“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God.”
Jude 20
Hello Friend,
As we celebrate Pentecost Sunday, the day we commemorate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the early church, I want to share with you about something that has been on my heart for a long time. Something that is often misunderstood, undervalued, and even set aside entirely.
I want to talk with you about the power of speaking in tongues.
Not the Least of the Gifts
I want to say this plainly right from the start: the gift of speaking in tongues is not the least of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. That is how it has been relegated at times over the years. Speaking in tongues has been pushed to the bottom of the list, treated as optional or even controversial. But I believe something different entirely.
The gift of speaking in tongues is a key to operating in all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Did you catch that? It is not the lowest rung on the ladder. It is the ignition key. It is the on-ramp to the highway of moving in all of the 20-some different gifts of the Spirit listed in Scripture. And it is available to every born-again believer.
A Biblical Foundation
Isaiah 28:11-12 gives us an early glimpse of this gift:
“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.'”
With stammering lips and another tongue. This is a rest for the weary. That is a biblical value, one that the Apostle Paul later quotes to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 14 as he lays out the purpose and practice of this gift.
And then there is Jude 20:
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God.”
You can build yourself up in your most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit. You can keep yourself in the love of God and walking in the mercies of Christ. This is not a minor, peripheral activity. It is a devotional lifeline.
The Birthday of the Church
Acts 2:1-4 takes us back to where it all began:
“Now when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all in one accord, in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Notice it does not say a select elite few. It says they were all filled. All of them. And they all began to speak. The Holy Spirit provided the supernatural syllables of another language. A language they did not know in the natural and they spoke it out. That same gift is available to you today.
The Kroger Encounter
Let me tell you a story. Some time ago, I was a single dad trying to find a chocolate cheesecake for my oldest daughter’s birthday. I felt led to go to Whole Foods, but something kept nudging me to go to Kroger. I resisted it. I argued with it. But at the last moment, I turned left instead of right and pulled into Kroger.
As soon as the doors opened, a mother with three little children spotted me from across the store. Her eyes went wide, and she called out: “Are you that crazy James Goll that does power tongues?”
She told me that the night before, she had been watching a video about the power of speaking in tongues and had prayed: Lord, if this is of you, blast me with all you’ve got. She was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues for three straight hours. And then, in her hunger to know it was truly from God, she prayed one more prayer: Lord, send that crazy James Goll my way today, and then I will know this is really of you.
She had no idea where I lived. She had no idea I would walk through those doors.
But the Holy Spirit knew. And He nudged me to turn left.
That is the power of speaking in tongues: not just a spiritual language, but a key that opens you up to divine appointments, supernatural guidance, and the flowing river of the Holy Spirit’s life within you.
I have seen this gift operate in remarkable ways across the nations. I have stood among the Ixil Indian people in the mountains of Guatemala and spoken in their language, not knowing I was doing it, and watched nearly a hundred people run forward to enter the kingdom of God for themselves. The Lord does miraculous things through this gift.
Receive the Refreshing
Wherever you are today, I want to invite you to receive a fresh surge of the Holy Spirit. Whether you are being re-edified in this gift, receiving it for the first time, or simply needing the well to be re-pumped and overflowing once again, this gift is for you.
Jesus promised: out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water. I bless you with that river today, available to you in all times and all seasons.
Come, Holy Spirit.
If you would like to go deeper on this subject and on the life of prophetic intercession, I want to point you to my book, Praying with God’s Heart: The Power and Purpose of Prophetic Intercession. You can find it, along with a study guide and full curriculum kit, at GodEncounters.com.
God bless you!
James W. Goll
