You don’t have to worry about how long it takes to speak in tongues. Rather, you should concern yourself with the conditions you need to meet in order to speak in tongues.
The length of time it takes you to speak in tongues is determined by the length of time it takes you to meet the conditions required for you to receive the gift of speaking in tongues.
But before I tell you the conditions you need to fulfill, let me tell you how long it took me to speak in tongues. You can come up with estimations yourself.
How long it took me to speak in Tongues
There is no minimum or maximum time you have to wait before speaking in tongues. There are many factors that go into how long it takes and some of those factors are out of your control.
I first came across speaking in tongues when I was a kid. I don’t even remember how old I was. When I heard people speaking in tongues, it didn’t bother me. I proceeded to do things that kids do.
When I turned 14, I had a habit of reading the Bible. I was in a boarding school and I didn’t have much to do when I was bored except read Bible stories.
One time I read 1st Corinthians 14 and thought it would be a good idea if I could get the gift of speaking in tongues. That evening, I went and asked God to give me the gift of speaking in tongues.
Nothing happened.
I was not so keen about getting the gift at that time though I wanted to have it someday.
From that day, I used to ask God to give me the gift once in a blue moon. There was no one around me who had the gift. I didn’t feel any pressure to have the gift.
Things changed when one of my closest friends went home on holiday and came back speaking in tongues. That made me feel some pressure to get the gift.
When I heard my friend speaking in tongues I knew I could also speak in tongues because we had grown together and there was nothing special he was doing spiritually that I was not doing.
From that point onwards, my requests to God to get the gift were serious.
About a year later, I was invited to a prayer vigil. At that time I was done with high school and was in my first year of campus.
In the prayer vigil, almost everyone was speaking in tongues. I desired even more to also speak in tongues.
Good for me, at the end of the prayer vigil a call was made for anyone who wanted to receive the gift of speaking in tongues to go to the altar. I went, someone prayed for me and I received the gift.
From the time I first made a prayer to God to the time I received the gift was roughly 4 years. Read my full story of my first time speaking in tongues to get details.
Factors that determine how long it takes to Speak in Tongues
1. Desire
The length of time it takes to speak in tongues depends on your level of desire. God will wait until your desire hits a certain level before He gives you the gift. There is no specific level; everyone has his own path.
God is the one who decides what level of desire is good enough for your case. The level God will require for someone who has a thirtyfold ministry won’t be the same as for someone who has a sixtyfold ministry.
People called into the prayer ministry and people called into the giving ministry won’t have the same experience waiting on God for the gift of speaking in tongues.
In my case, I got serious about desiring the gift of speaking in tongues when one of my friends got the gift. Before then, I was casually asking God and would almost not care whether I received the gift or not.
God knew I was not serious enough about it. He withheld the gift until the day I got very serious.
The best you can do is to build your desire to speak in tongues. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. If you keep building your desire, one day you will speak in tongues.
2. Knowledge about Speaking in Tongues
When you have in depth understanding of what speaking in tongues is, it doesn’t take long to receive the gift. In fact, if you know in depth what speaking in tongues is, your desire for it will be great. And of course with a great desire it takes less time to get the gift.
God entrusts us with the gift of speaking in tongues when He knows we will be good stewards of it. And God knows that we can only be good stewards of the gift if we understand it.
The Bible gives us a bit of knowledge about the gift of speaking in tongues but you can get more understanding of the gift from people who teach and write about the gift.
Gathering knowledge about speaking in tongues cuts down the time you have to wait before you receive the gift.
The Bible will tell you that speaking in tongues is a gift of the Holy Spirit and I will tell you how speaking in tongues feels like. These are different perspectives that will be important in helping you receive the gift.
3. The Fellowship you attend
It takes long for someone to speak in tongues if there are no people around him that speak in tongues. It took me four years before I found a fellowship where they were praying for people to receive the gift of speaking in tongues.
It is possible to receive the gift of speaking in tongues without someone laying hands on you but it is easy when someone lays hands on you.
My first day in the fellowship marked the first day I spoke in tongues. Had I found the fellowship earlier maybe I would have spoken in tongues earlier, who knows?
If you are in a fellowship that speaks in tongues, you are in a good position. If not, it will be a good idea if you found one that encourages people to speak in tongues.
When you see people like you speaking in tongues, it encourages you that speaking in tongues is within reach. It doesn’t take long before you also start speaking in tongues.
How long does it take to speak in Tongues? Conclusion
I have done what I could in helping you understand how long it takes to speak in tongues and how you can speed up the process.
Eventually, everyone who gets the gift of speaking in tongues has a unique story and timeline but that doesn’t mean we can’t borrow lessons from people’s stories.
Keep moving closer to receiving the gift of speaking in tongues based on the factors I have mentioned above. It matters little how long it takes you to receive the gift provided you eventually get it.
Don’t give up.
May God help you!