 Do you desire the gift of speaking in tongues? If you're struggling to activate your prayer language, or you know someone who is, this message is for you. Now, I wanna clarify something. When I talk about receiving or activating the gift of tongues, I'm not talking about bypassing the sovereignty of God. Only God can decide what spiritual gift you'll get. Now, I do believe that God has given every single believer a personal prayer language and I cover this in depth in my teaching can every Christian pray in tongues. So, when I talk about activating the gift of tongues or receiving the gift of tongues or how to pray in tongues, I'm phrasing it that way because that's how people have phrased their questions and I wanna reach the people who have those questions. Now, in 2 Timothy chapter one, verse six, the Bible says, wherefore I put the in-remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, right there, stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. To activate the gift of tongues is to participate or to surrender to what the Holy Spirit has already put in you. So, I believe that the Holy Spirit has given you a prayer language. It's just about participating with him or surrendering to him in order to see that gift manifest in your life. Now, when you're born, you're born seeing and hearing. No one has to teach you to see, no one has to teach you to hear, but you do have to learn to observe and listen. In the same way, spiritual gifts come when you are born again, when you're filled with the Holy Spirit. You can't be taught these gifts necessarily, but you can be taught how to sharpen these gifts that you've already been given. It's a sense, a spirit sense, not a skill. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 14-4, a person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally, but one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church. So here the scripture makes it clear that when you pray in tongues, you're strengthened personally, that's your personal prayer language. The other expressions of the gift of tongues strengthen others, but this one described in 1 Corinthians 14-4 strengthens you personally. Now I'm gonna teach you how to activate this gift. And really, there's only one thing holding you back. And this one thing manifested many ways, but there is only one thing holding you back. Now I'm not trying to offend you, I'm not trying to make you upset, but I do love you and I want you to know the truth. The reason you can't pray in tongues, the reason you've tried and tried again to no avail, the reason you've had people lay hands on you, you've gone to the events only to be disappointed again and again is for one reason. And that reason, that one stubborn obstacle is ego. Ego is keeping you from activating this spiritual gift itself, you're getting in your own way. Now, when I talk about ego, I'm not just talking about pride, though pride is a manifestation of the ego. I'm talking about overthinking, I'm talking about fear, I'm talking about inaction, I'm talking about you getting in your own way. So how does ego manifest itself? As I said, it does manifest in pride. 1 Corinthians chapter two, verse 14 says, but people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it. For only those who are spiritual can understand what the spirit means. You have to remember that your prayer language is the language of surrender. You see, when you speak words that you understand, you're speaking words and attaching your own intention and meanings to those words. But when you pray in tongues, you're speaking forth syllables and sounds void of your own intention, void of your own meaning, unpolluted words that you trust the Holy Spirit to fill. It truly is the language of surrender. Now, people have asked me, if I pray in tongues, am I gonna look silly? And I very emphatically tell them, yes, you will look silly, at least to some. But you have to get over that part. I can't tell you how many times I prayed for someone at the altar and as they're just about to receive this gift, I can see them almost speaking it out. It's right there on the tip of their tongue, right when they're just about to see the manifestation. They start looking around. Who's noticing me? How do I look? What will people think? All of these things run through their mind. Why? Because of pride. They're afraid they might appear silly. They might appear crazy. But this is the language of surrender. Leave it to God to hide such awesome power behind such a simple act of faith. Now, referring back to 1 Corinthians 14-4, the Bible says that you're strengthened personally when you pray in tongues. So, if I'm strengthened personally when I pray in tongues, that means the gift of tongues, my personal prayer language, helps to strengthen my spirit. And whatever strengthens my spirit strengthens all spiritual actions. Think about this. When you pray in tongues, you strengthen your spirit and in strengthening your spirit, you empower all spiritual actions. This means that the gift of tongues can strengthen your other spiritual gifts. It can strengthen you under times of temptation. It can help you to worship. It can help you to pray. It can help you to receive revelation from God's word. It can help you to walk in boldness. The gift of tongues has many benefits, but those benefits lay on the other side of your surrender. Those benefits are waiting for you on the other side of your obedience. Those benefits are waiting for you if you can set aside your pride and reach out in faith and release what the Holy Spirit has put in you. Another manifestation of the ego is fear. People ask, what if it's just me? Is this just me? I think it's just me. I think it's just me praying. That's just me making those sounds. I've seen people begin to pray in tongues and then they stop. And I ask them, why did you stop? And they say, well, I think it was just me. I felt weird doing it. But think about this. What spiritual gift doesn't require your participation? The gift of healing requires that you go lay hands on someone or that you pray for someone or that you believe for the miracle. The gift of evangelism, the gift of the evangelist requires that you speak. The gift of teaching requires that you speak. These gifts require our participation. The gift of discernment requires your attention. The gifts require your participation. The same is true of the gift of speaking in tongues. And so, yes, it is going to be partially you. It requires your participation. This is that way that we speak forth, the oracles of God. This is that way that we speak forth, the prayers of the Holy Spirit. And sometimes fear can keep us from receiving these wonderful benefits. Here's what the Bible says in Matthew chapter seven, verses nine through 11. Or what man is there of you? Whom if his son asked bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asked a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Some people wonder, what if it's demonic? And I always thought this was an odd fear. What if that demon gets ahold of me? The demon of false speaking in tongues or whatever they want to call that demon. And this I found odd because I think it's a strange assumption. I mean, let's say worst case scenario that it's not the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. How then does that translate to automatically being a demonic expression? Just like tears are expressions. Just like humming a song to the Lord is an expression without meaning. So speaking in tongues, if it weren't truly a spiritual gift would simply be another expression that comes from your spirit, given to God in worship and praise. How can a demon feel that? If you ask for a gift of the Holy Spirit, God is not going to give you a demonic spirit. You can trust him. Trust not in your ability to receive, but trust in his ability to give. Trust that when you approach him and say, God, I'm asking for this gift to be activated in my life, I'm stepping out in faith, trusting you trust that he'll catch you. Trust that he's not going to allow some demonic spirit to gain influence in your life. This is a gift from God. You can trust him. And finally, number three, this is one of the more common expressions of ego or self or you getting in your own way. It's in action. See people imagine that they're going to come to the altar. Someone's going to lay hands on them and then suddenly they're going to lose control of their tongue and they're not even going to know what hit them. Now I've heard some people testify. They say, oh, when I first began speaking in tongues, I couldn't control it. Well, that's probably not true. They probably felt like they couldn't control it. They were probably so overwhelmed that it seemed that they couldn't control it. But think about the fact that the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, well, the 1 Corinthians chapter 14, that chapter, that's an entire chapter on how to control the gift. Why would God give us instructions on how to control the gift if the gift couldn't be controlled? The reality, if you've ever heard a testimony like that, someone saying, I couldn't stop speaking in tongues, just realized that they were probably very overwhelmed in the moment and that's just how they remember it. But the Bible tells us that the gift can be controlled. So don't be discouraged by comparing your story to what someone else says they experienced. Instead, look to the scripture. The scripture tells us that it's a gift under our control and therefore in action or just waiting for the gift to manifest in our lives isn't going to bring forth that gift. There's a story I like to tell. There was a father who was teaching his daughter to pray. Each night before bed, he would come into her room and walk her through a simple prayer. Finally, one night he decides, I'm gonna let her pray on her own because I wanted to learn to develop her own prayer life. So the father lets the little girl pray but he decides to listen in through the door. And when he listened in through the door, he heard his daughter singing the alphabet, A-B-C-D-E-F-G and on she went. He thought it was funny, he laughed and moved on. The next night, he did the same thing and again, she's singing the alphabet, praying the alphabet. Again, he thought it was funny but was growing a little bit concerned and he said, if she does this again tomorrow night, I'm gonna go in and explain to her how to talk to God. So finally, the third night, he listens. Again, she's praying the alphabet. He goes into her room and he explains, sweetie, listen, I know you're sincere. I know it's coming from your heart but that's not how you pray. You have to actually talk to God. You have to actually communicate with him. And she said, daddy, I am praying. I'm just praying all the letters of the alphabet and then I'm letting him arrange those letters however he wants. That's the gift of tongues. That's what it's like. You surrender the syllables and sounds and trust that God is going to fill those syllables and sounds. Trust that he's going to add meaning, add power. He's going to add that as you surrender but you must surrender those syllables and sounds. It's the language of faith. So ego manifests in many ways including pride, fear and inaction and pride, fear and inaction are really the primary reasons why people don't receive the gift of tongues or I should say why they don't use the gift of tongues that's been placed in them. They're afraid of how they'll look. They don't want people to think they're silly or crazy or ridiculous. They're afraid of receiving some demonic spirit. They're overanalyzing, overthinking or they just are not doing anything. They think that God's going to do everything and those misconceptions are blocking you and if you will decide, if you will decide I by faith am going to speak aloud those syllables and sounds, I will surrender them to him. If you decide to do that then the Holy Spirit will meet you halfway and the Holy Spirit will add his own meaning, his own intentions, his own power to your surrendered syllables and sounds. It's time to stop waiting. It's time to stop overthinking. It's time to stop overanalyzing. It's time to stop obsessing over how it might be working. Just surrender. Speak aloud the syllables and sounds and let him fill them. No longer allow the ego to block you from receiving all that the Holy Spirit wants to do to this wonderful gift of speaking in tongues. So Father, I pray that you would activate prayer languages right now. Holy Spirit, give them boldness and faith to step out and to activate this most precious gift. Holy Spirit, we trust you. We trust that you'll add your power, your prayers, your meaning, your intentions to these expressions that we surrender to you. We thank you Father for this wonderful gift. We honor you, we bless you. We receive it with gladness and we'll use it now. Oh Jesus, we pray. Now what I want you to do is write in this moment, close your eyes, lift your hands. Let all that overthinking be set aside. Set aside the pride, set aside the fear and enough with the inaction. Close your eyes, lift your hands. Begin to speak aloud right now, syllables and sounds. Holy Spirit, I pray you fill that sound. Receive it now, people of God. He's doing it for you. You can trust him. We thank you Father, in Jesus' name. Here now is a question for conversation. What are some other obstacles to activating the gift of tongues? Let me know in the comment section right now. Don't forget to subscribe to EncounterTV on YouTube and do click that notification bell so you can receive notices when we put out new content. You can also follow us wherever you're watching us. And remember, make sure to get involved with this ministry. Help us to win souls and build believers all around the world through events and media. Your support, one time or monthly, helps to fund the media, the live streams, the events, the Holy Spirit School. It all makes a difference. It's all for Jesus. It's all for souls. Get involved. You've been blessed by the ministry. You believe in what we're doing. I know you love the Lord. 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