In my almost 40 years of ministry, I have often heard people state that the whole subject of praying in other tongues is such a mystery to them. Consequently, their lack of understanding has prevented them from preaching and teaching about the importance of praying in other tongues. Hopefully, this blog series is providing clarity to you and secondly easy-to-do, easy-to-understand illustrations to assist you in your ministry. Again, I’ll give a brief synopsis of the illustration. With just a little effort on your part, it will become a powerful teaching/preaching tool.
The Importance of Praying in Other TonguesPart 6 – Pray the Unknowns
For this illustration, you will need a cell phone.
We live in an information driven age. Fortunately or unfortunately, today information about anything and everything is at your fingertips. For example, if you want to know the current temperature, you don't have to drive your car through town to find a bank that has the current temperature displayed on its LED sign. No. All that you need to do is to pull out your cell phone (show cell phone) and simply say "Hey Google (Android) or Hey Siri (Apple), what's the temperature?". Within a second or two, you will know the temperature. (Demonstrate asking your cell phone for the temperature.) If you want to know how to spell a particular word like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, it's just a matter of saying "Hey Google (Android) or Hey Siri (Apple), spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". Instantly your cell phone will reveal this word's 34 letters in the most delightful way. (A little Mary Poppins humor.) It's amazing what this cell phone can tell you.
Let me tell you about a situation that just happened today in which my cell phone couldn't help me. Before coming to today's service, I wanted to pray for those attending and ask God to do something incredibly personal in each person's life. Here are the questions that my cell phone couldn't answer. "Hey Google or Hey Siri, who is going to be at today's service?" and "What do I need to pray about for these people?" My Hey Google or Hey Siri was totally useless and couldn't answer these important "unknowns".
So, what did I do? With the Holy Spirit's help, I prayed to God and said, "Heavenly Father, I want you to do a powerful work in today's service. But, I don't have a clue about who is going to be there or what they need." Next, instead of saying "Hey Google or Hey Siri" to activate getting help, I said "Hey Holy Spirit, help me to pray about these unknowns". Immediately, I began to pray in other tongues. In doing so, I knew that the Holy Spirit was at work. He was taking my questions and communicating with God through my prayer language the exact words that needed to be prayed for both you and this service. In other words, the Holy Spirit was covering my unknowns. (Romans 8:26-27)
What are your unknowns? It could be about a family member or about a situation at school or work. Pray in other tongues. Open the door for your spirit to connect with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to cover your unknowns.
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