Speaking in Tongues

There are many reasons to use this Holy Spirit gift including:

Prayer: Paul says to pray in the Spirit in any and all situations – see Ephesians 6:18, so Holy Spirit can guide your prayers for them to be powerful and effective, to give understanding, insight, wisdom and solutions. Also to pray for others even if you are unaware of their needs.

Praise and worship: singing in tongues to honour God.

Overcoming the enemy: when God gave me this gift He told me that only He would be able to understand the language He gave me, and therefore the enemy wouldn’t. I found it was effective when the enemy was attacking me.

Jesus says that the Father will give the Holy Spirit when His children ask Him. See Luke 11:13. You can ask the Father for this Holy Spirit ability and expect to receive from Him. When I first spoke out one or two words I wondered if I had made them up. Later I learned to trust that God wanted me to have this gift because He told me through a prophetic word. So trust that what you are speaking is from Him and see it grow and flow.

Develop the language: as with any language you can increase the vocabulary by using it. Think of each letter of the alphabet in your natural language and allow Holy Spirit to bring a word or number of words out of your mouth that start with that letter. Be aware though that the language He gives you may not have all the letters of your alphabet and some sounds may be different. When I do this, I continue rapidly speaking in tongues and words starting with other letters come out, but I recognise when the letter I am thinking of has come forth, and then I think of the next one, or keep thinking of the same letter to receive more.

You can focus on what you want to pray and formulate a question using His language gift by ending the phrase with a question tone as you would in your own natural language. Ask Holy Spirit to give you the interpretation and any application.