The purpose of speaking in tongues is to edify the the body of Christ. Speaking in tongues edifies the believer who practices it as well as fellowships that embrace it. The purpose of speaking in tongues for the individual is edification while for the fellowship, God uses it to communicate messages that edify those who hear them.
Despite the purpose of speaking in tongues being one, there are different elements to it. In this article, I will explain the different aspects of the purpose of speaking in tongues.
Purpose of Speaking in Tongues
1. Help Us Overcome the Enemy
God in His wisdom gave us the gift of praying in tongues that it may help us to overcome the enemy. Praying began after the fall of man. Before the fall, man would commune with God in the cool of the day.
When sin separated us from God, we needed prayer to access Him. But prayer had challenges; the enemy had influence over them.
Countless times the enemy puts obstacles that make it hard for believers to pray. Because of this, God gave us the gift of praying in tongues for the purpose of easily overcoming the obstacles of the enemy.
Praying in understanding needs the thinking of man. But since our thinking is limited, it is hard to defeat the enemy with it.
Some of the obstacles the enemy uses against our prayers are unknown to us. How can we overcome them if we don’t know them?
Praying in the Spirit!
Speaking in tongues is giving the Spirit of God permission to use our tongue. And because the Spirit of God understands all things, the obstacles of the enemy are nothing to Him.
This is why speaking in tongues is very powerful. The enemy cannot contain it.
A believer who speaks in tongues directly gives God permission to defeat the enemy for him. This is why you can speak in tongues in any situation and get results.
Praying in understanding is hard if you are not in a good mood. But praying in tongues flows in whatever mood you are in.
The enemy cannot stop you from praying when you have the gift of speaking in tongues. This is one of the elements of the purpose of speaking in tongues.
2. Help Us Make Perfect Prayers
The words we speak come from our hearts. Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Jesus also said that out of the heart of man come all manner of evil.
Prophet Jeremiah wrote that the heart of man is desperately wicked. How then can a heart that is wicked formulate pure prayers to God?
Impossible!
God knew it is impossible for man to make pure prayers from his heart and He gave us the gift of praying in tongues.
The prayers we make when we pray in tongues come from the Spirit of God and not our hearts. That is why we do not understand them though we speak them.
Since the Spirit of God understands the deepest thoughts of God, He knows what to pray to God on our behalf at any given time.
The result is perfect prayers made for every situation.
Whoever speaks in tongues makes perfect prayers. God purposed speaking in tongues to help His children make perfect prayers to Him.
3. Reveal God’s Mysteries
Speaking in tongues is a mysterious gift. Though we may understand a few things about it, it is largely a mystery.
Different believers speak different dialects but it is the same Spirit praying in them. Sometimes praying in tongues turns into groans but mysteriously the groans are perfect prayers to God.
Through speaking in tongues we understand that God works in mysterious ways. This helps us revere God.
We also receive mysteries from God when we speak in tongues. Mysteries are mysteries because they are unknown. How can we ask God to reveal to us what we don’t know?
If we pray in understanding, it is hard to ask God to reveal His mysteries to us since we don’t know what we don’t know.
But when we pray in tongues, the Spirit of God knows the mysteries that we don’t know. And He asks God to reveal the mysteries to us.
If a believer wants to understand the deep mysteries of God, through praying in the spirit, he will understand them.
The word of God tells us that whoever prays in the spirit speaks mysteries to God. It is mysteries that reveal mysteries.
This is the third element of the purpose of speaking in tongues.
Purpose of Speaking in Tongues: Conclusion
There are many elements of the purpose of speaking in tongues but they are all summed up in the fact that it is an extension of God’s love to us.
All the many benefits we get through speaking in tongues were intentioned by God that they may make it easy for us to relate with Him.
Since the love of God is limitless, the benefits of the gifts of God are limitless too. There are believers who get benefits of speaking in tongues that no other believer has ever gotten.
Different believers will perceive the purpose of speaking in tongues differently. To some, it is the source of peace, to others it is the means through which mysteries are revealed and still to others it is the highway to God’s throne.
This is why I said the purpose of speaking in tongues has many elements. But regardless of what each believer thinks the purpose of speaking in tongues is, the truth is that we all experience the love of God through it.
Since we have different interpretations of love, God will cause the gift of speaking in tongues to give us different benefits so that we experience His love.
In the end, the most important thing is that you embrace the gift of speaking in tongues and reap the benefits.
No amount of writing can cover all the benefits of speaking in tongues (Opens in new tab). Yet this is only one gift of the many gifts that God has given us through the Holy Spirit.
Surely, God is limitless and so is His love for us. He has showered us with gifts beyond our imagination.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!