Most Christians have a difficult time distinguishing their spirit from their intellect. Your conscience is the voice of your spirit. The Holy Spirit is more closely associated with your conscience than your intellect. As you pray in tongues, you are praying from the channel of your conscience through which the Holy Spirit speaks.
Our problem is that we are more accustomed to looking for God’s voice in our intellect. Our intellect is generally an unsafe guide because it is usually clouded with a mixture of the world’s thinking, where much of our decision-making is based on our best interests. Most Christians have a difficult time hearing from God, because their soul which comprises much of their intellect, is clouded with self, mingled with the world and yet has some Word in it.
— Bert Farias, Charisma News, Why Every Preacher Should Embrace Praying in Tongues, January 31, 2017
No. I’m perfectly capable of making up my mind. I can use facts and logic and even my own intuition. I don’t have to “pray” to find out anything. (Still not an agnostic or atheist, just realized that I didn’t believe in a god as a big dispenser of stuff.)
Yeah, you don’t want Christians doing things like checking those pesky facts, doing research, rewding other people’s stories, and getting other people’s viewpoints. That might make them realize that what they’ve been believing in is actually a load of crap.
Anytime I’ve not trusted my own instincts in favor of help from god, it’s been a disaster until I figured out that **of course** my own gut is more dependable. “God” never “helped” me do anything other than figure out how to navigate the difficulties of life without superstition and the fantasy that some ‘father figure’ out there gives a flying fart what happens to me and will fix it all if only I give it enough time, attention, and most inexplicably, money. If I think it’s something I should do, I do it. If I think I should not do something, then I don’t. Amazing what kind of peace that has brought to my life.