Why Pray In Tongues – Part 4 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. You don’t wanna miss the message today. We are gonna be talking about why we should pray in tongues as believers. I’m telling you, it’s gonna encourage you. It’s gonna help you. Maybe you haven’t received it. Maybe as you watch the broadcast and pray today, you’ll receive this gift from God. So stay tuned. You’re gonna be blessed and invite your friends. Thank you. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us. And we’ve been talking about why pray in tongues, and we’ve been talking about different aspects of that all week. But you as a believer may have this question. So just why should I pray in tongues? Well, when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit and started praying in tongues about 46 years ago, it revolutionized my life. And I believe that God is . So I believe just like it revolutionized my life, I believe that praying in tongues will revolutionize your life too. So we’re gonna talk about scriptural reasons why we should pray in tongues. And we’ve been talking about different aspects of this all week.

 

  This is awesome. I wanna just start right in Jude 20 and read Jude 20, and also the next verse, verse 21 of it says, “But you beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” So when you pray in the Holy Spirit, it actually builds you up on your most holy faith. It builds up your faith.

 

  Now, I believe there’s a specific reason that it builds up your faith. And I believe the specific reason is when you’re praying in tongues, Paul says, “When I pray in the spirit, my understanding is unfruitful.” And so it’s like having a mind bypass. It’s like having a hotline to heaven, and your mind doesn’t get involved. Of course, you know that the battleground is the mind. And if there’s a place that the devil wants to attack you, he wants to attack you in your mind, you know? In the area of your soul between your spirit and your body. And so that’s where we need victory. So when you pray in tongues, a lot of times, if I’m going through a battle, I’ll start praying in the Spirit. And when I start praying in tongues, there might be something that looked like it was gonna destroy me. And all of a sudden it’ll turn around, and as it turns around, I’ll begin to realize, hey, God sent this to bless me. And God will use something to act initially look like a great challenge and turn it into a great opportunity.

 

  Well, sometimes there’s a challenge that just in the natural, you don’t know how this is gonna be resolved. You don’t know how God’s gonna turn this thing around. Sometimes you don’t even know what the underlying problem is. And it’s hard to solve something if you don’t even really know what the root of the problem is. But when you pray in tongues, you’re praying the perfect will of God over that situation. And God can then begin to turn things around. You’re actually praying in the Holy Spirit. You’re interceding with the Holy Spirit.

 

  Amen.

 

  Who works on our behalf. You’re praying and just inter… The Holy Spirit is the intercessor.

 

  Amen. Yes.

 

  Yeah.

 

  You know, Jesus said this in John chapter 16 talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. First of all, He talked about the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the world. He said He’ll convict the world of sin, righteousness of judgment. And He explained what that is. Sin, because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go unto my Father. So the Holy Spirit convicts us that Jesus is the righteousness of God and He makes righteousness available to every believer when they believe on Him, right? And then of judgment, because the Prince of this world has already been judged. That is the primary ministry of the Holy Spirit to the world. But then Jesus goes on and tells the disciples, “I have a lot of things to tell you, but you can’t bear them, you can’t grasp them, you can’t understand them now.” But when the Holy Spirit comes, He’s gonna take the things that are mine and the things that are the Father’s, and He’s gonna show them to you. And then he specifically says, He is going to show you things to come. You know, the Holy Spirit knows the future better than we know the past. And praise God, I’m telling you, to live in a world in times like we live in today, we need the Holy Spirit.

 

  And you need to keep being built up in your most holy faith. You know, praying in tongues, I don’t think it’s just something you should do once in a blue moon, you know, once in a long… It’s just something you should actually do on a daily basis-

 

  On a regular basis.

 

  On a regular basis. Just keep praying in the Holy Spirit. You build yourself up in faith. It also keeps you in the love of God, which is awesome. That’s one thing I think the enemy tries to do, is just try to sow discord, try to bring division, try to, you know, just stir up animosity and that root of bitterness by which many are defiled. The devil’s trying to do that all the time in people’s minds. And when you’re praying in tongues, it’s actually an antidote against that.

 

  Amen.

 

  It keeps you in the love of God.

 

  To get a revelation of God’s love, you know? It took me quite a while before I really got a revelation of God’s love. But man, when you get a revelation of God’s love, again, that’s another thing that’ll revolutionize your life. And it’s the baptism of the Holy Spirit that does it. You know, talking about building up your faith. I believe one way that your faith is built up, is when the Holy Spirit reveals the word to you. You know, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes in, John 14:26, He’s gonna take the things that I’ve spoken to you and He’s gonna bring them to your remembrance. He makes the word come alive.

 

  And one thing I like to do, actually, as a charismatic believer, I pray in tongues, like I’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit. One thing I like to do is actually pray in tongues before I read scripture. If I just take a few minutes, five minutes or so, maybe longer, just pray in tongues before I read scripture, it just, man, it just brings revelation. The Holy Spirit will bring you revelation. I remember when I was in college, I prayed for a friend to receive the Holy Spirit, and you know, she was really hungry and thirsty for God. But she just wouldn’t ask for that gift. But eventually she did. And one thing I noticed in her life that she just had all this revelation, you know? Like, it’s like a light bulb went off. I remember talking to her about different issues. Like, that, to me it was very clear. Like, she was actually open to homosexual marriage and stuff like that. Just ’cause she wanted to be compassionate. But when she’d see the Holy Spirit, it’s just, like, a light bulb went off, and she could just see really clearly what’s wrong, what’s right, what’s of God, what’s really of the enemy trying to do in society. She could just, it was just, like, an instantaneous thing.

 

  Amen. And part of that’s the Holy Spirit makes these things revelation. You know, I see people that are in the world, and they’re definitely not born again. They don’t know God. And you know, the answers that they’re given, and sometimes they’re acting like this is absolute gospel, and it is not true at all. It’s fabricated in lies. But you know what? They don’t have the Spirit of God giving them truth and revelation.

 

  And the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He actually teaches us.

 

  Right.

 

  He’s our teacher and-

 

  Jesus called Him the Spirit of truth.

 

  And man, when I pray in tongues, even before I read scripture, it’s, like, I just get so much revelation, everything’s alive, and the Holy Spirit’s speaking to me, and suddenly just tells me, you know, He’ll just tell me, like, look up that word and I’ll go into my concordance and look up that original word, and I’ll just get so much awesome… You can actually be Spirit-led in your Bible study. You can be Spirit-led, you know, in parenting and doing your job.

 

  Amen.

 

  And you know, in ministry, but you can be Spirit-led, even just in your own personal prayer time, your own, like, you can… The Holy Spirit can lead you to pray for different people, put different people on your heart, pray for different… The Holy Spirit can even lead you… You know, Marilyn Hickey, she felt for a long time just to pray for the nations, and she would just be Spirit-led as she prayed for all the nations of the world. And then, you know, she wasn’t really traveling or going anywhere, but, like, 20 years later, God just opened these doors, and she’d go minister to, like, Pakistan. But she’d been praying for Pakistan. God had led her to pray. And she’d just see thousands of people get born again in Pakistan.

 

  Yeah, and it’s a miracle. Because she’s going to a country where women are looked down on. Did you know Jesus did more to elevate the position of a woman than anybody on the planet ever?

 

  But she had been praying that, you know, for that nation, and people actually looked to her like she was a grandma, and, like, they valued her as a woman. Just God-

 

  Yeah, praise God.

 

  Because she’d been praying, God was opening those people’s hearts to receive the gospel from her lips.

 

  You know, another thing the Holy Spirit will do, Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes, He’ll testify of me, in John 15:26. You know, the Holy Spirit will make Jesus real to you. It’ll make the things of God real to you.

 

  I love this. You know, why you should pray in tongues, when you pray in tongues, your spirit, you know, you’re a spirit, you possess a soul. You live in a body. Your spirit’s the eternal, you know, part where Jesus lives in. Your spirit is, you’re given the Spirit of Christ inside of you, but that spirit prays directly to God when you’re praying in tongues.

 

  Amen.

 

  And it’s actually a very personal prayer language directly between you and God.

 

  Amen.

 

  I love what 1 Corinthians 14:2 says. It says, “For he who speaks in the tongue, does not speak to men, but to God.”

 

  Amen.

 

  “For no one understands Him. However, in the Spirit, he speaks mysteries.”

 

  Hallelujah. Yeah. The Holy Spirit will take things that are mysteries, and as you pray in the Holy Spirit, many times He’ll give you revelation about what you’re praying about. Paul says, “Let him that praise in tongues, pray that he might interpret.” Man, sometimes I don’t know what to do about a situation, but I start praying in the Spirit, and all of a sudden I get revelation.

 

  Man, I love this verse two, when you pray in tongues, you actually praise and magnify God. You give glory to God. Praying in tongues actually magnifies God. Acts 10:46 is, “For when they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.”

 

  Amen.

 

  Man, they magnify God.

 

  Praise God.

 

  I just heard this testimony just this morning, I saw it on social media. But there was a pastor preaching, a Pentecostal minister preaching. And he said he was preaching on this experience, on receiving the Holy Spirit and praying in tongues and preaching the gospel. And he said 20 people came up to receive, you know, the Holy Spirit. And, but you know, and he prayed for 19 of them. They all received the Holy Spirit, began to pray in tongues. But the 20th man who came up for prayer said, “I’m an Orthodox Jew and I don’t believe on Jesus.” And he said, “The only way I’d believe on Jesus is if I heard it preached in my own language.” And this girl who’s praying in tongues, he said, “I hear her speaking in my language.” And the minister said, “Well, what is she saying?” And she said, “I am God and my name is Jesus.” And he received Jesus and received-

 

  Wow.

 

  The baptism of the Holy Spirit just like that. Complete miracle.

 

  And I’ve heard testimonies like this. Steven Rato, who’s a friend of mine, he’s from India. He speaks, like, eight languages. And he was preaching years ago, in I think, Grand Island, Nebraska. And when he was preaching, he got a tongue, and he gave this tongue, and then he got the interpretation and gave an altar call and people came forward. And then there’s this man, when he went out on the steps, started speaking to him in Spanish. And even though Steven speaks eight languages, he does not speak or understand Spanish. He said, “Wait a minute. He said, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.” That man said, “You spoke my language perfectly in there.” And it was the Holy Spirit reaching out to that man, just like Acts chapter two on the day of Pentecost. And so we’re going to, you know, go in just a little bit to a break, but you know, we’re gonna come back after this break and there’s some great reasons on why pray in tongues, and we’re gonna compare. You don’t wanna miss this last half the broadcast. We’re gonna compare praying in tongues, the personal prayer language with the gift of tongues, which is for public ministry, and talk about the difference in those. That’ll be part of it. But there’s other things to share. So stay tuned. If you need prayer and you wanna receive this right now, you can call in and receive even during the break. We got trained prayer ministers that are ready to receive your call or you can call in after the broadcast and praise God. Just stay tuned and we’ll be right back. 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. You know, my grandmother told me when I was just a little bitty child, she told me birds of a feather flock together. And then a preacher told me a few years later, flocks fly the same place. You know, there’s some flocks you fly with, you’re not gonna get what you want. And so you wanna hang around the right people. It’s very important the relationships that you have. Friends, I’m glad you stayed with us, and we got a lot more to share on why speak in tongues. Praise God.

 

  That’s awesome.

 

  Man, I’m telling you, it’ll change your life. It’ll change it for good.

 

  Yeah, and praying in tongues is so powerful. This is one thing I wanna mention about praying in tongues here in Romans 8:26-27, it says, actually, when you pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit is praying directly through you. It actually directs you, and you pray according to God’s perfect will.

 

  Amen.

 

  Which is really awesome. So Romans 8:26-27 says, “Likewise, the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses.” So our weaknesses means, like, you don’t always know, have a full understanding of every situation, but the Holy Spirit when you pray in tongues, will help you in the areas where you lack understanding or revelation. It says, “For we do not know what we should pray for, as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts, knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

 

  Now, I wanna comment on a few things in there. First of all, when it says in verse 26, “The Spirit helps our infirmities,” and the literal Greek, it says something like this, “The Spirit takes hold together with us against our infirmities.” You may have a weakness, you may have a challenge, you may have a difficulty that you personally are having a problem, you know, just overcoming. But if you’ll receive this gift, and begin to operate in this gift, if you’ve already received it, of praying in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit will actually take hold together with you against that weakness. Then as he goes on, He says, “He prays through us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” One paraphraser translation of this that I read years ago said, “Groanings that cannot be uttered in an intelligent language.” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, “When I pray in the Spirit, my understanding’s unfruitful.” So you don’t really know what you’re praying, but you’re praying from the Spirit to God. And then it says in verse 27, and I believe you can see Jesus, “He who searches the hearts,” I personally believe that’s Jesus, “knows the mind of the Spirit.” And, “He, Jesus, makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” I believe when you pray in the Spirit, you’re joining with Jesus. Jesus knows the perfect will of the Father for us. And it kind of goes along with John 16 when Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit take those things that are mine and the Father’s, and He’ll make them known to you.” So I believe that you’re praying the perfect will of God. It’s, like, your hotline to heaven. Who wouldn’t want this gift from God? I mean, you have to. Religion has ruined you if you don’t believe, if you believe in Jesus, but you don’t believe in this second experience from salvation of receiving the baptism of Holy Spirit. You ought to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues. Paul said, “I thank God, I pray in tongues more than you all.” You know, here’s a guy who wrote, you know, over half of the New Testament, around half of the New Testament, and he’s saying, “I pray in tongues.” He wasn’t with Jesus personally when Jesus was here on earth, yet he writes half the New Testament. Why, because I believe he prayed in tongues, and got revelation from God, and God took the scripture and made it real to him.

 

  That’s awesome. And we’re gonna address, like, a very important question that a lot of people have, and there’s a lot of confusion regarding this area, but some people, they hear about tongues, and they know there’s a gift of tongues, which is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. We’ll go there in just a minute. But they think, is this just a gift that’s just given to people as the Spirit wills? But the gift of tongues is different than praying in tongues.

 

  Amen. And you have to understand the difference. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul names the nine manifestations or gifts of the Holy Spirit. And at the end he says, does everyone have… Well, not everyone has all of those. Some people operate in several or some.

 

  And the gift of tongues is mentioned there, and the interpretation of tongues. The gift of tongues is accompanied by the interpretation of tongues. But this is actually different than praying in tongues.

 

  Yeah, so the gift of tongues is for public ministry to the church. This is for the edification of the church, while the personal prayer language is for personal edification, and it doesn’t really need interpretation. So, you know, the scripture talks about this, that God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear, but of power of love and sound mind, in 2 Timothy 1:7. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about the power of God, right? Talks about these manifestations of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 13 talks about the love of God, right? And 1 Corinthians 14 talks about how we operate in these gifts and use them. He says this a number of times, to the edification of the church. It’s not just some wild, crazy, free for all. I’ve seen a few of those. So, He says, this is for the edification of the church. And so 1 Corinthians 14 really talks both about the baptism of the Holy Spirit for personal edification. Your personal prayer language was primarily what we’ve been teaching on all week. But then He secondarily talks about the gift of tongues. And Aaron, you wrote down the difference of those. But let’s read 1 Corinthians 14 before we get into this, verse two, and then through verse four. So read verse two and verse four.

 

  Can you read it? I don’t have a Bible in front of me.

 

  Yeah, “He who speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not to men, but unto God, for no man understands Him. How be in the Spirit, He speaks mysteries.” So He says in the Spirit, he says, no man’s understanding Him. “But he who speaks in an unknown tongue,” in verse four, “edifies himself, but he that prophesies, edifies the church.” So if you study this in depth, you’ll find that tongues plus interpretation, the gift of tongues for public ministry plus interpretation equals the gift of prophecy. So it’s like saying, if I had $50,000, and the gift of tongues was $50,000, and the gift of interpretation was $50,000, then it would equal prophecy would be 100,000. Tongues plus interpretation of tongues equals prophecy. And he who prophesies speaks to the church, edification, exaltation and comfort. That’s the biblical definition from 1 Corinthians 14:3. So that’s the public ministry, but there’s also the private prayer language. So the private prayer language is for personal edification. So you have to read through these. And as you read through ’em in 1 Corinthians 14, you get clarity by the context, whether He’s talking about the public gift or the personal prayer language.

 

  And I just kinda laid out the differences when you look at-

 

  It’s fantastic.

 

  1 Corinthians 12, and look at 1 Corinthians 14, between praying in tongues, that personal prayer language and the gift of tongues. So praying in tongues, your personal prayer language, which is available to every believer, especially when you receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, you’re actually speaking directly to God.

 

  Amen.

 

  The purpose of that is for you to pray directly to God.

 

  Amen.

 

  Whereas the gift of tongues plus interpretation, you’re speaking to man. It’s, like, prophesying to a group of people. The message is for people. It’s not so much a personal thing, it’s more public. When you pray in tongues, you’re speaking mysteries. So you actually don’t understand what you’re praying. You’re speaking mysteries. Your understanding isn’t involved with it. God can, you know, move on your heart and kind of… But you’re not interpreting every word that you’re praying, you’re actually praying and speaking mysteries. But the gift of tongues plus interpretation, the message is to be understood. It’s, like, if someone were to get a mic and you go up on the platform, and give a message in tongues, there would need to be an interpretation of it in that public, you know…

 

  And most of the time, if we’re in a public meeting, we don’t have somebody go to the platform and give a tongue over a mic, right? Because there can be a number of tongues, but Paul limits that in 1 Corinthians 14 to two or three. Like, in a single public meeting. Because you can have so much, right? That you can’t, you know-

 

  Eventually you just need to be preaching a message in the language that people understand.

 

  Right, so people can’t digest it all kind of.

 

  Yeah, so praying in tongues, scripturally, it edifies yourself.

 

  Now we just read those scriptures.

 

  Whereas then the gift of tongues and then interpretation, edifies the church, it builds up the church.

 

  Right. So the difference in the public gift and the personal prayer language is what it’s primarily for. So the personal prayer language is primarily for building up yourself personally. Personal edification. You say, well, “Why that’s important?” It’s very important that you stay built up, because you got a whole world and you know, the flesh and the devil want to tear you down, right? But then also, the public gift is given to edify or build up the church, and the church needs encouraged.

 

  Yeah, sometimes at church too, during worship, I, you know, I’ll pray in tongues or I’ll sing in tongues. And I’m doing that personally, to build myself up during that time of worship. So sometimes people ask me, “Can I pray in tongues, you know, in a corporate prayer meeting or worship meeting?” I said, “Yes, that’s fine. You’re building yourself up, and you’re, you know, you’re speaking to God.” Praying in tongues, there is no interpretation. Your understanding is involved. There’s not an interpretation. Whereas the gift of tongues, the interpretation will be needed in that operation. Praying in tongues, it’s for believers. Whereas on the gift of tongues with interpretation, it’s actually a sign to unbelievers.

 

  Right, Paul actually says, if you have two or three tongues in a church service, like, and it’s not just personal. It’s not just personal prayer or personal-

 

  There’s a prophetic utterance too.

 

  Yeah, it comes out in a different way when there’s a gift of tongues. And he says, “If you have two or three and nobody interprets, then stop.”

 

  Yeah, that gift of tongues, it’s part of the prophetic gifting. So there’s, like, a prophetic utterance to it.

 

  Amen.

 

  This underlying function that’s very prophetic to it. And the interpretation will be prophetic.

 

  Amen.

 

  Because the gift of tongues plus interpretation equals prophecy.

 

  Aaron, before we go off the air today, I want you to pray right in this part of the broadcast, actually for people, you know, to receive the Holy Spirit. I know you can call in and receive. We have prayer ministers here ready to answer the phones. Many times our phone lines just get overwhelmed. But we’re doing our best to increase that and get more people available.

 

  I’m gonna pray for everyone right now, who maybe you haven’t received the gift of the Holy Spirit and you want it, and if you ask for it, I believe that you’ll receive. So right now, I’m gonna ask, I believe that you’re asking right now. So if you wanna receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and also be able to pray in tongues, that personal prayer language that’s direct from you to God, just lay your hand on the screen. Maybe it’s a phone or a computer or a television. I want you to stretch your hands or even touch that screen. I’m gonna stretch out my hand to you, and I’m gonna pray right now that you received that, and I’ll begin to pray in tongues too. And I believe that you will as well. So God, I just thank You for everyone right now who is asking, Lord, we just ask that all these believers receive that gift of the Holy Spirit. So right now, I believe that as they ask, Father, give me that gift. Give me the gift of the Holy Spirit. I wanna be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Lord, I just say that You’re pouring out the Holy Spirit on every single person who’s desiring that and asking that. And I think that right now, they’re just receiving that fullness, they’re receiving that power, they’re gonna be amazing witnesses. And I just think of that right now as they begin to open their mouth, and pray that they’re receiving that gift of praying in tongues, and they’re just speaking on those syllables that don’t make sense to them. But I just think they can dive into it by faith. And I believe that as you pray, you might have a full language, you might just have a syllable or two, but keep exercising that, keep praying in tongues. And I believe that God is gonna do great things in your life.

 

  Amen. I believe this broadcast has touched many of you that are watching. You know, our current broadcasting budget, not with all the help to do it, just with the broadcast, is over $1 million a year. So I wanna encourage you, if this has touched you, and you want to partner with us, to give us a call today. Thanks and we’ll be back at the end and pray for you.

 

  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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  We’re having a camp meeting and it’s for the whole family. We have special kids teaching, special youth teaching, special adult teaching, special guest and special worship. It’s a great event and you don’t wanna miss it. I believe it will be a blessing to you and your family. So come see us. Friend, I encourage you to pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe in Your Son, Jesus. I believe that He died on the cross for my sins, and that You raised Him from the dead the third day and made Him Lord. And, Jesus, right now, I surrender my life to You. I surrender my direction to You. Jesus, I ask You to come in and direct my life and be my Lord and be my Savior. In Your name, amen.

 

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