A Shaking and an Awakening (Part 11)

What praying in tongues will do for you!

4.23.2023

Review

The service changes that started on March 19 are necessary for us to accommodate the Holy Spirit in a fresh way!

I went a different direction the Sunday before Easter and on Easter Sunday. And, we have had 2 other speakers – Kim Klaudt and Joshua.

This is lesson 11 in a series on dealing with life during this transition time just prior to the coming of Jesus.

A word that would correctly describe today would be – challenge.

God gave me one word on January 1 to describe this year – STRETCH!

The norms of society are being challenged on every level – financially, relationally, mentally, politically, and spiritually.

Satan is challenging God for world control with the emergence of a global governance and financial system that will one day be under the control of a person the Bible calls antiChrist.

God wants us to be in an offensive, not defensive, position right now!

Mario Marillo – End times do not happen to me, I happen to end times!

He has given us the supernatural power to be offensive.

Light instantly overpowers darkness!

When the pressures increased on the early church, the apostles went into offensive praying and living!

To use a metaphor from the world of boxing, the enemy is on the ropes! Now is the time to turn up the spiritual power.

Matthew 11:12

The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take by force.

Acts 4:29-31 (NLT)

And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. 30 Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.

Today I want to begin to talk to you about the role praying in tongues can play in your life right now as we deal with pressure and stress.

And praying in tongues is an offensive tool to prepare for ministry to others.

So, today – What praying in tongues will do for you!

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!

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!

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.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NLT)

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

Proverbs 4:23 (NLT)

Guard your heart above all else,

for it determines the course of your life.

1 Peter 3:3-4 (NKJV)

Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— 4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

Proverbs 20:27 (NKJV)

The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD,

Searching all the inner depths of his heart.

Romans 8:16 (NKJV)

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

2 Corinthians 4:16 (NKJV)

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

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 wills are 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.

The spiritual warfare is intense right now. Ideologies that are anti-God, anti-Christ, and anti-Christian are being spread all over the world.

Praying in the spirit causes your spirit to rise to the surface of your life, and helps you tap into the practical wisdom of God in dealing with your life.

God does not tell us everything. He wants us to walk by faith! But, when He wants to communicate to you, praying in the spirit can position you to listen more acutely.

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

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 — it helps unseat the control the mind has over life, 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.

 

What controls the tongue 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.

John 16:13-14 (NKJV)

13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

Reasons to pray in tongues.

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

There are two types of speaking with tongues. They are the same in where they come from, but they are different in the way they manifest.

There is the regular ability to pray in the spirit or in tongues that comes with the baptism with the Holy Spirit. And then there is the gift of different kinds of tongues and it’s sister gift – the interpretation of tongues – These are not given to every person, but every person baptized with the Holy Spirit can pray in the spirit.

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.

1 Corinthians 12:30 (NKJV)

Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

1 Corinthians 12:27-31 (NKJV)

Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.

2. It helps unseat the control the unrenewed natural mind exerts over your spiritual 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 55:8-9

“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 (NKJV)

For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.

(PHILLIPS)

The man who speaks in a “tongue” addresses not men (for no one understands a word he says) but God: and only in his spirit is he speaking spiritual secrets.

1 Corinthians 14:2 (CEV)

If you speak languages that others don’t know, God will understand what you are saying, though no one else will know what you mean. You will be talking about mysteries that only the Spirit understands.

1 Corinthians 14:2 (BBE)

For he who makes use of tongues is not talking to men but to God; because no one has the sense of what he is saying; but in the Spirit he is talking of secret things.

1 Corinthians 14:2 (NCV)

I will explain why. Those who have the gift of speaking in different languages are not speaking to people; they are speaking to God. No one understands them; they are speaking secret things through the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 14:2 (WNT)

For he who speaks in an unknown tongue is not speaking to men, but to God; for no one understands him. Yet in the Spirit he is speaking secret truths.

1 Corinthians 14:2 (Wuest – The New Testament: An Expanded Translation)

For the one who is uttering words in a tongue [a language not understood except through an interpreter] is not speaking to men but to God, for no one hears him so as to understand what he is saying. And he utters with his human spirit [as energized by the Holy Spirit] divine revelations not explained.

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 2:7-10 (NKJV)

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

1 Corinthians 2:11 (NKJV)

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.

(PHILLIPS) For nothing is hidden from the Spirit, not even the deep wisdom of God. For who could really understand a man’s inmost thoughts except the spirit of the man himself? How much less could anyone understand the thoughts of God except the very Spirit of God?

Examples:

1984 – In the name of Jesus.

1989 – House in Florence/House price

2004 – Don’t get on that plane

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

2013 – Current building

2016 – Trendsetter

2019 – An occurrence that will be a great challenge to your nation. Joel 2:28

2020 – Nefarious – Covid 19

2020 – Subversion – Riots end of May

2021 – Epoch

2022 – Don’t stop doing what you are doing.

2023 – Stretch

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 to the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, gifts of the Spirit, and Divine healing answered:

Cessationism is strong here in the south! I was raised in a Southern Baptist church, and the Southern Baptists are strong proponents of cessationism.

I disagree with cessationism because it disagrees with the clear consensus of scripture!

“Cessasionists” say that this was only for the 1st century to get the church started in the midst of great pressure and persecution. And they usually use 1 Corinthians 13 to support that belief:

1 Corinthians 13:9-12 (NKJV)

For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

“Cessasionists” say that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the spirit, healing, and miracles were needed before the church had the New Testament scriptures added to the Old Testament.

And “cessationists” say that when the Bible was completed that since it was perfect and without error, that is what Paul is talking about here in verse 10 above.

But, these verses in 1 Corinthians 13 are not talking about the Bible as being that which is perfect. They are talking about when we leave this earth and get to heaven, then that which is perfect will surround us, and we will know even as we are also known!

We will not need spiritual gifts in heaven, for all will be perfect. We will not need to pray in the spirit, we will know on a different level than we do now!

In this life right now, we still need all that the first century believers had, including the New Birth, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, praying in the spirit, the gifts of the spirit, Divine healing, and the miracle working power of God!

Acts 2:39:

For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.

Don’t forget that the promise of Jesus is still in effect:

John 14:12-14 (NKJV)

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

Open your heart and mind, and let the Spirit of God in His fullness into your life!

Objections to speaking with other tongues 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…it has been experienced by the church of Jesus Christ during every century of the church age.

Acts 2:38-39 (NKJV)

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

 

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)

But, Paul also said:

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

 

He also said:

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.

 

There are no Bible examples of people receiving without speaking with tongues…

Look it up for yourself:

Acts 2:4; Acts 8:12-16; Acts 10:44-46; Acts 19:1-6; Acts 9 and 10 – Paul’s experience.