The speaker says ego, fear, and overthinking block believers from using a personal prayer language. Fear of looking foolish, doubt the gift is real, and mental chatter all get in the way. Release these barriers by trusting the Holy Spirit to move through you.
There's one reason why you haven't been able to release the gift of tongues, that personal prayer language. It comes down to one word, and at first it may be offensive, but I want you to hear me out here, and that's ego. And when I'm talking about ego, I'm not just talking about pride. Pride can be a part of it. I'm talking about self. We get in our own way, and here are the 3 ways that we get in our own way. Number one, fear. We're afraid of looking foolish. We're afraid of people of the world criticizing us. Well, so be it. We're afraid of religious Christians criticizing us. Well, so be it. Let me alleviate this problem within us right now. Let me just alleviate this fear. If you're worried that you're going to look strange, let me just tell you plainly, you're going to look strange. But that's okay. We're different. We stand out. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, and we're not supposed to look like everyone else. We're afraid of angering God, as if he's going to get mad at us for trying to exercise what he's given to us. Or worse, we're afraid of catching a demon. You're not going to get a demon asking for a gift in the name of Jesus from the Holy Spirit. The second way that we get in our way is we doubt. We say, oh, this is just me, or maybe that's not really the gift of tongues. That doubt needs to go. You need to be released from that and instead come from the place of faith. Finally, the way that we get in our own way is through overthinking. I can tell you hundreds of times I've prayed with people wanting to release their prayer language, and as I'm praying for them, they're just going, amen, amen, amen. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And they're overthinking it, so they're just kind of putting out filler. This is where I want to encourage you, and this isn't going to necessarily sound spiritual, but just relax. And that is faith in action. In fact, I believe that sometimes Christians have trouble releasing this gift because they're so tense and wrapped up in themselves. So let go of the fear. The fear of looking foolish, the fear of angering God, the fear of catching a demon like it's a pathogen or something. Let go of the doubt. The telling yourself that this is just you or that this is not real. Let go of the overthinking, which leads to inaction, and come to the place of perfect faith. To learn more about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, get Holy Spirit: God Within You at encounterthespirit.com.
