1. Humans cannot seek the will of the
Lord, but the Spirit helps us to seek the will of God (1 Cor 14:2).
“Likewise the Spirit helps us
in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very
Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words” (Rom 8:26).
The spirit of the world and the spirit of
men are contained within us. If the
believers are filled with the Spirit of the Lord, they will know the mind of
God and seek his will (1 Cor 2:16), but instead of being filled with the Spirit
of the Lord, those who belong to flesh—being influenced and guided by the
spirit of the world and of men—do not know the mind of Christ and consequently,
cannot seek his will.
What God desires to give us is something
we could neither have thought of, nor have our eyes seen (1 Cor 2:9). Therefore, if we pray seeking the will of the
Lord, we should pray in the following way: “O Lord, give me something I have
not thought about. Dear Lord, give me
something my eyes have not seen before.
O Lord, give me something I have never heard about.
It is often the case that what we see and
what we think are not the will of the Lord (Isa
55:8). Let’s go back and think of our
spiritual lives in the past. Did
everything happen in the way we have prayed?
It was probably not the will of God.
God has rather given us some things we have never thought about and some
things we have never imagined previously.
God did not provide me in the way I saw and thought about.
When I was battling tuberculosis in my
earlier years, I wanted to get well so badly that I would not mind becoming a
beggar, if I could be made healthy again.
Yet, God did not turn me into a beggar.
Could I stand before you and talk to you now, had I become a
beggar?
When we feel frustrated, at times we find
ourselves praying, “O God, take my soul away!”
When your husband pains you in heart, have you not ever prayed, “God,
even if he ends up on a hospital bed, please have him repent?” You certainly can pray in such ways. Yet, the Lord did not answer your prayers
according to the desires of your heart, right?
Had God responded to our prayers in ways we wanted, our life could have
ended hopelessly.
In the past, I prayed to God, “God, take
my life away!” Had God truly responded
to our prayers as we have prayed, I could not be here, writing to you at the
present moment. Why is it that we only
pray in such an emotional way? Since we
do not know how we could pray, and what we could ask for in our prayers, we
simply ask in such ways (Rom 8:26).
The language of human beings is a conduit
through which a spirit is being delivered.
Through the words of a serpent, the spirit of Satan, was delivered to
Eve, and according to Apostle Paul, the Bible states that the Spirit emerges in
the following:
“My speech and my
proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration
of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor 2:4).
Thus,
as Scripture says, “For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and
one confesses with the mouth and so is saved” (Rom 10:10) and “If you abide in
me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done
for you” (Joh 15:7), only when men make themselves as conduits through their
words, the presence of the Lord comes alive, and when conduits are not
constructed, the Spirit could not exist.
Since we do not know what to ask for, we could not open the spiritual
channel, and God could not provide us with our requests. Therefore, tongues is the mysterious channel
(secret) the Spirit opens up for us, of which we are not aware. That is why no one understands tongues, and
this is a way speaking to God spiritually:
“For those who speak in a
tongue do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody understands them,
since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit” (1 Cor 14:2).
2. Help Storing the Spiritual Inspiration Within
In
Matthew 12:35 is stated that the good person brings good things out of a good
treasure. We store things within, either
good things or evil things. Since God
the Father is the only one who is good, when we store up things of God, we
store up good things within (Mat 19:17).
We have to store things of God each day.
Keeping a status quo is not enough.
We have to pile up things of the Lord.
This is further to say that we would have to grow spiritually.
Would
there be any happiness when a man and a woman get married but live away from
each other? There would be no
anticipated happiness from the marriage flowing from such a union. It is not enough to live with a thought only
that my husband is alive somewhere.
Likewise, one may live with such an idea due to not knowing how to store
up good things like, “I am saved. I am
guaranteed for heaven; since I am to go to heaven when I die, I will make some
more money and live happily ever after,”
For
what reason did God say, “Remember your creator in the days of your youth” (Ecc
12:1)? Not only should we believe in
God, but we should also store up things of God within. Our body is the container holding the Spirit
and love of God. The more we fill
ourselves up with things of God, the more the precious creation work of God
appears outwardly. Being awake and
pouring ourselves in prayer is the only way possible to help us experience
that.
Jesus
said, “Be alert at all times and pray” (Luk 21:36). In order to store up good things of God, we
would always have to stay alert and pray.
By the amount of men’s notion, the notion of men enters us, we die
chasing after the world (the devil) and we get hurt by men. To prevent the worldly things to come into
us, we would have to be filled up only with the Spirit of God, the Words of
God, and the thoughts of God. Only then,
would we be full of the Spirit.
To
help avoid the temptation and wounds of the worldly people in the world, and to
stand before the Lord, we would have to stay alert and pray. Not only that we would have to believe God,
but we would also have to work out our own salvation every day (Phi 2:12).
The
mind of men is directly connected to a tongue.
When one has a heavy heart, one’s tongue could become stiffened; yet, as
his heart becomes lightened, his tongue could get soft. Therefore, by accepting Jesus as the Lord,
when a man finds peace and has the mind of Christ by the presence of the Spirit
in his life, he is to lift up the name of the Lord through the holy praise;
consequently, he is to naturally to offer a spiritual prayer through the Spirit
(Act 10:47; 1 Cor 2:16, 14:15).
3. By Telling of the Secret through Speaking in
Tongues, One is to Eliminate (Isa 4:4; Gal 5:17) the Thought of the Devil (Joh 13:2) and the Thought of the
World (2 Cor 4:4)
Our human body is a treasure in clay jars
holding our souls (2 Cor 4:7). Into this
earthen jar, three kinds of spirits continuously enter. Through the words of the world and the words
of men, the spirit of the world, the thought of the world and the thought of
men continuously come into us and get stored inside (Mat 12:35). In order to cast out the evil spirit
(activity) already stored up inside, one acknowledges and confesses one’s sin
and has to be washed by the blood of Jesus (1 Joh 1:9), being guided by the
Spirit. The Spirit of Jesus that helps
eliminate sin and the blood of Jesus that helps wash away sin, these two are
most necessary elements that need to be present in our spiritual life (Tit 3:5; Heb 9:12).
As we live in this world, the spirit of
the world and the spirit of men enter into our lives and get situated in us
without our having any knowledge of their presence, and we get wounded and
scared, though we did not desire them in us in the first place; thus, the Holy
Spirit is the spirit of burning and cleansing to thoroughly wash away and
remove them from us (Isa 4:4).
“Live by the Spirit, I say,
and do not gratify the desires of the flesh”
(Gal 5:16).
As
the thoughts of the world get piled up inside us, they certainly can weaken our
faith. As worries and concerns press
down on us, and as anxieties continue to be present in us, our faith gets
weakened, gradually even taking away our desire to pray. In the end, we could not even bring ourselves
to pray at all. Being weighed down by
worries and concerns, our prayers only engender more worries and concerns, and
we can easily end up not even feeling the presence of the Lord. We only feel God being so far away from us,
losing any confidence of His presence; this condition is created by the spirit
of the world (2 Cor 4:4).
To
prevent the spirit of the world from entering into our lives, we would have to
close our eyes and meditate upon the things above, that is, looking at the
resurrected Lord Jesus Christ and through him always offering a sacrifice of
praise to God (Psa 1:2; Col
3:1-2; Heb 13:15).
God
has given us self-awareness that can control the channel of our mind; thus, as
we open this mind channel, the spirit is to enter into us through that venue. In the Garden of Eden, the devil entered into
ourselves through the channel of mind Eve opened up to him (Gen 3:5-6). The thoughts of the devil enter into us
through the channel of our eyes and ears and then get stored inside us and
consequently, expressed to others; these thoughts of the devil dwelling within
us then control our being, that is, humans (Joh 13:2, 27). In the same way, God positively affects us
through the work of the Holy Spirit and provides us with faith, which will then
guide us to confess with the mouth, which leads us to be saved (Rom 10:10).
That
is the reason why Jesus had the people confesses with their mouths when he was
healing those who came out to be healed with faith in him. Jesus said, “Do you believe this? It will be done according to your faith” (Joh
11:25-27). When we confess with our
mouth, the spiritual channel gets opened up.
To
eliminate the spirit (the devil) is the work of the Holy Spirit. The more we speak in tongues being inspired
by the Spirit, the more we experience our thoughts and worries of the world
dissolving away, helping our minds and heads being freed from them. Even the believers who have difficulty in
praying for 5-10 minutes being captivated by the worldly thoughts, once they
are guided to pray in tongues, then see what happens to them afterwards? They can readily pray for 1-2 hours without
ceasing, and this is because the presence of the Holy Spirit washes away the
thoughts of this world. That is why the
more we pray in tongues, the more we experience our thoughts and desires of the
world being washed away.
For
an example, there are those who lose sleep over insignificant matters,
constantly battling anxieties. These
people tend to be the ones with the creative imagination, which is sent in the
form of worries and stresses by the devil.
However, when these people pray much in tongues, these phenomena will
gradually disappear. For those believers
who spend much time on speaking in tongues with faith, they can easily come out
of traps, even when they get tempted.
When
you pray in tongues often, your sensitivity towards the thoughts of the world,
or your mindfulness of the words of other people, become less keen. Men usually are much more interested in the
words of other people, and they always come back to souls; that is why people
worry over even small matters when they do not get acknowledged by the others.
There
is a big difference between the believers who pray much in tongues and those
who spend much time speaking the words of the world. The same principle applies to our faith. Even when we hear in the presence of the
Spirit the words of God asking us “Do an offering for church building
construction, or an offering of thanksgiving,” those constantly under the
influence of the worldly thoughts will not be able to respond positively, being
pushed down by the spirit of the world.
On the other hand, those with clean and purified thoughts being washed
daily by their prayers in speaking in tongues, when they are told to do the
same in the presence of the Spirit, they are able to offer that offering being
freed from the pressures of the world.
For those without any experience of praying in tongues, this speaking in
tongues may appear to be a laughing matter, but praying in tongues cleans and
purifies our souls, and this becomes the most wonderful experience for those
who speak in tongues.
“If, therefore, the whole
church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers
enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind?” (1 Cor 14:23).
When
I was in seminary, they told us that, unless we spoke in tongues, we could
never be ordained as pastors. Students
worked industriously, speaking in tongues.
However, as time passed by and students repeated the same prayers many
times over, some students began to doubt the value of speaking in tongues. Therefore, we would need to be reminded of
the importance of praying in tongues by reading the Word of the Lord. Regardless what we do, when we have obedient
faith to the Word of God given to us, tongues only then becomes useful for us
(1 Cor 12:7).
Apostle
Paul gave thanks to God for speaking in tongues more than all the others
(1 Cor 14:18).
The Bible tells us not to forbid speaking in tongues (1 Cor 14:39); yet,
the culture in today’s churches does exactly that and not value tongues all
together. Thus, we lose out much in our
spirituality. It is because we base
things according to the value judgment of the world.
“For God’s foolishness is
wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1
Cor 1:25).
Since
speaking in tongues helps burn away the thoughts of the world, we would accept
every one of God’s promises without any reservations and consequently receive
much blessing from them, and we will fully accept and say “Amen” to every words
of the Lord
(2 Cor 1:20).
People
with the rational mind read the words of God through the common sense of the
world, and for this reason they are often used as simple tools of the
devil. There was a man at a certain
church, who came to worship with a Bible commentary and tried to critique the
pastor’s sermon whether the message matches to the biblical interpretation
given in the commentary. Instead of
listening to the messages to have themselves be touched and inspired by the
words of God, when people begin to judge and criticize them, they themselves
will get their judgment and measurement in the end (Mat 7:1-2). As we find ourselves speaking much in
tongues, these undesirable character traits will be eliminated from within.
4. Through Speaking in Tongues (the Spiritual
Fellowship) We Are Delivered from the Fellowship of Men (Isa 2:22)
“For those who speak in a
tongue do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody understands them,
since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit”
(1 Cor 14:2).
Once
the thoughts of the world and of men come into our minds and stay within us,
even when we close our eyes to pray, the images of our wives or husbands
emerge, interfering with our prayers.
When being weighed down by the things of the world, or of men, the work
and inspiration of the Spirit begin to gradually run dry (Gal 5:17).
As
men being spiritual beings are to live by a spirit, we are to take in any kind
of spirit (1 Cor 2:12). When we are not
filled spiritually within, we feel uncertainties, consequently leading us to
seek something to fill that vacuum, either from a video program, a newspaper,
or novel; yet, when we indulge ourselves in speaking in tongues, we can escape
from the aforementioned traps.
As
we pray often in tongues, we will distant ourselves away from talking with
other people, watching TV programs, or reading newspapers, and we will prefer
and enjoy having fellowship with God (Rom 14:17). As time passes by with us speaking in
tongues, we begin to experience divine peace and power within (2 Tim 1:7). When people focus on solely having fellowship
with other human beings, they are bound to encounter trials and receive wounds
from each other. When the liking solely
arises out of the relationship among human beings, we then begin to dislike
worship and prayer, eventually causing us to distance ourselves away from
having intimate fellowship with God.
Though
a pastor is just another human being, since he is a channel of God’s grace, a
relationship with pastors are not in the same category as the fellowship among
humans exclusively. Therefore, the
relationship with pastors should be based on faith having its roots in the
words of God (Heb 13:17). When people
begin to critique their pastors from their human self-centeredness, whether
they like and respect their pastors or not, this will not positively affect
their relationship. Only through the
relationship of faith based on the words of God, the spiritual channel gets
opened up (1 Pet 5:5).
In
churches we often struggle, not by material things, but by our relationships
with other Christians. Therefore,
speaking in tongues helps us by cutting off the relationship with people, which
can be a hindrance to our faith; thus, when we pray much in tongues, our
relationship with other church members will not be a bother to our faith,
because this will help us develop our relationships based on the words of God,
rather assisting us to have relationships in the presence of the Holy Spirit
(Eph 4:29-32).
People can easily bond with one another
and be united. A group of women forming
a woman’s mission committee, a group of young men and women joining a single
Christian group, elderly men coming together under the umbrella of men’s
mission group, eventually working within an individual group created according
to the needs of gender, interest, and social status. They set up their annual ministry plan and
invite a pastor to come to their activity gatherings and ask the pastor to
share a message with them. When this
happens in a church setting, even pastors are viewed as invited guests and they
themselves are the main characters in their functions. Since everything is decided and chiefly done
in human relationships, pastors are treated not as spiritual leaders but more
like dogs with nowhere to go, having no part in the group’s functions. Instead of honoring the pastor’s guidance,
they insist on their opinions. In such a
setting, the pastor cannot function as the channel of the words of God. Since people become intimate with one another
through their human relationships, their relationship with the pastor can get
easily pushed out.
Spiritual churches are the ones that move
by the words of God with pastors being in the center. The churches should be built on the vertical
relationship with God and pastors up on the top, not on the horizontal
relationship, where the emphasis falls on human relationships with one another
(Heb 13:17). To build the churches based
on the vertical relationship, the tendency of people getting together mainly
with their favorable people should disappear.
Speaking in tongues helps create this kind of environment.
People being too keenly conscientious of
other people have difficulty praying in tongues. The more we are conscientious of others, the
devil works through these people, and the presence of the Holy Spirit will
disappear (Gen 3:6; Isa
14:13-14). People praying deeply in
tongues do not pay much attention to other people or the devil but focus on the
Lord. It is because people with the
mind-characteristics of little children are easily affected and inspired by the
work of the Holy Spirit (Mat 11:25, 19:14).
Women rather than men, unknowledgeable
women than educated women, young single women rather than elderly ladies, if
the choice were to be made exclusively among unknowledgeable women, would be
inspired more readily and speedily as they emphasize being submissive to God,
less emphasizing on their own opinions.
This is one of the reasons why God
chooses the foolish and the lowly rather than the wise and the educated (1 Cor
1:27-29). To understand this spiritual
principle is to know and reap the benefits of speaking in tongues (1 Cor 14:4).
5. Weighing Down Soul Being Set Free
“Be on guard so that your
hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of
this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the
face of the whole earth. Be alert at all
times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that
will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luk 21:34-36).
The
Lord said that at the end of the age people would have to stay alert and pray,
not to have their faith being trapped in dissipation and drunkenness and the
worries of this life.
Humans have a natural instinct seeking pleasure. That’s why they are being dragged into the
world. That is the reason the Lord
provided us with an alternative joy that can replace the pleasures of this
world.
“For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17).
The
worldly people seek the pleasures of eating and drinking (Matt. 24:38), but God
blesses you with the joy of righteousness, that is, the joy of peace that comes
from being set free from all sins, the joy of divine presence that God is with
us, the joy that comes when we are embraced by God having all our pressures in
life situations lifted off, and the joy that provides us with unlimited courage
and power that enables us overcome all our obstacles (Heb 1:9).
When
I was a student at a Full Gospel Church seminary in Dae-Cho-Dong in Seoul, I
had a chance to witness at a city-run public wellness recovery hospital in
Seo-Dae-Moon. There I met a young man
named Jin Soon Han being treated for his tuberculosis. He formed a music band and traveled together
all over Korea, even indulging himself in alcohol, drugs and other
habit-forming things. From my witness
for Christ, he opened up his heart and accepted Jesus as his Lord and
Savior. While praying diligently, he was
blessed with the gift of praying in tongues.
He once told me that, “Brother Lee, after being blessed with the gift of
speaking in tongues, whenever I pray in tongues, I am as thrilled and happy as
I was doing drugs.”
He
was absolutely right. The worldly people
sacrifice everything for a temporary pleasure, but the Holy Spirit blesses the
souls being oppressed by sin and the devil and gives them the joy from heaven
above. When the author was in the midst
of despair being weighed down by illness, after being blessed with the prayer
in tongues for the first time in my life I recall being so joyful that I felt
like sitting on a cloud having such a divine peace and spiritual ecstasy.
In
my church we had several incidences of people with alcoholic problems being
freed from their chronic drinking problems after having the experience of
speaking in tongues. Moreover, there was
a church member always feeling anxious for being possessed by an evil
spirit. After experiencing prayer in
tongues, I have heard him sharing the story that he was completely released
from the control and influence of that evil spirit. The most hateful thing by an evil spirit
dwelling in an insane person is the prayer being spoken in tongues (Mat 12:28).
The
Lord God is God of salvation, and he provides us with practical ways we can
receive salvation. Everyone with the
spiritual experience will agree and attest to the importance and usefulness of
praying in tongues towards the ministry and the individuals.
6. To Help Us Maintain the Spiritual Inspiration
To Be Guided by the Spirit Is To Fill Us Up Spiritually
“On the other
hand, those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and
encouragement and consolation. Those who
speak in a tongue build up themselves, but those who prophesy build up the
church (1 Cor 14:3-4).
The
reason people in the world continuously lose out is because they do not see the
real things (creation, the original world) but only see the vain images (empty
things, fruitless things) (Heb 11:1-2).
The vain things are those our eyes can see, things we can imagine, and
things of greed and lust in our hearts (1 Joh 2:15-16).
On
the other hand, speaking in tongues is to close our eyes and pray, being led by
the inspiration of the Spirit; this helps eliminate the vain imagination and
the desires of the flesh entering into us through our heads and minds, because
praying in tongues is guided by the mind of the Holy Spirit and inspiration of
the Spirit.
When
certain things happen to people, being influenced by the thoughts of the world
already indwelling in the minds and being confused by their mind perceptions of
liking certain things and of not liking other things, people wander off in
confusion. Yet, the spiritual mind,
always staying alert and praying in the presence of the Spirit and being washed
clean in the Spirit, that kind of spiritual mind will be ready to respond to
the call of the Lord under all circumstances and will be able to receive help
from the Lord who will provide the way out of difficult situations.
“All who cleanse themselves
of the things I have mentioned will become special utensils, dedicated and
useful to the owner of the house, ready for every good work” (1 Tim 2:21).
During
my 30 years of ministry at one church, all kinds of incidents took place. Since nobody can anticipate about things that
will happen in the future, as a minister I always had to be ready and anxious, and when someone
said something, I did not know whether or not I should accept their words as a
face value. Under these kinds of anxious
and worried states, I was, at often times, pressed to make uncertain
decisions. The longer I served at this
church, due to negative things that happened in the past I was easily pulled
back into the past.
Whenever
I was thrown into such a state, the one source that gave me the transcending
attitude, courage and the determined power was the voice of God. Despite all weaknesses and faults, the voice
of the Lord helped me stay put in my position as a clergy.
Throughout
the history of Israelites and of the early Christian church, though all kinds
of events, which were beyond the human control, had happened, whenever the
words of God were present together, all problems worked out nicely in the end (Jer 1:4, 2:1).
7. Worshipping God in Spirit and Praying in
Spirit (Joh 4:24; 1 Cor
14:26, 28)
The Lord Jesus said, “God is spirit, and
those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (Joh 4:24). In this passage, Jesus clearly states that in
spirit we must worship. The spirit of
the Son is ‘the spirit of the fear of the Lord” (Isa 11:2).
In
the Old Testament era, according to certain customs and procedures worship is
offered at a certain place, at a certain time and through a certain order, but
after the event of the Pentecostal presence of the Spirit, worship can be
offered at any place and at any time, whenever being led by the inspiration and
guidance of the Holy Spirit (Joh 4:21-22).
This is further to say, worship in spirit means the Spirit being the
central figure in worship, and we being inspired by the Spirit is to worship
God.
Through
the four gospels in the New Testament, the main character has always been the
Lord. Where the Lord went, that was
where the disciples and people went out, following him, and everyone listened
and worked in the way the Lord commanded.
Likewise, in Acts after the reigning of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost,
the Holy Spirit instructed and moved about, and people spoke in tongues,
witnessed Christ, repented and healed the sick (Act 13:2-3).
In
reality, when people gathered together for worship, being led by the Spirit
they worshipped God. In the 14th
chapter of 1 Corinthians, the contents of worship in the early church appear:
Now, brothers and sisters, if
I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I speak to you
in some revealation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?” (1 Cor 14:6).
“what should be done then, my
friends? When you come together, each
one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up” (1
Cor 14:26).
In
today’s worship order, spiritual gifts (sacred things) are nearly omitted, and
there remain only hymn singing, prayer, and teaching of the words of God; yet,
in the early Christian church their worship was filled with speaking in
tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, revelation, etc., and chiefly the
elements of the spiritual gifts.
The
passage from 1 Corinthians 14:23-24 states that “all speak in tongues…all
prophecy.” During their worship in the
early church, everyone participated in worship using their spiritual gifts (1
Cor 14:26-32). Such worship can be
described as worship being led by the inspiration and guidance of the Holy
Spirit. In another words, the worship at
the early Christian church was not a religious ritualistic program, but in
their worship were present signs and wonders, repentance and sacrificial
commitment, and the joy of salvation and the presence of salvation from the
Lord (Act 2:43-47).
Therefore,
it is the same when we say worshipping God in spirit and praising his name in
spirit. As it is aforementioned, “The
Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pay as we ought, but
that very Spirit intercedes with signs too deep for words” (Rom. 8:26) and “For
those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God…they are
speaking mysteries in the Spirit” (1 Cor 14:2).
Hymns
can be sung in spirit. We hear the
phrase, “Poems, Praise and Sacred Songs.”
Poems and hymns are praise sung through the conscious mind; yet, sacred
songs are praise sung in the inspiration of the Spirit. In Paul’s epistles, sacred things are
referred as spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:1).
As
you are well aware of, the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians is known to
us the chapter of spiritual gifts.”