This Fire that Comes by Praying in Tongues – A Word by Darren Canning

Darren Canning is a global missionary who operates in the gifts of the Holy Spirit for the building up of the body of Christ. He is the founder of the online broadcast FROM THE MOUNTAINTOP.Website: darrencanning.tv

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This Fire that Comes by Praying in Tongues – A Word by Darren Canning

Darren Canning

Email: [email protected]

1 Corinthians 14:4

“The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.”

Jude 1:20

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 8:26

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

I love speaking in tongues. It was one of the first gifts of the Holy Spirit that I really hungered for. I grew up in a Pentecostal Church. Tongues used to terrify me when I was young. I was bewildered by the strange thing that I saw the adults doing in the church. I was born in 1972. The Pentecostal movement was becoming mature in many ways. Azusa street accorded in 1909-11 and the charismatic outpouring began in the late 60’s and early 70’s.

My family was very much immersed in the movement that took place. My grandparents on both sides of the family were Pentecostal. I was told because of the healing that took place in the churches that many were drawn to healing and the desire to be closer to the Holy Spirit. It must have been an amazing time. Reports were going out everywhere of the amazing miracles that were taking place in Oral Roberts ministry and AA Allan in the 50’s and 60’s.

I remember the older generation in the churches when I was young. People in their 70’s and 80’s, who likely experienced the beginning of Pentecostalism would pray on their knees in groans. It wasn’t so much their demonstrations that impressed me. I was always a little unsure of the noise, but what I do remember is how the peace of Jesus so filled that little church that my grandfather helped to build. Their prayers produced something. The presence of Jesus was carried by them.

I was 16 years old in 1988. I had had an encounter with Jesus the year before and started to go to church on a regular basis. I went to a Salvation Army church for a season but was drawn to the Pentecostal Church because of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that I would see there. 1 Corinthians 14:22 says, “Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.”

When I first encounters tongues to me it was a sign that God was real. I felt the fear of the Lord when I went to a Pentecostal service. I would hear people praying in tongues and I was completely intrigued. I also wanted to pray in tongues.

I don’t know any other way to think about it but in those days, we would have services where you would seek the gift of tongues. I went to a youth group and the pastor after the service would ask those who were interested in speaking in tongues to stay. A few of the senior leaders would stand around us and pray and would encourage us to step out by faith and begin to speak in tongues. It didn’t take me long. I remember speaking in tongues the first time I went to one of these services, but the real outpouring came in my bedroom at night. I remember an explosion of tongues coming out of my mouth. It never stopped.

Even in the 9 years that I called myself an atheist I remember times speaking in tongues just to see if it was still there. Don’t ask me to explain that. The human psychology is very strange. On the one hand I confessed everywhere that I wasn’t a Christian and that I didn’t believe in God but in the secret place I would speak in tongues. I also never would speak against the Holy Spirit because I didn’t want to offend. Was I a Christian? I don’t know. God was with me, is all I can say.

The promise of scripture is that when I pray in tongues, I am building up my spiritual life (see the scriptures above). I can almost picture a team of angels that are employed as I pray in the Holy Spirit. They come in on waves of tongues and the things that I pray by the Holy Spirit begin to happen in my life. Things begin to shift. Obstacles are removed. Depression and Fear fall like a veil from my eyes. God builds me up in the most holy faith.

I literally feel fire when I pray in tongues and in times when I fast and pray and dedicate my time to praying tongues I can feel that fiery presence even more. It is a healing and affirming presence at the same time. So, I pray even more in tongues because it’s so affirming that I can’t help but continue on. I pray in tongues and then I pray in English, and sometimes I even pray in a little French. Not much of course, but I tell Jesus I love him in the language of love. His presence in me is so strong that I can’t help but love Him. His presence is only and always good.

I guess I want everyone to pray in tongues. I want everyone to try because the power that comes is so amazing. I pray for you today and ask God to touch your life. May He empower you to pray by the Holy Spirit in such a way that your entire being shifts into a new glory. I pray that you will find great pleasure in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. May you become a testimony to the generations to come of the power that comes upon those who seek God and pray.