I didn’t really want to call this a sermon on speaking in tongues. This is basically an article talking about speaking in tongues in the simplest form possible.
Either way, if you are passionate about speaking in tongues, you will get value out of this ‘speaking in tongues sermon’.
Speaking in Tongues Sermon
The Mystery
To start off this ‘sermon’, let’s learn the origin of prayer and speaking in tongues.
Speaking in tongues is a gift of the Holy Spirit. And as it is with the workings of God, speaking in tongues is mysterious.
God was open with man before the fall. Adam would have fellowship with God and nothing was hidden from him. Whatever he wanted to know, he knew.
But after the fall of man, God hid Himself from the sin of man. God punishes sin with death. If God didn’t hide Himself from the sin of man, He would have to kill him.
Out of the great love that God has for us, He hid Himself.
But God knew that man needs Him. He is the life in us. All good things come from Him.
It was in these circumstances that prayer was invented. Prayer is the method of accessing God after the fall in Eden.
Since we get all good things from God, the Bible urges us to pray without ceasing. Jesus taught us how to pray through the Lord’s Prayer.
Jesus also told the parable of the persistent widow to encourage us to pray and not give up.
Prayer is emphasized because it is the only way we can access God from the earth. Any transaction with God incorporates prayer.
Speaking in Tongues Sermon: The Enemy
When the devil learned that prayer is such a critical element in our salvation, he made it a priority to hinder it.
To this day, the enemy works to destroy our prayer lives. Devils put all manner of obstacles to hinder us from praying.
Since praying faces opposition, it calls for us believers to be alert. The devil is cunning and sometimes our alertness is not sufficient to deal with his cunningness.
How many times have you given up praying because the devil whispered discouragements in your ear? How many times have you made prayers and lost faith in what you asked for?
Praying is tough. From the Bible, there is an instance where Jesus went to pray with His disciples. Jesus went some distance from them and prayed fervently but the disciples fell asleep.
If the disciples were with Jesus and they failed to pray, do you think praying is easy?
Definitely not!
The enemy has mastered the art of discouraging believers from praying and God knows it.
Introducing Speaking in Tongues
God in His wisdom introduced speaking in tongues to help believers in prayer. Praying in understanding depends heavily on the person praying but speaking in tongues heavily depends on the Spirit of God.
Since the Spirit of God is wiser than the devil, He can never be a victim of the schemes of the enemy. No matter what scheme the devil comes up with to hinder prayers, the Spirit of God outsmarts him.
This is why speaking in tongues is a great gift to believers.
When you open your mouth to speak in tongues, you give permission to the Holy Spirit to pray through you.
The Spirit of God takes over your tongue and uses it to fight against the enemy and make requests to God.
As the person speaking in tongues, you get the benefit of making perfect requests to God while at the same time overcoming the schemes of the evil one.
Speaking in Tongues Sermon: Your Responsibility
While speaking in tongues heavily relies on the Holy Spirit, you as the vessel being used also have a responsibility. You will get the best out of speaking in tongues if you do your part.
First, you need to allow the Spirit of God to pray through you. This means that if you don’t have the baptism of the Spirit of God and you don’t speak in tongues, you need to receive the baptism.
There are many believers who do not speak in tongues. Many of them either don’t know how to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit or they don’t want.
The gift of speaking in tongues is given to those who desire it.
Second, you need to read the word of God. The Spirit of God works with the word of God that is in you. He works this way because if He did more work through you than the word of God that is in you, then you would be exposed to spiritual attacks that surpass your spiritual level.
If your understanding of the word is great, the Holy Spirit will have more room to work through you.
There are believers who have the Spirit of God but they don’t speak in tongues because their faith is not at a level that can let the Holy Spirit use their tongue.
Since faith comes from hearing the word of God, it means that the more the word of God you know, the easier it is to have faith and work with the Spirit of God.
Third, you need to give the Holy Spirit time to work through you. Yes, you may have the gift of speaking in tongues and you may know the word of God deeply but if you don’t give the Spirit of God time, you gain nothing.
You give the Spirit of God time to work through you by praying in tongues for long. I have shared tips to pray in tongues for long hours in a previous article.
The more time you spend speaking in tongues, the more time the Holy Spirit has to work through you. As much as the Spirit of God is powerful, He can only accomplish as much as the time you allow Him.
There is a difference between someone who speaks in tongues for half an hour per day and one who speaks in tongues for an hour per day.
Apostle Paul boasted in the Lord to other believers that he spoke in tongues more than them. Do you think Apostle Paul would have boasted about speaking in tongues more than the other believers if the time spent speaking in tongues didn’t matter?
Therefore, spend as much time as you can speaking in tongues to give the Holy Spirit enough time to work through you.
Speaking in Tongues Sermon Conclusion
To conclude this ‘sermon’ on speaking in tongues, I urge you to cultivate an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was sent to us after Jesus left to be our guide, teacher and comforter.
Speaking in tongues is only one of the many gifts that we get for having the Holy Spirit. An intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit will not only enable you get maximum results from speaking in tongues but it will also enable you get other gifts.
Pursue speaking in tongues!