How does God speak to you? - Part 2

How does God speak to you?

In the last post I shared how God speaks to me through His word and through times of praise and worship. Today I am going to share about a couple of ways the Holy Spirit communicates to and through me. I am not a bible scholar, but God is continually revealing more and more of His truth to me, and my daily life experience is that the Holy Spirit desires to speak to us and through us. If this type of communication is something new to you, my prayer is that this post will be read with an open inquiring mind and heart, and a desire to have all that God has made available to you.

God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. Genesis 1:26 AMP

The Holy Spirit is part of the Us, along with the God the Father and Jesus the Son. He is the One that Jesus said would come after He left earth, to be with us, teach us and help us.

I have told you these things while I am still with you. But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you. John 14:26 AMP

Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will speak to us ...

I have still many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them or to take them upon you or to grasp them now. But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]. He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.  John 16:12-14 AMP

Sometimes that transmission takes place via the speaking in tongues, sometimes referred to as your heavenly language.

Soon after I became a Christian I learned about speaking in tongues. The whole concept sounded very strange to me, and even more odd when I heard people praying in tongues. I can't begin to imagine how it would have been for those people there on the day of Pentecost ...

And they were all filled (diffused throughout their souls) with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other (different, foreign) languages (tongues), as the Spirit kept giving them clear and loud expression [in each tongue in appropriate words]. Acts 2:4 AMP

But I was eager to have all that God had on offer to help me live my life the way He wanted me to live. I knew I would have to lay down my rational, need to understand everything mind, and open my heart this type of God's communication method.

I have learned over the past 20 something years of speaking in tongues that it is like learning anything else, it needs to be practiced regularly and there is always room to develop and grow in confidence.

As I said before I started speaking in tongues soon after I became a Christian. My 'preschool' of speaking in tongues was walking to work by myself, quietly making these sounds, while telling my mind to settle and go with it. This was the start of my learning about speaking in tongues for the edification, starting to understand first hand what a great comforter that the Holy Spirit is.

Over the years I have learned that when I am distraught about a circumstance and don't know what to pray, it is really helpful to pray in tongues. The Holy Spirit intercedes for me.

So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will. Romans 8:26-27 AMP

After speaking in tongues, I receive wonderful peace and often get a revelation about the circumstance. That revelation may be greater understanding about what is going on from a spiritual perspective. It may be a practical instruction on what I am to do next. Usually it always includes a deep reassurance that God has got this under control. 

Over the years God has been teaching me how to use the gift of tongues to bring His encouragement to others. Again, this has been, and still is a journey of learning. 

For me, it normally happens this way, God may put a person on my heart, or I will be praying for sometime face to face. I will start to pray in tongues and God will give me a scripture or a word for that person.

And as Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke in [foreign, unknown] tongues (languages) and prophesied. Acts 19:6 AMP

It is a stepping out in trusting that you have heard from God, as you are about to speak something into someone's life. In the beginning when I was learning to discern that I had received something God wanted to say, I could feel myself getting hot,  it was as though the Holy Spirit was saying, 'Yes, this is from me, speak it out.' And every time I was obedient and did speak it out, the receiver confirmed that the word resonated with them.

As my relationship with God has become more and more intimate, so too has my trust in what I hear during those times of speaking in tongues. The confirmation from the receiver of the scripture or word has also served to increase the confidence I have in God speaking through me. What a beautiful thing it is to know that God is using you as His vessel to bring encouragement to others. I often find myself in tears.

So, speaking in tongues is another way to hear what God wants to say to you, and also to others. Remember, let's always ask God for His wisdom and timing in encouraging others. He has the big picture and He knows what is going on in other people's lives.

Question for today, what do you believe about speaking in tongues? If you are unsure, why not ask God to reveal His truth to you today.

Paul put his hands on their heads and the Holy Spirit entered them. From that moment on, they were praising God in tongues and talking about God's actions. Acts 19:6 The Message