I received an email this morning from Rick Renner. I thought I would share the details of it, which are very important and belong to every follower of Jesus, but are often misunderstood.
Jesus told us in Matthew 12:34 that, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” That means whatever is filling you will eventually show up in your words. If a person is filled with worry, they will talk about worry. If they’re filled with joy, they will talk about joy.
So, if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, what should come out of our mouths?
The Bible teaches that the real you is spirit. We live in a body, but the real us is spiritual, and just like every nation has its own language, our spirits have a language too. God is Spirit, and He communicates Spirit to spirit.
That’s why praying in our spiritual language (tongues) is so significant.
It is not something strange or meaningless -it is the language of your spirit. When we pray in our spirit language, we are speaking directly to God in a spiritual language, beyond the limits of our natural understanding.
According to Scripture, when we do this, we begin to speak “mysteries.” 1 Corinthians 14:2 says, “For whoever speaks in another language speaks not to men, but to God, for no one understands, but in the Spirit he speaks mysteries.” That means things are hidden -plans, answers, and direction that God has already placed inside you. As we pray, those things begin to rise up from your spirit.
The Bible also says that when we pray in our spiritual language (tongues) we edify ourselves. 1 Corinthians 14:4 says, “He who speaks in another language edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the assembly.” This is an archeological term that means to build, to expand, or to increase capacity. In other words, when we pray in the Spirit, we are enlarging our inner life. We grow stronger on the inside.
We don’t have to wait for a feeling to do this. We can just simply speak our natural language without thinking about it, we can simply begin to speak in this spiritual language. It is communication -It is real.
This is gift God has given to His body (the church), and when we begin to use it, we will find that something in ourselves begins to grow and come alive in a new way.
From Pity to Praise 