Have you ever experienced a situation where you start speaking in tongues and then your phone rings? That is common.
What about stopping in the middle of speaking in tongues to check a notification on your phone? That feels like a personal attack, right?
If you own a functional phone and you speak in tongues, I would be genuinely surprised if you have never interrupted your speaking in tongues session to attend to your phone.
For some, it is mostly phone calls. For others it is text messages and chat notifications.
Regardless of what makes you interrupt your speaking in tongues session to check your phone, one thing is for sure; phone interruptions while speaking in tongues are not good.
I’m sure you’ve heard it mentioned before by some men of God that phones and praying don’t go together. What you may not have heard are the reasons behind the advice and that is what I will let you know.
Why Speaking in Tongues with your Phone switched off is good
1. No Temptation to Check the Time
“I’ve been speaking in tongues for a while, let me check the time” This is what goes on in the mind of someone speaking in tongues without switching off their phone.
The next action is usually to open their eyes and press the power button on the phone. Immediately the power button is pressed and the screen comes on, the battle has been lost.
If the person confirms that he has spoken in tongues for long as he suspected, he will end the prayer session. If the person realizes he has not spoken in tongues for as long as he thought, he will be discouraged to continue.
The devil knows that picking up your phone to check the time when you are speaking in tongues is a lose-lose situation. If you don’t trigger the action by your own thoughts, the devil will suggest it to you.
But if you were wise and you switched off your phone before you began praying in tongues, the thought of switching your phone back on before checking the time will discourage you from attempting it.
This is one of the reasons why your phone should be off when you pray in tongues.
2. No Momentum Loss
Losing momentum is worse than checking time on your phone when you are speaking in tongues. Checking the time on your phone when you are speaking in tongues is a temptation sufficient to compromise your momentum.
But in most cases, momentum is lost when phone checking involves reading texts and picking calls. If you ever pause speaking in tongues to reply to a chat, you kill momentum with a bullet to the head.
There was a good reason why Jesus said if we want to pray we should go into our private rooms and lock the door behind us and pray to God in secret. The fact that Jesus would mention locking the door during prayer means that momentum during prayer is a treasure. Who are you to disregard it?
If you switch off your phone before you start praying in tongues, you kill all possibilities of chocking your momentum.
Imagine you are praying in tongues for financial breakthrough then you get a notification of an unpaid bill. Do you want to tell me you will comfortably continue praying in tongues?
What if you were praying in tongues for encouragement then you received a discouraging email?
The devil enjoys draining our faith when we are praying in tongues. If your phone is on, the devil knows he can use one of your contacts to achieve his wicked plans. Why give him a chance?
3. No Procrastination
Procrastinating speaking in tongues happens when you say to yourself “Let me reply one last text message then I’ll start speaking in tongues”. That one last text ends up being an endless conversation and before you know it, an hour is gone.
It is worse if you are on social media. We all know that social media channels have been designed to keep us hooked. How do you expect to unhook yourself to start speaking in tongues?
I can’t count the number of times I have struggled to put my phone down so that I start speaking in tongues. Sometimes it feels as if the phone is glued to my hands.
Switching it off is the ultimate strategy of avoiding procrastinating speaking in tongues.
If you struggle to switch off your phone before you start speaking in tongues, you can make use of the in-built auto shutoff feature. Set the phone to go off at the time you have purposed to start praying in tongues.
4. Discipline to your Contacts
“Don’t have emergencies when I am praying in tongues please; I won’t pick your calls” I often joke to my friends with this phrase.
While I make it sound like a joke, I seriously don’t pick calls in the middle of prayer. In my mind, if you have an emergency when I am praying in tongues, then Jesus should help you.
When I go to pray in tongues, I am usually in an emergency of my own and I want Jesus to help me.
Over time, my contacts have learned to accept that I don’t pick calls when I am praying. They will be lucky if my phone is on.
Likewise, if you get in the habit of switching off your phone when praying in tongues, your contacts will soon adapt to the new normal.
Some may protest that it is brutal but honestly speaking, why should I interrupt my communion with God just to please someone?
If my phone is off, I don’t have to give an explanation.
5. Honor to God
We are made in God’s image and likeness. If we get angry when someone uses their phone while talking to us, what makes us assume God does not get angry when we use our phones while praying to Him?
Using your phone while praying in tongues indicates to God that you are not serious with the prayer you are making. What meaningful conversation do you ever engage in while using your phone?
Would you talk to an honorable person while scrolling your phone? Why then do it when talking to God?
If your phone is switched off when you are praying in tongues, it is great honor to God. In the current world, switching off your phone is a huge sacrifice. Doing it will definitely be registered in heaven as a good gesture.
Who doesn’t want to be acknowledged in heaven for a good gesture?
Therefore, make sure your phone is off whenever you embark on serious speaking in tongues.
Until next time…peace!