Reason Number 7
The seventh reason every believer should speak in tongues is that it provides a way for things to be prayed for about which no one thinks to pray, or is even aware of. We already know that the Holy Spirit helps us to pray for things we do not know how to pray for as we ought. In addition, the Holy Spirit, who knows everything, can pray through us for things about which our natural mind know nothing.
When a missionary to Africa was speaking at a missionary conference in England once, a woman asked him, “Do you keep a diary?”
When he replied that he did, she said, “Two years ago I was awakened in the night with a burden to pray. I got out of bed and I was speaking in tongues before I ever got down on my knees.”
She continued, “I prayed for an hour in tongues. It just seemed as if I was wresting in the spirit. I didn’t know what I was praying for, but as I finished praying, I had a vision in which I saw you in a little old grass thatched hut. There weren’t any other white people there. The natives were gathered around you and you were extremely sick. Then you died. The natives pulled a sheet up over your head and went outside the hut.
“Suddenly,” she said, “I saw you come out of the hut and stand in their midst, and they all rejoiced! Did anything like that happen to you?”
In response, he asked her, “Do you keep a diary?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“Bring your diary this afternoon and I will bring mine, and we can compare notes,” he said. They had never had any connection with one another before this time; this woman only knew that this man was a missionary.
Comparing their diaries and making allowances for the differences in time between the countries of England and Africa, they learned that the time of the woman’s prayer burden coincided exactly with the time when the missionary was sick with a deadly fever.
The missionary related that his partner had gone to a neighboring village and he had been left alone with the natives. Things happened just as she saw them. The missionary had died, the natives saw him die and pulled a sheet over his head. Then suddenly the missionary rose up well because of the power of God made available through this woman’s praying in other tongues.
In 1956 when my wife and I were in California ministering, I was awakened suddenly in the night It was as if someone had laid a hand on me. I sat bolt upright in bed, my heart beating fast as though I were afraid.
I lay back down and said, “Lord, what is the matter? I know something is wrong somewhere.” It was as if the Spirit of God had awakened me.
I said, “Holy Spirit in me, You know everything. You are everywhere. You are everywhere present at once, as well as dwelling within me. Whatever is the matter, please give me the utterance to pray about it.”
Then I began to pray in tongues, and I lay there and prayed quietly to God for about an hour. Then I began to laugh and sing in tongues. When you pray this way, always continue praying until you have a note of praise or victory. Then that means whatever it is you were praying about has been prayed through.
When I got that note of victory in my praying, I knew that what I had been praying about had been prayed through. I had the answer, so I went back to sleep.
As I slept, I dreamed that I saw my youngest brother in a motel in Louisiana I saw hem awaken at midnight. I saw someone summon a doctor, and I saw an ambulance come. I saw them put my brother in an ambulance, and I saw the red light flashing as they took him to the hospital.
In the dream, I stood in the corridor of the hospital just outside his door. When the doctor came out, he pulled the door closed behind him and then he saw me standing there. He shook his head and said to me, “He’s dead.”
In the dream I said, “No, doctor, he is not dead. The Lord told me he would live and not die.”
The doctor became angry and said, “I know when people are dead. I have pronounced many hundreds of people dead.” He grabbed me by the hand and said, “Come I’ll let you see for yourself.”
He opened the door, led me to the bed, and jerked the sheet from my brother’s face. When he did, he saw that my brother’s was breathing and that his eyes were open.
The doctor said, “Why, you knew something I didn’t know. He’s alive, isn’t he?” I saw my brother rise up well. Then that was the end of the dream. I knew that was what I had prayed about.
Three months later we came back to Texas. My brother stopped by to see me and said, “I nearly died while you were gone.”
“Yes, I know,” I said. “You were down in Louisiana, weren’t you? It was in the nighttime and you had an attack and you were taken to the hospital in an ambulance.”
“Yes. How did you know?” he asked.
When I told him about my burden for prayer followed by the dream, he said, “It happened just like that. They told me that for about forty minutes there at the hospital, the doctor thought I was dead.”
Praying in the Spirit provides a way for things to be prayed for that people wouldn’t know anything about in the natural. The Holy Ghost, however, knows everything. And He is our Helper in prayer.
Reason Number 8
Paul says in
1 Corinthians 14:21, “...With men of other tongues and other lips I will speak unto this people...” Paul was saying this in reference to
Isaiah 28:11 and 12. And this passage in Isaiah gives us the eighth reason that every Christian should speak in tongues.
Isaiah 28:11-12
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
What is the rest? What is the refreshing?
Isaiah 28:11-12 says the rest and the refreshing is speaking with other tongues.
Sometimes the doctor recommends a rest cure for exhaustion or for some sickness. And often when you take a vacation, you have to come home and rest before you go back to work!
But I know the best rest in the world! Isn’t it wonderful that we can just take this “rest cure” every day? The Bible says, “..This is the rest... this is the refreshing...” (
Isaiah 28:12). We need this rest in these days of turmoil, perplexity, and insecurity.
Reason Number 9
The ninth reason we are to pray in tongues is to give thanks to God;.
1 Corinthians 14:15-17
15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
16 Else when thou shalt BLESS WITH THE SPIRIT, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy GIVING OF THANKS, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?
17 For thou VERILY GIVEST THANKS WELL, but the other is not edified.
When Paul said, “...he that occupieth the room of the unlearned ...,” he was referring to those who are unlearned in spiritual things.
Let me illustrate these verses of Scripture. For example, if you invited me to diner and said, “Brother Hagin, please say the ‘thanks’ for the meal,” if I prayed in tongues, you wouldn’t know what I said. You wouldn’t be edified.
Therefore, Paul said in a situation such as this,l it would be better to pray with the understanding. If I did pray in tongues, I should interpret it so you would know what was said. Then you could be edified too, for Paul said, “...thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified” (
1 Cor 14:17).
In other words, praying in tongues is the best way to give thanks. But in the presence of people who are unlearned, pray also with your understanding s they can be edified. Offering your thanks in your understanding allows people to be edified because then they will understand what you are saying.
Pay special attention to what Paul said in
First Corinthians 14:17. He said praying in tongues provides the most perfect way to pray and to give thanks to God Paul said when you offer thanks in other tongues, “...thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified” (
1 Cor 14:17).
Reason Number 10
The tenth reason why ever believer should speak with tongues is found in
James 3:8, “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” Yielding your tongue to the Holy Spirit to speak with other tongues is a big step toward being able to fully yield all of your members to God; for if you can yield your tongue, you can yield any member of your body to God.
Speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. God has given us this wonderful spiritual gift to bless us, edify us, and refresh us throughout our lives on this earth. Let’s receive what God has provided, and enjoy the benefits of speaking in tongues!
pages 61-65 of The Holy Spirit and His Gifts by Kenneth E. Hagin, copyright 1991.
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