Anytime you go to speak in tongues, you operate in shifts. From experience, I know three shifts. I don’t think there are any more shifts.
It is interesting to learn about these shifts. I only knew them after experiencing them. It was puzzling at first but the Holy Spirit enabled me to understand them.
I will do my best to explain the three speaking in tongues shifts.
The Three Speaking in Tongues Shifts
1. The Level of Battling with the Flesh
The first shift of speaking in tongues is that of battling with the flesh. This is the default setting when you go to speak in tongues.
Beginners in the gift of speaking in tongues start at this level. In this shift, your spirit battles your flesh. The battle begins even before you start speaking in tongues.
The moment you decide to speak in tongues your flesh starts fighting back. I’m sure you have experienced the desire to postpone a speaking in tongues session that comes when you decide to speak in tongues.
When you set your heart to speak in tongues, the flesh brings all manner of excuses. Out of nowhere you will want to drink water, check your phone, scratch your back and anything else but not speaking in tongues.
The flesh is unspiritual; the Bible tells us so. Its desires are contrary to the desires of the spirit. When you decide to speak in tongues, which is a spiritual activity, your flesh will protest.
I have covered in a previous article how the flesh hinders speaking in tongues and how to tackle it.
If you manage to overcome the resistance of the flesh and start speaking in tongues, you will still face opposition for a while from the flesh.
When you start speaking in tongues, fleshly desires won’t disappear immediately. You may feel uncomfortable kneeling, you may yawn a number of times, your arms may feel numb and so on.
But if you persist with speaking in tongues, your flesh gives in. It becomes clear that no matter how hard it protests, you are not going to stop.
It is at this point that you experience the second shift.
2. The Level of Battling Evil Spirits
The second shift ushers you into the second realm where you have to battle evil spirits. After defeating your flesh, evil spirits take on the role of opposing your speaking in tongues ambition.
In this second level, attacks come in the form of thoughts. You are busy speaking in tongues then all of a sudden you remember a mistake you made many weeks ago. If you brush it off, you hear voices accusing you of being sinful.
Evil spirits whisper discouragements to you as you ascend in the spirit. You start hearing the whispers because your spirit has ascended to the level where evil spirits dwell on your way to heaven.
I’m sure you know that spiritual battles happen in between heaven and earth. The story of Daniel is a perfect example; Daniel prayed but the prince of Persia opposed the angel that had Daniel’s answer.
Evil spirits loiter between heaven and earth to prevent angels from ascending and descending. When we pray, they work hard to hinder our prayers.
I read a testimony several years ago of a young man who was a devil worshipper. He explained how demons stop the prayers of saints.
In his explanation, he said when believers start praying, their prayers look like smoke. If they persist praying, their prayer becomes fire that ascends to heaven.
Demons usually build a dark cloud to prevent the prayers of believers from ascending to heaven. When the prayers of believers appear as smoke, they can’t go through the dark cloud that demons create.
But when the prayers turn to fire, they burn the dark cloud and ascend to heaven. The young man also said that the ceiling that believers usually feel when praying is an actual ceiling that demons create.
The young man’s testimony agrees with what you experience when speaking in tongues. When you penetrate the dark cloud, you enter the territory of evil spirits that do their best to discourage you.
In worst cases, the evil spirits can scare you out of praying. You may feel evil presence around you and sometimes even the hairs on your skin stand.
You should not worry about how scared you feel. If you focus on speaking in tongues, you will shift to the next level.
3. The Level of Conversing with God
The third shift occurs when you leave the realm of evil spirits and enter the realm of God. When you experience this shift, all the negative thoughts and scary feelings will vanish and you will feel an overwhelming sense of peace, love and joy.
The difference is like day and night; you can’t miss it.
The realm of God is where your tongues become very emotional and conversational; warfare tongues stop. Warfare tongues are needed when traversing the realm of evil spirits.
The reason that made you start speaking in tongues will determine the form that your tongues take when you enter this realm.
If you had a need, the Holy Spirit will help you speak to God about it. If you just wanted to experience peace and joy, the Holy Spirit will calm you down so that you enjoy the presence of God.
For you to enjoy the presence of God, you have to stop speaking in tongues. If that is your case, you will feel a strong urge to remain silent.
For people who want to hold a conversation with God, there are a few more steps of preparation they need to go through before approaching God.
The Chambers of the Realm of God
Speaking in tongues will get you to the realm of God but to get to the throne of God you will need more than just speaking in tongues.
God is holy and anything that is defiled can’t survive in His presence. This is why there are obstacles between us and God.
The chambers of the realm of God are exactly what the Bible describes; the outer court, inner court and the holy of holies.
You start experiencing the heavenly peace when you are in the outer court. If you don’t mind, you can make your request to angels in the outer court who then present it to God in the holy of holies for you.
But if you want to present it yourself to God, you will have to go to the inner court where you will be oriented how to behave yourself in the presence of God.
If you have read the story of Queen Esther, you know what it took to approach the king; she was thoroughly prepared by the time she approached the king. The same happens when you want to approach God; angels clean you while the Holy Spirit talks you through how to conduct yourself.
How do I know these?
Because I have been there several times.
By the time you are permitted to enter the Holy of holies to converse with God, there is absolutely no chance to make a mistake. Sometimes angels tie your hands and feet if need be the same way priests used to be tied in the old testament before entering the Holy of holies.
I was once pulled out of the holy of holies when speaking to God because I spoke a word in English when the Holy Spirit had instructed me to only address God in tongues. It was both disappointing but funny at the same time.
Time spent in the holy of holies is strictly limited. After praying in tongues all through the levels for about an hour and a half, I only got about a minute and a half of conversing with God. I might have had more time had I not uttered the word I uttered in English.
Nonetheless, it is true as David wrote that a day spent in the house of the Lord is better than a thousand elsewhere. The few seconds you will get in the holy of holies will be a lifetime memory.
Most of the time I resort to speaking to God from the outer court because there are less regulations there. From there, your message is carried by the angel of the presence of God into God’s presence and then God’s response is brought to you.
The turnaround time is quick; it feels like holding a real time conversation with God.
Growing through the Shifts of Speaking in Tongues
I know right now you must be excited to venture into these speaking in tongues shifts to get awesome heavenly experiences. That is a great desire but you need to understand that it takes time to learn to go through these shifts.
Nobody ever taught me what to do to get through these shifts neither did I know they exist. But I thank God for what I know today and what I have experienced so far.
You need to understand that going through these shifts requires spiritual training. The Holy Spirit will guide you accordingly.
The training will include fasting sessions, praying at certain hours of the day, following the leading of the Holy Spirit etc.
Entering those high realms without proper training can lead to serious spiritual attacks and that is why the Holy Spirit takes time to train us before allowing us to access the realms.
As you get good at the skills the Holy Spirit teaches you, it becomes easier to access the realms. You also learn to move fast between the realms.
It gets to a point where you can dwell in higher realms for long.
A good example is Jesus; while He was on earth, He could easily access the holy of holies because of His pure lifestyle. The evidence of His access was the instant miracles.
When you have access to God, whatever request you make is carried out instantly. This is how Jesus would tell a paralytic man to pick up his mat and go home and the man is healed instantly.
The signature of someone who has access to the holy of holies is instant miracles. But of course it comes at a price. Living a life of access to the holy of holies is not easy but you can get as close as you want.
There are people who by default operate in the outer court. These are people who don’t need to wage war to access God because they dwell at a realm that is beyond the realm of demons.
Others operate from the realm of demons; such people don’t struggle with the flesh when they choose to speak in tongues because they are beyond the level of struggling with the flesh. They only need to wage war past the level of demons and then they will access heaven.
Majority of people operate from the first realm and have to battle desires of the flesh and demons to access heaven. Most people in this level never access heaven because they get tired before they can successfully traverse the two realms.
The level you operate from dictates how much you need to speak in tongues to access God. If you are consistent in speaking in tongues, you will grow to higher levels and be closer to God.
Keep speaking in tongues and learning; you will grow.
Peace!