By Harald Bredesen, August 12th, 1983
I am going to speak this morning on the subject of sharing Jesus, the Baptizer. It is marvellous to lead a soul to Christ, it even more marvellous and I might say nine times more marvellous to lead someone to Jesus, Saviour and Baptizer.
You say why do you say nine times more? Well, I am paraphrasing the Superior Apostolic Fathers in Rome who say that pentecostalism is spreading all over the world nine times faster than any other religious movement. That means a pentecostal is nine times more capable of spiritually reproducing himself than a non-pentecostal and therefore when you lead a soul to Christ as Saviour and Baptizer, you are leading hopefully at least nine souls to Christ in that moment.
I thought that I might share with you how I answer questions on that subject. Paul said, "Let everyone of us, let every man be able to give a reason for the hope that is within him." And that is not only the hope that is within us as Jesus as Saviour but also as Jesus as Baptizer. I am sure you have found that when people find you are "one of those," it is good to be able to share the reason for the hope that is within you, isn't it? I have had frequent occasion to do so. In my world tours, I've shared Jesus the Baptizer on every continent except Arctica and Antarctica. Many of these sharings have been in theological seminaries and they are the most difficult places of all to share. The problem with theological seminaries is that so often the students there are not as much interested in knowing Him Who is the Truth as they are in ideas about the truth. I think, for example, of Andover Newton Seminary, I suppose it and Perkins Theological Seminary, the Methodist seminary, are perhaps the most liberal seminaries in the world. When I went to Andover Newton Seminary, I shared with them an experience I had in Minneapolis when Dr. Luther Gerlack, the head of the Department of Anthropology, followed me around like a little puppy dog and quietly invited me to his home for breakfast. He said the reason he was so fascinated by me was that he was doing a series of researches to find out what it is that gives a movement a life-changing, bridge-burning dynamic. That's a good description of real Christianity. It gives you a life-changing, bridge-burning dynamic. What is it that will take a man whose attention is scattered many different directions, or focussed in a particular direction, completely turn him around, and totally focus him in the opposite direction. He said, "In my researches, I find that standard catholicism doesn't have it. Standard-brand protestantism doesn't have it. There are three groups that do have it: communism, voodooism and pentecostalism." And I said, "Because all three are baptized by a spirit. The first two by evil spirits; and the third by the Holy Spirit." He said, "I believe you are right. Let me play you two of my research tapes." And he played me one of a voodoo incantation. He said, "You sense the power here, there is real dynamic. But it is oppression, and you go out of there feeling depressed. Now," he said, "here is a research tape of a pentecostal camp meeting. You sense that there is at least as much dynamic, but it is releasing. These people are being set free from their addictions." And I said, "Brother, thou art not far from the Kingdom!"
When I go to seminaries, they ask why we talk so much about Jesus. Why not God? And we reply, "Because Jesus is THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life. He is the only Way to God. There is one foundation, other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus." And when we go to a Bible-believing (up-to-a-point) seminary, they ask, "Why do you talk so much about the Holy Spirit? Why don't you talk about Jesus?" And we reply, "Because it is only through the Holy Spirit that you can know Jesus as He really is." His main work is glorifying and revealing Jesus, and it is only through the baptism in the Holy Spirit that we are equipped to share Him. When John the Baptist, standing in the waters of the Jordan, introduces Jesus on the stage of world history, he describes His two most important roles:
1. "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."
2. "It is He, Who shall baptize with the Holy Spirit."
Lamb of God and Baptizer with the Holy Spirit. Those are the two most important roles that Jesus has. And I think it is significant that in only two of the gospels is Jesus introduced as the Lamb of God, but in all four He is introduced as the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit. And so if we present Him as Lamb of God, not also as Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, we are presenting only half a gospel.
Again, they ask us, "Why do you talk so much about the gifts of the Spirit? Why don't you talk about the fruit of the Spirit? Why don't you talk to us about love? Love, that is what we want." And we reply, "Because every gift of the Spirit is God's loving provision for the incurably ill. Discernment of spirits is God's loving provision for the demon-possessed. The word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, are God's loving provisions for those who want to know His will more perfectly. Now, if we really love, that will mean we will want to have every loving provision for human need, isn't that right?"
Here is a man dying in the desert of thirst, and he looks up at you with glassy eyes, and through his parched lips he gasps, "Water, water!" And you stand there and you beam down on him and you say, "Brother, I'm not going to give you water, I'm just going to stand here and love you." If your love is real, it will want to respond to his need of water, right?
Again in these Bible-believing (up-to-a-point) seminaries they ask us, in fact the moment I throw this discussion open for questions, almost inevitably, the first question is, "Do I have to speak in tongues?" And you know from the expressions on their faces just how anxious they are to speak in tongues. The answer to that is, you do not have to, you get to. It is an unspeakable privilege, and that is not just a pun. They say, "But doesn't Paul say that tongues is the least of the gifts? Doesn't he say that he would rather speak five words of understanding than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue?" And you say, "Yes, he does say that. But unless you distinguish Paul's conception of the roles of tongues, he will be found to contradict himself. For it is true that in one place he says, "I'd rather speak five words with my understanding than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." So if that is the case, Paul, why would you ever want to speak in tongues at all? If just five words with one's understanding is worth more than ten thousand words in unknown tongues, what could be a greater waste of time than to speak with tongues? But on the other hand, he says, "I speak in tongues more than ye all." In the Greek it is "more than all the rest of you put together." Again, Paul says, "I would that ye all spoke with tongues." So then, Paul, are you contradicting yourself? Not at all. He is speaking of two different uses of tongues.
In private I use my devotional tongue, by means of which my spirit speaks directly to God above and beyond the power of my mind to understand or obstruct. In my devotions then, I use tongues for prayer. But in the church, tongues is for the edification of the Body, and therefore tongues must be interpreted. "But," they persist, "doesn't Paul say that tongues is the least of the gifts?" And you ask, "Well, where do you get that?" They say, "He lists them all and leaves tongues to the very last." And you reply, "Well, then, by that criteria, love is the least of the fruits. Because Paul says, "Now abideth faith, hope and love." So love is the least, right? He mentions it the last. "Oh, no. He tells us that the greatest of these is love." So there is an ascending order as well as a descending order of importance in enumeration.
I believe, friends, that it is time that we make a point that tongues is the most basic and very possibly the most foundational and, I believe, the most important of all the gifts. The reason I say this is when a movement discovers a truth, as we have in the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking with tongues, and later on that truth is assimilated into the whole body of truth, maybe at first we tend to over-emphasize it; but the danger is that we tend eventually to down-play it. I had a part in Catherine Marshall's baptism in the Holy Spirit, and I was so pleased when she came out with her books, "Beyond Ourselves" and "The Helper," and she has done a great deal for the Full Gospel. So I could hardly believe my ears when I heard her addressing a conference when she said, "We have to mature and go beyond speaking in tongues." Now that is true in one sense, we don't want to stay put ever, but we will never get beyond our need of this gift.
Why do I believe that tongues is the most basic, the most important, of the gifts?
First, I want to say why I think it is the most important of the gifts. What is the chief end of man according to the first question of the Presbyterian Westminster Catechism? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And of all the nine gifts, which one is specifically for the purpose of glorifying God, that is to say, worshipping and enjoying Him, that is to say, communing with Him? Which of the nine gifts is given specifically for that purpose? Speaking in tongues, worshipping in tongues!
I believe it is not only the most important but it is the most foundational. When you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you enter into a great treasure room. And there, on a shelf, are these gifts, miracles, discernment of spirits, and these other gifts that take perhaps more faith. Now how are you and I going to appropriate these other gifts? Martin Luther says, "Faith is the arm that reaches out to take the gift that God offers." The problem with our arm of faith is that it is so weak and stubby. And that is why God has as the first of the nine gifts given us the one gift that is specifically first for edifying God, building Him up, exalting Him, and secondly, for building ourselves us. We edify God, don't we? We build Him up as we are worshipping Him. Secondly, we build ourselves up. To build our arm of faith so we can reach out and take whatever other gifts or provision of ministry are needed. And that is why those of you who speak freely in tongues, when a very great need is presented, what do you instinctively do? You instinctively start to pray in tongues, don't you? Why? Instinctively you are building up your arm of faith so it can reach out and take the ministry that is needed. That is why, though tongues is the last which Paul mentions, it is the first which God gives. It was the first He gave on the Day of Pentecost.
People ask if any gift is evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. No, it is not. Supposing on the Day of Pentecost there had been great miracles of healing of the sick, would that have demonstrated a new dispensation? Supposing there had been just prophecy and only prophecy, supposing there had been the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom? Would any of these gifts have demonstrated that God was ushering in a new dimension of the Holy Spirit? No.
Why not? Because they had all been manifested before in the New Testament, through Jesus and through the Holy Spirit. And that is why God had to coin a brand new gift, so as to demonstrate a whole new dimension.
Another reason why God gives tongues first is out of His own personal yearning. You know how a father yearns for the first "Papa!" of the newborn, and your heavenly Father is yearning to hear your spirit. He is tired of hearing your mind. He is yearning to hear your spirit. The only time we are told in the Scriptures our spirit speaks, our spirit prays, is in terms of speaking in tongues.
Why does God give this gift first? Also because this is God's provision for mental health. Paul says, "Who know what is in the mind of a man save the spirit of the man that is in him." If he had said, "Who knows what is in a man's mind except that man's own mind," he would have been on faulty ground psychiatrically, wouldn't he? Because our minds do not know what is in our minds. We do not know consciously all the things we are harbouring subconsciously that are destroying us from within, suppressed in the subconscious; memories that are submerged, that are so painful that they are pushed way down, suppressed in the subconscious. Now psychiatry is right in knowing that these have to be brought up and out, and they call it catharsis, and they try by various, sometimes dangerous means, to speed the process. But all Paul says is that God has His own catharsis.
Who knows what is in the mind of a man save the spirit of the man that is within him? Our mind doesn't know consciously, but our spirit knows. The problem with our spirit is that it is bound and dumb. The only time that the Word of God says our spirit speaks, our spirit prays, is in terms of speaking in tongues. So now this spirit which has been bound and dumb, knowing but not being able to articulate, is given a voice. And it can dredge all these things from down here and get them up and out to God.
Speaking and praying in tongues is one of God's main means of making us spiritual instead of carnal, instead of soulish Christians. What is a soulish Christian? There are three kinds of Christians, corresponding to the trinity that is us. We are body, soul and spirit. The carnal Christian is one in which the body is dominant. Meaning fleshly. Or the soul many be dominant. What is our soul? Our soul is our personhood. That which makes us a person. What is essential to be a person? Mind, emotions, and will. If a person has had a total lobotomy, he cannot think. He is not a person, is he? If he cannot experience emotion, he is not a person. Unless he is capable of feeling love and joy, fear, hatred, he is not a person. If his will is outside of himself, he is not a person, he is a robot. Now that is our soul. In some people the mind is dominant. If it doesn't illumine the experience it examines, then that experience is deemed of no value. Other people measure reality in terms of their feelings. Their feelings are dominant. And in other persons their wills are dominant. They are unbroken. Now if any of these three is dominant in us, then we are a soulish Christian. How are we going to get our spirit from the bottom of the triangle to the apex, so our spirit can dominate the rest of our being under the influence and direction of the Holy Spirit?
The way to do it is to edify our spirit. And how do we edify it? There are two things we are told in the Word that edify our spirit so it can take its place of ascendancy and make us spiritual Christians, and those are the Word of God and speaking in tongues.
These same people say, "Well, when Paul says a person speaks with tongues he just edifies himself," as if that were selfish. Now you ask that person, "I see you are carrying a Bible. Why do you read the Bible?" "Well, it edifies me." And we don't say, "You are being very selfish." The fact is, we can't edify others until we have been edified ourselves.
So how do we edify our spirits? By praying in tongues. What do you say to a person who says he has spoken in tongues but it doesn't do anything for him? I would say nothing succeeds like success. The Word of God says that "he that prays in an unknown tongue edifies himself." And if you believe the Word of God, then you have to believe that when you pray in tongues, you are edifying yourself, whatever you feel. There is significance in the fact that Paul, the same man who said, "I labored more abundantly than they all" (all the apostles), also said, "I speak with tongues more than all of you."
Yongghi Cho says, "Take away my gift of tongues and you rob me of half my power."
I think it is very good, friends, when you bring somebody into the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, that you emphasize speaking in tongues is not a soulish operation. You may feel nothing, even the first time you speak in tongues, and that is why so many people feel like second-class citizens in the Kingdom, because they received the baptism and they spoke in tongues but they did not feel anything. It is important to mention that this is a spirit operation rather than a soulish operation.
We take Jesus as our Baptizer exactly as we take Him as our Saviour. By grace, through faith, with thanksgiving. By grace. What is Grace? Grace is the unearned, undeserved, unmerited, loving kindness of God. How many of you are aware of the fact that you are unworthy of the least of God's gifts? That is the qualification, isn't it, for receiving anything from God. By grace. So every reason that Satan will give you why you are unworthy for the baptism in the Holy Spirit is the very reason why you need it. Now friends, it is important, when you are dealing with souls, to deal with this thing of sense of unworthiness. People say, "The baptism in the Holy Spirit, I'm not worthy of that." But that is a little bit like saying, "Well, I'm not good enough to receive Jesus." It is by grace. The fact that you are not victorious enough, not deep enough, not high enough, all are reasons why you need to receive. The only thing He does ask of you is that you hate the sins that make Him mourn; that you take sides with God against sin in your life. By grace, through faith. We have already defined faith. What is it? Faith is the arm that reaches out to take the gift that God offers. But you know many times our prayers are an insult to God. Why is it wrong when you are on a difficult mission to pray, "Jesus, please go with me." Why is that wrong? Because He promised to go with us, to be with us always. And so to plead with Him to do something He's already promised to do is to plead with Him not to be a liar. We should pray, "Jesus, I'm doing on this difficult mission, but You are going with me. You said You would. Thank You, Jesus." Right?
We have as definite a promise that God will give us His Spirit as we have that He will be with us always. "How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask." Who will your heavenly Father give His Spirit to? If you ask Him, will He give it to you? How do you know He will? He promised. You see, you get people to stand on the Word of God. When I lead a person to Christ, I always give him a verse to stand on. For example, though it is primarily for the church, my favourite is, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." You say, "What is Jesus doing here?" And the candidate for salvation says, "Well, He is standing at the door of my heart seeking to come in, saying if I will open the door, He will come in." And I say, "If you open the door, will He come in?" He says, "Yes." I say, "How do you know He will?" "Because He says He will." And after they receive Christ, I don't say, "Do you feel any different?" I say, "Jesus said if you would open the door, He would come in. You have opened the door so is He in or is He a liar?" "He is in." "How do you know He is in?" "He said He would come in." You see? Get people to build their faith not on feelings, but on the Word of God.
So I would like to ask you this question. Who does God say He will give His Spirit to? If you ask Him, will He give you His Holy Spirit, or is He a liar? He will give you His Holy Spirit. How do you know He will? Because He said He would.
You know how the Charismatic Renewal began in the Catholic Church. It began with the miracle at the well. Three professors had read "The Cross and the Switchblade," and "They Speak With Other Tongues," and in so doing had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. They took thirty students to a retreat centre called "The Ark and the Dove." They ran out of water when the well went dry. These professors said, "If Jesus were here, and He is here, He would fill this well for us. Here is a chance to demonstrate it." And so they went into the chapel and they prayed to Jesus to fill that well for them. And then they didn't go and turn on the faucet to see if Jesus answered prayer. By faith they thanked Him and praised Him that He had answered prayer. And then they turned on the faucet and the water gushed out. And in the words of one of the boys that was there, "When we saw that gushing faucet, such awe came over us that on that morning that we were all converted, and before we left that retreat, we were all filled with the Holy Spirit." That was the beginning of what we now know as the Catholic Renewal Movement which now affects some ten million people.
When was that well filled? Was it filled when they believed, or when they turned on the faucet? When they believed. Turning on the faucet was the privilege the full well gave them. When is a person filled with the Spirit? When he speaks in tongues, or when he believes? Speaking in tongues is the privilege the full well infilling gives you.
"But," you say, "aren't you going to pray that God will give me the gift of tongues? Isn't that the New Testament evidence of the baptism?" It certainly is, but I am not going to pray that God will give it to you. You know why? Because it is part of the package. When you order a pair of shoes, you do not say, "By the way, would you throw in a set of tongues," do you? Tongues is a part of the gift package you have just received from the Holy Spirit. So instead of praying that God will give you something that you already have, I am going to admonish you, in the words of Paul, to "stir up the gift" that is within you. "Stir up?" You say. "You mean I have to do something? I thought that when I spoke in tongues, it would be all of God, and nothing of me." How spiritual! How humble! It's heresy! That's the way demons want it. All of themselves, nothing of the person. The unclean spirit wants to come to the medium, violate her personality, speak through her, and when the medium comes to, she doesn't know what hit her. It was all of the unclean spirit, nothing of the person. But this morning, friends, you have nothing to do with an unclean spirit, but with the Holy Spirit. And He hasn't come to violate your personality, but to liberate it. Not to possess you, but to fill you.
We never think of a spiritual Christian as being possessed by the Holy Spirit. He does not possess, He fills. Demons possess. He fills. He has not come to possess you, but to fill you. Not to drive you or compel you, as a demon would, but to release you. To release that poor dumb, bound spirit of yours. To take that step of partnership with you with His Spirit which is speaking in tongues. Because the Holy Spirit does not want zombies, He wants partners. He does not want mediums, He wants partners. He does not want robots, He want partners.
You, say, "Is this Scriptural?" Name me one miracle that Jesus ever performed when others were present which did not involve partnership. When He was going to raise Lazarus three days dead from the grave, did He do that all by Himself? No. What did Jesus do? He said, "Roll away the stone." Would it have been any more difficult for Jesus to have rolled away that stone with a word than to raise that corpse three days dead with a word? It would not. Why then did He say, "You roll away the stone"? Because He wanted them to have a part in it. He wanted them to take a step of faith. When Peter was going to walk on the water, did Jesus hoist him out of the boat and put one of Peter's feet in front of the other? Peter could do that himself. Peter had to do everything that he could do himself, except the one thing he could not do, and that was to keep from sinking. And that is where Jesus came in.
We have to go ahead as far as we can in the natural so often before God takes over in the supernatural. When Jesus was going to feed the five thousand, did He say, "Folks, stand over there, watch me do my thing, it will be all of me and nothing of you, and I'll get all the glory"? Is that what He said? No, that is not the kind of glory He wants. Jesus' glory is not to do it all by Himself. Jesus' glory is to release us for partnership with Himself. Aren't you glad He is that kind of God? Aren't you glad Christianity is not just a spectator sport? So Jesus says, "How many loaves have you got? Lay on the line what you have. You are going to furnish the raw materials. You are going to be a partner with Me in this miracle."
At the wedding at Cana, did Jesus make that wine out of nothing? No, He told the servants, "Fill the jars with water and draw some out and take it to the master of ceremonies. You are going to be partners with Me in this miracle."
On the day of Pentecost, does it say they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit spoke with tongues? No. Who spoke with tongues? They spoke with tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. They spoke. They expelled their breath through their vocal cords, they made the sound, the raw material, and He helped them with the utterance. It was a partnership. All human speech consists of two factors. The raw material, the sound made by our breath as we expel it through our vocal cords, and the articulation, the fashioning of that sound into words. Our part is to furnish the raw material, the sound. His part is to help us with the utterance. "They spoke as the Spirit gave utterance." You say, "So I have to make some sounds. What sounds shall I make?" Well, please do make some sound because no one was ever heard to speak in tongues in silence.
Number two, don't be stingy. Don't say, "Ah." Whatever sound you make, keep it coming. If they had poured out one drop of water at the wedding, how many drops of wine would they have received? With what measure you mete, it shall be measured unto you again. So whatever sound you make, keep it coming.
Do not listen to yourself. There is no enemy of God-consciousness like self-consciousness. Can you imagine a baby learning to talk say, "Mama, mama, oh I can't say that, that's not a language. Papa, oh that's not a language!" That child doesn't care what he sounds like. He just hugs his daddy's neck and prattles away. Would you be that child-like?
Do not speak one word known to your mind. As long as you speak words known to your mind, what will find expression? Your mind. What is going to be left bound and dumb? Your spirit. I am reminded of what Dr. Robert Johnson said to me after I was through ministering. "Harald, I've decided you are an anglo-glossal surgeon." And I said, "What in the world is that?" He said, "When a child is born tongue-tied, this string at the base of the tongue known as the frenulum must be stretched or severed, or it will hinder his chewing or speech. In terms of what you have been saying, we are all born into the family of God tongue-tied. Our tongue is tied to our mind with all its limitations. It can only express that which our mind has previously conceived of, and meanwhile our spirit, that part of us which is made for communion with God, is left bound and dumb. Apparently in this experience, God severs the frenulum, He looses the tongue from its bondage to the mind, so our spirit can make full use of the tongue in communicating directly with God."
Would some of you like to have your frenulum severed this morning? Some of you have had it stretched, but this morning you will get it severed. You say, if I can't sit here in silence, if I can't speak words known to my mind, what in the world am I going to say? I'm not going to tell you what to say, but I do want to share what happened to me. I found myself saying, "Abba, abba, abba," like a baby learning to talk. It was so embarrassing, but I was so desperate. This was way back in 1946. To my knowledge, there was no other historic pastor who had received this experience and survived in a historic church. So it was like jumping off a cliff. But I knew I just had to have this power of God. And I kept on. "Abab, abab, papa, papa," and suddenly it dawned on me, "You have not received the spirit of bondage, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry 'Abba,' - 'Dear Daddy,' to the Lord of the universe." He is the "Abba, Papa" Spirit. Now as a Spirit-filled child of God by faith, you have the "Abba, Papa" privilege, and like a little child you climb up into the lap of your heavenly Daddy. Feel His loving arms around you. Look up into His smiling face, hug His neck, and prattle away. Tell Him how much you love Him in any sound but English. And the moment you are willing to give Him that raw material, the moment you are willing to make sounds that your mind does not know, that will be the raw material He will help you fashion into a language that will glorify Him.
Alright, now friends, I am coming now to what for many of you might be the most important part of this teaching, for lack of which I went through a wilderness. I'm glad I did so you can be spared from having to go through it. Jesus told two parables about sowers. In the first, the fowls of the air pluck up the seed as soon as it is sown, and in the second, the enemy comes and sows tares side by side with the wheat, to sap it of its strength to grow. Whenever God sows a blessing, Satan will be immediately on the scene. Like the fowls of the air, to try and pluck that seed, that blessing, out of our hearts, to try to convince us that nothing really happened, we are just kidding ourselves. Or if he cannot do that, to sow a tare of doubt side by side with the blessing, to sap it of its strength to grow. That's what he tried to do to Jesus. Right after Jesus had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and God had said, "This is My Beloved Son," what was the first word Satan spoke to Him? "If you are the Son of God." In other words, God might have said it, but it is still very iffy. It still remains to be proven. Trying to sow a tare of doubt where God had sown a blessing.
Now Satan did not spare Jesus. Do you think he is going to spare you? I don't think so, but Jesus was ready, and I want you to be ready. The first thing that Satan will say to a newly Spirit-filled child in my own experience is, "That wasn't the real baptism in the Holy Spirit. If that was the real baptism in the Holy Spirit, how come you didn't feel what Joe Doakes felt when he received the baptism in the Holy Spirit?" That's what he said to me. I never felt more let down, more disappointed than the night I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. You know why? Because I wasn't getting it the way Joe Doakes got it. Joe Doakes told me he went out of his skin, he ascended to the seventh heaven, he heard the angels sing, and so many other wonderful things. I didn't know then, but I know now. We do not take Jesus, either as Saviour or Baptizer, by feeling but by faith.
I didn't have the answer for Satan when he came to me. But I do now. "Satan, I didn't feel what Joe Doakes said he felt. First of all, because I am not Joe Doakes. I am I. I did not take Jesus as my Saviour by feelings but by faith, and that is the way I took Him as my Baptizer. I am not building on the shifting sands of feelings, but on the solid rock of the His Word. And His Word is to give His Spirit to them that ask for Him. I asked. He is not a liar."
The second thing he is going to say to you from my own experience is, "That wasn't the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues, that was you. You were making up those sounds." And you reply, "As a matter of fact, Satan, it was I. But not just I. On the Day of Pentecost, they spoke with tongues, but not just they. They spoke as the Spirit gave utterance. It was a partnership, and that is the difference, Satan, between you and my Holy Spirit. You violate. He liberates. You possess. He fills. You compel. He releases. You make zombies. He makes partners. You make robots. He makes partners. You make mediums. He makes partners.
The third thing Satan is going to say to you is, "You call that a language you're speaking? To me it sounds more like gibberish, it sounds more like a baby talking." And you reply, "Sounds a bit like baby talk to me, too. Could it be because I'm still a baby in this dimension? But, praise God, I'm not going stay a baby, I'm going to stir up this gift until my frenulum becomes so stretched it's going to break loose and I can speak fluently in this heavenly language."
The fourth thing he is going to say to you is, "How come you keep on speaking those same iddly, biddly syllables over and over again?" And you reply, "He that is faithful in a few syllables, God will make master over many."
And if he comes to you a fifth time, just answer him in tongues. He doesn't like that.
And now, friends, I want to speak a word to you who should have come up but didn't come up. You do not have total liberty. You have a phrase that is very clear, but that is all you get. You have a few phrases and you get those clear, but you speak the same ones over and over again. You know what your problem could be? You may be suffering from an overdeveloped sensor mind. Your little sensor mind sits up here and watches you speak each word or phrase, slowly and deliberately, so that it can anticipate what you are going to say before you say it to be sure, to be very sure, it comes out sounding like language. You know what I am saying? Now what's the answer for an overdeveloped sensor mind? Well, you could let your spirit outrun your mind. Your spirit is very fleet-footed. Let it outrun your mind. Speak in tongues as fast as you can. Take no thought for what you are going to say. Don't care if it comes out sounding like gibberish. That isn't your department. Speak as fast as you can and let the Holy Spirit pick up the speed. I ask you not only to speak as fast as you can, but as loud as you can. You know why I say loud? Not so God can hear it, but to release yourself. The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. Be a little violent. Shake off your inhibitions. Here is a picture that has been very useful to me.
A coffee pot full of grounds. You want to flush out those grounds, so you turn the faucet on above it very gently, and the water flows over the side very gently, fairly clear. But it will be a long time until it is really clear. But turn that faucet on hard, and the water will go over the sides black, but it will be clear in no time at all. And that is why some people never come into the full liberty. They are afraid of the black grounds. They are afraid of incoherency. They want to be sure it sounds like a language. But that is not their department. Getting back to that child. A child does not care if he sounds like he is speaking a language. What may come may not be necessarily a language, but the building block for a language. "Ab, Ab, Ab," doesn't sound like a language. Supposing I had been inhibited and said, "Oh, I can't say that, it isn't a language." But as a building block, the most beautiful words in the world!
In conclusion, here is a picture from the Scriptures that will help you, release you, give you liberty. That scene where Goliath, that great giant, has been flaunting his strength, flexing his biceps. Brandishing his spears, warning those Israelite soldiers what he is going to do to them. They stand watching, listening, quaking in their boots. And out steps little David, and with one anointed pebble slung in the Name of the Lord, he fells that might giant. And as Goliath lies there unconscious, David jumps up onto his chest, unsheathes Goliath's own sword, and with it severs Goliath's head and holds it aloft by the hair for all to see. And remember the difference between the two camps? What was the reaction in the Philistine camp? A gasp of horror as they see their champion smitten and headless; and they run for their lives. What was the response from the Israelite camp? We read there was a shout in the camp. A shout of victory and joy and thanksgiving as they go in hot pursuit of the fleeing Philistines.
You and I have been up against a much greater giant than Goliath. We've been up against the prince of terrors, the prince of this world. But praise God, great David's Greater Son has felled that mighty giant. Therefore let there be a shout in the camp. A shout of joy and of victory and a shout of thanksgiving at the very top of your voices!