Fellowship with the Holy Spirit

Through His Holy Spirit, Jesus not only wants to bless you, but also wants you to bless others. He wants you to love others by being a conduit of His healing power, forgiveness, freedom from sin, peace, joy, provision, and many other blessings. Fulfilling His purposes begins with close fellowship and direct communication with Him.

The only thing that can limit God's power in our lives is our lack of understanding and trust in just how limitless His love, power, and desire to have a relationship with Him is. Some of the most important things we can do to overcome our lack of understanding are: commit to a deeper trust of His Word in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, continually pray, spend time with Him, listen, and act upon our faith in partnership with the person and goals of His Holy Spirit.

As we act to fulfill these goals, we can share the outpouring of God's love and power with others. The degree to which we can be conduits of God's love and power for the sake of bringing people closer to Him is just a hint of the degree to which Jesus can bless us - both now and throughout eternity.

When we want to have fellowship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit can help us to communicate with Him in a very special way. Jesus provides a spiritual language to make up for what our natural minds do not know or comprehend. His Spirit intercedes directly with our reborn spirit, and can also provide an interpretation of what was said. This gift is a personal, private, and individual prayer language provided by Jesus Himself for our reborn spirit to assist all believers in growth, praise, edification, power, and most importantly, our personal relationship with Jesus. The Apostle Paul referred to it as "speaking in tongues" - and used it continually in prayer. Specific passages that talk about this are in the New Testament books of Acts and 1 Corinthians. The passages are referenced below.

Since the gift of tongues is directly from Jesus through His Holy Spirit, perhaps the most profound reason for providing us the language is that it can help us know Him and grow in His nature and power. This is also the main reason satan has tried so hard to keep believers from knowing and receiving the truth about the gift!

Like salvation, the spiritual language is asked for and received by faith. Jesus first established this on the day of Pentecost when He sent the Comforter (refering to Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit) to all believers. The language is also provided as a sign of the receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit that was promised - without regard to a person's piety, personality, race, sex, strength, humility, education, social standing, righteousness, etc. The language is simply given to believers because they have allowed themselves to be reborn into the Kingdom of God.

Side note: With the same ability that God was able to create and confuse languages at the Tower of Babel because of the people's pride and rebellion against Him, God has created the heavenly language of tongues because of His people's love and submission to Him.

Thus, the language is available from the very first moment of salvation - as described in Acts 2:1- 4, Acts 10:44-47, Acts 19:1-6. A new believer needs only to ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and begin speaking the new language through the faith God has already placed in his/her heart. The language is available when you want to have intimate fellowship with Jesus through the person of His Holy Spirit.

Note: Having fellowship with the Lord through the special prayer language is not a prerequisite for being saved, nor is it the only evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit. However, in almost every instance mentioned in the New Testament, regarding thousands of people who received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, the specific way in which it was known was by hearing them speak the new language (tongues). See Acts 2:1- 4, Acts 10:44-47, Acts 19:1-6, Acts 2:38-39, and other scripture references below.

There are scriptures that teach how to use the gift in a larger group setting also. This is known as the prophetic gift of tongues, which can be accompanied by an interpretation 1 Corinthians 14:1-17. Sometimes the Lord uses the gift as a special miracle to touch the hearts of unbelievers in their own language. An example of this can be found in the second chapter of Acts, verses 5-11. These scriptures provide fairly detailed guidelines for the appropriate use and attitudes associated with ministering the gift in church gatherings. They are also in 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 and 1 Corinthian 13:1-13.

The apostle Paul was careful to point out that all gifts must be shared in love. Because of the importance of love, the apostle told us that when this life is over and we are living in heaven where everything is complete and perfect, the gifts won't be needed anymore. Paul considered the gift so valuable for personal growth and ministry in this life, that he wanted to ensure its effective use in the meantime. In 1 Corinthians 14:18-39, he even said "I thank God I speak in tongues more than you all" . He wasn't bragging. He was simply balancing out his rebuke to the Corinthian Church concerning their unfortunate attitudes associated with the exercise of the gifts. These passages can be found in 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 and 1 Corinthian 13:1-13.

Following are scriptures that teach about the heavenly language.

Note: The most commonly referred-to passages are highlighted in bold print. Verses are from the New Living Translation of the Bible. For all other major translations, there is a free, online Bible concordance which is very easy to use.
Go to: http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?

Click each scripture reference for full passage.

John 7:37-39 ...streams of living water...

Acts 2:1- 4 ...began to speak in other tongues...

Acts 2:5-11...bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers,

Acts 2:38-39 ...receive the gift of the Holy Spirit....

Acts 10:44-47 ...They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.

Acts 19:1-6 ...we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit...

1 Corinthians 12:1-31 ...those speaking in different kinds of tongues...

1 Corinthian 13:1-13 ...If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love...

1 Corinthians 14:1-17 ...He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself...

1 Corinthians 14:18-39...I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you...

Ephesians 6:18 ...And pray in the Spirit on all occasions...

Romans 8:26 ...the Spirit himself intercedes for us...

Isaiah 28:11-12...with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people...

(For a more thorough biblical study on the prayer language
and other gifts of the Holy Spirit, click here.)

We wish you God's wonderful gifts of love, peace,
and joy through fellowship with His Holy Spirit...

- Paul and Robin Germain

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