The Real Reason You Can’t Pray in Tongues

Author, evangelist, healing minister and TV host David Diga Hernandez works to guide believers into true intimacy with the Holy Spirit, including the practice of speaking and praying in tongues. And Hernandez has no problem practicing what he preaches.

Many churches, he tells host Isaiah Saldivar on the Revival Lifestyle podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network, don’t talk about the Holy Spirit. The reason? Hernandez puts it plainly: “They’re run by a different spirit. … If they were being run by the Holy Spirit, there would be no shame in anything He does or anything He offers.

And many believers, he says, find themselves unable to pray in tongues even after years of asking God to release that gift in their lives. Hernandez offers what may be a surprising explanation. “The reason you cannot pray in tongues, after you’ve prayed the prayer to receive the Holy Spirit, after you’ve gone from conference to conference, the reason you can’t pray in tongues, in one word only: It’s your ego.

“You can’t pray in tongues because of your ego playing into it,” Hernandez says. “I don’t care what story you make up about your past, about why you didn’t or how you were nervous. It’s ego. When we go to pray in tongues, I’ll tell you what happens when you start feeling that unction, and you go to speak that first syllable. What’s the first thought? That’s just me. … What if it’s the enemy? What if it’s another spirit? What if I’m just making this up? Is this the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?

“All these thoughts are coming to the mind; that’s overanalysis. Another thing that comes to mind is, I’ll look foolish,” Hernandez says.

“Can I just settle the matter for you? People ask, ‘Will I look silly when I pray in tongues?’ My answer is yes. Yes, it’s very silly, praying in tongues. You’re going to look weird. OK, we’re strange, being among the Spirit-filled believers.

“You’re going to look silly, and you’re just going to have to accept that,” Hernandez says. “Leave it to God and all His wisdom to leave such power, the power of praying in tongues, hidden beneath the childlikeness of praying a language of faith.”

To learn more about supernatural gifts and how God uses them in the church and in you, click here to listen to the entire podcast. {eoa}