Once during a prayer meeting, a friend of mine was praying in the spirit on the microphone. That day a Native American chief happened to be visiting the prayer room. After the meeting, he approached a leader and asked about the woman praying on the microphone. He said she was speaking in his native tongue when she prayed, although it was a dialect no longer spoken. When asked to translate what she was saying, the chief shared that she had prayed again and again, “Jesus, hold me like a mother holds her child.”
I love this story because it reveals the deep intimacy that was flowing from the Holy Spirit through my friend as she prayed in the Spirit. This story illustrates the fundamental purpose of our prayer language. Romans 8:15 says that we have received the spirit of adoption by which we cry out “Abba, Father!” When we pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit within us releases deep and intimate truths that ascend straight to the throne of God. The chief heard my friend praying, “Jesus, hold me like a mother holds her child”—how tender and profound. These are the prayers and truths that flow out of our spirits when we speak in tongues. Paul calls these truths “mysteries.” In his letter to the Corinthians, he states that we speak these mysteries straight to God when we pray in the Spirit. This letter provides us with some of the greatest insight into the unique dynamics of speaking in tongues found in the New Testament.
For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries (1 Corinthians 14:2).
When I speak and teach on the glory and benefit of tongues, I like to begin with this verse. Here, Paul makes two incredibly significant statements about speaking in tongues. First, he declares that when we speak in tongues we speak to God and God alone. Then he says that when we speak in tongues, we are actually speaking mysteries. I want to spend some time examining both of these statements closely, for they each hold great depths of treasure and revelation. In fact, these statements address two of the greatest hindrances we will face as we begin to engage in praying in the Spirit on a consistent basis. The first hindrance is this: when we pray in the Spirit it is easy to feel disconnected from the reality of the conversation because we do not know to whom we are speaking. Fortunately, Paul addresses this in his letter to the church at Corinth. He reminds the Corinthians that when they speak in tongues, they are speaking directly to God. They are not filling the air with sound, and they are not emptying their minds by speaking gibberish. They are talking to God.
When we pray in the Spirit, we are not engaging people or angels or demons or anything else; we are connecting with our Father in a personal, private conversation. When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, He began by telling them to address a Person: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name…” (Luke 11:2). Then He poured out His Spirit so that all of His disciples might experience constant communion with God. Remember the umbilical cord analogy? We are directly connected with God by the Holy Spirit. And this is not a one-way connection. We have been given the Spirit for the purpose of dialogue and communion with God. The Holy Spirit dwelling within us longs to release language that produces communion. In Song of Solomon, the Lord expresses His desire for communion: “…Let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely” (Song of Sol. 2:14b). He not only wants to be united with us by the Spirit, He wants us to talk directly to Him in the Spirit. He wants to hear our voice.
Stop for a moment and consider the glory of this truth. Not many people have access to the President of the United States; average civilians will probably never sit in the Oval Office and talk with the leader of the free world. But we have a direct phone line to the Creator of the universe. He longs for us to speak straight to Him, regardless of our circumstances. God has invited us into His inner circle—into the conversation of the Trinity—and given us everything we need to commune with Him, spirit-to-Spirit.
It is important to remember that prayer is a dialogue; we should expect God to respond when we speak to Him. Sometimes He will respond by speaking with a still, small voice in our spirits or moving in our hearts with gentle thoughts and impressions; other times, He will respond by renewing our minds, transforming our thought lives and emotional chemistry, and refreshing our spirits. Regardless of whether or not we hear a thunderous voice from Heaven, when we speak to God in tongues, we can know with confidence that He is answering. The Creator of the universe is talking back to us.
I have been consistently praying in the Spirit for over a decade now, and I have found that rooting my mind in the reality that I am speaking directly to God releases the grace that I need to continue the conversation. And one of the most effective ways that I have found to do this is through fixing my mind’s eye on the Person with whom I am speaking. For many, the most important key to persevering in praying in the Spirit is creating a focal point for the mind’s eye. This is so important because many believers, when they go to speak in tongues, just shoot their words into the air: they talk to the air, as if no one was listening; then they get disconnected, they lose heart, and eventually they stop praying in the Spirit at all. The power of praying in tongues is that we are talking to a Person. It is often when we find a focal point that we experience grace and longevity.
When I speak in tongues, there are two focal points that I use, both of which are found in the Scriptures: God on the throne and God in my spirit. I like to call it God eternal and God internal. When I focus on the eternal God on the throne, I love to picture the scene from Revelation 4. The apostle John is caught up in the spirit, and he sees a throne seated above every throne.
The One sitting on that throne is shining like a diamond, burning like fire, and surrounded by an emerald rainbow. This is our Father: He’s the most beautiful Person we’ve ever met, the most passionate Person we’ve ever met, and the most compassionate Person we’ve ever met—full of covenantal mercy. Lightnings, thunderings, and voices emanate from this throne, and seven lamps of fire are burning before it—the seven spirits of God. Before the throne of God there’s a sea of glass like crystal, a sea of glass mingled with flaming fire.
Every time I pray in tongues, I stand on that sea of glass, I lift my hands, and I gaze upon the One on the throne. And I am not the only one gazing; there are those creatures with eyes around and within. They’re called seraphim—the burning ones. They do not rest day or night, saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” Beloved, we were made to burn like the seraphim. We were made to gaze on God. And when we behold His glory, we’re transformed into the same image. That is God eternal.
But God is not only eternal. God is also internal: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). God is in our spirits. In the second chapter, I talked about the descriptions of the Holy Spirit found in the Scriptures: He is like wind, fire, a river, and glory. As I pray in the Spirit, I close my eyes and picture one of these realities. I picture the shekinah glory of God burning inside of me like a brilliant light, and I speak to that glory.
I want to make it clear that it is not necessary to create a focal point in order to successfully speak in tongues. You can speak in tongues without involving your imagination and still connect with God. However, I have found that rooting my mind in the Word as I pray in the Spirit has been the most effective way of connecting with God and persevering in this gift. In Colossians 3 we are commanded to set our minds on things above (see Col. 3:1-2). These verses describe a diligent seeking of Heaven; we are called to take our thought lives and fill them with the reality of God. Filling our minds with the Word, as we pray in the Spirit, is one of the most powerful ways to do this.
It has taken a long time for God eternal and God internal to begin to become fixed realities in my mind. The first time I heard someone preach on Revelation 4 was in 1999, and I didn’t know what the person was talking about. It was only after several years of regularly reading the chapter that it became a fixed reality that I experienced when I closed my eyes. We are called to love God with all of our minds, and engaging our imagination is part of loving God with our minds. We are actually sanctifying our imaginations when we use them to picture the realities described in the Bible. Most of our lives we spend inside our minds, and we can’t turn them off, so we need to learn how to use our thought lives and our imagination to love God!
We know now that we are invited into a conversation, and we have been given everything we need to fix our minds’ eye on the Person we are speaking to. But this conversation is not in English or Chinese or Russian or Spanish or any other human language. John 4:23 states that God is Spirit and that those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. God is Spirit, and He communicates in the Spirit, by the Spirit. This means that when we speak in tongues, we are addressing God in His native tongue: spirit. The gift of tongues is the reality of the Holy Spirit speaking a distinct and specific language to God through us—a language that He understands. There is much comfort and strength to be derived from the revelation that we are speaking straight to the heart of God and that He understands us, even when we don’t understand ourselves. When we pray in the Spirit, we’re not babbling to the air; we’re communicating with a Person in a specific language.
During World War II, the United States Marines used a code created by Navajo Indians to send messages between fronts. The Axis powers were unable to break this code because the Navajo language was known by very few and was incredibly difficult to learn. The Navajo who created and translated this code were known as windtalkers. Mahesh Chavda, a powerful evangelist and revivalist in the Church today, talks about the picture of speaking in tongues these windtalkers have given us:
This story of the Navajo windtalkers brought to my mind a connection with those believers long ago who talked into the “wind” of Pentecost. The Greek word pneuma, which is often translated “spirit,” also means “breath” or “wind.” The 120 believers gathered in that upper room heard “a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind,” and they “began to speak with other tongues.” These newly Spirit-filled believers were spiritual “windtalkers.” They spoke in a new language that was like a “breath” of heaven.
Just as the Japanese could not penetrate the code of the Navajo windtalkers, so the devil cannot break through the language of the Spirit. Speaking in tongues is a heavenly communication, a language that links us with the glory of God. It puts us in tune with His heart and mind. Just as the Navajo windtalkers alone could understand each other in their unique tongue, so also do spiritual windtalkers have a secure communication with the Lord, a special language or “code” that cannot be intercepted, understood or subverted by the enemy. Speaking in tongues is the language of the realm of heaven.1
This is the first hindrance Paul addresses. We will not successfully engage long-term in praying in the Spirit if we are not rooted and grounded in the reality that we are speaking directly to God. He then says that when we speak in tongues, we speak mysteries in the Spirit. This statement addresses a second hindrance. When we pray in the Spirit, it is easy to feel disconnected from the reality of the conversation because we do not understand what we are saying. According to Paul, however, it is possible to know the content of our conversation in the Spirit: we are speaking mysteries. In Paul’s letters specifically, and in the New Testament in general, the word mystery refers to those things that were hidden in the heart of God throughout the Old Testament and unveiled through the ministry of Christ and the revelation of the Holy Spirit.2
We were made to discover the deep things of God. We were designed for the glory and drama of searching out His mysteries: “…It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” (Prov. 25:2). Why would God establish His Kingdom on the principle of hide-and-seek? The answer lies in the fact that we were created for relationship with God. We were made for communion—for relational connection with the living God—so He designed our hearts to run on fresh encounter and fresh revelation.
Proverbs 29:18 says that the absence of revelation leads to sin and death. It is only through encountering the mysteries of God’s heart that our hearts are awakened and sustained and we discover true life. Not only are we sustained when we encounter God in new and deeper ways, but He is magnified when we spend our lives searching for the mysteries of His heart. God receives greater glory when He hides the deep things of His heart because it draws people after Him to search carefully and diligently for these deep things as for treasure.
My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:1-5).
This is why the mysteries of God are not unknowable; they were established in order that we might find them. Jesus told the disciples that it was given to them to know the mysteries of the Kingdom. God desires to give the mysteries of the Kingdom to us! Mysteries aren’t things that are hidden from us, but things that are hidden for us. They aren’t things that can never be known, but things that are hidden for the purpose of being found.
I like to use the example of parents hiding Easter eggs for their children. (Don’t stress out because I’ve mentioned Easter eggs. I do not actually hide eggs for my children and then tell them the Easter Bunny visited us, but I still think it is a good illustration.) As a father I don’t try to prove my superiority by hiding the Easter eggs in impossible-to-find places. I hide them so that my kids will experience the excitement of the search and the delight of the discovery. The same is true of hide-and-seek. The point is not to hide so that my kids can’t find me; the point is to be found. Our Father is no different. He wants us to experience the excitement of searching for Him and the delight of finding Him. God hides to be found.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field (Matthew 13:44).
The aim and the goal of the searching is joy!
In Luke 10, the 70 disciples, who were sent out to proclaim the Kingdom of God to the surrounding towns and villages, returned to Jesus, bringing stories of healing, deliverance, and salvation. Look at Jesus’ response:
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight” (Luke 10:21).
It says that He rejoiced in the Spirit; in other words, He was overwhelmed with joy by the Father’s ways. “Father, I love how You run Your Kingdom. You hide these things from the proud and reveal them to the hungry and the humble.”
Many believers feel rejected or abandoned when they can’t find God right away. They think He is a mean God who doesn’t want to be found by them, or they think He is distant and uncaring—too preoccupied to notice their searching. The truth, though, is that God is drawing them out. In Song of Solomon 3, the young woman is provoked to go and search for her Beloved:
By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him, but I did not find him. “I will rise now,” I said, “and go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek the one I love.” I sought him, but I did not find him. The watchmen who go about the city found me; I said, “Have you seen the one I love?” Scarcely had I passed by them, when I found the one I love (Song of Solomon 3:1-4a).
Song of Solomon gives us a picture of the relationship between Jesus and His Bride. In these verses, we see that there are times when God draws away from us so that we become desperate. Once we decide to step away from everything that is comfortable and familiar and convenient in order to search for Him, we will be surprised at how quickly we find Him!
Once we have a correct paradigm, we will begin to find life and joy in the pursuit of the mysteries of God. I like to think of these mysteries in four broad categories, each of which are enormous in scope. Although this list of categories is not comprehensive, I believe that the majority of the mysteries that we release through speaking in tongues fit into these four categories. First, when I pray in the Spirit, I am speaking mysteries about God—who He is, how He feels, and what He is like. This category represents the realm of the knowledge of God. Second, when I pray in the Spirit, I am speaking mysteries about myself—who I am in Him and my divine destiny. When I speak in tongues, I actually prophesy my divine destiny. Third, when I pray in the Spirit I am speaking mysteries about His plans—the things burning on His heart, His thoughts and purposes, the new things that He is releasing today, and the issues that He is addressing. And fourth, when I pray in the Spirit, I am speaking mysteries about people in need. This could be someone who I will meet later in the day at the grocery store, a friend I haven’t spoken to recently, a loved one, or a spouse.
Many times when I am praying in the Spirit, I will find myself thinking of someone I haven’t seen in years. Often, I will see or hear from that person later in the day. This used to shock me, but over time I have grown to expect it. Now if the Lord brings someone to mind while I am praying in tongues, I will begin to intercede for the person and to release blessings over him or her. Then when I run into that person later, or receive a phone call or an E-mail, I am able to bless him or her in the way that God leads me. I recognize that my spirit has been prepared to minister to that individual, and I am filled with the faith that I need for the moment. Sometimes I am led to bless him or her financially, other times to pray for him or her and release prophetic words of encouragement. Whatever the need may be, I am actually carrying a deposit in my spirit that is meant for that person, and I have gradually learned to partner with the Lord in releasing that deposit. This is one of the ways that the mysteries of God’s heart are made known to His Body.
Paul was gripped with the mysteries of God. His letters to the churches are filled with revelation concerning these mysteries. In Romans, Paul writes that he does not want the believers to be ignorant of the mystery of God’s plan (see Rom. 11:25). In other words, Paul believed that it was the inheritance of every Christian to know and understand the mysteries of God. He did not want a single believer to be ignorant of the deep things of God’s heart. He understood these mysteries as centerpieces of revelation and information that are available to all believers. When Paul declared something to be a mystery, he was actually inviting believers into the revelation of Christ and all that was accomplished through His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. He now beckons the hungry to come through this doorway, to come and see.
There are six specific mysteries that Paul highlights in his letters—all of which are fundamentally related to the revelation of Christ. Beloved, we need the revelation of Christ Jesus and all that will be brought about through Him. I believe that when we pray in tongues we are actually probing the mind of God concerning these things. Here are the mysteries that Paul references:
…By revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel (Ephesians 3:3-6).
This is a great mystery [Bride and Bridegroom], but I speak concerning Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:32).
For I do not desire brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery [Israel and Church], lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25).
Behold, I tell you a mystery [resurrection from the dead]: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51).
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work (2 Thessalonians 2:7a).
The main component of the apostolic Gospel is the revelation of the mysteries of God. It is no coincidence that the man who spoke in tongues more than anyone is the same man who walked in the greatest revelation of the mysteries of God. Today, we are in an hour of the restoration of apostolic Christianity. As we engage with these mysteries through praying in the Spirit, we are going to see these realities connected to Christ and the Gospel released on the Earth in a greater way. We are in the midst of a transformation in the Body of Christ, and this transformation is about bringing the Church back to its apostolic foundations. What was the early Church, as well as today’s Church, built on? It was built on the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As we speak in tongues, we are declaring these very mysteries: “He who speaks in a tongue…in the spirit he speaks mysteries” (1 Cor. 14:2). We are speaking heavenly things that our minds do not yet understand, but as we pray in the Spirit, God releases these mysteries through our mouths and into our spirits so we may receive the deep things of His heart.
…“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-10a).
The mysteries of the Kingdom—the things that God has prepared for us—are meant to be unlocked as we speak in tongues.
The apostle Paul was a man of revelation. He was given so much revelation that there was a perpetual attack from the enemy to keep him humble (see 2 Cor. 12:7). There are several factors that play in the abundance of revelation that operated in him and his ministry, but none as intriguing as praying in the Spirit. He understood that to grow in the revelation of Christ, he must constantly engage the revelation of the Holy Spirit through speaking in tongues and declaring mysteries in the Spirit. When we pray in tongues, we pray into the realm of the Spirit—the place of revelation where divine mysteries are unlocked and communicated to our spirits. It is true that, as believers, we have the Holy Spirit, but we need to get into the realm of the Spirit.
I like to use the analogy of radio signals: most of us live our lives tuned into AM, but God is on FM. We have to change the signal we are receiving; we have to get into the Spirit to hear from God. The greatest and most precious commodity in the life of a believer today is the Spirit of revelation. In Ephesians 1:16-19, Paul prayed for the church of Ephesus that the Father of glory would give to them the Spirit of revelation and that their spiritual senses would be awakened to see, hear, perceive, and know the deep things of God.
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe (Ephesians 1:15-19a).
For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God (1 Corinthians 2:10b-12).
According to First Corinthians, one of the Holy Spirit’s main job descriptions is to search out the deep things of God (His mysteries) and make them known to the redeemed. As we engage the Holy Spirit through praying in the Spirit, we are actually being filled with the things that are burning on His heart. We have been given the Holy Spirit so that God might take us on a guided tour of Himself. The Holy Spirit is the search engine—the Spirit that searches all things, even the deep things of God—and we have received Him so that we might know the things that have been freely given us by God.
Romans 8:26 states, “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” As we pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit, the One who searches the deep things of God, is releasing out of our mouths the perfect will of the Father into existence. He is praying through us, for us, and with us to bring forth the plans and purposes of the Father. These are the mysteries that we were made by God to receive and release.
All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him (Matthew 11:27; see Luke 10:22).
Jesus declared that the way to know the Father was through revelation. I often pray, “Let me be the one to whom the Son reveals the Father.” While He lived on Earth, Jesus revealed the heart of the Father through His own life. After His death and ascension, He poured out His Spirit so that He might continue to reveal God to us. This is why we have been given the Spirit: so that we might know God and our inheritance in Him through the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit Is the Revealer of Truth
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you (John 16:12-15).
As I read this passage, I can picture Jesus looking at the disciples and longing to share the deepest things of His heart with them. He wanted to blow their minds with the revelation of the glory to come, but He knew they were already overwhelmed by what He had shared. He must have rejoiced in the fact that the Holy Spirit was coming, and that His role would be to take believers on a tour into the depths of truth. In these verses Jesus states that just as a tour guide leads people into unknown territory, so the Holy Spirit, as a divine guide, will lead the hungry and the prepared into the revelation of the mystery of Christ Jesus.
The Holy Spirit Is the Revealer of the Trinity
Verses 14-15 of the same passage state that the Holy Spirit will openly declare to those who have ears to hear whatever is shared between God the Father and God the Son; He will bring us into the conversation of the Godhead. I remember when I was first struck with this passage. For months I was constantly asking, “Holy Spirit, what are You hearing?” John tells us that whatever the Holy Spirit hears as the third Person of the Trinity, He will speak. He actually wants to reveal the conversations of God to us. I want to know what He longs to tell me! I want a fresh revelation every day that awakens my faith and escorts me into the realm of the spirit. What are the Father, Son, and Spirit talking about right now?
The Holy Spirit Is the Revealer of the Future
Not only does the Holy Spirit tell us what He is hearing presently, but He also tells us things to come. He is a prophetic Spirit who desires to unfold the future. What is God saying right now about the hour of history in which we live? What is He about to unfold on the planet? We have been given access to all things in Christ, and it is the Holy Spirit’s job to communicate all things to us—including things that have not yet taken place.
The Holy Spirit Is the Revealer of the Glories of the Age to Come
Amazingly, Paul does not simply state that we will be overwhelmed one day when we finally enter into the next age. Instead, he says that the realities that will be fully manifested in the next age are available to us now through the Holy Spirit. The day that we said yes to Jesus, God placed His Spirit in us as a guarantee of the age to come. We have, living inside of us, the foretaste of eternal glories. The Spirit is God’s earnest, His down payment, His guarantee that He will return and complete the work that He began at His first coming.
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:13-14).
…“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-10a).
The things that God has reserved for those who love Him will be fully manifested in the age to come. However, Paul tells us that through the Holy Spirit we can experience a “sneak peek” of those things in this age. We can actually taste the powers of the age to come today. It is these tokens that produce in us a longing for the fullness that will be released at the second coming of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the token, the down payment, the guarantee of our coming glory. Once the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us, He produces a longing for eternity in our hearts. In Romans 8:15, Paul tells us that we have received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father. Eight verses later, Paul tells us that the adoption that we are crying out for is actually the redemption of our bodies. As the Holy Spirit reveals more and more of eternity to our hearts, we cry out increasingly for the work of sanctification and glorification to be completed and for the transformation of even our physical bodies (see 2 Cor. 5:1-5).
This is our portion: to know the mysteries of God. The Holy Spirit has been given to us to reveal these mysteries. And the gift of tongues has been given to us so that we might engage the Holy Spirit and release that revelation. When we speak in tongues, we are awakening our spiritual senses and engaging this Spirit of revelation. Revelation is the ground on which faith stands. Revelation opens us up to all that is available to us in Christ. It makes known that which was concealed before—the plan of redemption hidden in the heart of God. Revelation takes us into the knowledge of God. This is why the greatest need in every believer’s life is the Spirit of revelation. Revelation makes known to us our inheritance, and once we see and know what we have been given and who God is, we are empowered to step out in faith. Faith flows from revelation; our ability to step out into the unseen is directly proportionate to the degree of revelation that we possess. Therefore, our greatest need is an ever-increasing Spirit of revelation.
Praying in the Spirit Is Critical to Engaging the Revelatory Realm
When we speak in tongues, we are not only proclaiming the mysteries of God, but we are also engaging the Spirit of revelation that will unlock those mysteries for us. This means that by praying in the Spirit we are actually preparing ourselves to walk in greater measures of faith. I find on a regular basis that after praying in tongues for 20 minutes my mind begins to be filled and flooded with divine thoughts, verses, and impressions. This revelation usually takes the form of verses and phrases in the Bible that are suddenly highlighted in my mind, connections between various Scriptures, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, or pictures and visions. Even my dream life changes when I am spending regular amounts of time praying in the Spirit.
As you speak in tongues, you will find the Word of God opening to your mind, you will see an increase in divine appointments, and your thoughts and emotions will begin to carry the anointing of God.
I believe that as we consistently pray in the Spirit, God will answer us with invitations to come up higher and receive greater impartations of revelation. The apostle John was on the island of Patmos when he was given a holy invitation into the realm of the Spirit to unlock divine mysteries. These mysteries became the Book of Revelation.
After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” Immediately I was in the Spirit (Revelation 4:1-2a).
1. Mahesh Chavda, The Hidden Power of Speaking in Tongues (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2003), 13.
2. James Strong, The Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 21st century ed., fully rev. by John R. Kohlenberger III and James A. Swanson (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 1516.