8:27; 1 John 5:14-15).

10. PRAYING IN TONGUES QUIETS THE MIND. When Dr. Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist, compared brain scans of Christians praying in tongues with Buddhist monks chanting and Catholic nuns praying, the study showed the frontal lobes—the brain’s control center—went quiet in the brains of Christians talking in tongues, proving that speaking in tongues isn’t a function of the natural brain but an operation of the spirit (1 Cor. 14:2, 14).

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