And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Acts 2:4.

Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:

If you are going to walk in the spirit you must live by the spirit. And the best way to do that is to get filled with the Spirit to the maximum you can hold and then overflow as rivers run from your innermost being. And one way to get filled with the Spirit is to speak, pray, and sing in tongues.

What is your greatest treasure? The gift of Jesus, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, is the greatest treasure for in Him you are reconciled with Me, are reinstated as My child, pass from death to eternal life, are made holy, blameless and beyond reproach, and I have made Him wisdom unto you, redemption, sanctification and righteousness. He bore all your sins and all your sickness and pain and redeemed you from the curse. And He continues to serve you as your great good Shepherd and great High Priest.

But in His Name, I give you the great treasure of the Holy Spirit to be with you and in you forever. In Him, I connect you with Me and it is through Him within you that I minister all good things to you through Jesus. So for your daily life the greatest treasure you have is My Spirit abiding in you to lead you, guide you to all truth, teach you all things, bring to your remembrance all I said, warn you of things to come, enable you to bear the fruit of good works, make you partakers of the divine nature, fill you with all the fullness of God, correct you, direct you, and share with you My deepest thoughts.

You are not aware of Him as a separate Person for He is One with Me and with Jesus, as Jesus also is one with Me, and His voice is My Voice and My Voice is His for He is the breath of My Words and He is also of the Words of Jesus. So do not get mixed up. Just address Me as Abba, Father and be talking with Me, as Jesus told you to do and know that by My Spirit and through Jesus, I am talking to you. Jesus fits My life into your humanity and the Spirit conveys My Words and life your spirit, and your spirit speaks to your soul (your mind, will, and emotions).

“All you people of the land take courage,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ declares the LORD of hosts. ‘As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!’” Haggai 2:4-5.

Jesus has brought you out of the slavery of sin and death to the glorious freedom of My children, for where My Spirit is there is liberty. That is why whom the Son sets free is free indeed. He has taken you to a whole new level. Resurrection power.

And that brings us back to the special nine gifts that My Spirit gives you for the profit of all. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” 1 Corinthians 12:5-11.

 

Now concerning spiritual gifts, I do not want you to be unaware. 1 Corinthians 12:1.

 

Why are they so important? They are a lifeline from the spiritual to the physical realm. You can only have the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil by knowing what you are up against and what to do to take down strongholds of deception and to edify, encourage and exhort a world taken captive by the devil to do his will.

You must be able to outsmart the devil in the same way My prophet Elisha outsmarted the king of Aram and his army that were warring against Israel. By My Spirit I revealed the schemes, tactics, and plans of the enemy before they took place and Elisha informed the king of Israel who then defeated the enemy because of his knowledge of their plans. 2 Kings 6:8-23. And for people gone astray a Word of knowledge or wisdom can turn them around to a new life in Me. Like Jesus did for the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar.

Do you remember Balaam, son of Beor, whom Balak, king of Moab, hired to curse the Israelites coming across the desert so that they would not conquer Moab? He gave a good description of what happens with the gifts of the Spirit.

The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, and the oracle of the man whose eye is opened, the oracle of him who hears the words of God, and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered.” Numbers 24:15-16. And “The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, and the oracle of the man whose eye is opened; the oracle of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered. Numbers 24:3-4.

Looking at the list of gifts as spoken by My Spirit through My apostle Paul, we have done life lessons on the gifts of the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, and gifts of healing, the effecting of miracles, prophecy, and distinguishing of spirits. Today’s life lesson is on the gifts of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. These are two gifts, but they go together, and together they are akin to the gift of prophecy, though delivered by a different manifestation of the same Spirit.

First, you may ask, “what are tongues?” The gift is listed as kinds of tongues. The word translated “kinds” or “various kinds” is the Greek word “genos,” which means family, offspring. So you see there is a related family of tongues. So there are different kinds of tongues but they are related into the same family of origin. They are from the Spirit and form in your spirit but it is up to you to give them utterance. Foremost for each believer are your private tongues that you pray in without always having the interpretation, then there are kinds of tongues shared in corporate meetings of the church and there are kinds of tongues spoken in the ministry to those who are not yet part of the body of Christ. The last two must be interpreted for the hearer to be edified.

When you individually pray in tongues you do not speak to men but to Me, for with private tongues no one understands, but in your spirit you speak mysteries (I tell you great and mighty things you could not know and you are praying them into manifestation by the Spirit). 1 Corinthians 14:2.

One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church. Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying.” 1 Corinthians 14:4-5.

“Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.” 1 Corinthians 14:13-15.

And Paul went on the say, “I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all,” but in the church he would rather prophesy so that the hearers understood. 1 Corinthians 14:18. But praying in tongues to edify yourself, build yourself up in your holy faith, and pray mysteries beyond the scope of what you personally know is your lifeline to the supernatural.

Now here is the definition of tongues in My Word: “In the same way the Spirit also joins to help our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:26-28.

“The Spirit joins to help” and some translations just state, “the Spirit helps,” but the Greek word there translated as “help” is “sunantilambanomai,” which means to take hold with at the side, hence to take a share in (share the helm or steering wheel of your life or of events), to give assistance with full initiative because closely-identified to the one being helped, supplying help that exactly corresponds to the need.

Simply put, tongues is prayer led by the Holy Spirit in spiritual words to relay spiritual things taking you up to a divine level of prayer. But the utterance is vocalized by you. You must speak it out or nothing will come out of your mouth.

“Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Corinthians 2:6-8.

The devil and his demons cannot decipher heavenly tongues. It is a language of the Holy Spirit and they are unclean spirits.

Tongues allows you to pray My will into the earth. When praying in tongues you are looking with the Spirit– over the world at needs and places for which I need intercession from you to authorize Me to work on earth, it may be as close as your life, the lives of those around you, or to the ends of the earth. But your prayer will be the gate through which My light will enter the life or place My Spirit prays in you.

There are things in spiritual realms which human eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, and this has to do with all I have prepared for those who love Me,  but to you who believe and have joined with My Spirit I reveal them through the Spirit. My Spirit searches all things, even My depths.

“For whom among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:9-16.

Let us look back to when believers first spoke in tongues.

When the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire being distributed, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” Acts 2:1-4.

John the Baptist had told the crowds that Jesus would baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire. Even today as you pray and speak out in tongues, that flame, that light from the golden altar in Heaven, is resting on you, illuminating the darkness around you and revealing things to you in the light as you shine as lights in the dark world, offering it the Word of life.

And that is what happened that first day, the believers got so full of the Holy Spirit that it poured out to the thirsty world and lit their lamps, their dark spirits, and 3,000 souls were saved that day. And the Spirit distributed that gift of tongues on all the believers gathered together, and as each of them spoke in tongues the people hearing all were imparted with the gift of interpretation of tongues in an amazing work of My power. For each person there, no matter from what country or nation, understood the tongues of the believers as one voice in that person’s native natural language. Acts 2:5-13. The crowd was amazed and ready to listen to Peter’s first evangelistic preaching filled with the unction of the Holy Spirit.

My apostle Paul gave an instruction to the church in Corinth about the ministry of tongues in the corporate service. Privately he said he spoke in tongues more than anyone else but in church he preferred clear edification that all could understand. So he gave you guidelines,

What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and one must interpret; but if there is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” 1 Corinthians 14:26-33.

Tongues, when used in public ministry, need someone to interpret so all may know what the Spirit is communicating. So My Spirit will open the windows of Heaven, just as when He came down on Jesus, and enlighten one to interpret what the tongues conveyed. And you can have both gifts operating, just as My Spirit told you through the apostle Paul, “Therefore, let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.” 1 Corinthians 14:13. And you can do this in the privacy of your own home when you pray in tongues so that not only do you pray with your spirit but also with your mind. Tongues comes out of your innermost being, the spirit, not your mind, the soul. Jesus spoke of it this way, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:38.  Tongues are a flow from My Spirit to yours, of My thoughts to you. Do not resist so great a gift.

And if you recall, tongues was the sign to the apostles that people had received the Holy Spirit. Remember at the house of Cornelius when Peter preached Jesus to them? “All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God.” Acts 10:45-46. And hearing them speaking with tongues, Peter said, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” Acts 10:47. Just as they received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the first sign was speaking in tongues.

 

And the same for the new believers in Ephesus, “and when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.” Acts 19:6.

And speaking in tongues is a rest. It is not flowing out of a worried mind but a filled heart of peace. It builds you up and mends what is torn and broken.

Indeed, He will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue, He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,” and, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen.  Isaiah 28:11-12.

I love you. Do you speak in tongues? You can if you believe. Just ask Me to fill you with My Holy Spirit and let yourself speak out. Right now wherever you are. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Luke 11:13. Just ask Jesus to baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire. It is that easy.