Kathy Degraw
kathydegrawministries.org
I remember when I first started to pray in tongues. I had longed for that gift of prayer. One day, as I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, my prayer language instantly manifested. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to speak” (Acts 2:4). I have heard recently from the Lord to make it a priority and primary focus to be praying in tongues. I was even speaking with some friends who are hearing the same thing from the Lord right now. There is an urgency to pray in tongues and release our heavenly prayer language. Why is it important to pray in tongues? What are the benefits? The Lord is showing me in this season that as we pray in tongues, our destiny will come forth.
Praying in tongues releases our prophetic destiny. We have an entire prayer language stocked up inside of us, waiting to be prayed out and released. When we pray in the Spirit, we are releasing the perfect will of the Father. Our flesh isn’t involved in what we are praying. We are connecting our spirit to His Spirit to release the manifestation of the Kingdom for our lives. Often we don’t know how to pray effectively and purely for what we need to happen. By praying in tongues, or as some call it, praying in the Spirit, we are yielding our control, will and fleshly tendencies for His. We are submitting to the very will of God for our lives. We have been given our own will and we can make our own decisions, but it is more beneficial to live a life of submission to the will of the Father.
When you are praying in tongues, take the insights the Holy Spirit reveals to you in those moments to then transition your prayer time to audible praying through declarative prayer. We are not meant to just pray in tongues, but to have a balance between praying in the Spirit with praying in our native language. It is in the times of praying in tongues we can shut our mind down with our agendas and analytical thoughts and allow the Spirit of the Lord to speak to us about what should be prayed and how. It is us co-laboring with the Holy Spirit that will make our prayer time useful and effective (Romans 8:26).
I’ve been feeling in the spiritual realm that we are in a season of releasing our destinies. I have been conversing with people around the world and numerous believers are feeling unctioned in their spirit to be praying in tongues. There is a sense of urgency and the Holy Spirit is instructing people to increase in their prayer language, to be spending more time praying in the Spirit. The Lord has been revealing to me by praying in the Spirit our destinies will release.
However, you can’t pray in the Spirit without the Holy Spirit’s fullness on the inside of you. If you are one of the many Christians desiring to pray in the Spirit, but your prayer language hasn’t come forth, I encourage you to stop right now and stretch out your hands. Speak out audibly and invite the Holy Spirit to come upon you. I teach more about this in my book, Baptism of Fire and Power (Gifts and Language of the Holy Spirit). God is not a legalist. There aren’t right or wrong words to speak out. However, you could speak out something similar to these phrases:
· Holy Spirit, come upon me. I invite you to fill me with overflowing with the Spirit of the Lord.
· Jesus, I desire to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I receive the Holy Spirit right now.
· I receive You, Holy Spirit, come upon me in Your fullness with the evidence of speaking in tongues.
Expect the Holy Spirit to show up and fill you and then start praying. If you don’t feel your heavenly language coming up and forth, I suggest beginning praying out loud in your native language. Praying out loud gets your lips moving, voice box activated and tongue moving. As you begin to pray in your native language out loud, your prayer language will eventually manifest. Remember, the verse from above, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to speak” (Acts 2:4). It says they were filled, which means you too can be filled. And that they spoke as the Spirit enabled them. The Spirit will enable you, but sometimes that takes patience, time and belief on our part. Pray audibly, focus on the Lord and allow your prayer language to come forth.
I want to encourage you to receive and release your prayer language. I am passionate about helping people release their prophetic destinies. I believe the more people that are walking in their full potential, the more people will be out there changing the world. I need you to walk in your prophetic destiny because it is going to take a mass army to change and transform the world. People need Jesus and when you release your destiny, you can assist me in reaching the world for Jesus! Arise! Get in your prayer closet and release your destiny by praying in tongues.
