“O taste and see that the Lord is good.” Relational, heart-to-heart spirituality is much more powerful than institutional religion. Jesus needs to be experienced, not explained, analyzed, and studied.
Everything you hear in a sermon isn’t Bible based. Much of it is mere human opinion. Read the Bible for yourself and let it burn in your heart. Christians need to hear more from God’s Spirit and the Bible than from the microphone and the sermon!
A sermon is a human speaking out in an attempt to explain God. Praying in tongues is God the Holy Spirit speaking and flowing directly out of your innermost being. Which is more powerful? Sermons should train people not to rely on a mere human’s speaking but on the voice, presence, and actions of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
When I pray in tongues I am strengthened by an amazing awareness of Christ’s presence and power flowing in and through me. (1 Corinthians 14:4) It’s a glorious experience and a special way to pray! I do it many times a day. If you would like to have a greater consciousness of Christ’s presence, I highly recommend asking God for this supernatural ability, humbly receiving it, and using it frequently.
Paul who wrote much of the New Testament, thanked God that he spoke in tongues more than anybody else. (1 Corinthians 14:18-19) In public meetings he spoke in Greek (the common language that he used to write the New Testament) but in private he loved to speak in tongues. If you have received the ability to pray in tongues, use it frequently so that you won’t miss the blessings that God has for you through that wonderful spiritual gift.
According to Paul it’s important to pray in a language that people understand but it’s also important to pray in tongues. He wrote: “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.” (1 Corinthians 14:14-15) To speak in tongues is to “utter mysteries by the Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 14:2)
Paul said: “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.” (1 Corinthians 14:26) Speaking in tongues is a wonderful ability for everybody to use to strengthen their personal awareness of the presence, power, and reality of “Christ in you.” However, when Christians are meeting together in a group, the supernatural ability of prophesying (speaking words directly from God in a common language) is even more powerful (unless the tongues are interpreted into a common language).
Christians often resist the idea of praying in tongues because of pride. It’s humbling to surrender your voice to God and to speak words that you don’t know. It’s not easy to accept a gift that appears foolish to your mind and your flesh. But it’s so worth it. Go ahead and humble yourself. Ask God for the gift of speaking in tongues. Then begin to use your own voice to speak but not in a language you know. At that moment you will be met with an inner supernatural flow of both unknown words and an incredible awareness of the presence and power of “Christ in you.” “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:4) The disciples used their own voice and spoke. The words they said came directly from the Spirit.
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