Why Pray In Tongues – Part 1 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. You know, Jesus, shortly before he left this earth, after he was raised from the dead, he was speaking to his disciples. He said, listen guys, I want you to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person. But he said, don’t leave town without the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father. And we’re gonna talk about that promise today. Blessings. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today. And we’re talking today about the experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And we’re gonna be actually sharing on this all week and talking about what it means in our life. And listen, it is a life-changing experience. I was actually born again when I was eight years old. I wasn’t baptized in the Holy Spirit till I was 14. And that’s because I went to a church that did not teach on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But when I was 14 years old in 1978, I went to a Bible study led by Andrew Wommack when almost nobody knew who Andrew Wommack was in Lamar, Colorado. And shortly after I went to the Bible study, I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And when I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I immediately knew that I was called to preach the gospel, that this is what I was gonna spend my life doing. And it really changed my life. And I know that is the experience of a lot of people. In fact, most of you would’ve never heard of Lawson Perdue if he never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Well, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, what it does, it actually fills you with power. The Bible talks about it being a baptism of fire. And Jesus actually didn’t want his followers to leave Jerusalem after he had ascended to heaven, until they had received this baptism in the Holy Spirit. So he told ’em to stay put because he knew it would help them be good witnesses for him, so he said, Hey, just wait until this happens and it’s gonna come from me. It’s the gift from the Father. And it’s a good thing. You know, every gift from the Father is good. Every gift from the Father is perfect. And there isn’t a lot of clear teaching on it from a lot of mainstream ministries and churches today. So throughout this week, we wanna just make it really clear what it is to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and why believers should pray in tongues. You know, praying in tongues is something that accompanies being filled the Holy Spirit, and I have this to say too, you know, if the early church was born with this Holy Spirit fire, the church today still needs it.

 

  Amen.

 

  It didn’t go away. And the church today still needs it. If Jesus thought the church when it began, needed it, I think Jesus thinks the church today needs it. And every believer is a part of the church. You’re a part of the body of Christ. And I believe that Jesus wants every believer. It’s something that’s available to every believer. It’s not just available to a select few, but I believe it’s a gift from the Father that Jesus gives us and it’s available to every believer. And he wants every believer to have it today.

 

  Aaron, we have a lot of people when we’re on television, and we have a lot of people come to our church, even from other churches, other cities, other states, sometimes other countries, and they receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. A lot of people call in on our television show, and our prayer ministers pray with them, and they receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And we have people from all kinds of different denominations. I’ve had pastors who are friends who are basically like Baptists who don’t teach on this experience, but they have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Methodist, Presbyterians, Catholics. And I believe that this is a promise for every born again believer. So if you know Jesus, you know, this is for you, and you don’t wanna, you know, I believe it empowers you as a Christian. It’ll change, just like it changed my life, it’ll change your life.

 

  Amen. And I had a friend in college. I think I was a junior in college at the time. I was gonna school in Pittsburgh to Carnegie Mellon University. But I had a friend, I went to school for music, I played the flute. But I had another friend who played flute, and she really loved God. She was very hungry and thirsty for God. She would actually read her Bible two or three hours a day. She was so hungry for God. And, you know, she came from a denominational background and just wasn’t so sure about, you know, praying in tongues and the baptism of the Holy Spirit and even miracles. And I took her to a service, a healing service that a healing evangelist was putting on in Pittsburgh. His name is Billy Burke. He’s a great healing evangelist. He actually is from Pittsburgh, he grew up there. And when he was 10 years old, he actually was healed of terminal brain cancer in a healing meeting by Katherine Coolman.

 

  Amen.

 

  So Katherine Coolman would come to Pittsburgh, she actually lived in Pittsburgh as well.

 

  Amen.

 

  And her home, you know, I know some of the people from my church there have visited her home where she lived and prayed and, but she held meetings at the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Pittsburgh. And when he was 10 years old, you know, he was given a death sentence by the doctors because of this brain cancer. And his grandma took him to this meeting and they’re up in the balcony and she said, you know, she’s gonna call you out and you’re gonna be healed tonight. And she pointed up at him and said, you come down here. And he came down and, you know, was prayed over, fell out and completely healed instantaneously.

 

  He was supposed to die within two weeks or something, wasn’t it?

 

  Very, very, very soon. He didn’t have much longer to live. But he was completely-

 

  And Billy has an amazing miracle ministry. We actually, after I heard about this, we had him at our church a number of times. I probably need to have Billy again. But we had amazing miracles. We had a woman who had been sent home to die, you know, to hospice with AIDS. And she was actually gray, her skin, dark gray, you know? And Billy prayed for her, and she came back saying, “I’m healed.” And she still looked gray. And the next week she came back saying, “I’m healed.” And she looked a little bit better, but within a month, her skin turned totally pink. Praise God, she turned back to her normal color and she was healed. It was a miracle of God. And I thank God that God still works miracles today.

 

  But my friend that I took to this meeting, she called her mother and told her about some of the miracles she had seen. And her mother was very against it. She said, “Well, even the devil can perform miracles.” And I just told my friend, you know, people are getting saved and healed. Like when people are coming to Jesus, the devil doesn’t want that. Clearly, you know, this isn’t from the devil, it’s from Jesus. And I’ve been showing her, we’re gonna show you throughout the week a lot of scriptures on what it means to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and the praying in tongues. I’ve shown her a lot of scriptures, but she was just very hesitant. But I just asked her, you know, “Do you want it?” And she just said, “Yes, I want it.” And that’s part of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit and praying in tongue, you have to want it. And she decided she wanted it. And, you know, I was dropping her off at her dorm, and I just prayed a very simple prayer over her. I think I was just 20 years old at the time. I wasn’t this great, you know, theologian and pastor like, in end of the day, I just prayed this very simple prayer. And as I prayed for her just to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, her hands just started shaking. And, you know, she started praying in tongues, her hands were just shaking. And she actually fell on the floor and was like, rolling on the floor, and shaking her hands and praying in tongue. Like she was just like a sponge. She was really hungry and thirsty for God. And when she finally just said, “Yes, I want this,” it-

 

  Yeah, and Aaron, I know people that just receive, you know, when they receive-

 

  In a less dramatic way-

 

  Yeah, just a couple of syllables in tongues, but as they pray with it, it’s like a young child receiving their natural language. It grows, and so-

 

  While she was, you know, rolling on the floor, I knew God was just really moving on her and through her, and I just told her, Hey, why don’t you ask God for something? And she actually had a terrible pain in her arm. She had really bad tendonitis from practicing her instrument so much. She used to practice like nine hours a day and just completely destroyed her arms. Like she had to take, you know, get steroids shots and had so much pain. She couldn’t even open a doorknob. She had to use her elbow to open the door and had to take steroid shots and go to physical therapy, and couldn’t play at all. But I was hoping she’d ask God to, you know, for healing, because I knew just this, you know, something very powerful was going on. But she actually asked God to heal her heart. And when she did that, she’s, you know, asked God to heal her heart, it’s like something grabbed her hand and took it and put it over her heart. But from that moment, it’s like all this shame and guilt and condemnation that she, it was like a yoke over her, a cloak over, it was just completely removed. She was like a different person.

 

  Amen.

 

  And then I just told her, Hey, ask God to heal your arms, and she did. And she said, “God, heal my arms.” And they just started shaking like even more. But she was instantly healed. All the pain left, she didn’t have to get any more steroids shots, any more physical therapy. She could, you know, practice her instrument again. And for several weeks she told me, whenever she would read her Bible, her arms would just start shaking again. And, you know, and it’s so powerful, you know? So it received the Holy Spirit.

 

  The Holy Spirit is powerful. And you know, Jesus made us a promise that you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you’ll be my witnesses or witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, your hometown, the area next door and on down the road, even to the ends of the world. And we still have that promise, and it still works today. And it helps us in all kinds of ways. And you know, so you wanna be open in your heart to receive all that God has for you. And maybe you grew up in a church like I did, where they taught that this is not working anymore. But, you know, actually, when we got baptized in the Holy Spirit in our Bible study, and it was a bunch of people from our family and other people, they actually asked us to leave the church that we were in. And this was a church that my grandparents had started years and years before. And you know, that church went from about 100 people down to about 10 to 20 people, and stayed that way for years until they got a pastor that they did not know, like 10 years later, who was baptized in the Holy Spirit. They didn’t know he was baptized in the Holy Spirit. And actually, by then, I was pastoring a church and did you know, the pastor then asked me to come down and minister at their church. And when I went down and ministered, people in that church got saved and delivered by the power of God and healed, you know, Jesus is the same, but you don’t do these things without the power of the Holy Spirit. And we need the Holy Spirit today.

 

  Yeah, I wanna just read the scripture really quick from Acts 1:4-5, and then verse eight. It says, “Being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father…” I like that Jesus calls it the promise of the Father, which he said, “You have heard from me for John truly baptized with water. But you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now, but you shall receive power…” This is verse eight, “When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

 

  Amen.

 

  And what a promise from Jesus, and I believe this promise is still available to every believer today. Here in a minute, we’re gonna go on just a short break, but we’re gonna come back and talk more about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. It’s so powerful, so you don’t wanna miss out on what we have to share with you.

 

  Praise God, and you know what? If you’ve already been touched in your heart and you want to call in for prayer during the break, just go ahead and we’re not gonna be be long, but we’re gonna be right back and we’re gonna continue to teach on the scriptural aspects of this, so stay tuned. Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you’ve been tuned in with us. We wanna tell you about a special offer, we’ve been sharing on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and why pray in tongues, and you don’t want to miss more teaching on this. My son Aaron has that teaching, we’ve made it available downloadable audio, downloadable video. It’s on the website, it’s free of charge, also a great new children’s curriculum with teaching on the Holy Spirit free of charge. So go to CharisChristianCenter.com. Learn to listen to the Holy Ghost and listen to the… I love what Barbara said when she came up today. Turn up the word and turn down the news. Start believing what the word says about you. And if you start believing it, you might start and you better watch what you’re believing. You better watch what you’re saying, you might get it. Friend, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. And so good to have Aaron. We’re talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but when you study the Bible, there really are seven different baptisms in the Old Testament, New Testament, all throughout the scriptures, there are actually three baptisms that are talking about for the believer. And actually, the writer of Hebrews talks about these, the doctrine of baptisms.

 

  Yeah, and I love this because a lot of people, when you just say baptism, or if I said, you know, yesterday or on Sunday at church, there were 50 people who got baptized. You’re just automatically, you know, just from our language and our understanding, we just think it’s water baptism.

 

  Right.

 

  But baptism means to be immersed, and I like what you said, there’s actually several baptisms in scripture and three primary ones for a believer. And this is actually foundational doctrine. And we mentioned in Hebrews, Hebrews 6, starting in the first verse, it says, “Therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ…” So he’s saying these things shouldn’t even be debated. These are just foundational elementary principles of following Christ. “Let us go onto maturity…” So he’s gonna talk about several just foundational principles of Christ’s foundational doctrine for the believer. It says, “Not laying again, the foundation of repentance from dead works…” So this is a foundational doctrine for Christianity, for believers, is that we need to preach and believe on, that there needs to be a repentance from dead works.

 

  Right, when you talk about repentance from dead works, that’s a couple of things. Number one, it’s repentance from performance. When you really realize what Hebrews is talking about, it’s not our performance. It’s not through keeping the law, God’s law, that we’re saved-

 

  Doing works. These works are dead, they don’t save you.

 

  No. And it can also talk about repentance from worldliness, you know, just living like the devil. So in fact, I did a study on the word the other day, and it means a couple of things, the word repentance and the word that I studied, metanoia in the Greek actually talked about to have a change of thinking and also a change of purpose. So he says, “Repentance from dead works and faith towards God…” I think it takes two things to be saved. Number one, you need to change your thinking. And number two, you need to believe Jesus.

 

  Yeah, and when you put your faith in God, when you put your faith in Jesus, that gives you purpose.

 

  Right.

 

  A lot of people who don’t believe in Jesus, they have a hard time finding what true purpose is.

 

  Right.

 

  And if you just believe you’re here by some cosmic accident, and you can just do whatever you want, you know, and you’re se evolved from a monkey, like you’re not gonna have the purpose that God wants to have for you.

 

  Right.

 

  So I love that you said repentance is a change of thinking, but it’s also a change of purpose.

 

  Right.

 

  Which is so powerful.

 

  Right, and you know, the Bible actually says in Ephesians 2:8 that we’re saved by grace through faith. And so that, I think those two things are really talking about-

 

  Go together.

 

  You know, salvation.

 

  And then after that, here’s what we talked about. It says, you know, these are the foundations here, and he talked about repentance from dead works, faith towards God, but also, the doctrine of baptisms. And it’s plural there.

 

  Right.

 

  So it’s not just one baptism, it’s plural, there’s a doctrine of baptisms. So that’s what we’re gonna share here in a bit, is these three primary baptisms for a believer. He talks about laying on of hands. You know, I’m glad that at our church, we lay hands on people when we pray over them. You can lay hands when you pray over the sick. You can lay hands on people to receive the Holy Spirit. It talks about the resurrection of the dead. This is foundational doctrine. We believe in eternal life through Jesus and eternal judgment. You know, everyone, it’s appointed for every man to die and then the judgment. So everyone is gonna spend eternity somewhere, either in heaven with Jesus or in hell with the devil. And you get to make the choice. God doesn’t wanna send anyone to hell. That’s why he gave Jesus to save us. He did everything he could to make it possible for anyone who believes to go to heaven,

 

  Right, so this doctrine of baptisms, let’s talk about this for a little bit. So there are actually three baptisms of believers. And to understand the difference in the three, you asked, number one, who is doing the baptizing? And number two, what are we being baptized into? So the first baptism actually has to do with salvation. And when we are saved, we’re baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. And the scripture actually talks about this in 1 Corinthians 12:13. Aaron, if you have that scripture, you could share that.

 

  Yeah, I’ll read it right here. So 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, “For by one spirit…” So it’s the Holy Spirit here. “By one spirit, we are all baptized into one body…” So when you’re say the Holy Spirit is the one doing the baptizing, and you’re being baptized into the body of Christ.

 

  Right.

 

  So it says, “Whether Jews are Greeks, whether slaves are free and have all been made to drink into one spirit.”

 

  You know, in Ephesians 4 it says, there’s one Lord, one faith, one baptism, that’s actually talking about, you know, salvation. And Jesus is Lord, right? Faith in Jesus is what gets you saved. And this baptism must, since it says there’s one must be universal for all believers, for everybody that’s in the church-

 

  You’re baptized into the body of Christ-

 

  And so that’s what this is talking about. And what you’re reading by one spirit, we’re baptized into one body. So it salvation, we’re baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. And then the second baptism is talking about water baptism, which like you said, most people, if we say we had 50 people get baptized, we think of water baptism, and water baptism, that has to do with identification. And Paul talks about that in Romans 6, and when we’re baptized in water, we’re baptized by another believer into water. And what we’re saying is, I identify with Christ work. And when Jesus died, he died to sin once. But now that he lives, he lives to God. Of course, he never sinned, but he identified, you know, Jesus, you know, identified with us in his death and took our sin on the cross that we might be made the righteousness of God. And so we’re saying, now, when I’m baptized, I’m dead to sin, I identify with that, I’m not gonna let sin rule me any longer, but I’m gonna live to God. I’ve got Jesus living in me now. And so that’s identification.

 

  And I think it’s so powerful that Jesus, you know, was water baptized himself and he went to John the Baptist and was water baptized. And I just think it’s so powerful because Jesus did that, not that he had to wash away his sin, but he did that to identify with humanity, and to be an example for us. So I believe every believer should be water baptized, If for some reason someone is a believer and hadn’t been water baptized, you’ll still go to heaven. There are some people who, some denominations that don’t think that, but you know, if you look at, there’s examples in scriptures where people hadn’t had the opportunity to be water baptized, I believe they’re in heaven. If you think about the thief on the cross who believed on Jesus.

 

  And Jesus said, “Today, you’ll be with me in paradise.” But anyway, the first baptism has to do with, you know, salvation. You’re baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. The second one has to do with identifying with the work of Jesus, when you’re water baptized. In the first one, you’re baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. In the second one, you’re baptized by another believer into water. But the third one has to do with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And when you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, you’re baptized by Jesus into the Holy Spirit. And Aaron, you have a scripture about that in Matthew 3:11, I want you to read that scripture.

 

  Yeah, this is really awesome. So this is John the Baptist speaking in Matthew 3:11. He said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.” So water baptism deals with repentance and identification with Jesus. But it says here, “But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I’m not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

 

  Amen.

 

  So this is saying, when you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, Jesus is the person that baptizes you into the Holy Spirit.

 

  Yes, and we’re gonna talk more this week in the following broadcast about, you know, all the different things that the baptism of the Holy Spirit will do for you. There’s another scripture that actually puts all three of these baptisms together. And on the day of Pentecost, when the church was born and the Holy Spirit was sent in Jerusalem, that when Peter got up, he preached Jesus to them. And they were asking these questions on what is this? Talking about the Holy Spirit when these Galilee and disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit, spoken languages that they never learned. And Peter preached to them about Jesus, you crucified, God raised him from the dead, and he has sent forth this, which you now see in here. And then they asked this question in verse 37, “What shall we do?” And Peter said unto them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” So I believe repentance is talking again, about salvation, right? And it can be different aspects, but that’s the major aspect. And baptism, I believe he’s talking about water baptism here. And so we’re talking about salvation and then identification, we talked about that in Romans 6. And then he said, “You’ll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost,” I believe that’s talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And he says very plainly in verse 39, “This promise is to you and your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord, our God shall call.” Now when you begin to understand the scripture, you know that Jesus called everyone into salvation, or God called everyone into salvation at the cross. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself or take all judgment to myself.” And so when you believe on Jesus, you’re justified by faith. So I believe this scripture in Acts 2:38, talks about all three of these baptisms, you know, repentance, right? Which is part of believing on Jesus and baptism, which is an outward sign of an inward change. And then finally, receiving the gift, the promise of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and even to us, all that are far off, even as to many as our God shall call. So if you’ve answered the call to salvation, then you ought to go ahead and answer this second call and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So you know, you can call in today. My prayer ministers are here, they’re happy to pray for you and minister to you. I wanna say thanks for staying with us and we’re gonna have a lot more to teach this week as we share on the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

 

  Yeah, and if you wanna receive that today, maybe you’ve never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, ask for it before really understood it, but if you’re just ready to say, Hey, I want to receive that, I wanna have every good thing that Jesus has for me, you can call us. We’d be happy to pray for you. Maybe you’ve wanted to pray in tongues, but you thought it was just some special thing that’s only available to select few. That’s actually something that’s available to every believer and I believe it’s something scripturally, that accompanies what happens when you receive the Holy Spirit. So if you’d like to, and praying in tongues is powerful. You know, Paul said, I thank God that I pray in tongues more than you all.

 

  So here’s one of the disciples, Paul, who became an apostle who didn’t even walk with Jesus while he was on the earth. And yet he writes about a half of the New Testament. And I think it’s because of the revelation that he received when he prayed in the Spirit. So thanks so much, God bless you, and give us a call. Blessings.

 

  Jesus commanded his followers to wait in Jerusalem until they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. If the early church needed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we certainly need it today. This scriptural teaching makes it clear that every believer can and should be baptized in the Holy Spirit and pray in tongues. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of baptism in the Holy Spirit, a $5 value free of charge. Download your copy today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed the program today and it’s ministering to you to move into that which God has for you. And I wanna say a great big thank you to all of our partners for helping us share this gospel across the United States and across the world. It’s because of our partners that we can take this message of grace and faith around the world. If you would like to join our partners and receive that blessing, give us a call today. Blessings. Friends, today, we’ve been sharing about the promise of the Holy Spirit. There’s one prerequisite to receiving and that is receiving Jesus. If you’ve never done that, pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son. I believe that he died for my sins, and you raised him from the dead and made him Lord. And right now, I surrender to you in Jesus’ name.

 

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