Speaking In Tongues

I'll be the first to admit this sounds like a strange topic for this particular forum, but it has come to my attention for several days now and I feel it is worthy of discussion. This is a phenomenon I have personal experience with. Although my interpretations of the experience have now changed because of my different perspective of life, I cannot invalidate what happened (and still occasionally does).

Years ago when I was going through a very painful divorce and looking to fill the void, my Christian background was there to help put me back together. I had quite a few experiences which led me to feel the charasmatic experience of speaking in tongues was something I wanted to explore. After searching and praying for answers, I was able to get to the point where I allowed myself to speak in tongues. I say allowed myself because it had truly been me stopping me.

My small church group had been working with another church group to develop spiritual gifts. Toward the end of the last service, they began praying for us to receive the gift of tongues. First one, then another began speaking in languages unknown (and I do believe they were languages and not just gibberish). Words formed in me that my mind could not understand although my heart could. When the words left my lips, it felt as though a floodgate had opened and stuff just started pouring out. 

My first statements in this new language were pretty much me getting after God, asking him why he had let me go so long without being able to communicate with him like this. I wasn't hysterical, but almost. My friend Jody, who was also speaking in tongues, came over to me and kept saying, "Calm down. You're here now and that's what matters." My heart understood that was what she was saying. At that point, another woman from the church group who was doing the spiritual development class came over to us and spoke the interpretation (which was just what I knew Jody to be saying).

From that point on, I was speaking in tongues. Even as they closed out the service with a prayer, I was still allowing the words to pour out from my mouth (although just as a breath so as not to disrupt what was going on for others). Part of it was fear that I wouldn't be able to remember how to use the tongues again if I stopped now. The larger part, however, understood something much more power was going on. Even though I did not understand the words I was praying, I knew that I was praying for people I knew. I received pictures in my mind of everyone I was praying for while I prayed for them.

I literally felt as though I was praying for every person I had ever known in this lifetime. My prayer lasted somewhere between two and three days. (Not kidding!) I made the motions of sleep and ate minimally while I did my usual household chores and took care of the kids, but there was a constant dialogue that came out of my mouth that whole time. What intrigued me most was when I prayed for Jeff Lundgren, the leader of the cult group I had been part of when I was nineteen. Most of the prayers I prayed for people lasted only a minute or two. The prayer I prayed for Jeff lasted between two and three hours. I didn't know exactly what I was praying over him, but I did have the feeling I was praying for his soul.

Even though I no longer identify myself as a Christian (I do believe myself to be a Christ follower), I cannot invalidate this experience. I do interpret it differently now than I did when it first happened but it continues to be a powerful learning experience for me.

Do I advocate speaking in tongues? Not especially. If your heart guides you to the experience, then by all means go for it! One word of caution though. I believe the tongues that I speak are actually languages I used in former lifetimes. My heart tells me there is a form of tongues you do not want to use. In this form of tongues, it is not you speaking from your heart. It is one of the entities you carry around doing to speaking, and this can contain negative language and curses your probably don't want to see manifest.

If you are interested in the topic, I can recommend a book that is a great informational book (one I read when I was exploring the subject): They Speak With Other Tongues, by John Sherrill. While it is from a Christian perspective, the experiences that happened to the author and his wife when they explored the topic are insightful and intriguing.

As you continue to tap into the connection of your heart (and the wisdom contained therein), understand there will be new avenues to explore. Do not be afraid to follow them even if they are out of the ordinary. They just may be the key to new awareness and understandings.

~CSE