Ask God for a Fish! (My Experience with Tongues...so far)

Before I dive into this topic, I want to share the process the Lord has used in my life to introduce me to areas of Christianity that were not part of my heritage.  It has been a process of exposure, acceptance, exploration and experience.  That is, I will learn about a new concept through someone that the Lord has ALREADY confirmed is in tune with His Holy Spirit.   Because of my confidence the Lord is at work in their lives, I generally accept that what they are doing or saying is led by the Lord.  This creates an open mind to seek out answers for myself, allowing the Holy Spirit to teach me and develop in me whatever is for me in His way and in His time.

I was introduced to praying in tongues by my good friend.  Through her and others, I learned there are reasonable people, alive today, who operate in the supernatural manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit.  How exciting!  But I can tell you, having no understanding of the purpose or value of tongues, I was much more interested in gifts that I thought had obvious uses like; words of knowledge, discerning of spirits and prophecy.

In reading about some people God has used powerfully, (D.L. Moody, Maria Woodworth-Etter and Heidi Baker), I came across something called a “baptism of the Holy Spirit”.  My understanding is that at some point in our pursuit of a closer walk with thee, God shows us His face, which results in a powerful infilling of the Spirit of the Lord that does a thorough work of proving His love, healing wounds and filling all the empty spaces.  This often resulted in the person being promoted in their ministry in terms of Preaching with Power or Healings and Signs and Wonders being manifest.  I reasoned, this must be when the spiritual gifts are passed out! I didn’t necessarily have a goal to start a healing ministry, but I figured if more of Jesus is available, then I WANT IT!!  And I began to ask the Lord for my own baptism of the Holy Spirit.

One weekend my friend and I attended a weekend training program, called Agape Prayer Ministry.  At the end of the weekend, one of the leaders looked at me and said somewhat gruffly, “What do you want from the Lord?”  I said, “I want a baptism of the Holy Spirit!”  She said, “You mean you want the gift of tongues?”  I said, “No, I want a baptism of the Holy Spirit.”  She looked confused, but had me kneel and she began to pray for me to receive an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and to speak in tongues.  I didn’t feel anything… she cupped my chin in her hand and said, “speak”.  I felt nothing unusual, had no new language all of the sudden form in my mouth, so I just looked at her.  Then she said, “would I give you a snake when you ask for a fish?”  I recognized this as scripture and decided to just open my mouth and give it a go.  I spoke about 7 syllables.  She looked supremely satisfied and moved on to the next person in the circle!  I thought, what was that all about?  My friend assured me this happens differently for everyone.   She encouraged me to practice my new prayer language every day.  I thought, “huh?  I doubt I can even remember what I said.”  Well, I did remember, and I did pray “in tongues” every so often, when I thought of it, but it got really old really fast, repeating 7 syllables that I didn’t even know what I was saying.  One day, as we prayed together, my friend asked the Lord to interpret my 7 syllables.  The Spirit gave her “Jesus is Lord”, as the interpretation.  This gave me some confidence and made some sense to me… I assumed praying in tongues was letting the Holy Spirit pray for us when we don’t know what to pray.  It would make sense to declare Jesus is Lord in pretty much any situation.      

During this time and for approximately 1 year leading up to this experience, I would often see 11:11 on digital clocks.  This was about the time I went to bed, so I just thought it was a coincidence.…. but, I didn’t see 11:10 or 11:12, it was uncanny…I would look at the clock at exactly 11:11.  Then I thought perhaps my internal body clock, just knows what time it is and now that I’ve noticed this time, it sets off something like an alarm that makes me look at a clock.  However, I also began to see it in the am and many times, by great and unusual sets of circumstances would find myself looking at a clock at 11:11.

About 1 week after my experience with the stern lady in the scarf at the agape prayer school, I was reading a book by Dutch Sheets called Intercessory Prayer.  In it, he began to tell about seeing the numbers 2:22, (waking in the night, hotel room keys, flight numbers, etc.)  He said he had learned to recognize this as the Holy Spirit and to look for scripture to see what it means.  I immediately laid Mr. Sheet’s book in my lap and reached for my bible.  I opened it randomly to the book of Luke…and then intentionally I went to chapter 11, verse 11, (Luke 11:11) and I quote,  “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish would give him a snake instead?”  WHOA!!!  RIGHT!?!  Stunning…. The Lord just confirmed that He wants me to use this prayer language even though I don’t understand it.  It is God’s idea to give us the gift of tongues. Who am I to judge if it is has value or not?!?!  He tells me not to lean on my own understanding! My Father lovingly prepared and gave me a gift!  It is not a snake. I should want this gift and be happy to use it!  I say, “Thank you for my fish, Lord!”

Later I heard a preacher share that he had a similar experience, not growing up with tongues.  He came to realize it is the ultimate act of surrender!  At once, we surrender both our intellect and our tongues!  We don’t know why we are doing it, or what we are saying.  An ultimate act of faith!  I still don’t know why we pray in tongues and I’ve never had the experience where I was given a “tongue” to speak in a gathering and someone else interprets, like Paul describes.   And I’m still asking for that baptism in the Holy Spirit! (See what I mean by God’s timing and plans? He gave me what He wanted me to have, when He wanted to give it.)

Here are a few things I believe to be true about tongues, based on my limited experience:

-      A personal prayer language is available to every Christian.

-      You don’t have to speak in tongues to be a Christian.   
-   Praying in tongues appears to open the door to other prophetic activity in your life, like prophetic dreams, etc. 

-     True to His style, the Spirit is a gentleman. He does not take control of our body and speak through us.  Instead, we are speaking voluntarily and trusting that He has put His words in our mouths. 

-      I can see a clear benefit to this gift, in that you can pray in tongues while still being completely aware of what’s being said around you. This enables prayers of agreement and the ability to fervently pray in situations where you have to be aware and alert to what is going on around you.

-     It is a willful act of faith and humility to say, “Spirit, please pray for me.  I don’t know what I ought to pray for but you always know!” Then, out of obedience, pray “in the Spirit”.

At the end of the day, I rest on this:  It is impossible to please God without faith.  From what I’ve learned about prophecy and other gifts, they all require faith.  People who hear from the lord are not getting a dictated fully audible word by word message to be given.  Often they are hearing at the very fringes of their capacity to hear.  Or they are seeing something that might be considered foolish if they share it.  Or they just know something.  In Exodus 3:12, God is talking to Moses from the burning bush. He says “certainly I will be with you and this shall be a sign to you that it is I who have sent you…”  Wait a minute, God is talking to Moses from a bush and yet he is not 100% crystal clear that it is God who is sending him?  GOD WILL NEVER COMPLETELY REMOVE THE NEED FOR FAITH AS YOU HEAR FROM HIM AND STEP OUT TO OPERATE IN THE GIFTS HE GIVES YOU.  

The other important point is to never value the GIFT over the GIVER!  Jesus is everything!  He is all sufficient!!  Pursue Him with your whole heart, soul and mind. But it was His idea to empower His church with these gifts of the Spirit to prove His love and bring heaven to earth.  So, we need to stop being afraid of them.  He won’t give us a snake when we ask for a fish! So, ask for a fish!