Reddit reviews The Walk of the Spirit - The Walk of Power: The Vital Role of Praying in Tongues

I grew up in an Assembly of God church. Basically I was taught that speaking in tongues was the main gift that everyone needed and would/could receive in faith through prayer. No tongues? That meant you were not spirit filled as far as the teaching I received. I don't agree with that anymore, necessarily, as I have seen people operate in other gifts and they don't speak in tongues, but I still ponder if this gift is available to them and they just don't know it or have not desired to do so?

Anyway, I do believe I received this gift at a very young age (I was 11 or 12. Around that age.) But I had no idea what the purpose was for this gift that was supposedly so important to our church. I mean, there were what were called "messages in tongues" during services, usually on Sunday night. There would be a reverent hush in the room and then someone would pray in tongues and then an interpretation would follow. That was actually very cool. The words were generally exhortations of God being there and His pleasure, maybe a little correction but always with grace. But other than that I didn't really get it. It seemed altogether strange to me and illogical.

I found myself at a different kind of Charismatic church a few years later. Although this church wasn't opposed to tongues at all, speaking in tongues took a "back seat" to other more exciting gifts. They loved prophecy and words for sure. But I found that there was a lack of accountability in some ways to the giving of these words. I had a bad experience with a supposed "word" that was obviously not of the Holy Spirit so I found myself out of charismatic circles for a couple decades.

I am back again, partially because the Holy Spirit began to stir in me a desire to pray in tongues more. I finally understood the need for this gift after reading this book: http://www.daveroberson.org/books.aspx Free on Amazon too: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ARFNII4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

In preparation for a mission trip I was taking I decided to take the advice of Dave Roberson, the author of the book, and see what God would do if I just prayed in tongues for a year leading up to the trip. I just prayed for about 10 minutes a day. Not long really. I had (still have) a difficult time focusing longer than that when praying in the Spirit. But I made it a much more regular habit. Not much changed during that year, but when I was in India I started to see visions. The visions became a catalyst for some major changes and a huge shift in how I see the Kingdom of God, all my priorities in life began to change as well.

My husband and I felt the Lord calling us to a new church a little over a year ago. This one is open to tongues, but they do not allow messages unless they are filtered through one of the elders first. This seems odd, but I have seen first hand how there is misuse in the church. Perhaps they don't have much of a choice at this point. Not sure, honestly. But I am glad to be back at a church that is open to the Holy Spirit speaking to us, moving in our midst. It is very refreshing in many ways. I should still pray in tongues more than I do though, as with the gift cool things happen. Here are a couple of my recent personal stories I have shared on here related to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/6hae0m/help_for_christians_to_being_more_sensitive_in/diwvxbg/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/6d1ith/when_did_tongues_in_1_corinthians_start_referring/dhz91rl/

You were bullied. Have you let go of the trauma? Have you forgiven your bullies? Have you blessed them? Thanked them? The spirit of fear, resentment, depression, timidity can follow you for decades unless you take care of these issues. I know from personal experience. It took me 20 years to process it fully. But bad experiences can also be turned into a strength as you help others.

I see you have the desire to grow, so I’m gonna link you to my favorite book on spiritual growth. It’s free on Kindle. It’s so powerful that it completely turned my life upside down as God started refining me for his service. This method of praying will dig up and process every roadblock that stands in your way.

Correct, for that time, and it's sad that the churches does not teach this correctly, but tongues also allows the Holy Spirit to pray for us in our weakness and edifies the soul. There's a great book about this that can help you understand - and it's free!

https://www.amazon.com/Walk-Spirit-Power-Praying-Tongues-ebook/dp/B00ARFNII4


“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:14-19).

Being homosexual is not a sin more than being a human is a sin. Doing homosexual acts is what goes against God’s standards. The only approved sex from God’s standpoint is within a man-woman marriage. (Not that that has ever stopped people of course.)

We all have different things to deal with. If I am an alcoholic, perhaps I need to avoid alcohol altogether while another christian has no problem with it. Some have a genetic predisposition toward aggression, so they have to struggle to be a peaceful person. Someone might just have a high libido in general and have to fight his urge to sleep around. Everyone has their own cross to bear.

The question is, do I love Jesus more than whatever my sinful body is attracted to?

The strongest weapon against our fallen flesh that I have found is daily bible reading and constant prayer. When God fills you with Holy Spirit, the effect is that you will start minding the spirit rather than the flesh. (Romans 8:5,6) Also, staying in constant communion with God helps us to overcome our weaknesses, because he’s always there by our side. Here’s a (free kindle) book on the topic of praying in spirit that helped me a lot.

That book - Walk of the Spirit - is one of my favorites. I've read it a few times and it changed my life, in a way. It's also available for free on kindle:

The Walk of the Spirit - The Walk of Power: The Vital Role of Praying in Tongues