What the Bible Says About Praying in Tongues

I still remember the texture of the pew in front of me—rough, red velvet that had seen better days. I was seventeen, standing in the back of a sanctuary that smelled like floor wax and old hymnals. The air was heavy. Not heavy like humidity, but heavy like something was happening that I didn’t have a category for.

Next to me, a woman I’d known for years—a librarian, quiet, the type who baked casseroles for funerals—started whispering. But she wasn’t speaking English. It sounded like water rushing over stones. Rhythmic. Fast. Utterly unintelligible.

My stomach did a flip.

Was I freaked out? You bet I was. My hands were sweating. My analytical brain kicked into overdrive, trying to dissect the syntax, trying to find a French or Spanish root word I could latch onto. Nothing. Just a stream of sound that felt ancient and urgent.

Part of me wanted to run out the double doors and drive home. But another part of me, a deeper part I couldn’t silence, was jealous. She had a connection to something—to Someone—that I didn’t. She was tapping into a power source I had only read about in the dusty pages of my Bible.

If you clicked on this article, you probably feel that same weird tension. Maybe you grew up in a church where what the Bible says about praying in tongues was treated like the crazy aunt we hide in the attic. Or maybe you saw it on TV once, flashy and chaotic, and thought, “No thanks.”

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I get it. I really do.

But we have to push past the weirdness. We have to strip away the bad experiences, the TV preachers, and the denominational infighting. We need to look at the text. Just you, me, and the Bible. Because if this is real—if this is actually a gift from the God of the Universe to His kids—then we are crazy to leave it unopened on the table.

Key Takeaways

• It’s Not All Public: The Bible draws a hard line between the public “gift of tongues” (which needs an interpreter so everyone understands) and the private prayer language designed just for you and God.
• Battery Charger: Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 14 that while prophecy helps the church, praying in tongues builds you up. It’s spiritual self-care, strengthening your inner foundation.
• You Are In The Driver’s Seat: Biblical tongues aren’t a trance. You don’t lose control or black out. The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. You start, you stop.
• Love Trumps Everything: You can speak in the tongues of angels, but if you’re a jerk, it’s just noise. Character always matters more than charisma.
• The Spirit Intercedes: When you run out of English words (and you will), the Spirit steps in to pray the perfect will of God through you.

Is It Just Gibberish or Is It Actually Holy?

Let’s tackle the skepticism first. To the modern ear, glossolalia (the fancy theological word for speaking in tongues) sounds like nonsense. When I first heard it, I thought, is she just repeating syllables? Is this mass hysteria?

I remember sitting in my dorm room in college, staring at a textbook, overwhelmed by anxiety about my future. I tried to pray. “God, help me pass this test. God, help me figure out my major.” The words felt heavy, like they were falling out of my mouth and hitting the floor. I was bored with my own prayers. I felt distant.

I needed a language that went deeper than my vocabulary.

The Bible presents tongues not as emotional babble, but as a legitimate language of the Spirit. Flip to Acts 2. This is the blockbuster moment. The disciples are waiting in Jerusalem, just like Jesus told them to. Suddenly, the sound of a violent wind rips through the house. Fire appears.

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:4)

Look closely at that verse. Who did the speaking? They did. Who gave the ability? The Spirit.

It wasn’t a possession. God didn’t hijack their vocal cords like a puppet master. They had to open their mouths and cooperate. In this specific case, they were speaking known human languages (xenolalia) that they hadn’t learned—Parthian, Mede, Elamite. The crowd was stunned because they heard the wonders of God in their own dialects.

But as the early church grew, this gift morphed into something personal, a devotional language that Paul the Apostle cherished deeply.

Why Does Paul Separate Public Ministry from Private Prayer?

This is where 90% of the confusion comes from. People take verses about public church services and try to apply them to private prayer closets, or vice versa. It’s like trying to apply the rules of a football game to a quiet dinner date.

When we dig into what the Bible says about praying in tongues, we have to look at 1 Corinthians. Corinth was a messy church. They were gifted, sure, but they were also chaotic. Everyone wanted the spotlight. They were shouting over each other in tongues during the service, and visitors thought they were insane.

So Paul steps in like a stern but loving dad.

In 1 Corinthians 12, he lists tongues as a gift given to some for the benefit of the body. But then, in chapter 14, he pivots to talk about personal interaction with God.

He writes: “For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 14:2).

Catch that?

1. Public Gift: God speaking to the people (needs interpretation).
2. Private Prayer: You speaking to God (mysteries).

I used to think that because I didn’t have a “word” for the congregation, I didn’t have the gift at all. I was wrong. Paul later says, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” But in church? He’d rather speak five clear words to teach others.

That tells me Paul was a prayer warrior. He spent hours praying in the Spirit on his own time, keeping his spiritual tank full, so that when he stepped out in public, he made sense.

How Does Speaking in Tongues Actually Fix You?

Have you ever felt spiritually drained? I don’t mean just tired from a lack of sleep. I mean soul-tired. Worn thin.

Jude 1:20 gives us a strategy: “But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit…”

The Greek word there for “building up” is epoikodomeo. It’s a construction term. It means to lay a foundation, to add bricks to a house.

1 Corinthians 14:4 is even more blunt: “Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves.”

I’ve heard critics say, “That sounds selfish! We should be edifying others!” And yes, in public, we should. But you cannot pour from an empty cup. Think about the safety briefing on an airplane. You have to secure your own oxygen mask before you help the person next to you.

If you are running on spiritual fumes, you are no good to the kingdom.

I found this to be true in the trenches of motherhood. There were days when the babies were screaming, the sink was full of dishes, and I felt my patience snapping. I didn’t have the mental capacity to formulate a theological prayer. I just whispered in tongues while I washed bottles.

It wasn’t magic. It didn’t make the dishes disappear. But it shifted me. It realigned my spirit. It gave me a peace that didn’t make sense in the chaos. I was building myself up so I didn’t tear my family down.

What Are These “Groans Too Deep for Words”?

Sometimes life hits you so hard that English just doesn’t cut it. Grief. Betrayal. Confusing medical diagnoses.

Romans 8 is a lifeline here. Paul talks about our weakness. We are finite. We don’t see the whole picture.

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” (Romans 8:26)

Imagine you are praying for a friend in a messy divorce. Do you pray for reconciliation? Maybe that’s not safe. Do you pray for her to move on? Maybe God wants to heal the marriage. You don’t know.

If you pray with your understanding, you might inadvertently pray against God’s plan. But when you pray in the Spirit, you bypass your limited intellect. You allow the Holy Spirit, who knows the mind of God perfectly, to pray through you.

It’s the ultimate act of trust. It’s saying, “God, I don’t have the words, so I’m going to use Yours.”

Did This Gift Expire With the Apostles?

You can’t really study what the Bible says about praying in tongues without bumping into the cessationist argument. This is the belief that the supernatural gifts—tongues, prophecy, healing—were like scaffolding. They were needed to build the early church, but once the Bible was finished (the canon of Scripture), the scaffolding was taken down.

They usually point to 1 Corinthians 13:8: “…where there are tongues, they will be stilled…”

And they lean on verse 10: “but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.” They say “completeness” is the Bible.

But let’s look at the context. Verse 12 says, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.”

Be honest. Do you see Jesus face to face right now? Do you have perfect knowledge? No. We are still looking in a mirror, albeit a clearer one. That suggests “the perfect” is the return of Christ. Until He comes back, we need every tool in the toolbox to navigate this broken world.

History backs this up too. While it wasn’t always mainstream, you see pockets of tongues appearing throughout church history—among the Huguenots, the early Quakers, and various renewal movements—long before the famous Azusa Street Revival in 1906. God doesn’t have an expiration date on His power.

Why Are We So Scared of Losing Control?

Fear is the number one reason I see women hold back. We like to be in charge. We manage the calendar, the budget, the emotions of our household. The idea of opening your mouth and letting a sound come out that you didn’t plan? That feels reckless.

What if I look stupid? What if it’s just me making it up? What if—heaven forbid—it’s demonic?

Jesus anticipated this fear. In Luke 11, He gives us a father-son analogy. He asks, if a kid asks his dad for a fish, is the dad going to hand him a snake? If he asks for an egg, will the dad give him a scorpion?

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13)

If you are a blood-bought child of God, standing on holy ground, asking your Father for a gift He promised, He is not going to let a demon slip a counterfeit into your hand. You are protected.

Also, let’s bust the myth of the “uncontrollable frenzy.” Biblical tongues are not a seizure. 1 Corinthians 14:32 is clear: “The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets.”

This means you can start, and you can stop. You can speak quietly, or you can speak loudly. You are not hijacked. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He leads; He doesn’t drive.

How Do We Keep It from Getting Weird in Church?

Paul was actually super pragmatic about this. He knew that if an unbeliever walked into a service and saw 500 people screaming in unintelligible languages, they’d turn around and walk right back out. He said, “They will say you are out of your mind.”

So he set boundaries for public gatherings:

• Keep it Orderly: God isn’t a God of chaos.
• Interpretation is a Must: If you speak out loud to the room, someone better interpret it, or you should have stayed quiet. The goal is for everyone to say “Amen.”
• Take Turns: Two or three people, tops.

The lens for all of this is love. If my spiritual expression makes you uncomfortable or hinders you from hearing the Gospel, I need to dial it back. My liberty shouldn’t become your stumbling block.

But notice, Paul never says “Stop it entirely.” He ends the chapter with a command we often ignore: “Do not forbid speaking in tongues” (1 Corinthians 14:39). We need to find the balance between “anything goes” and “shut it all down.”

What’s the Connection Between Tongues and Guts?

There is a weird link between praying in tongues and boldness. Look at the disciples. Before Pentecost, they were hiding behind locked doors, terrified they were next on the Roman hit list. They were timid.

Then the Spirit fell. They spoke in tongues.

Ten minutes later? Peter is standing in the street, preaching a sermon that accuses the crowd of killing the Messiah, and 3,000 people get saved. That is a massive personality shift.

Throughout Acts, when the Spirit shows up, boldness follows.

• Acts 4: The room shakes, they are filled with the Spirit, and they speak the word boldly.
• Acts 19: Paul lays hands on the Ephesians, they speak in tongues, and then the Gospel explodes in that region so effectively that the idol makers lose business.

When we investigate what the Bible says about praying in tongues, we see it acts like a door hinge. It opens us up to a flow of power we can’t manufacture on our own. James calls the tongue the most unruly member of the body, a world of evil set on fire by hell.

When we yield that specific member to the Holy Spirit, it’s a sign of total surrender. It’s raising the white flag. And when we surrender, God can finally use us without our ego getting in the way.

Can You Be Saved and Not Speak in Tongues?

This is a painful question for a lot of people. I’ve had friends cry over this. They’ve been told by well-meaning but misguided people that if they don’t speak in tongues, they don’t have the Holy Spirit.

That is textually false.

Romans 8:9 is the trump card: “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.”

If you have surrendered your life to Jesus, the Holy Spirit is living inside you right now. You are sealed. You are His. Period.

Tongues is a gift available to believers, not a requirement for salvation. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul asks rhetorical questions: “Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues?” The Greek grammar implies the answer is “no” in the context of public ministry.

However, many scholars distinguish between the public office of tongues and the private devotional use. While not everyone is called to shout a message to the church, the invitation to commune with God in the Spirit seems much broader.

Don’t let guilt drive you. God doesn’t want you to seek a gift because you feel inadequate; He wants you to seek it because you’re hungry for more of Him.

So, How Do You Actually Do It?

If you’ve read this far and you’re thinking, Okay, I’m weirded out, but I’m interested, what now?

There isn’t a magic spell. You don’t have to repeat a phrase faster and faster until you trip over your words.

1. Check Your Motives: Do you want this so you can look super spiritual at prayer group? Or do you want this because you want to know Jesus better?
2. Ask: It’s as simple as, “Father, I want everything You have for me. I want the fullness of Your Spirit. If this prayer language is for me, I receive it.”
3. The Step of Faith: This is the part nobody explains. God will not grab your jaw and move it. You have to speak. It feels like stepping off a cliff. You have to stop speaking English. You might open your mouth and just make a sound.
4. Bypass the Brain: Your intellect will scream at you. “You are making this up! You sound like a baby!” That’s normal. You have to choose to focus on Jesus rather than your own self-consciousness.

My own experience wasn’t in a revival meeting. I was driving down the highway, listening to a worship CD. I just decided to stop caring what I sounded like. I opened my mouth and let a few syllables out. They sounded strange. But as I kept speaking them, it was like a dam broke. A river of language flowed out, and I felt a peace settle over my car that was thicker than the air had been in that church years ago.

Why Does the Enemy Hate This So Much?

Think about it. If tongues were just useless gibberish, why would the devil work so hard to mock them? Why would he create so much division in the church over it?

The enemy hates what the Bible says about praying in tongues because it threatens him.

When you pray in tongues, you are praying the perfect will of God. You are strengthening your spiritual armor. You are communicating on a secure frequency that he can’t decode and mess with.

Mockery is his best weapon. If he can make you feel embarrassed, he can keep you disarmed. He wants you silent. He wants you polite. He wants you powerless.

Don’t let the fear of looking undignified rob you of a weapon God designed for your victory. King David danced out of his clothes before the Ark of the Covenant, and when his wife mocked him for being undignified, he said, “I will become even more undignified than this!”

What If You Try and Get Nothing?

I have to be real here. I’ve prayed with women who sobbed at the altar, asking for this gift, and walked away silent. It is gut-wrenching.

If that’s you, please hear me: God is not mad at you. He is not withholding this because you aren’t “good enough.”

Sometimes there are blocks—unforgiveness, deep-seated fear, or bad theology that needs to be untangled. Sometimes, it really is just a timing thing.

But do not let the absence of this one gift cause you to doubt the Giver. You are loved. You are chosen. Your prayers in English are powerful and heard by the King of Kings. Do not stop seeking, but do not start striving. Rest in His love first. The gifts are just the icing on the cake.

A Final Thought on the Secret Language

We live in a world that never shuts up. We are drowning in content, opinions, and noise. We are desperate for a signal that cuts through the static.

What the Bible says about praying in tongues is an invitation to bypass the noise. It’s a way to let your spirit talk to His Spirit without your tired, anxious brain getting in the way. It’s a gift of grace, designed to build you up so you can love people better.

If you are curious, keep knocking. Read the book of Acts again. Read 1 Corinthians without the commentary of your denomination ringing in your ears.

And if you already have this gift? Use it. Don’t let it rust. The world is on fire, and we need believers who are built up, bold, and speaking the mysteries of God into the atmosphere.

If you want to dig deeper into the history and theological nuance of this, there is some incredible work being done on Pneumatology (the study of the Spirit) at places like Yale Divinity School.

Let’s stop fighting about the gift and start unwrapping it. There is a conversation waiting for you that goes deeper than words.

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