As one who both practices and continues to study the gift of tongues it is not uncommon to run into folks who say they are “open” to receiving the gift, yet attest that they have not come to experience the phenomenon personally. I can usually, but not exhaustively, place these folks in five categories:

Category 1 are those who say they are “open” to the gift but believe that when God gives out the gift He is going to do so sovereignly. A person doesn’t need to seek the gift of tongues or any gift for that matter, rather if God wants someone to have it, God will make it happen all on HIs own and the person will just start manifesting the gift.

Category 2 are those who may be genuinely open, interested, and may have even asked God to receive the gift of tongues. But, their hang-up is that they also think that God has not yet sent it to them yet. Why? Because they believe that when God sends the gift of tongues, the gift comes upon a person in such a way that it either takes that person by force, or that some kind of an overwhelming urge surges through the senses so much so that one is basically overwhelmed and compelled to speak forth these “tongues” nearly independent of one’s control.

Category 3 are those who in good faith have sought God, opened themselves up to receiving, asked God for the gift, and then in a bold show of faith even tried to speak in tongues via speaking forth random syllables on their own volition. Perhaps they have been coached by another friend/pastor/believer who used this method as a pathway to jumpstart the gift of tongues because it worked for them. Yet unfortunately for category 3 people, they testify that after trying this method, and some many MANY times over, they have never felt their experience was real or supernaturally inspired. It just all seems made up. Therefore, they cease to continue with that method.

Category 4 are those who have had damaging experiences in former church settings where ministers/pastors have lobbed criticisms saying or insisting that they must not be submitted or committed to God enough, or they must have sin in their lives that is holding back God’s blessing, or that God is withholding the gift to teach patience of some other heavenly lesson.

Category 5 are those who have had negative experiences in former church settings where church leaders employed foolish or traumatic coaching tactics, such as telling one to “loosen their jaw”, or physically grabbing ones chin and shaking it to help someone loosen up and speak in tongues, or the church leader(s) makes the person feel so pressured to speak in tongues that the person just makes some random syllables up to just get the whole ordeal over with.

I’m sure that we could come up with other categories, but those are the majority of stories that I have encountered over the last 20+ years.

Therefore, I wanted to speak to some of these categories and help offer some encouragement to those, who, despite coming from one or more of those categories, still have an openness to receiving the wonderful gift of sharing intimacy with God through tongues. I sincerely believe that the only reason you still have this openness and desire is because God has placed this desire in your heart. You hope there is something more to the Christian life than just sitting through church meetings and sending up one-way prayers. And there is something in your spirit that is telling you that there is more—Well, THERE IS!

In having the pleasure of casually interviewing over forty people, and having come across the personal testimonies of what must be dozens upon dozens more people who described their initial tongue experience, I can testify that there are two distinct commonalities found among them all.

The first one is that there is no exact formula for how one initially receives the gift of tongues. My data show unequivocally that the initial process varies from person to person and different techniques fail/succeed with different people. For example, Person A would tell me that they indeed had felt an almost overwhelming inner urge to speak when they first received the gift, but two weeks later Person B would say that they had felt no urge whatsoever and instead had to step out in faith speaking out random syllables out loud before the gift indeed eventually came. Then, person C would tell me that they initially had a church leader lay hands and pray over them to receive the gift but nothing happened; however, days later while in prayer and singing (or in another person’s case in the shower!) they started hearing a strange, unintelligible language in their head which upon speaking it out loud they received the gift in full. Carol Wimber, wife of John Wimber who helped pioneer the Vineyard fellowship, wanted nothing to do with tongues. Yet years after her husband initially received the gift, she experienced on one random night a powerful dream. When she awoke, she found herself speaking in an unknown heavenly language! You see, there just is no formula to the things of God.

The second commonality I found in my data is that when a person did not receive the gift of tongues immediately after asking God or having someone lay hands on them in prayer, those who did eventually receive the gift of tongues just simply DID NOT GIVE UP! Whether they had a personal desire for the gift, or were just doing what the pastor told them, in all cases those who experienced what we might call a delayed reception of the gift of tongues, the receiver continued to aggressively seek God and act in faith believing that there was indeed some reality to tongues that God wanted them to have regardless of the reason or cause of the delay. Sure, they might have dithered along the way in their faith and aggressiveness, but eventually they would come back around to seeking God and the gift.

Most of us can agree with the first commonality—a person can receive the gift of tongues in a variety of environments and methods. We need to look no further than scripture to affirm this point: in Acts 2 the disciples were praying on their own when the gift of tongues fell on them, in Acts 10 it was when the members of Cornelius’s house heard the preaching of the good news of Jesus that the gift of tongues was poured out from heaven, and in Acts 19 we see that only after the Apostle Paul laid hands on the disciples in Ephesus that the gift of tongues was manifest. But should we limit the reception of the gift of tongues to only those three methods? Is that what the Bible is trying to communicate to us? Or is scripture trying to tell us that God is creative, open, flexible and that his methods cannot be put in a box?

I bet more of us would concede to the latter.

Yet, even though most of us can agree with this first commonality it is with the second commonality where that most have a harder time. That is, DON’T GIVE UP.

MY FRIEND GAIL

Let me preface my encouragement to you on this second commonality, with a story of a close friend of mine named Gail:

Gail grew up in a household in the 1980’s where the parents had caught the latter end of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement. Each of Gail’s parents had received the gift of tongues and wanted to share this gift and practice with their children early—I mean REALLY early. Gail’s parents prayed for their children to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues while their children were in their single digits. While still in grade school Gail’s parents prayed over the three siblings to speak in tongues. Gail reports that one of the siblings received the gift right away and was able to fluently belch off tongues at ease and jumped up and down with joy (again, still in their Elementary School days!) while her and the other sibling did not have the same immediate experience—not even close. I don’t know the rest of the story of the second sibling, but I do know the story of the third, Gail’s story.

Gail loved God as a child and believed in the gift of tongues, which she witnessed in her parents. But, what is unique in Gail’s story is that in a beautiful, childlike faith, Gail did not merely take a passive position and say to herself, “We’ll, if God wants me to have this gift, then I’ll just start speaking in tongues one day”, rather she stepped out in faith and assumed a more aggressive posture. With the gentle urging of her father, Gail did her best to create some syllables and speak out what she believed was a genuine expression of tongues from her heart and offered that up to God in prayer. As an adult she can still remember the phrase she would repeat in prayer. Perhaps it was something like, “Ba da kandera shanda” or something similarly unintelligible.

What grieves my heart is that there are some people who would hear such a story and see this sweet, childlike expression of faith as sacrilegious, seriously misguided, or as made-up mumbo jumbo as best. But, let me ask you this: would we ever look at a little child in that way when they tried to say their first words between 12-18 months? Do we mock them for trying to do what they hear their daddies and mommies do? Do we thumb our noses at them just because they are doing the best they can?  Of course not! Rather, we commend them and JOYFULLY encourage them to continue in their pursuit of apprehending the full grasp of the language. We might even babble along with them as we cheer them along! And if we view our Abba, daddy Father God as perfect love, someone who wants nothing but the best for us so that we too can enter into the triune love of the Father, Son, and Spirit, is it too hard for us to see the Father encouraging us to step out in faith as little Gail did through her adolescence and teen years? The Father says, “Yes, my precious little girl! Come to me and I will never let you down or disappoint. Keep seeking me and I will be your reward.” I totally imagine God babbling right along with Gail, his precious and beloved little girl.

Gail’s story would be beautiful in itself if it stopped there…but it doesn’t! I may not have all the logistical facts totally right on this next part, but I have preserved the gist of the story none the less.

Gail continued her childlike faith in God throughout her teens and early adulthood including employing her “sentence” in tongues regularly all along her merry way.

Now as the story goes, in her early 20’s she found herself in an African country doing ministry work. On one random day she once again set herself to commune with God in prayer. However, as she moved between praying in English and praying her “sentence” in tongues something broke open. Her tongues-speech suddenly transformed from a simple sentence into a full, dynamic, fluid and diverse language in the Spirit. Holy cow!

From that moment on Gail’s prayer language to God was forever changed. One simple childlike sentence exploded into a dynamic gift of tongues that has changed her life forever.

Humans LOVE to judge other humans. And some of you reading this are dying to judge Gail as well—was that trivial sentence that she carried from childhood really the gift of tongues and something transcendent from God, or just something she made up herself? Well, judge if you’d like, but whatever the case may be she most definitely walks in the gift now!

I know Gail personally. I pray with her regularly. This woman has been empowered with the Holy Spirit in a way that transforms her life and the lives of those around her. She will never be the same.

Yet had she not persisted in stepping out in faith and aggressively laid hold of the gift of tongues through simple experimentation and humility, it is more likely than not that she would not be living the Spirit-filled, charismatic, prophetic life and encountering Jesus in greater intimacy that she, her family, and others around her enjoy today.

Gail’s story is so beautifully simple that is hard for one not to adore the love of a daughter of God joyfully seeking after the good and perfect gifts that proceed from the Father of heavenly lights. Yet as I mentioned before I told Gail’s story, it is this persistent process, this second commonality, that is what often times is a stumbling block to those who have been seeking after the gift of the tongues.

As former US president Calvin Coolidge said,

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.”

Persistence is the master key to unlocking the charismatic potentials of the Holy Spirit. Even Jesus encouraged His disciples to be persistent, to press through, to aggressively petition the throne of God for the things that God promises to us (Luke 18:1-6). Daniel’s persistent prayers brought him the answers that he was seeking (Daniel chapter 9-10).

Would you consider being childlike as Gail? Would you consider reigniting your passion for speaking in tongues and go to God directly with your humble voice and yield your everything over to Him? I ask you to consider approaching God and the gift of tongues as one such possible option to receiving the gift.

I know there are many of you out there who desire to seek more of God tangibly (including the gift of tongues) but are hesitant to take the next leap of faith. That’s because the next step would require you to look childish. You might feel that if someone caught you trying to do what Gail did you would be laughed at for being foolish. Others may think you are off your rocker. Yes, you might even have to, in faith, say some syllables that just seem like non-sense or baby talk. But as we saw with Gail the rewards can be HUGE, the payoffs ASTRONOMICAL, and however you may think the Kingdom of God operates, one cannot deny the life-changing fruit that originated from one little girls persistence to seek more of God.

On to part 2—>

*As always, I’d love to hear what’s on your mind so please drop your thoughts in the comment section below!