Make It Visible #8

Here is one final idea for making the teaching about the Holy Spirit come alive.

Object Lesson: Praying in Other Tongues, The Key to Unlocking the Benefits of Heaven
Props: Key, Plastic Hotel Room Key Card
Slide: 1 Corinthians 14:2

If you have stayed in a hotel lately, you know that it is a rare thing to find a hotel that still uses the traditional key (show key) anymore for their rooms. After having key after key not being returned as the guests left their hotel, hotel owners called upon technology to create a safe, secure, affordable means to allow guests to get into their hotel rooms. The result is a key card. (Show hotel key card.)

Have you seen one of these cards before? No matter the hotel chain, the key cards are all basically the same. On one side, you have information about the hotel. It might show the logo of the hotel chain or maybe just the word "welcome". The other side of the key card is generally nothing but a magnetic stripe.

Let's take a couple of minutes and talk about the magnetic stripe found on the back of the motel room key card. Now I will readily admit that I am not the smartest person. To me, the stripe on the back of this card doesn't look like much. There's nothing too exciting about a stripe. But, inside of this stripe is embedded or hidden a secret language that enables you to enter into a place that once was forbidden. Am I right? Without this secret or mysterious language, you won't be able to enjoy all that is beyond the door.

Here is one more benefit of this stripe. You don't have to be able to decipher the hidden language. You don't have to know all that is hidden inside of the stripe. The lock on the door recognizes, reads, and responds to the hidden language!

Why have I shared this information about a hotel room key card? Because God has provided a way for you and I to enjoy special benefits from heaven that can only be obtained and opened by using something that is much like this magnetic stripe on the back of the key card. In God's Word we find: (Show slide)

"For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be
talking only to God, since people won’t be able to understand
you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit,

but it will all be mysterious."

2 Corinthians 14:2 (The New Living Translation) 

Did you get that? By praying in a special language given by the Holy Spirit, we are able to pray secrets or mysteries. This is so exciting because this only-God-and-you secret language (mysteries) will unlock heaven and open the door for God to do wonderful things to us and through us. As the mysterious words come out of our mouths, heaven instantly recognizes, reads, and responds to the hidden language and ... well, let's pray in our language right now and let God show us what will happen!