The Spirit of Truth (part 7)

Ten Reasons Every Believer Should Pray In Tongues (part 1)

10.31.2021

Review

John 16:13-14 (NLT)

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.

Acts 1:1-11 (NLT)

In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. 3 During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.

4 Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

The Ascension of Jesus

6 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”

7 He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. 10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”

Acts 2:1-4 (NLT)

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

Review

1. September 12 – Deception

2. September 19 – People will be looking for all kinds of ways to deal with their pressure or “pain.”

3. September 26 – Repentance

4. October 3 – A Coach And A Partner

5. October 17 – The Baptism With The Holy Spirit (1)

6. October 24 – The Baptism With the Holy Spirit (2)

On September 12, I celebrated my 45th year of Spirit-Filled Living.

On September 12th, 1976, at 7:20 pm, after rededicating my life back to Jesus that morning, I received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.

The Baptism with the Holy Spirit changed my life forever! And this experience will forever change yours too if you will yield to it!

The Baptism with the Holy Spirit came to the church on the Day of Pentecost, and has been available to us ever since.

Three supernatural things happen when you’re baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Supernatural Witness

Supernatural Understanding of the Word

Supernatural Way to Pray

10.24.2021

We talked about the 4 places in the book of Acts where the baptism with the Holy Spirit is mentioned, and how to personally receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

Today we will begin: 10 Reasons Every Believer Should Pray in Tongues Every Day

I encourage you to listen with an open mind to this subject. What I am sharing has changed who I am and how I live! And made Jesus so much more real!

16,474 days

10 Reasons Every Believer Should Pray in Tongues Every Day

(we will cover 3 today)

1. It is God’s Will for every believer to pray in tongues.

Praying in the spirit, speaking in an unknown tongue, praying in tongues – are all terms used to express the outward physical manifestation of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit (BWHS).

It’s the initial outward sign of the Holy Spirit Baptism…

 

All N.T. experiences of BWHS include speaking with other tongues.

 

Acts 2:4; Acts 8:12-16; Acts 10:46; Acts 19:6 – they spoke with tongues…

Acts 8:18 – When Simon saw…Vs. 21- Matter- Gk –Logos – Word/Utterance

 

EVERY person baptized with the Holy Spirit should expect to speak with other tongues.

 

It’s the will of God to receive the BWHS, and with that experience comes the ability to pray in other languages.

1 Corinthians 14:5

I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.

 

1 Corinthians 14:18

I thank my God I speak in tongues more than you all.

1 Corinthians 14:19
But in a church meeting I would rather speak five understandable words to help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language.

2. It helps unseat the control the unrenewed natural mind exerts over your spiritual life.

Praying in the spirit helps elevate the spirit above the mental in you. It helps unseat the control the unrenewed natural mind has over your spiritual life.

Let’s go back to the book of Genesis for an observation about Adam and Eve and their original relationship with God.

Adam and Eve related spiritually to God before their fall into sin.

After their fall into sin, their minds, emotions, wills, and bodies were elevated to a position above their relationship with God. Now, our reasoning rules us. Our emotions often rage out of control. And our will is stubborn in allowing us to live independently of God.

With the new birth, our relationship with God is reinstated. And with the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, there comes a heightened awareness of the spiritual life.

Praying in the spirit or in tongues helps us elevate our spiritual person above our natural mind, emotions, and will.

And, praying in the spirit enables us to talk to God from our spirit. It is our spirit talking to Him bypassing the mind. It’s amazing!

Now what this does is helps unseat the control the mind has over lives, and helps restore that spirit to spirit communion with God that was available before man sinned.

You may ask why would God include praying in other tongues with the Baptism with the Holy Spirit? It seems so crazy to the normal person!

James 3:2

For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.

Proverbs 18:21

Death and life are in the power of the tongue.

 

What controls the tongue also controls the life!

God taps into the faculty of speech in the Baptism with the Holy Spirit to help Him get control of your natural person.

Praying in the spirit on a regular basis will help you keep spiritual things first place in your life.

*1 Corinthians 1:26-29

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.

Isaiah 55:8

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways”, says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

 

1 Corinthians 2:14

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

*1 Corinthians 14:14 (AMPC)

For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the Holy Spirit within me] prays, but my mind is unproductive [it bears no fruit and helps nobody].

Since God is a spirit, and since the Holy Spirit resides in our spirit, when you pray in the spirit, you are praying prayers that originate with God!

You don’t always know what you are praying, but you are being totally effective.

3. It provides a way for you to pray about things you don’t know about.

1 Corinthians 14:2 (AMPC)

For one who speaks in an [unknown] tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding].

 

1 Corinthians 2:11

For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Example – Cameron.

1980 – February – go to Rhema…

1984 – In the name of Jesus.

1989 – offer this amount on that house…

1993 – Go check your oil.

1995 – every hour on the hour – I woke up – wreck

2004 – don’t get on that plane

2008 – Congo – tank – 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – intercessors were praying in tongues….

Daycare – thoughts kept coming about building it…

Action Points:

To receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, you must be a born again Christian. You can receive alone or with someone ministering to you.

1. To receive alone:

Luke 11:11-13 (NKJV)

If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!

In faith, pray and ask the Father to baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

Father, thank you for saving me from my sins and making me a child of God. As your child, I ask you to baptize me with the Holy Spirit, from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, fill me with the Holy Spirit now. I believe that I will speak with other tongues as the Holy Spirit enables me, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Lift your hands to the Lord in thanksgiving, take a deep breath and open your mouth and begin to speak in the language the Holy Spirit gives you from deep within you.

2. To receive with some help:

Call or email our offices and ask for an appointment with Pastor Mitch or another staff member. (Phone – 919-779-5180; Email – [email protected]).

3.To receive today or during a service:

Come down front at the close of the service and ask to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Pastor Mitch or a staff team member will pray with you today.

Extra:

Objections Answered

 

1. Not all who are baptized in the Holy Spirit will speak with other tongues…

1 Corinthians 12:30 – Do all speak with tongues…some say this infers that not all will speak with tongues…

 

There are two different uses of tongues… devotional and public (tongues and interpretation).

 

Same in essence, different in usage.

 

This verse is saying that not all will be used in tongues and interpretation in public assembly.

 

Yet all who are baptized in the Holy Spirit should expect to speak in their private devotional life.

 

2. Other tongues was just for the day of Pentecost to witness to the other nations present.

8 years, 10 years, 25 years after Pentecost they spoke with tongues, too.

 

This experience was only for the early church…

Acts 2:38-39. For all that are afar off. That includes you and me!

 

3. Paul said I had rather speak 5 words with my understanding that I with my voice might teach others than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. (1 Cor. 14:19)

Vs. 18 – I THANK MY GOD I SPEAK WITH TONGUES MORE THAN YOU ALL.

 

VS. 39 – DO NOT FORBID TO SPEAK WITH TONGUES!

 

4. To receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit, it is not necessary to speak with tongues.

To receive the BIBLE experience, you want to do what they did – they spoke with tongues.

 

No Bible examples of people receiving without speaking with tongues…