Speaking in Tongues: Kingdom Principles, Practices, & Kinds - The Power & Gifts Of The Holy Spirit

Hello everyone, I'm Dr.

Steve Holtz.

I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast.

Each week we go into God's Word.

We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

We are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.

So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.

So I want to talk about speaking in tongues.

And some of you have a background in speaking in tongues.

You might have come out of a Pentecostal background, some of you don't.

I'm really eclectic in that I came to Christ, you know, as a freshman at University of Georgia, and um and I kind of hung out with this very conservative, I would say almost a cessationist sort of Dallas seminary kind of crowd, where nobody spoke in tongues, nobody talked about it.

It was like taboo.

And then, but my dad, who I respect so much and love so much, he was 94 on Saturday, was a leader in the charismatic movement, if you've heard that phrase.

What charismatic means, it comes from the word charismatic, which means gifts of the Holy Spirit.

And it's and it's largely associated with Christians who came into the power of the Holy Spirit who didn't come out of a Pentecostal background.

So my dad was a leader in the Lutheran church, high church, clerical collar, candles, bells and smells, I mean all that stuff.

And um and yet he believed in the power of the Holy Spirit.

So I had had this dichotomy happening of skepticism, okay, skepticism based on ignorance, on the one hand, and then respect for my dad, who's not a faker.

My dad's just not a poser.

He's very real, he's always been very authentic in his life and his marriage with my mom.

But as a missionary in Japan, around, I don't know, the eighth or ninth year of my time in Japan, God had done a work in me, and I was starting to pray for people to get heals.

And you didn't do this in the group I was in.

You always just shared the four spiritual laws, you led them to the Lord, you started a discipleship group.

And we were really good at that.

We were really good at that in Tokyo.

We grew a ministry from nothing to about 500 in three years, 500 college students.

So it was booming.

And then we went to Okinawa, did the same thing down there.

But but in Okinawa it was different because I read a book called Power Evangelism by a guy named John Wimber, and I began to just pray for people.

So I would share the Christ with them, but I'd say, hey, do you need anything healed in your life?

People would share with me something they needed healing, and I would pray for it, and you know, some got healed and some didn't.

But some got healed.

And I was like, whoa, you know, this is like new stuff.

So I didn't speak in tongues.

I didn't have that gift of speaking in tongues or that anointing of speaking in tongues yet.

And I I asked so many of these Pentecostal guys that I was hanging out with, pastors and stuff, would you pray for me?

Nothing would happen when they pray for me.

You know, so one day I was in the shower and suddenly I started speaking in tongues.

So I don't know what the that what that means.

So if you if you're not speaking in tongues, it doesn't seem to be working.

Get in the shower.

No.

But anyway, it became a very important part of my life.

And now for all these years, it's become a 30, 33 years been a very important part of my life.

And during this really difficult time in in Liz and I's life and church life and stuff, probably one of the most difficult times I've ever been through in my career, um, there's so many times I just don't know how to pray.

I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to say to the Lord.

I mean, he he's heard me say so many times, like, help.

By the way, that's the most important prayer.

The most important prayer in the Bible is help.

Um, and if you have any doubt about it, just read the Psalms with David.

He's always saying help.

But he has a very poetic way of saying, but that's what he's saying.

Um so I found that praying in tongues, and the scriptures call it praying in the spirit, has been huge in my life.

And so, what I want to do today is I want to break this thing down about speaking in tongues in the brief time that we have.

I only have like 30 minutes.

I really think it takes about five hours because the stuff, the stuff that I've been mining out, I feel like I've been on a just prospecting in a gold mine for the last 10 days or so that I've been working on this because there's so much there.

It's been awesome.

But I say that to remind us that whenever you hear a sermon by me, it is, it is never complete.

It is never the complete answer to anything.

All it is is a passage we're looking at, and we're doing the best we can with that passage.

Does that make sense?

So we do, I try to do the best I can with the holistic nature of the Bible, but in such a short time, it's gonna be very surface-y in a way.

So I pray that I can give you enough information to ignite a fire in you about how beautiful and wonderful speaking in tongues is, but that if you don't, you don't feel judged.

I don't want anybody to feel judged around here because I think that that's, anyway, that's to use a theological term, that's a stupid way to run a church, okay?

Because I think that the most important thing in a church is love and unity.

And so we're gonna always have differences.

Some of us even vote different, and some of us theologically are different.

Some of you may be still in that camper, I don't even believe in speaking in tongues.

It's not for today.

It's okay, you're welcome here.

It's okay, you are welcome here.

In every sense of the word, I mean that.

And then some of you are thinking, well, we don't speak in tongues enough around here.

You're welcome here, you know?

So, so on the spectrum of being in the middle of a word and spirit church, there's gonna be different perspectives, right?

So let's have love for each other.

But let me just quickly say, we've been looking at 1 Corinthians 14.

So turn to 1 Corinthians 14.

We've looked at 12, and now we're gonna look at 14 of 1 Corinthians, and this was a very, very chaotic church, very chaotic church, and they had a lot of disunity, but they were also very much into spiritual gifts.

So I want to follow the flow here.

So go to 1 Corinthians 12.

We're gonna camp in 1 Corinthians 14, but go first to 1 Corinthians 12, and I just want to make a few quick thoughts, and here's my attempt today.

It's gonna be kind of crazy to try to do this in the amount of time I have, but I can talk fast.

Um I'm gonna attempt to talk about kingdom principles and practices as I see them in the Corinthian church, and as Paul dissects this, or we might say parses it, but then I also want to end up, I want to talk about the four kinds of tongues.

There's actually, I believe there's four kinds of speaking in tongues.

Two are public and two are private.

So we're gonna, there's two parts to this.

There's a part one and a part two.

But in 1 Corinthians 12, 12, look at that.

1 Corinthians 12, 12, Paul is talking about spiritual gifts, and he says this for as the body is one, and I and in my Bible I circle that, for the body is one, and as many members, but all the members of that one body have circled that one body.

Being many are one body, I've circled that.

So also is Christ.

And I underline that, so also is Christ.

For by one spirit, circle that, we were all baptized into one body, circle that.

Whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, all have been made to drink of one spirit, circle that.

So he's talking about unity, you guys, and he's saying that we're all of one spirit and one body, and he really wants to make it clear that even though there's a diversity of gifts, there's a diversity of ministries, God's purpose in the local church is unity in Christ.

So, like today, we were before the service, we had prayer, and it was very interesting because we have all the guys, we have Benjamin Cannon.

Stand up, Benjamin, he's back there.

Benjamin does our sound, he does a fantastic job.

Give him a round of applause.

So, Benjamin, he runs the technical part of our church, and then there's a group up here of young men and women who do in the mezzanine area who do um the PowerPoint and put stuff on the screen.

Okay?

Who's up there?

Can somebody just wave your hand up there?

All right, there you go.

Okay.

So, diversity of gifts.

So, this team up here that are musically, poetically, songwritingly blessed and anointed, you see.

You don't see them.

And yet it's a perfect picture of how the gifts work because our team up here would really be handicapped if they didn't have the group back there.

And so that's the way the gifts of the Spirit work, and they work in unity, it's a beautiful worship experience for us.

So then look at 1 Corinthians 13.

So 1 Corinthians 12 is on unity, 1 Corinthians 13 is all about love.

The whole chapter is on love.

So sandwiched in between the gifts in chapter 12, where he talks about unity, and he goes through about 21 gifts are mentioned in chapter 12.

Then in 13 is all about love.

And then in 14, he's talking about the most controversial of gifts prophecy and tongues.

Okay, do you get the flow here?

So watch what I'm gonna put up now on the PowerPoint.

God wants us at the road to be alive in the spirit, rooted in scripture, guided by love, and unified as the body of Christ.

Let me read it again.

God wants us to be alive in the spirit, rooted in scripture, guided by love, and unified as the body of Christ.

Now, this is important.

Satan hates that statement.

God loves it.

That's the kind of church God wants to bring revival to are churches that are alive in the spirit, rooted in scripture, guided by love, and are unified in the body of Christ, of loving the diversity of how we are made differently.

So I want to look at a healthy perspective on speaking in tongues because it tends to be not rooted in scripture, some of the viewpoints that are out there, in my opinion.

Not alive in the spirit because there's so much division in it, and definitely there's no love.

Sometimes it happens.

We want love here.

We want love to always lead out with us.

So it's important.

So why somebody says, well, I don't think speaking in tongues is that important.

Well, this is what Paul says.

1 Corinthians 14, 18, he says, I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all.

So for the Apostle Paul, even though it was controversial, even there were all kinds of problems at Corinth, he was saying, and he seemed like he wanted to preface what he was going to say, with, I'm so excited that I speak in tongues more than any of you guys.

In other words, I'm not gonna dish this spiritual gift.

It's so important through the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through the local church, that I'm glad that I do it a lot.

And I hope that you will too.

So let me give, let me start with six kingdom principles and practices for speaking in tongues from 1 Corinthians 14.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go through chapter 14.

I'm gonna jump around, but I'm gonna go sequentially through.

We're gonna get the flow of what Paul's saying biblically.

Then I'm gonna look at kinds of tongues, which are already contained in here, but I'm just gonna move through the principles, the kingdom principles and practices.

So look at chapter 14, verse 1.

Just look at verse 1.

Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts.

I think that's beautiful.

That's the perfect starting point.

Kingdom principle number one is pursue love in the use of all spiritual gifts, whether it's tongues, prophecy, teaching, encouragement, service, leadership, evangelism, whatever it is that God's anointed each of us with, love is the most important thing.

So here looking at chapter 14, verse 1, just move, you know, kind of to the left there.

We're talking to Japanese as they move to the right, because they read it differently.

But 13, look at verses 1 through 3 of chapter 13.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I've become a sounding brass or a clanging symbol.

And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I can even move mountains, but I have not love, I'm nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

In other words, everything revolves around this concept of love.

Another way we could look at it is though you don't feel very gifted, though you don't feel very anointed, though you don't feel like you're very successful in your life, if you have love, you have everything.

Same in a marriage.

You may not be the best communicator, you may struggle with how to express love, and that's a skill you can learn.

Maybe you struggle with making money, whatever your struggles are, if there's love embedded in it, God can change you, God can transform you.

And so that's why becoming a believer in Christ is the beginning of all beginnings.

Because his love comes into your life.

And if you're here today and you've never given your heart to Christ, and you're looking at your life and you find yourself saying, I'm a loser, I'm not very good at this, I'm not very good at that, and all these things of self-condemnation you go through, come to Jesus and let him change you from the inside out.

Let his love in.

Because with his love comes in, it's unconditional.

It's an unconditional love, and he begins to transform us.

So he says, pursue love.

That's the number one kingdom principle of this whole series is pursue love.

So this is why this is important.

We will disagree on so many different things.

But if love is a thermostat, Christ's love is a thermostat, we'll pick up everyone around us with love.

And we'll be a loving and caring and beautiful church.

So look at verse 2.

For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God.

This is important.

For no one understands him, however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.

For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God.

Now the message reads this way: if you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you, but no one else does.

For you're sharing intimacies just between you and him.

Second Kingdom principle.

Second Kingdom principle.

Speaking in tongues is speaking to God from your spirit to his spirit.

It's spirit to spirit.

Now you're gonna realize through our study of chapter 14, and then the kinds that I'm gonna talk about near the end, that there's two different kinds of tongues.

Some would say the spiritual gifts, excuse me, the spiritual gift, singular, of speaking in tongues is a gift for the body of Christ in a public meeting.

Okay?

And that having a prayer language, spirit to spirit, is not a gift, it's a version of intercession.

It's a version of prayer.

Now I'm not gonna split hairs over that, but I'll tell you there's a lot of different views on that.

It doesn't matter to me.

My feeling is don't worry about semantics.

Get all of God.

Okay, you've got all of God, but get the manifestation of all of God in your spirit.

So that's the second point, is that it's spirit to spirit.

So it's interesting.

So speaking in tongues is a heavenly language spoken to God from your heart.

Listen, I'm gonna confuse you some.

Okay.

Your heart slash spirit slash belly, abdomen, to God's heart.

It's spirit to spirit, it's heart to heart.

Okay?

So what do I mean by that?

Write down Proverbs 20, 27.

Don't turn there.

Proverbs 2027 says, the spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord.

That's really interesting.

The spirit of a man or woman is a lamp of the Lord, searching the inner depths of the heart.

So in one part of the first part of Proverbs, it's talking about the spirit.

In the last part, it's talking about the heart.

Now, in the New King James Version, even this, even in the Bible that I teach from, which is not a study Bible, it has an annotation down at the bottom, and here's what it says: literally the rooms of the belly.

That's literally what that means for spirit or heart, is literally the rooms of the belly.

And I'm gonna unpack this near the end of the message, but just get this.

That there's something about the spirit of a man that the heart, actually, in Hebraic thinking, is here, not here.

That there's something, and I would call it, remember that?

You you know you've said it yourself.

I have a gut feeling about this.

Well, that's God's spirit giving you revelation a lot of times on something out there.

You call it a gut feeling, it's your abdomen.

I'm gonna I'm gonna break this down in a few minutes, but that's what it is.

So there's this, there's tongues that you don't understand, that some would call a heavenly language that you didn't learn, where you speak in tongues, and for me it's praying largely, it's praying in the spirit, where the Holy Spirit is actually praying through me the will of God.

God is praying through me and through you, and you're praying in the spirit, the will of God.

Now look at verse 3.

But he who prophesies speaks edification, exhortation, and comfort to men.

We talked about that last week.

That was the message last week.

But he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.

Underline that.

Really important.

Edifies himself.

But he who prophesies edifies the church.

Third principle: speaking in tongues is for self-edification.

This is your personal, intimate relationship with Christ.

This is different than public speaking in tongues.

This is a private relationship with God where you are communing with the Holy Spirit through praying in the Spirit.

Now, listen, everybody, look at me right now.

Doesn't this seem like it's kind of important?

I mean, it's kind of important.

I'm not saying if you're saying, well, I'm not gonna pray, I've tried to pray, it never has come to me.

You can do whatever you want.

I'm just saying for me personally and for millions around the world, this idea of interceding, which I'll talk about later, it's from Romans 8, about the groaning's too deep for words.

This interceding with the Spirit, spirit to spirit, is important.

It's really valuable.

And some of you are gonna get it today.

Some of you are gonna get it in the next few weeks.

Maybe it's gonna be in the shower.

Maybe it's when you're cutting wood, maybe it's when you're driving around.

I don't know.

But if you're open to it, God's gonna eventually give it to you, and it's very, very exciting.

So it's for self-edification.

Here's what it does: it builds up your faith.

Jod down Jude 120.

Jot down Jude.

Don't turn there, but Jude 120 says this.

But you beloved, building yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

So when you pray in the Spirit, it's building your faith.

And you guys know Liz and I have had a really hard time the last 10 months.

And um, there was a period where we were separated.

I shared that with you guys.

We've been together now for over six months, and it's been two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward, one step back.

But we're learning so much.

We've we've put in so much time.

But I don't know, really, I'll be honest with you, I don't know where I would be if I wasn't praying in the spirit and building up my faith.

Raise your hand if sometimes you feel like your faith is so small that you want to give up.

Anyone like that?

And the rest of you are liars.

Okay?

So we all go through these.

Times where we feel that way, right?

So praying in the spirit builds up our faith.

It builds up our faith.

And it's really, really important.

And so, and so let me just say that it doesn't matter where you are.

Matter of fact, I would say most of the time it's not in a public arena like this.

It's in your own time at your own apartment or at your house or in your car.

I can't tell you how many times I've looked at my study at home and I'm going, oh, this place is such a mess.

I have books everywhere and stacks of books.

I'll get on a thing for a while and then I'll leave it, but I don't put the books back, all kinds of stuff like that in my life.

And I said, okay, I'm going to pray in the spirit and clean my office.

And it motivates me.

So I'm building up my faith while I'm cleaning my office.

And for some of you, it might be that you need, you know, in the summer, you need to cut the grass.

Well, cut the grass and pray in the spirit.

Or you got to go get groceries or something.

As you're going to get groceries, pray in the spirit.

It's amazing how it builds up your faith.

Verse 13.

Verse 13.

Therefore, let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.

Now he's going to start, he shifts.

He makes a shift.

This is where the controversy comes in Corinth.

It's the public use of speaking in tongues that's a problem.

Therefore, him who speaks in a tongue, pray that he may interpret.

Verse 15.

What is the conclusion then?

I will pray with the spirit and I will also pray with understanding.

You circle understanding.

I will sing with the spirit and I also sing with understanding.

Circle understanding.

Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say amen at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say?

For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified.

So the fourth kingdom principle, in a church gathering, understanding of truth is vital.

That's our purpose in gathering, you guys, here at the Road Church at 2025 Parliament Drive, is that truth is presented.

Truth in equipping the saints is happening on every Sunday morning.

And so he's saying, yeah, you speak in tongues, that's great.

You have a private prayer language, it's spirit to spirit.

But when you come together, I'm much more interested in truth being presented.

And if there is going to be a tongue, he's going to, and I'll talk about it in just a second, it needs an interpreter.

But the point of gathering together is that truth is presented, that the word of God is taught, that the prophetic, which is the edification of the whole church, is the main gift.

And I shared last week that when I open the word and I preach the word, that's the main prophetic anointing for that week happening from the pulpit.

So understanding is vital.

And then he says this, very interesting, still on that same train of thought.

Look at verse 23.

Therefore, if the whole church comes together in one place and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, would they not say that you're out of your mind?

But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he's convicted by all.

So last week there were a couple people, and that's all that I know of, that were told and it could have been more, but I know two people that gave their hearts to Christ.

You see, they they gave their hearts to Christ because they heard truth presented and they had an invitation to receive Christ.

That's what he's talking about, verse 25.

Thus the secrets of his heart are revealed, and so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God truly is among you.

So, fifth, in a church gathering, there must be an interpreter of tongues.

So if the gift of tongues is exercised by someone, there needs to be an interpretation of that gift of tongues.

And again, I'm going to talk about that here at the end a little bit more.

Verse 33.

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

Verse 39.

Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy and do not forbid to speak with tongues.

Look at verse 40, underline it, really important.

Let all things be done decently and in order.

So lastly, sixthly, all should be done in an orderly, peaceful manner in the local church, in a public gathering.

Now, I'm not saying that we don't have historically times where the Holy Spirit comes, there's confusion.

There's a little bit of that in Pentecost, but I'm going to talk about that in just a second because that's we need to look at it from the perspective of speaking in tongues.

But it's to be done in an orderly manner.

So most of the time, 99% of the time, when you come to church, you should know what to expect.

There's going to be worship, there's going to be teaching, and there's going to be ministry time.

Pretty simple.

That's what we do.

And we make road declarations, or we do the Lord's Prayer, or sometimes we do the Apostles' Creed.

But you know what to expect because it's supposed to be done in an orderly manner.

That's what Scripture says.

The Jewish historian Josephus used this word, Greek word is taxis.

Taxis means order.

That's the last word.

Verse 40.

Last, you know, bringing it all together in chapter 14.

Here's what he wrote.

It was the orderly way of the Roman army, the Roman army erecting tents in an orderly way.

That's how Josephus used that word in that way.

He also used the word for how the Essene Jews were respectful of others, deferential, courteous, and well mannered.

That's what order means here.

So the idea of the Greek word taxis means to be arranged, orderly, honorable, and fitting.

It's a military term.

Well planned, systematic, and structured.

So let me give you my def let me give you my the Steve Holt translation of verse 40.

Let everything be done in a fitting and proper manner.

That is organized, respectful, well planned, and polite.

Isn't that a good, that's a pretty good version of that.

So let me shift gears now.

I've got six minutes.

Okay?

Like I told you, I could we could go on forever on this.

We say six minutes.

Okay, I want to talk about varieties or kinds of tongues.

Varieties or kinds of tongues.

Four different kinds of tongues.

I wouldn't debate anybody on this.

Some people say it's more, some people say it's less.

They're all right.

This is just my version of it.

And this comes from 1 Corinthians 12, 28.

1 Corinthians 12, 28.

You don't have to turn and look at that, but if you want to write it down, 1 Corinthians 12, 28 says, varieties or diversities of tongues.

So there's varieties of a diversity of tongues.

Chapter 12, verse 28.

So here's the first one.

Okay, the first one's public.

There's two public, two private.

I'm gonna start with public.

First one is public, speaking in tongues in a known tongue in a church gathering.

In other words, someone gets up and they speak in French.

Let's just say.

And this actually is a story that happened in not France, but I think some reason I'm thinking it's Mozambique.

I heard this story years ago, Mozambique.

A person gets up and speaks in French.

They did not know French.

They had never studied French, they'd never uh spoken French, but they got up and they spoke in French to a French-speaking Mozambique person who just happened to come to church who said, You just spoke about Jesus being the only way.

And then that person got saved.

See, that's that's an example of Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So in Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit came upon the early church, the first time at Pentecost, those were known tongues.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So listen, there were Galileans, fishermen, blue-collar, as far as we know about the original 120, they were all like blue-collar people.

They began to speak in tongues, it says, but then there were all these different people groups all around Mediterranean and in Asia Minor who had come for the feast of Pentecost, who heard them speaking the mighty wonders of God.

Remember what it says?

In their own language.

So if you look at Acts 2, it says, And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.

And when this sound that speaking in tongues occurred, and the wind blowing through, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language.

Verse 11 says, We hear them speaking in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God.

So the first miracle of speaking in tongues is when someone might get up and they actually speak in a known tongue in the world somewhere because God has someone in that audience or in that gathering that needs to hear something.

So a really close friend of mine, who's a national speaker, tells the story of being speaking in this church, and one of his staff was with him.

And she began to pray in tongues during the worship time.

She was praying in tongues during the worship time, and this guy hears her, because she said she was a little bit loud, heard it.

He comes over and he says, Are you from France?

And she goes, No.

She said, Do you know what you were praying?

She said, No.

You were speaking in perfect, fluent French.

I'm from France.

And I want to know more about God as a result of what you were praying.

Because he can see it was supernatural.

She didn't even learn the language.

And yet God was using her to speak to him in a mighty way.

So that's public example, number one.

Number two, public again.

Speaking in tongues in an unknown tongue.

In other words, it's not upon the earth, it's in no land, it's an unknown tongue, it's a heavenly language, in a church gathering with an interpreter.

In other words, nobody understands it, so there's a need for an interpreter to interpret what the person said.

And this is what we see probably more you uh more examples of.

Um and I would call it this prophetic tongues.

Jot that down.

That's really important.

Prophetic tongues.

In other words, there's a prophetic word that's being spoken to someone through a tongue in a language that person's never learned, but it's not a known tongue, it's an unknown tongue, and there's a need for interpreter.

This is why I think there's evidence to the fact that the spiritual gift of tongues is not your prayer language.

The spiritual gift of tongues is being used in a public setting, and again, I'm not gonna argue this with anybody, but I'm just saying what I think.

Okay, and then you have to have a gift of interpretation of tongues, which is one of the gifts listed in scripture.

They both work in tandem together.

So let me give you an example of this.

So Liz and I just returned from Japan.

We've been in Japan for counting her about eight years, ten years for me.

We came back, we're in Anaheim, California.

We're we're staying with this couple who picked us up at LAX, who had been missionaries in Morocco, and we go to their apartment, we go to sleep that night.

We're in jet lag, okay?

In the night, Liz has a dream, and she wakes up, and then she wakes me up and she says, Steve, God told me this word, this is your homestead.

This is your homestead.

I said, What does that mean?

She says, I don't know what that means.

But it means this is, but he said, This is your homestead.

So we go to church, and that morning we're at the Anaheim Vineyard.

And back then, have y'all ever heard of Calvary Chapel and the if you saw the Jesus Revolution movie, what they don't tell you is that when that church began to explode during the Jesus movement around 1969-70, they had to use a tent.

We were using that tent at the Anaheim Vineyard, same one.

So we walk into this tent, we walk in, we've never been to the vineyard before, we've never been in a Pentecostal church or kind of charismatic church before.

We go in, there's worship, great worship by a guy named Eddie Espinoza.

He does worship, and then the worship goes down, and this person starts speaking in tongues.

And we go, oh yeah, okay, this is one of those weird kind of churches where they do this kind of stuff.

And I mean, that's what we're thinking, right?

And then there's an interpreter.

And the interpretation, this person stands up, and the interpretation is this is your homestead.

What?

Are you kidding me?

And so we never visited another church.

We knew this was our church, and I was a part of the leadership of the Association of Vineyard Churches for the next 10 years.

So God called us that way.

That's a prophetic utterance through the speaking of tongues with an interpreter.

That's public.

Now, let's go to private.

Number three.

Speaking in tongues in worship.

Speaking in tongues in worship, he says in verse 15, I will sing with the spirit.

I will sing with the spirit.

Now I'm not gonna go into detail on this because of time, but it's just singing in the spirit.

And if you've ever been a part of someone singing in spirit, oh it's it's beautiful.

But I'm gonna confine that as I see it here in our passage as being private.

And then number four, and lastly, is speaking in tongues in prayer or intercession.

So it's your prayer language.

This is, in my opinion, the most important, most vital use of speaking in tongues.

At least it has been in my life.

Verse three, we said, He who prophesies speaks with education, exhortation, and comfort to men, but he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.

Verse 14, let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret, for if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays.

So it's a heavenly language, like I said earlier, of communion with the capital S spirit and the small S spirit, your spirit, communing in intimacy with each other.

Okay, you hear that?

That's really, really important.

So the physical center, remember what I said?

The physical center of the heart in Hebraic thinking and biblical thinking is right here.

It's the belly.

It's the belly.

And we just did Proverbs 20, 27.

But in John 7, Jesus actually teaches this concept on the Holy Spirit when he says in verses 38 and 39, he who believes in me, as the scripture said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

That word heart, listen, it's really important.

You should write this one down.

This is a good one.

Okay?

The word heart here is koalia.

Koalia.

K-O-I-L-I-A.

Koalia.

It's where we get the word colon.

He's saying from the heart, or from the colon, you'll stretch forth and allow the spirit, will come like rivers of living water in your communion of intimacy with the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the very being of who you are at the very depths of your, I'm going to call it the heart here, flowing out of the spirit.

Jesus is telling us that's what's going to happen.

And so, so to come into the things of the Spirit, you guys, is to allow the Holy Spirit to come in so that we can spill forth living water in communion with the living God.

I mean, that gets me pumped up.

That has saved my marriage.

That has saved my calling.

That will save your marriage.

That will save your calling.

Because God's given us this weapon against the enemy.

If the spirit would bubble up, it's it's the it's the depths of your colon.

It's the depths of your colon, man.

I mean, that's I mean, that's actually biblical language.

But we use the word heart because that's Hebraic thinking.

But then he says, very interesting.

If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.

Guess what?

Guess what?

It's the most analytical people that struggle the most with this principle.

Because they keep thinking too much.

Yeah, but I'm supposed to renew my mind and all that.

Yeah, you're supposed to renew my mind as long as you renew it God's way.

And God's way is not rooted in tradition.

God's way is letting God speak through power in your life.

That's why in 1 Corinthians it says, don't depend on the traditions of men, but on the power of God.

It's letting yourself be open to the power of God.

It's your creative imagination.

Some people talk about being right brain.

Well, we know now in neurological studies that the right and the left brain are creative.

But let me just say this.

You should look it up.

In Isaiah, it talks about the fact that he whose mind, mind, listen, this is really important, whose mind is stayed on thee will be in perfect peace.

God will hold you in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.

That word mind means creative imagination.

All your study Bibles will show you that.

That means creative imagination.

That's where you speak in tongues.

That's where you speak in tongues.

It's you letting the creative imagination, inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit, take over.

It's still called the mind.

So for all you analytical guys out there and nerds, and we have a lot of nerds, we have an inordinate number of nerds at the road.

And I love that.

I love nerds.

Nerds are my favorite kind of people, okay?

But as a nerd, we that are kind of analytical, as we, and this reason, this is really why I believe it took me so long to get the gift of tongue.

But as I, and the only time I relaxed was in the shower, okay?

But letting the spirit calm and then being open to just letting him take over your tongue, you get it.

You get it.

Because that's the way the spirit works, and it's really, really exciting.

So this is why in Romans 8.26 it says, likewise, the Spirit helps in our weaknesses.

For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Now he who searches a heart, heart, okay, the abdomen, knows what the mind of the Spirit is.

So as you're open in prayer saying, God, pray through me, that's where that heavenly prayer language is so powerful in our lives.

Am I making any sense?

I think this works.

I think this is huge in the life of this church.

Because I'm inviting you into this great collective intimacy that we can have with the Spirit that is available to everybody.

You say, well, I don't have the gift of tongues, because it says in there, you know, some have the gift of tongues.

I'm not talking about public gift of tongues.

I'm talking about a private prayer language of intercession.

Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast.

We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org.

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