This is the second blog post in a series designed to share 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 2 – Download Heaven’s Updates
If you have had a cell phone (show cell phone) for any length of time and have added apps to your phone, you will know about the app store located on your cell phone’s screen (point to app store on the cell phone). This is the place on your cell phone where you can find and download any of a million, billion, bazillion apps. And, you also know that it is through this app store that you receive updates for these apps. Daily, when you look at your cell phone’s screen, you will see a notification showing a number attached to the app store (point to number on the app store) indicating that one or more of your apps needs to receive a modification. The modification (download) will provide an update to address one of these three issues:
1. To make your cell phone operate smoother – Takes care of small glitches in the operating system so that your app will be problem free.
2. To fix a critical issue – A totally revamp to the operating system of that app so that a known issue won’t crash the app, or, even worse, crash the cell phone.
3. To change the appearance of the app – Makes the program have a totally new, fresh look.
When the Holy Spirit was sent, one of His major reasons for coming was/is to make it possible for us to receive what I call heaven’s downloads. The Bible tells us that when we are filled (baptized) in the Holy Spirit and begin to pray in the Spirit (pray in other tongues), we are being changed on the inside. (1 Corinthians 14:4). One translation of this verse, the Amplified Bible, actually tells us that we are improving ourselves. In other words, we are receiving a download from heaven, an update that provides the same three benefits that we see in the download to our cell phone. Praying in other tongues will:
1. Making his day go smoother.
2. Taking care of inside issues that could bring us harm or cause us to crash.
3. Bring a joy (Acts 2:4-13; Romans 14:17; Romans 15:13) that will change the way that we look and act.
Is this important? YES!!! We need to receive heaven’s downloads each and every day!
