ZA MAGAZINE // seek truth.

Two weeks ago, my article covered the “What,” “Why,” and “Where” of the gift of tongues, giving background on how the gift was introduced to the world, why it is useful for every Christian, and where it actually comes from. This week, I intend to cover how tongues is in use today and how you can stir your spirit to commune with God’s Spirit through the gift of tongues.

Tongues Today

As I have said previously, tongues is a gift from God in use for the benefit of people. First, tongues is for the edification and benefit of oneself (the speaker), as evidenced by Paul’s words in First Corinthians. He writes:

1 Corinthians 14:4 NET
The one who speaks in a tongue builds himself up.

Secondly, tongues is used for the benefit of others, but not nearly as much as it is for personal advancement. As Paul says:

1 Corinthians 14:22 NKJV
Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers.

Paul goes on to say that just as tongues is utilized for personal growth, so is the gift of prophecy given for the growth of the church congregation.

Given the Scriptures above, we should focus on the former benefit of the gift of tongues: For oneself.

It’s About You

Maybe the section headline is deceiving, because this life and existence on Earth is not about you. It’s about Jesus. Yet, in this circumstance it actually is about you.

You see, the Bible says that tongues is primarily given to you for your personal benefit. The gift exists so that your experience with God might be deepened, your sensibility to Him might be heightened, and that your time of communion with Him might be strengthened. Although there are many things that are for the benefit of God or others, we can be thankful that God granted us a gift that is first and foremost for us, personally.

As touched upon in the previous article, tongues is a spiritual language that comes from our spirit and is intended to connect with God’s Spirit. Paul declares that our spirit may pray, praise, sing, and rejoice before God in communion with Him.

1 Corinthians 14:14-15
14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.
15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

In the verse above, the Apostle is encouraging believers to have a balance in our prayer lives, which I completely agree with. Yet, for the purposes of this article, let us continue to focus on our spirit and its intimacy with the Lord. We are to seek growth and advancement in all of our spiritual gifts that God has granted us, including the gift of tongues. And how does one go about growing in a gift that cannot be understood by our natural minds? Let’s discuss.

Grow Your Gift

You need to know right from the outset of this section that if you have the gift of tongues and have used it previously, you can rest assured that the Holy Spirit did not fill you up with His glory and activate your spirit if He did not intend to grow the spiritual language within you and continue to embolden you to develop in Him indefinitely. Be encouraged in the fact that God has already done something mighty in your life and wants to see you stay in His pathway of spiritual greatness!

In order to have the gift of tongues not fall dormant you must be active. And I do not mean active in ministry or active in attending church, necessarily. I am speaking more of activity in the prayer room. Just as it is with any gift, so it is with tongues. The gift of tongues will be cultivated and develop when you use it. This gift will fall dormant and your spirit will recede away from this gift if you do not give it (your spirit, that is) opportunity to utilize the blessing of tongues. Tongues will come when we pray to God and our spirit is triggered. Tongues will not come from watching television and playing Xbox. Tongues will not arise from our time spent with others. Tongues will not shoot forth from our mouths as a result of listening to music. The gift of tongues will increase when we commune with God, spending time with Him. It will be the Lord who prods our spirit to speak, therefore we need to be with Him in order to permit this possibility to arise. The growth of our spirit is a direct result of connection with His Spirit.

In truth, the above is a general principle about basic Christian life. If we would seek to decrease our sin, resist temptation, focus on living righteously for God, and prosper in our walk with the Lord, then time must be spent with our Savior. We must be conformed to the image of Christ, which won’t happen from ignoring His image and spending all of our time away from Him and in the activities of the world.

Practically, the spiritual language of tongues will come forth from you in prayer, praise, and worship perhaps when you least expect it, and those times are amazing. It is an awesome thing to have God stimulate your spirit to the point of involuntary action! Yet, Paul’s words do imply that tongues can be brought forth by an individual who has maintained their spiritual walk and has control over his own spirit. See here:

1 Corinthians 14:18 KJV
I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all.

I would infer from this verse that Paul could will his spirit to speak in tongues and that he used this gift when he knew he was in need of personal edification. In other words, whether the gift of tongues spews forth from your mouth before you even know it’s coming or you lead your spirit to speak, you should always be seeking for more of this spiritual language so that you might increase in the things of God. Ask the Lord to fill you up with His Spirit and give you power from on high, just as the disciples received in the Acts account. May God bless you with the fullness of His glory and spiritual giftings.

Photo accompanying article was taken by Flickr user paullew. The original photo can be found here, and was distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license.