 But I want to talk to you about praying in the Holy Spirit. So Father, thank you for your word. And I pray today that this word would go forth like a seed and take root in the hearts of your people. Cause them to be transformed not just in this moment but over a lifetime as this word begins to bear fruit in the name of Jesus we pray. And everyone said? The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 17. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 23 the scripture alludes to the fact that man exists with three different aspects to his nature, his body, soul, spirit. Many of you have heard me teach on this before. And the reason I teach on this so often is because this is a foundational truth that once you grasp it, it actually opens up your understanding to how God operates not just in prayer but also in deliverance and also in healing and also in ministry and also with the anointing. Once you understand that you have three aspects to your nature. So I want everyone to say it with me. I am a spirit who has a soul that lives in the body. One more time, I am a spirit who has a soul that lives in the body. You are your spirit. You are not your soul. You are not your body. Your body is not the source of your identity. Neither is your body intrinsically evil or evil unto itself. The physical body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit dwells there. Your physical body is your earth suit, so to speak, how you interact with the world around you, how you interact with everyone in this room and everyone you've ever interacted with before. It's through speech. It's through sight. It's through hearing. It's through touch. That human interaction comes in the earthly realm through that earthly being, the physical body. Now, the physical body is how you get around. It's where the decisions of your heart are manifested. The soul is the realm of decision. It's the neutral ground, the mind, the will, the emotions, the personality, the mind, what you think, the will, what you desire, the emotions, what you feel, the personality, how you behave. All of those contribute to what you're going to express in the physical body. And then there is a deeper part of you that the scripture refers to as your spirit. So the body and the soul are outer shells of who you are. They do not make you up in your entirety. Now, here's the issue when we pray and worship, because what did Jesus say, John chapter 7 verse 38, out of your belly, the King James version says, out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. But what does some translation say? The NASB words it, out of your innermost being. Not the body, not the soul, but the spirit out of the innermost being will flow rivers of living water. The baptism with the Holy Spirit and the evidence of speaking in tongues is not rain from heaven. It's a river from within. It's not something that I have to receive. It's something I must release. Several years ago, a story came out about a man who survived deep in the Atlantic Ocean for almost three days. His ship had sank and everyone on board was killed but him. When the divers went in, they thought they were going in to recover bodies, but they found the man still alive after three days stuck underwater in the boat. That's what I said when I read the headline. I thought it was clickbait as they say. So I go in, I read the story. It turns out that when the boat sank, there was an air pocket that was preserved right where he was. He had found a place where he could breathe and he was surviving on Coca-Cola and that little bit of air that he had and he was running low on oxygen. When they found him, his oxygen level was low. He was disoriented. He was not completely himself. They brought him oxygen, brought him up, and they had to bring him up slowly because, obviously, they didn't want his lungs to become crushed to ascend too quickly. And what fascinated me about this was the fact that that man was able to survive because though the boat was in the water, the water was not completely in the boat. And your flesh finds air pockets to survive in you. We say, fill me, Holy Spirit, yet we insist on being full of ourselves and our own ambitions. And instead of yielding those areas of our hearts to him, we preserve them out of protection for ourselves or what we imagine to be protection for ourselves. We preserve them because of bitterness. We preserve them because of a sense of entitlement. We preserve them because of how we were raised and we say, this is how I am. This is how I was raised. This is how I was brought up. This is how I was trained to think. And what begins to happen is we begin to stifle the move of the Holy Spirit, not because we don't have him, but because he doesn't have us. So the Holy Spirit dwells in me out of your spirit, out of your innermost being, will flow these rivers of living water. The problem is that many believers try to worship and pray and evangelize and live holy out of the flesh rather than out of the Spirit. I'll never forget one time I was in a church service and there was a woman leading worship. You ever see an angry worship leader? They're just furious that nobody's responding to their gift. And I know the cliches that they use. I remember we were standing there and I'll just be honest with you. It was not the greatest music in the world. I mean, the worship was wonderful. The music, not so much. And I remember, I'm trying to worship but I couldn't worship because this worship leader was just yelling at everyone. Angry. Come on, lift your hands. Don't just stare at me. Do something. She's like a militant. Like I was like, oh my gosh, she's gonna make us all run laps right now. And so she begins to berate the congregation for not responding in the way that she had imagined that they should. And then I'll never forget, she says, this is what it's gonna be like in heaven. I turned to my neighbor. I said, I sure hope not. If this is what it's like in heaven, I don't know. Maybe we should just cease to exist because eternity with that, that might be actually more my idea of hell. So I remember she's just angry and I thought about this for a moment. I said, okay, so she's mad that she's trying to push them and she's trying to get them to perform. The problem is, even if they were to start jumping and clapping and singing and dancing and response to what she was forcing them to do, they would be singing, but they would not be worshiping. John chapter four, verse 24 says that those who worship him will worship him in spirit and in truth, that's the word and the spirit. The Holy Spirit, John 14, 26 takes the word and creates with it. The Holy Spirit takes the word and brings forth revelation. All true worship is a response to revelation. If it's not a response to revelation, it's a performance, not worship. And people pray from that outer shell. They worship and they try to work up in the flesh what they're trying to accomplish in the spirit, not realizing that they're just exhausting themselves. Now this is by no means a noise complaint. I believe in shouting, dancing, clapping, singing. Do it by all means. It's a wonderful celebration of who God is. That's not what I'm addressing tonight. So do not hear what I am not saying. What I am saying, however, is that sometimes Christians become tired and overworked and then they become discouraged. They don't want to worship. They don't want to pray. They don't want to understand the word. They don't want to evangelize. They grow tired in their fight for holiness, all because they don't recognize that they're fighting from the flesh rather than resting in the spirit. They're pushing from the outer shell. Now I know most of you probably would rather communicate through text. Pastor Vlad loves FaceTime. That's like his favorite way to call. Only with me, I guess. And a few others. And sometimes it's not the best time. I'll put a hat on. Okay, hey, Pastor Vlad. My barber tells me my hair is the most difficult he's ever worked with. So this doesn't happen on its own, right? This is a lot of work and suffering together. So sometimes it's just crazy and I'll get a FaceTime call. I just gotta throw a hat on. I'll say hello. But Pastor Vlad will FaceTime me or will text. But very few people use phone calls anymore. But if you'll remember, for those of you who used to use phone calls and maybe I think a better example would be Zoom, because sometimes you get on these Zoom meetings and the Holy Spirit starts moving and then everything starts breaking up and you can't really understand them. But what you'll notice invariably is that when people begin to see that the connection starts to drop, instead of, I just hang up at that point. I don't even bother with it. I sometimes I just tell them, oh, the call dropped, but I don't wanna deal with the bad connection. I just hang up and then try it again. But what will begin to happen is the connection will start to drop and they'll go from sound like this to yelling and they go from like this to like this and it goes from being gibberish to being loud gibberish. And I have to explain to them, I said, listen, the issue is not the volume, it's the connection. And just like people will try to make up what lacks in connection with volume while they're on a failing call, so many believers try to make up with emotion what they lack in the spirit. They imagine that God is really looking out over heaven. Now, I believe in persistent prayer, the persistent widow, Matthew 7,7 asks, seek, knock. We understand that the scripture talks about persistence and that is a very real dynamic of prayer. I talk about it often, but I think the problem is that we have the wrong mindset and we misunderstand what persistent prayer is. You realize that persistent prayer is not you persuading God. I mean, who could do that? If you show me something in scripture, they say, well, Moses got God to change his mind. Let me tell you this, God's will was that he would show mercy in the first place. He was just looking for someone to repeat that back. So even in those instances where it appears like a man might be able to persuade God, they were only praying according to his will in the first place. It's not as if God is looking over the balconies of heaven saying, oh, if only you had shouted just a little louder. If only you had jumped a little higher. I mean, it does sound comical, but imagine how this mindset can apply when you're talking about a parent who has a sick child. As if God is withholding that healing saying, well, you didn't want it bad enough. No one is so persuasive as to be able to convince God to do anything. And if God missed something, if there was an angle that God could not consider, what mind, what human mind could point it out to him? Persistent prayer doesn't change God's will. Persistent prayer puts you in God's will. Persistent prayer doesn't change God. It gets you ready and causes you to be processed and able to receive God's will in the earth. Now, why am I talking about this? I'm talking about this because I think we misunderstand what praying in tongues is. If I were to ask you what is praying in tongues, you would give me a definition that likely includes the sounds and maybe that the Holy Spirit overtakes you. But what exactly is happening when we pray in tongues? What is its purpose? What does the scripture reveal about it? And why is it so powerful? I mean, you contrast this idea that the Holy Spirit can pray through you with this idea that many believers pray from the flesh. They pray from the emotions. And out of praying out of the emotions, they find that emotion fails. Many times people try to guilt God into a response. God, are you listening? God, if you're there, please. I told the Lord one time, Lord, if you don't respond, I have to quit the ministry. He said, then quit and I'll raise someone else. God has not moved by our emotions. He's moved by faith, by faith, by faith. Now, here's the thing. We pray from these outer shells. If you're praying from the physical body, then you're praying from your cravings, your flesh, what you desire, what you see. You're praying from materialism. You're praying from ego. You pray from the soul. You're praying from emotions. It is only when you're praying from your spirit that you are truly praying. Atheists, when they get in enough trouble, pray. Buddhists pray. Muslims pray. Secular people pray. Anyone can pray. It's praying in the spirit that is our privilege. So getting back to this thought, First Corinthians 617, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. We often think that prayer is our means of connecting with God, that if we can go to pray, then I will establish this connection. The problem with that kind of thinking is it's performance-based, and you become so hungry for an encounter or an experience that that desire to have an encounter or an experience itself becomes a distraction to truly praying. You get all worked up, you get all intense, wrapped up in our emotions, wrapped up in our desires, wondering, why don't I feel God? Why don't I have this experience? And the problem is you're focusing on the experience and that experience that you want, which is perfectly fine, you've seen our services, people receive experiences, people receive healing, but the problem is that you're looking for a physical sensation or an emotional uplift or a mental clarification when instead you should be going by faith because even experiences fade. We become worried, God, did I do something to upset you? You're not responding like I thought you should or I don't feel that connection anymore. Catherine Coleman had a dream and in her dream, she saw three men kneeling. Jesus walks into the room. The first one, he reaches out and gives him a hug. The second one, he touches his shoulder. The third, he just looked at and walked right by. Catherine said to the Lord, surely you love the first one more than the others. He says, no, I love them all equally. What the dream represented was different levels of maturity. The first one needed that hug, but the other one was so built on faith, they didn't need the experience to know they were loved by the Lord. I pray from that place, that's what becomes discouraging. It becomes discouraging, thinking that you have to work for something in prayer. Now there is an element of discipline to prayer, no doubt. All spirituality is a combination between discipline and obedience toward God and his power. All spirituality. But when you approach God with the mindset that okay, I have to work for this connection now, that becomes discouraging. No wonder you don't wanna pray. No wonder you don't wanna come to the worship service. You think you're working for God's attention. The beautiful thing about praying in the Holy Spirit is recognizing that I am not praying to connect with God. I'm praying from connection with God. I don't worship to connect with God. I worship out of that connection. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. That means I'm already one. Look at, let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter two. I'm gonna show you something. 1 Corinthians chapter two, this is one of the only churches where I don't hear pages turning, cause you all have your phones. I just realized I usually hear pages now at that point. 1 Corinthians chapter two, verses 10 through 12. This is what the Bible says. But it was to us that God revealed these things by his spirit, for his spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own spirit. And we have received God's spirit, not the world spirit, so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given to us. What is this describing? This is describing a fellowship with God that is occurring 24 seven on a daily basis. In my spirit, I know Him. In my spirit, I'm one with Him. In my spirit, I'm already holy. In my spirit, I know all things. That's what 1 John chapter two, verse 27 is talking about. I received an anointing and I don't need anyone to teach me that I'm saved. Not, I don't need anyone to teach me the word, otherwise God wouldn't have given us teachers. Ephesians 411. But God gave us the Holy Spirit to stir that inner knowing within our hearts and it is by the Holy Spirit that I come to understand the word. It is by the Holy Spirit that I receive my true inspiration to worship. It is by the Holy Spirit that I pray from confident faith. It is by the Holy Spirit that I overcome sin. It is by the Holy Spirit that I evangelize with boldness. It is by the Holy Spirit that I live this Christian life. He does all those things. That's the work of the spirit in me. The work of the spirit energizing my spiritual life. The work of the spirit out of that oneness. Do you realize that revelation is not you learning anything new? Everything I'm teaching you you already know it in your spirit. Revelation is not the receiving of new knowledge. Revelation is when that which I already know in my spirit is manifested in my understanding. That truth is already in you. That's why as I'm talking, something's clicking. That's why as I'm talking, something's stirring. This is spirit to spirit. My spirit talking with God's spirit, that connection never being undone. That connection never being hindered. It's what is it then? I must surrender to what I already have in my spirit and let it manifest in the soul and the body. Now watch this. I'm gonna show you a verse that's most often as far as the subject of speaking in tongues goes. This is most often misunderstood. Romans 826. We come out right and say it. This is not talking about speaking in tongues. What we're about to read. But they are tied together. Watch this now. Romans 826. And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. You ever been there? I don't know what to say. I don't know what to pray. Watch this, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. Okay, so this is a powerful, powerful revelation. 1 Corinthians 617 tells me that he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. So the spirit and I are one. Romans 826 tells me that the Holy Spirit prays prayers over me when I don't know what to pray. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse two tells me that when I speak in an unknown tongue, nobody understands me because I'm speaking to God. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 4 tells me that when I'm praying in tongues, I'm praying in the spirit. Now watch this, watch this. Many people travel the world and there's nothing wrong with this because I still do it. If I know there's a man or a woman of God in town, I'm gonna make my way over there or even sometimes I'll fly. I want them to lay hands on me. There's impartation. We saw this today. I think that's another thing I'm gonna steal. I'm gonna start pouring oil on people's heads. But that's a powerful symbol. That's how they did it in the scripture. But we saw that there was impartation that took place. Do you realize that the Holy Spirit prays for you with groanings that cannot be uttered? Think about what the scripture is saying. He prays for me with groanings that cannot be uttered? No one knows God like God's spirit knows him. No one knows me like my spirit knows me. So the one who knows me, better than anyone else knows me, prays for me like no one else can pray for me. The Holy Spirit prays for me with more love, with more passion than would a grandmother pray for a grandchild. He prays for me with more love and concern than would a parent pray for a child. Groanings, groanings, groanings. It tells me of this intensity to his prayer life. The Holy Spirit has a prayer life. He groans. It's a deep yearning and urge deep within that is so profound that it will transform who you are. If you could see the Holy Spirit praying, if you could witness him in physical form praying, you would see him with tears streaming down his face. He would speak with a voice so booming it would shake the room. I dare even say you would see him pounding his fist to the floor. When the Holy Spirit prays for you, he prays with groanings, deep, passion, love, knowing all your flaws, knowing all your hangups, knowing all of those things about you that you don't want anyone else to know about you. And the Bible says he doesn't just pray with groanings. Romans 8.26 says he prays with groanings according to the will of God, meaning his prayers bend us toward the will of God. His prayers incline our hearts. Now I'm talking about this impartation. I'll travel the world. I'll have anybody lay hands on me. I love it. I've had many mighty women of God and men of God lay hands on me but think about this fact. The Holy Spirit wants to lay hands on you himself if only you would give him a mouth. The Holy Spirit wants to lay hands on you himself if only you'd give him a body to do it. 1 Corinthians 6.17. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. So we're not two spirits in you. It's one. It's not your spirit and the Holy Spirit. You're one. That's who you really are. Now if the Holy Spirit prays for me and my spirit agrees with the Holy Spirit prays we're praying the same thing. So therefore when I pray in the spirit I'm praying what the Holy Spirit is praying. 1 Corinthians 14.4. When I pray in tongues I'm not praying. My spirit is praying. When I pray in tongues I'm praying with the language of heaven. I'm praying with the language of surrender. There's a story about a pastor who was trying to teach his daughter to pray. She was a little girl and he pulled her aside and said look before bed each night I want you to start praying and I'm gonna listen in we're gonna talk to God together. So the first night he prays and she repeats after him. Second night she starts to pray her own prayers making requests she would pray for her mom and her dad and her friends and her grandparents. And so the next night comes and he decides I'm gonna let her learn on her own now. I'm just gonna let her pray, let her do her own thing. He comes by the door, cups his ear to the door, leans in and he hears her little voice praying. A, B, C, D, E, F, G. I'm not gonna sing the rest. She starts singing the alphabet. He chuckled, it was funny. He went on his way, the next night he comes back. Cups his ear, leans against the door again. A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Now he's growing concerned. Did I teach her to pray properly? How do I talk to her about this? Cause I don't wanna stifle that passion she has for prayer now. He says I'll let it go one more night. Tomorrow night if she does it again I'll talk to her. Third night he interrupts the alphabet. He walks in, sweetie listen. We talked about this. When you pray you're talking to God. You're speaking your request to him. You're letting him know what you need and how much you love him. You're just singing the alphabet. You're not praying. She says daddy, I am praying. I just give him the letters and let him arrange them however he wants. That's what it means to pray in tongues. You see when I pray with my own language right now I'm speaking words that are communicating ideas that I want communicated. When I pray in tongues my words become void of my own meaning. My words that I speak become void of my intention and therefore my pollution. When I pray with my understanding I can mix in some of my desires in there. When I pray with my understanding I pray just from the outer shells of who I am the flesh and the soul and emotions and cravings and desires of this world. But when I pray in tongues the groanings that come from the spirit deep within the groanings that bend me toward the will of God begin to pour out of my mouth. I said it at the top of the message. We want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The problem is we're so often filled with ourselves but when I pray in tongues my words become empty of me and those words are surrendered syllables and sound. I could feel the anointing right now. Surrendered syllables and sounds. So that when I'm praying in tongues the Holy Spirit is praying for me through me. When I pray in tongues I'm praying pure, simple, God centered prayers. Leave it to God to hide such immense power. Such earth shattering power behind such a childlike act. Surrendered syllables and sounds when I'm praying in tongues that river from deep within is flowing out moving through the soul touching the body and coming out on my voice. Can you be saved and not pray in tongues? Sure you can. Can you be filled with the Holy Spirit and not pray in tongues? I don't know what Pastor Vlad teaches so I'm not gonna say either way. You'll have to fill me in on that one later. Never, never ever speak against the doctrine of the house. Either way, doesn't matter because that gift of speaking in tongues comes when I begin to surrender my voice to him. I begin to surrender those things about me that I don't even know I'm surrendering. He begins, you know sometimes I pray in tongues. I won't know what I'm praying about and then I'll just notice a small change in my character. And I had no idea I was rebuking myself. You know when I pray in tongues out loud when putting together messages the Holy Spirit will speak to my spirit through my own voice and what I hear though it's the language of the spirit it becomes revelation and I write it down. Now this beautiful prayer language that God has given to us and I don't have time to go into all of these because I wanna pray for some of you. There are three expressions of this gift. Number one is the proof tongue. It's found in Acts chapter two that's when they spoke a language aloud and everybody in that region heard the group speaking in their own language. Now the interesting thing about this particular expression of the gift of tongues is that we don't know whether the miracle was manifested on the speaker's end or the hearer's end. Read it very carefully because many of the people who watched the church praying thought they were drunk. Often skeptics will point to this portion of scripture and they'll say this is proof that it's an earthly language. Well, compare that with 1 Corinthians chapter 14 too which clearly says it's not an earthly language and then look at what it says that each one heard the entire group speaking in his own language. The entire group couldn't all have been at the same time speaking multiple different languages. I think the listener heard the group as the Holy Spirit interpreted it. It's Acts chapter two that's the proof tongue then there's the prophetic tongue this is to be used in the collection of believers, the body. This is where one stands up, prays in tongues, somebody else interprets it. That's the gift of tongues and tongues interpretation. This is what Paul the apostle was referring to in 1 Corinthians 14 and this is what he was referring to in 1 Corinthians 12 where it says, do all pray in tongues. What he was saying is do all pray in tongues and interpret. In other words, the public expression of the gift. This is not what the scripture was referring to as the third one, the personal tongue. That's 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verses one through four. The personal tongue benefits the individual. 1 Corinthians 14, four. The prophetic tongue benefits the church. 1 Corinthians 12, seven and 14, 26. The proof tongue benefits the unbeliever. 1 Corinthians 14, 22. By the way, for those who say that we shouldn't pray in tongues in front of unbelievers, how is it supposed to be assigned to the unbelievers if they never hear it? Not to mention that every time the Holy Spirit would fall in the early church, they would all begin praying in tongues publicly. Paul the apostle or Peter didn't stand up and say, hey, everybody knock it off, go home and pray privately. Why would the Holy Spirit manifest his gift in a public setting if that's not what it was meant for? The personal tongue requires no interpreter or interpretation to be beneficial to the individual. The prophetic tongue requires an interpreter to benefit the church. The proof tongue requires no interpreter for the interpretation to be understood by the unbeliever. The personal tongue is understood by no one but God. The prophetic tongue is understood by the church with the aid of an interpreter. The proof tongue is supernaturally understood by the unbeliever. It's a communications of the spirit. I don't have time to go on all the misconceptions so I wanna tell you just one thing that's gonna block you from receiving your gift. In Acts chapter two, Peter stands up. He says, what you see in here is for all generations and for all who believe. What were they seeing, what were they were hearing? They were seeing the power of the Holy Spirit, they were hearing them praying in tongues. That was the promise of the Father for all believers. Paul said, I desire that you all pray in tongues. Now, why would Paul the apostle desire something that was contrary to the will of God and why would he put it in the scripture and why would the Holy Spirit allow that to be in the word if that wasn't God's will? So we can go on all day about why the gifts of tongues are for every believer. But the main thing, the main reason here and you're not gonna like what I have to say. I'm not a contrarian. I don't like to be controversial just for the sake of being controversial. When there's controversial situations that require that I be bold, I do it. Like in Commie Fornia with our demon-possessed governor who wants to shut down churches. That's a time to be bold and say we need to come up against that, okay? So there are times to be bold but whenever there is a time to be bold my goal is not to be controversial. I didn't say that to be controversial. The man is demon-possessed. It's a reality. I'm not trying to stir up strife or ruffle feathers. It's a reality that needs to be said. Now, in regards to what's happening in the church today and the gift of speaking in tongues, I'm gonna tell you a truth that many of you at first your reaction is gonna be, wait a minute, you're gonna be a little offended at that. But then I want you to listen to the explanation so that you can receive your gifts. I know why you can't pray in tongues. It's a fact, after studying the scripture on this subject again and again and again, there's only one reason why you can't. It's not because the gift isn't for all believers. The gift is. The reason you cannot pray in tongues comes down to one word, ego. Now, ego is not pride. Pride is a manifestation of the ego. Pride is not confidence. Pride is self-sufficiency. Worry, am I gonna look silly if I pray in tongues? Yes. Yes, you will. People are gonna make fun of me. Yes, they will. I am one of those crazy tongue talkers if that's what you wanna label me. I am. I believe in praying in tongues because there's power in it. You're gonna look silly. You're gonna look ridiculous. It's a fact. To the world, we look ridiculous. But you see, I'm not really concerned with what the world thinks of me. I want everything that God has. Why would I want to receive any less than all for which Christ died to give me? So here's what it comes down to. Someone lays hands on you to receive the gift. Here's what happens in your head. I'm gonna show you. You feel this unction. You open your mouth. Most people go, praise God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. What are they doing? They're filling their mouth with words of their understanding. Why? Because they're uncomfortable and they're leaving no room for the Holy Spirit. And then as they fill the unction to start praying in tongues, what do they start saying to themselves? This is just me, this is just me, this is just me. Well, this could be demonic. This could be, well, how could it be? Like, I don't understand how people take it so far. Like, even if the critics are right and the gifts have ceased, that I make some verbal expressions with no meaning and adoration and worship toward God, that that's somehow demonic. If the gift of tongues have ceased, then me, it would be like me humming a tune. There's no understanding or words in there. It'd be like crying tears. That's just an emotional expression of worship. At the very worst, it's just an emotional expression of worship. But it is a gift of tongues. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit. And you're not gonna receive a demon. Jesus said, if you ask for the Holy Spirit, I'm not gonna send you something else. He said, well, how do I know? I trust not in my ability. I trust not in my ability to receive. I trust in his ability to give. So I trust him. So that's the first one. This is just me, it's just me, it's just me, it's just me. I'm gonna get a demon. I'm gonna get a demon. I'm gonna get it. Or you think God's gonna get mad at you because people think it's the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. If they pray in tongues, but what if it wasn't God and I tried it? That's fear. That's doubt. That's hesitancy. That's self-consciousness. That's all ego. One of the biggest lies concerning the gift of speaking in tongues that keeps people from praying in tongues. The biggest lie, the most effective lie, I should say, is this idea that the Holy Spirit is gonna come and grab your tongue, start moving it up and down. Now some people report their stories. They say, well, when I receive the gift, it's kind of a point of contention there. When I receive the gift, nobody taught me and I just received it and I just, I couldn't control it. Yes, you could. Yeah, you could. You know how I know? Because the Bible tells me. First Corinthians word. You may have felt like you couldn't control it, but you can control it. And it was you participating with the Holy Spirit. Yes. So sometimes people's experiences can discourage us from having our own because, well, they couldn't even control it. It just came out. No, no, they felt like it and that's what they think. And so they're communicating it to you and you're believing that lie. So when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it's like starting an engine to the car. I always, I mean, I used to be Pastor Vlad. I used to be, and I'm confessing here in front of everybody, I used to speed when I would drive. I was, yeah, I know. That and I used to take, you know, from the water cup, I would take soda. I know. I know. I always wanted those testimonies like ex-gang member, ex-this. I don't have that. My testimony is God kept me from all that. But, you know, the truth of the matter is I used to do that and I don't understand. I don't understand. I never did. I mean, I drove fast because I thought it was fun or I was in a hurry, but I never understood this idea that people, when they drive their cars really fast, they feel cool. Like, we all know it's not you going that fast. It's the car. Like, why should we, why should that impress us? I feel like such an old man, Steve's a witness. Every time we're on the road and the car zooms by, I'm like, oh, just so foolish. What is he trying to prove? I go, yes, we're all very impressed that you had the skill to put your foot on the pedal. It doesn't make any sense to me. And I think about it, people kind of think, yeah, that was me. I went 80 miles and like, no, you didn't. That was your car. Your ridiculously loud car. But that's how it is when you're praying tongues. You see, it's not really you doing it, but it is. It's the same thing in the same sense we fulfill the law through Christ. How do we fulfill the law? You put your foot on the pedal and the engine takes over. Put your faith in Christ, he fulfills the law for you. When I pray in tongues, no, I'm not the one doing it. It's my spirit, the scripture tells us it's my spirit praying. So when I'm praying in tongues, me putting my foot on the pedal is releasing the sounds. You have to release the sounds. And then you're gonna sense the takeover. I'm praying in tongues. Is this just me? Yeah, partially. Do I look silly? Absolutely. But that's okay. And it starts to come out. You begin to pray in tongues and the Holy Spirit adds his power. The Holy Spirit adds his intention. The Holy Spirit adds his own meaning and purposes. But it's gonna always come full circle. You can tell me, I have people tell me, I've been to all the altar calls. I've tried so many different times. I've tried so many different ways. Even in my service they say, you said I would pray in tongues and I didn't. I said, well, why didn't you? I watched them, they stand there frozen. And this is by no means criticism of you, but I'm trying to help you break this mindset. How am I on time? I don't see a clock anywhere. Okay, good. This guy's pointing at the clock but there's nothing on there. It tells me what time it is. I don't know how much time I have left. Anyway, I'll just take that from Pastor Vlad. He says just go. But you're waiting for that moment that the Holy Spirit's gonna, but I'm telling you, like anything that you do that spiritual, it's a partnership. You don't say, well, the Holy Spirit's the one evangelizing through me, so I'm just gonna stand here. Hopefully that person gets saved. No, you're not the one saving souls. You're not the one presenting the power of the gospel, which you're opening your mouth. You're not the one worshiping. You're worshiping in spirit. And as you worship in spirit, the Holy Spirit takes over. Same thing with the gift of speaking in tongues. It is a partnership with God that requires your total trust and surrender. I just got a trust that when I start doing it, he's not just gonna leave me alone to just be doing it. He'll catch you. And then this is something you can exercise. I'm telling you, it will transform your life. I'll tell you a story and then we're gonna get right into praying for you. Several years ago, I had, and I'm not saying this to sound spiritual. I don't know if it was a dream or a vision. I really don't. And I'm not trying to sound like Paul the apostle. I'm not trying to be spiritual. I honestly don't know whether or not I fell asleep while I was praying. So it could have been a vision. It could have been a dream. I will call it, for the sake of conversation, a dream. And in my dream, I'm standing before this large cave-like structure, very dark. I couldn't see that far into it. And right to my right is this bright glowing presence. I didn't look to see who it was, but I knew it was the Lord just because of what I sensed emanating from that light. And I'll never forget the Lord asked me, can we enter? So we entered into the cave and when we did, light filled that structure, revealing all of the walls, revealing all of the details, revealing all of the rocky curves. And so we went in and when we did, I saw that there were still more tunnels to enter. Now here's the thing about the Lord that was amazing is each time we'd come to the entryway of a new portion of the cave, he would only ask me once and then he wouldn't pressure me. He would say, can we enter here? May I have this? May I have that? And every time I said, yes, Lord, you can enter, we would enter and a room would fill with light. There were some rooms I hesitated a little. I don't know why I just did. And I would just sense him there, patiently, humbly standing by, just looking at me. You see, the Lord will speak and then not speak again until you've obeyed what he's already spoken. The Lord will speak and then not speak again until you've obeyed what he's already spoken. So we go room by room, each room filling with light until we came to one point. And to this day, I still don't know what this represented in my dream, probably just some deep wickedness in my heart or something, I don't know. We come to this room, though. I can't explain it any other way, except that the darkness was darker and deeper. And the Lord said, may I have this room, too. I remember feeling, I felt so vulnerable. I could feel him looking into me, seeing my motives and my secrets and my heart and everything about me. And I stood there, hesitating within myself. Should I give him the room I don't want to? Should I give him the room? What will he see? Should I give him the room? How will he judge me? And after battling back and forth, I simply said, yes, Lord, you can have this room, too. And then I woke up, a room filled with light. The Lord revealed to me, that cave represented me, my heart, who I am. There are things in you that you've carried for years. And you may think that your breakthrough comes through some dramatic transformation in outward circumstance, when in fact, your breakthrough comes from some small internal shift, a simple moment of surrender. Let him fill you with light. There are areas of bitterness and unforgiveness. There are areas of secret sin. There are areas of hurt. There are areas of pride. There are areas of impure motives. There are areas of greed. Whatever it is, there are things hidden in us that have to be surrendered. At salvation, you surrender your will to him, but you'll spend the rest of your life surrendering everything else. It's time. What is the baptism with the Holy Spirit? It's simply when I surrender to him, and he fills me from the inside out, and I become immersed in who he is. What does it mean to pray in the Holy Spirit? It means to pray in agreement with, according to the will of, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that manifests that gift. You're not just rambling words. It's not just some ritual. It's not just something that we do because it's a part of charismatic culture. But it's what God gave us to pray in agreement with the Holy Spirit, those pure and simple prayers. I want everything he has for me. What I wanna do in this moment, before we pray for those of you who want to receive this gift, and you will tonight, you will tonight, but what I wanna do is take a moment to surrender to him. Everything again. I often say, if you have to crown him, Lord, every morning, do it every morning. Every morning. He'll take you back. He won't reject you. So hands lifted, eyes closed. I just want you to be gonna pray in the Holy Spirit if you do. So we're gonna pray right now out loud all over the room. With every voice lifted, we sing. I surrender all. From the depths of your spirit, cry out, I surrender. We lay down our sins. We lay down our fears, our doubts, our responsibilities. We surrender them to you. Fill us afresh. Renew us and forgive us. You're believing for the gift of tongues and you've never prayed in tongues before. Come down here quickly now. You want it. You've never prayed in tongues before, but you want it. You're ready for it. And it's more than just the gift of tongues. It's the baptism with the spirit. It's the baptism with the spirit. I can feel like a burning in my heart right now. Like a sensation of heat all over me. Everyone's stretching their hands toward these up here. In the name of Jesus, receive now the gift of tongues. Receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit.