Beginning with this blog post, I want to share several great, easy-to-do, easy-to-understand object lessons (sermon illustrations for those ministering to adults) that show the importance of daily praying in the Spirit. I will give a brief, skeletal overview and set it up for you to make it an incredibly great teaching tool. This and the following blog posts will also provide an excellent resource for family devotions with your children and grandchildren.
The Importance of Praying in Other Tongues
Part 1 – Keep Your Spiritual Battery Fully Charged
When I purchased my first cell phone, I was so excited. (If you still have the original box, show the box.) I couldn’t wait to get the cell phone out of the box (show your excitement in opening the box and then discovering the cell phone) to start calling and texting all of my friends. (Pretend to make call after call and send text message after text message.) And, even more importantly, I couldn’t wait to start playing all of the cool games on the cell phone. (Pretend to play a game.) Needless to say, I made call after call, sent text after text, and finally played game after game on the cell phone.
You already know where I am going with this story. After a few hours of using the cell phone, all of a sudden, it stopped and I couldn’t get it to start up again. You’ve guessed. The battery had run of out power. I soon found out that the cell phone is only able to make the calls and send the text messages and provide the cool games as long as it has power. Simply put, no power, no play! While this cell phone has so many great apps, those apps can’t do what they are created to do until the cell phone has power. Fortunately, there is an easy remedy for this problem. The manufacturer knew that the cell phone would constantly need to replenish or charge the battery and so they included this power plug (show phone charger) so that the cell phone could be recharged.
Before Jesus left, He told His followers that after He returned back to heaven, God the Father would send a Helper, the Holy Spirit. (John 14:16) One of the many things that would happen upon the Holy Spirit’s arrival is that He would deposit heaven’s power into our spirit. (Acts 1:8). Jesus knew that as great and wonderful as we are, we couldn’t do what we need to do until we have the power to do those things. His coming would enable us to be (“… and ye shall be …”Acts 1:8)) and do (” … He hath anointed me to … ” Luke 4:18) what we are supposed to be and do.
How do we keep our spiritual battery charged and ready to do what is needed? I checked the owner’s manual (show the Bible and turn to Jude 20) and discovered that praying in the Spirit (also known as praying in other tongues) is THE way to keep our spiritual battery fully powered up. (Jude 20) You could say that as the language of heaven flows out of mouth, the power from heaven is flowing into our spiritual battery.
One more thing … How often do you charge your cell phone? Daily. This is even more important with our spiritual battery. We need to pray in other tongues each and every day.
