While the term ‘ethics’ can have its deliverables, for this context, I just want it to mean the beahaviour or study of Tongues as I conclude this mini-series. I’ll not incline on what’s wrong or right regarding the gift per se, but rather, the phases one goes through with it.
When Tongues come the first time, there is a hindered flow, even if there’s an ability or utterance. By ‘hindered’, I mean like how a baby begins to speak. This is where gibberish thrives, and since many are not babies anymore when they begin to this, the mind immediately throws it off as odd or foolish.
Despite the enemy adding salt to injury (by soundly calling you foolish), the saint at this stage must continue ‘practising’ speaking. I mentioned in blogs past, the enemy senses language barrier and so he’ll convince the subject of the gullibility of this.
One must go beyond that and press. Word upon word, line upon line, utterance upon utterance. Don’t be intimidated by those who could be louder or firmer in the language than you already are. Keep allowing the language to flow through whenever the urge comes.
Like a child developing, eventually, the language will mature, and the confidence that comes with knowing the language will be built in you moving forward; just like one is confident when they have mastered most of their natural vernacular.
A baby desires to speak, but may not sustain. At some point in growth, they’ll be able to speak and sustain conversations. This leads to the next phase: the unrestricted/unhindered flow.
Here, one can choose to speak for a sustained period. It gets better the more one yields to the Spirit. Yielding comprises of obedience, sensing His beckons to you to pray, and continual dying or decreasing of self as He increases in you.
Triggered flow, if I may term it so, is the kind that comes when a saint has mastered the unhindered phase. One could not necessarily be in a prayer setting, but suddenly they feel an urge to pray. The Spirit rumbles within aggressively, catching their attention and driving them to join in prayer.
There are so many testimonies that arise from this kind of behaviour. Some have confessed saying;
“I began praying intensely at about 3pm, and an hour later, my spouse called me saying she survived a very fatal accident that happened at half past the hour I began praying!”
It’s a mystery! — that the Holy Spirit senses danger, and speaks through you to avert it. No wonder He spoke in Ezekiel that he sought for a man who’d stand in the gap. No wonder Paul confessed that he knew all things. It’s because He had one who knew all things within Him, who can deliver news as such as I have shared.
When we are yielded — antenna high on standby, the Holy Spirit is able to intercept works of darkness by us. Just like demons require a physical body to operate on earth, the Holy Spirit needs our cooperation to effect and counter whatever is from the enemy camp.
Triggered flow isn’t always about averting danger. It’s some sort of emergency line as well. Recently in a church service, I zoned out as the preacher began teaching. Not that I wasn’t paying attention, I found myself praying in tongues even if my mind wasn’t actively participative.
It was intense and eerie especially that it wasn’t prayer time during service.
It was later when the service was concluding that the Holy Spirit moved mightily through the congregation for half an hour. He then told me that the trigger was intercession preparing a way for Him, aiding the preacher as well to become an easy portal for Him to touch His people.
I was humbled by this.
This flow is proof that He is indeed ever interceding for us; and when He takes over our physical tongues, He’s inviting us to participate with Him, as co-heirs or co-creators with Him; helping to define and shape realities!
Triggers also come as forms of spiritual exclamations or excitement. A preacher could be teaching, and suddenly, he or she says something that strikes a chord within you! Just as humans say ‘aha!’, the Spirit moves a saint to stand up or enthusiastically utter some words!
I can describe Tapped Utterances as those that rub off to others as a result of extended communion with particular individuals. In a small group where we prayed for a long time, I noticed two of my sisters’ tongues unique to each of them. Time to time, particular words repeated for each. It’s like one had more S’s in hers and the other had a different factor.
At different points in time, as I prayed, I noticed I was speaking as each of them; it didn’t sound like my style or language. The best description would be if I sang in tenor and the two sang in soprano and alto.
Imagine waking up hitting high notes!? You’d be shocked, wouldn’t you? That is how I can relate it.
This is no shocker as it happened (parabolically) in the Old Testament.
Then Saul sent messengers to take David. And when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as leader over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. (1 Samuel 19:20)
Even Saul prophesied at one time in the earlier parts of the same book. The ‘prophesying’ rubbed off the others and associated with Him, through the medium of the Spirit.
This both speaks to the influence of community on an individual (one of the ways of receiving tongues), but also the attraction of a language from others to one (tapping a dialect from another soul)
The advantage of this could be, that one is ushered into higher realms or expressions of the gift. One of the women I’m talking about taught me how to surrender indefinitely to the Holy Spirit and settle in the plane of ‘groanings that could not be uttered’ as well. (Rom 8:26)
I liked being calm and collected as I prayed. But many atimes, I was caging the Holy Spirit when He wanted to roar, or I’d cut Him short when He had more to say. If this is compared to pregnancy, I can’t tell how many miscarriages I’d have caused. As He was about to help midwife something, I’d shut my own womb! Ah … only His mercies could overlook or redeem that.
There’s also passive tongues! Here, your soul is unconscious, and yet your spirit is. There are so many times I’ve dreamt praying in tongues, and when I awake, I find my lips had been actually mumbling some things even yet while I was asleep. It’s akin to sleep talking. Can I call it sleep praying? This is another mystery! Perhaps it’s triggered tongues, but without our conscious faculty!
So don’t feel weird when you experience it. His ways are higher than ours. He’s yet to reveal why He uses this mode. Perhaps He is extracting something from us like He did Adam’s rib! Only that we awake to find Him finishing to knit back our skin sides!
Spiritual hymns is when we add a rhythm to the tongues, creating some form of song as opposed to simply uttering them.
What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding. (I Corinthians 14:15)
Groaning, which I term as the highest expression of the gift, (according to my experience) are very dynamic and emotional utterances where one’s self is swallowed in, and the Spirit is thrown up! If you are a Marvel fan, it’s like Jean Grey ceasing to exist and having the phoenix take over.
In this state — like I defined in the previous blog, one experiences the literal meaning of ‘you in Him.’ ‘Him in you’ pauses for a moment. He becomes so alive and omniscient. The body reacts in several ways including shaking, falling, rolling and writhing under tangible power! Time is forgotten. Carnal understanding ceases. There is a wholly raid or takeover of one’s mind and body by Him.
Your usual tongues change form. They stretch — sometimes inexpressible! The feeling of gagging follows …
Sometimes the atmosphere is thick. Breathing or standing can become so hard depending on how far the yielding has gone. His holiness spreads about, creating a possibility of killing you! — Not that God is wicked! No! I deduce it’s the charged atmosphere created by the utterances. It’s akin to men exposed to the stratosphere or mesosphere. It becomes hard to breathe or walk — due to no oxygen or gravity. The body could congeal or wizen, then float away.
It’s an experience I pray you get to encounter. You solely participate being before the Throne, and experience how He intercedes!
Words fail me to shed more light on groanings.
I’ll conclude with Divers Languages. These are what were heard by the Jews on the day of Pentecost. It was another mystery! How the disciples were speaking, and yet all men around heard their personal native tongue being spoken, by men who previously never knew a word of their vernacular still makes me want to pull my hair out!
How can I speak one sentence in my language and yet 50 people of different languages get to hear an instruction in each of their language? This is maths I can’t solve. Mind boggling!
I’ve heard testimonies of people on planes who thought they were praying in tongues, only for their neighbors to interpret what they were saying adding ‘you were speaking such and such a language saying this and that.’ The mutterers are always in awe!
1 Corinthians 12 to 14 however leaves some house keeping rules. We can’t have this gift and think we are operating in the highest power of God. Tongues will pass away, and love will remain! So we mustn’t idolize them, or suppose we could misbehave while with them. In these chapters, Paul asks us to desire the greater gifts which in rank are Tongues then prophesying.
But he adds that even if we speak with tongues of angels and prophesy, understanding all mysteries and knowledge … yet have no love, we are nothing! (1 Cor 13:1-2) So let’s not be tongue speakers, and selfish. Let’s not be tongue speakers and yet bitter, impatient, short-tempered, envious, and rude!
People who act like this in-fact have made many shun the gift thinking it makes men pompous or arrogant (basing off one unlearned person).
Some churches seem not to allow tongues to be uttered on pulpits basing off Paul’s letters. The Corinthians had taken it too far where a preacher could come and stand and just speak tongues entirely during a sermon. Obviously many congregants were confused; especially if none could interpret what was being said! That doesn’t mean if a preacher diverts into tongues amid a sermon that he’s giving Corinthian aura.
The Holy Spirit expresses joy in tongue exclamations as well as I already mentioned.
When the preacher diverts into praying in tongues, the triggered flow helps him or her discern the direction the Spirit wants him or her to take — whether to call out someone in need of deliverance or healing, or download the perfect script … or words to speak which will change someone’s destiny in a few, or end the sermon and just call a psalmist to usher His presence in.
Tongues generally edify a person. So when in a congregation, we mustn’t prohibit them, for collectively, it’s like a thousand edified lit human candles have converged in one area … and many spirits are being built up to receive from God through either praise or worship or the testimonies or the ministry of the word. I’m not saying praying in a native tongue will not enable someone receive from God; but the building the tongues bring helps one to see God in every stage of the service.
Some congregants only enjoy the praise and worship and then zone out. Others only the word and not the former. Others may attend but not receive anything! But as you speak mysteries with the gift, it helps you effortlessly and easily receive from every part or step of the entire service!
We must as well be mindful as we yell in tongues. Unless we are in a designated prayer place, it’s not wise to inconvenience others say at a workplace setting. Many tend to only be showing off that they are ‘deeper’ than those around them. That’s foolish! We must remember the secret-place maxim: ‘Shut the door behind you and pray to your Father…’
You can whisper in tongues without necessarily attracting attention. You can wear a mask over your mouth and enjoy communion. You can be doing chores as you engage silently in His perfect will or warfare. You don’t need to yell at home to show the entire family that you can pray with these. Let the people sleep in peace; shut your closet and pray to your father in secret who’ll reward you publicly.
We are a peculiar people yes! But we ought to be as wise as serpents and humble as doves, letting not this great gift puff us up.
But also, not forgetting that it’s a great necessity, especially for one’s prayer life!
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I Corinthians 14:5a I wish you all spoke with tongues, …
I Corinthians 14:39 Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues.
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