Yawning when praying in tongues is common. I experience it quite often. Some people claim that yawning when praying in tongues means evil spirits are leaving.
I don’t dispute their claim but at the same time, I don’t have anything to prove it. Because I also yawn when praying in tongues, I will give my honest thoughts on this matter.
Yawning when Speaking in Tongues: My Thoughts
Yawning happens all the time. We yawn while talking, while watching, while driving etc. To specify that yawning while praying in tongues is a sign of evil spirits leaving is a long shot.
But at the same time, I do agree that yawning can be a sign of evil spirits leaving. Have I ever witnessed evil spirits leave when someone yawns? Yes!
Evil spirits leave in different ways. Some go quietly, some leave with screams, others leave after throwing someone on the floor, others try to negotiate with the person driving them out etc.
I have witnessed evil spirits leave when someone coughed. The coughing was abrupt and it was easy to know the evil spirits were leaving.
While yawning while speaking in tongues may be caused by evil spirits leaving, I wouldn’t make it a law that when someone yawns when speaking in tongues it is evil spirits leaving.
I am more willing to accept the explanation of fatigue as a cause of yawning when praying in tongues.
But then the most important thing is for us to pray in tongues effectively. Yawning definitely works against us when it comes to praying in tongues.
Tackling Yawning when Praying in Tongues
1. Watch your Eating
Your eating habits affect how you pray in tongues. Praying in tongues involves movement of muscles which get energy from the food you eat.
The fact that praying in tongues is partly a physical activity means that you need to balance your eating for you to pray effectively.
If you pray in tongues when you are hungry, it is not strange to yawn. Don’t we yawn when we are hungry anyway?
The yawns are likely to cause you to think about eating and you may not concentrate in your prayer. If it is fitting, take a break and eat something light.
The aim is to get your mind to stop thinking about food. When the yawns stop, the tendency to think about food will also stop.
If you are on a fast, push through. Fasting is not easy and you should expect to struggle with yawns.
2. Watch your Sleep Pattern
Yawning while praying in tongues can also occur when you are tired. This seems to be the common cause.
If you are praying in tongues at night just before going to bed, yawning won’t be strange. And even yawning when praying in tongues during the day is common if you are feeling tired.
In other words, if you yawn when speaking in tongues at a time that you would yawn if you were doing anything else, then there is no cause for alarm.
If it is fitting, take a break from praying and come back when you are fresh. What is the point of struggling to pray while yawning when you can take a short break and come back and pray effectively?
I have also realized that yawning is a sign that we don’t value the prayers we are making that much. Or in other terms, we find prayer boring.
If you find prayer to be exciting, you won’t keep yawning all through the prayer session. It is common for praying in tongues to be boring given the fact that you don’t understand what you are praying for.
But it only remains boring if you fail to grow. After sometime, you should start having exciting experiences when praying in tongues.
3. Watch the Position you pray from
Our bodies associate different positions with different activities. If you pray in tongues while in a comfortable position, what stops your mind from assuming you want to sleep?
If your mind senses that you are in a sleeping position, it will initiate yawns to calm you down to sleep. I have fallen asleep while praying in tongues many times primarily because of praying from comfortable positions.
If you pray in tongues in a room where you usually sleep, your mind will assume that you want to sleep and it will do the necessary to get you to sleep.
Some people tackle this problem by praying in tongues while walking around. If pacing around while speaking in tongues works for you, do it.
I do advocate for people to pray from their most comfortable positions. If you yawn uncontrollably when in your most comfortable position, it means there is a problem.
It could be that you don’t have a pressing need for you to be in prayer, it could be that you are seriously tired and you need to rest, it could be that your relationship with God needs improvement or a combination of several factors.
There is no way someone who is in serious need of prayer will yawn endlessly while praying. Do you think Jesus was yawning on the night He was praying in the garden of Gethsemane?
He was deeply distressed. With that level of distress, we don’t expect anyone to be yawning.
Yawning when Praying in Tongues: Conclusion
Yawning while praying in tongues should not be a topic of discussion for serious believers. It mostly happens because the person praying is either tired, hungry, has a weak relationship with God or any combination of the three. There may be exceptions though.
The important thing is to know how to go about praying when you are yawning uncontrollably. That depends on your level of wisdom.
Those who claim that yawning while praying in tongues has a spiritual meaning may not be wrong but I doubt if their claims are any significant even if they are true.
Signs of evil spirits are known and scriptures talk about them. Yawning barely fits on that list.
Can the devil cause people to yawn so that they stop praying? I believe the devil can discourage people from praying which would then cause them to yawn.
Either way, seek to grow in the gift of praying in tongues so that you overcome small hurdles like yawning. Is it so hard?
Peace!