Throughout the Old Testament, man had to use fallen human language to communicate with God,

He had to use the abundance of words to speak to God,
And those who weren’t skilled in words would have to meet the prophets to pray on their behalf,

There was no direct intimacy with God,

1. Because the Fatherhood of God was not yet Revealed in the Old testament:

God wasn’t known as a Father in the Old Testament. Even David, who called God a lot of things, never once called God a Father. God had a servant master relationship with man in the old testament.

So there was no need for a special language for communication, because with the exception of an elected few, man never really had intimacy with God.

2. Because the Holy Spirit hadn’t come to dwell in man yet:

The Holy Spirit is the one who creates tongues in us. The Holy Spirit only came upon the men of the Old Testament. But he never dwelt in their spirits, so there was absolutely no way they could pray in tongues.

But God wasn’t satisfied with their prayer,
Although, He answered it, He wanted more.
The human language was too limited,
God wanted man to pray using a unique divine language.
He wanted to elevate man from praying humanly, to praying using the divine technology of tongues.

Mar 16:17 KJV “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues”

The word ‘signs’ in the Greek is Semion, and it means a mark; a mark that distinguishes someone.

So Here He was saying,
‘I’m going to place a mark on those who believe, and that mark is that they will cast out demons IN MY NAME, and that they will have a supernatural language which they can use to communicate with me when I’ve left this world’

Notice, in the text, He said, ‘… New Tongues’

The word ‘New’ there connotes freshness, newness, something that has never been seen or heard before; something that has never been in existence before.

So the tongues that Jesus was teaching about wasn’t just speaking in foreign country languages, those languages can’t be called new tongues as they already exist,

But He was referring to the language that the Holy Spirit will install into the spirit of man,
That divine language that will enable those that believe to pray in the divine frequency.

Who would have this new tongues?

The Pentecostals? Nope
The Baptists? Nope
Lutherans? Nope

The New Tongues is meant for those that believe.

Do you believe? The New Tongues is meant for you.

So speaking in tongues is not a Pentecostal thing,
It’s not a ministerial thing,

It’s a Christian thing,
Every child of God has the capacity to speak in tongues.

TYPES OF TONGUES

There are two classes of tongues from scriptures. Namely;

1. Ministerial Tongues (for public edification)
2. Private Tongues (for personal edification)

1. MINISTERIAL TONGUES: This is the gift of tongues meant for the edification of an assembly,

It doesn’t happen often,
It happens when the Holy Spirit suddenly takes hold of a person’s lips to minister to His people using a foreign language.

This language could be human or divine.

Let’s see what the Bible tells us regarding this gift,

1 Corinthians 12:10: “..to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another SPEAKING IN DIFFERENT KINDS of TONGUES, and to still another the INTERPRETATION of TONGUES.”

The context of this passage was MINISTERIAL gifts.

Paul was referring to those gifts manifested in the assembly for the edification of everyone present there.

And he was saying that these Manifestations should not in any way cause disputes, envy or jealousy.

He further buttressed his plea for unity even in the manifestation of these gifts, by saying that there are different gifts the Holy Spirit operates in believers in the assembly,

And every member of the assembly has his own gift worked in him by the Holy Spirit,

To one is the gift of miracles,
To another could be the gift of faith,
To another could be the gift of healing,
And another could have the gift of tongues.

Other passages about tongues for public edification include;

1 Corinthians 14:27-28
“If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.”

Remember, Paul was writing to an assembly, and was giving them guidelines for their services.

He meant in the aforementioned passage, that if there’s anyone who speaks in a tongue in a public assembly, there should be someone to interprete it.

Now, Paul wasn’t saying we shouldn’t pray or speak in tongues when we gather as believers,

He was referring to those who claim that they want to give a message to the Body of Christ during our gatherings,

He said if such a person has a message to deliver and delivers it in a language not understood by anyone, it’s very important that either he interprets, or someone with the gift of tongue interpretation interprets the message, so that everyone in the assembly can understand and be edified by it.

1 Corinthians 14:19
“Nevertheless, IN CHURCH I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.”

When Paul talked about speaking with his mind, he simply meant speaking with human language,

He was cautioning those Corinthian believers, who were fond of showing off with their tongues whenever they were called to address the church,

And he told them that it was better to speak to the body using a language they would understand than to speak in a language in the absence of an interpreter.

He wasn’t trying to downplay the gift of tongues for public edification,
But it was being taken to the extreme by the leaders there,
Hence, the need for this caution.

Now, when Paul talked about how he preferred Prophecy to Tongues in public benedictions,

The prophecy there doesn’t refer to the foretelling of future events,
It rather refers to speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

To Prophesy doesn’t only mean to tell future events,

When God delivers a message through you, you’re Prophesying.

You can check the Greek meaning of Prophecy to confirm,
It means an Inspired speaker.

PRAYING IN TONGUES 2

Throughout the Old testament, different manifestations were seen,

Healings, Miracles, Supernatural working of faith etc, they were all at work in the Prophets and Saints of old,

But none of these Prophets could pray in tongues,
That’s because tongues is meant for a Private interaction between father and son, and none of the old testament Saints had the father-son relationship with God

None of them had it!

But God when sending His Spirit to dwell in us, installed within our spirits, such a unique communication language, that we can use at any time, to pray at His frequency.

The kind of frequency God wanted now, wasn’t just knowing what to say, it was being able to pray using divine language,

Haven’t you observed that the moment you begin to intentionally speak in tongues, you become conscious of God’s Presence around you,

It’s because at that moment, you’ve switched unto the divine frequency.

Tongues is praying in the divine frequency,
Uninterrupted flow of mysteries.

It is the most mysterious and important gift in the body.

Other gifts are given to a selected few,
The Gift of Healing is given to a selected few,
The Gift of Miracles is given to a selected few,
But Speaking in tongues was made available for ALL Believers,
Because it is a language of intimacy and God desires intimacy with all believers.

1 Corinthians 14:2
“For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.”

He speaks TO GOD
It is the soul of the child reaching out to His Father,
It is The Saint and God having a one on one discourse, so intimate and cryptic, that no one can know about it.

He utters mysteries,
Mysteries refer to unsearchable things, hidden things, secret counsels, things that cannot be understood by mere minds,

He speaks in a frequency that cannot be decoded,
He speaks mysteries in the Spirit.

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

Tongues is the building block of a believer,

Speaking in tongues Strengthen our faith, increases our expectations, intensifies our desires and solidifies our Convictions.

The Believer who understands how to pray in tongues, will always survive what the enemy throws at him,

Because no matter how depressed he is, once he begins to pray in tongues, his soul is lifted, he gets a foretaste of glory divine, a foresight of a glorious future and an equipping by the Holy Spirit to survive such situation without being shaken.

Speaking in tongues will make God more real to you,
It will switch on the consciousness of God that’s within your spirit, and it makes understanding scriptures even easier.

Nothing sharpens our spiritual faculties like praying in tongues,
That moment you begin to pray in tongues, what Paul called, “The Strengthening of the inner man with might” begins to occur within you,

God’s Power within you is awakened,
The Gifts, Unction and Graces within you are quickened into work,
And if you pray in tongues continually, that Power will be so awake in you such that you need not pray for long to awake it anymore,
All you do is to release it from within.