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The Ultimate Luxury!
Ever need to be refreshed?
Ever need to be calmed down internally?
Ever need to be more God-Aware?
Ever need to tune out all the distractions of your noisy world for a moment?
Isaiah prophesied of the ultimate way of refreshment, a way that would be made available to all of God's people under the New Covenant! Jesus spoke of it in Mark 16. The Book of Acts is copiously replete with examples of it, and Paul the Apostle teaches extensively on the subject.
Isaiah 28:11-12 (KJV)
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing..,
God has given every believer a supernatural secret weapon to obtain ultimate refreshment and internal rest.
When a believer is weary, he or she can kick it into high gear! The weary Christian pilgrim can go into OVERDRIVE at any time, in any place! This can be done discreetly wherever and whenever necessary.
Communing with God at the highest level possible is IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE AT ANY TIME, in any scenario, for any reason!
When I just can't seem to experience God, feel Him, or sense His presence and activity in my life, I have discovered THE ULTIMATE LUXURY. Instead of trying to double my own efforts to commune or hear from God, I just kick back and PRAY IN TONGUES for a while until I sense the Spirit's stirring once again.
It's arduous and futile when we try to impress God with more fancy religious speech in prayer. HE KNOWS WHEN YOU AND I HAVE COME TO THE END OF ALL WE COULD POSSIBLY SAY IN PRAYER AND IS NOT IMPRESSED WHEN WE TRY TO ADD RELIGIOUS ORATORY AND CHRISTIANEZE LINGO IN ATTEMPT TO TWIST HIS ARM (as if He wasn't already listening), OR TO APPEAR LIKE WE ARE DEEPER THAN WE REALLY ARE! Quit trying to impress God with your religious prayers and flowery speech. Inserting religious terminology and trying to say everything technically correct to God isn't what He requires! He wants your heartfelt communion and honest requests, NOT a religious exercise!
I have discovered I can pray in tongues, sing in tongues, praise in tongues... under my breath... relatively silently or very quietly... while at work, walking down the hallway, or even at the computer, or in meetings. While smiling and all the while being engaged in other matters, my INNER MAN CAN STILL BE COMMUNING WITH THE FATHER on a supernatural level.
I've discovered I can "KILL TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE," as the saying goes. I can pray in tongues aloud while I'm driving down the highway. I can pray in tongues while I'm walking from one place to the other. I can sing in tongues while I'm taking a shower! I can even eat lunch in a restaurant and go back and forth between bites with short and quiet utterances in tongues as I commune with the Father.
With stammering lips and another tongue I am spiritually rested and refreshed! See Isaiah 28:11-12 above.
Discovery: I simply continue to pray in tongues long enough until I sense the Lord's presence, at least to some degree. Sometimes that sense of His presence comes very quickly but at other times it takes a few minutes of communing with the Lord on this level before I begin to experience a measure of refreshing.
Pray in tongues long enough until you sense you are EDIFIED!
1 Corinthians 14:4 (KJV)
He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself...
When you pray in tongues, you and the Father are sharing divine secrets!
1 Corinthians 14:2 (KJV)
For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
1 Corinthians 14:2 (MSG)
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 14:2 (GW)
When a person speaks in another language, he doesn't speak to people but to God. No one understands him. His spirit is speaking mysteries.
I have noticed that after I have prayed in tongues for a season that UNCOMMON CLARITY OF MIND comes to me.
I have noticed that after I have prayed in tongues for a season that INSPIRATION INCREASES in my heart and mind.
I have noticed that after praying in tongues for a season before or while reading my Bible, that scriptures JUMP OUT AT ME more, and SUDDEN UNDERSTANDING of things I had never seen before become readily apparent.
Sometimes when I pray in tongues it is fast and bubbly which is usually indicative of PRAISE.
Other times when I pray in tongues, the words come out more slowly and succinctly which is indicative of prayer and petition.
Occassionally my prayer language (tongues) sounds like a hybrid between groaning and syllables which is indicative of laboring in intercession for someone else. This is usually much slower and often accompanied by sighs and sometimes even tears.
Romans 8:26-27 (GW)
At the same time the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we don't know how to pray for what we need. But the Spirit intercedes along with our groans that cannot be expressed in words. The one who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit has in mind. The Spirit intercedes for God's people the way God wants him to.
Often I have found that when I go back and forth, at will, between praying in tongues and praying in my native tongue English, I experience an EXTRA BOOST or CLARITY as I pray in English. It's as if I am almost interpreting what I've been praying in tongues or at least praying with more authority and accuracy!
When I'm speaking in tongues I become MUCH MORE AWARE OF GOD!
When I'm speaking in tongues I feel CLOSER TO GOD... and sometimes... EXTREMELY CLOSE!
Tongues is the doorway into the supernatural! ...Kenneth Hagin
Often while praying in tongues you will PERCEIVE certain things, SEE certain things, UNDERSTAND certain things, or HEAR certain things... FROM GOD! Don't try to force this phenomenon but do enjoy it when it occurs, and capture what The Lord gives you by WRITING IT DOWN, JOURNALIZING IT somewhere. If He gives something to you, it's important enough that you should meditate it, recall it, and memorialize it. He's not just trying to entertain you; rather He's revealing things to you for a reason!
Tongues is one way to STIR UP the gifts of God within you!
2 Timothy 1:6 (KJV)
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
Tongues is one way to KEEP YOURSELF WALKING IN THE LOVE OF GOD.
Jude 20-21 (KJV)
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Tongues is one way to release God's River of Power and Purity within you.
Tongues helps you get into THE FLOW of the Holy Spirit.
Why be LIMITED to your natural mind when it comes to prayer and communing your Father-God? Pray in your native language but also with your prayer language from Heaven! You and I need ALL the tools God has given us, else He wouldn't have bothered offering them.
Sometimes when I pray over myself or another, it seems so shallow in what I come up with to say. Sometimes I sense I have not fully expressed to the Lord what was needed for the moment. I feel my prayers have come up short and haven't been very targeted. THATS WHEN I SHIFT GEARS AND GO INTO TONGUES because then I know the Holy Spirit is praying THE PERFECT WILL OF GOD through me instead of being LIMITED by my finite human understanding!
Romans 8:26-27 (KJV)
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Tongues is the privilege and ULTIMATE LUXURY of every believer, regardless of denominational affiliation or background.
What belonged to the believers in the Book of Acts belongs to you!
What belonged to the early church belongs to every church.
Tongues belongs to EVERY CHRISTIAN, including YOU!
Get away by yourself outdoors or in a private indoor room. Take your liberty, relax, take a breath, focus on Gods love, yield to the Holy Spirit, and begin to let Him give you syllables out of Heaven to commune with your Father and your Lord! Open your mouth. Just flow! Just bubble! Just effervesce. Don't try to figure it out or analyze it. Regardless of how simple or few the syllables come, continue yielding, and then return again... your prayer language will enlarge over time and flow more freely as you use what the Lord gives you often! Don't try to figure it out with your head. Tongues comes out of your spirit man, not your mind, although your mind is engaged to some degree as well, mostly in a decision to yield.
1 Corinthians 14:5 (KJV)
I would that ye all spake with tongues...
If you've never prayed in tongues before, you might want to ask another believer whom you know does speak in tongues themselves, to pray with you and over you. Sometimes one Spirit-filled believer laying hands on another believer greatly helps the other to receive from the Lord.
No errant theologian has the right to rob you of the secret weapon Jesus offers you!
He that hath received a Biblical experience is not at the mercy of him who only hath a theological argument! ...Smith Wigglesworth
I want EVERYTHING the Christians in the BOOK OF ACTS had. No intellectual is going to stop me from being intelligent in the scriptures and utilizing every tool from God at my disposal! I CAN READ FOR MYSELF!
These days of Bluetooth technology, cell phones, beeps, noises, lights, TVs everywhere, ring tones, earbuds, iTunes, etc, it is NOT UNCOMMON to see people's mouths moving, or whispering at what first appears to be them talking to themselves or singing under their breath in public. THIS IS A GREAT PHENOMENA THAT SPIRIT FILLED BELIEVERS CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE AND ENJOY! Since this is so common, even if your lips move a bit or some sounds slip out with a little volume whe you're communing in tongues with God... who cares? Everyone will assume you're just doing what everyone is doing these days... Communicating with someone! And so you are! Ha!
Tongues, THE ULTIMATE LUXURY of the Believer!
Even if you've been TAUGHT AGAINST TONGUES, it is wise not to mock the phenomenon because when you discuss TONGUES you're discussing a subject that is dear to the heart of the Holy Spirit Himself... and dear to Jesus and the Father too. If you don't want to avail yourself to this gift to help you in your intimacy and power with God, that's your decision, but it's dangerous to go on a religious campaign against something in the Bible that has benefited so many millions of people in so many generations throughout history!
Tongues, THE ULTIMATE LUXURY of the Believer!
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