What the Heck Are They Talking About
Demystifying praying in tongues
Senior Pastor Karl Miller, Jr.
Part of Prayer is my Superpower—Empower the believer with revelation concerning prayer and its power to impact life circumstances in order to stay constantly connected to God
October 13, 2019

Tremendous Power ► Dominate ► Precious ► Without Faith My Prayer Won’t Work ► I’ll Pray for You ► WTHATTA
Empower the believer with revelation concerning prayer and its power to impact life circumstances in order to stay constantly connected to God
Prayer – The Supernatural activity of communing with God, whereby I share my intimate thoughts and feelings and God shares His intimate thoughts and feelings and gives instructions to me.

“This is God’s Message, the God who made earth, made it livable and lasting, known everywhere as God: ‘Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.’ —Jeremiah 33:2-3 (MSG)

Demystifying Tongues

Praying in tongues is one of the most misunderstood and debated Christian practices, even among Christians.

  • Tongues was introduced and intended for the Apostles of the early church

  • Tongues never lost relevance and is still intended for the modern church

      Tongues still is
    • A sign of the presence of Holy Spirit

    • Should be common practice among all believers

    • One of the most powerful ways a believer can pray

    When We Pray in Tongues

  • We
    Reveal Answer
    the will of God

  • We
    Reveal Answer
    extremely intimate time with God

  • We
    Reveal Answer
    from our spirit, disengaging the mind (seat of reason)

  • We
    Reveal Answer
    divine strength to continue in faith until change comes


    God uses my prayer and the personal ministry of the Holy Spirit to help me in life

    Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. —Romans 8:26-28 (MSG)

    Six Truths About Praying in Tongues

    1. Reveal Answer
      - Tongues were given as a sign for nonbelievers

    So then, tongues are a sign for those who don’t believe, not for those who believe. But prophecy is a sign for believers, not for those who don’t believe. —1 Corinthians 14:22 (CEB)


    2.
    Reveal Answer
    worship time between me and God

    If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him. —1 Corinthians 14:2b (MSG)

        Where does my relationship with God need more intimacy?


    3.
    Reveal Answer
    from God

      but it should not completely replace traditional preaching or everyday teaching

    I’m grateful to God for the gift of praying in tongues that he gives us for praising him…I enter into this as much or more than any of you. But when I’m in a church assembled for worship, I’d rather say five words that everyone can understand and learn from than say ten thousand that sound to others like gibberish. —1 Corinthians 14:18:-19 (MSG)


    4.
    Reveal Answer

    When a person speaks in another language, he helps himself grow. —1 Corinthians 14:4 (GW)


    5. It might look spooky. Truth is
    Reveal Answer
    , even though my natural mind may not understand.

    So, when you pray in your private prayer language, don’t hoard the experience for yourself. Pray for the insight and ability to bring others into that intimacy. If I pray in tongues, my spirit prays but my mind lies fallow, and all that intelligence is wasted. So what’s the solution? The answer is simple enough. Do both. I should be spiritually free and expressive as I pray, but I should also be thoughtful and mindful as I pray. I should sing with my spirit, and sing with my mind. If you give a blessing using your private prayer language, which no one else understands, how can some outsider who has just shown up and has no idea what’s going on know when to say “Amen”? Your blessing might be beautiful, but you have very effectively cut that person out of it. —1 Corinthians 14:13-17 (MSG)


    6. Must be a
    Reveal Answer

    The one who prays using a private “prayer language” certainly gets a lot out of it, but proclaiming God’s truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength. I want all of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don’t stop with that. Go on and proclaim his clear truth to others. It’s more important that everyone have access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God’s presence in a mysterious prayer language—unless, of course, there is someone who can interpret what you are saying for the benefit of all. Think, friends: If I come to you and all I do is pray privately to God in a way only he can understand, what are you going to get out of that? If I don’t address you plainly with some insight or truth or proclamation or teaching, what help am I to you? —1 Corinthians 14:4-6 (MSG)