What is the point of speaking in tongues? This is a question that lingers in the minds of many believers and in extension, non-believers as well.
Speaking in tongues is a gift of the Holy Spirit and after receiving this gift, I couldn’t help but sincerely wonder what is the point of speaking in tongues.
Personally, before embarking on anything, I always try to find a reason as to why I should go ahead and do it. This is the rabbit hole that lead me to discovering the ultimate goal of speaking in tongues.
Learning to communicate with God
In the course of my searching, I learnt that speaking in tongues is a tool that the Holy Spirit uses to help us communicate with God. As we know, prayer is a form of communication between God and man.
The heavenly Father knows that men lack clear comprehension of the heavenly operations and how to engage effectively with Him due to their short-comings. Isaiah 59:1-2 Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear.
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.
Given our human weaknesses, God decided to give us the gift of speaking in tongues through the Holy Spirit to enable us express ourselves before Him, and receive the capacity to be hear from Him.
Once we believe and give our lives to Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit and His nine gifts (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) and also the precious gift of speaking in tongues, helping us to pray even when we don’t know how to present our petitions to God.
Romans 8:26 We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
This may not be God’s initial plan, however the gift is meant to help us pray in the beginning of our walk with God, so that as we grow in faith and in speaking in tongues, we eventually get to a point of learning to interpret the tongues so that we understand what the Holy Spirit is praying about on our behalf.
From this, we learn how prayer should be conducted. Another goal of engaging with God through speaking in tongues is to learn the language of the realm of the spirit, in preparation for the eternal life when we will be glorified through Christ.
Restoration of Purpose, Fulfillment and Assurance
The physical goal of speaking in tongues is to find purpose, fulfillment and assurance that we lost after the fall from the garden of Eden. In the current world, people feel lost, empty and are filled with immeasurable uncertainties.
God wants His children to be restored to the original plan that offers man a sense of fulfillment following accomplishment of purpose. So how does God intend to restore His people? He simply wants us to ask.
Matthew 7:7-8 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
One common challenge that we share as human beings is the discovery of our true purpose on earth. This is where God brings in the gift of speaking in tongues to reveal our purpose because He understands the desire for people to live intentionally within their God-given assignments.
The Holy Spirit knows the purpose of every man and He is able to use the gift of speaking in tongues to intercede for us, causing God to reveal our divine path and granting us the grace to walk in it.
It is very important for every believer to speak in tongues to in order to make meaning out of their lives and to receive revelations for deeper understanding of whatever issues in hand.
I hope these insights help in answering some of the questions you might have surrounding the essence of speaking in tongues. Blessings.