Jeremiah 33:3
“Call to me, and I will answer you.
And I will show you great and wonderful things
which you do not know.”
I am a “show me” type of girl. I am not prone to blindly accept things that I don’t understand. Raised in a conservative Baptist church, my first experience hearing someone ‘speaking in tongues’ during my college years left me wide eyed and wondering, “what in the world was THAT!”
Fast forward about 19 years. The tragedy of 911 brought me through the doors of a Spirit filled, Bible believing Church. I attended a weekly women’s bible study where we began a series on the “gifts of the Holy Spirit” At the culmination of the study, there was a time of prayer for anyone who desired to receive Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues.
Now, In my heart, I wanted to experience this gift. But in my head, I was afraid that the Holy Spirit would cause me to blurt out unintelligible words at the grocery store or my PTA meeting! I voiced this struggle and was quickly assured that The Holy Spirit is gentle and allows us the choice of when to use our prayer language. So I said “Yes” and we prayed a simple prayer for me to receive this special gift of speaking in tongues.
My experience was not dramatic. Little by little I noticed new words that I did not understand begin to flow quietly from my lips during worship. Soon I was happily singing and speaking my new Holy Spirit language in my personal prayer time.
As my fluency increased, I began to notice repetitions of words when I prayed. I had no idea what I was praying for in the Spirit, but one particular word began to be repeated within my prayer language... “Galia” Sometimes spoken as if I were encouraging a frightened child and, at other times, I sensed I was defending someone or warring against something. The word “Galia” consistently remained within my prayer language. I wondered what it meant so I called upon the Lord to show me.
God disclosed the mystery 6 months later while on a mission trip to Ukraine. A young woman came up for prayer following a conference on the gifts of the Spirit. Through the interpreter, she told us that she desired to receive the gift of tongues. I smiled, remembering my own request a few months earlier and marveling at His timing & the miracle that I was here now, praying for this unknown sister. I asked the interpreter to tell us the woman’s name.
She replied in broken English.....”Her name is GALIA.”
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, May we operate in the fullness of your Spirit every day we live! May we never be so grounded to the world that we miss the blessings reserved for those who soar with your Spirit. You are such an amazing God! Amen.
-Kim Dent
