Picture this: you’ve set yourself to pray in tongues at your usual time. Most of your praying-in-tongues sessions are uneventful. You expect the same for the session you are preparing for.
However, what you don’t know is that the Holy Spirit has a completely different plan.
You start your prayers, and like many times before, your tongues feel dry. You remember someone on YouTube saying that it is normal. That memory eases your anxiety, and you keep pushing in tongues.
At that time, your mind is all over the place, your syllables feel forced, and you can’t feel any spiritual power within. Since that is what you are used to, you are not surprised.
However, deep down, you’ve been desiring to experience the power of the Holy Spirit. You just don’t know how to go about it.
Because your tongues are barely flowing, you decide to ask the Holy Spirit in understanding to help you. You say, “Holy Spirit, I desire to experience your power. I don’t want my tongues to always be dry and empty. Let me feel some spiritual power today.”
Little do you know how powerful that simple prayer is. To you, it is a simple desire you’ve expressed to the Holy Spirit. You got the desire because you heard a number of believers testify that they experience the power of the Holy Spirit when they pray in tongues.
In the spiritual realm, the Lord counts your prayer as asking. And because Jesus promised that those who ask will receive and those who seek will find, the Lord decides to let you receive your heart’s desire.
He looks at the list of spiritual experiences you can handle and picks one for you. Immediately, the Holy Spirit swings into action to bring the spiritual experience into reality.
While you are still praying in tongues, you start feeling your heart racing. It feels as if you are scared of something, though you can’t tell what it is.
The feeling gets stronger as you continue to pray in tongues to the point that your hands start shaking. The shaking of the hands starts off intermittently, then it becomes very consistent.
Before you know it, your knees start becoming weak. Your mind starts losing track of your surroundings.
At that point, it feels as if your body has a mind of its own. You can tell what your body is doing, but you can’t control what it does.
The tension builds up to levels you’ve never experienced before. One part of you is very scared of where things are headed. The other part of you is fascinated by what is happening.
Then everything explodes.
You feel a sudden overwhelming joy in your heart. While your eyes are closed, you see the brightest light you’ve ever seen.
The experience is so sweet that it makes you scream the loudest scream ever heard in your neighborhood. At that point, you have no thought of what neighbors will think of you. All you care about is what you are feeling in the moment.
In a flash, you get a mixture of extreme sweet feelings more than you can describe. You know something special is happening even though you can’t explain it.
Then, the extreme sweet feeling fades away fast but not too sudden. The bright light is replaced by the usual darkness you see when you close your eyes. The heavenly warmth you were feeling is replaced by the annoying cold of the evening.
You get back to your normal self, but your normal self doesn’t feel good enough. You’ve tasted something sweeter, and now you despise what everyone else calls normal.
The joy you experienced turns to sorrow. From screaming for joy, you start crying with great sorrow. You realize how fallen the world is. It dawns on you how dull the life we live is.
All of a sudden, you have no pleasure in anything earthly. You hate things that people crave. They are pointless to you.
All you want is that sweet feeling you experienced. You become obsessed with it.
It is at that point that you realize your tongues are flowing smoother than ever before. You notice that your tongue is lighter than ever before.
With the tongues comes a heavenly ambience that you can’t describe. Despite the roller coaster of emotions, your general feeling is great peace and tranquility.
“Is this how people feel when they have a spiritual experience?” You ask yourself.
“Did I just meet Jesus? What was that bright light I saw?” These and more questions flood your mind.
“Heaven must be so sweet if that is how it feels.” You conclude.
While still thinking about that, you remember the words of Apostle Paul in Romans 8:18;
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
“If it were in my power, I would just want to go to heaven, but I must endure the hardships of this world until my appointed time.” You say to yourself.
Your new perspective is completely spiritual. But it scares you because you know no one will understand you.
You feel a similar experience is around the corner. And while you would love it, you are sorrowful because you know it will make it harder for you to relate with people normally.
And the part that scares you the most is that you cannot share the dilemma with anyone because no one seems to understand you.
But at least you find a short video on YouTube that highlights what you’ve experienced. And that gives you reassurance that other believers have had a similar experience.
My name is Augustine, and I’ve shared this to highlight how sweet praying in tongues and experiencing the spiritual realm can be, but also how scary it can be.
God bless you!