"See my tie, tie my tie, see my tie, tie my tie..."

Fully prepared to write a silly post over at .snug.button. about how insanely cranky I am with this pregnancy, I've been lured into a complete about-face by a fabulously raw and honest conversation on Facebook about signs and wonders, culminating thus far on the topic of speaking in tongues.

I've almost developed multiple personality disorder trying to figure out just who my "audience" is for this post, and I guess it's anyone curious.  Some of you who read this speak in tongues as a matter of course in your everyday lives, just as I do.  Some of you consider it a vile abomination against the Truth.  Some of you have no idea.  But I'd wager that most consider it a somewhat distant idea that's just weird.  Weird if you're a Christian.  Weird if you're not.  Actually, come to think of it, I think it's weird. 

Most of us probably associate it with the image of hyper-charismatic wailing that surely is way more emotional than in any way holy, with "wang-doodling" preachers who end every other word with the additional "-ah!" (as in "Jesus-ah! wants to give-ah! you your blessing-ah!!"), or (speaking of blessing) with the extreme brand of the "Name it and claim it" crowd who have sort of become a "Bless Me" club.  These uses of Holy Spirit giftings can be lawless and misleading at worst and are just immature or uninformed at best, but speaking in tongues has become for me one of the most practical, everyday means of prayer and interaction with Yahweh that I have.  I often refer to it as "praying in the spirit," versus praying in the natural, which is just using English and my own understanding.  And here's the part where I could break into a whole interwoven tapestry of an explanation, drawing from all kinds of different sources, but I'm determined not to overdo it on my first try.

Is it just for personal edification?  Does it always necessitate an interpretation?  What about in public settings?  OK, so it's in the Bible, but it's somewhat unfamiliar and extraordinary, and bottom line, what's the point?

We could trudge verse-by-verse through the Bible, but that starts to get more complicated than I intend for this post.  Some of you put no stock in the Bible anyway.  (Though I whole-heartedly recommend it!)  If you read this and wonder about specific Bible references, please ask!  The whole New Testament talks about the Holy Spirit, signs and wonders including speaking in tongues, crazy miracles, and the basic movement of all the believers establishing and growing the early church.  It's a total trip, and what an exciting time.  And it was just the beginning, our foundation.

I'll answer my last question first.  Speaking in tongues does have a point.  I'm the kind of personality who values logic, used to be quite cynical, and now just holds a healthy dose of skepticism but is willing to acknowledge something that seems to maybe have validity.  I like to know there's a reason for things.  So the purpose of tongues:  You could say it's an avenue to get outside of ourselves, to push beyond our natural thoughts and emotions in the moment, to stir up the Spirit indwelling us.  My apostle (or pastor or spiritual father) has described it as akin to "lifting weights on the inside," building up your spirit man.

But who needs that?  That might sound a little fluffy, ungrounded, void of respect for solid, foundational doctrine.  All I can say is this.  We are called to live not as mere mortals.  Yahweh's original intent was for man to walk in open relationship with Him.  We botched it.  The whole Old Testament He is creating opportunities to bridge the gap, prophesying the whole time about His Son and how He will ultimately be that bridge that connects us back to the Father by the Spirit.  In the New Testament, Yahshua (think "Jesus" if that's better) bridges the gap, then tells the disciples who lament His ascension that it's better for Him to go, because when He does, the Father will send them the Holy Spirit to live in them.  According to Yahshua, "in" is better than "with," so all those Christians who say, "Oh, I just wish I could've been right there with Jesus when He was walking the earth" are missing this revelation of His presence currently in the body through the Holy Spirit and that He Himself said that this way IS the better deal. 

In the beginning, there were two trees in opposition in the garden.  The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that represented natural things was forbidden.  It did not bring life.  It brought death and separation from God.  But the Tree of Life was of the spirit.  We are created and called to abide in the spirit realm, transcending our natural selves as we abide presently in Him now, not just someday in heaven ("Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven").  And Paul talks about how the spirit and the flesh war against each other.  I want my spiritual eyes and ears and thoughts to have the upperhand over my natural experience or mind capacity or emotion.  Whew!  OK, so if we're to understand the deeper things and abide in the spirit and really have a relationship with Almighty God, that has to require getting outside our merely natural selves.  Praying in tongues is a hugely practical way to do that. 

We're created to feed from only one tree.
Only one will satisfy: feed the spirit.

As for interpretation, that's another of the practical reasons for praying in tongues.  I don't know Yahweh's will in every situation.  He warns us not to bless or curse haphazardly, and so now when I pray, I take it very seriously, especially if a person has asked me to pray for them.  I think, "Geez, well, what are you doing here, Yahweh, and how can I pray and prophesy to back you up?"  I pray in the spirit until I begin to "hear," with my spirit ears something clear to pray, then I'll pray that in English.  But I have no interest in praying something for someone that might be working against what the Father wants.  It's usually through praying in the spirit like this that I get words of knowledge or visions.  And especially for issues that hit close to home for me where my emotions and thoughts are totally convinced and hell-bent on one war path, I must pray in the spirit to get some perspective and to make my natural soul, thoughts, and feelings submit to the greater authority.  We canNOT be ruled by our experience but by His will, His voice of direction.  That might be the most practical application right there.  Every time I start praying in the spirit, I might still be distracted by my to-do list, or a patch of dust I suddenly can't ignore, or my thoughts and feelings, then I press on and press in and suddenly I begin to experience what I'd call a breaking through where suddenly I'm in the flow.  As I get started, I am cognizant of merely yielding myself in worship to my Father.  Once I'm in the flow and have gotten past all the immediate life issues, I start hearing Him.  It's awesome.  I don't always get direct answers, but I guarantee that when I'm done, I've just communed with the Most High and my spirit is amped, and I do have direction, regardless of what my original intent or question was.

In public settings, I think corporate praying in tongues serves the same purpose, but I do believe that there should be some sort of interpretation.  When we pray in the spirit at church, it's either part of worship, so it's a personal thing for each person, or there is interpretation.  Usually several people will get up to share what they've seen or heard, and it's uncanny, it can only be God, that more often than not, everybody was seeing or hearing a separate piece of the same larger picture, or were seeing the same picture altogether.  When you experience that time and time again, you begin to see the validity.  And it's not just for us to "ooh" and "aah" over each other and give pats on the back. Nor is it for us just to "ooh" and "aah" over Yahweh.  It's, again, for a purpose.  It brings direction or encouragement, but it almost always is a nudge or a call for action.

Alright, get me to pray
in tongues.  No, really, can't you
tell it's what I want?

Praying in tongues is a fruit of being filled with, or baptized in, the Holy Spirit, something that can happen by someone laying hands on you or can happen when you're on your own and receptive to it.  When I was first filled with the Spirit, I was so adamantly opposed to faking a response that I was almost dead-set on not falling over, on not going nuts.  So I was rather stoic.  And I didn't burst out into tongues the moment it happened (though that was Jed's experience).  Why him and not me?  Well, I guess part of it is that I was dead-set against it even though I told myself I was open to it.  Funny we people are.

Then over the next few days, I was so stirred in my spirit, so alive and hungry and thirsty for more.  I told my apostle that if praying in tongues is legit, and it was starting to appear that way as I watched some of my firends' lives, then I wanted it.  But I felt like a turtle guarding myself at all costs.  (Something about the spirit and the flesh at war...)  But I wanted it.  I knew by then that it was right.  But yeah, it's weird.  So, my apostle told me to just go somewhere quiet and begin to worship, to tell Yahweh how much I love Him and to let it pour out of me and to be open to whatever happens in the spirit.  This will sound contrived to some of you.  I can't convince you of how opposed I was to contriving things, so you'll have to trust me.  But what he was suggesting was right for me:  "Let down your guard.  Trust.  If it can happen, it will.  But you must let go a little bit for the reality to even be a possibility."  So I did it.  And I started praying in tongues.  And it was the most hilarious thing, because I thought I sounded like such a freak, but I couldn't stop, and I was so relieved, and I began to experience a strength that I've now come to rely on.

In the end, when I read this stuff in the Bible, I wonder about those who are so adamantly opposed to it.  I understand the trepidation that comes from the unfamiliar element.  I understand that when you get into subjective experiences, people begin to become skeptical of one another.  I also know that true subjection to the Holy Spirit makes you that much MORE accountable, not less, to the reality of our spiritual lives, to the words that you hear and to the Holy Spirit in those around you as iron sharpens iron.  At first, immaturity will cause people to think they've heard weird things or to not be sure if it's Him or their own thoughts, and that's why having people of maturity around you, people off of whom you can bounce it all, is highly beneficial.  But I wonder about adamant opposition to things of the spirit, because these things are, perhaps uncomfortably, rampant in the Bible.  If it was good enough for Paul, for the seventy, for Timothy, it's good enough for me.  Does it not make a person even curious as to what that was all about and how it might be a part of our walk and who we are?  I'm loath to discount something like that altogether until I've given it a fair shake.

As I re-read this, I am painfully aware of all the gaps I'm leaving for the sake of "sticking with the basics for now."  I think I'm about to birth some sort of "Foundations" series or something; I'm not sure.

For now, know that for the walk we're called to walk, I don't believe it can be done in fullness without the spiritual access opened through the gift, available to all, of praying in tongues.  To me, this whole thing goes waaaaaaaay beyond just having a different spiritual philosophy than other religions.

And, by the way, with the severe crankiness of this pregnancy, any guess at what I do to get Holy Spirit perspective, put my fickle feelings in their rightful place, and overcome it?  ;)