Good evening friend, how are you doing this wonderful Friday evening? I believe
good. The month is almost over but the good thing is that your life isn’t. You
are still standing, so your desires, dreams and aspirations are still within
reach. So cheer up and go about your dealings with joy and put on a
smile. A frown doesn’t attract anyone, but a smile is a very great charm.
Last week
we started a discourse on Tongues, the Holy Spirit and You where we saw the role the Holy Spirit plays in
providing the utterance and the role we play in speaking out the utterance from
our lips. We also saw that praying in tongues is synonymous to God praying to
Himself.
Today we
would continue along the same lines as we highlight some benefits of speaking
in tongues.
YOUR FAITH IS BUILT UP WHEN YOU PRAY IN TONGUES
Jude 1:16-20
NKJV
16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking
according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering
people to gain advantage. 17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were
spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you
that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their
own ungodly lusts. 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not
having the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most
holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God,
looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
As we
proceed from verse 16, we see the apostle Jude speaking about a certain group
of people who take pleasure in living according to their sensual desires and
ungodly lusts. In addressing believers, on how to live different from these
folks, he said that praying in the Holy Spirit (tongues) is a sure way of
building up our faith. It is also a way of keeping ourselves conscious of God’s
love for us.
Now, we need to note that when you pray in tongues, you are
building yourself up, and not someone else. The Greek word used here in verse
20 in literal English means “to charge up.” This implies that when you pray in
tongues, you are charging yourself up, just the same way a car battery charges up
for effective use. So dear friend make use of this awesome gift given ONLY to
us in this dispensation.
The
Amplified Version of Jude 1:20 gives an in-depth insight into how praying in
tongues affect us.
But you, beloved, build yourselves up on [the
foundation of] your most holy faith [continually progress, rise like an edifice
higher and higher], pray in the Holy Spirit.
This shows
that praying in tongues is one sure way of making continual progress in our
lives. This is because, as we pray in tongues, we get attuned with what God is
saying, and this makes our decision-making process sharp, thereby bringing
colour into our lives. We also rise higher like an edifice, not like a
bungalow, but like a skyscraper. And you know that the materials used for the
foundation of both kinds of buildings differ. The higher the building, the
stronger the foundation. So as we pray in tongues, we are building our lives
into edifices and not into mere bungalows.
YOU CAN’T PRAY AMISS WHEN YOU PRAY IN TONGUES
James 4:1-3
gives us another reason why we should pray in tongues.
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you?
Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You
lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and
war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive,
because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Most prayers
done in the understanding are selfish in
nature. But when we pray in tongues, it is our spirit that prays (1 Corinthians
14:14), our understanding has nothing to do with it. We can pray amiss when we
pray in our understanding, but when we pray in the spirit, there’s no room for
praying amiss, neither is selfishness permitted, because one is speaking
mysteries to God (1 Corinthians 14:2).
When we
pray in tongues we are praying the express will of God concerning a situation,
whereas when we pray in our understanding, the focus most times is on our
fleshly desires, with no room for God’s input.
So dear
friend, devote more time to praying in tongues and see your life take a
noticeable transformation.
Selah!
Comments
Post a Comment