About four years ago I walked up to the front of the room during a worship service in church. I spoke to the meeting host in a whisper and told him I though I had a song to share with the church.

That was the first time that I ever publicly shared a sung tongue during worship. It was a step in a journey that had started decades before.

You probably know that speaking in tongues is a spiritual gift given to us, to help us to pray to God about things we can’t put into words.

Paul says in Romans that when we don’t know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with wordless groans ( Romans 8: 26-27 ). It’s a wonderful gift which demonstrates the Father’s love for us, to provide a way of praying that goes beyond our own resources.

So if we have the gift of praying in tongues, what’s the need for singing in tongues?
Well – music is also a gift of expression and communication. Whether it’s a certain combination of notes, or the tone, the key, they melody or ‘feel’ – music provides us with another vocabulary all in itself.

God gave humanity this beautiful gift of music early on in our history – the first named musician can be found in in ch 4 of Genesis, when listing the descendants of Cain.

David played music for King Saul and it calmed his spirit – there were no words even involved. You’ve probably felt stirred listening to a piece of music – whether with excitement or joy or even sorrow.

It has been said that “singing uniquely engages our heads and our hearts, our intellect and our affections” and “the elements of rhythm and melody arrest our affections in transformative ways not typical of speech alone .”

So here we have two means of communication that go beyond our learnt languages of words and syntax and grammar.

When you combine the two – the gift of singing with the gift of tongues, you find a powerful form of expression of our hearts to God, something that is more than the sum of its parts.

I started singing in tongues really early, before I even knew such a thing existed. I became a Christian when I was ten years old, in a family that didn’t know God. No one knew I was was a Christian and I stopped going to church, so I basically tried to figure out what living a life faith in Jesus looked like mostly on my own – just me and God.

Like most of us, as life went on things got complicated, families, relationships, health, school, growing up – it’s all a bit messy, right? And so I found myself with all these emotions inside me, emotions which I wanted to take to God but found I didn’t know where to even start.

I couldn’t put into words what I was feeling even in my private thoughts, let alone share them in prayer.

So one day, in desperate need to somehow express the inexpressible, I started to sing. Like I said, I didn’t have any words; I wasn’t going to church so I didn’t know any hymns or choruses;
so I sang what I thought of as random syllables.

It didn’t really matter to me, I wasn’t trying to sing a language, it was simply a form of prayer where I could express things I had no other language for. The melodies just seemed to come from inside me. And I finally found an outlet of expression to take all my fears and joys and anguish and desires to my Father who understood me more than I understood myself.

Without anyone having to teach me about the theology or practice of singing in tongues, God taught me how I could pour out my heart to him from the depth of my feelings. From that point, singing in tongues became a pretty regular part of my personal worship and prayer time.
Now I know some of you are thinking “well, Milly’s musical so that’s just her thing”.

But to think that is to miss the point of the gift of this extraordinary gift. I wasn’t singing for anyone to hear except God. It wasn’t a performance – in fact my favourite time to sing in tongues was while doing the vacuuming! (I lived with parents & two sisters in a small semi – there wasn’t a lot of privacy in that house!) And the wonderful mystery of the gift of singing in tongues is that its power isn’t necessarily in the quality of the expression.

The music, rhythm and melody – that’s all in our hearts. And it, as it comes out, it comes out a bit wobbly, a bit flat, not quite as we intended – that does not rob it of its power.

This gift is given to every child of God – regardless of how well we are able to carry a tune. If you think that singing in tongues isn’t for you, because you’re worried about how well you can sing, then you’re missing out on a form of connection with God that God intended for us all.

Singing in tongues is a gift. But it is not just an individual gift. It is also a gift to be used as a tool for the benefit of others

Like I said, singing in tongues was something I did in private, whenever I thought no one could hear me. And it stayed that way for twenty odd years, even after years later I learned what singing in tongues was.

Eventually I started to sing in tongues during corporate worship too, but only because I felt safe that my voice was incorporated into the mix of everyone else’s. It wasn’t till about 6 years ago that a few people encouraged me ‘bring a tongue’ or to share the songs I had for other people.

Then one day I was stood at the back of the service worshipping (where I apparently believed no one could hear me!), and someone came back to me and said you should go up to the front and sing. My initial reaction was outright horror at the thought!

That started a time for me of confusion and wrestling with the questions around whether singing in tongues is something to be done in public? Questions such as
If I go to the front to sing in tongues, am I seeking attention?

Am I putting myself centre stage instead of God?
Am I showing off my ability?
What if I’m not really singing in tongues, I’m just making it up?
What if I get down the front and I can’t think of anything to sing?

What if I pick up the microphone and my voice breaks and it sounds terrible?
Lots of questions, and lots of fear.

And so we return to that Sunday four years ago, when I found myself at the front of church. I don’t actually remember deciding to go forward (nothing spiritual about that, just a dodgy memory!).

But I do remember the host handing me the microphone, and he must have seen the look of terror on my face as I realized what was happening because he said to me ‘don’t worry – you’re going to bless us’.

That’s what gave me the courage to step up and sing. In that moment, he helped me turn my focus away from myself, and whether I was right, or what people were going to think of me – and focus instead on God. What did God want to do through that song? If God wants to bless the church through someone singing in a language He gives us – why would I want to stop that?

That perspective is still what gives me courage today. When the doubts and questions come – and they still do – I speak to myself – is this going to bless someone? Is God going to bless through this act?

If so, I don’t want to hold that blessing back, just because I’m fearful.
Singing in tongues to bring blessing to others isn’t restricted solely to bringing a sung tongue publicly during corporate worship.

Not every person will do that. However, we can all use the gift for others. Singing in tongues is a powerful weapon in spiritual battle, and seems to be particularly effective in intercessory prayer.

If you’re praying over someone, singing in tongues over them can be a way to invite the Holy Spirit in to lead the prayer for that person – and as the Holy Spirit knows far more intimately exactly what they need, that seems like a good thing!

Even when you are on your own in your private times of prayer, if you are interceding for someone or some situation and you run out of ways to say Please God break through! – try singing in tongues, and see for yourself the power that is released.

If you want to know the top three ways to know for certain if you should bring a public tongue during worship, I’m afraid I can’t give you a list of signals or symptoms to watch for.

Firstly let me say – if you’re wrestling with questions around sharing a sung tongue such as ‘should I?’, ‘can I?’, ‘is this right?’- can I gently suggest that you probably should!
Trust the host to know whether this is the right time in the service, but go forward with what God has put on your heart and bless the body.

Sometimes I have gone forward to sing because during worship I have had that bubbling up of a song that feels more than just mine, it can feel bigger than me. Sometimes it’s when I get that heart pounding moment or my hands sweat and I know the Holy Spirit is wanting to do something.

Other times I’ve brought a song in tongues because I’ve felt that we needed as a corporate body to breakthrough into a deeper place of worship and a tongue will often help that.

There’s no one answer. But each time I do trust God in obedience to what He’s giving me, I learn to hear the Spirit’s leading a little bit better.

So my encouragement to you is – don’t count yourself out of this gift. It’s for everyone, no matter your musicality. Start small, at home, in your private prayer time and allow God to teach you.

And be willing to let Him use you, whether that’s to bring a song to the congregation, or to sing over someone in ministry, or to incorporate singing in tongues into your intercessory prayer life.

When God gives us gifts – it’s because they’re good for us. He’s the ultimate gift-giver. Don’t let doubts or fears or self-criticism rob you of something that God wants just for you.

~ Milly Jones