Why Praying in Tongue?—Because God Is A Genius
I researched A LOT about speaking in tongues. Nobody gives me a concrete idea until I received the gift of tongue myself during a prayer and fasting.
I was almost about to make this a paid post, but God reminded me:
“Freely you receive, freely you give.”
Let’s dive in.
Four parts of you participate when speaking in tongue: Tongue, Mind, Heart, Spirit.
The Spirit leads, the Heart hears, the Mind sees, and the Tongue executes.
Which part is skipped?
The Soul. That’s the point.
Praying in tongues is meant to bypass your soul—carnal feelings and reasoning.
David’s spirit commanded his soul,
“Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
For the help of His countenance.”
Psalm 42:5
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24
As long as your carnality interferes, there’s limit to your access to God.
What does that mean, limit?
You pray, fully in control. You’ve set a timer and have already decided what answers or directions you might receive from God. You pray according to:
your carnality: what is bothering your soul, your circumstances;
your imagination of God—everything outside your imagination is beyond the power of this You-version God. You have not, because you ask not. (James 4:2)
You ask not, because you can’t imagine it.
Get out of your mind.
You heard me right. Get out of your mind.
This is why praying in tongues is essential—it makes your prayer time unpredictable, as it should be.
In this article:
😱Why praying in tongues?—Because God is a genius
👁️What: Praying in tongues in practice
🕺🏼How: FAQs
Why praying in tongue?—Because God is a genius
My situation might be unique:
My mother tongue is Mandarin, but I don’t know how to pray in Mandarin. I only pray in English.
So my “prayer mother tongue” is English, just like yours.
When you pray in English, the words that come out of your mouth originate from your heart and mind—which means there are impurities: emotions, desires, and reasonings.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9
Why? Because you understand, adjust, correct, and sometimes withhold what you’re about to say.
Am I right? Do some of you “edit” your words while praying?
Praying in tongues eliminates that problem. Only God understands your language—not even you.
That’s the whole point: you do NOT understand what you’re saying until your spirit receives a response from God.
You don’t understand what you’re saying—that’s how your prayers bypass your carnal reasonings and feelings so you can pray in spirit and in truth.
As always, here’s my illustration to help you get the idea:
Because you do not understand what you’re praying until your spirit receives a response—whether it’s a vision in the renewed mind or a hearing from the burning of the heart—you skip the soul and pray exactly what God wants you to pray, receiving His revelations accurately.
This process is highly unpredictable. You truly “let Jesus take the wheel.”
Praying in tongues in practice
What does it feel like?
It flows out of your mouth, like you can’t stop it. Praying in English (or your native language) may become almost a chore once praying in tongues comes naturally to you. That’s how you distinguish between intentionally talking nonsense and truly speaking in tongues: it happens by surrendering to the Spirit and letting go of control.
Your heart responds. It burns. You weep, tremble, and overflow with joy, even though you don’t understand what you’re saying word for word (Jeremiah 20:9, Luke 24:32).
Your renewed mind sees. While you speak in tongues, you may not understand the language, but you know what it means—because you will see it in a vision. That’s how the Spirit of God communicates: the heart hears, and the mind sees (Jeremiah 1:11).
You transcend the physical world.
How the spirit works?
The Holy Spirit is the one who leads your spirit to pray in tongues and makes this possible. The Spirit releases the words; He touches your heart and gives you visions.
The words you speak will not be a word-for-word translation of your vision.
You will see in the vision and hear in your heart—so you know what you’re praying, but you can’t teach another person this “language” through vocabulary, syllables, pronunciation, grammar, or syntax.
How does it sound like?
You might sound literally crazy, just as Paul described in 1 Corinthians 14.
But it can also be beautiful, like the Elvish language in The Lord of the Rings. (This is closest to my experience, so I believe J.R.R. Tolkien also spoke in tongues.)
It can sound funny, like the Sims language. (I also experienced this)
It can resemble those preachers you’ve watched on YouTube—Sha—ba—ba—ba—ba. (Interestingly, I didn’t speak a single line of sha-ba-ba-ba-ba. But I know they are NOT faking because it’s really awkward to speak in tongues in public.)
It can also sound like Ha-ku-na-ma-ta-ta.
If God wants me to, I’ll record myself praying in tongues and publish it here.
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FAQs
How can I receive the gift of tongue?
I received this gift after six months of regular fasting—and preaching. I had been asking for it as soon as I knew it existed, so it took me about a year.
This is how I received it, but your situation can be completely different—hopefully, easier:
Water baptism. (April 2023)
Be delivered from the sins of tongues. (February, 2024)
Be sanctified for the motive—love.
Baptism of fire—tribulations and isolation.
Pray and fast. (Since Jan 2024, intensely after March)
Be crucified. (August, 2024)
Be baptized in the Holy Spirit. (September, 2024)
Lastly, my discovery:
You have a higher chance of receiving this gift if you’ve been an intercessor for the people around you.
I think I can speak in tongues, but I’m not sure. Am I just babbling?
You won’t be sure until you use it. Satan won’t stop gaslighting you. Keep praying, fasting, and “babbling.”
Is it completely without effort? Is it involuntary?
You do need to open your mouth, driven by a strong urge to release the unknown tongues. As Jeremiah said,
“But His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” Jeremiah 20:9
So...not really. But when you need to go to the bathroom, you need to go.
I don’t feel the need to pray in tongues.
If God wants to gift it to you, you will have the desire for it. If God gifts it to you, He knew you’ll need it. (This gift is very common among intercessors).
Shouldn’t tongues be interpreted for others?
First, the gift of tongues and the gift of interpreting tongues are different.
Second, yes, it needs to be interpreted in a church setting.
In real life, if I pray in tongues for you in person, I (the one praying) can tell you roughly what I’m praying once the response from God comes through my spirit. So there may be a delay.
But I have not yet laid my hands on anyone to help them receive the gift. So I need to explore that part.
I believe speaking in tongues means speaking in a foreign human language that the person has never learned before, not “talking nonsense.”
Paul addressed this topic repeatedly in 1 Corinthians 14.
What are the benefits?
It strengthens your spirit.
Why do I want to strengthen my spirit?
Because the world we live in is unreal. Every trouble and blessing you experience operates in the spiritual realm. Money operates in the spiritual as well.
This is why the Bible says, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” and “Set your minds on the things above not the things on earth.”
This world is virtual and the things on earth are as it is in heaven, if we pray.
The moment you gave your life to Christ, your resources changed. You can’t serve two masters. You might think you’re only serving God, but as long as you’re carnal and not led by the Spirit, you’re unconsciously serving two masters.
This is why many Christians struggle in various ways, including in their faith—especially in their faith.
Here’s an article I wrote:
Why speaking in tongues strengthens my spirit?
You’ll need to have no self-consciousness to speak in tongue.
You can’t edge self-consciousness out until you surrender to the Holy Spirit.
The first time is a manifestation of you being led by the Spirit, and after that, each time you speak in tongues, it strengthens your spirit.
What changes have you discovered ever since you started praying in tongues?
I can pray anytime, anywhere. I just open my mouth and let God decide what to pray for.
I pray in tongues when facing temptations. It weakens my flesh far more effectively than praying in English.
The experience is much richer than this. Internally, you’re Holy Spirit drunk—you feel ridiculously happy; your physical, external world will also manifest changes.
Look, and you’ll see.
Everything in the Bible is real, precisely, eternally.
I pray that all of you who seek, shall find. But remember—
“The greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13
Relevant Scripture:
Feel free to share your experience if you pray in tongues and ask any questions if you haven’t yet—let iron sharpens iron:
Wow, that makes a lot of sense. However I have always been reserved about this. Since it seems like just a lot of babbling with no edification. But what do I know. Since I don't have the gift. But if it is real, I could definitely use it in my prayer closet. To edify myself, since I am tormented with rejection. And need to find a new purpose for my life. And can't seem to find my way out of my rut. Please say a prayer for me. Thank you
Hi Alice, thank you for sharing your beautiful experience. One thing, I believe, we should be careful is that prayers in bible are not majorly described in the state where we don't really logically understanding; in most cases, I think all cases though, the prayers in the bible are, as you said in your beautiful experience, from the heart with understandable language with Holy Ghost. I believe however, as Hannah was praying in God's temple, when we are in a certain emotional state, any sound could come out from our mouth, which might not be an exact vocabulary but sound, which can show our emotion. Thanks again Alice for your sharing. God bless you.