SPEAKING IN TONGUES

Speaking in tongues silently:

This is a subject that I have never shared with anyone. I never felt the need to or was around anyone that I thought would be open to the subject.

I remember the first time I was baptized in the Holy Ghost and spoke in other tongues; it was at a revival at an AG church the same month of my 30th birthday. I remember the preacher asking me what I wanted and I told him I wanted it all, salvation, baptism of the Spirit, and a new start. I had wandered away from the Lord and I wasn’t even sure He would take me back; some of you know what I mean. I was about as low as I thought I could get. Well the preacher had me pray the “sinners’ prayer”, you know how it goes; then he said “I am going to anoint you with oil and you are going to be baptized with the Holy Ghost and speak in other tongues when we pray for you. He called two other preachers over there and they laid hands on me and prayed that I would be filled with the Spirit. I almost immediately was filled and began to “stutter in other tongues” they said I was speaking, I think I was stuttering. It was like I was drunk; I started dancing around and even ended up running around the room. This was all totally out of character for me as I was usually very shy especially in a crowd, not that night, I didn’t care, I and my savior were having a great time. Something changed inside me that night that has stayed with me to this day. But the tongues did not stay at that time.

I did not speak in tongues again until about a year later. It was a strange experience. I was at home alone in my apartment reading and studying the bible and listening to classic hymns on a tape. I went over to my bed and knelt down to pray as I was accustomed to do. As I was praying I just suddenly started speaking in another language; it freaked me out! I started to pray again and I switched from English to another language again. Now this was really freaking me out. I was even a little frightened of it. I hadn’t asked to speak in tongues; I wasn’t studying about spiritual gifts. I thought what in the world is going on here. I found that I could start or stop at will. Now I believe the difference in my first experience and the second is that the first was “the evidence of” tongues, and the second is “the gift of” tongues which does not leave you. I am not trying to make anyone else’s experience fit mine. I am just saying what I believe about my experience with The Spirit. Well to make a long story short from that day to now I can speak in tongues any time I want and I do often. I have learned that this is another level of prayer to God that just can’t be entered into in my natural tongue. It has deepened my relationship with God and changed my life. My relationship with God has had many unusual events; things that didn’t exactly fit the standard church paradigm; that’s just how God has dealt with me through the years.

In a short time I found out that even when I am praying silently I can pray in English or tongues! It sounds the same in my head as it does coming out my mouth. So I pray in tongues silently often throughout the day. This has really become such a part of me that I have sometimes forgotten and began speaking in tongues out loud in public. Of course I caught myself and stopped; like Paul said some unbelievers will think you’re crazy. And I have gotten some odd looks a few times. Although at certain times, I do think that the Spirit prompts me to speak in tongues in public when praying for someone when I meet them out shopping or whatever. When I say “in public” I don’t mean the church.

I was wondering do you ever speak in tongues “silently”?

Rev. Dennis Caldwell