What's having the gift of tongues like?
- Thread starter dothackzero
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B
You gotta question why you want it? I'm not here to judge anybody, I'm just saying how my campus pastor always says it. Your heart has to be right. You have to make sure that you truely want it to serve and praise God with. Then, if He waits longer, it should become more precious to you when you do receive it 
Well, I think I found something interasting... I do think it applies to everyone since some people get the baptism of the spirit when they 1st become Christian, but I do think, it's gonna apply to me.
In 1 Corinthians 12:31 we read, "But eagerly desire the greater gifts." The Greek word used there, zêloute, is an imperative and means "earnestly desire." From zêloute we have the words zeal, zealous, and zealot. It means to come to a boiling point, to be extremely persistent in the pursuit of something good, or to strive earnestly to possess something. A zealot is one who burns with passion. This same word is used in John 2:17 to describe Jesus Christ: "Zeal for your house will consume me." So when Paul tells us to eagerly desire spiritual gifts, he is not speaking about pursuing them with a so-so desire, with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. No, we are to be zealous, passionate, and persistent in our pursuit of spiritual gifts.
http://www.gracevalley.org/sermon_trans/1999/Gifts_of_Holy_Spirit_1.html
In 1 Corinthians 12:31 we read, "But eagerly desire the greater gifts." The Greek word used there, zêloute, is an imperative and means "earnestly desire." From zêloute we have the words zeal, zealous, and zealot. It means to come to a boiling point, to be extremely persistent in the pursuit of something good, or to strive earnestly to possess something. A zealot is one who burns with passion. This same word is used in John 2:17 to describe Jesus Christ: "Zeal for your house will consume me." So when Paul tells us to eagerly desire spiritual gifts, he is not speaking about pursuing them with a so-so desire, with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. No, we are to be zealous, passionate, and persistent in our pursuit of spiritual gifts.
http://www.gracevalley.org/sermon_trans/1999/Gifts_of_Holy_Spirit_1.html
That's absolutely right dothackzero, just desire them. Hopefully that desire for the gifts is out of a desire and hunger for the gift-giver and desire of a greater awareness and closeness of His presence.
You know that desire comes from God, period.
Don't worry so much about your motives, whether they are selfish or not, or waiting for your "heart to be right" as a previous poster said (good advice, but sometimes can do more harm than good if we're always worrying about if our heart is right and keep us self-focussed rather than God-focussed). As far as I'm aware, God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit when our hearts were still sick with sin and were not right. We don't have to be perfect to receive God's gifts - that's why they're called gifts and not rewards.
Anyway it's pretty much impossible to have selfish motives when we're seeking God for His gifts. A selfish motive for supernatural power is what drives pagans and they think it all comes from themselves or mother earth or whatever. Christians don't do that, we seek God. And when I got the gift I prayed in tongues a lot. And well if it's selfish to pray a lot then so be it, I was selfish. Some Christians think you have to be out on the mission fields or something 24/7 and always doing something for others, but that's why there's plenty of burnt out pastors who can only spare 5 minutes a night in prayer at best. It's ok to be a bit selfish for the things of God it's a lot better than not seeking God at all. Thank God you aren't seeking after drugs or fast women (hopefully) instead but are desiring the things of God. That puts you a cut above the rest. Besides, it's not like winning the lotto, that will impress all your friends and give you a halo on your head. It won't really impress anyone, if anything, sometimes you have to put up with other christians or churches and non-christians who are strongly anti-tongues and will ridicule and make fun of you, just like they did at Pentecost saying they were all drunk.
I know that books I've read on tongues and the gifts usually have on the last page "just pray this simple prayer to God and mean it with your heart..." and it's "supposed" to come easy and whiz bang it's all supposed to happen , and I guess it should be that simple but in my experience it wasn't. For myself it took about 3 years of wishing, hoping, asking, begging, pleading, with God to be baptised in the Spirit and speak in tongues until eventually I was. Hopefully it will come quicker for you, but the moral of the story is - don't give up your quest.
You know that desire comes from God, period.
Don't worry so much about your motives, whether they are selfish or not, or waiting for your "heart to be right" as a previous poster said (good advice, but sometimes can do more harm than good if we're always worrying about if our heart is right and keep us self-focussed rather than God-focussed). As far as I'm aware, God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit when our hearts were still sick with sin and were not right. We don't have to be perfect to receive God's gifts - that's why they're called gifts and not rewards.
Anyway it's pretty much impossible to have selfish motives when we're seeking God for His gifts. A selfish motive for supernatural power is what drives pagans and they think it all comes from themselves or mother earth or whatever. Christians don't do that, we seek God. And when I got the gift I prayed in tongues a lot. And well if it's selfish to pray a lot then so be it, I was selfish. Some Christians think you have to be out on the mission fields or something 24/7 and always doing something for others, but that's why there's plenty of burnt out pastors who can only spare 5 minutes a night in prayer at best. It's ok to be a bit selfish for the things of God it's a lot better than not seeking God at all. Thank God you aren't seeking after drugs or fast women (hopefully
) instead but are desiring the things of God. That puts you a cut above the rest. Besides, it's not like winning the lotto, that will impress all your friends and give you a halo on your head. It won't really impress anyone, if anything, sometimes you have to put up with other christians or churches and non-christians who are strongly anti-tongues and will ridicule and make fun of you, just like they did at Pentecost saying they were all drunk.I know that books I've read on tongues and the gifts usually have on the last page "just pray this simple prayer to God and mean it with your heart..." and it's "supposed" to come easy and whiz bang it's all supposed to happen , and I guess it should be that simple but in my experience it wasn't. For myself it took about 3 years of wishing, hoping, asking, begging, pleading, with God to be baptised in the Spirit and speak in tongues until eventually I was. Hopefully it will come quicker for you, but the moral of the story is - don't give up your quest.
H
Okay, I've got a question. I'm actually a little bit scared to speak in tongues. Not going to lie, it kind of freaks me out a little bit. I know I shouldn't be scared, but I'm worried what I'm saying isn't going to be led by the Holy Spirit, but that it's Satan decieving me into babbling. How do you know when it's the Holy Spirit talking through you and not your mind tricking your mouth into making nonsense?
H
Sorry, demonic posession scares the bajeebus out of me. I have serious control issues and the idea of something inside of me controlling my body is a little bit frightening for me. I'm not scared of God, but I think He understands my fear and is being patient with me. I guess it's time for me to do some learning and ask some questions about demonic posession so I can get over my fear and more fully accept the gifts God has in store for me.
The Holy Spirit lives inside you if you are a Christian, if He doesn't you are not a Christian. But He doesn't "possess" or "control" people like demons do. We have complete control over the spiritual gift when to start and when to stop it. The difference is that it is coming from a different source, from our spirit/heart not our mind. You move your own mouth and make the sounds yourself as the Spirit gives you the words to say.
H
Hmm, okay. I guess I got freaked out because when I first started reading the threads about tongues my pulse started to race really fast and my heart started to pound and it felt like I was going to pass out, but it also felt different from passing out. It sort of felt like the world was melting away or moving really fast and I was sitting still and then my tongue felt super heavy in my mouth, then it felt like it was filling up my mouth and something needed to burst out of it. I freaked out pretty bad and started shaking my head to make the feeling go away, and it hasn't happened since.
G
like snail said, that's very interesting, especially when you say:
"then it felt like it was filling up my mouth and something needed to burst out of it."
that very much to me appears to be that the Holy Spirit came upon you but you resisted!
what was going through your mind or what where you reading just before you started feeling something strange?
"then it felt like it was filling up my mouth and something needed to burst out of it."
that very much to me appears to be that the Holy Spirit came upon you but you resisted!
what was going through your mind or what where you reading just before you started feeling something strange?