Friday, February 1, 2008

Edifying myself......

I grew up in a Reformed Baptist church, and never knew much about the Holy Spirit and the gifts. As an adult I attended a church that was more charismatic, and taught on the Holy Spirit and encouraged prophecies during Sunday meetings. Over the years I only learned a little about the gifts, such as tongues. One time at a teaching time on the Holy Spirit, someone prayed for me and said I believe God wants to give you the gift of tongues. At that time I was a little bummed, because I honestly didn't understand tongues and was weirded out by the gift. So I told some friends about this and asked some questions, they didn't really satisfy my full curiosity. Some years later I began to become interested again in speaking in tongues but still had my hesitations about it. One night we had some guests and some friends over and we were worshipping the Lord and it was amazing! We then began to pray for each other and I was prayed over to "receive" the gift of tongues and then everyone proceeded to wait for me to open my mouth and begin to pray in tongues. I felt very uncomfortable with this as all eyes were on me and I felt pressure to perform, so to speak.  Anyway, I did not speak in tongues after this event and forgot about it until this summer when I talked to another friend about it. She said try praying in the shower so you can't really hear yourself and no one else can, maybe you won't feel so weird. 
Then recently I began to desire to experience everything God has for me. Reading the book of Acts and and 1 Corinthians inspired me to seek God again about this gift. Listening to Rob's preaching has inspired me to, "Be being filled." In one of his messages, he shared how he experiences God's manifest presence every day and said if he didn't he would feel very lonely.
My husband has been speaking in tongues since he was saved, back in the 80's in a rather Pentecostal church. He says, " Tongues is easy, just open up your mouth and start moving your tongue and just speak whatever comes." Okay, so then I read a devotional by Joseph Prince and he talked of the benefits of praying in tongues to your health, and that was the final thing I needed to hear. So I have been seeking the Lord to pour out His Spirit on me and allow me to sense His manifest presence, this has been a regular heart's cry as of late. Well, He answered me! 
Last night I was in bed longing for some much needed sleep. The past several nights the baby has been up alot in the night and Keith has been snoring, quite intensely(at least he's getting some sleep!).....so I was quite frustrated about this re-occuring arrangement and I began to pray for God to pour out His Spirit on me, and I opened my mouth and began to pray in tongues, for the first time, and I became so relaxed and it was so cool as I prayed in tongues, I subconsciously prayed, so I could understand, that God would let me sense His Presence, and as I lay there, He came, and gave me a sweet taste of intimacy with Him. I was so encouraged and full of joy. Next thing I remember, I woke up after sleeping soundly the whole night! No baby waking me up and no husband snoring to keep me up! Thank you Lord for meeting me and for giving me my heart's desire. 
I share this story to encourage others, and hopefully you will see that my fears and lack of comfortability with this gift have been melted away by God's faithfulness to me, to pursue this gift. Tongues is so that we can edify ourselves.....how cool is that, God gave us this manifestation to build ourselves up!!! 

******ADD IN *********
I found this article on Jesse Phillips blog, Resurgence, and I found it very thorough and helpful in answering anyone who has questions about the gift of tongues might want to read. Check it out! 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow... that is very wonderful! I think you hit on a key point, when you said that in the one particular circumstance, you felt pressure to perform, and that's most certainly not what God's gifts are for, so it's great that you were able to keep on seeking Him all this time and it just came "naturally." :)

My wife and I both also felt that pressure in our early pentecostal life, not just with tongues but in regards to other gifts as well. Well, really, the whole Christian life was a pressure to perform! LOL

But when it came to tongues, mine also came naturally and when I wasn't in the presence of anyone else. It's been a wonderful gift, and I pray that you are truly blessed and edified with this gift.

Sometimes when I'm not sure how to pray I begin praying in tongues. Other times I suddenly find myself having an urge to pray in tongues and so I just do it. One time I was praying in tongues and I suddenly had an urge to pray for a friend's baby who was still in her womb. The following day she said that the previous day (when I had been praying) they had found a certain issue with the baby's heart, but it was all cleared up now. I just think it's wonderful when God does things like that!

lydia said...

Yeah, I'm a go with the flow kinda gal anyway, lol.....thanks, as always for your encouragement and for sharing your experience as well. Cool testimony about your friend's baby, yes it is wonderful, and we get to be a part of it and see His works done through us, how encouraging!!

jul said...

Yay Lydia, what a great story!

Anonymous said...

Way cool, Lydia!!

That is so neat!

Aida said...

Lydia, this is great!! I'm so excited for you. I began speaking in tongues many years ago but now don't do it as much as I should. Your post and Joel's comments have encouraged me to not let this gift lay unused.

Thanks for sharing.

Aida