Why Pray In Tongues – Part 2 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. 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 here today. And we’re talking about an amazing thing all this week. We’re talking about the wonderful promise of the Holy Spirit, and why we should pray in tongues. I’m telling you that praying in tongues revolutionized my life. And I believe that praying in tongues will revolutionize your life too, as a believer.

 

  Mm, now, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a powerful thing, and a lot of believers are missing out on it. It’s actually one of the greatest gifts. Jesus called it the promise from the Father.

 

  Amen.

 

  So, I think this is something that Jesus wants every believer to have today, and a lot of people are missing out, maybe ’cause they haven’t really been taught about it or they’ve just been hesitant about it, but this is available to every believer. And I’m really glad that you’re tuned in today watching this. I think if you haven’t received the Holy Spirit yet, the baptism in holy Spirit, it’ll change your life. Maybe you already have, but it’s good to revisit the scriptures on it, revisit your understanding, and just keep growing in your revelation that comes from the Holy Spirit. I love what Acts 1:8 says, this is what Jesus told his followers. He said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria until the end of the Earth.”

 

  Amen, and that word “power” in the Greek is the Greek word, “Dunamis,” and it means special, wonderful, miracle working power. The same power that Jesus had when he walked on the Earth, is available to us as believers through the promise of the baptism of Holy Spirit.

 

  Mm-hmm, and I think we’re gonna start off right today with just some common questions. I’ve been pastoring now for eight years, My dad’s been pastoring for over 30 years. You’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit and praying in tongues since you were 14. So, however many years, it’s several decades. But some of these questions are common questions that people have. I’ve talked to different believers from different denominations, and they have some of these common questions. So we want to answer some of these common questions, but one question I hear from a lot of people is this, “Well, isn’t the Holy Spirit in you when you are saved?”

 

  Yes, when you receive the Christ as your Savior, actually to be accurate, scripturally the Spirit of Christ comes to live on the inside of you.

 

  Mm-hmm!

 

  And you’re actually born of the Spirit. And you have a great scripture on that, Aaron, in Ephesians 1:13.

 

  Yeah, it says here, “Having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

 

  Amen.

 

  I love that. So when you believe on Jesus, it’s actually the Holy Spirit that baptizes you into the body of Christ, into salvation, the Holy Spirit works on your heart. When you believed on Jesus, maybe you heard a preacher talking about the importance of believing on Jesus, giving your life to Him, the Holy Spirit was actually there ministering in your heart.

 

  It takes the Holy Spirit to work salvation in our life.

 

  Mm-hmm!

 

  First of all, the Holy Spirit convicts us, right? And according to John 16, he convicts the world, not the church, but he convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And Jesus explains that of sin because they believe not on me. So the greatest sin is the sin of unbelief, of righteousness, because I go onto my Father, Jesus is the righteousness of God. And Jesus made righteousness available to every person in his death and resurrection. And he says, of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. And then the Holy Spirit comes to reveal to us God’s plans, right, and God’s thoughts as believers when we receive Jesus, right, as our Lord and Savior. And it comes even in a greater way when we’re baptized in the Holy Spirit. So when you’re born again, the spirit of Christ comes to live in you.

 

  Yeah, and I love that verse in Ephesians 1:13 says, “When you believe that you’re sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,” a seal represents ownership. So when you believe on Jesus at the point of salvation, God seals you with the Holy Spirit. And Paul talks about this too, how you receive the Holy Spirit, which is a spirit of adoption. So he cries out “Abba Father,” so you know that you belong to your Father God.

 

  Amen.

 

  It’s like a navigational device that always points you home to the Father. So there’s something in you, that’s the Holy Spirit, that’s the spirit of Christ in you that is crying out “Abba Father,” that knows you have relationship with the Father. So that seal represents ownership, you know that you belong to God, his spirit lives and dwells in you, and you belong to the Father. You’re His son, you’re His daughter, you’re part of the family.

 

  Yeah, amen. Paul talked about this in Romans 8, and he makes statement in verse nine. He says, “You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. If any man have not,” now listen to this, “the spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him,” the exact same spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead, “if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwells in you.” So yes, the Holy Spirit does dwell in every born again believer.

 

  That’s great.

 

  In every person that has made Jesus their Lord.

 

  And this kind of leads me to the next question that I think is really important to answer, but it’s this, “Can you be saved and still not have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit?”

 

  Yes.

 

  So in other words, we’re asking, “Is salvation a distinct experience from being baptized in the Holy Spirit?” And scripturally this is true. I remember several years ago when I first became a pastor, I had a close friend, him and his wife came and stayed at my house. His wife went to school with me, we were musicians, and she was playing with a summer opera program here in Colorado. But they stayed with me for a week, and they were very strong believers. They loved God, they went to church. they were believers, but they weren’t baptizing the Holy Spirit. And my friends came to church on a Wednesday night when I was preaching, and I mentioned this, and he had some questions after. They were actually a Calvinist. They were very different than me theologically, but they were believers. And he was asking me, “Is this a separate experience?” And I showed ’em some of these verses in scripture where there were believers and acts that they believed on Jesus, but they hadn’t received the Holy Spirit yet. And then people came and prayed with them to receive the Holy Spirit.

 

  Amen!

 

  And it happens, so you can see in scripture in several instances that it is a separate experience.

 

  Right, there’s actually different ministries, or operations of the Holy Spirit that are working. Number one, the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. Number two, He works salvation in our life. The Bible talks about the sanctification of the Spirit, we read some scriptures that have to do with that. Number three, the Holy Spirit produces fruit in the Spirit. Galatians 5 verse 22 and 23 says, “Now, this is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.” Tells us what those nine fruit of the Holy Spirit. So he convicts us, he saves us, he gives us fruit, then there’s the thing that we’re talking about specifically today, the believers’ personal prayer language being baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. Then there’s also the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, and manifestations of the Spirit that are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. So there’s many different aspects of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

 

  That’s awesome, so we’re gonna show you in scripture, one instance here where people believed on Jesus, but they still hadn’t received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We’re gonna go to Acts 8 right now in Samaria. Jesus ministered in Samaria, that’s where the woman at the well came to meet him. And she believed on Him as the Messiah, believed on Him as a Savior. And she actually went and told the entire town, and the entire town of Samaria, at that point in time, came to meet Jesus and believe on Jesus. But it says here that Philip, who is actually the only named evangelist–

 

  Evangelist!

 

  Went to Samaria and preached Jesus to them. So I’m assuming there’s still people who needed to hear about Jesus.

 

  Right.

 

  And so evangelists, you can go back to the same town, there’s always people that still need to hear about Jesus.

 

  Well, we all ought to be sharing about Jesus. Every born again believer ought to be telling people about Jesus.

 

  So I love this here in Acts 8:5. It said, “Then Philip,” who’s this evangelist, “went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.” And it said, “The multitudes with one accord heated the things spoken by Philip hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.” And that’s actually something that often accompanies that gift of an evangelist is that there’s that miraculous power of God. So it says in verse seven, “For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed,, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.” The gospel always brings great joy.

 

  Amen, that’s amazing.

 

  Mm-hmm!

 

  Praise God. So when the people saw these things happening, they believed on Jesus. It says they gave heed to those things which Philip spoke because, I believe, they heard demons come out, and then they saw the sick, many who had palsies and that were lame were healed. So they saw these paralyzed people getting healed, and it stirred them up. And so they wanted to receive Jesus. And it tells us then in verse 12 what happened.

 

  Mm-hmm, and so they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the Kingdom of God and in the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. So they believed–

 

  Right!

 

  They believed on Jesus, so they got born again, they got saved because they believed on Jesus. And it says they were baptized, they were baptized to in water.

 

  In Mark 16, Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person, and he who believes and is baptized, shall be saved.” Baptism follows believing.

 

  Mm-hmm!

 

  And the emphasis there in Mark 16 is on believing. And it says, “He who believes not shall be damned.” So we must believe on Jesus, right?

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And that’s really a prerequisite to receive in water baptism, but it’s also a prerequisite to receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In John 14, Jesus’ talking about the Holy Spirit said, “The world cannot receive him.” So you gotta be born again to become a candidate for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And you need to be born again to be a candidate really for water baptism, if you look at it from a scriptural aspect.

 

  Mm-hmm, and we’re gonna take a brief break here in a moment, but we’re gonna come back and talk about what happened in Samaria. They were believers, they were water baptized, but something important hadn’t happened yet, they hadn’t received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongue. So we’re gonna talk about what happened in Samaria. Maybe you today, you haven’t received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and prayed in tongues yet, and you want to have that. If you want to have that, you can actually call us during this break. We have trained prayer ministers that will pray with you and believe that you can receive that free gift straight from the Father.

 

  Amen, so stay tuned, we’ll be right back, 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 praying 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 believe that God the Father gave different motivational gifts, and i believe it’s just how you’re made up, your personality, different things about you. I believe God has given everybody motivational gifts. I believe the way you succeed in life is find out what your God-given gifts are. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us and I’m glad that you stayed tuned. We’ve been talking from Acts 8 and talking about this question, “Is the baptism of the Holy Spirit a separate experience from salvation?”

 

  Yeah, that’s what we’re answering right now. Can you be a believer and still not have received that baptism in the Holy Spirit?

 

  The promise of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

 

  And we’re looking at Acts 8 in scripture where Philip actually ministered in Samaria. Philip was an evangelist, he ministered in Samaria. People saw the miracles, they believed on Jesus.

 

  Right.

 

  And in Acts 8:12, it said the people who believed here in Samaria, “They believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. Both men and women were baptized.” So they believed on Jesus, they got saved, and they were water baptized.

 

  Right, right!

 

  But we’re gonna see what happens next in Acts 8:14 here in Samaria, it says, “There were apostles who were at Jerusalem. They heard what happened in Samaria. They’d received the Word of God.” And it says “They sent Peter and John to them.”

 

  Right, so now they sent apostles down. Philip was an evangelist, he was preaching. People got saved, and they got water baptized. But now they sent these apostles, Peter and John–

 

  And the cream of the crop, apostles.

 

  Right!

 

  Peter and John were actually part of the inner three of Jesus’ disciples. So Peter and John personally traveled from Jerusalem to Samaria. It says in verse 15, “When they had come down, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.” This is really interesting it says, “For as yet, he had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” So the Holy Spirit hadn’t fallen on them like what happened in Acts 2. They hadn’t then had this experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, praying in tongues, this hadn’t happened yet. They believed on Jesus, they were baptized in water. But it says in verse 17, “Then they laid hands on them, they prayed, and they received the Holy Spirit.”

 

  Amen, there are a lot of believers like this today who’ve been saved. Many of ’em have even done a lot of good works.

 

  Mm-hmm!

 

  I know we recently had a person here, I really like this person. They’re Filipino, they’ve actually been to the Philippines on different mission trips. And they came here on a Wednesday night, and you are actually sharing on this on Wednesday night. And even though they’ve done mission trips, they’re a strong believer, they had never received this promise of the baptism of Holy Spirit. But she came forward that night and she received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. And I know because I was one of the ones that was praying with her. So it’s possible for you to be a believer. Even I know strong believers, my granddad was raised Baptist, and my granddad knew Jesus, he was a very strong believer. He lived a very good, Godly life. He had the fruit of the spirit working in him, but he had not been baptized in the Holy Spirit. But then in his upper years, when Andrew Wommack came to Lamar, Colorado, he came to some of those meetings, and he received this promise, and we can receive this promise.

 

  That’s awesome. So here in Samaria, we see that it’s actually a separate experience. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is separate from salvation and even water baptism.

 

  Right.

 

  We can also see something really interesting in Acts 19.

 

  Right.

 

  In Ephesus, I think we can turn here to Acts 19 in Ephesus, we’ll start in verse one. And this is actually where I took my friend who was a Calvinist, who had questions about this. I took him to Acts 19 because he really loved the Bible, he really believed the Bible. And I just showed him in scripture and he saw from Acts 19, yeah, it’s a separate thing. He’s such a strong Calvinist. He wants to have a son someday and name his son “Calvin.” But so far he is only had two girls. So I think God has something better in store for him. It says here in Acts 19, it says, “And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples, and he said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ So they said to him, ‘We have not so much as heard whether there is the Holy Spirit.'” So they’re believers, there are a few believers there, but they hadn’t heard about the Holy Spirit.

 

  Now, I was reading some notes on this, and I think I was reading from Dake, but he actually believes, and I actually agree with this, that these were John’s disciples.

 

  Mm-hmm!

 

  So, they had followed John the Baptist, but they had not yet… And it kind of fits in with the scripture because they said “We were baptized in John’s baptism.” Well, John baptized, it says the gospels, with the baptism unto repentance, right?

 

  But not necessarily a baptism unto salvation.

 

  Unto salvation. So they were John’s disciples. And then said, “John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who should come after him.” So he’s saying John was actually preaching Jesus. He was preaching, there’s something beyond what I have. And that’s what we’re saying today. And many of you, like me, have been raised in a traditional church, and you’ve been saved. You received Jesus as your Lord, that maybe you haven’t taken the next step and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I know I had this man come here and he was a great man a number of years ago, he’s still coming here. And he wanted to meet with me and I met with him and he’s from a city that’s like 50 miles away. So he comes a number of times, but not all the time. But he said, “I really wanna know my purpose. I really wanna know.” And he was a very devout believer. But I just talked to him, “Have you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues?” Because in the Book of Acts, in Acts 2, Acts 10, and then in Acts 19 where we’re reading, when they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they spoke in tongues. And we’re teaching this week on why tongues? One reason that speaking in tongues is so powerful is because your mind doesn’t get involved with it, and the battlefield is in your mind. And that’s where a lot of times Satan will attack you. But when you’re praying in tongues, you’re praying from your spirit directly to God. It’s like your hotline to heaven and you’re praying the perfect will of God. Now, we’ll share that in a future broadcast. But he said they should believe. So here, when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of Jesus. So Dake’s saying, “Hey, they actually got saved, that they had been baptized in John’s baptism under repentance.”

 

  Yeah, there in Acts 19:5, it says: When they heard this, so they heard the gospel preached from Paul here in Ephesus.

 

  Right.

 

  Which is really interesting ’cause a powerful church was birthed there in Ephesus. And again, when the Holy Spirit falls on, when there’s that Holy Spirit experience, man, that leads to a revival, and that’s how the church was born in Ephesus, this local church. So in verse five, Acts 19:5, it said, “When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” I believe they believed on Jesus, they were water baptized. And it says in verse six, “When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”

 

  Amen, so here’s another value. We’re talking about why tongues, but tongues is like a doorway into the rest of the gifts of the spirit. And prophecy is one of the nine manifestations of the spirit that’s listed in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, and it means to exhort, edify, and comfort the church according to 1 Corinthians 14:3. So they moved right out of this experience of the personal prayer language into the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and in this case, prophecy. And, it’s saying… Now this is something that’s really interesting in here. It says in verse seven, “All the men were about 12.” But then if you go down to verse 10, because Paul, he continued and he’s taught there for a long time. It says, “For about three months disputing and persuading the things concerning the Kingdom of God. And as this continued by the space of two years,” in verse 10, “so that all which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.” So you see what happened is there were about 12 people. Paul continued to teach for about three months and then stayed for two years. And after two years, nearly all that were in this whole area of Asia heard the word of God, so the gospel went forward from there, and many, many people were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and set free by the power of God.

 

  Mm, that’s awesome.

 

  Amen! So when we read that scripture in Acts 1:8 to begin the broadcast. It said, “You’ll receive power when you receive the Holy Spirit to be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the Earth.” That’s exactly what happened here in Ephesus when Paul went and shared the gospel with these disciples of John.

 

  And something that you’ve kind of noticed, and that I’ve noticed as well, a lot of churches are birthed in the power of the Holy Spirit, with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. People pray in tongues, it’s a very prominent thing in the church. But some churches kind of shy away from that, they draw back from that. And it’s like pulling the plug on what really helped that church thrive and grow and get people saved and…

 

  When we got baptized in the Holy Spirit in Andrew Wommack’s “Bible Study,” when almost nobody knew him in 1978, in the town where I was born and raised, Lamar, Colorado, I was raised in this traditional church, and they actually kicked us out. And that church went from about 100 people down to about 10 to 20, stayed that way for like 10 years till they got a pastor in their church that they didn’t know it, but he was baptized in the Holy Spirit. By that time, I was pastoring up the road, 60 miles. We started a church there and Carson, Colorado. And he had me come down and preach, and people got saved and set free by the power of God and healed, amen, just like they did in the Book of Acts, because that’s what the power of the Holy Spirit does. And listen, we all need the Holy Spirit. And that church went right back up to about 100 people in the Lamar, Colorado, it’s a smaller town. So you don’t kick the Holy Spirit outta your church because if you do, it takes the Holy Spirit to convict people of their sin, it takes the Holy Spirit to work salvation, it takes the Holy Spirit to bring fruit, you’re gonna hurt yourself. So you don’t wanna fight the Holy Ghost. You’re not gonna fight the Holy Ghost and win. So, receive the Holy Ghost.

 

  About 15 years ago, I spent three summers in Santa Barbara, California with a music program there playing at a music festival, and this older couple kind of helped take care of me. They were my sponsors, they helped my scholarship there. But I went to church with them, and they went to a really powerful church that really believed the Bible and was doing a lot of great things. But over the years, this couple kind of got offended by something, and they ended up leaving. The husband passed away and I went back to help with the funeral, and they had their original pastor do the funeral, but the wife was still going to another church, and I went to church with her, and it was just a big church where it was just dead. And you could see the thousand, there were like 20 people in there on a Sunday morning. And the message, I could tell that the ministry didn’t really believe in the power of God, even believed in the Bible, and it was a sad thing.

 

  And so maybe you’re one of these people, and you’ve received Jesus, you’re born again, but you’ve never received the baptism of Holy Spirit. I want to encourage you to call in today and receive prayer, receive the Holy Spirit. I also encourage you, we’ve got lots and lots of teaching on the Holy Spirit on our website, downloadable, free of charge, so take advantage of it.

 

  Hi everyone, we have a special announcement for you.

 

  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 guests, 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.

 

  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 the digital copy of “Baptism in the Holy Spirit,” a $5 value, free of charge. Download your copy today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  Friends, there’s only one prerequisite for you receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that is 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. I believe that you raised him from the dead and made him Lord, and right now I surrender to you, in Jesus’ name.

 

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