How to Pray in Tongues for Long Hours

Happy New Year from me to you. I hope your 2022 turned out great?! I wish you the best this year!

One of the most powerful prophecies I got for this year was to pray more.

https://youtu.be/hSM-sDRi_Y0?si=fqDr2MmWnZVGwBj8

Interesting right? So if you have been praying before, keep being consistent. If you haven’t been praying at all, please start praying.

One of the problems we encounter in the place of prayer is usually our inability to stay in the place of prayer. Our inability to pray for long hours. 

You see, because of this major issue, a lot of people have decided to believe that you don’t have to pray for long hours, even if it’s short, God will still hear and answer. Well, you’re correct. 

But praying for long hours has more to do with your relationship with God than you know.

When you pray for long hours, you will hear your thoughts and voice less and hear God more. Your emotions and feelings will become susceptible to God’s will. You will get more from God than someone who stayed for just 5 minutes.

No judgment here.

When I mean long hours, I mean 1 hour and above (Some highly spiritual people are giving us the side eye).

And this prayer I’m referring to is not the ‘only say what you want God to do for you for long hours and leave’ type. Nop!

This prayer I’m referring to is not the ‘I’m praying in tongues and doing other things at the same time’ type (side eye).

I’m talking about Praying in Tongues for long hours and waiting to hear God as you prepare yourself with your pen and paper or phone notepad.

Yes. That one!

If you are in doubt about why you should pray and what happens when you pray, you can check my previous post on the secret to a consistent prayer life

I will be giving 10 Tips and Tricks on praying in tongues for long hours.

Disclaimer: These tips and tricks were basically gotten from experience. If you’re a lazy (sometimes), easily bored person like me who has a passion for spiritual growth, you will want to know these tips I came up with that have really helped my spiritual life.

So what are these tips and tricks on praying for long hours?

Listen to Spiritual Songs/Sounds while praying

If you think this won’t work, try praying in tongues without spiritual songs for the first 30 minutes, then pray in tongues with spiritual songs for the next 30 minutes, and tell me if you won’t see the difference.

The importance of listening to spiritual songs is to stir you up. Music naturally affects our mood (whether spiritual or not), so listening to a spiritual song automatically puts you in a prayerful mood or atmosphere.

You can listen to songs/sounds by Lawrence Oyor (My favorite every time), or other gospel songs that stir you up. You can also leave links and recommendations of spiritual songs and sounds in the comment.

Use Earphones

This tip sounds weird right!! Well, take it from me. Using earphones to listen to the spiritual songs I mentioned earlier is a very effective tip. There is a difference between playing spiritual songs to pray and actually plugging the song straight into your ears. 

I wish I could give you a magical reason for this tip but as I said, try it and see.

Pace Back and Forth or Take a Walk 

This is an important one. Also, remember it is a trick. When you sit in a place, your body can get tired and you start to get bored. Your mind will start wandering all over the place. You could even fall asleep. 

There are times I even go from sitting down to lying down and before I know it… (My spirit is praying but my body is asleep, Lol)

So what should you do, pace back and forth (don’t try to close your eyes (except on occasions of visions or trances).

While pacing back and forth or going for a walk (Prayer walks are really good options when praying for long hours) your body finds something interesting to do and something else to focus on, so you can focus your mind on the prayer.

Related Post: What Happened When I Prayed in Tongues for 6 Hours

6 Reasons you’re not consistent in Prayer + The Right reason to Pray

Talk to God in between or Prophesy 

This is the spice…

Yes, please. Try not to only pray in tongues for those hours. Add the spice of speaking to God in between. Most times when we speak in a language we can understand after praying in tongues, we are actually interpreting the tongues. 

If you ever noticed, sometimes you will start making decrees or prophesying words from God into your life. Yes, that is the spice of praying in the spirit. My favorite part.

Thank God for what He has done (You can sing)

 This is a trick that has worked for me but ensure you are not doing it just to consume time but you actually want to give thanks. So, go into worship and thanksgiving mode. Remember all God has done for you and all he has promised to do. Open your heart and give Him praise. You can even pray in tongues as you thank him.

The Bible says “when we pray in tongues we give thanks well”

“For thou verily givest thanks well…”
1 Corinthians 14:17 KJV

By the time you are done and ready to continue with your prayers, you might have spent an hour. 

There’s so much to thank God for!

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Don’t Pray for Long Hours at First

This is one important tip to note.

Personally, this has caused a prayer drought in my life for months.

It happens when you pray for one hour for like a week and suddenly you believe you are now consistent and you should increase the hours. This can cause you to stop praying for days, weeks, or months. Because you will eventually get tired or stretch yourself more than your body and mind can bear.

So, what do you do?

Take it slow. If you are just starting out, you can start with 30 minutes or one hour. Ensure you pray everyday consistently for that 30 minutes or one hour. 

Consistency is important because God trusts a child who prays for 30 minutes everyday more than a child who prays for 5 hours, once a month.

How so? 

In building a relationship, there has to be constant and everyday communication, which is why praying everyday is important. 

God always speaks to us, this is why we must set out time to hear Him everyday. Because if you don’t listen or talk to him today, you might miss what he has for you today.

God will not stop loving you just because you don’t pray every day, the Holy Spirit will not leave you either. The main problem is you will not grow as He wants you to. You will not do His will for that day (because you won’t know it), and you will not make His will for you come to pass on that day.

Prayer is fundamental!

So take it slow and be consistent. When you notice you are strong and consistent enough to increase the timeframe of your prayer. Do so! Gently! Maybe by 30 minutes or one hour.

Trick your Mind with the Time

A funny trick that works for me. This is what I do when I want to pray. You might have a particular time you go to God. You might not. But, what I do is, if I plan to pray for one hour, instead of praying from 8:00am to 9:00am, I will start from 8:30am to 9:30am.

You still don’t get the trick?

Your mind sees 8:00 – 9:00 as long but your mind sees 8:30 – 9:30 as short.

When you start praying by 8:30, before you know it, it’s 9:00, and then it’s 9:30, which is a different scene for 8:00 – 9:00.

Try it and let me know if it worked. Lol.

You can also pray from 8:40,8:45 etc… This is not only limited to 8/9, you can try it anytime.

Write Down Words from God as you Pray

 We must go to God with a heart ready to receive. Like I mentioned earlier, God speaks to us every time.

So, when you pray, get your pen and paper or if you prefer, use your phone notepad.

As words drop in your heart, write them down. As you prophesy or decree into your life, write them down.

This not only helps you enjoy your time with God and know His will for you, it also takes your mind off the time.

Don’t Give in to the Voice

There is that voice (I don’t know if it’s the devil or our weak flesh but I know there is a voice).

That voice that whispers things like this into your head just few minutes into the prayer:

“I’m tired,” ” Why can’t I just find something else to do right now. I will mumble in tongues as I do it,” “I will pray later,” and many others.

Shut your mind off that voice and say NO to it and keep praying. 

A post was made on The Avid Planner that gives us a little glimpse to the voice that speaks in our head. It was not a spiritual post but it gives us a clear explanation of the reasons we procrastinate, stop halfway, and leave things undone.

Is this you?

The only solution is to silence that voice and keep praying. By ignoring the voice, you gain power over it and you will eventually be happy you made the decision to pray!

Understand that it will Get Tiring

This is one thing we are not often told when we are encouraged to pray. It is made to seem like we will always enjoy it. Well, not everytime.

Sometimes, your prayer for that day might be boring and exhausting, another day, it will be very powerful and ground-shaking.

There are even times the first 30 minutes will be fiery, and the next one hour will be dry and vice versa.

But remember, what matters to God is not how ground-breaking your prayer is, but the relationship you form with Him as you pray and His will been done. So even if you’re not feeling it, still pray.

The bible says, “For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.”

1 Corinthians 14:2 KJV

You will get bored. You will yawn. Your eyes will get misty. You will feel like sleeping.

It is your body simply reacting to the absence of comfort.

At that moment, all you need to do is understand that praying is important. Also be determined to keep praying no matter how tiring it is.

If it gets hard, don’t forget to go over the tips and tricks above again. The point is we are trying to trick our comfort-loving body to become subject to our praying spirit. And it is possible.

We have heard of ministers of God with like-passions like us who have prayed for 12 hours and above consistently. We can do it too.

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These tips and tricks are progressive, so there might be more. If you have more, please share with us in the comments. I will be checking there for some tips for myself too.

Also, another disclaimer, these tips and tricks were based on my experience, so there might be differences in how they turn out for you. But I hope you try them and find out which works for you and also discover new tips and tricks for yourself.

I look forward to a generation of praying men and women, young and old, who are unashamed about Jesus and are prayer warriors.

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Don’t forget to share your tips and tricks with us.