Baptism of Discipleship (In the Name of the Holy Spirit Pt. 3) | 06-07-26

So good to be in church with you today on this rainy day.

How many of you love the rain?

The rain is not a deterrent for me.

I don't go, oh God, it's raining.

I don't want to go here.

I don't want to go there.

I'm like, I'm never upset when it rains.

I love the rain.

I mean, if you were having like an outdoor wedding or something, that would be a day where I'd like, yeah, we don't need rain.

Something about the rain.

Man, I love it.

And I felt like he was raining on our souls today.

And we were just soaking it up.

Amen.

Well, we are going to continue our series right now, the baptism of discipleship.

I'm excited about this series.

I'm even feel like the Lord's given me this is these are new messages.

I've never uh really taught before.

I've never uh heard from the Lord on these things before.

This was something fresh.

And uh, but what I'm excited about is is developing it out in the future because I think God's given us a blueprint here, uh, a process here, if you will, of discipleship that's going to be very, very helpful.

I think it's going to be one of the more significant things that God does that in the future we're even known for as a church.

And so excited about that.

But we've been talking about in the name of the Holy Spirit.

We talked about in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28, 18, verse 20.

Let's pray, Father, thank you for your word.

Let it be revelation to us, let it be light and life and peace.

Let it be truth that transforms us, God.

Give us revelation.

In Scripture, it says, You opened up their minds to understand your words, and you gave them revelation.

We we want that today, God.

We say open up our minds and help us to understand by the Spirit your word that was written by the Spirit.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Verse 18, Jesus came and told his disciples, I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you, and be sure of this.

I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

We've been reading that every single week as we dive into these messages as our springboard text.

And I just don't think we can hear it enough that this is the thing that he left us with.

Until he returns again, the angel said, the same way that he ascended is the way that he will return.

And until he returns again, this is our business.

This is our mandate.

It is the general will of every follower of Jesus that we are making disciples.

And he didn't just say, go and make disciples.

He then told them how to do it, baptizing them.

He wasn't talking about water baptism.

He wasn't even talking about water baptism.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Spirit.

Very specific instructions, very specific language.

And so we've taken this season to dive into that.

And what we discovered was to be baptized in the name means, in the original language, it means this: to be fully immersed, submerged under, and firmly fixed into, and in this case, the Holy Spirit's very own authority, character, nature.

The Father's very own authority, character, nature, the Son's very own authority, character, and nature.

And so it means to be emerged, submerged under, which is submitted to and firmly fixed or connected to, there's that communion, that quininea, into the Holy Spirit's very own authority parent.

So the question is: are you baptized in the name of the Father?

Does that statement define your life as a believer?

Because this was instructions he gave believers.

So this was something that goes beyond being a believer is being a disciple.

And this is how he said, You're going to make disciples, is to be baptized in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and then to help other people be baptized in that.

So if discipleship has ever been mysterious to you, the point of this series is to take that away.

It's not mysterious.

So what are we doing?

We're seeing people baptized into the Father.

What is that?

That's a baptism of identity, of believing the truth about who God is, who you are, and who other people are.

And when we get that right, it's amazing what gets set in order in our life.

I think one of the major crises we have among unbelievers in our country today is an identity crisis.

They don't know who God is, they don't know where they came from, they don't know who they are.

And so they just believe anything about God.

They'll believe anything about themselves, and they'll believe anything about other people.

And the only problem with that is we don't get to define who God is, who we are, or who other people are.

It's already been defined, and that's the baptism into the Father, its origin, its order, its love, its belief.

It's personal.

Say that with me, it's personal.

And then there's the baptism of the Son.

This is a baptism of acceptance.

And when I say that, understand that is life-changing.

When you receive acceptance by God Himself, holy God, sovereign God, all-powerful God.

When you receive acceptance into the family of God, it changes your life.

All the rejection, just as much as rejection can harm you, rejection can absolutely destroy a human being.

Mentally, emotionally, physically, rejection destroys our souls.

And when we are baptized in the name of the Son, it's a baptism of acceptance and it breaks off the spirit of rejection.

And we are adopted into the family of God, fully accepted.

We talked about the imputed righteousness.

Come on, justification.

Those good things that we need to understand come from being baptized in the name of the Son.

And then where we are now is being baptized in the name of the Spirit.

That's about power.

Come on, say power.

It is about power, it's about purpose, it's about health, it's about God nurturing us and us being emotionally healthy and secure.

And it's about the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, which is what we're going to talk about today.

So the baptism into the Holy Spirit is about power.

It is about power.

Excuse me for one second.

So I would submit to you that as a Christian, you can take it or leave it.

You can take it or leave it.

It's one of those things.

Even though I feel like sometimes it would be good just to force somebody into this.

But I would submit to you, listen, while you can take it or leave it, I would submit to you that the cost of leaving it is much greater than you realize or can afford to pay.

So this isn't about your sins being forgiven.

It's not about salvation.

It's not even about being born again.

That is a different experience, a separate experience, as Pastor John Bosman a couple of weeks ago preached so wonderfully about the three different baptisms.

It's about someone whose sins have been forgiven, who has promised salvation, and who is spiritually alive and in communion with God, receiving power from the Holy Spirit, listen to me, to live out your salvation and to help other people live out theirs.

It's power to live as sons and daughters of God.

It's power to facilitate the will of God being done and seeing on earth as it is in heaven, actually be a reality.

No Christian can do that without the power of the Holy Spirit.

We can believe, we can have our sins forgiven, we can be saved, we can read and study the scriptures, but we cannot have the power to facilitate the will of God being done and seeing on earth as it is in heaven without the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

No Christian can do that without the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through their life, and as we talked about, being clothed with.

We need to know so it doesn't continue to be some mystical, mysterious, intangible thing.

The power of the Holy Spirit is made available in two main ways to us.

By the gifts of the Spirit and by the fruit of the Spirit.

The gifts of the Spirit are this: the gifts of the Spirit are the power to do specific things that facilitate God's will being done in your life and in other people's lives, leading to personal flourishing and thriving.

The fruit of the Spirit is the power to live in a way and treat people in a way that reflects God's heart and will towards that person, leading to relationships that flourish and thrive.

So, in other words, you really can't personally flourish and thrive and relationally flourish and thrive according to the will of God without the power of the Holy Spirit manifested in your life through the gifts of the Spirit and through the fruit of the Spirit.

Now, the fruit of the Spirit's not super controversial, but the gifts of the Spirit are.

And I wonder why that is.

The fruit of the Spirit is, I believe, it's the greatest power of God that we can experience in our human bodies.

It is literally the thing that makes relationships healthy or unhealthy.

So let's read Galatians 5, 22.

But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us.

Now let me back up for just a second.

So just hold that.

If you look at that, the whole chapter of Galatians 5 is the Holy Spirit through Paul is comparing the fruit of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit.

He's comparing what it absolutely 100% of the time looks like if you are led by your flesh or your sin nature, it says here the results are clear, right?

If you are led by your sin nature, the results are clear, and it lists all these different things, which I call the fruit of the flesh.

And these things, all of them are hurtful and harmful to people.

All of them are hurtful and harmful.

And all of those things on that list you have been hurt by as a human being, 100% of people.

You don't get out of life without being hurt by the fruit of the flesh from your own life or the life of somebody else.

But then he says this, so he says, so essentially it's a control thing.

Say that with me.

It's a control thing.

What's in control?

And here's the thing that Galatians 5 is teaching us, you never have to wonder that.

Everybody knows.

Because there's fruit of one or the other in our lives.

It's not hard to tell when somebody is being led by their flesh and by their sin nature.

It's obvious.

It actually says that.

And then Lou Levin says, it says, it's obvious, and it lists the mouth.

Then it says this.

So this is the conversation that we're in when this verse 22 hits.

It says, but, or however, when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, that's the key, he will produce.

This isn't you producing these things.

He will produce this kind of fruit in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Here there's no conflict with Jewish laws.

Now let me say something about these.

That will, those things will improve and transform any relationship.

And if a relationship is unhealthy, it's because there's a deficiency of those things.

And in their place, the opposite of those things will remain.

The opposite of those things will be what people are receiving.

It's how we treat people.

It's the fruit that other people experience from us that tells people what's in control.

Listen to this.

Verse 24.

Those who belong to Christ have nailed their evil, natural, evil desires to his cross and crucified them there.

Okay, what he's doing is saying, this is what you're supposed to do with the flesh.

You crucify it, you nail it, you subdue it, you kill it, you deny it, you condemn it.

It's condemned, it's crucified.

He says, This, if we are living now by the Holy Spirit's power, okay, so I don't know if you've ever realized that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is about power, and the manifestation of that power, one form of it, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

It's saying right here, if we are living now by the Holy Spirit's power, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.

Listen to this, I want this to really hit.

Then we won't need to look for honors and popularity which lead to jealousy and hard feelings.

Say it like this, which leads to competition and hurt feelings, which leads to striving and manipulation and hurt people.

When we live according to the flesh, people get hurt.

But if we live according to the spirit, people get helped.

If you live by the flesh, people get torn down, but if you live by the power of the spirit, people get built up.

So let me ask you some questions.

Do you have people in your life that cause hard and hurt feelings in you?

Are there people in your life that cause hard and hurt feelings in you?

Do you know what that's telling you?

They're living according to their flesh.

This is not are they a Christian or are they not a Christian?

It's what's in control.

It's what are they actually submitted to.

And if someone is worried about honors and popularity, they're gonna strive, they're gonna manipulate, they're gonna be opportunists, they're not gonna commit to stuff, they're gonna be non-committal.

Why?

Because something better may come up.

I don't want to commit to that.

Something better may come up.

Someone I want to hang out with more might come up.

And they play this game.

It's this fleshly sin nature game of striving and manipulation and control, and it hurts people.

Do you have people in your life that make you feel less than or torn down?

What that is, that's evidence that that person is living by the flesh.

They're not living by the Spirit, because if they were living by the Spirit, you would feel built up.

You would feel encouraged.

It doesn't mean that there's never like some issues and some conversations that need to happen.

And let me say this too: this is the dominant character traits of a person.

When you look at those two lists in Galatians, which one is the dominant character traits, right?

Is it the flesh or is it the spirit?

Because what can happen is you, you know, you pretty much have the fruit of the flesh, and then the fruit of the spirit just pops up every now and then.

Like we're capable of a day, maybe a week of patience, maybe a week of gentleness and kindness, maybe a month of love.

But we can't pull off long term.

We can't pull off dominant fruit like that.

And then being filled with the Spirit and controlled by the Holy Spirit may give us the dominant fruit of the Spirit, but it doesn't mean that some of that other doesn't pop up every now and then.

It's kind of like weeds, you know, this is a season where the weeds are growing more than the grass, right?

And the question is, is the weed, are the weeds in control of your yard, or is the grass in control of your yard?

Which one's in control?

It doesn't mean weeds won't pop up, but what it means is once the grass starts growing, if grass is in control, it will choke out the weeds.

And vice versa, if the weeds are in control, the grass will try to come up and the weeds will choke out the grass.

It tells you which is in control.

You are you are you receiving that right now?

Are you feeling that?

Listen, listen, think about yourself.

Think about your relationships.

It's not to say that you can't have a friend that is in the flesh.

You probably wouldn't have very many friends if you only allowed people who are only in the spirit all the time to be your friend.

But it's helpful to know who somebody is, right?

It's and God doesn't want it to be a mystery.

He goes, the fruit.

How does that person make you feel?

How do their decisions and the things that they do make you feel?

Does it give you hard feelings?

Does it give you hurt feelings, or does it build you up and make you feel good about who you are and who God made you to be?

Listen, how do your decisions make other people feel?

That's a good question.

This is inventory, right?

We're taking inventory of ourselves because I don't want to be that Christian that thinks that I have the fruit of the Spirit, and everybody else around me is like, every now and then.

Because I can think what I have every now and then is what's dominant.

But the reality is the people around me know better.

How do your decisions make other people feel?

How does the way you live make other people feel?

Do you even know?

Let me ask you this have you ever asked your friends, how does my behavior make you feel?

When you're with me, the way that I live my life.

Life, the way that we do family, the way that we do business, the way that we do what we do, says, in everything you do, how does that make you feel?

How does that impact you?

This is good.

This is good to know.

Because you may have people around you that are tolerating some fleshly things, and they're tolerating some hard feelings, and they're tolerating some negative emotions, and we don't want to be those people.

Amen.

Inventory.

Ask yourself those questions.

Okay, so that's what I had to say, the burden I felt on my heart about the fruit of the spirit.

Understand this, the the really focus of this message on the gifts of the spirit.

But I didn't want to stop and I wanted to stop and not overlook the fact that you most people don't correlate the fruit of the Spirit with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And it has everything to do with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Everything to do.

It is being endued with power.

It says right there, this is the power of the Holy Spirit.

It's the fruit of the Spirit.

How many of you know love is powerful?

Joy is powerful.

Peace is powerful.

Every single one of those things will not only change your life, it will change every relationship.

You've ever, every time I've done marriage counseling, I sit down and we go through these lists and I say, which list best describes your marriage?

Which list best describes your spouse and how they treat you?

And a hundred percent of the time they say the list before five, verse 22.

It's that list is what outbursts of anger and divisions and jealousy and envy and drunkenness and sexual immorality and all of that.

That is what better describes the condition of our lives in our marriage.

I go, okay, well, the reason why is because you are living under the control of your sin nature.

That's what you're following.

That's what you're actually submitting to.

It has nothing to do with what you believe, it's what you're actually submitting to.

And then I go, okay, well, if your spouse, I'm letting you guys in on some counseling sessions right now, if your spouse were to continuously display love to you, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, would that help your marriage?

100% of the time, it would change, it would transform our marriage.

We could quit talking about the possibility of divorce if that was actually the fruit of my spouse's life.

It's an indicator of who they're submitted to.

You don't have to wonder, you don't have to guess.

You can go ahead and make a judgment call based on the fruit.

How many of you know Jesus said you will know them by their fruit?

He even said this about people, how the world would know that we are Christians by our love for one another.

Not our love for God, not our love for the lost.

Our love for each other as Christians is how the world will know that we are even followers of Jesus.

Our love for one another.

Okay, now let's talk about the other way the Holy Spirit manifests his power through his baptism into the Spirit, which again is us being baptized into the Spirit and clothed or endued is the language with power from on high.

In other words, it's not human power, it's not earthly power, it's spirit power, it's heavenly power.

That happens through the gifts of the spirit.

The gifts of the spirit are the special abilities the spirit gives you and empowers you to do.

The gifts of the Spirit are the supernatural powers, this is what the Bible calls them, or the special abilities of the Spirit.

The list in 1 Corinthians 12 4, I'm gonna summarize this a little, but then we're gonna read some because it's so much, there's so much in the Bible about the gifts of the Spirit that we don't have time today.

And I'm not, what I'm don't, what I'm not gonna do is go through each gift and teach on each gift.

You can look up amazing teachings on that.

Matter of fact, I have a friend, uh Darren Shearer, who has a ministry called uh The Marketplace Christian, and uh his whole business is about helping Christians live out their faith in the business world, in the marketplace.

And uh, I think his marketplacechristian.com is his website.

And he wrote a book about using your gifts, your spiritual gifts in the marketplace, and he has a spiritual gifts assessment that you can take, and then you can read chapters on how to actually use those spiritual gifts that you have that are dominant in your life in the marketplace.

So I highly, highly recommend that.

If you want to know more about just come talk to me and I'll give you the, send you the link to that test you can take.

If you've never taken a spiritual gifts assessment, I highly recommend it.

Okay, so here are some of them.

1 Corinthians 12, 4 says that it includes words of wisdom, words of knowledge, faith, the gift of healing, the gift of miraculous powers, the gift of prophecy, the gift of distinguishing between spirits, or you may have heard discernment of spirits.

How many of you know that's important?

To know what spirit you're dealing with, the gift of speaking in tongues, and the gift of interpretation of tongues.

Talk more about that in a minute.

The gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 28 include healings, helps, the gift of helps, or the gift of hospitality is actually a spiritual gift.

There is a spiritual power of hospitality, and it is a powerful, powerful thing.

The gift of governments or governing, which is a uh also, it's not just church governance.

I believe that that includes political governance.

There is a spiritual gift.

You can do that in your own power.

How many of you know?

We got a lot of them doing that.

But there's a spiritual ability that the Holy Spirit gives of governance.

There's diversities of tongues.

That's actually separate from speaking in tongues.

It's diversities of tongues.

We'll talk a little bit about that.

And then uh let's read 1 Corinthians 12, 4 through 11.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same spirit is the source of them all.

There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord.

God works in different ways, but it's the same God who does the work in all of us.

A spiritual gift, the NIV, the NIV actually says manifestation of the Spirit.

So a manifestation of the Spirit is given to each of us so we can help each other.

Isn't that amazing?

So, what it's saying is when you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, you're clothed with this power.

Part of that power, the manifestation of that power.

How do you know someone's been baptized of the Holy Spirit?

There is a manifestation of that power through the operation of the gifts of the Spirit, the special abilities that the Holy Spirit gives us as humans.

These are not human powers, these are not human abilities, these are spiritual abilities that are given to us, and it tells us why.

So, not so we can be prophetic, not so we can be powerful, not so we can impress ourselves or somebody else, so we can help each other.

Amen.

To one person, the spirit gives the ability to give wise advice to another, the same spirit gives a message of special knowledge, the same spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the spirit gives the gift of healing.

He gives one person the power to perform miracles and another the ability to prophesy.

He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit.

I mean, there's there's not there's messages coming.

Spirits are speaking, spirits are communicating.

The question is, do you know which spirit is communicating to you and what that spirit is saying?

There's a discernment of spirits.

Still, another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.

It is the one and only spirit who distributes all these gifts.

He alone decides which gift each person should have.

And actually, if you study that out, it literally means he alone decides when each person should have that gift.

I believe our pastor from back home, he always used to say this which gift of the spirit is the most important one?

Which gift of you know the answer, so you can't answer this.

Which gift of the spirit is the most important gift of the spirit?

Oh man, and if you have a primary gift, you're like, it's the one that I operate in primary.

If you like operate in the prophetic a lot, you're like, oh, it's the prophetic, hands down.

Even Paul said, This is the one.

But we would we would just look at him and say, I don't know, Pastor Denny, which gift is the one, because we knew he had the answer, right?

And he said, Whichever one is needed at the time.

When you're standing in front of somebody who needs the power of the Holy Spirit in their life, he will give you the one that they need.

If you are following him and controlled by the Holy Spirit, the same thing that gets the fruit is the same thing that gets the gifts.

It's surrender of control.

Now, how many of you know the gifts of the Spirit are controversial?

And among the gifts of the Spirit, there are some who are more controversial than others.

And what I would say to you is this pay attention to anything that is super controversial spiritually, and I'll even add this politically.

Pay attention to anything that is super controversial spiritually and politically.

These are usually the things that the enemy is warring against and trying to bring division over in order to limit or shut down God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven.

So think about things like speaking in tongues, healing, demonic oppression and possession, women in ministry, baptisms, uh, church governance, etc.

Think about things like abortion and immigration and secure elections and welfare programs and health care.

Anything that is super controversial, there's a reason it's super controversial, and the reason is going to be spiritual.

And remember this that the church hasn't gotten more political, politics have gotten more spiritual.

That's why these conversations need to be happening in church.

That's why we need to talk about voting and talk about elections and talk about political matters because they're not just political matters, they're spiritual matters.

It's the business of the church to govern morality.

It's the business of the church to define morality and what moral living looks like.

And those two things have always been connected, but now the political is trying to replace the church from governing a standpoint on biblical morality instead of submitting to biblical morality.

And so, how many of you know we have to stand our ground and say, no, no, no, no.

The government doesn't get to define morality, the Bible already took care of that, and our job is to make sure that we hold that standard up.

Regardless of how it makes you feel, regardless of the conversations and the tensions and the stress of all of that, you have to hold it up and go, I don't get to make this decision, you don't get to make this decision, God made this decision, and we're gonna stand on it, and we're gonna hold that standard up.

So this lands these controversial issues in our laps as followers of Jesus and those called to be the ecclesia, the church, which essentially means the governing family of the earth.

That's what the word ecclesia means.

Mark 16, verse 17.

Mark 16:17

Now we're gonna shift and I want to spend the rest of our time, a few minutes, just talking about specifically one of those controversial gifts, and I think it's a hinge issue.

And it's the gift of speaking in new tongues.

Speaking in tongues.

I want to talk about that for a minute.

Mark 16, 17, Jesus says believers will speak in new tongues, right?

Along with they'll cast out demons and all that.

He says they will speak in new tongues.

So just stop for a second.

Jesus said, believers will speak in new tongues.

What does that mean?

Human languages are not new tongues.

Those are existing tongues.

Every tribe, every tongue, right?

Those are existing languages.

So this is talking, Jesus was introducing something that the Bible unpacks at length.

At length.

So let me back up and say this.

There are different kinds of speaking in tongues that are gifts of the Spirit.

There's at least three different kinds.

There's at least three different kinds.

There may be more, but there's at least three different kinds of speaking in tongues.

Where we get into controversy and error with each other over this in the body of Christ, denominationally or whatever, theologically, is when we get hung up on one of those and not understanding there's three different ones mentioned in Scripture.

So I believe the one Jesus was talking about was not what happened in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

That was a different manifestation of speaking in tongues.

And that what happened in Acts chapter 2, because I don't even think I have, I don't even have Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention Acts 2 · chapter mention

I'm teaching on speaking in tongues.

I don't even have Acts chapter 2 in my notes.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So what happened in Acts chapter 2, I'll just mention this, was that it was a sign and a wonder to all the different nations that were gathered in Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And what happened was God, the Holy Spirit, as they were baptized in the Spirit, he gave them the supernatural ability to speak unlearned human languages.

Unlearned human languages.

And then the people that were there go, How are these people speaking our native language?

It was a sign and a wonder.

And those in their language they were praising God.

And so it was something that got their attention and said, God's doing something here.

This is a miracle.

What Paul mostly talks about in scripture, we'll read some scriptures, is the gift of unknown tongues.

Okay, unknown tongues, the word glossolalia.

And it is not unlearned human languages.

It is an unknown tongue.

It's what Jesus was to.

When he said, speak in new tongues, it is a new language.

It is an unknown tongue.

It is not a human language.

Now listen to 1 Corinthians 13:1.

1 Corinthians 13:1

Paul says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clinging summon.

Now his point there was to address issues that were happening in the church in Corinth, and even says that.

I'm responding to the letter as to what you were dealing with in your former letter, I want to address these things.

So he was addressing situations, and he says this he says, although I speak in the tongues of men and of angels.

So what Paul's saying is that he spoke a angelic language.

That is what the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of unknown tongues is.

Or one scripture, diversity of tongues, right?

It wasn't talking, it may have included human languages, but it's also including heavenly language or angelic language.

How many of you know God doesn't speak English?

God created us in his image, and in his image, we have the ability to communicate using words, expressing thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and whatever else we need to express.

And we can understand each other.

We have the intellectual ability to learn a language, a system of communication, and communicate fluently and accurately with each other.

Every person on earth has the ability to learn this in different languages.

I fascinated.

Different languages are fascinating to me.

I love, I wish I could speak a bunch of them.

But then there was this other one that shows up in scripture over and over and over and over and over, and it's not a human language, it's a spiritual language.

I don't believe that God speaks human languages.

Obviously, the angels deliver messages from God in human languages, and we can interpret them and translate them and decipher and figure out what God was saying to us, but that's not his language, that's our language.

I have some Hispanic friends, and they believe with all their heart that Spanish, you know, Espanol is going to be the language of heaven.

And I'm promising you the language of heaven is not a human language.

But is there a language?

Does God communicate?

Does he use words to do that?

Yes, absolutely.

So there's a language of heaven that is not human.

Sister Duron used to tell us that you know the reason?

Do you know the reason that God doesn't speak a human language?

And no, sister, why?

And she would say, Because every human language is defiled by profanity.

Every human language is defiled by profanity, by perverse thinking and thoughts and words.

God's not speaking a language like that.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels.

I'm going to ask you, do you speak in the tongues of men?

Everybody says yes.

And women?

Do you speak in the tongues of women?

Yeah, those are different languages right there.

Can you speak in the tongues of angels?

If you can't, if you don't, I want you to be open to it.

I believe it's something that God has for you.

It changed my life, and I believe it'll change yours.

Ephesians 6.18.

Pray in the spirit at all times and on every occasion.

Now, have you ever wondered how you're going to pray at all times and on every occasion?

How many of you ever tried to pray for like 15 minutes without stopping?

In English.

I run out of stuff to say in about five minutes, and that's a long time.

I've prayed for everybody.

I've prayed for the government.

I've prayed for my family.

I've prayed for the church.

I've prayed for you.

I've prayed for everybody by name in like five minutes.

How many of you know there's more than just the human ability to pray in English?

Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

Jude verse 1 and 19 says, These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly minded, devoid of the Spirit, but you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

Over and over and over in Scripture, we see this praying in the Holy Spirit is connected to building yourself up, edification, and strengthening.

Romans 8.26, which how many of you know Romans 8.28?

It's probably in your house somewhere on a wall, or you know it by memory.

Romans 8 28.

Come on.

Y'all know that?

And God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes.

What a great promise.

What a great truth.

But do you want what it says in its context?

Let's read it.

Verse 26.

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.

For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

And the Father, who knows all hearts, knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will.

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love him and are called in this literally the context of Romans 8.28 is speaking in another language to God.

And I believe this is actually different than speaking in unknown tongues, glossalelia.

This is actually just getting before the Lord with a burden and groaning before the Lord.

Oh God.

Lord, have you ever been in a groaning season before?

A threshing floor season where something's got to change, something's got to give.

You need a divine intervention.

English won't work, and in a lot of times, even speaking in tongues won't work in a situation like that.

You just get on the threshing floor and you groan and you cry out to God.

The Holy Spirit takes those.

As long as we get out of our human mindset, if we get out of English, it's going to be much better for communication with God.

Let me just say it like that.

God will work all things together for the good of a person who knows how to shut off their human mind, their human understanding, and tap into Him and His will at a different level.

1 Corinthians 14, verse 1.

1 Corinthians 14:1

Let love be your highest goal, but you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives, especially the ability to prophesy.

For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God.

Now, I want to point out why that's different than what happened in Acts chapter 2, is because those languages were not for God.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It was for the people who heard it and said, God is doing something amazing here.

It says 3,000 people joined that church that day.

And it was because of that miracle of speaking in tongues, speaking in other tongues, unlearned human languages, and they heard it and they praised God because of it.

They got in on what God was doing because of that.

This one's different because this isn't for other people.

This is only for God.

If you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won't be able to understand you.

You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit.

The power of the Spirit.

What's the baptism of the Holy Spirit about?

Power.

You cannot fully have and operate in the power of the Holy Spirit without this particular gift.

But the one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them.

So prophecy, we love prophecy.

Prophecy is a word from God to somebody else that strengthens, encourages, and edifies.

Okay?

Strengthens, encourages, and edifies.

But the one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church.

I wish you could all speak in tongues, but even more I wish you could all prophesy.

For prophecy is greater than speaking in tongues unless someone interprets what you are saying so that that whole church will be strengthened.

Actually, he's so again, there's the tongues and the interpretations of tongues.

In Acts chapter 2, the people that heard them speaking in other tongues didn't need an interpretation.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

They were speaking their language.

So again, he's talking about another kind of speaking in tongues.

I believe it's this angelic language, it's this thing that we call glossolia.

So here's what I want to say.

Now, I he's also addressing an issue here.

You can read this in the context, and he says he's addressing the first letter, the letter that they wrote.

So he wrote a letter, they wrote a letter, he wrote a letter.

We don't have those, we have this one.

And he's addressing an issue.

And what most theologians and historians believe is that there was people showing up to church and they were just speaking in tongues all the time.

And other people are going that don't have that ability, especially if you don't have the ability to interpret it.

They're just like, What has happened?

Like, what could you imagine if I just came to speak in tongues for 45 minutes and said, Amen.

May the Lord keep you and bless you, lift up his face upon you.

You'd be like, We're calling Pastor Denny.

That's what they did.

They called Pastor Denny and they said, Hey, uh, this is not good.

It's going on here.

And so Pastor Denny writes a letter.

And he's giving him instructions, and he's saying, Look, this is this is uh an important gift, but when you meet together, only God can understand that.

Unless there's an interpretation of it, which I've been in a room where that's happened.

Someone gave a loud message in tongues, and then someone else stepped up and interpreted what God was saying.

I've been in those rooms many times where that happened.

Also, my Bible teacher told a story of the other kind of speaking in tongues, the Acts chapter 2 speaking in tongues.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

They were in a service in another country, and there were other nations in the room as a conference, and they were baptizing people, and this lady gets baptized, she was American, she gets baptized, and she comes out of the water speaking in tongues.

So she thought.

And there was a couple behind my Bible, my Bible teachers, my pastors, and there was a couple behind them, and they were from a different country.

I can't even remember what language it was.

It wasn't even a common language.

And they were just, they could tell they were blown away.

And they said, What's going on?

She said, That lady just came out of water and speaking a message to us in our language.

And so they went up to her after the service and said, How do you know whatever Portuguese or whatever?

And she's like, I don't know what you're talking about.

They said, You just shared this, and they told her what she shared this message.

It was like a prophetic word to this couple.

And she's like, I have no idea.

I thought I was just speaking in tongues.

They're good.

No, that's our our language.

So that happens.

I've never been in a room where that's happened, but I know people who have, so that I believe uh what they say.

And so again, he's speaking of something different.

Um, that we had a time where we went to um trying to remember, I don't even know what year it was.

It doesn't really matter.

But we would do these encounters, and Melanie and I were discipling a bunch of young adults and seeing God move in their lives and change their lives.

And we had these encounter weekends where they would go this whole week.

It was like a women's retreat, and we'd do men's retreat.

And the last session is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

It's like inner healing and and the cross and all these.

You may have been to a kind of a retreat weekend like that.

It's kind of like getting all the junk out and getting forgiven of sins and and and getting, you know, reconciled with the Father.

And then the last thing you do, you know, inner healing, and then the last thing you do, you get filled with the Holy Spirit.

And there was this one girl that got filled with the Holy Spirit that day, and she spoke in tongues in unknown language, uh, the whole day.

She couldn't stop.

She was just speaking in tongues, and it was powerful, like God would just transform this girl's.

She had never experienced anything like this.

She went to lunch after that, and she couldn't.

They had to order the food for her.

She couldn't, Melanie was with her.

She could not stop speaking in tongues.

And this wasn't her, like this was not her doing this.

You were there, I think.

And she spoke in tongues all day.

And they they literally took her home, dropped her off at her house, and they caught her the next day just to see is she okay?

And she was speaking in English again.

That still serving the Lord today, it changed her life.

She was different after that.

And so we don't want to do that unless it's it was really the spirit that was doing that in her life, just doing something, a deep work in her, edifying, strengthening, encouraging.

But what I want to say for me, when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, it it was very different than that.

I want all that God has for me.

I went down, got prayed for, and they were laying hands on me, praying for me to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And you know, y'all can stand.

Let's go ahead and stand.

And I was standing there trying to think in my mind about, okay, I believe this is from God.

I want all that God has for me.

But when they laid hands on me and started praying in tongues, I heard these syllables that weren't English.

It was only a few syllables.

And I literally stood there and said, I'm not saying that.

I'm not doing it.

And guess what?

I didn't.

I believe I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit that day because I genuinely wanted it.

I genuinely wanted all that God had for me.

And I believe I received it.

And it was a week or two later I was driving in my truck and I was worshiping the Lord.

And it was nighttime.

Had about a 20-minute drive from church to the house.

I was on my way home.

And I was just worshiping, just praising God, worshiping out loud.

I was by myself, and as I'm worshiping, those syllables come up in my mind again.

And I was like, I'm not saying that.

I was by myself.

And I was embarrassed.

It's it's a little weird.

If you've never done it, it's weird because it's bypassing your mind, it's bypassing your understanding, and it is a spiritual language that God is wanting you to be fluent in.

And he starts by giving you a few syllables.

And listen to me, I believe with all my heart it is a very specific surrender that God is looking for to entrust you with a very powerful gift that He's needs there to be surrender so that you don't misuse it, so that you don't abuse it.

And there's a counterfeit of it out there.

Everything God creates, Satan counterfeits.

But the true thing from a true heart that wants all that God has, that wants the power of the Holy Spirit in them and upon them, God will give that gift to.

But you have to surrender and speak it out.

So here's what I want to encourage.

We're not gonna have a big altar call where we have people praying.

We're gonna have people praying.

So if our connect pastors could be on the side, I want you to have an opportunity to be prayed for to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Don't leave if you haven't received that.

You need it.

You need it.

It's about power.

You need power, you need power from on high.

Don't try to live this Christian life and certainly don't try to do the things God's called you to do without it.

But what I can tell you is if you'll surrender your mind and your mouth to God and speak and develop that language, I've I pray more in tongues than in English by far.

I wake up praying in the spirit because I can't even think of English words to pray.

In the shower, I'm praying in the spirit, edifying, strengthening, building up my spirit, building up my soul, in alignment with God.

I heard uh Lance Walnow say this one time.

He was praying and God was wanting him to do something, and he's like, I don't want to do that.

And he goes, Well, he goes, Lance, every single time you pray in the Holy Spirit, this is what you tell me you want to do.

And he had to submit to it.

And Lance Walner has a ministry that's changing the world.

Every time you pray in the spirit, you tell me this is what you want to do.

Who is that?

Your true self, the eternal part of you.

And so, whatever you have to overcome to get yourself out of the way, to be willing to be a little embarrassed, to be willing to be a little foolish, that's the surrender that God needs.

And what I've seen when people walk in that, they begin to truly be led by the Spirit, and they stop being led by the flesh.

It's like a gateway.

And that's the door.

And when you're when you reconcile that and you wrestle that out and you go, God, okay, I'll do it, and you start doing it, something unlocks, something spiritual, something supernatural, something that is not human, a power that is from God begins to have its way in you and through you.

It will change your life.

Amen.

You just receive that.

And wrestle that out on your own time.

You can pray today.

You can pray in your car like I did.

You can get at home, and if you have a closet, a prayer closet, a secret place that you meet God in, just in the next in the near future, the sooner the better.

Just see.

See what God will do with that kind of a surrender, a surrender that doesn't make sense.