My precious friend, there are things too deep for words, things that no earthly language can describe, and yet, the Spirit of God has made a way for the believer to touch the very heart of Heaven.

I tell you tonight, with all that is within me, there is a holy mystery that belongs not to the wise of this world, not to the learned, not to the proud, but to the simple childlike heart that longs for God. That mystery is the gift of speaking in tongues.

Why do you need it? Because it is not a luxury. It is not a mere ornament in your Christian life. It is not an experience reserved for a few. It is the very breath of God flowing through the believer, a channel of power, intimacy, and communion with the Spirit Himself.

There are things that you will never be able to pray in your own understanding. You may think you know your needs. You may think you can articulate your petitions before God, but how often do we stumble in our prayers? How often do our words fall short? How often do we come before the throne, and our hearts are full, but our language fails?

That is why you need to speak in tongues. It is the Spirit Himself taking hold of your tongue, taking hold of your voice, and bringing forth groanings that cannot be uttered in human speech. It is Heaven praying through you, and when Heaven prays, Heaven’s will is accomplished.

Some of you have carried burdens too heavy for words. You have walked the floor at night with tears streaming down your face. You have tried to pray, but the words dried up, and the pain was deeper than your vocabulary.

At that moment when you yield yourself to the Spirit, when you surrender your tongue to Him, a river begins to flow. Oh, it is the sweetest river. It is not the sound of your own wisdom. It is not the sound of your own effort. It is the Spirit interceding through you, and while you may not understand it with your mind, something deep within you knows … knows with assurance that the Father has heard, that the heavens have moved, that the answer is already on the way.

You need to speak in tongues because it builds you up. Oh, my friend, the world is full of things that tear you down. You live in a time when voices scream at you from every side. There are doubts, fears, lies, temptations, and disappointments. They crush the spirit. They wear [at] the soul. They sap the strength.

But the Scripture declares, “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.” It is not the shallow kind of encouragement the world offers. It is the deep strengthening of the inner man. When you speak in tongues, you are building up a temple of power within yourself. You are fortifying your spirit against every assault of the enemy. You are clothing yourself with strength that does not come from flesh and blood, but from the eternal Spirit of God.

You need it because it keeps you in the love of God [Jude 20,21]. How easy it is to wander! How easy to let the flame flicker! How easy to let bitterness creep in! How easy it is to let the cares of life crowd out the sweetness of His presence!

But when you pray in tongues, your heart is drawn upward. Your soul is lifted heavenward, and you are kept in the holy love that never fails. It is like fanning the flame within your own heart. It is the Spirit Himself pouring the love of God into your soul afresh and anew until you are consumed, until you are overwhelmed, until you are lost in His presence.

You need it because it is the key to supernatural life. My dear one, the Christian life is not meant to be lived in human strength. It is not a religion of trying harder. It is not a religion of rules and rituals. It is the life of God in you. It is the Spirit flowing like a mighty river through your being, and the doorway into that river is speaking in tongues.

It is the evidence that the Spirit has taken possession of you, that your tongue, so often the most unruly member, so often the instrument of sin and destruction, has now been yielded to Him; and if He has control of your tongue, He can have control of your own life. It is the sign that you are no longer your own, but you belong to Him completely.

Oh, there is something so beautiful, so tender, so glorious about surrendering your tongue to the Spirit! When you speak in tongues, you step beyond the natural. You step beyond the limitations of the mind. You step into the realm of the Spirit where miracles happen, where mountains move, where chains fall off, and where doors swing open.

It is not a trick. It is not an emotional frenzy. It is the Spirit of the living God manifesting through you, and when you live in that place, when you pray in that language of Heaven, you walk in the atmosphere of the miraculous.

Why do you need it? Because you are in a battle, and the enemy does not fight fair. He is cunning. He is relentless. He is ruthless. You cannot fight him with your intellect. You cannot fight him with your willpower. You cannot fight him with your own words. You need the Sword of the Spirit. You need the fire of God burning in your bones. You need to pray in the Spirit so that every attack of hell is met with the power of Heaven.

Speaking in tongues is a weapon of warfare. It confuses the enemy. It drives back the powers of darkness. It releases the authority of Christ through your voice. You may feel weak. You may feel inadequate, but when you open your mouth and let the Spirit pray through you, you become mighty in God. You become a warrior clothed in heavenly armor.

Some of you have wondered, “Is this for me? Is this gift for everyone?” Let me tell you with all certainty. It is for you. It is not for a chosen few. It is not for the special ones. It is for every believer who will yield, who will hunger, who will thirst for more of Him. The Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, and the promise was given:

“This is for you and your children and for all who are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” That means you. If you have been called by His name, if you belong to Him, then this gift belongs to you. Do not let doubt rob you. Do not let fear hold you back. Do not let tradition keep you from the fullness of what He has prepared for you.

There is a joy in speaking in tongues that the world cannot give and the world cannot take away. There is a release of praise that goes beyond music, beyond poetry, beyond anything you could ever compose.

Sometimes you don’t know how to worship Him as He deserves. Sometimes your heart overflows, but your words run out. Oh, but when you speak in tongues, the Spirit gives you utterance, and you are lifted into the very courts of Heaven, praising with the language of angels, worshiping with the vocabulary of eternity. You are caught up into the symphony of Heaven itself, and your soul is satisfied in His presence.

Do you see, beloved, this is why you need to speak in tongues. It is not a side issue. It is not an optional extra. It is the Spirit’s provision for your weakness, for your weariness, for your worship, and for your warfare.

It is His way of keeping you connected, His way of keeping you strong, His way of keeping you aflame with His power and love; and once you have tasted, once you have yielded, once the river begins to flow, you will never be the same again, for out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water, rivers that heal, rivers that deliver, rivers that refresh, and rivers that carry you into the depths of God Himself.

So I say unto you tonight, do not resist. Do not hesitate. Do not let your mind argue you out of it. Yield yourself wholly. Yield your tongue. Yield your voice. Yield your all. Ask and you shall receive. Open your mouth, and He will fill it. Step out in faith, and the Spirit will meet you there, and when He does, you will know why you need to speak in tongues, not as a doctrine, not as a theory, but as the living reality of the Spirit within you, the sweetest communion, the deepest intercession, and the mightiest power you will ever know this side of Heaven.

My precious friend, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, He does not come to leave you empty. He comes to fill every part of you. There is not one part of your being that He does not desire to possess. Your mind, your heart, your emotions, your body, and your very breath belong to Him.

When you yield your tongue, that small member that Scripture says no man can tame, you are giving Him the reins of your whole life. The tongue is the rudder. It steers the ship of your destiny.

When the Spirit has your tongue, He has your direction. He has your course. He has your entire being under His divine influence. This is why you must speak in tongues, because it is the sign that He is in control. It is the surrender of the deepest part of your being to the living God.

There are some who say, “I do not understand it.” Of course you do not. How can the finite understand the infinite? How can the human mind grasp the vocabulary of Heaven? Faith is not about understanding everything. Faith is about yielding, trusting, and believing that the Spirit knows better than you.

When a little child learns to speak, do they understand every word they utter? No, but they trust the father and mother who guide them. In the same way, you may not understand the words the Spirit places on your tongue, but you trust the Father Who hears them, and that trust opens the door to the supernatural.

There are times in life when the storms rage so fiercely, when the winds howl, and the waves rise so high that you feel you are going to be swallowed whole, and in those moments, your natural prayers may sound like whispers lost in the storm, but when the Spirit begins to pray through you in tongues, oh, there is a force, a power, a river that rises up within.

You may not see it with your eyes. You may not comprehend it with your mind, but deep within, you know you are anchored. You know you are carried. You know that you are not praying alone. The Spirit Himself is interceding through you with groanings too deep for words, and suddenly the storm does not seem so fierce, the waves not so high, for Heaven has joined your cry.

Do you know what happens when you pray in tongues? You bypass the enemy’s traps. The devil is cunning, and he listens to your words. He studies your prayers. He tries to interfere, to discourage, and to twist, but when you speak in tongues, he cannot understand a single word.

You are speaking mysteries in the Spirit, a divine code that hell cannot break. You are communing with the Father in a secret language, and no demon of darkness can intercept it. That is why he fights so hard to make you doubt it, to keep you silent, and to mock and belittle this gift, because he knows that when you pray in tongues, you are moving in a realm where he has no authority.

There is another reason why you need it, perhaps one of the most tender of all. When you are alone, when loneliness creeps in like a heavy shadow, when it feels like no one understands, no one sees, no one knows the ache in your heart … speaking in tongues becomes the sweetest fellowship.

The Spirit of God Himself is right there wrapping His arms around you, whispering through you, pouring comfort into your soul. It is a holy companionship that no earthly friend can give. You are never alone when you pray in tongues, for the Comforter is right there breathing through you, speaking through you, filling the silence with the music of Heaven.

Sometimes in the weariness of life, in the business of responsibilities, in the noise of the world, your soul becomes dry, parched, and thirsty. You may read the words of Scripture, but feel little spark. You may sing the songs of worship, but feel no fire. You may bow your head to pray, but feel the heavens are brass.

Oh, but when you begin to pray in tongues, when you open your mouth and let the Spirit flow, it is like rain falling on dry ground. Suddenly the desert blossoms. Suddenly the well springs up. Suddenly the river flows again. It is refreshing for the soul. It is revival for the spirit. It is renewal for the heart.

There is power in praying in tongues, not only for yourself, but for others. Have you ever felt the burden of someone’s soul? … The heaviness of someone’s need? Perhaps you did not know what they were going through. Perhaps you did not have the details, but suddenly they came to your mind, and you felt compelled to pray ... but what words could you use when you did not even know the problem?

That is when the Spirit rises up within, and gives you utterance in tongues. You may never know this side of Heaven what battles were won, what chains were broken, what lives were spared, because you yielded your tongue to the Spirit’s intercession. In eternity you may meet someone who says, “On that day, in that hour when I was at my lowest, God raised me up because you prayed,” and you will remember how the Spirit prayed through you in words you did not understand, and you will know then that Heaven used your voice to change the course of someone’s life.

There are times when your mind is weary, when your thoughts are scattered, when distractions pull you in every direction. You may not have the strength to form prayers. You may not even know how to begin. That is when praying in tongues becomes the simplest, purest prayer.

It requires no thought, no effort of the mind, only surrender of the tongue, and as you continue, peace begins to flood your being. Clarity begins to return. The fog begins to lift. It is like tuning an instrument until every string is in harmony again. Praying in tongues aligns you with the Spirit’s frequency, bringing your heart and mind back into harmony with Heaven.

You need to understand, beloved, that speaking in tongues is not a one-time event. It is not just the initial evidence of being filled with the Spirit. It is meant to be a daily practice, a continual flow, a lifestyle of prayer in the Spirit. Just as you breathe every moment, just as you drink water every day, so should you let the Spirit pray through you continually.

The more you yield, the more you grow, the stronger you become, and the more sensitive you are to His leading.

Many neglect this gift after they receive it, and that is why their spiritual lives grow cold, but those who cultivate it, those who make it a daily habit, walk in a dimension of power and intimacy that few ever experience.

I tell you, the Spirit longs for you to yield to Him in this way. He longs for your voice, your tongue, and your surrender. He longs to take your feeble prayers, and turn them into mighty decrees. He longs to take your weak worship, and turn it into the roar of Heaven’s chorus. He longs to fill your loneliness with His companionship, your confusion with His wisdom, and your weakness with His strength.

The doorway into all of this is speaking in tongues. Think of it this way. When a musician picks up an instrument, the music depends on how much the instrument yields. If the strings resist, the sound is off. If the keys are stuck, the melody cannot flow, but when the instrument is surrendered, the master’s touch produces a symphony.

You are God’s instrument, and your tongue is one of the strings. When you yield it, when you allow the Spirit to play upon it, the music of Heaven is released through you. That music may sound strange to human ears, but it is sweet in the ears of the Father.

I remember hearing of a woman who was praying late into the night in tongues. She did not know why. She did not know for whom. She just felt the urgency, the Spirit pressing her heart. Hours later, she learned that at that exact moment, her son, far away, was in danger of losing his life. Somehow, miraculously, he was spared; and she knew then that the Spirit had used her prayers in tongues to intervene.

Oh, how many unseen miracles! How many unknown deliverances! How many hidden victories have come because someone yielded their tongue to the Spirit! Eternity alone will reveal it.

You may say, ”… But I feel foolish when I speak in tongues.” Of course, the natural mind feels foolish. The carnal man cannot understand the things of the Spirit, for they are spiritually discerned ... but what does it matter how you feel?

Do you want dignity, or do you want power? Do you want respectability, or do you want intimacy with God? Those who walk in the Spirit must be willing to look foolish to the world. David danced before the Lord with all his might, and his wife despised him, but God delighted in him.

In the same way, the world may mock your tongues, but Heaven rejoices. Better to be a fool in the eyes of men and a friend in the courts of Heaven than to be wise in this world and powerless before God.

So I urge you, beloved, to cultivate this gift, to treasure it, and to use it every day. Let it be the first prayer on your lips when you wake, the last whisper as you drift to sleep, and the song that carries you through the day.

Speak in tongues when you feel strong, and you will grow stronger. Speak in tongues when you feel weak, and you will be lifted. Speak in tongues when you do not know what to do, and the Spirit will guide you. Speak in tongues when the burden is heavy, and the Spirit will carry it for you. Speak in tongues when your heart is full of worship, and the Spirit will give you words worthy of the King.

Oh, the Christian life without tongues is like a body without breath, like a lamp without oil, and like a song without music. It is a life lived in limitation instead of abundance; but with tongues, with the constant flow of the Spirit’s intercession and worship, your life becomes a flame. Your walk becomes a testimony. Your prayers become unstoppable.

You are no longer a beggar at Heaven’s gate. You are a vessel through which Heaven itself flows, and as you continue, you will notice that your spirit grows more sensitive. You will hear His whispers more clearly. You will sense His directions more surely. You will walk in power more steadily.

Praying in tongues does not just build you up. It attunes you to His voice. It sharpens your spirit like a sword, ready to discern, ready to obey, ready to move when He moves. This is why, beloved, you cannot afford to neglect this gift. You cannot afford to treat it lightly.

It is Heaven’s treasure placed on your tongue. It is the Spirit’s voice flowing through your lips. It is the connection between your weakness and His strength, between your earth and His Heaven; and once you yield, once you let the river flow, you will never want to live without it again.

There are seasons in your life when you will come to the end of yourself. Your strength will fail. Your wisdom will falter. Your emotions will betray you. You will sit in silence with nothing left to give; and the weight of life will seem unbearable, but it is in those moments that the Holy Spirit comes rushing in like a mighty wind, ready to take over where you end.

Speaking in tongues is the bridge between your weakness and His power, between your emptiness and His fullness. You open your mouth and let the Spirit pray, and suddenly you are carried. You are lifted beyond yourself into the strength of the Almighty. That is why you need it, because human strength will fail you every time.

… But the Spirit never fails. Sometimes your heart is so overwhelmed that it feels as though it will break in two. The grief is so deep that words cannot touch it. The sorrow is so raw that language cannot express it. The pain is so heavy that every prayer seems hollow, but when you pray in tongues, oh, it is as though the Spirit Himself cradles your broken heart.

He takes the cries you cannot form, the groans you cannot utter, and the tears you cannot explain, and He translates them into the perfect language of Heaven, and the Father Who searches the heart hears the Spirit’s intercession, and suddenly the load is lighter, the tears are wiped, and the comfort comes.

You cannot live without this. Think of the times you have tried to pray for hours in your own understanding. How quickly your mind wanders, how easily your thoughts drift, how soon you run out of words; but when you speak in tongues, you can pray for hours, lost in the Spirit, and time seems to vanish.

You are no longer limited to the boundaries of your own mind. You have stepped into the eternal flow of God Himself. It is like a stream that never runs dry. The more you drink, the more there is to drink. The more you yield, the more He flows, and in that flow, you are carried into the depths of communion you never thought possible.

There are many who say, “But I do not feel anything when I pray in tongues.” Beloved, do not depend on feelings. Feelings are fleeting. They come and go like the wind. You do not speak in tongues because you feel like it. You do it because the Spirit has given you the gift and because it is your lifeline.

A soldier does not put down his weapon because he does not feel like fighting. A traveler does not refuse water because he is not thirsty at the moment. No, they use what has been given to them because it is necessary for survival. So you pray in tongues not because of feeling, but because it is the channel through which the Spirit strengthens you daily.

Even when you do not feel a thing, something powerful is still happening in the unseen. The Spirit is still building, still interceding, and still strengthening.

There is a holy boldness that comes through praying in tongues. You may be timid by nature, shy by personality, and hesitant in speaking; but when you give your tongue to the Spirit, there is a lion that rises within you. You may have trembled before men, but now you roar before Heaven. You may have feared the opinions of others, but now you are unashamed.

Speaking in tongues breaks the chains of fear. It gives you the courage to stand, the courage to testify, and the courage to walk in the authority of Christ. You cannot explain it with logic, but you know it when it happens. There is a boldness that is not your own.

I have seen people so crushed, so broken, so hopeless that no words of counsel could reach them. They sat in silence, unable to pray, and unable to believe; and then as they yielded their lips to the Spirit and began to pray in tongues, the tears began to flow, the heaviness began to lift, and the atmosphere itself seemed to change.

Where the Spirit is given control, the chains must break, the darkness must flee, and the oppression must lift.

You see, beloved, this is not a game. This is not an emotional trick. This is the power of the Holy Spirit working through the weakest vessel, and tongues are the doorway into that power.

Consider how often your tongue has gotten you into trouble, how many arguments, how many wounds, how many regrets have come from words spoken in haste, in anger, and in carelessness. The tongue can be a weapon of destruction, but when you surrender it to the Spirit, it becomes a weapon of life. No longer does it speak curses; it speaks blessings. No longer does it tear down; it builds up. No longer does it spread death; it releases life.

Speaking in tongues is the ultimate surrender of the tongue to God, and once He has it, He can transform the rest of your speech as well. Suddenly your words in your own language carry more weight, more love, more authority, because your tongue has been sanctified through yielding.

When you pray in tongues, you are also keeping yourself in humility, because the mind does not understand. Pride has no room to boast. You cannot claim credit for eloquence. You cannot show off your wisdom. You cannot glory in your understanding. All you can do is yield and let the Spirit flow, and in the yielding, your heart is kept humble, dependent, and childlike.

The proud will never value this gift, for they despise what they cannot understand, but the humble, the hungry, the desperate … they know the worth of it, and they cling to it as their lifeline.

Oh, there is a sweetness in tongues that words cannot describe. Sometimes it comes as a gentle whisper, soft and tender, like a lullaby from Heaven. Other times it comes like a rushing torrent, powerful and unstoppable, like a flood from the throne of God.

Sometimes it rises in a song, a melody not learned in any school, a harmony birthed in eternity. Each time it is unique. Each time it is holy. Each time it is the Spirit Himself expressing what cannot be expressed otherwise.

Each time it draws you closer, deeper, higher into His presence. Do you see how much you need this? Without tongues, your prayer life remains bound to your intellect, your emotions, and your vocabulary.

With tongues, your prayer life is unchained, limitless, eternal. Without tongues, you are confined to praying what you know. With tongues, you pray what God knows. Without tongues, you are limited to your perspective. With tongues, you step into His perspective. It is the difference between trying to see the world through a keyhole, and stepping outside into the wide open sky.

Beloved, you need to understand that speaking in tongues is not a strange addition onto your faith. It is not some odd manifestation to be tolerated or ignored. It is central to the Spirit-filled life:

The early Church was birthed in tongues. The disciples were clothed with power when the tongues of fire fell, and from that day onward, the Church moved in miracles, in boldness, and in unstoppable growth.

Do not think you can walk in the fullness of that same Spirit without embracing the same gift. The Spirit has not changed. The power has not diminished. The promise has not expired. What was true then is true now. You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost comes upon you, and speaking in tongues is the sign of that infilling.

There is a divine wisdom that flows through tongues. Sometimes after praying in the Spirit, you will suddenly have clarity in a decision you could not make before. The answer will come, the direction will be clear, and the confusion will lift, for while you were praying in tongues, the Spirit was aligning your heart with the will of God, bypassing your limited understanding and bringing you into agreement with Heaven’s plan.

This is why you cannot neglect it, because life is full of decisions you cannot make in your own wisdom. You need His wisdom, and tongues is the channel through which that wisdom flows.

You will find too that when you are faithful in tongues, other gifts of the Spirit begin to flow more easily: prophecy, discernment, healing, and words of knowledge. They all flow more naturally from a life saturated in tongues, for tongues keep you in constant communion, constant sensitivity, and constant alignment with the Spirit.

It is like priming the pump. Once the water begins to flow, everything else follows. Those who move in great power are those who have learned to pray much in tongues, for they have learned to live continually in the Spirit’s flow.

Sometimes, beloved, you will find yourself praying in tongues, and not even realize it. The Spirit will bubble up so naturally that it overflows without effort. It may happen in your car, in your kitchen, and in the quiet of your room. Suddenly your heart is stirred. Your lips begin to move, and the Spirit takes over.

This is the normal life of the believer, a life so saturated with the Spirit that prayer in tongues becomes as natural as breathing. This is where He wants to take you. Not a once-in-a-while manifestation, but a daily, hourly, continual communication; and as you live this way, your life will be transformed:

You will find peace where once there was turmoil. You will find strength where once there was weakness. You will find joy where once there was heaviness. You will find boldness where once there was fear. You will find clarity where once there was confusion. You will find victory where once there was defeat, all because you yielded your tongue to the Spirit, and let Him pray through you.

Do not let anyone rob you of this. Do not let tradition silence you. Do not let pride restrain you. Do not let fear stop you. This is your inheritance. This is your lifeline. This is the gift of God for you right here, right now; and once you take hold of it, once you yield completely, once you let the river flow unhindered, you will know what it is to live not by might, not by power, but by the Spirit of the living God.

"Tongues 20 min./day", K Kuhlman

"5 Things Tongues Do", K Kuhlman

"Tongues: The Weapon", K Kuhlman

"Pray and Hear God", K. Kuhlman

(Click here  to go back to  library)

(Click here & return to links page)