When you became born again (saved), the Holy Spirit took up residence in your heart to become your Teacher, Comforter and Guide through life (John 14:15-26). When you receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-8), you are covered with and able to tap into (activate) the burden-removing, yoke-destroying power of God-the anointing (Isaiah 10:27). In other words, He is able to come up out of you and settle down on you. The evidence of this lies in your speaking in tongues, or in an unknown, spiritual language (Acts 2:1-4).

Since God is a spirit-being, it is important that you communicate with Him on a spiritual level. It is one thing to speak to God in your native language, but praying in the spirit (in tongues) is a way for you to communicate with God in His language. When you pray in tongues, you pray the perfect will of God, which is the Word of God. Praying this way allows you to tap into the answers and the knowledge you need for any situation in life, because you are: 1) bypassing your soul (mind, will and emotions), which is where doubt, fear and unbelief reside; and 2) praying beyond what you know in the natural realm.

The Holy Spirit was given to the disciples on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). When He came to them, they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. The speaking part of praying in tongues is an act of your will; in other words, you have to do the speaking--by faith--in a "language" that you don't know. When you do, the Holy Spirit will pray through you to accomplish God's perfect will in your life and in the lives of others.

Speaking in tongues is not something to fear; rather, it is a way to tap into a greater level of power in your personal prayer time. When you pray in the Holy Spirit, you are able to reach people and affect situations of which you aren't even aware, because you are able to access God's wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:6-7). If you have not been baptized with God's burden-removing, yoke-destroying power and are born again, all you have to do is ask God for it.

Receiving the power of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues is not dependent on a feeling or the laying on of hands; instead, it is done through God's promise in the book of Acts and your faith. Once you've made your request to God, receive it by faith and open your mouth to speak your heavenly language. Once you do, your life will never be the same--you'll begin to walk in true Holy Ghost power!