Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 180

July 2;   Jude 20;   238/260(I);   ‘Praying in Tongues’

Jude 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

Praying in tongues is one of the most important blessings the Lord has given to the church.  It is also one of the most controversial.  It should not be, because as you see what the Word teaches about praying in tongues you see the incredible blessing tongues are.  We cannot in this short message cover all of the importance of tongues, but let us look at a few truths.  First, this verse teaches that when we pray in tongues, we are building our faith.  The genius of God, we can pray in tongues quietly wherever we go and all the while be building our faith.  What an efficient use of our time.  I Corinthians 14:4 teaches that as we pray in tongues we edify or charge our spirit.  During the day, as we minister to others, we are ministering by the power of the Holy Spirit.  That power supply is recharged as we pray in tongues.  Just as we are building our faith, we also are charging our spirit, praying in the Holy Ghost.  I Corinthians 14:17 tells us that when we worship the Lord in other tongues, we worship Him ‘well,’ or beautifully.  Worshiping in tongues enables us to bless the Lord with the unlimited vocabulary tongues supplies.  Finally, when we are praying for ourselves or others, we rarely know all of the details concerning what we are praying about.  When we pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit is guiding our prayer and since He is God, He knows every detail that needs to be prayed.  The prayer is therefore incredibly powerful.  Religion criticizes tongues and they shouldn’t.  The Lord does not do foolish things.  Praying in tongues could not be more important nor more of a blessing.