What do tongues sound like

My fundamentalist church in Florida could not have been less tolerant of anything but strict conformity to it and its leader. Almost every family lived in the new suburban development surrounding the church, and everyone socialized together.

All the kids went to the same school, too, which was basically a homeschool co-op in the church basement where our teachers were mostly the moms of kids who went there. Like many non-denominational churches, ours cherry-picked traditions and doctrine from other denominations, primarily the Pentecostals. We also believed in sacred dance, which would manifest itself in women spontaneously or, looking back, and considering their ballet slippers, maybe not-so-spontaneously running up to the stage during the worship service.

The men and some of the younger kids would dance sometimes, too, but just in the aisles. Some adults were dancers. Some adults were tongue-speakers. Some, like my parents, were too shy for either. But all of them closed their eyes and raised their hands to heaven, giving a curious child the chance to watch them unobserved.

It was impossible to look away when your strict math teacher stood just a few feet from you, face twisted with ecstasy and speaking in tongues without pause or self-consciousness, as if it were an actual dialect. Like the dancing, it was almost a contest to see who could worship the hardest while appearing the most natural. Maybe anything that involves performance naturally becomes a competition.

It was definitely hilarious when two dancers would run up at the same time, and have to awkwardly share the stage.

But there were moments, especially as I got older, where I too raised my hands and closed my eyes and felt my heart surge and heard a loud roaring in my ears. I felt part of something bigger, some great mystery, and I was filled with an overwhelming desire to worship.

Religious ecstasy was a real, easily identifiable state. Years later, when I first tried the drug ecstasy, I felt it come back like muscle memory. When I was, 13 I went to a regular youth group meeting on Sunday nights. It was led by a couple in their mid-thirties. One spring evening, something was definitely different from usual. I knew that it had its roots in these verses from Acts of the New Testament, which I had memorized as part of the scripture memorization we did at school:.

Some people call it speaking in tongues, praying in the spirit, praying in tongues, and even a personal prayer language. But these phrases all describe the very same thing. When we speak in tongues, we use a language enabled by the Spirit that cannot be understood by the natural mind.

These prayers come from our spirit straight to the Spirit of God, using our natural lips, tongues and voices. Praying in the spirit is one of the most powerful tools we have in our arsenal as believers to live out the abundant life. It brings wisdom and revelation, and confidence in praying the perfect will of God. Speaking in tongues fosters intimacy with Him, among many other benefits! Paul wrote that he thanked God that he prayed in tongues more than anyone 1 Cor. I doubt that is a coincidence.

We have a lot to say about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and there are many scriptures that explain how it works. We encourage you to order a free Your Life with God booklet or watch our series, Everyday Faith ; both are available to you for free on our website. You can also email us at [email protected] or call our prayer line.

Knowing the benefits of praying in tongues is a first step, but beginning to do so can sometimes be challenging. Although it only took Ashley a few months, it took me about twelve years! Some of us begin to speak in tongues right away, but for others it may take a little while.

In my case, no one taught me correctly about the Holy Spirit. So, I had a lot of natural fear regarding speaking in tongues. It was as though I had a mental block, even though I desired it. I really struggled to overcome those things.

In fact, I went down to the altar probably ten times, and not once did I ever pray in the spirit! I felt like it was my fault, that I was doing something wrong, that something in me was broken. The Holy Spirit will not force Himself on us! Read and ponder passages in the Bible that discuss speaking in tongues, such as 1 Corinthians Remember that, according to some people, speaking in tongues is an ability that God grants to people in order to pray and feel closer to the holy spirit.

If other members of your church practice speaking in tongues, it may be helpful for you to talk about this prayer method with them to learn more about it. Build the confidence in yourself to speak in tongues. Speaking in tongues can be hard to do at first, so building up your confidence and desire to do so will help keep you motivated in the long run.

Repeat to yourself that you will be able to speak in tongues and allow yourself to feel confident that you will succeed. Doing this will keep you motivated and may also make it easier for you to speak in tongues on the first go!

Create a distraction-free environment around you for the best results. Find a quiet place where you can sit and be alone for up to an hour, or however long you plan to pray by speaking in tongues. Try to avoid noises from things that may call your attention away from God, such as loud children, a TV playing, or street noise from outside. You may also want to avoid being around other people, if this would cause you any embarrassment.

Method 2. Start by making simple, monosyllabic sounds. Make the first sounds that pop into your head and allow yourself to babble a bit. This may seem a bit awkward at first and will sound like a baby babbling, but this is the point!

You have to start producing random speech before God will help you to speak in tongues. These sounds will probably be choppy and repetitive at first. Pay attention to those sounds that you tend to naturally produce most frequently and focus on them in your babbling. These may reflect God communicating with you, so repeat these phrases to add them to your prayer language. Try praying those words or sounds that seem to pop into your head. This is a form of internal discovery that allows you to add to your prayer language vocabulary and expand your ability to speak in tongues.

These may be the words that God flows through your spirit and which result in your speaking in tongues. God will not cause your lips to move, which is why the babbling is so important.

However, God may cause certain words or sounds to pop into your head; repeating these sounds is the basis for speaking in tongues. Ask for increased faith to reinforce your devout mindset. Method 3. Instead, think of it more like God is telling you through your spirit what words you should speak. Try not to overthink or feel discouraged about speaking in tongues. If this begins to happen, take a break from your session and try again later after some prayer or just some rest.

Talking about this prayer method with people like this may cause you to feel discouraged or give up on speaking in tongues entirely. Sarath guttikonda. Just sit in a quiet place and relax yourself. Then pray to God and let the Holy spirit flow through you.