Yet although I pray in tongues, my initial experience with tongues came entirely unexpectedly. I first heard the gospel on the way home from high school one day, and after arguing for forty-five minutes with the Baptist who shared it with me, I walked home trembling. Although I had been an atheist and found their arguments unconvincing, the Spirit was pressing me for a decision and would not stop pressing until I surrendered or told him to leave me. Within an hour I fell to my knees on my bedroom floor and asked God to save me. Instantly I felt something rushing through my body that I had never felt before, and I quickly jumped to my feet, wondering what was happening. I resolved to be a Christian henceforth, although I was not yet certain of all that this commitment entailed. On Sunday I went to a church, and a pastor prayed with me to accept Christian. Assured now that I had accepted Christ ‘properly’, I felt the same overwhelming presence of God I had felt two days before and this time decided to yield to it fully.
In a moment I was so overwhelmed with the awesome majesty and presence of God that I understood that only he could provide me with adequate words with which to praise him. And because I intuitively understood that God knows lots of languages, it somehow did not surprise me when the Spirit gave me another language to praise him. For an hour or two I worshiped God in tongues—often punctuated with deep, cathartic laughter (which recurred on occasion since)—experiencing a joy I had never known before. When I finished, I was convinced that the purpose in life I had long sought must be to promote the glory of Christ alone.
Over the years God provided other experiences (including learning how to read the Bible in context) that made this spiritual experience only one among many, but prayer in tongues remains special to me in my personal prayer life. Having never read the Bible before that day or been exposed to speaking in tongues, I did not know ‘tongues’ existed, nor did I hold preconceptions about what tongues should involve. But God simply granted me the gift as an act of grace to a former atheist who badly needed a touch from him.