The gift of speaking in tongues is intertwined with the gift of interpretation of tongues. When you speak in tongues, you will often see visions which also need interpretation.
To someone who is new to speaking in tongues, these spiritual experiences can be overwhelming.
In this article, I will do my best to simplify these spiritual occurrences.
The Nature of Speaking in Tongues and Seeing Visions
Speaking in tongues is like the accelerator in a car; when you step on it, the car moves. The car is your spiritual life.
People who speak in tongues fervently are like a driver who steps hard on the accelerator. Their cars move fast.
As it is with driving a car, so it is with speaking in tongues. You need clear vision to drive a car. Stepping on the accelerator when you don’t know where you are heading to is a foolish act.
When speaking in tongues, you need to know where you are heading to as well. This is why God designed the ability to see visions when you speak in tongues.
The visions help you understand what is going on and with the information, you make wise decisions.
But the challenge is knowing when you are seeing a vision. I am grateful to God that I see visions and get direction on what to do when I am praying in tongues.
Despite my ability to see visions when I am praying in tongues, I understand that it is difficult for someone who is new to speaking in tongues to grasp the idea of seeing visions.
I had a hard time understanding how to see visions and what visions looked like. I asked my church leaders the burning questions I had but I never got a convincing answer.
I remember one time I was told if I wanted to see visions I needed to open my heart. I then asked how I could open my heart. The leader laughed and said God would show me.
I fumbled for many months until one day people came to me to ask for direction during a prayer session. Not wanting to disappoint them, I decided to guess. Little did I know that God was pleased with my faith and He showed me what we needed to do.
It took several accurate interpretations for me to gain confidence. Nowadays, I clearly know what to do next when I am pray in tongues.
The following are steps to help you understand how to see visions when you are speaking in tongues:
1. Visions are easy to see but hard to understand
By the time I realized I was seeing visions, I had seen them countless times. I didn’t know what visions looked like. When I was told how visions looked like, I realized I had been seeing them.
This is usually the case with many people starting out in the gift of speaking in tongues; they see visions but they don’t know that they are seeing visions.
Visions are images in your mind that come when you are speaking in tongues. It is easy to confuse them with your thoughts but they are not independent from your thoughts.
When you see a vision, it may be something that is familiar to you. God uses objects that are familiar to us in visions to help us understand easily.
When God was showing visions to John, who wrote the book of Revelations, He was using objects familiar to John.
God was showing John what was to come in the future but because some of the things that would come in the future were impossible for John to understand, God would use the closest example that was familiar to John.
How would you explain the internet to a prophet in the Old Testament? How would you explain cars to Apostle Paul?
God used a statue made of different materials to explain kingdoms that would come to Daniel. To John, God used beasts to explain concepts that would happen in the last days.
Jesus used parables to explain the Kingdom of God.
When it comes to seeing visions when you are speaking in tongues, pay attention to the random images you see. Don’t assume anything.
One time I was in a fellowship and the person leading wanted to show us how seeing visions works. He asked us to close our eyes for a minute and then tell him whatever image we saw.
We closed our eyes and he made a prayer asking God to reveal to us visions. When we opened our eyes, people said what they saw.
The images ranged from helicopters to gardens. We quickly decoded some of the visions and found the message God had for us.
That was the day I learned that seeing visions is the easy part. In that same fellowship, I was asked what I saw. I was afraid to say it because it sounded odd but I said it anyway.
While my eyes were closed, I saw a man riding a horse with a cowboy hat and he was watching over sheep in a field full of grass. Can you guess what that means?
It was an assurance from God that He is the good shepherd. Simple, right?
2. Connect the images you see to Scriptures
God gave us the Bible as a reference. Whenever you get images when praying in tongues, relate them to the Bible.
In the case above, I saw a shepherd and quickly scanned the Bible to see where a shepherd is mentioned. Because I know the Bible says Jesus is the good shepherd, I automatically knew the man riding the horse was Jesus.
From the Bible I also know that sheep represent believers and the rest is easy to understand.
Whatever object you see when praying in tongues, if you want to understand what it means, look for it in the Bible.
3. Visions come in bits
Rarely will you get a complete vision. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 25:2 that it is the glory of God to conceal a matter and it is the glory of Kings to search it out.
God will give you a few images when you are speaking in tongues to gauge if you are interested. If you show interest, He will reveal more.
This is why I said pay attention to all the images you get when you are speaking in tongues. Sometimes God shows you the image of someone you know but doesn’t give you any further information.
But when you start praying for the person, then God tells you what to pray for concerning the person.
In short, when God shows you a little bit of a vision, act on it to unlock more information.
The more you follow through with images you see when speaking in tongues, the clearer your visions will become.
Interpretation of Tongues and Visions
Interpretation of tongues and visions heavily relies on how much of the word of God you know. The more the word of God you know, the easier it will be to interpret visions and tongues.
Interpreting visions is easier than tongues. Visions are images but tongues are words. When God is teaching you to interpret tongues, He will show you images when you hear tongues.
If you know how to interpret visions, you will automatically know how to interpret tongues. In short, tongues are a description of the visions.
We know that children learn to interpret pictures before they learn to interpret words. Babies that are yet to speak get excited when they see their mother because they have a mental image of their mother and they associate the mother with good experiences.
The same is true in the spiritual world; those who are new will understand images they see when speaking in tongues before they understand tongues.
When you want to interpret tongues, listen to the tongues and wait for images to show in your mind. When you interpret the images, you will have a rough idea of what those tongues mean.
The more you interpret the better you become at it. You will grow to levels where you know exactly what each phrase of tongues spoken means even without the help of images.
Understanding what you are praying for in Tongues
When you become good at seeing visions and interpreting them, you will get the ability to know what you are praying for in tongues. The whole purpose of showing you visions when you are speaking in tongues is to show you what you need to pray for.
When you know what to pray for, you will be required to speak in tongues for the specific thing you want to see.
If you are waging war and God shows you a black cat, you will know you need to deal with witchcraft. The easy way is to ask for the death of that black cat you saw. In that moment, the Spirit of God will help you translate your desire to have that black cat killed into tongues.
The gift of interpreting tongues translates tongues to our normal languages as well as our normal languages into tongues.
If you need to tell God you love Him, the Spirit of God will help you translate your emotions into tongues. Saying you love God in understanding won’t express your emotions in full but tongues will.
This is why it is important to have the gift of speaking and interpreting tongues if you want an intimate relationship with God.
Also, when you have the ability to interpret tongues and translate your language into tongues, you will be allowed to hold conversations with God.
There was a day I was speaking to God by translating my desire into tongues and He was answering back in tongues but I didn’t understand. I kept doing it anyway because it was fun. It was so funny that I began laughing.
God made me feel at peace even when I didn’t know what He was saying. I learned that day that God is very friendly and easy going.
The Intricate Nature of Tongues, Visions and their Interpretation: Conclusion
I hope you now have a better understanding of tongues, visions and their interpretation after reading this article. I know it can be hard to grasp these concepts but it is certainly not impossible.
If you are still unsure, focus on speaking in tongues daily and reading the word of God. Speaking in tongues will automatically lead you into seeing visions and reading the word will automatically improve your ability to interpret visions.
Some people burden themselves with wanting to understand the word of God but all you need to do is remember what you read.
The more details you can remember the sharper you will be at interpreting visions, tongues and even dreams.
Dreams are visions are basically the same thing except that dreams come when you are asleep. Speaking in tongues will make you have clearer dreams and visions.
Above all, know that speaking in tongues and seeing visions are all aimed at helping you build a strong relationship with Jesus. Enjoy the journey of befriending Jesus. It is rewarding.
Peace!