Transcription
Is it very important to pray or speak in tongues? Why is it important?
When you speak in unknown tongues, it is like an umbilical cord of heaven that connects you to God. Now, when a baby is formed in the mother's womb, the baby is connected to the mother through the umbilical cord. The Holy Bible tells us that when the Lord Jesus Christ went up to heaven, He prayed for the Holy Spirit to be poured out. And how we see poured out, if you read Isaiah 44:3 and Proverbs chapter 1, verse 23, the Holy Spirit is poured out, poured out like water.
Now, let me give you one example, or let's meditate a little deeper about the subject so that we can understand exactly and accurately why it is very, very important. When God made the earth, the Bible tells us He made Eden on earth. Everybody is familiar with that, all right? You're familiar with Eden, aren't you? All right. Now, let me ask you a question: Are you familiar with Eden, or are you familiar with the Garden of Eden? Which are you familiar with? Your family, the Garden of Eden today? Let me correct your misconceptions. There was a garden in Eden, but it is not the Garden of Eden. If you read the Bible very carefully, it tells you God made Eden. Eden is a big place, a big place. And the word "Eden" in the Hebrew means a pleasant delight, which is also the same word for the word "paradise" that you read in the New Testament. The word Eden, a pleasant delight, is the same word for paradise. So Eden is a big place. And on the eastern part of Eden, God made a garden. So Eden is not the garden, but the garden was in Eden. So Eden is a very big place. How big? I don't know, but it's a big place. On the eastern part of Eden was where the garden was. So God put man in the garden and told him, "Now work here day and night and every day." Somewhere from Eden, let's suppose if the garden was on the eastern part, there must be a central focal point. Everybody agrees, okay? Now, where is the central focal point? We don't know. Okay, let's suppose the whole of Eden, there is one central focal point. From that central focal point, the Bible says a river went out and spread it out into four streams to water the garden. Now, where is that center from which this river went out? Where is the place?
Now, when God made the tabernacle through Moses, He made the tabernacle. The tabernacle had the Most Holy Place, but in the Most Holy Place, somewhere in the Most Holy Place, the Ark of the Covenant was put. Now, where exactly in the Most Holy Place was the Ark of the Covenant placed? Question mark. If you read Revelation chapter 22, verse 1, in the whole of heaven, big, huge heaven, exactly in the center of heaven is the throne of God. And from the throne of God, a river flowed out. A river flowed out. So from the center of heaven. See, there is a hypothetical belief that Jerusalem is where the Garden of Eden was, supposedly debatable, questionable. From the center, a river flowed out. From the center, the river flowed out to water the garden. And from the center of the throne of God, a river flowed out. And the Lord Jesus tells us, "What is that river?" In John chapter 7, verses 37 to 39, "The Holy Spirit shall flow like rivers of living waters." So believers receive the life of God because they get connected with God. When you speak in unknown tongues, you get connected with God. It's the umbilical cord that connects you to God. It's very mysterious, you know. This whole subject when we talk about tongues, it seems simple, but it is far more mysterious than what we really know. It connects God and us to this umbilical cord.
If you read 1st Corinthians chapter 2, verses 12 and please stand with me now. 1st Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12 and 13: "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." Only the Holy Spirit, through the gift of tongues, can enable us to understand spiritual things compared with spiritual. Many times, many, many mystics are made by people who claim to have interpretation for dreams and visions. There is a genuine gift by some individuals, like how God blessed Daniel. But don't go and buy books that say "The Dictionary of Dreams and Visions." That's all rubbish, let me tell you why it's rubbish. Let's suppose you're praying and you see a vision, a lion comes near you. How are you going to interpret that? In the Bible, a lion means a real lion. That's the first meaning. Secondly, it means the devil. He comes like a roaring lion. And thirdly, it means the Lord Jesus. He comes like the Lion of Judah. So if you look at the dictionary of prophetic dreams and visions, how are you going to select the correct interpretation for your dream? If you thought it was the devil and you started rebuking all the devil, and you go on a safari, and a real lion comes and eats you up. So God, God, God showed you the dream to warn you not to go on a safari. And you thought it was spiritual, and you were rebuking the devil. And suppose that lion that you saw was the Lord Jesus Himself who came into you, and you started rebuking the Lord Jesus Himself, thinking that it was the devil. So that's why I say the best is comparing spiritual with spiritual. When you pray and ask the Holy Spirit, He will enlighten your mind to the correct interpretation of the dream or the vision which you saw. That which God wants to communicate with you, not what your finite mind thinks it is. Never, never use this good-for-nothing finite mind. Of course, it's good for something when it is redeemed, but right now, don't use this finite mind to understand spiritual things. It will not, it will never succeed because right now, we are using less than 10 percent of our brains, our minds' total capacity. So spiritual things must only be spiritually discerned and compared.
So when you speak in unknown tongues, it connects you with God, and He connects with God, enabling you to talk with God. Now, what are the important reasons that we can talk with God? Secondly, it is the evidence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. When He starts speaking unknown tongues, it gives you an evidence that the Holy Spirit is within you. If you read Acts chapter 2, verse 4, and chapter 10, verse 46, and chapter 19, verse 6, whenever we read in the Bible the Holy Ghost came, it was accompanied with the evidence of the speaking of unknown tongues. Now, why that is the primary evidence is so interesting. In Exodus chapter 28, verses 33 to 35, you will read when God commanded Moses to make the furniture, the garments for the high priest, He said, "At the end of the garments, let bells hang." Now, why God told Moses to hang bells at the fringes, at the end of the garment? It's not because that will make him look nice. See, when the high priest carries the blood and walks into the Most Holy Place, the people all are outside the tabernacle. Now, if the high priest had sinned a sin, he will be struck dead in the Most Holy Place. But if he is not dead, he is alive, he is walking, and people can hear the sound. The bell has a tongue, right? When it bangs, you'll be like the bell in Big Ben, you know. So when they hear the bell, they know the priest is still alive, he's not dead. When our High Priest, He said, "When I go, I will send you the Holy Spirit. When I go to my Father, I will send you the Holy Spirit." In John chapter 14, verse 16, and in chapter 15, verse 26. So how did we know that the Lord Jesus has safely reached the Father's throne? When the Holy Ghost came, there was tongues, hallelujah. See, there was tongues all over, and we know the Holy Spirit is alive, ever able to make intercessions for us, hallelujah. That's why there's tongues. That's why we speak in tongues, an evidence of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Thirdly, it enables us to offer a pure worship unto God. In Acts chapter 10, verse 46, when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in unknown tongues. And God, in 1st Corinthians chapter 14, verse 15, "Now when you start praying and speaking unknown tongues, sometimes songs are given birth by the Holy Spirit. You begin to sing so beautifully in the spirit without limitations of the human language. No limitations. Pure language of the spirit. Pure language."
Number four, it edifies and builds us up. We want to grow spiritually. Let me show you a shortcut. Speak in unknown tongues. Period. That is simple, isn't it? 1st Corinthians chapter 14, verse 4, it tells us that when you speak in unknown tongues, it builds you up, it edifies you, and you accelerate in your spiritual growth. Early in my life, in my Christian walk, when I was starting the ministry, I used to spend at least a minimum of three hours every day just praying in unknown tongues. When I get more time, I spend five hours, seven hours, just doing nothing but just praying non-stop. And I found in six months, I grew so rapidly in the spirit, praying in unknown tongues at least three hours a day, then all the previous long times before. So when you pray in unknown tongues, you can't spend three hours. Not everybody can spend three hours. At least for a common believer, are you common? Anybody uncommon? For all, for all the common believers like me, at least one good hour praying unknown tongues. It will enable you to grow spiritually very much.
Number five, when you pray in unknown tongues, it refreshes you. Isaiah chapter 28, verses 11 and 12. If you ever feel so tired, so exhausted, you need a break. Don't go on a tour. Don't go around the world. I show you a better drive through. Just pray in unknown tongues. It will be a refreshing. You know, you will feel like a bucket of cold water's thrown on you, and you're so revived, so refreshed, so anointed, and so energized and made strong to face the challenges that are to come. It refreshes you.
Number six, many people always come and ask me one question, one request for prayer: "Please pray that I will, I will grow in faith. I'll have strong faith." Have you ever prayed asking God to increase your faith? You have, right? We all have. But today, I show you a better way. Stop praying that prayer. Why? Simply because the prayer will not be answered. You don't pray to grow in faith. You grow your faith through two ways: one, through the feeding of your spirit through the meditation of the Word of God. Secondly, by praying in unknown tongues. In Jude verse 20, it tells us, "Build yourselves up on your most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit." When you keep on praying in the Spirit, your faith grows. It becomes strong, solid to believe God for all things. Nothing becomes an impossible for you. You'll be able to believe God for all things when you begin to pray.
Nanpang, see, it brings you up into the realm of the spirit. When it brings you up into the realm of the spirit, it enables you to look down at your situation from the viewpoint of God. You know, one of the remarkable gifts that an eagle has is before a storm comes, he can see a storm two miles in advance. And when it sees a storm, it will fly high up into the sky, above the storm. And when the storm eventually passes, the eagle, the eagle is above the storm, and under its feet is the storm. In the same way, when you pray and speak in an unknown tongue, it lifts you up high above all your situation, all your problems, and you are not under, but you are over, and the problems are under your feet. Amen. That's what praying and speaking in unknown tongues helps you.
Number seven, when you pray in tongues, when you speak in tongues, it enables you to talk with God directly. You have a personal red hot line to, not the White House, the Golden House. Amen. The Golden House, because everything in heaven is gold. So the Golden House. 1st Corinthians chapter 14, verse 2, tells us, "He who speaks in unknown tongues speaks mysteries with God." No one understands him because he's talking the language of God and with God. If you read Isaiah 28:11, God also speaks to us in unknown tongues. You know, when you start speaking in tongues, probably you may have experienced like this: when you start speaking unknown tongues, you start off with your own voice, and suddenly midway through, you feel that your voice suddenly changes, and it becomes very authoritative, very strong, very rough. Have you experienced that? That is the time that God speaks to you through the same channel. The communication goes two-way through the same channel. See, the umbilical cord is connected between you and God. The same, you see, from the mother, food, water, air goes through to the baby in the fetus in the womb, and the baby then draws all that from the mother. In the same way, the spiritual cord that has been established within you and heaven, God also speaks. Why does your voice change and become very rough? Amos chapter 3, verse 8, tells us, "When God speaks, it's like the roar of a lion." That is why your voice changes and becomes like a roar because God is speaking. And as you keep on speaking without stopping until your voice changes back to normal, and then when you become very quiet, and you become still, the Holy Spirit will give you the interpretation. What God spoke with you, or what your spirit was praying. Many times we do not know what we are praying, you know, or what we are talking. We will come back to that later.
Number eight, it increases spiritual sensitivity to the things of God and the spirit realm. 1st Corinthians chapter 2, verses 9 to 11, is very beautifully written here: "But as it is written, I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit such as all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." When you pray in unknown tongues, two things happen simultaneously. One, your spirit man reaches deep into you and searches all things inside you and makes the real innermost need in your life known to God. Many years ago, I went to one city in South India called Navali, and a woman, a church elder's wife, came to me for prayer. So I asked her, "What shall I pray for you?" So she told me a certain need in her life. I said, "All right, let's kneel down for prayer." And I told her, "First, you pray, then I will pray for you." So she closed her eyes, and as she started praying, she began to speak in unknown tongues. As she was speaking, the Holy Spirit interpreted her prayer, and I heard in my ear, in perfect English, what she was praying. And what she was praying was contrary to the need that she asked me to pray for her. So when she was done praying, I tapped on her shoulder. I said, "Excuse me, sister, please look at me." She looked at me, and she said, "Do you have this need in your life?" I, I asked her. She stared at me, eyes went wide, just like how some of you are staring at me right now. And she asked me, "How do you know?" I said, "You just told me." She said, "When did I tell you?" "You just told me by speaking in unknown tongues." She was so surprised. So was I. See, your spirit man knows what are the real needs in your life. That is why it is so important to pray in unknown tongues because your spirit man reaches deep into you and takes out that which you really need, not what you want. Many times we pray for the things that we want, not for that which we really need. Then, as your spirit is doing that, and the Holy Spirit at the same time will search the mind of God, and He makes known to your spirit man what is God's will concerning this matter that you are praying. He makes, joins them, a nuclear fusion takes place.
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