Why Pray In Tongues – Part 3 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise Jesus, friends! I’m so glad that you’re connected with us today. We are teaching on, why speak in tongues? And today, we’re gonna talk from the Bible about what happened when people receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You don’t wanna miss this broadcast and neither do your friends, so tell them about it. Stay tuned. I believe that you’re gonna be blessed and encouraged today. Friends, I’m so glad you’re with us, and we’re talking about, “Why Pray In Tongues?” And we’re actually gonna answer some questions today about the Holy Spirit.

 

  Yeah, a lot of people haven’t had a lot of clear teaching on the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Really, what is it, and what is praying in tongues? Is it something that’s just available to a select few people? And we’re gonna answer a lot of these common questions that you might have. Maybe you’ve never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Maybe you don’t pray in tongues. Maybe you do, and it’s just good to keep growing in that knowledge you have. So, this is a great teaching. I’m really glad you tuned in today and you’re watching this teaching on why pray in tongues, and we’re talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I’ve been pastoring now for eight years. My dad has been pastoring for many more years than that. We’re just answering some common questions people have. We have people that come to our church, a lot of people have a charismatic Pentecostal background, but we’re reaching a lot of people that come from other backgrounds, maybe Presbyterians, Methodists, even Catholics who come here and they’ve never heard any of these things. Even some charismatic churches don’t really talk about the charismatic experience very much.

 

  I gotta talk about a story, here. When we pastored in Kit Carson, I would teach regular on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We were the only spirit-filled church in that local area at all. But one Sunday, I got a call from a Catholic lady. I knew her husband very well, and he had heard me. I taught on the radio in those days, KLMR, country and western station, taught on there every Sunday morning. So, they had heard that. They liked that teaching. But one day, the Catholic church met before our church. The Catholic priest actually, and that Catholic priest was actually born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit, that was there for 10 years while we were in Kit Carson for 13 years. But our church met at 10:30. Their church met at 8:30 in the morning, and then he went back to Cheyenne Wells 25 miles away and ministered at the Catholic Parish in Cheyenne Wells, Colorado. But she called me up that afternoon and she said, “I was in the church today in the Catholic Church, and I heard every word of your message.” I thought, “This is so unique! How could this happen?” They were, like, 300, 400 yards away, their church from our church. And she proceeded to tell me my message nearly verbatim, every point I was teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And she said, “It was so good.” And it was there. Now, what had happened is they had bought a new mic and we had a wireless mic, and their receiver was set up on the same…

 

  Channel.

 

  Bandwidth as ours. So, when I was teaching in the church 300 or 400 yards away from their church, she was over cleaning their church after service, and they had left their sound system on. And she heard nearly every word that I taught in my message. And she was so interested in the Holy Spirit. Her husband actually had heard me teaching on the Holy Spirit on the radio, and he was interested in it. So, this isn’t something that’s just for charismatic, full-gospel, Pentecostal people. This is for believers. And if you’re born again, if you receive Jesus as your Lord, the Holy Spirit is for you.

 

  And this is a question I have about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and it’s one that I’ve heard a lot. Anna, “Is the baptism in the Holy Spirit a good thing?” Yeah, some people actually have been taught against it. They’ve been taught against asking for this or they’ve been taught that it’s just only available to a select few who can handle it, don’t pray into it. Some people have even taught that praying in tongues is of the devil.

 

  Yes.

 

  Which is very contrary to scripture. But is the baptism in the Holy Spirit a good thing?

 

  Yes.

 

  Yeah, and it is, because Jesus actually says that it’s a gift from the Father. And I believe that if something is a gift from the Father that Jesus has promised us, we should desire it. We should receive it. We should really want and desire every good gift that God has for us-

 

  Amen.

 

  And not just leave any gifts unwrapped.

 

  Amen.

 

  And I believe that God only has good and perfect gifts to give us. James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” And Jesus actually calls this experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, he actually calls it, “The promise from the Father.”

 

  Amen.

 

  It’s not just a promise, but the promise.

 

  Amen, and you wanna receive the promise of the Father. You’re asking, “Is the Holy Spirit a good thing?” In Luke 11, the disciples saw Jesus pray. And his prayer was not some status quo religious recitation. His prayer was full of life. It was out of a flow of the life of God, the life of the Father, and the life of the Son. And when they saw him praying, they actually asked the Lord, “Teach us to pray.”

 

  Which is really important, because they’re with him for the three years of his earthly ministry, and saw a lot of amazing things. So, to think about, and this is the one time they asked Jesus to teach them how to do something. They could have said, “Hey, Jesus, teach us how to walk on water. Jesus, teach us how to turn water into wine. Jesus, teach us how to take five loaves and two fish and feed five, teach us that!” But no, they said, “Teach us how to pray.”

 

  Now, he gets down to the end of this, saying, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock on the door, it shall be opened.” But he says this in verse 11 through 13. He says, “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that his father,” Aaron, if you asked me for bread for you and your family, would I give it to you?

 

  Yes.

 

  Absolutely. “Will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?” If you asked me for meat, for a fish, would I give you a serpent? No, absolutely not. “If he asked for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion,” something that could kill him? Absolutely not. No, I’d go get how many eggs you need. He says, “If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” So, God has lots of good things for us, and one of them is the Holy Spirit.

 

  Yeah, God only has good things to give, and this is where a lot of people miss it. I actually just saw a post on social media from a prominent minister in the area here who said, “You never know what kind of gift you’re gonna get from God. It might be, like, a diagnosis of illness from the doctor that you received this week. It might be-

 

  That is a lie.

 

  Being fired from your job. And I thought, “These aren’t gifts from God!” God only has good things to give, every good thing, every perfect thing. And just, a lot of people just attribute everything to God. And God can take a negative situation and turn it around, but that does not mean that God put that negative thing on you. Scripturally, God does not give sickness to people. God does not give poverty to people. God does not afflict people. That’s not what we see in scripture. We see that God, these are the gifts, actually, scriptural gifts that we receive from God. Number one, we receive the gift of salvation.

 

  Right!

 

  That is the gift that comes from God scripturally in Ephesians 2:8. We receive the gift of salvation. In Romans 5:17, we receive the gift of righteousness.

 

  Amen, let’s read Romans 5,. I’ll read Romans 5:17. It’s an awesome scripture. And Romans 5 is actually talking about going from the reign of sin and death to the reign of grace and righteousness through faith in Jesus. But he says this. “If by one man’s offense,” Adam’s transgression, “Death reigned by the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” Praise God, we receive the gift of righteousness when we receive the gift of salvation. These are gifts that come from God, right, standing with God.

 

  Amen, I also love Romans 6:23 says that we receive the gift of eternal life. These are all great things! Eternal life is awesome.

 

  Amen! That’s a gift that we receive from God as believers. We receive the gift of eternal life.

 

  The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

  I love this gift, or set of gifts, that’s mentioned in scripture in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11. These are often called the charismatic gifts. But these are the gifts of the spirit. All the gifts of the spirit are a good thing because they come from God.

 

  There are nine manifestations of the Holy Spirit that are listed there. The word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the discerning of spirits, the gift of faith, the working of miracles, the gifts of healings, the gift of prophecy, the gift of tongues, and the gift of the interpretation of tongues.

 

  These are gifts that are received from God. Also, the fivefold ministry gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11. These are gifts from God. The fivefold ministry gifts are the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, and teacher. And so, your pastor is actually a gift from God to the body of Christ.

 

  Hallelujah!

 

  Which is awesome to think about. These are gifts from God, and also, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:4 says, Jesus says, “This is the gift of the Holy Spirit I wanna give you.”

 

  Amen, so thank God for all these good gifts that he gives us. And one of those is the gift of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It’s a personal prayer language. You don’t want to live on earth without the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You know what, if I had never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, most everyone here would not know who I am, because the baptism of the Holy Spirit revolutionized my life and the baptism of the Holy Spirit continues to revolutionize my life. It’s not just one thing that I received one time 46 years ago, and I’ve prayed in tongues nearly every day since I received the baptism of Holy Spirit.

 

  And I believe this is a gift available to every believer. In scripture, throughout the Book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit fell on people, it didn’t just come to, when there’s a group of believers and they were asking for it or receiving prayer to receive this, it didn’t just fall on 10% of the people. It came on everyone. On the day of Pentecost, everyone in that upper room received that gift-

 

  Amen.

 

  Of the Holy Spirit. And they prayed in tongues.

 

  You know, that day started off with 120 people in the upper room praying. And it ended up that there were 3,120 people saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and water baptized. Man, the church started in the power of God and the church is gonna continue in the power of God.

 

  Amen. And one thing, we’re gonna talk about what happens when you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but one thing that happens is you are given boldness.

 

  Amen.

 

  I love what happened to Peter when he received, man, Acts 2 looks a lot different than when, just 50 days prior.

 

  We’re gonna take a short break and we’re gonna be right back after this break. But if you have not received this gift of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or you’ve not received Jesus, please feel free to call in. Right now, any time during the break, any time during the show, or later after the show, call in and receive this wonderful gift from God. Receive what God has for you. We’ll be back in just a few seconds, 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.

 

  I’ve been dealing with sciatic nerve pain in my right leg for multiple years. We were actually about to walk out of service when my wife redirected me to the front. She told me that you were talking about nerve damage. Yourself, Aaron, and your dad were in back of me, and you guys were praying over me. I just felt this movement in my hips and in my back that I haven’t felt, like a freedom. The next morning, I tried to move in the ways that I didn’t in the past, and it felt completely healed.

 

  Praise the Lord, friends, I’m glad that you stayed with us. We are here and we are sharing on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And in this last part of the broadcast, we’re gonna be talking about what happens when a believer receives this promise of the Father, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

 

  And one thing I’m talking about is when you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you’re given boldness. I love looking at Peter, especially. When Jesus was going to the cross, Peter became a coward. He actually denied Christ three times. But on the day of Pentecost, something shifted inside of him.

 

  Praise the Lord!

 

  He became very bold. If you look at his sermon that he preached to all those people who were,

 

  Oh, my goodness!

 

  Man, it is bold, it is fiery. The Bible says the righteous are as bold as lions. He received this Pentecostal boldness. And when he preached, 3,000 people got saved.

 

  Amen.

 

  Then, a revival started.

 

  Amen, Sunday, Aaron, I was preaching, and I prayed before I preached, “God, speak through me, use me, let the Holy Spirit minister to the people.” And I said some things to me that were just, man, this is how it is. But later that day or the next day, I was watching some of the liberal media, just clips online about news and different things. And you know what? The world is so contrary to the church. The church is the salt of the earth. We’re the light of the world. And I believe it was the Holy Spirit speaking through me, but many times, the way God looks at things and the world looks at things are polar opposites.

 

  Yeah, so when you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, you get that boldness, but you also receive a spiritual or a supernatural language.

 

  Amen.

 

  You get that praying in tongues, we’re gonna talk about that. But let’s look at Acts 2 starting in verse 1. We’ll see what happens when these believers were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Acts 2 starting in verse 1, it says: When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly, there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing, mighty wind. And it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then, there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. I like that it says, “They began to speak in other tongues,” so it wasn’t just a one-time thing, but they began to do it. When you receive the Holy Spirit, you begin to speak in tongues and you can continue to pray in tongues.

 

  Amen, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit nearly 46 years ago. 46 years ago this year, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues. And if I haven’t spoken in tongues every day, since that, I’ve spoken in tongues nearly every day since I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. I mean, the baptism of the Holy Spirit revolutionized my life. And I believe that God has no respect for persons. I believe the baptism of the Holy Spirit will revolutionize your life, too. You need, as a believer, to receive this gift from God.

 

  I’m just gonna look in scripture, man, just, the Bible is a great place to look and just to see what happens when people are filled with the Holy Spirit. I love this one. In Acts 10:44-46, this is Peter. God actually led him to go and minister to Cornelius, who wasn’t even a Jewish person, so this was something that surprised Peter. He thought salvation and being filled with the Holy Spirit, at this time, he thought it was only for Jewish believers, people of that lineage. But God led him to go to Cornelius, who was an Italian military leader, high up in the Italian military. But Cornelius had a heart for God. He had a heart for the truth and was seeking God. And God revealed to Cornelius that, “Man, I’m gonna send Peter here to minister to you, and you better-

 

  He’s gonna, yeah.

 

  “Hear what he has to say.”

 

  This was a completely supernatural experience on Cornelius’s part. He wasn’t even saved at that point in time, but he was praying, right?

 

  He was seeking, he was open-

 

  He was seeking God.

 

  He was thirsty, he was hungry for God.

 

  Right, and he was giving alms to the poor. He cared about the poor. And as he was praying, he had a vision. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him to send to the town by the seaside, Joppa by the seaside, and there’s a person staying there, Peter, and he’s staying at this certain house with this certain person. And then, Peter was over there praying. So, the next day, he sent some men over there and Peter was up praying, and he had this vision, and this sheet came down with all kind of things that he, as a Jew, hadn’t eaten. And he said, “I haven’t eaten anything unclean.” And the Holy Spirit said, “Arise, kill and eat it.” He said, “No, I’ve never done this.” This happened three times. And after the third time, it was taken back up into heaven. And the Holy Spirit spoke to Peter and said, “Peter, three men are at the door and they’re seeking. You go with them and doubt nothing.” So, man, the Book of Acts is supernaturally supernatural. They call it the acts of the Apostles, but it’s really the acts of the Holy Spirit working through the church, ’cause there’s a lot of people that weren’t apostles that got involved in this.

 

  And this is awesome. It says, “While Peter,” he came to Cornelius in his household and ministered. said, while he was ministering to Cornelius in his household, “While Peter was still speaking these words,” he was preaching the gospel to them. Suddenly, they were so hungry, so excited to hear this message that they believed. And as they were believing, they were just so hungry and thirsty, it said, “The Holy Spirit then fell upon all those who heard the word and those of the circumcisions.” That’s talking about the Jewish people, the Jewish believers like Peter. “Those of the circumcision who believed were astonished,” as many as came with Peter, “Because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.” This is the first time the Holy Spirit was poured out on gentile believers, on non-Jewish believers. And they were astonished. And they knew this happened because verse 46 says what happened. It said, “They heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.”

 

  This was a supernatural experience. Many times people ask me this question, even very mature believers. “Do I have to wait to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit?” And in the Book of Acts, in chapter two, they waited, but the Holy Spirit hadn’t yet been given. And I believe it was strategic on God’s part because there were these devout Jews that gathered together in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Pentecost, right? And Pentecost was 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus, right? Jesus, after his resurrection, appeared to the disciples for 40 days, 40 nights, showed them many signs that he was alive, right? And then, he ascended up into heaven after he told them to tarry at Jerusalem and receive the Holy Spirit. Then, 10 days after he ascended, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost. And so, these Jewish believers were gathered together from every nation. The scripture says, “Under heaven.”

 

  It’s a reverse of what happened in the Old Testament at Babel. At Babel, people were gathering there in unity to try to make themselves greater than God.

 

  Humanism.

 

  And which is what’s happening today in the world system. People are trying to make themselves greater than God. “We proclaim truth, we know more, we,” making human God. And we’re not supposed to take any created thing and make it greater than God. That’s actually a violation of-

 

  It’s crazy.

 

  God’s laws. But that’s what’s happening in the world today. People are trying to make themselves greater than God. That’s what happened in Babel, and they were separated. And that’s where you have the division of nations, the division of languages. But here’s something interesting happens in Acts 2. There Jewish people from all these different nations who have been scattered during the diaspora, during the Roman occupation. They’ve been scattered all around the world. But they came back together for this, “‘Cause Scripture told me-“

 

  Feast of Pentecost.

 

  “To come back for the Feast of Pentecost.” So, they were coming back, and the Holy Spirit fell and actually brought unity.

 

  Right, and that day, they started with 120 in the upper room and ended up with 3,120 believers baptized in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, ready to move forward. The church exploded in power. And I believe it’s the same today. And so, did you know what? Acts 2 is the only place in the scripture that you see that people tarried, or waited, to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has already been poured out. And so, the answer to that question is no. You, as a believer, as a born-again person, if you desire this gift from God, you don’t have to wait. You can receive it. And just like here, they believed that, they received. This is just like me. I was raised in a traditional church. They didn’t teach these things, so I was born again. The church I got born again in did not even teach on water baptism. But I got saved there. And then, I got baptized in the Holy Spirit in Andrew Wommack’s Bible study. And after I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, the scripture came alive to me. And that’s another thing, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit will take the things that I spoke to you and make them real to you.” Like John 14:26. And the scripture came alive and I started reading the Book of Acts, and I saw when they got saved, they got baptized. So, I went to the church that we were attending then, which is the church my grandparents helped start years before. And it was a salvation and water baptism-preaching church, and I got water baptized. But that didn’t happen ’til after I got baptized in the Holy Spirit. But when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, just like they did here in the Book of Acts 10, I received the baptism of Holy Spirit before I got water baptized. But when the scripture came alive to me, I went and got water baptized, ’cause I saw that was what they did in the Bible. Praise God, and then, when the Jewish apostles and leaders saw this, they said, “Can we forbid water, that these would not be baptized who’ve received the Holy Ghost?” So, this was a sign to them. They received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and they spoke in tongues.

 

  That’s awesome. And man, that’s just something that happens when you’re filled with the Holy Spirit. You speak with tongues. In Acts 4, I’m gonna read from verse 31 and verse 33, but it talks about something else. You speak with tongues, we also get great power.

 

  Amen.

 

  And when baptized in the Holy Spirit gives you great power. It says here in Acts 4:31, “When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the Word of God with boldness.”

 

  Amen.

 

  And in verse 33, it says, “And with great power,”

 

  Amen.

 

  The apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. I love that. We have a very strong emphasis on grace here. Grace is really God’s power towards us as believers.

 

  Amen. And if you wanna receive the power of God, you need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. We read in Acts 19 earlier in the week in the broadcast, and these elders of John the Baptist who were baptized to repentance, when Paul came and preached, then they were baptized in water. And then, Paul, he preached to them Jesus. I believe they were saved, got baptized in water, and then Paul laid his hands on ’em and they received the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues and prophesied. So, in Acts 2, Acts 10, and Acts 19, when they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they spoke with other tongues. And unless religion has messed with you, I believe when you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, this is a a gift beyond salvation. I believe that you will speak in tongues just like happened in the Book of Acts.

 

  That’s awesome, maybe you’ve never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Maybe you’ve never been able to pray in tongues before. If you’d like to receive that today, I believe it’s a good gift that Jesus has for us that comes straight from the Father who only has good and perfect gifts to give you. If you’d like to receive that today, you can call our prayer ministers right now. We’d be happy to pray for you to receive that. And I believe that, as they pray for you over the phone, that you’ll receive that you’ll be able to pray in tongues. And I love what Paul said. He said, “I thank God that I pray in tongues more than you all.” So, Paul thought it was a good thing and I believe it’s a good thing for every believer and available to every believer. Just give us a call if you’d like to receive that. We’d be happy to pray for you.

 

  Thanks so much, and 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.

 

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  Friend, there’s only one prerequisite to receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that’s receiving Jesus as your Lord. So, 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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