Mike Bickle discusses the significance of praying in the Spirit as outlined in 1 Corinthians 14, sharing his personal journey from skepticism to understanding the value of the gift of tongues. He emphasizes that there are two distinct types of tongues: one for personal edification and another for corporate worship, clarifying that all believers can benefit from the personal prayer language. Bickle highlights the benefits of speaking in tongues, including speaking mysteries, self-edification, and giving thanks to God, while also encouraging believers to engage in this practice for spiritual growth. He concludes by inviting those who wish to receive the gift of tongues to come forward for prayer, emphasizing that it is accessible to all believers.

Six, in our series, our second semester on growing in prayer, we did ten parts in semester one. We're doing ten part series here in session two, or in semester two. In this one, we're talking about praying in the spirit and we're focusing on 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Of course, there's quite a bit in the book of Acts on this, quite a few good examples, but we're not going to have time to cover those, but they're pretty easy to locate. Just a casual read through the book of Acts, you'll find them, quite a few important passages. But I want to share just a little bit of my journey as I give this teaching. My early ministry, I was very energetic in teaching against the gift of tongues. Little did I know that I had a ministry at the University of Missouri, I led a Bible study there, and a number of my friends had Bible studies in other campuses like KU, K State, places like that. And they would come, my friends would come from the church that we were all a part of, the Presbyterian church down the road, Colonial. So, I was a part of that for about 5 years on the youth staff for a season. And we would go and be guest speakers for each other at different university Bible studies, and I was at MU. But whenever I would go to KU or the other places, they always had me come to teach on one subject, why the gift of tongues was not from God. That was my specialty subject that everyone that knew me knew that's what I was going to talk on. The charismatic movement was just exploding across America, and people were laying hands on people, and I went to lay hands off of people. I was really convinced that it was a troublesome, non-biblical distraction to really loving Jesus. So, I taught on this, I mean, energetically for 5 years, so when I meet a pastor who has all the arguments against speaking in tongues, sometimes they're a little surprised that I can finish their argument for them and give them the Bible verses, because I studied it quite in depth against it, and I presented it quite a number of times. So, I know what the main arguments are from the main Bible teachers that were writing on that subject in the 70s, John Stott being one of the premier teachers in the body of Christ from England who was teaching why the charismatic movement, etc., etc. Anyway, so, but there was one verse I could never make sense of, it bothered me, and I never said it to anybody else, but I would stare at it and go, hmm, how can I get rid of that verse? It was in 1 Corinthians 14, verse 18, and we're going to be mostly in 1 Corinthians 14 tonight. Paul said, I thank God I speak in tongues more than everyone else. I went, what? Why would Paul speak in tongues more than everybody? And he met all the believers in the city of Corinth. I figured there were thousands of believers potentially, and Paul was building tents, so he was working full time, I mean, working, you know, a substantial amount of time, let's say it that way, yet preaching, and a lot of people coming to him for ministry. I said, when did this most busy man in Corinth have time to pray in tongues more than everybody else? I go, now, when was that happening? Because he was making tents, and again, he was ministering to so many individual needs, so the part that bothered me is that Paul so valued this that he could say he did it more than everyone else, say it confidently, without any question, and I said, what did he know about this gift? This is after the day of Pentecost, it's some decades later, a couple decades later, so it's not the day of Pentecost thing, it's something else going on, I'm going, why is he doing this? Roman numeral two, this really began to clear it up for me, because I was in a lot of turmoil. At first I was just real fiery against it, then I became a little bit in turmoil, I started thinking, maybe I'm wrong, if Paul prayed in tongues more than everybody, that was the number one part I couldn't get through, I couldn't get a good answer for. Roman numeral two, paragraph eight, Paul described two different types of the gift of tongues. When I saw this, it created a lot of the confusion there was lifted, because he makes two statements in 1 Corinthians that seemingly contradict each other. He says in chapter twelve, verse thirty, not all speak in tongues, and he says in chapter fourteen, verse five, all do speak in tongues, I mean that was the implication, implication in chapter twelve, not everyone does, implication in chapter fourteen, everyone does. I went, hmm, which is it? Do they or don't they? Let's read here in 1 Corinthians twelve, for the manifest, verse seven, for the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one, here's the key phrase, for the prophet of all. Because we're going to find out in a minute, he's going to talk about speaking in tongues for personal profit, not the profit of others. Paul said, 1 Corinthians twelve, you speak in tongues, God gives that gift for the profit of everybody that's at the meeting. Then he goes on in verse thirty, he says, do all speak in tongues, a rhetorical question, and the obvious answer is intended to be no, all don't speak in tongues, and what he meant is all don't have the gift of tongues for the corporate worship service that would be a benefit to the majority or to all that's in the service. Only a few people have that gift that's for the corporate gathering, that's for the benefit of all. But then in chapter fourteen, he describes an entirely different dimension of this thing called the gift of tongues, a very different expression. Chapter fourteen, verse two, says he that speaks in tongues, says that he does not speak to men, but to God, for no one understands, but he speaks in a tongue, he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. So here he says, you edify yourself, so I would say, well do you edify yourself? Chapter fourteen. Or do you edify the corporate body? Chapter twelve. Which one is right? Because this seemingly contradicts itself. Then he goes on in verse five and he says, 1 Corinthians fourteen, verse five, I wish you all spoke in tongues. He goes, that's my desire, that you would all enter into this. I thought, all? Now this is the first hint to me, as I begin to study this more in depth with an open mind, because I mostly studied it for five years just to present the argument against it. Then when I got troubled by the fact Paul prayed in tongues more than anybody, and I really liked Paul, and I figured he was so busy, and I thought, well he's a lot more anointed than I am, so I need to like, pay attention to what he did in his prayer life. Paragraph C. Well here's the summary. In 1 Corinthians twelve, it's the gift of tongues for the corporate body, the prophet of all. In 1 Corinthians fourteen, the personal edification for the prophet of the individual. Let's say it again. Paragraph D. So there's a difference. Notice three points. Paragraph D. There's a difference between the gift of tongue, point one to a few, for the corporate body, or the corporate services, that speaks to men. Because 1 Corinthians fourteen is for everyone, not a few. It's not for the corporate body, it's for the individual edification, and you're speaking to God, not speaking to people. It's a very different description of the gift of tongues. It's two expressions of the gift of tongues that are quite different from one another. They're not contradictory, but they're not the same. Paragraph E. Paul indicated that all can have the gift of tongues. He said again in verse five, I wish you all did. Then he says in verse thirty-nine, don't forbid anybody to speak with tongues. Don't, don't bring a resistance against this dimension of the grace of God. Well, Jesus was the first one to speak about this subject in the Bible. Mark sixteen, Jesus said, these signs will follow those who believe. He said, they'll cast out devils, they'll speak with new tongues. He said, these signs will follow believers. I always had a trouble with that one. I thought, well, you know, I read one commentary that says, well, this verse was put in later, and I thought, ah, that's it. You know, so which translates, let's get our razor blade and cut it out. So paragraph F, my conclusion was that when Paul said he spoke, I mean, here's the conclusion I came to after some real turmoil. First, boldly against it with no turmoil, and then starting to get open, and then reading all the passages, and then getting in turmoil on the subject. And then I concluded that when Paul said he spoke in tongues more than everybody, he was talking about his personal, private, devotional prayer language. He didn't mean I use the gift of tongues in the public services more than everybody else does. You know, the gift where he spoke in tongues and gave an interpretation. I mean, he might have done that some, but when he said I did it more than everybody, he meant the private, personal use of the gift of tongues. So in my early ministry, I taught against tongues based on the idea there was only one kind. There was only the gift of tongues to the body that everybody didn't have, and I didn't know there was a gift of tongues for the individual edification that everybody could have. So my confusion was based on mixing those two up. And I found over the years that people that are really open to what the Bible says on this subject, and it took me a while to get open to it, it's really clear in the scripture. There are two different realities, top of page two. And another thing that bothered me back in those days, because the charismatic movement was just breaking out across America. I met the Lord. I had a real strong personal conversion. I was a total heathen and got radically saved one day, June 9th, 1971. I mean, it was one day and the next day I was born again and telling people about Jesus and getting out of hell and repenting of sin. And I mean, it really got a hold of me and I got in the middle of some fiery believers right after that that were older than me. I was 15 at the time, and I got to some old believers that were 18 and 19 that were reading revival books. And we got right into revival books and missionary stories. And I mean, I was in. And I was a part of a Presbyterian group right down the road, about five miles from here, still going strong. And I have so much honor and so much gratitude for what that church gave me. And we had a youth group of maybe a thousand young people of junior high, high school and young adults, and a lot of people getting disciples and then disciples in small groups. A lot of us were reading missionary books and biographies and wanting to go to the mission field. That kind of culture was in the youth ministry there. And down the road was the charismatic movement in America. And this is 1971, was just beginning to really increase. And, you know, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, meaning this new phenomenon of people speaking in tongues and this new thing called non-denominational churches where people, you know, would gather a couple hundred people and start a church. I thought, you can't just start a church. You know, it's like a guy just deciding I'm going to start a medical practice or I'm going to medical school. You know, it just seemed like bizarre to me that these people were starting churches. You know, I was a teenager watching that. But the group down the road, this new charismatic church of about a thousand young people, we had about a thousand in our group. They had about a thousand. They were all charismatic and they were getting everybody speaking in tongues and they were infiltrating our youth group. And our people were speaking in tongues and then confused. And then I was getting them to renounce tongues. And the thing that bothered me is that some of the guys that I saw, they didn't read the Bible. Some of the charismatic guys, they didn't read the Bible. They didn't live holy lives. They were not into evangelism. They were into feeling good by the Holy Spirit. And they lived in sin and compromise. And they talked about how much power they had. And it was like gross to me. I said, that's power. You don't read the Bible. You don't witness to people. You don't live holy and you do goofy stuff and you call it the Holy Spirit. That's what you mean by power. And so I had this, this, I was bothered by my first experiences with the people who quote had the power, but their lifestyles, the ones I saw were very opposite of the folks I was with who didn't have the power, but we're reading the Bible, evangelizing, making disciples, going to the mission field. And I thought this is, this is a total aberration down the road. It's just a confused group of people. And there were a few confused people in them, but there was something real going on that it took me a little while to figure out. Well, top of page two, I'll kind of get away from my story and get back to the Bible here. Page two, first Corinthians 14, Paul identifies three specific benefits of speaking in tongues. Number one, he said, speaking in tongues, you speak mysteries. That's verse two. You edify yourself. Your spiritual battery is charged, so to speak. That's verse four. And you bless and give thanks to God. That's verse 17. Let's look at each one of them for just a moment. We'll spend more time on the speaking of mysteries. Paragraph B, first Corinthians 14, verse two, Paul said, for he who speaks in a tongue, he doesn't speak to men. Now, right now, we know this is now not the same thing as two chapters earlier. First, first Corinthians 12, he was talking about speaking in tongues so that people would be blessed. Here he says, no, you're not even talking to me. You're talking to God. He's referring to the personal prayer language. He goes, for no one understands him. I mean, no one's edified by their personal prayer language. I mean, no one's edified when you pray in tongues yourself. The guy next to you is not edified. You are, but he isn't. So this is very different from first Corinthians chapter 12. But here it is, but in the spirit, he speaks mysteries. That's the key phrase. Now, when Paul talks about speaking mysteries, he's not talking about receiving some special truth that only a few elite believers have. Anytime somebody thinks they have a special body of truth that nobody else has, it's don't believe it. What the Lord is saying, he's saying to groups all over the earth that have to be the majority of the groups, but there's thousands of groups around the earth that are hearing what the Lord is saying. The Lord might be saying different things, but there's always some thousands of groups around the earth that are hearing it and obeying it. So there's not just one group here in one group there. So he wasn't referring to mystery, some elite special information that only a few, uh, you know, uh, of the elite would have, but paragraph one, he was talking about the Holy spirit communicating information to our heart. When he speaks of mysteries, he wasn't saying it didn't mean something mysterious, but he was saying it was something that you didn't know until the Holy spirit gave you an impression. There was a piece of information. The Holy spirit gave you. And when he gave it to you and, Oh, that makes sense. It's not that the information was mysterious itself. It was simply hidden from you until the Holy spirit gave it to you. And this mysteries is when you pray in the spirit, pray in tongues, the Holy spirit will give you faint impressions and mental pictures about your own heart, about your own life. I mean, to unlock your heart where you've been in pain or in bondage, or there's a block in your life and you go, Oh, I never connected this with that. And the Lord shows you an area of bitterness in your life, an area of how to pray for somebody else. So the information itself is not mysterious. It's just information you didn't have to the Holy spirit gave you the impression about it. Praying in the spirit is a, is a very important part of, of, uh, preparing yourself and not preparing yourself, but a positioning yourself in your relationship with God, where you receive information to be a blessing, to pray for other people. You'll pray in the spirit. Maybe the Lord will give you an impression of how to encourage your wife, or maybe something that's a pain to one of your children or to a good friend. And this is the point of pain. And this will just come to you like a, an impression or a picture. And you'll go and you'll pray for the person following the Holy spirit's leadership. And you don't have to go to the person and say, God showed me this. Just say, you know, I just, I want to pray for the pain in your heart about that. And many times they'll say that's, that's the Lord. And so, uh, we receive through speaking in tongues information that's helpful, uh, for the Holy spirit to minister to us or the Holy spirit to minister through us. Paragraph two, we may get a mental picture, see the pain or discouragement or a need that somebody has maybe a friend or a stranger, a family member. Maybe the Lord will show us something in our own lives. You're praying in the spirit and you'll get a picture of how you need to go to that brother and ask him to forgive you for saying that unkind word yesterday. And you think, ah, it just comes to you say, thank you, Lord. I never even thought about it. I didn't occur to me that might be painful to him. So you go to him and you say, Hey, you know, yesterday, and the guy says, well, I appreciate that. And the Holy spirit says, I'll just give you lots of information, just little fragments of information, just faint, simple impressions, kind of just a mental picture. That's, that's the simple way he does it. He can do it more dramatic than that, but that's normally how it happens. Paragraph three, before I ministered a group of people, whether it's a group of 10 or 20 or a thousand or a conference or two or tonight, I mean, before I come to these services, I'll go in my office or I'll do it in the prayer room as well. And I'll just pray in the spirit for awhile. And I don't necessarily get the information right then. Sometimes I do, I'll get an impression or, or I'll get a, something will come, uh, an emotion that the Holy spirit heightens. And I pay attention to that. And I, then I minister to people or I speak alongside, uh, I mean, uh, in concordance with that heightened emotion or that mental picture. And I almost never pointed out to anybody or to you when I'm speaking on set Friday or Saturday night, but it's something the Holy spirit gives me directions, just little hints before the meeting. And then I just follow that. And that's how many, many, many people do this. And so Paul said, let verse 13, let him who speaks in tongues pray for that. He may interpret. So I'll pray in tongues. I'll say, Lord, show me the, the burden, show me the, the, the, uh, the thing that was on your heart that you're highlighting. It's not just always a burden in the negative heavy sense, though it can be, but show me what's on your heart. Let me interpret the burden or the passion or the, or the theme that's on your heart for this person or this group I'm going to minister to. Now, when some people read the word, let them interpret, they read the word, let them translate. And I remember in our early days, again, somebody pray in tongues and somebody interpret it. We'd say that wasn't a translation. You know, you said, you know, doobity do doobity do doobity do. And then this guy gave some great message afterwards. Yeah. He says the Lord, I will send you to the nations. I said, wait a second, you said the same thing over and over. So we thought it was supposed to be a translation and an interpretation of the burden or the theme on God's heart is not the same thing as a translation of every syllable. And so when I pray in tongues, I'll pray the spirit. I'll say, let me interpret what was going on because I don't understand because I'm talking to you, but you know, and let a faint impression or a not so faint one is even better. Let it touch my heart. Paragraph four. Now here's the, I mean, this is a very powerful aspect of praying in the spirit. The Holy spirit searches the deep things of God. I pray in the spirit while I'm studying the Bible or praying the spirit. When, when I'm, when I'm studying the Bible, after I study it, before I'm, I'm running, get ready to praying in the spirit and reading the word and meditating and writing journaling as they all flow together. If I didn't have the praying in the spirit dimension to my Bible study that I would have many things. I would have, I would have much loss. Meaning I believe that you're in this communion interaction with the Holy spirit. Your mind is reading the passage. You're praying the spirit, not that you always have to be pregnant in the spirit when you read it. That's not what I'm saying, but I just do it intermittently through it. And your spirit is communing with God's spirit and more understanding will come to you. And I don't mean secret information. That's not what I mean. Or some, you know, kind of eccentric new insight about the names of angels in a realm, you know, eight realms higher in heaven or something. Some folks try, you know, they, they focus on trying to get stuff like that. I go, I don't even care about that stuff. The only two name angels I care about are by their name is Michael and Gabriel, the ones of the Bible. Then when I get in the age to come, I'll learn all the other names, but the Holy spirit is our escort into the deep things of God's heart. I mean, he knows the Holy spirit knows everything about the father and the son. He knows everything about the Bible and he's a, he's in our escort and he goes, I'll give you impressions. I'll lead you and guide you. And bringing the spirit isn't the total key to that, but it's a component of being led by the spirit in Bible study. Well, let's go to the second thing. So that's, that's the first benefit is you receive mysteries and there's, it's a very practical thing. Information that the Holy spirit will minister to you or through you, or give you living understanding of the word or his perspective on an issue and not at the whole perspective, but just a little portion of it. The next benefit is paragraph C edifying yourself again, look at verse four. We'll read it again. Paul said, he, who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. One, a Bible translator put the word in there. He will charge their spiritual batteries. That's what the word edifies yourself. You're charging your spiritual batteries was a practical interpretation or a kind of giving the sense of what that passage meant. Now in Jude verse 20, the apostle Jude, he wrote, building yourself up in your most holy faith. And the idea is by praying in the Holy spirit, the by is implied there you build up or you edify yourself by praying in the spirit. Now someone says, well, I pray to the spirit and I didn't feel anything. Well, don't, don't get into measuring how much you feel or how much ground you gained that day or that week. You take what the word says. You pray in the spirit as much as you can, you know, just in the coming and the going of life. You know, you're praying the spirit when you're going somewhere and when you're walking down the hallway, you can pray in the spirit to yourself just when you're out and about praying the spirit and don't measure it. But you'll look back over the months and years and there will be a clear distinct increase of the Holy spirit's activity in your life. Top of page three, let's go to the, to the third benefit, blessing and thanking God chapter 14 verse two. And then 16 and 17, Paul says, he who speaks in a tongue doesn't speak to men, but he speaks to God. If you bless with the spirit, how will others in the congregation say amen at your giving of thanks for indeed you give thanks well, but the others not edified Paul saying, if you're using your devotional prayer language at the congregation and you're speaking in tongues in that devotional way, he goes, the guy next to you is an edified, but he goes, but you are blessing and giving thanks. He goes, you're still doing that, but he goes, Hey, let's edify the guy next to you. That's his argument here. But the point he's making the, the, I mean, a point not to lose that when you're praying in tongues, you are blessing and giving thanks. Now the question is, who are you blessing? And who are you giving thanks to? Well, verse two tells you when you speak in tongues, devotional tongues, you're talking to God. That's who you're talking to. So you're blessing and you're giving thanks to God. He interprets it in this way. And so though you can have a, an, a mindset and an attitude of gratitude and just Lord, you're so kind to me. You're so good to me. And you're praying in tongues and you're thanking him. So it's just not, you know, you're trying to find out 500 new ways to say, I really love you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, I just really blessed you. Thank you, God. I mean, you can say it 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 ways. But Paul said, when you pray in tongues, your spirit is engaged in that spirit of blessing and thanksgiving without always having a new term or a new phrase to express it. Not, and I really believe in expressing it with, you know, with words that we understand, but, but we don't want to limit that expression of blessing and thanksgiving just to phrases that are creative, but you can enter into that devotional thanksgiving, uh, engagement with God. Look what he says in verse 17, for indeed give that you indeed give thanks well, you do it well. And so that's how the Lord interprets it. Paragraph E. Now, when you pray in tongues, the devotional tongues, don't pray into the air. It's not just mindlessly praying in tongues, but actually talk to God. That's the key. I know folks that have prayed in tongues like they, you know, 15 minutes a day or a half hour a day, or, or they try that and they're just kind of praying to the air, which didn't hurt anything, but, uh, they don't get the benefit. I said, but you're not really talking to a person. Oh yeah. And then now that you mentioned, I'm just kind of saying words. I go, no, this thing is about a relationship with a person. So talk to God when you pray in tongues, not just to the air. And I focus my attention. As I've mentioned before on the throne of God, revolution four, our father who art in heaven, he sits on that throne with the rainbow around the throne and the 24 elders and four living creatures, et cetera. And sometimes I speak in tongues and my focus is on the Holy, the indwelling spirit, God, the Holy spirit living in me, fellowshipping, communing with the Holy spirit, paragraph F Paul talked about praying night and day or praying without ceasing. I mean, that's a pretty heavy statement. You pray night and day, pray without ceasing. Like, wow. And I believe Paul speaking the truth, but how does a person do that? I mean, do you pray in English 14 hours a day? Is that what Paul meant that he, you know, prayed in Greek or whatever language he was referring to? I believe that one of the ways that you can pray far more consistently is not only in your native language, but by praying in your devotional prayer language, having that be a part. Even while your Paul's hands were busy building the tents at Corinth, I believe he was praying in the spirit when he was doing it, walking to the next city, praying in the spirit or many different ways you can do it. Okay. Roman numeral four, praying and singing in the spirit. First Corinthians 14 verse 15. Notice the term I pray with the spirit. That means tongues. And I pray with the understanding that's the words of a worship song. I mean, just, I mean, just in, in English, in our context, or I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding. So one, he means I will pray or sing with the spirit in tongues, or I will pray and sing with understanding. That means in our native language or the language we're familiar with. But God is so in a design, the human spirits that when we pray in tongues, we're actually engaging our spirit with God. That's what Paul is saying. Now we wouldn't know that if Paul didn't tell us this, that my spirit man is actually engaging. My spirit man is praying in a way that's not contrary, but, but it is distinct from my mind praying. I like this idea that my, my born again spirit can pray and engage with God without my mind being fully aware of all that's going on. I mean, there's no contradiction, but there's, there's an overlap, but there is some distinction. And so when you sing in tongues, your spirit is singing. You think what? Well, that's just what it is. Yeah. Your spirit singing. There you have it. Okay. Paragraph B. I mean, I first read that years ago. I go, what do you mean my spirit is singing? How do I make my spirit sing? Well, Paul goes, well, just sing in tongues. Your spirit singing. It will just engage your spirit. And I thought, okay, I believe the Bible. So I'm going to believe, I'm going to believe Paul's description here. Paragraph B. So we can merge together singing with the spirit, singing in tongues, and singing with our understanding, singing in our, in our own language. We can merge them together, singing with our mind and singing with our spirit. And Paul mentions this twice, once in Colossians, once in Ephesians. Colossians 3.16, let the word of Christ, or the, let the Bible, the scripture dwell in you richly. In other words, spend time reading the Bible. Does the word of God, does the Bible dwell in you richly? Do you spend time to where the Bible is growing in your, in the sense where it's, it's, it's more and more preoccupying the whole atmosphere of your inner man? It's not that it does entirely, but is it, is it growing in you? Is the word of God dwelling and increasing richly? He says, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Here as he brings them together, the two together, singing with grace in your heart. What a phrase. When you sing with your spirit, you're blessing and giving thanks to God. When you sing with your understanding, well, you're blessing and thanking God as well. And the merging of the two is singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. But there's two points I want to highlight here. It's not just singing to the air. It's singing to the Lord, a real person. That's how this gift becomes edifying. When you sing to a person, you talk to a person, not just to the air and you sing with sincerity in the heart is the idea. Because some folks just kind of think, well, speaking in tongues is almost like a kind of a superstitious kind of, you know, a lucky charm type thing. I'll sing in the spirit and I won't be engaging at all with God or being sincere with him. But you know, I'm doing some stuff I shouldn't be doing, but at least I'm praying in the spirit that I'm going to add up for something. Maybe we'll balance a score or something. And the Lord's saying, no, no, it's from your heart of wanting connection and it's to the Lord. And you're singing with grace. Grace is touching your heart when this comes together. Paragraph C, he says the same thing in Ephesians five, the same idea. Be filled with the spirit by, and the idea is by, I'm adding the word by there because it's implied by speaking to one another with Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs and making melody in your heart. Again, it's to the Lord we're doing it, not just to the air. So being filled with the spirit means that you are interacting with the Lord in a way where his influence is touching your mind and emotions. That's what it means practically to be filled with the spirit, being conscious, but I mean, positioning yourself in your relationship with the Lord where you are regularly in a place where you can be in conscious contact with the presence of the God. You're aware of it. The things you're saying and doing releases a dimension. I don't mean all the time at the highest level, but it releases a sense of inspiration and awareness in your mind and emotions of God's presence. So that's a real practical kind of a down-to-earth definition of being filled with the spirit. Being filled with the spirit is not just speaking in tongues. Being filled with the spirit, again, is that interaction with God where your mind and emotions are aware of his presence and you're being inspired, being a little bit directed. I don't mean it's some intense thing all the time. It can be very subtle, but Paul says that will increase if you'll sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord. Make melody in English or your native tongue. Make melody with tongues. Merge these two realities together and you'll actually walk more in the spirit. You'll be filled with the spirit. You'll be consciously aware of the spirit's presence more. Not that you'll be overwhelmed and overcome by the spirit all the time. That's not what Paul's saying, but just being aware and consciously in contact and communication with the Holy Spirit. Paragraph F, I encourage people to start praying in the spirit. Start 15 minutes a day. You know, some folks, you know, they'll talk about an hour or two and that's cool, but I just don't know how many people actually follow through. I mean, an hour or two a day is a good poster. I mean, it's really good if you did it, but I mean, I don't want people to have the bar so high they don't actually ever do it. So start at a way where, you know, four, five, six days a week and you'll be a satisfied customer, you know, using that phrase. You'll want to do it more if you start doing it regularly because you'll sense His presence more. You'll think, hey, I like this and then grow beyond that. I mean, don't limit it to 15 minutes a day, but don't put the bar so high that you don't actually ever do it. Top of page four, being considerate when praying in tongues. Somebody give me an amen. This is an area that causes a lot of frustration in a prayer ministry, in a prayer movement. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 12, Paul said, let it be for the edification. He's talking about tongues right now. Let it be for the edification of the people in the church. Seek to excel to edify the people you're around. Verse 28, therefore, if there's no interpreter, let him keep silent in the church and speak to himself and speak to God. When it says speak to himself and speak to God, that's Paul's way of saying praying in tongues under your breath. That's what he's talking about. He's talking about you're staying engaged with God in tongues, but you're doing it to yourself and to God. Paul goes, that's what I recommend that you do, so that you can seek to excel in edifying the people around you. It's a very, very practical expression of loving and edifying people in a prayer gathering like this. It's to be conscious of not distracting the people two rows in front of you and two rows behind you. One guy goes two rows. How about 20 rows in front of that guy and 20 rows behind him? Just having fun. A public prayer room, and I've said this to folks over the years, and it's kind of something to people. It's a brand new idea. I go, it's a public living room. It's not only your living room. It's like, well, yeah, it's me and God. I go, yeah, I know. I know it's you and God, but in your house, you have lots of rooms. You have bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, kitchens, basements, garages. You don't do everything in every room, and it's a living room, and to some people, it's the strangest new idea. I said, there's other people that love God, and there's other people that are, they're coming in burdened. They're burdened by what just happened in their family, what's happening in their marriage, what's happening with their children, what's happening in their school. They're burdened by their money. They're burdened by a sickness. They're burdened by a sin they're trying to get free of, and they're coming in stressed out, and they're having the hardest time focusing on God, and they're trying. God, I'm trying. I'm trying, and the guy next to them is just really in a mood. Oh, bro, I am trying to touch God. I love that you love him, but let's think of one another. It's so hard to stay focused anyway, and so let's just be aware. Whatever you do in a public gathering should edify the people around you, the way that you express yourself, and so again, you don't, there are things you do in a living room that you don't do in other rooms, and vice versa, and so the principle is being sensitive to being edifying to people, not just expressive, but edifying, because we can express our life in God in many different avenues of our life. We don't have to do everything in a public prayer meeting or in a worship service. There are things I can do alone with God I don't do in public with God, not because it's horrible, because it's a distraction to the people, but I can still do it. I have lots of time through the day. I can go, you know, over here or go there. I don't know how much time I got during the day, but you know what I mean, so a principle to observe, paragraph B, if the majority of the people in the room or even a minority of the room, plus some, it didn't have to be a big majority, if they're all singing spontaneously, making melody in their hearts, singing in the spirit, jump in. I mean, go hard. If you're the only one in the room doing it, do it at a volume where everyone around you is not more aware of you than the people leading on the platform. It's just a simple act of love. It's just a simple consideration, so the rule is if the volume of the room is a four, don't be six. Just be 3.8. The volume of the room is six, be 5.8. Don't try to be seven. Don't try to just, don't do anything to draw attention to yourself, but just engage, and there's plenty of opportunities in your life outside of that room for you and God to go hard, so it's not like when you leave the room, the Holy Spirit says, oh, you missed the window. The Holy Spirit says, here we are. Let's go out in the field, and let's go for it. Paragraph C. You can pray in tongues quietly without anybody being aware of you at all. I mean, many of us do that. I pray in tongues in our staff meetings. I'm talking about in the 10 or 12 leadership meetings, family dinners. I'm praying in the spirit not the whole time, but many times under my breath, you know, in the mall. My wife goes, in the mall like when you went three years ago, but you know it's a good analogy. When I said that, every time she goes, what's this mall thing? I go, you know what I mean. I don't really go to the mall very often, but I do walk down the hallway to the next meeting, and I pray in the spirit in my heart, driving back and forth. I mean, you can do it anywhere almost. I mean, probably anywhere, just quietly with the Lord, and you're not quenching the Holy Spirit at all. Paul said, he actually said this, pray to yourself and to God, and the Spirit is actually honored when you excel in loving other people and being considered to other folks. Okay, let's bring this to an end. Paragraph A, Roman numeral 6, receiving the gift of tongues. I think it's remarkable that Jesus mentioned praying in tongues in context to the Great Commission. He said in Matthew 16, we already read it, but just to see it again, go into all the world and preach the gospel. These signs will follow you as you go preach the gospel. This is the Great Commission. In my name, they'll cast out demons. In my name, they'll speak with new tongues. Jesus is the one that introduced this idea. The idea is we will be more effective in ministry by preaching the gospel alongside of praying for the sick, casting out devils, speaking in new tongues, et cetera, et cetera. You know, some folks have been talking about casting out devils. They're not saying, well, you know, we don't really do this. We do deliverance, not really cast out devils. No, we cast out devils. I'm really into casting out devils. I'm bold about that. That's what we're praying for in prayer meetings, to see the gospel go forth powerfully. I'm not ashamed of casting devils out of people. That's what we do. We preach the gospel. We heal the sick. We cast out devils. We serve the poor. We preach to the needy. That's a good thing to do. And though it's politically incorrect and part of the body of Christ, that's between them and God. We want to excel in all of these things. We're not shy about casting devils out. Devils are real and they need to be cast out. We need to do it in a biblical way with, with the humility and love. But I mean, by all means do it. And some have been talking about it and say, well, maybe this or that. I go, no, we do that. Of course we do that. Paragraph B. I have found, and I got some good examples in my book because this whole series is coming right out of my book called Growing in Prayer. And on the chapter growing in prayer, I mean on the chapter praying in the spirit, I give the examples of a number of different people that were powerfully used in healing ministries. That, uh, they attribute, I mean, they, they, they make mention of speaking in tongues as having a, having a significant impact to their, their moving in power and healing. It's not that they're earning it by praying in tongues. I gave a, I gave a little bit about John G. like probably the most powerful example of the healing ministry in the 20th century. And five years in South Africa, many, many, many witnesses to it. Five years in South Africa, they reported, I mean, many dead 500,000 healings in five years, hundreds of churches. I mean, it's the most remarkable ministry. And I had an opportunity 30, almost 40 years ago. I mean, 35 plus years ago to meet his daughter. She was about 80 cause he died at 1935. She was about 80. And, uh, I got to meet her when I was pastoring in St. Louis before I came to Kansas city, uh, about 35 years ago, something like that. And I said, you're John G. Lake's daughter. She was, yeah, I always have been my whole life. Yeah. I go, that's cool. She goes, well, I mean, yeah, I appreciate that. She's 80. She's kind of used to the idea. I said, tell me. And I talked to her for, we got to talk for hours, her and her husband and her husband knew his father-in-law really well as well before he died. Or, I mean, I don't remember exactly what his relationship was, but anyway, they told me lots of stories and she said he prayed in tongues several hours a day. That was a very important part. I go, really? She goes, yeah, that was a real key thing. He was a man of the word, but he prayed much of the Holy spirit. Then, uh, you know, I got a few more examples, uh, in the book there that I won't go into now, but I want to encourage you to do that. I remember I got one more there. That's, uh, Paul Yonggi Cho, the pastor of the largest church in history from Seoul, Korea, you know, 500,000 active members for years more. They said 700,000. I don't know. I think you just quit counting after 500,000. But one of the, I remember, I know a few people who know him well. I've had a chance to meet him a time or two and I don't know him well or anything. It didn't ask him any personal questions, but I knew a few guys that who knew him well. And one man was telling the story. He goes, I remember we went to pastor Cho's office. I mean, we had a meeting with him. And then, uh, after this meeting, this long meeting, uh, we said, well, let's all now break and go to lunch. It was two o'clock in the afternoon and pastor Cho goes, I can't go to lunch. Now the meeting went too long. It's two o'clock. I have to preach tonight at seven. They said, well, seven, it's only two. I mean, you got time. He goes, no, no, I can't preach at seven. If I'm not going to pray in the spirit for a few hours, he goes, no way I won't go into a pulpit. If I'm not spending time as a rule, he says, I want to spend several hours before that meeting praying in tongues. It makes a big difference. And I'm sure many times he didn't have the, didn't quite work that way, but this man was very impacted by that. He said, that was remarkable. He just went in his office, prayed for a couple hours in tongues and did the meeting. And his idea is I don't want to do meetings that I don't prepare this way for. That's pretty powerful reality. Well, let's, uh, look at paragraph D I have written here. Final thing. If you haven't received your prayer language, you can ask for it right now. That's what we're going to do. Here's one of the number one hindrances to receiving the gift of tongues. This idea I've ran into this hundreds of times, hundreds of times, the guy thinks God's going to make him talk in tongues. So they stand there receiving now, Lord, just touch them. And then five minutes or hour goes later, whatever. And they go, he didn't make me do it. I go, he's never going to make you do it ever. They have this idea. They're going to be forced and overwhelmed with power. And it's going to be something out of their control. I go, that's, I mean, that really might happen a few times. There's a few stories where the guy was touched by the spirit, he spoke in tongues and they heard that story and assumed that was the norm. And that was the dramatic, exceptional story. What happens? I pray for people and the Holy Spirit, I ask them to release his presence. They just fill the president's spirit a little bit, just a little bit or a lot, but often a little bit. And sometimes I have just this very gentle urge inside just to speak out and I go do it. The Holy Spirit's not going to make you do it. Just do it. Just that general, or just give, give yourself to it and see what the Holy Spirit does with you. Often people have this idea. The Holy Spirit's going to come like a mighty rushing river and he does occasionally, but he mostly comes like a very gentle stream, a little sense of his presence, just kind of a little urging nudging inside. And you said, and that language starts off like a little stream and it grows over time through using it. And people just have this wrong idea that they're going to be forced to do it. And they, the presence of God is resting on them. You don't earn the gift of tongues. It's for everybody. It's for every single person. You can't earn it. It's not for a special calling. You can't prepare for it. It's for everybody. It's part of the benefits of salvation. It's not a requirement of salvation. It's not a proof of salvation. It's not a proof that you have power now. It's just a way to communicate with God that will enrich your spiritual life. And you'll experience more of his presence. Last point I'll make is that this will sound negative and I don't mean it sounding. I'm trying to be helpful. Trying to be helpful. I prayed for people to receive the, I call it their devotional prayer language or the gift of tongues. But they hear the gift of tongues and they, and they're familiar with it. They think of the gift of tongues in the congregation where they interpret in another language and the unbeliever gets saved. And I go, no, let's not think about that right now. Let's just think about that personal prayer language. You'll be start off just as a little urging, a little nudging of the Holy Spirit. And you give expression to it. It will increase as you go. And it's not, I mean, it's an important thing, but it's not some something so hard to do. It's not such a hard thing to get and where they're gritting their teeth and trying real hard. I go concentrating super hard. I go, just relax. It's way dialed down a little bit. And so I'll pray for a guy. And if a person has almost no background, no church background at all, and this is 40 years or whatever the number is of praying 35 years of praying for people to receive their prayer language. If a person is on fire for the Lord, they have no church background. They almost always get it in five minutes. If a person is they're praying, everybody's praying. And the one guy is trying to shout it into them and shake it. I'm like, that's not going to help anything. It's going to, they're already intimidated and overwhelmed and all their friends are hoping they get it. And so just back away from them. And I look at him and I go, okay, this sounds mean, but this is what I say. I don't mean to me. I go, what are you Baptist or Nazarene? No, seriously. And 99%, they go, how'd you know? I go guarantee it. And here's why. And I'm saying this negatively. I said, you faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word you have been trained in the word against it. So you have faith against it because most of the other, I mean, other congregations do denominations do, but those two, I'm sure there's a hundred others that do it as well, but they, their school, they school, uh, some of their people at a different, uh, different ministries do. And I go, you're trained how it's not right. They go almost, I mean, almost every time I go, you're Baptist or Presbyterian. I mean, I was Presbyterian, but Baptist or Nazarene. And almost every time they'll say, yeah. And I go, you've heard teaching against it for a couple of years. They go, yeah. How'd you know? I go, that's because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word, but you got negative faith against it. That's that's just dial down and relax. Ask the Holy spirit to touch you. He's not going to force you. He's not going to take his hand and wag your tongue. He's not going to do that. You're going to feel a little gentle sense of his presence. You're going to feel a little stirring and just express it. And it will grow as you do it. It's not, it's not so complex. And there, and those, there's not only those two groups, but I'm just saying that, uh, that's just, that's what I ran into over the years. I go, you're trying so hard and they go, what if it's wrong? They have more confidence in the devil's ability to deceive them than Jesus's ability to lead them. I go, you're praying in the name of Jesus to honor him with godly people praying for you with a Bible in your hands and the devil is like, no, Jesus's leadership is far more powerful than Satan's deception. I go, we're praying in the name of Jesus to honor him and Holy spirit. We love you. We're not trying to do some other religion. That's not what you're doing. I said, you don't have to worry about that. The devil's not more powerful. We're in the name of Jesus now with a Bible and heart to obey God and exalt him. And so, uh, I encourage him. I said, just re just relax, just relax and just, and I encourage him off. I go, just go home, pray by yourself. Cause if they got their five friends around them, they get so nervous that their friends are good. Did you really get it? Did you fake get it? Did you sort of get it? And they're so self-conscious they can't even receive anything. So I tell him, I go tell the friends, you friends go in another room. And then the lady or the guy goes, thanks. Thanks. I didn't need to kind of get rid of them for now. Okay. Thank you. No problem. And often they'll just sense the spirit a little bit and they'll, it won't be a real dramatic thing. They'll fill that just gentle urging of the Lord. They'll give themselves to it. They'll express us. They'll say a few syllables. I don't mean they make it up, but I said, don't just continue to engage with it. And it will be very clear. You look back a year or two later, this will be a source of edifying your life in the Holy spirit that exalts Jesus. And you will be glad that you began to develop this dimension of your spiritual life. Amen. And amen. Okay. Let's all stand. Oh, by the way, I love Baptists and Nazarenes. I really do actually. And I love their zeal. I love the zeal for the word that they care that much. Cause I remember for five years, I was really against it and I get being against it. I get it, man. I taught everybody I could against it. Okay. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to have folks come forward, stand on these lines. If you're saying, I want to receive this for the first time, the gift of a devotional, a gift of tongues, or I just want, I'm not sure I received it or not. I've kind of maybe did not real sure, which translates that you maybe never use it. You never engage in it. You say, well, I just kind of want to get prayed for again and see what happens. Okay. I want to invite you to come. Some of you will get touched powerfully. Some of you, it will be very gentle, but the Lord will increase it as you give yourself to it over the weeks and months. I want to invite anybody that would like prayer for this to go ahead and come forward. Anybody in the room you're saying, well, I didn't receive it initially, or, you know, I'm not quite sure. I just need to get, I just need to be touched. Let's just say it that way. You know, cause it's, you don't always know quite which way it is, you know, not always, you know. Okay. Now when everybody on the second row to come up to the first row, I am super nice. Okay. I'm not going to, okay. Because we're going to have some folks come behind you in a minute. I'm just kidding. Just having fun with you. Okay. Anybody else that wants to come up and join us just in the next few minutes? Now I'm going to have people who pray in the spirit regularly. I want you to, whether you're visiting or whether you live here, I want you to come on up. I want two people praying for every one person here. Okay. So just a bunch of you come on up. And those of you that are all next to each other, you can, you can have them step back. Now that we, that we got room in the back, just have them move around a little bit so they could have a little bit of space from the guy right next to them. You have them step aside two or three steps back if you want to. Okay. Who is not being prayed for? Who wants to be prayed for? Raise your hand. Okay. Let's get two, three guys around him. Just take a couple steps back then just so the folks can get around you easier. Who wants prayer that isn't being prayed for? Raise your hand up high. And again, don't, you don't have to be so tight together. If you don't want to be, you can grab the guy and say, let's go stand over there or something. If you need a little more room to be practical. Okay. Now here's what you're going to do. We're going to go before the father right now, the people receiving you're saying father, in the name of Jesus, I want to receive the grace of God of my spiritual prayer language, the gift of tongues. It's not like those are the famous words, just, I mean, say it any way you want to, but that's the idea. So father, I'm asking you to touch me now. Father, we ask for the grace of God, the Holy spirit to come and release his presence on people right now, come and release your presence. And those around just praying the spirit around them and not because that's going to make them get it. So they're not so intimidated. They'll be so afraid of somebody. They're not really quite sure people get really intimidated in this kind of context. So go ahead and pray out loud in tongues around them. Okay. Real intimidated and shy people doing the praying. They're going to think, ah, you know, so in other words, I'm just trying to get past the human barrier. Just ask the Holy spirit, Holy spirit. I ask you to release your presence. Now, all through the room, let's the whole room. Let's just lift our voices. Sing with our understanding. Lord, I ask you to release the spiritual language, release your presence right now upon them. The kingdom comes, release their spiritual prayer language I ask. Those that are praying down there, go ahead and lift your voice as you sing into the spirit over them. You're being prayed for if you say I haven't received it just go home and you just keep doing this just again I have found over the years many times that people the hindrance is the people around you and you're thinking I don't know that they think that I think that they think that I think and just get rid of all that and just get with the Lord and the Holy Spirit and just talk to him and I assure you the Holy Spirit will lead you in this if you will stay with it just a little while we got a 15 minute break we're coming back to the book of Daniel after that thank you worship team