Hi all,
I ended last week talking about how, for the first day after receiving the Holy Spirit, all I could say when praying in tongues, was ‘abba abba abba’ over and over again. Such was the pouring out of my heart for a (the) Father.
I share this because I want to encourage you that tongues is just a language you never learned, just like a toddler that is learning a language for the first time. The difference is a toddler learns from the mind, but tongues flows from your spirit. Being a language, it will change as the speaker becomes more familiar with it. Imagine a toddler pronouncing ‘spaghetti’ as ‘ba-sgetti’ and then saying that same word correctly a couple of years later – they are learning a language they had never learned. That’s like what happens to us.
Because of this, once you become familiar with the language the Lord has given you, you will be able to sense His emotions and tone. But because it is a real language of men or angels, you have the freedom to put inflection with it, and as you become more experienced, you will learn to do so in concert with Him.
But how to break the ‘abba abba abba’ repeant that first day?
I went back to Janny – the girl who led me to the Lord – and her answer was simple: “Ask the Father to change it”, so I did. Soon suggestions of letters seemed to come into my thoughts, as well as syllables. When I spoke them out in faith that they were from the Father, they soon meshed into an actual language. I even tried adding letters on my own, which didn’t fit at all, so I quickly stopped that experiment – thus I learned tongues is real and not made up.
God doesn’t grab hold of your tongue and make you talk
When Paul wrote guidelines for being a guest in someone’s (house) church in I Corinthians 14: 26-40, he wrote in v32: “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” The Greek: “The spirits of those who speak forth are subject to those who speak forth.”
What it means is that your spirit is subject to you. Paul had just been writing them that if you have a word from God but there is no opportunity to share it, keep it to yourself between you and God – you have not sinned. Nor do you have to share it. If there isn’t opportunity, keep it to yourself he said. He also said to take turns and defer to one another. His point was that God will never make you be out of control of yourself.
If you see someone shaking like a leaf, they can with effort by their will, stop the shaking yet still feel His presence on them. If you see someone slithering on the floor like a reptile, that is not God, it is a demon or they are in the flesh following others they’ve seen doing it, or are trying to get attention or something like that. God will not cause a person to lose control.
Are there times a person is overwhelmed by His presence so all their strength leaves them?
Yes, but that is seen in scripture as times God puts a willing person into a trance, or they fall under His power – not a courtesy fall because the preacher pushes you down – but a time when you are seeking God and His presence becomes so strong your earthly strength leaves you completely – that does happen. John 18: 5-6 is one example.
God won’t grab your tongue and make you talk in tongues. It is a language, so speak it – you have to do it. He will provide the words, the inspiration into your spirit from which that unlearned language flows, but He won’t make you do it. You remain in control. What must be overcome is the faith that what you are speaking is of Him and not yourself. With experience you’ll be able to sense that flow welling up out of your spirit, by-passing your mind.
This by-passing of your mind when things flow out of your spirit is quite common. Have you ever had an amazing revelation about the Lord, or the solution to a problem flows into your mind, and you think; “This is so great I’ll remember it later.” And then later comes and you have forgotten it?
That is because revelations from the Lord are in your spirit, and your mind notices them and you think on them with your spirit, but your mind doesn’t record it. Years ago I started keeping a pad and pen in the car so I could write myself a note about the revelations I’d get. Now I have a smart phone and I just tell the phone to make a note or send myself a text or email.
Go back in your memory and analyze these things. Think them through. Notice and remember how it felt when that revelation came to you, notice how it floated into your mind, how there was peace with it. Then think on the difference when you come up with something, how it is all centered in your brain, not down in your spirit. By these things we grow and become more sensitive to His Spirit within us.
The Holy Spirit is already here on the earth
One misconception is that a person wanting to receive the Holy Spirit has to wait on God to do something. The fact is the Holy Spirit is already here on the earth ministering today, so we aren’t waiting for Him to baptize us with the Holy Spirit. It is that we need to be in position to receive.
On the day of Pentecost some 2,000 years ago, the Holy Spirit was given to mankind. People have been speaking in tongues since- it has never died out. Those who claim so don’t know their church history. The Holy Spirit is here for all believers. HE is the gift of God Peter and Paul talked about in Acts, as I’ve already covered.
If you want the Holy Spirit, either seek others to lay hands on you, or get alone with the Lord and start worshipping Him from your deepest most inner part. The Holy Spirit is here, but worshipping Him and talking to Him from your spirit may be new – Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?
(I have some audio teachings on tongues and the Holy Spirit on our web site)
New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
