Ten Reasons Why Christians Should Want the Baptism of the Holy Spirit or to Speak in Tongues

1.  You should want to because the Lord Jesus Christ wants you to speak in tongues.   Jesus commanded the believers to not go anywhere, but to wait in Jerusalem for the Promise of the Father, which was the Baptism of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.  Acts 1:4-5 says:  And, being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;  for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

2. Speaking in tongues is a sure sign that you are born-again.  Mark 16:17 says:  And these signs will follow those who believe…they will speak with new tongues.

  3.   You are praying out mysteries or important prayer requests for God.   Many times God will prompt a believer or several believers to pray in tongues for a missionary that is in trouble.  Later when the missionary comes home from the field and they compare the time that the believers prayed in tongues and the time when God rescued the missionary from a terrible circumstance, the times coincide and they all rejoice.   God can use your praying in tongues to stop a car accident or to protect soldiers on the foreign field. So when God prompts you to pray in tongues, do not argue.  Obeying God could be a matter of life and death.  

         This analogy will help you understand:   Imagine a big 1000 piece puzzle and each puzzle piece was a prayer request.  Now you may know in your own limited mind 10 pieces to pray for:  your family, your finances, a relationship problem, or a political news event, etc.  But God has unlimited knowledge, so He knows what is happening presently and He knows what will happen in the future. He knows what the devil is planning to do as well.  Unless there is a prayer, nothing can change.  We have our prayer list, but God has His own prayer list and He needs people to intercede and pray for His prayer list.  So how can we pray for “God’s prayer list” if we do not know what is on it?  The Holy Spirit knows.  When we yield to our spirits to pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit gives us the prayers to pray downloading them into our “heavenly prayer language” according to the will of God   (See Romans 8:27).  We may not know what we are praying for, but God does and that is all that matters.  He may not want us to know because it may be too difficult for us to understand or it is not God’s timing for us to know, or if we knew we might get pretty upset, especially if you are praying in tongues because your spouse is contemplating to cheat on you.  What I am trying to say is,  if we need to know, God would make sure that we know.  He may give us the interpretation, but only if it is His will.

 4.  Praying in tongues brings comfort to our hearts.  All of us have experienced hurt or rejection or even a broken heart in our lives.  It says in Romans 8:26-27 “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.  For we do not know what we should pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”  When you pray in tongues, you can pray to God what you are really truly feeling.  Then the Comforter hears you and He pours out His love upon you to build you back up again.  Jesus said in John 14:16 (KJV) “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.”   Isaiah 28:11-2 For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, to whom He said, “this is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing.” 

5.  Praying in tongues is praying in line with God’s perfect will.   Romans 8:27 continues on to say: “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”   That should be motivation enough. We all want God's perfect will in our lives, do we not?

6.  Praying in tongues keeps you from ungodly lusts and builds up your spirit.   Jude 18-20 says: they (the apostles) told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts… But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

7.   Praying in tongues is the entranceway to all the Gifts of the Spirit as listed in 1 Corin. 12:7-11 including the gift of tongues, the interpretation of tongues, and the gift of prophecy.  I wanted to make it clear that there is a difference between praying in tongues and the gift of tongues.  All believers can pray in tongues. Everyone who believes can receive their heavenly prayer language.   It is God’s will for all believers to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to pray in tongues.       The gifts of the Holy Spirit are different.  1 Corin. 12: 11 says:  “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” So the gift of tongues is given to believers that pray in tongues only as God wills.  The gift of interpretation of tongues is given to those that pray in tongues only as God wills.  The church at Ephesus could prophesy as soon as they received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Acts 19:6 says:  “And when Paul laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”   1 Corin. 14:3 says to eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.  After Peter and John received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, they received the gift of healing as evidenced in Acts 3:6-8 when they ministered healing to the lame man who was begging at the gate called Beautiful.   Peter said:  “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you:   In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”  And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.  So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them – walking, leaping, and praising God.”

8.  Praying in tongues helps you learn how to trust God more.  You can only speak in tongues by faith because you have to trust God for the utterance.  So as you exercise your faith to pray in tongues, then just like a muscle in your physical body, your spiritual muscles in the area of trusting God will be strengthened because you are praying without your understanding.  Proverbs 3:5-6 says:   “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.  And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

9.  Praying in tongues enables you to be an effective witness.   Acts 1:8 says: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”   As you pray in tongues under your breath or before you go up and witness to someone, the Holy Spirit will move upon you in a greater way to speak the very words that will pierce their heart to cause them to repent and turn to God.  As you talk with them, the Lord can also use you to prophesy to them (using simple prophecy - giving an edifying, encouraging, or comforting word) right in the middle of the conversation in a seeming natural way, but actually it is a supernatural flow of the spirit.  See the section on Prophetic Evangelism.

10.  Singing in tongues brings glory to God in praising and worshipping Him in His own heavenly language.              In 1 Corin. 14: 15-17 it says that when others are present, you should pray with your understanding or in your own language (such as English), but when you are alone, singing in the spirit blesses God and gives thanks in a pleasing way unto God.