essai
The Woman Who Inherited Millions
But Lost Her Testimony
As difficult as it may be to persevere in prayer through the impasse so God can complete
the purging process, I can guarantee you — it is worth it all.
You see, the Holy Spirit is the One whom God sent to illuminate and strengthen your
reborn human spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh that hinder your walk with Him. But
even if you don’t allow the Holy Spirit to expose the things hidden in darkness, sooner or later
they will still be revealed.
For example, someone once told me the story of a Pentecostal woman who always sat on
the front pew of the church. She praised God and shouted with the best of them. This woman’s
husband was a multi-millionaire heathen. When she went to church, he would lock her out;
sometimes he even beat her. But no matter what her husband did, she would come to church
every time the doors were open. She was a faithful woman.
One day her husband died, and she inherited his entire fortune. However, it wasn’t very
long after her husband’s death that this woman’s cars became longer and her church attendance
became shorter! Pretty soon she went from sitting at the front of the church, to the middle,
and then to the back. Finally, she only came to special meetings. By that time, the only
power she fell out under was the weight of the gold strapped to her wrists!
Someone said, “It would have been better if that woman had never inherited the money at
all.” Wrong. All the money did was expose to the light something that already existed in her,
hidden in darkness.
You see, it isn’t money that is evil — it’s the love of money. If this woman hadn’t inherited
the money, something else would have brought out that trait in her down the line.
This is why Jesus said, “These are they who are sown among thorns” (Mark 4:18). The
thorn seeds existed in the field before the Word was sown. When the Word seed landed on the
ground, the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches (thorn seeds already resident within
the ground) sprang up, wrapped themselves around God’s prosperity, and proceeded to suck
those seedling plants into a selfish lifestyle and thus to neutralize the Word (v. 19).
You see, you don’t climb into a grimy cellar, turn the light on, and say, “My, my, look at all
the dirt this light brought!” No, the dirt was already there. The light just exposed it.
In the case of that woman, the potential to run after money was already there. All the
money did was expose the problem.
Exposing the fleshly work for the purpose of purging is supposed to be the job of the Holy
Ghost. Jesus said, “If you bear fruit, I will purge you. I will trim you back. I will cut the dead
limbs off” (John 15:2). He was telling us, “I will clear the thorn seeds out of your field. When
the Word seed comes up and you start prospering the Kingdom, I will keep the thorn seeds far
enough away from your plant that they cannot choke you.”
Prosperity in Perspective
Prosperity is a relevant and important subject to our lives. God wants to prosper us. When
we are little baby Christians, God slaps us on the bottom, changes our diaper, and gives us
toys. But we need to let the Holy Spirit grow us up and take us higher in God through the
Word that pulls down soulish strongholds and sets us free.
As you mature in the Lord, your faith will adjust to the fact that the more you use everything
you possess for the Kingdom, the more God is free to increase you in material wealth.
Because I live my life laboring for the world to come, God is able to put money in my hands
now. And He doesn’t mind that I “water my ditch” as it comes through my hands. I can buy
my child a fishing pole. I can buy my wife a dress. He doesn’t mind, because my focus is on laying
up treasures in Heaven.
God will purge you until you have that same focus through mortification. And in the end
after you have persevered in prayer and yielded to His purging process, you will be rich both
in souls and in material goods.
You see, a lot of people want to be rich, but they want their wealth to grow up among thorn
patches. They don’t understand that real prosperity is based on God’s purging process.
A person can confess God’s promises regarding prosperity until he turns blue, but if he is
someone who causes strife and hates people, then God will not speak to him in the secret place
of his heart about good business deals. Why? Because He knows that person won’t be able to
use the money for His glory.
So does God care if you wear a gold ring? Not as long as you also use your faith to add souls
to His Kingdom.
The Parable of Sister Goiter
God doesn’t want you to be poor, and God doesn’t want you to be sick. In fact, no condemning
sentence of any damnable thing from which Jesus has set you free can be carried out
in your life if you walk after the Spirit.
Why? Because the Holy Spirit lives inside of you to help you mortify the deeds of the flesh.
In fact, He will help you mortify everything in your life from which Jesus has already set you
free.
The Holy Spirit has been sent to help you in your weakness, so He steps in with a supernatural
language to pray for you. And as you learn how to plow through every impasse and
endure in prayer, He helps you leave behind poverty and sickness and every fleshly bondage.
Let me share a parable I made up to help people see how the Holy Spirit can help them win
the victory through praying in tongues. This parable represents everyone who has ever tried
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to receive their healing (or any other miracle promised in God’s Word) but could not. I’ve
wrapped up a conglomeration of different people’s failures and included them all in one woman
named Sister Goiter. If Sister Goiter can get healed, you certainly should be able to get healed
too!
I’m sitting in my office. I receive a telephone call.
“Hello, is this Brother Roberson?” a woman asks.
I answer, “Yes, it is.”
“I heard that God uses you in healing.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Can I come over for prayer?” she asks.
I reply, “Sure, come on over.”
Soon there is a knock on my door. “Come in!” I call. The door opens, and I see a woman
standing in my doorway. Oh, no! She has a four-pound goiter or growth under her chin. Four
pounds! It almost looks as if she has two heads.
The woman walks into the room. “Brother Roberson,” she says, “My name is Sister Goiter.
Before you pray for me, I just want you to know I’ve been prayed for by the best. I’ve just come
to see what you can do for me.”
I answer, “Sister Goiter, come over here and sit down. May I teach you a little bit?” She
nods. I open to Mark 11:24 and say, “Now, look here, Sister Goiter. This verse says, ‘What
things soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive, and then you will have it!’
Do you understand what that says?”
“Yes, I do.”
Then I ask, “Sister Goiter, what did you come for? This verse says, ‘What things soever you
desire.’ So what is your desire?”
“Well, my desire is to be healed of this goiter.”
“Okay,” I say, “then look at what this verse says next: The moment we pray, you must
believe that you are healed, and then you will be healed — whether it’s now, next week, or next
year. But you must believe the moment we pray that you are healed — and you will be!
“So, Sister Goiter,” I ask, “when are you going to believe you are healed?”
She responds, “Well, when it’s gone, stupid.”
“But Sister Goiter, it says here that you must believe it’s gone when you pray, and then you
will have it. You may not see your answer manifested until next month or next year, but you
must believe you receive it the moment we pray. Now, Sister Goiter, when are you going to
believe that goiter is gone?”
“Do you want me to lie and say it’s gone when it isn’t?” she asks.
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“No, Sister Goiter! Look at this verse again: ‘What thing soever you desire.’ What is it you
desire?”
“To be healed of my goiter, Pastor,” she replies.
“Well, then, the Bible says you must believe the moment you pray. Start thanking God that
you were healed two thousand years ago through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Start
thanking God that He’s heard you, and then you will be healed.”
She asks, “You mean, I’m supposed to believe that I’m healed before I see it?”
“Yes, Sister Goiter. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence you need
for the thing you don’t see [Heb. 11:1]. Sister Goiter, you’re not lying when you say you are
healed. You’re confessing what His Word says about your problem. So do you see it?”
She responds cautiously, “I think I see it.”
“Good, then you are ready for prayer. Goiter, you must die from the root in the Name of
Jesus! Now!”
The power of God touches Sister Goiter, and she falls under the Holy Spirit’s power. About
a half hour later, she gets up off the floor. I ask her if she believes that she is healed. She
responds with a simple, “Yes, I do.”
I say, “But the goiter is still on your neck.”
“I don’t care, I’m agreeing with what the Word says. Therefore, I believe that I’m healed,
and I will have what I say.”
“Sister Goiter,” I ask, “what if somebody says, ‘Hey! That goiter is still there!’ What will you
tell them?”
“I will tell them that I’m not denying the fact that the goiter is in my body. But according
to the Word of God, I’m denying its right to stay there. Therefore, I am healed because I believe
the prayer we prayed, and I receive my healing. I am healed in Jesus’ Name, and I praise God
for it!”
I say, “Go home, woman, you’re healed.”
Three months later, I come into my church. Sister Goiter is standing in the back aisle. I
notice her goiter doesn’t weigh four pounds anymore — it weighs five! I remember Jesus’
words in Mark 4:15 when He said Satan comes immediately to steal the Word.
So I walk over to her and say, “How are you doing, Sister Goiter?”
“I’m complete in Him,” she says glumly. The doubtful tone of her voice tells me she is still
looking at her circumstances instead of the Word.
“Praise the Lord!” I say, looking for an exit. “Excuse me, I have to go preach.”
Three more months go by, and I get a phone call from Sister Goiter. She asks to come and
talk to me.
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“Can I ask you something, Brother Roberson?” she says as she sits down in front of my
desk. “Does this stuff really work for you?”
“Oh, yes!” I reply.
“Then why doesn’t it work for me? I’ve done everything you told me to do.”
“Sister Goiter, have you been confessing the Word?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Have you been thanking God that you’re healed?”
“Yes, and the goiter has gotten bigger.”
“Well, Sister Goiter, I have learned something else from the Word. Would you do one more
thing that I tell you?”
“Well, I might as well. What you’ve already told me to do isn’t working.”
“Sister Goiter, will you get up one hour earlier in the morning and pray for an hour in the
Holy Ghost before you go to work?”
You see, on the inside of Sister Goiter is the Holy Spirit. He knows exactly why she is not
getting healed, and He wants to pray for her so badly, He can hardly stand it. I don’t know her
problem, but the Holy Spirit does. He was sent to help her weaknesses.
She asks, “You mean, you pray in the Holy Ghost just anytime you want to? My denomination
teaches me that I can’t do that.”
“Sister Goiter, that’s a lie. You really can.”
“The only time I pray in the Holy Ghost is when I am in a service, and the power of God is
moving real strong. I cry a little bit, and pretty soon the tongues come.”
I ask, “The only time you can pray in tongues is when you’re crying and emotional?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Well, just wait here, Sister Goiter, I’m going to go get a baseball bat. I’m going to beat you
with it so you’ll cry, and then you can pray in the Holy Ghost!”
“You know what I mean.”
“Sister Goiter,” I explain, “you can pray in tongues for personal edification anytime you
want to. God gave that gift to you to help your weaknesses. So tomorrow morning, you get up
and pray this way: ‘Father, I know You don’t want this goiter to stay on me, but it’s brought
me to a standstill. I don’t know how to stop it. I need the help of the Holy Spirit!’ Then just
start praying in tongues — just because you want to!”
“Well, I guess I’ll try it,” she says hesitantly.
Three months go by. One day I see her in the back of the church. “Sister Goiter,” I ask her,
“can you tell any difference in your condition from praying in tongues?”
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“As a matter of fact, I can.”
“What do you feel?”
“Well, I feel like I have a tired chin, a dry throat, and a tired tongue!”
“Excuse me, Sister Goiter, I have to go preach.”
Five months go by. I come walking in the back of the church. There stands Sister Goiter.
“Brother Roberson, come over here!” she says. “Is there anything about praying in the Holy
Ghost that causes peace and rest?”
“Oh, yes, Sister Goiter,” I reply. “In Isaiah 28:11 and 12. God said through the prophet
Isaiah, ‘This is the rest; this is the refreshing, for with stammering lips and another tongue
will I speak to this people.’ ”
“Wait a minute. You mean to say that praying in tongues causes the weary to rest?”
“Oh, yeah. When the cares of this life wear you out, this is the rest and the refreshing, for
with stammering lips and another tongue will He cause the weary to rest as you build a superstructure
of God on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.”
“Brother Roberson, I have a confession to make.”
“Please make it, Sister Goiter.”
“I used to be so full of fear. I was afraid that one day my husband would get up and pull
the covers back, and instead of seeing me with a five-pound goiter under my chin, he would
see only this massive goiter that had completely enveloped me, with little arms and legs sticking
out of it. Then he would pull the covers back over me in disgust.
“I lived under that fear — but that fear is gone! And Brother Roberson!”
“Yes, Sister Goiter?”
“I’m really beginning to believe that I’m healed. Oh, and Brother Roberson.”
“Yes?”
“Is praying in tongues addictive?”
“Why do you ask?” I question.
“Because now I’m also praying an hour at night.”
“Keep it up, Sister Goiter. I’ll see you later.”
One more month goes by. It has now been more than a year since I met Sister Goiter. I
come walking in the back of the church, and again, Sister Goiter calls me over to her.
“Brother Roberson, have you ever seen Mark 11:23 and 24?”
“Sister Goiter,” I say, “a year ago I taught you in detail what it said!”
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“I remember you reading it to me, Brother Roberson, but why didn’t you tell me what it
meant?”
“But I did, Sister Goiter!”
“No, I don’t think you did.”
“Yes, I did!”
“Let me tell you something, Brother Roberson. I’m healed! You want to know why I’m
healed? Because I believe I’m healed. The Holy Spirit showed me I’m healed! Do you believe
I’m healed?”
“Yes, Sister Goiter! Yes!”
So what happened to Sister Goiter? Her goiter disappeared in a week. She had learned by
experience the benefits of edifying herself through praying in tongues! As she persevered in
prayer through the “tired chin, dry throat, tired tongue” impasse, the Holy Spirit helped her
in her weakness to leave disease behind and to build herself up on her most holy faith, praying
in the Holy Ghost!
Three Levels of Sanctification
Now let’s discuss in a little more detail the purging process that we have to carry through
to completion if we’re going to walk in the fullness of God’s plan for our lives.
In His wisdom, God overcame Satan and our flesh nature by taking the understanding of
our prayer language away from our intellects so the Holy Spirit could pray for us about fleshly
areas of our lives that we don’t necessarily want to get rid of. As the Holy Spirit prays for
us, He purges us on three levels: spirit, soul, and body. That’s what the Bible is talking about
in Second Corinthians 7:1:
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us CLEANSE OURSELVES
FROM ALL FILTHINESS OF THE FLESH AND SPIRIT, perfecting holiness in the fear
of God.
When you start to pray in tongues, that sanctification process starts immediately, beginning
with filthiness of the flesh. This refers to any habitually destructive thing that is detrimental
to the body, such as drinking, smoking, chewing tobacco, etc. The Holy Spirit will help
you get rid of all those bad habits for you. Then, if you will keep praying, He will bring revelation
knowledge that will aid in the sanctifying of your soul.
Filthiness of the soul includes such things as hatred, strife, selfish ambition, envy, self-exaltation,
manipulation, lying, and unforgiveness. You won’t be in your prayer closet long before
it will become impossible to keep praying in tongues without dealing with these sinful strongholds
of the soul. Either you will stop praying, or you’ll allow your new nature to go ahead and
purge those dead limbs out of your life.
If you make it through the impasse that the sanctification process can trigger in the realm
of your soulish emotions, the Holy Spirit will move on to help you get free from filthiness of
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spirit. This refers to incorrect belief or doctrine that keeps you from being fully equipped with
the power of God to fulfill your call.
All three of these areas of sanctification overlap one another, but the strongest purging
takes place in this area of incorrect beliefs. As God answers the mysteries that you are praying
out in the Holy Spirit’s supernatural language, all of a sudden an awareness of spiritual
things begins to flood into your understanding. Wrong believing, or filthiness of spirit, begins
to fall away.
The more of the mind of Christ you pray before the Father, the more revelation knowledge
the Holy Spirit reveals to your spirit and the more roots of false doctrine He destroys. He will
not leave you stuck in the mire of some wrong belief that has neutralized God’s power in your
life.
When I first prayed to the place where I began to be purged from filthiness of spirit, I would
go to meetings where I’d know on the inside that the minister was operating in the flesh.
People in the meeting would be shouting with excitement and emotions, not knowing the
difference between the Spirit and the flesh. Before I was purged by the Holy Spirit, I hadn’t
known the difference either. But now I was being protected by the Holy Spirit, who had purged
me of deception and wrong believing.
The Enemy’s Strategy:
To Get You Out of Prayer!
One thing I can guarantee you: Just keep praying in the Holy Ghost, and you’ll meet the
ugly side of your character. And the first thing the devil will attempt to do is to get you out of
prayer so your purging will stop.
Satan is in an all-out war to strip us of the benefits of praying in tongues. It saddens me to
see the many casualties of that war. In many churches, groups of people have started out praying
with every good intention of bringing revival to their city. But then so many things go
wrong that prayer quickly becomes the last thing on their agenda.
Most Christians fall out of prayer long before enough mortification has taken place to eliminate
those things in their lives that cause unrest and turmoil. They don’t keep praying long
enough to receive the strength to put to death with finality every deed of the flesh that hinders
their walk with God.
When these believers fail to persevere through the impasse, they interrupt the Holy Spirit’s
commission to purge everything out of them that can distract them from the path of their divine
call. They are left vulnerable to the enemy’s attempts to lead them into carnality and secondary
vocations outside of God’s perfect will.
You see, the devil doesn’t mind if you go to church. He doesn’t care if you join a singles or
a couples group, help in a program, or fellowship with other believers. He just doesn’t want
you pulling the spiritual wrestling match over into an arena such as tongues that isn’t governed
by the emotionalism of the soulish realm. The moment you do that, he begins to lose control,
and you become unmanageable.
Remember what Ephesians 6:11 and 12 says:
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Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against THE WILES
OF THE DEVIL.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places.
The word “wiles” in verse 11 denotes inroads of the enemy into your life attained through
deceit. And one of the main methods the devil uses to gain entry into your life is through the
stronghold of emotionalism.
The devil will attempt to bring torment, worry, and fear into your life. He loves to fill you
so full of cares that you sink into a full-blown case of depression.
So when you hit an impasse in prayer and your nerves seem to be strung out to the breaking
point, remember this: It is only the wiles of the enemy. He doesn’t want you to fight him
through the help of the Holy Spirit. He wants you to stop praying in tongues.
So keep on praying. Some of the most productive seasons of prayer are those in which the
devil pulls every emotional trick he can think of to make you stop praying, but you continue
to persevere.
Mr. Self, the King Cockroach —
The Last One To Go
We’ve seen that it’s not always easy to endure through this sanctification process. As the
Holy Spirit searches the inmost reaches of your heart, He’ll pull some things out of the darkness
for purging that you won’t want to deal with. Those are the times when your emotions
can go wild, causing you to hit an impasse in prayer.
It reminds me of an experience I once had while staying in a cheap motel. (When I first
entered the full-time ministry, you should have seen some of the motels that churches put me
in. The bathroom was down the hall, and the telephone was down the street!)
When I first came into the dark motel room, I felt for a light switch on the wall. But there
wasn’t one — only dirt streaks on the wall where everyone else had also looked for it.
So I walked across the floor, looking for the ceiling light’s pull cord. As I walked, I heard
this strange “crunch, crunch” sound. I reached the light cord and pulled. All of a sudden, all
these little creatures of the night started to run in every direction. It was a bunch of cockroaches,
all scurrying for the cover of darkness (except for the trail of dead ones I had stepped
on!).
I’ve thought about that horde of cockroaches and their frantic desire for darkness. It
reminds me of the deeds of the flesh in our lives that shrink from being exposed by the light
of the Word and the Spirit. And for the sake of teaching, I’m going to extend that true story
now into a parable.
After watching the cockroaches hurry to find cover, I looked around the room. There on the
counter, where week-old food still gathered mold, sat a rat. This rat was big! He had an entire
kitty-cat tail hanging out of his mouth!
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But what caught my interest was the little collar and chain leash that was around the rat’s
neck. My eyes followed the little chain to its other end, and there stood a cockroach holding
the chain with one of his six legs. You should have seen this cockroach! He was huge! Not only
that, but he was wearing a “Superbug” outfit with a big “S” on his chest!
I looked at this cockroach, and he looked at me. Then he said, “Watch this.” He jerked on
the chain and said to the rat, “Roll over.” That rat just meekly obeyed and rolled over!
“I’m bad, I’m real bad!” the cockroach boasted.
I said, “Yeah, well, I’ve heard about you, Mr. Cockroach, and I’m ready for you. I have a can
of spiritual Raid!”
“Oh, yeah?” the cockroach said, “Well, I’ve lived in the penthouse of your life for a long time,
and if you think I’m afraid of your praying in tongues, I’m going to show you right now how
bad I can whip you! I’m King Cockroach, and I’ve kept the ceiling on your life all these years.
It has gone no further in God, and it isn’t going any further now!”
“Oh, yeah?” I challenged.
“I’m the love of money,” King Cockroach continued. “I’m the lust of other things. I’m the
flesh that keeps you from getting out of bed to pray. I am the one that trades programs for
prayer so that your ministry will never be anything. And you think you can whip me, boy?”
“Yes, I do! I’ve heard about you, but I have my Raid bug spray!”
So King Cockroach put on his boxing gloves, and we went at it. Spray — “You missed me!”
Spray, spray — “Missed again!”
Then I sprayed him right in the face. The force of the spray blasted his hair back. But he
just licked his lips and said, “Boy, that’s good stuff! I’m a highbred cockroach, and I have a date
tonight, so give me another shot!”
What is this parable talking about? Well, when you start edifying yourself through praying
in tongues, the Holy Spirit causes the lit candle of your reborn human spirit to burn
brighter and brighter. The more you pray, the more the Holy Spirit is going to illuminate those
things hidden in darkness.
Every time you move from one realm to a higher realm in God, the “cockroaches” — the
deeds of the flesh that have hindered you in your walk with God — are going to scream and
run for the cover of darkness. Then one by one they will die as your reborn human spirit
purges them by the power it has received through edification from the Holy Spirit.
Finally, you’ll make it to the penthouse of your life. That’s where ole King Cockroach, Mr.
Self himself, sets up his residence. He’s the last one to go, and, boy, can he put up a fight!
After long seasons of praying in tongues, I finally reached the penthouse of my life. Mr.
Self, the King Cockroach, put on his boxing gloves and started to fight my emotions. It was
tough!
Why is Mr. Self the last one to go? Because you’re either going to fall out of prayer, or you’re
going to give up the thing you love more than God — and “self ” is the thing your flesh loves
most!
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So one of two things will happen: You’ll stop praying, or you’ll kill the King Cockroach,
because you can’t coexist with both of them. Your emotions will tell you, “Don’t turn loose of
Self,” but as you keep praying in tongues, your edified spirit will tell you that you must.
Your emotions can become so strong in this internal battle that you feel as if you’d like to
do anything else but pray. That’s the impasse you have to push through. When you make it to
that point, just stay in prayer; you’re about to put King Cockroach to death. And when you do,
your life and your ministry will rise to a new level of anointing!
This Is the Refreshing
Are you weary from a long, inner battle? Have imaginations and high things exalted themselves
against the knowledge of God in your life? Have uncaptivated thoughts taken their toll
until you feel mentally exhausted? Is it a struggle just to drag yourself to church, much less
take a step further and begin to daily worship Him in private? Do your emotions say, “I’m worn
out. I have sat in church most of my life, but I’m approaching the point where I don’t care anymore”?
Well, Isaiah 28:11,12 says speaking in other tongues is the rest and the refreshing that
causes the weary to rest.
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and
this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
Praying in tongues is a priceless gift that God has given us so we can feel rested and
refreshed right in the middle of a very imperfect world!
Jesus said, “Why don’t you take My yoke upon you and learn of Me?” (Matt. 11:29). What
is that yoke that He’s talking about? Well, remember — Jesus is meek and gentle. The yoke
He asks you to take upon yourself is not trudging through life with the great burden of the
Gospel on your shoulders. The yoke He asks you to take is the responsibility to learn of Him.
When people used oxen for plowing their fields, they always broke in a young ox by yoking
him up with an old, experienced ox. If that young ox didn’t want to turn at the end of the row,
the old ox would turn him anyway. If the young ox didn’t want to plow, the old ox would drag
him along. If the young one wanted to quit at three o’clock instead of four o’clock, the old one
would push him to go further.
That’s what Jesus will do for us when we’re yoked up to Him. So just buckle that yoke
around your neck, and remember: It’s a double yoke, and the other end is around Jesus. If you
will yoke yourself to Him and determine to learn of Him, you will find that His ways are gentle,
peaceful, and powerful.
Jesus said, “My yoke is to learn of Me” — and one way to do that is through the rest and
refreshing of praying in tongues!
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Stay in There!
Now, of course, the choice is yours. You don’t have to pray in tongues at all. God loves you,
accepts you, and will do all He can for you at whatever level of Christianity you may be.
But if you want to draw closer to God — if you want to put to death the fears, uncertainties,
bad habits, pressures, and cares that stand between you and a closer walk with God —
then praying in tongues is a precious gift to take advantage of. It is a spiritual key that will
bring you rest and refreshing, unlock divine mysteries, and build you up higher in God.
So as you launch yourself into a season of praying in tongues, just remember that whenever
you hit any kind of impasse, the best thing you can do is stay in there. Even when your
emotions start to fight you, even when you feel antagonistic toward prayer and some mysterious
force is resisting every little effort to pray — stay in there!
You are approaching a critical point. You are about to experience a spiritual “nuclear meltdown”
— only the things targeted to melt down are your fears, worries, torments, pressures,
lusts for wrong things, bondage to poverty, anger, and strife.
Then when you have come through the impasse and you’re standing on the other side, get
ready to enjoy a breakthrough in that area you’ve been believing for. You’ve persevered in
prayer, and now you’re ripe for a miracle!
As you yield yourself to My Spirit,
then My Presence will work in you,
illuminating you and searching
the inward parts of your belly
that you might understand what My will is.
I will lead you beside the streams of water.
I will sink your root system deep
that you might manifest the kind of fruit
that is born of My Spirit.
So hear what the Spirit would say,
because in that day many shall cry.
But you shall be established on the rock
of doing My sayings.
You will be one whom I can move through.
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Chapter 12
Purged To Stand in the Gap
I’ll tell you another good reason why it’s so important not to give up on prayer when you
reach an impasse. You’ll never be able to stand in the gap for others the way God intends if
you remain an unpurged vessel.
Before we can enter deeply into intercession, we must experience a certain degree of mortification
of the flesh nature. Intercession requires dedication, determination, and endurance.
Generally, each of these attributes is contrary to the flesh.
Why Prayer Groups Often Fail
That’s why so many prayer groups fail, even though they begin with the best of intentions.
Most people who join a prayer group don’t possess stamina, commitment, or dedication. In fact,
what they usually have is a whole boatload of excitement and a ton of character flaws!
These people join a prayer group thinking that they’ll spend the time pulling down great
spiritual strongholds over the city as they pray in tongues. But in reality, all they are really
doing in the beginning is edifying themselves, not interceding for others.
If they stick with it, this edification process will cause the character flaws that have hindered
them in the past to surface. The Holy Spirit will bring them face to face with the root
that has borne the bad fruit — in other words, the works of the flesh in their lives that have
caused them not to be a good mama, a good daddy, a good provider, etc. Raging tempers may
arise in those who seemingly never had that kind of temper before.
But the capacity for these fleshly traits was there all along; praying in tongues just caused
them to surface. Now it is up to the people to continue in prayer, allowing the Holy Spirit to
edify their reborn spirit until it is able to purge the very root of those traits away. If the prayer
group members don’t deal with these revealed faults, soon they will disband over petty arguments,
false doctrines, or just plain selfishness. But if they’ll keep on praying, the Holy Spirit
will finally get them to the place where He can take the emphasis off their personal edification
and release His power through them on behalf of others.
So the devil works on keeping believers in a state of carnality. Many churches remain in
that state, always fighting each other, always in turmoil. In that state of carnality, believers
are not qualified for intercession, because they don’t care enough that sick children are dying.
They don’t care that multitudes are going to hell. They are too concerned about their own
rights.
We should desire to be great intercessors. God wants to place us between hell and those
who are trying to get there. But first we must desire to mortify the deeds of the flesh.
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Stand Steadfast in Intercession
However, we must remember that we cannot actively pray for the salvation of souls and for
revival without attracting the devil’s attention. Paul warned us about an impending war in
Ephesians 6. He said, “Look, we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood; we aren’t fighting with
a sword or a spear. But the war is just as real. We wrestle against principalities, against powers,
against rulers of darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in heavenly
places” (Eph. 6:12).
Therefore, you have to determine to stand steadfast in intercession, cooperating all the
time with the Holy Spirit’s mortification process that continues within. As you edify and build
yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, you will attain a place in the
Spirit where God can literally pour the deep intercessional groanings through you. That’s
when incredible, mega-amounts of Holy Ghost power begin to be released.
The amount of spiritual activity that goes into operation when God’s power is delivered to
a person to genuinely stand in the gap is phenomenal. This kind of power authorizes a host of
angels to take legal action in others’ and in your affairs to ward off catastrophes and change
circumstances.
But this level of intercession also attracts powers and principalities to challenge your
authority. These demonic powers will move in on you with the vengeance of a freight train.
Their target will be any weaknesses or character flaws that they can use to stop and destroy
you, such as your susceptibility to ungodly lusts or just plain procrastination.
That’s the reason the months and months of edification through praying in tongues are so
important. During that time, the Holy Spirit edifies your reborn human spirit to put to death
any forces of the flesh giving the devil authority and power to hinder and control your life. He
builds your spirit to such a place of spiritual maturity that the enemy can’t stop you.
Once you have reached that place of enduring prayer, the Holy Spirit will begin to activate
incredible waves of glory — power that floods over your soul in the form of supernatural joy
and hilarious laughter.
These waves of glory are enjoyed by people who have mastered the art of enduring prayer
and are being used by God to rescue others from physical disaster or eternal hell. The supernatural
joy and laughter is a report from the realm of the Spirit that faith has obtained the
answer; something has changed, and it will soon be manifested in the natural realm.
Groaning Within
Our Righteous Spirits
So how can we be confident of final victory in this spiritual quest from selfish carnality, to
enduring in prayer through the purging process, to becoming a prepared vessel that the Holy
Spirit can use in intercession? I found an answer to that question in my studies and meditation
of two different passages of Scripture: Second Corinthians 5 and Romans 8.
The key to our ultimate victory is summed up in one simple statement in Second
Corinthians 5:5: God has given to us the earnest of the Spirit. Let’s look at the entire passage
in context:
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For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have
a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For in this [earthly tabernacle] we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with
our house which is from heaven [our glorified bodies]:
If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would
be unclothed [we don’t just want to die], but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed
up of life.
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given
unto us THE EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT.
— 2 Corinthians 5:1-5
Now let’s go to Romans 8:22-25 and compare the two passages. First, let’s look at verse 22:
For we know that the whole creation [every created thing] groaneth and travaileth
[as a pregnant woman] in pain together until now.
All creation groans for its deliverance from the bondage of corruption in which it was placed
at the fall of man. All of creation, right down to the last atom, came under a curse at that time.
Now creation, pregnant with a new heaven and a new earth, groans in travail like a pregnant
woman waiting to give birth.
Then in verse 23, Paul switched the emphasis from creation to you and me:
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even
we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption
of our body.
Everything in creation that is imperfect is in a form of intercessional groaning, waiting to
be delivered from corruption. That includes believers who have “the first fruits of the Spirit.”
Notice Paul said that we have the first fruits, and we wait for the second fruits — the
redemption of our bodies. What are the first fruits Paul is talking about?
Jesus died and arose from the dead, and those of us who are born again have become the
first fruits — the first harvest — of His resurrection. When we bowed our knee to the Lord
Jesus Christ and were born again, adoption papers were served on us, and we became His first
fruits.
When I was born again, my spirit man was instantly seated in heavenly places with Christ
Jesus.
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by
grace ye are saved;)
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus.
— Ephesians 2:5,6
My spirit has taken on the express image of Jesus Christ. It has been born of Him and consequently
has become the righteousness of God in Christ: For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2
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Cor. 5:21). Therefore, on the inside of me, I have these righteous feelings. Something in me is
so holy that it constantly wars with my flesh.
We who have the first fruits of the Spirit — in other words, we who are born again and have
received the earnest or baptism of the Holy Spirit — are groaning. We groan within our righteous
spirits, waiting for the entire adoption process to be culminated or completed at the
redemption of our bodies — the second fruits.
The reason you are groaning on the inside of your righteous spirit is that you are imprisoned
in your fleshly body. You live in there. Your flesh has death working in it, inherited from
the first Adam. It is not only capable of sin; it will sin if you let it. That’s why Paul says in
Galatians 5:16:
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
You are totally capable of walking in the flesh. Even more than that, your body is imprisoned
in a world of warring and strife — a place where children are starving to death and men
kill each other, where sin and perversion run rampant. Your righteous spirit groans within
your body, because you’re in an imperfect world that has all this damnable sin, and you are
still capable of practicing it yourself.
In fact, Paul said that all creation is travailing like a pregnant woman, sold to the bondage
of slavery, crying and groaning to be delivered out of that bondage. I am in the middle of all
this mess, and the righteousness that has been implanted within me makes me groan for a
new heaven, a new earth, and a new, glorified body.
Saved by Hope
This is starting to sound like the passage in Second Corinthians 5, isn’t it? Remember what
verse 4 says:
For WE THAT ARE IN THIS TABERNACLE DO GROAN, BEING BURDENED: not
for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed
up of life.
What are we groaning for? We are waiting for our adoption process to be made complete.
When? At the redemption of our bodies. In other words, when we are clothed with our glorified
body, a house from Heaven not made with hands.
When Jesus returns, our bodies will be changed in the twinkling of an eye from corruptible
to incorruptible as we receive our resurrected bodies (1 Cor. 15:52). That time is coming. But
in the meantime, while we are still imprisoned in our bodies, we need Someone to help us.
That’s why God gave us the Holy Spirit — to empower us during this time of waiting to have
victory over the dominance of the flesh.
Then in Second Corinthians 5:5, Paul goes on to say this:
Now he that hath wrought [or saved] us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath
given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
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So God has wrought, or saved, us for the culmination of His great plan. Actually, Paul is
saying the same thing but in a slightly different way to both the Romans and the Corinthians.
In Romans 8:24 and 25, he said we are saved by hope.
For we are SAVED BY HOPE: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man
seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
We are saved by the hope of what? We who have the first fruits of the Spirit are waiting
for the redemption process to be made complete at the resurrection and glorification of our
physical bodies. We don’t see it yet, so “we do with patience wait for it.”
We don’t have any choice but to wait. We can believe God for Jesus’ return until we turn
blue and seven shades of white and green, but Jesus is still going to come back when God says
it’s time for Him to come back!
The Earnest of Our Inheritance
Notice what else Paul says in Second Corinthians 5:5, as he encompasses the entire ministry
of the Holy Spirit in our lives in this one simple statement: God gave us the earnest of the
Spirit.
To find out more detail about the Holy Spirit’s ministry as the earnest of our inheritance,
we have to go back to Romans 8. Paul says in essence, “It doesn’t matter if you’re imprisoned
in a body that is capable of sin. Sure, you’re still trapped here in hope of a glorified body. But
you don’t have to wait alone — you have the earnest of the Spirit. And this is how the Holy
Spirit carries out that ministry.”
If you’re at all familiar with the real-estate business, you know that “earnest money” is a
token of your sincerity to make the purchase. It is money against the promised possession.
Well, when you were born again, God said, “I’m going to give you a little bit of Heaven to
go to Heaven with, because when this purchase is finished, I want you, the promised possession,
to come home to be with Me.” So God put His “earnest money” — the Holy Ghost — down
on you against the promised possession. In other words, God sent the Holy Ghost as the
earnest of our inheritance to guarantee us three things:
1. The Holy Spirit is God’s guarantee of the power to fulfill your ministry here
on earth. He offers Himself in edification through the supernatural language of
tongues to pray the plan of God into your life. He is your only true promise of power and
of divine direction and leadership to fulfill your ministry. His is the only earnest that
will see you through. No other path holds that guarantee.
2. He is your guarantee of a glorified body.
3. He is the power to finally deliver the purchased possession — you — to God as
He brings you on home to Heaven.
So the earnest of the Spirit guarantees to help you fulfill your ministry, to deliver you to
your glorified body, and to bring you home to Heaven. That is God’s guarantee to you: If you
follow Him, He will never lose His earnest money against the promised possession. Never.
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As you use that basic diversity of tongues called tongues for personal edification, you begin
to instigate the earnest of the Spirit. At that level, the Holy Spirit starts to deal with all of
your problems, no matter how bad they are. If you keep yielding to His work in you, He will
deliver you out of all of them.
The ‘Ministry of the Earnest’
Paul describes how the Holy Spirit carries out His “ministry of the earnest” in Romans
8:26:
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered.
We know from our earlier discussion that the word “infirmities” refers to our inability to
produce results because of the limitations imposed on us by the flesh. That’s why we who have
the first fruits of the Spirit groan out of our righteous spirits — we desire that these limitations
be removed. And the Holy Spirit in like manner helps our infirmities.
I appreciate the Holy Spirit’s help, because I found out long ago that I’m not too smart
when it comes to producing results in spiritual matters. For example, when I look at a crippled,
deformed child in a wheelchair and come face to face with my inability through unbelief
to produce results, my righteous spirit groans inside of me.
If I knew how to pray as I ought, that child in the wheelchair would rise up whole and normal
and walk. So the Holy Spirit has to help my inability to produce that result.
You see, we all have a call and a place in God’s plan, even that severely handicapped child
in the wheelchair. What glad tidings should we be preaching to that child? “Little believer, you
don’t have to be that way anymore, because that wasn’t in God’s plan. You have a divine call
just like I do. And unless the Church can help set you free of that condition, you will never fulfill
that call as God intended.”
If that isn’t our message, then what good is the Gospel? Is it only for good-looking people
who have money in their pockets and drive a Lexus? Do we think that a little deformed child
is any less called by God than ourselves?
The preacher’s message should be “Captive, you don’t have to be captive anymore. Blind,
you don’t have to be blind anymore. Poor, you don’t have to be poor anymore. Prisoner, you
don’t have to be locked up in your own body anymore.”
If that isn’t the preacher’s message, did he stop where it was comfortable enough to live the
good life, forgetting the desperate needs lying just outside his comfort zone? Doesn’t he care
about prayer? Is he so caught up in the cares of this world that he thinks he can excuse himself
? No excuse will hold water on that day when he stands before Jesus expecting a big, fat
reward, and Jesus asks him, “Why didn’t you endure in prayer?”
This is a realm of which few of us have any understanding at all. When faced with something
like a wheelchair case, we may say, “Well, I’m just going to pray and believe God.” But
if we really believed God when we prayed for that person, why didn’t the person get healed?
No one knows — not even the person in the wheelchair. But I’ll tell you who does know — the
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Holy Spirit. And as the earnest of our inheritance, He is sent to help us in our inability to produce
results!
What does this have to do with intercession? Well, it wasn’t until I had been praying hour
after hour in tongues for about two years that I began to experience the deep intercessional
groanings of the Spirit coming from deep within my spirit as He willed.
I wondered why I hurt inside, so God spoke to my spirit: “Do you like the plan the devil has
for the world?”
I answered, “No, I don’t! In fact, I hurt inside.”
He said, “Yes, you are groaning out of your righteous spirit for the culmination of all things
and for the redemption of your body. You are groaning to see this whole horrible mess come to
an end.”
I said, “Yes, Sir, you’re right!”
I began to experience hurt that came from deep inside of me every time I walked away from
someone in a wheelchair who didn’t get healed. I would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that
Jesus had borne that person’s sicknesses and pains, yet I’d feel the limitations imposed on me
by the flesh. Or I would hurt inside when I saw entire civilizations starving to death in plain
view of the world.
I would want to do something about that person’s crippled condition or the sad plight of
those desperately poor nations — but I couldn’t in my own strength! However, the Holy Spirit
could as He moved on my spirit with tongues of deep, intercessional groanings, activated severally
as He willed.
The Holy Spirit Helps Our Infirmities
My experience was right in line with Romans 8:26, which says the Spirit also helps our
infirmities. That means He helps in conjunction with someone who is already helping.
This throws us back to verse 23, where Paul says that we are groaning out of our righteous
human spirit. So when Paul says in verse 26, “Likewise the Spirit also helps us...,” he is saying,
“In the same manner that you are groaning out of your human spirit, He will also help
you.”
This is how it works. A mountain comprised of fleshly works stands between you and God’s
plan for your life. The Holy Spirit will focus in on that mountain “with groanings that cannot
be uttered” (Rom. 8:26). You have entered a mild form of intercession, but it is for yourself that
you stand in the gap.
These groanings are not just referring to speech so profound that you can’t utter it. It’s also
talking about reaching a place in the Spirit where you begin to hate whatever stands between
you and God’s plan so badly that you enter into a state of groaning or grieving.
Your heart cries out, I wish this was out of my life! Lord, I hate this! At this point, you have
given the Holy Spirit the faith He needs to come alongside and move the mountain out of the
way.
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If you persevere in prayer and refuse to let the mountain defeat you, at some point you will
experience a “meltdown,” where the Holy Ghost removes the mountain and you come out on
the other side victorious. Why? Because you cannot continue to report to prayer and still retain
your problem. You will either have to quit edifying yourself and yield to those works of the
flesh or allow the Holy Spirit to purge them out of your life.
The Holy Spirit will pull out the problem at the right time, when you’re ready and can survive
the purging. Your part is to just keep praying.
Don’t stop. Push through the impasse. The Holy Spirit will illuminate this purging process
for you, and when it’s all over, you’ll be able to see and understand that massive mountain that
was removed from your life. You will thank God that you are one step closer to mighty intercession.
Praying in Tongues vs.
Deep Intercessional Groanings
The combination of the two passages we’ve been looking at in Second Corinthians 5 and
Romans 8 settled for me the age-old issue of the difference between praying in tongues for personal
edification and the deep intercessional groans of the Spirit — that diversity of tongues
that is operated by God as He wills.
The truth is, even if you start out praying in tongues with a cold, indifferent, stony heart,
only two ingredients are necessary to bring you to the place where the Holy Spirit can move
through you in deep intercessional groanings: your knowledge that your indifference is wrong,
and your decision to pray in the Holy Ghost by your own will as often as possible.
As you continue to pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit will edify you and charge you up into
the love of God until compassion gets hold of you — until at times, as you walk away from yet
another person still bound to his wheelchair, you feel as if you can’t even live unless you see
results. This is the kind of groaning that says, “I can’t stand this anymore. It hurts too badly.
I will put aside all of my selfishness and strife and all of our differences. I’ll do whatever I need
to do to serve the purposes of the Holy Spirit.”
Putting our differences aside is a major part of what delivers us into true intercession.
Dead religion consists of “I have my rights! Vindicate me!” That’s where most of the church
world lives, and that’s why most Christians seldom visit the realm of miracles. Therefore, the
Gospel of glad tidings doesn’t reach that little deformed child bound to a wheelchair. He doesn’t
get a chance at his reward because the Church failed him.
But when we get to that place where we groan out of our righteous spirits over this world’s
pain, sin, and misery, we don’t want to fight with anyone anymore. We just want to pray. So
why don’t we put all of our differences aside and start praying!
It is the groaning of our righteous spirits that the Holy Spirit picks up on. If He examines
me and sees that my new nature is crying for help in groanings — hurting but not knowing
how to pray as I ought — He says, “Excuse Me, but I have been sent to help your infirmities.
I want to add My groanings to your cries for help, for that will translate to pure power for you
to rise above the inabilities of the flesh.
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“You have come to a standstill. In your own strength, you can’t pull this off. You don’t have
the power. You don’t know how to do it, but I do!”
So the Holy Spirit adds His anointing of power — His intercession, His groanings — to
blend together in unison as one with the groanings of your spirit. At that point, He empowers
you to rise above the problem and do something about it.
In Galatians 4:19, Paul made a revealing statement that provides insight into the distinct
difference between tongues for personal edification and deep intercessional groanings:
My little children, of whom I TRAVAIL IN BIRTH again until Christ be formed in
you.
How many women pick the day to give birth to their child? How many choose the day their
baby will be born without man-made intervention? How many stop the process and say, “I
think I’ll wait two days”? Not too many, I would imagine. Women can start the childbearing
process as they will, but they cannot end it according to their own will.
In the same manner, at your own will you can start the process that will lead to intercession
and travail by praying in the Spirit and edifying yourself. But even after you have reached
that place of sensitivity in which you groan out of your righteous spirit because of the imperfections
of this world, the deep intercessional groanings of the Holy Spirit only come upon you
as He wills.
Steps to Intercession
Intercession is born in us when the needs of others move our spirit so strongly that we
finally give the Holy Spirit something to add His power to. That is when faith in its purest
form flows from our spirit.
Let me tell you the steps that lead to true intercession after you begin the edification
process by praying in tongues at your own will.
The Holy Spirit will first build you up to that place of sensitivity we’ve been talking about.
You will start to look at your husband or wife or lost family member and say, “Oh, God, above
everything else, I would that he [or she] be saved.” At this point, the desires of your heart begin
to change in the edification process. You are taking the first steps toward intercession.
Although you may think you are directing the Holy Spirit’s prayer, you are not. You have
your list of prayer requests: Joe needs a car; Susie needs this; Jan needs that. All of those
things are almost irrelevant to God.
So you sit there with your big list and say, “Okay, I claim all these things.” When you say,
“I claim it,” God hears it. Then you say, “Now I’m going to pray in the Spirit about it.” At this
point, the desires of your heart begin to direct your prayers rather than your mentality.
What did God say? He said that He would grant the desires of your heart if you delighted
yourself in Him (Ps. 37:4). That means that if you delight yourself in the Lord in prayer, the
desires you have will come from Him, and these are the desires He can fulfill.
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As you pray in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit will begin to plant a little seed. That is the conception
of a miracle. It is the birth plan for your backslidden spouse or your child on dope or a
lost relative. He plants that seed directed by the desires of your heart. As you pray in tongues,
God will begin to form that little “baby” by the authority of your spirit.
Several months go by. You keep praying, and that miracle growing on the inside of you
begins to “show” as you carry it to fruition.
Soon you don’t care if anyone around you is praying or not. You get up early. You pray at
all times of the day and night. You walk around and crave spiritual things that you never used
to care much about.
The months go by as you continue to pray. Suddenly, by an act of God’s will and not your
own, it is time for birth, and you begin to groan. The labor pains are getting closer and closer.
It is only a matter of time before that “baby” is birthed in the spiritual realm.
After long hours of edifying myself through praying in tongues, God began to slip me over
into intercession to birth things in the Spirit.
For example, I remember a time when the symptom of partial deafness temporarily manifested
in my body while I was interceding. That night a woman who was totally deaf came to
my service, and God opened her ears! She could hear music and the voices of her husband and
son for the first time in her life. Why? Because God was able to bring me to a place in the Spirit
where I stood in the gap for this woman’s healing.
So is it worth the hours and days and months that it takes to build that superstructure in
your spirit by praying in tongues so that one day the Holy Ghost can begin to use you in
mighty intercession? Oh, yes, my friend, it’s worth every minute.
It is a high honor to stand between Satan and the people he is trying to kill, steal from, and
destroy. And nothing can compare to knowing that those you’re praying for may have known
hell as their eternal destination — except that you paid the price to be purged so you could
stand in the gap and set the captives free!
For in these last days, many shall scurry
to and fro.
Fear will encompass the earth.
Men’s hearts shall fail
for looking upon those things
that are coming upon the world.
But run not here and run not there,
for your answer is within.
Look up, saith the Spirit of Grace,
your redemption draweth nigh.
Establish your feet on the foundational rock
of doing My sayings.
Be ye strengthened with all power and might
in the inner man,
for it is the inner strength
that will accomplish My purpose
in My people.
Through that inner strength will I empower you
in these last days to stand.
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Chapter 13
Prayer and Fasting:
The Power Twins
Let’s say you’ve just committed yourself to a season of praying in the Holy Ghost. You’re
hungry to know God more intimately and to walk in His plan for your life, so you’re ready and
willing to yield to the Holy Spirit’s purging process and to push through any impasses you
might encounter.
But what about those areas in your life in which you have been defeated time and time
again? What about those deeds of the flesh that have wedged themselves so tightly into the
nooks and crannies of your life — the ones that taunt you into believing that you will never be
any better than you are now and that you will never accomplish anything more than what
you’ve already accomplished? Is there anything that can help set you free in these areas once
and for all?
I have good news for you — Jesus has given us an important key for just such a purpose!
It isn’t a very popular key; yet when a person employs it, that key will shut down the flesh
nature with the same vengeance that God used to slam the door on Noah’s ark against an
entire world that had gone the way of the flesh. That key is fasting.
You see, if you ever learn to shut your flesh down, you will shut Satan down, because the
only power he has is through the seduction and manipulation of the flesh nature, which
includes the mental and emotional realm as well as the physical body.
My First Experience With Fasting
God introduced me to fasting during a time when I had reached an impasse in my prayer
life. I had gotten so hungry for God from just praying in tongues that I was looking around for
ways to get closer to Him. During this time, my heart cry was “Help me produce something for
the Kingdom in the next month or two, Father. I have to see something tangible!”
I found out right away that an impasse was overcome more quickly when I fasted. Not only
that, but the workings of my flesh surfaced much more quickly as well! I learned that fasting
accompanied with prayer multiplied what was already in me.
The first time I went on a fast, I had amazing results. As soon as I came off the fast, everything
in my world went wrong!
I came off this long fast, which I refer to as a “seeking time,” and almost had to stagger into
meetings. I had weak knees, and it wasn’t from a lack of food! I could hardly stand up to
preach. It seemed as if God’s anointing had lifted from me. When I laid hands on people to pray
for them, they wouldn’t have fallen under the power of God even if lightning had hit them!
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On top of that, we were in debt for an entire month’s budget. I tucked myself away to fast and
pray — and I came out of that time only to be more in debt than before! I told God, “The least You
could do is to supernaturally arrange for the bills to be paid while I’m locked away with You!”
I was getting a little short-tempered about the situation. Anger was building up on the
inside because I wanted to know why.
Then I began to see clearly. I came to realize that during the fast, certain areas of my flesh
nature that hadn’t been put to death in the past had come to the surface. When these fleshly
works began to surface, the anointing felt less, but in reality was greater than ever before.
This is what Paul meant when he said in essence, “For I would rather glory in my infirmities
(or weaknesses as a man) because when I am stripped of my dependency on my flesh, it
places my dependency on the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 12:9,10). When we feel weakest in our own
natural strength, we are usually the strongest, because unmortified areas of our flesh are in
the process of dying.
Fasting and prayer in combination help cause those fleshly works to come to light in our
lives more quickly. Tests and trials will also bring them to light, but I would rather not wait
for the trials. Fasting and prayer allow the Holy Spirit to reveal those things hidden in darkness
and to deal with them before the trials come. This in turn causes our character to be
strengthened.
What Jesus Taught About Fasting
In Matthew 17, we find an account that reveals what Jesus taught His disciples about fasting.
Jesus climbed up what we call the Mount of Transfiguration with James, Peter, and John.
There Jesus had a visitation of God. Afterwards, He charged the three disciples who were with
Him to tell no man what they had seen; then they came back down the mountain.
Meanwhile, the other disciples were trying to cast a devil out of a man’s son at the foot of
the mountain. The disciples had cast devils out before this with no problem, but now they had
run into one that just wouldn’t come out of the person. While they were making their unsuccessful
attempts, a crowd had collected around them.
The disciples were probably feeling frustrated, flustered, and embarrassed. This is the situation
that Jesus, James, Peter, and John walked into when they came down off the mountain.
And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him [Jesus] a certain
man, kneeling down to him, and saying,
Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth
into the fire, and oft into the water.
And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long
shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
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And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured
from that very hour.
Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If
ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove
hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
HOWBEIT THIS KIND GOETH NOT OUT BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING.
— Matthew 17:14-21
So this man came to Jesus and said, “Lord Jesus, please have mercy on my son. He’s crazy
— out of his mind — and often a spirit throws him into the fire. I brought him to Your disciples,
but they couldn’t cast this devil out.”
Notice how Jesus answered the disciples: “You faithless and perverse generation, how long
shall I suffer you?” In other words, “How long am I going to have to do this for you?” Jesus
wouldn’t have said that if He hadn’t expected His disciples to cast that devil out.
Jesus rebuked the devil, and it departed out of the boy. Then the disciples did the same
thing I would have done. They came to Jesus privately and said, “Why couldn’t we cast that
devil out?” (I definitely wouldn’t have yelled that question over the heads of the crowd, because
Jesus would have probably yelled the answer back to me: “Because of your unbelief!”)
Notice again Jesus’ answer to them in verse 20:
And Jesus said unto them, BECAUSE OF YOUR UNBELIEF: for verily I say unto
you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain,
Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and NOTHING SHALL BE
IMPOSSIBLE UNTO YOU.
Jesus said the reason that devil wouldn’t come out of the boy was the disciples’ unbelief.
He went on to say that if they ever learned to deal with that unbelief, they would be able to
say to a mountain, “Be removed!” and it would obey them. Finally, Jesus said something
absolutely incredible: “Nothing shall be impossible to you.”
So Jesus was saying that if I ever learn to deal with that particular kind of unbelief, I have
a promise from Him that absolutely nothing will be impossible to me. When I realized that
truth, I wanted to know what kind of unbelief Jesus was talking about here so I could isolate
it and deal with it!
A Subtle Kind of Unbelief
So I began a search to find out what kind of unbelief Jesus was referring to. I discovered
that it’s a subtle kind of unbelief a person may not even know he has until his life is over. If
the disciples knew why they couldn’t cast the devil out, why would they have bothered to ask
Jesus? They didn’t know, so they asked Him.
This subtle unbelief puts a ceiling on your life that defies you to pull yourself out of the
mess your life is in or to accomplish the thing God wants you to accomplish. As long as that
ceiling is there, one year will be like the next, until one day you’ll realize five years have
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passed, and your anointing hasn’t changed; in fact, nothing has changed. You’re just the same
now as you were five years ago.
Why? Because you keep operating under an invisible ceiling that hangs over your life, and
you don’t even know it’s there. And even if you did know, you couldn’t break through that ceiling
in your own strength.
Let me explain a little more with this hypothetical situation. Suppose five little crippled,
deformed children in wheelchairs are brought to my meeting, their arms and legs twisted and
their heads leaning over to one side. I come in, and as I begin to preach, I see these five little
children.
Now, I can’t blame the fact that the children aren’t healed on their faith. They aren’t
required to have any. I also can’t say it isn’t God’s will to heal them, because even though the
disciples couldn’t cast that devil out, Jesus revealed His will when He cast it out.
So I walk over and lay hands on the children. I reach down on the inside of me and pull out
every ounce of faith I have. I milk every cell, every fiber of my being for faith to pour out on
these kids — but still they don’t get healed.
Suddenly Jesus in His glorified body walks in the room. I say, “Jesus, I’d like to ask You a
question.”
Jesus says, “Hold on just a minute, Brother Roberson.” Then He walks over and heals every
one of those children, just like that! He comes back to me and asks, “Do you have a question?”
“Yes, I do. Why didn’t You heal those kids when I prayed for them?”
Now, do you think Jesus is going to tell me anything different than He told His disciples?
No, He looks at me and says the same thing: “They didn’t come out of their wheelchairs healed
because of your unbelief, Mr. Roberson.”
I protest, “Jesus, that’s impossible! If there was any way to have more faith, I would have
had it. I turned my being inside out; I pulled on every fiber within me. How can You say they
didn’t get healed because of my unbelief ?”
“Because there’s a subtle kind of unbelief in you that you don’t know about, Brother
Roberson.”
But this one thing I have discovered about Jesus, my Teacher. He never outlines a problem
like this without going on to give me an answer before the teaching is over. It’s not enough to
outline a problem; I need an answer. There must be some way I can deal with that kind of subtle
unbelief on purpose so that absolutely nothing is impossible unto me.
Fasting Helps Move Mountains
In my search, somehow I knew my answer lay in what Jesus told His disciples in Matthew
17. I found that answer in verse 21: Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and
fasting.
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Jesus analyzed the whole situation in one word: “howbeit.” “Howbeit” is an analytical word
meaning nevertheless or however this particular situation may be. Jesus was in effect saying
that even though mountains can be moved with faith the size of a tiny mustard seed, we will
encounter some situations that require prayer and fasting to overcome.
Jesus was talking about a lifestyle of prayer and fasting here. Most deliverance preachers
in the old days taught about and encouraged that kind of lifestyle. Today we don’t teach or
emphasize its importance nearly as much. The result? Although we live in a time of Church
history when teaching the Word has risen to the forefront, many are unequipped to do the
Word, which includes casting out demons and moving mountains of all kinds.
Often we associate fasting only with deliverance from demonic influence because of Jesus’
statement here that a certain kind of demon can be cast out only by prayer and fasting. But
Jesus also told His disciples that the reason this devil wouldn’t come out was their own unbelief
(v. 20).
So Jesus didn’t just associate fasting with demonic deliverance; He also associated it with
moving your mountain. He said, “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could speak
to the mountain and it would be removed, and absolutely nothing would be impossible to you.”
Right after saying that, Jesus made the statement about prayer and fasting. This indicates
to me that these two things have something to do with bringing me from a place of unbelief —
where my mountains refuse to move, where everything is impossible to me — to a place where
nothing is impossible to me.
Therefore, my fasting doesn’t move God; He isn’t the One stuck underneath an invisible
ceiling. My fasting also doesn’t move the devil; he isn’t the one with my problem. Somehow
fasting deals with my unbelief.
But my question to God for so many years was this: “What in the world does fasting have
to do with unbelief?” Of all the places to find that answer, I found it back in Romans 8:
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness.
— Romans 8:10
If Christ lives in you, you qualify for the rest of this verse, namely, that your spirit is life. It
has entered into the zoe, seated-in-heavenly-places-with-Christ, God-kind of life.
But notice, the same verse that says my spirit is life also declares my body to be dead. Well,
I know my body isn’t physically dead because I’m still wearing it. So what kind of “dead” is
Paul referring to? To understand this passage in Romans 8, we must refer back to something
Paul said in Romans 6:6:
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the BODY OF SIN might
be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
What is this “body of sin”? It is no less than the old nature inherited from the first man
Adam before we were born again. This is the “sin nature,” the unregenerated spirit within us
all before our spirit passes from death to life in the new birth. It was that sin nature that used
to energize the lusts of the flesh, such as self-exaltation and the love of money.
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So if Christ be in you, then positionally God has declared the sin nature, the “body of sin,”
to be dead and your reborn human spirit alive unto Him.
We understand positional truth pertaining to our spirit. For instance, we know that Jesus
was made to be sin for us and that we were made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor.
5:21). We are now seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6). We are above and
not beneath (Deut. 28:13).
However, we may know very little about positional truth pertaining to our flesh. The
essence of that truth is this: The moment we were born again, God declared the “body of sin”
— the sin nature or the “old man” — to be dead. Positionally, the flesh has lost its “power
source” to commit sin. It lost its right to dominate and rule over us any longer.
So when you pray in the Holy Ghost, worship God, and confess His Word, you are enforcing
the positional truth that your spirit is seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. The
more you pray in the Holy Ghost, the more you execute that position of grace. On the other
hand, when you fast, you are enforcing the positional truth that the “body of sin” was crucified
with Christ and your flesh no longer has the power to rule over the operation of your spirit.
Thus, when you begin to fast and pray, you execute two positional truths in the realm of
the Spirit. That’s why prayer and fasting are the power twins.
Breaking Down the Ceiling of Flesh
Sometimes it’s not only that subtle kind of unbelief, but the flesh that constructs a ceiling
over our lives. The devil will erect some kind of stronghold in our flesh realm, such as smoking,
drinking, anger, gossip, or lust. Then he uses that stronghold to control us. Every time we
attempt to receive from God or to accomplish something for Him, he turns up the pressure in
those areas so that we feel hopeless and out of control.
So what do we often do? We pray superficial prayers; we go to church; we try to minister;
we implement programs; we substitute many things for the power of God that is absent
because of the ceiling of flesh over our lives. But our lives stay the same all the time, never
increasing. We may instigate more programs, but the power never changes. Our lives keep
bouncing off that ceiling of flesh.
Then one day, we decide to fast and pray. We begin by praying in the Holy Ghost and worshiping
God. Then as our spirit begins to be built up, we start to fast. As we add fasting to our
prayer lives, we slam the door on Satan’s accessibility to the control center on our lives.
Pretty soon the ceiling of the flesh over our lives begins to drop down. It isn’t long before
the operation of the flesh is at the same level as the operation of the Spirit in our lives, so we
continue to fast and pray.
Finally, the operation of the flesh drops below the operation of the Spirit; its power is broken.
When that happens, answered prayer is the automatic result, and the things we’ve been
believing for begin to come to pass. We start seeing answers to prayers that have been lying
dormant for years — even prayers that we forgot but God didn’t.
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At this point, if the devil comes to inspect that computer-like program he implanted in our
soul to destroy us, he will find it gone — and God’s program in its place! Why? Because through
fasting, we have enforced the positional truth that our “old man” was crucified with Christ.
The flesh is rendered powerless to force us into sin. We have released the operation of the
Spirit.
Fasting Doesn’t Move God
Personally, I thank God for fasting, because many times I have come to a place where I didn’t
know how to go on in God. I didn’t know how to break the last barriers of flesh down. In
those situations, I found fasting to be a tool, a means to an end. It was the “super-charger” I needed,
combined with praying in the Holy Ghost, to push me over into victory.
But we make a mistake if we think that we move God with our fasting. How can we move
Someone who has so expressed His willingness to move on our behalf ? Romans 8:32 makes it
crystal clear:
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things?
Our fasting doesn’t move God; it moves us to a place where we can receive from God.
Fasting destroys the hold that the flesh has had on our lives so that, instead of operating out
of the flesh, we can continually operate out of the Spirit!
You see, God isn’t the One holding the power back. If He had His way, every one of us
would be operating in raising-the-dead type of power tomorrow!
Fasting Helps Preserve the ‘Old Wineskin’
Let’s take this a step further. In Matthew 9:14 and 15, the disciples of John the Baptist
asked Jesus a question about fasting. It took me a long time to understand Jesus’ answer.
Then came to him [Jesus] the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the
Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?
And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long
as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall
be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
The day that Jesus is talking about is the change from the Old to the New Covenant; it’s
our day.
Then all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, Jesus goes on to say this:
No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in
to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine
runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both
are preserved.
— Matthew 9:16,17
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Let’s catch what Jesus is saying here. The disciples of John came to Jesus and said, “The
Pharisees fast often, and so do we. But we have noticed, Jesus, that these men who follow You
don’t fast at all.”
Then Jesus answers, “No, they don’t have to fast while I’m with them. I’m the
Bridegroom.” In other words, at that time the disciples were between two covenants, the Old
Testament and the New Testament. And before Jesus sent the seventy disciples out, He literally
put His anointing on them.
The disciples cast devils out and raised the dead. When they came back and talked to Jesus
about what they had done, they were more shocked that demons had to come out than the
demons were! Luke 10:17 says, And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord,
even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. But, you see, it was Jesus’ anointing
they were walking under.
So in essence Jesus says, “No, while I’m with you, you don’t have to fast, because I put My
anointing on you. But the day will come when I’m taken away, and there will be a change of
covenants. On that day you will fast. And would you like to know why you will fast in that
day?”
The disciples say, “Yes! That’s the question we’re asking You.”
Jesus says, “I’ll tell exactly why you’ll fast in that day — because you don’t put new wine
in old bottles and new patches on old garments.”
So as I meditated on Jesus’ answer to the disciples of John, I thought, That was His answer
to why we are going to fast under the New Covenant? They asked Him a question about fasting.
What kind of answer is it to say, “You don’t put new wine in old bottles”? (I don’t think I understood
half of what Jesus said in the early days of my ministry!)
I finally came to understand what Jesus was saying. The moment you were born again,
your spirit was seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. But, unfortunately, He had to
leave you in the old garment or old wineskin — this earthly body. One day a trumpet will
sound, and this earthly body is going to be transformed from corruptible to incorruptible.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
— 1 Corinthians 15:52
Can you imagine our bodies being glorified in the time it takes a person to blink?
At that moment, I won’t own a body anymore that was given to me from the loins of the
first man Adam. Instead, I will be a manifested son of God, born of Jesus Christ, comprised of
spirit, soul, and glorified body.
The rapture is the next great event in the timetable of God’s Church. But meanwhile, as
generations of saints can testify before us, we are still wearing an old garment or old wineskin
that is dying day by day and is capable of sin.
When I belonged to that ultra-Holiness church, people would tell me that it was the devil
who was tempting me to sin, and I understood that. But I didn’t understand what it was in
me that wanted to agree with the devil!
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I wanted Galatians 5:16 to read this way: “This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and all the
warrings and lusts of the flesh will go away.” But it doesn’t say that. It says, This I say then,
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
That’s why Jesus said, “When I’m taken away from you, there will be a change of
covenants. Your spirit is going to be seated with Me. But, unfortunately, I’ll have to leave you
in the old wineskin. That’s okay, though, because fasting is going to have the same effect on
your old wineskin as if you went out and bought a new one. Fasting will preserve your old
wineskin so the new wine, My power, can operate through it until I give you a new wineskin
— a glorified body.”
It’s a sad thing when a preacher’s old wineskin bursts in full view of the entire world,
spilling out the new wine because the vessel that carried it wasn’t strong enough to maintain
it. That situation brings a reproach on the Gospel. Perhaps if that preacher had known a little
more about fasting, his old wineskin might have been better preserved against sin.
So fasting has the same effect on your old wineskin as if you had gone out and bought a
new wineskin. Fasting preserves the old wineskin against sin. It helps mortify the deeds of the
flesh while the new wine operates within the old wineskin.
The Forty-Day Fast of Jesus
We can learn much about the purpose of fasting by looking at the forty-day fast Jesus went
on when He faced Satan in the wilderness and defeated him.
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command
that these stones be made bread.
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of
the temple,
And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written,
He shall give His angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear
thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him
all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship
me.
Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
— Matthew 4:1-11
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As I read this passage of Scripture, I wondered, What was the reason for Jesus’ forty-day
fast, and why did Satan challenge Him at the end of it?
When discussing this with others, the answer I often heard went something like this: “The
fasting reduced Jesus to the weakest state of vulnerability. In that weakened state, Jesus
showed the supremacy of His power over the devil by not giving in to temptation.”
But, in reality, the opposite is true. Jesus fasted forty days in preparation for facing the
devil. Why? Because He knew that fasting shuts the flesh down and strengthens us, not weakens
us, against the devil.
Why was Jesus led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil? Because
He as our Substitute was being tempted in our place. Then after He overcame the devil, He
could turn around and give us the perfect standing that He had obtained from defeating Satan
in the temptations of the flesh. That’s why Jesus could later say in Luke 10:19:
Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the
power of the enemy: and NOTHING shall by any means hurt you.
So then fasting has the same effect on our flesh as it had on Jesus’ flesh: It braces us
against the temptations of the devil and helps us mortify or shut down the flesh by enforcing
the perfect standing Jesus has already given us.
In order to understand how perfect and powerful this standing is that Jesus has given us
over the flesh, we must learn what Jesus had to withstand to obtain it. You see, nothing can
be declared perfect unless it cannot be improved upon. This means that the standing Jesus has
given to us over the flesh and the devil could only be declared perfect if it had withstood
Satan’s most diabolical testings and schemes.
Jesus had to be subjected to the worst that Satan had — the worst torments, fears, pressures,
and cares, the worst temptations of lust and riches. This was the entire reason Jesus
was led into the wilderness. He was on a mission from God as our Substitute to obtain for us
as part of our redemption a perfect standing over the flesh.
Now we can enter into God’s Presence, armed with the standing of grace He has given us
— not because of what we have done but because of what Jesus has done.
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy,
and find grace to help in time of need.
— Hebrews 4:15,16
There before the throne of God, we can find mercy to help in our times of need — our temptations,
testings, and trials.
In order for Jesus to deliver this kind of standing to us, He had to face Satan on three levels:
spirit, soul, and body. This confrontation had to be carried out not in Jesus’ deity, but in
His humanity. That’s why Jesus said, “Man (referring to His humanity) shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).
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The pressures, the torments, the loneliness, and the fear that Satan attempted to put on
Jesus are indescribable. They can only be described as similar to the horrors one may see in
the lower level of an insane asylum where people reside whose spirits have been completely
taken over by demons. The demonic opposition Jesus faced was the type that spawns such
deranged drives for power and wealth as Adolph Hitler and the Nazis possessed, where one
culture tries to completely annihilate another in the quest for dominance or world power.
You see, Jesus had to face the worst Satan had. He couldn’t just win a victory over some
low-level, expendable, second-rate demon that simply afflicts or torments. He couldn’t even
deal with just a ruler of the darkness or a principality. Jesus had to face Satan himself! And
in doing so, Jesus defeated Satan on all three levels: spirit, soul, and body!
Number one, Jesus defeated Satan on the level of the body. Satan challenged Him to meet
the needs of His physical body — but on Satan’s terms:
And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command
that these stones be made bread.
— Matthew 4:3
Satan attempted to pressure Jesus with the worst torment of the physical body: the threat
that the basic necessities to sustain life will not be met. The attempt failed.
Number two, Jesus defeated Satan on the level of the soul when Satan tried to tempt Him to
commit suicide.
Satan took Jesus up to a high pinnacle of the temple in the Holy City and began to pressure
Him in the emotional realm of the soul to commit suicide by jumping off the pinnacle:
And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written,
He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear
thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
— Matthew 4:6
Jesus knew that God had given the angels charge concerning Him, but He wasn’t about to
tempt God by jumping off the temple just because the devil told him to.
You see, suicide is the last step into a state of hopelessness after a long battle with torments
and fears. In that hopeless state, the person says to life, “You have no real answers.” In
that sense, it is the worst torment of the soul, and Jesus defeated Satan in that very arena.
Satan may try to badger us in the soulish realm of our emotions, but today we have access
to a perfect standing against soulish torment. That standing was given to us by Jesus, the
Prince of Peace, and will sustain us no matter what Satan tries to do.
Number three, Jesus defeated Satan on the level of the spirit when Satan tried to tempt
Jesus to worship him.
It’s interesting to note that when Satan tested Jesus in the physical realm, he used food,
and when he tested Him in the emotional realm of the soul, he used suicide. But when Satan
tested Jesus in the realm of the human spirit, he used power and money by offering Him the
glory of the kingdoms of the world.
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This shows us that Satan has a strategy to conquer a man’s spirituality. The devil knows
that men will switch their allegiance more quickly from worshiping God to worshiping him
because of power and riches than anything else he has to offer.
Satan offered to make Jesus the wealthiest, most powerful Man in the world. All Jesus had
to do was turn Himself over spiritually to Satan and worship him.
But, thank God, Jesus withstood Satan. Then he turned around and gave us the standing
He had attained through His victory on all three levels. Somehow fasting had helped prepare
Jesus for that time of temptation so that He could, as our Substitute, give us His standing.
Now when we fast, we execute Jesus’ standing over the flesh as we yield to God and withstand
the devil.
Ways To Fast
We just looked at a forty-day fast that Jesus went on to prepare to confront the devil’s
temptations. But there are several ways to fast. The one I have found to be the most practical
and effective for the person carrying on in today’s busy society is the common three-day fast.
This can be done in one of two ways.
If you can’t get away somewhere and just pray because of your schedule, I recommend that
you go on a juice fast using mild juices such as grape or apple juice. During that time, pray as
much as you can. But if you can get away, I suggest you go on a total consecrated fast of just
water (filtered or distilled, available at most supermarkets).
If you aren’t familiar with fasting and want to go on more than a three-day fast, I recommend
a series of shorter periods of fasting. For example, you could fast three days a week for
three weeks straight. For that time period, stick to fresh vegetables, fruits, and salads, staying
away from heavy meats and breads. Then when your time of fasting is over, you can go
back to those foods if you desire.
Eventually you may want to go on a more extended fast, especially if you are dealing with
some kind of stronghold in your flesh realm (mind, emotions, or body) that you want to shut
down or mortify for good.
The Fast God Chooses
To understand the kind of fast God chooses, let’s take this subject one step further and go
to Isaiah 58.
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo
the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast
out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou
HIDE NOT THYSELF FROM THINE OWN FLESH?
— Isaiah 58:6,7
That last phrase of this passage of Scripture was the part I got stuck on. I thought, Lord,
what do You mean when You say the fast You have chosen is that I hide not myself from my
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own flesh? I wondered if God was talking about the same thing Jesus spoke of in Matthew
6:17,18:
But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;
That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and
thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
Or was God making the same point in Isaiah 58:7 as Paul made in First Corinthians 7:5
when he addressed husbands and wives?
Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give
yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not
for your incontinency.
Jesus taught about a fast in which we are to wash our faces and go about our daily business,
not appearing unto men that we are fasting. Then Paul taught about a fast in which we
could lock ourselves away on the “mountain,” so to speak, giving ourselves completely to fasting
and prayer. Both types of fast are taught in the Bible.
But I still wondered what the Lord meant when He said I am not to hide myself from my
own flesh. It took me about three years of study and meditation to understand what He was
talking about.
The day you decide to fast is the day you decide to quit hiding from your own flesh — from
whatever it is in you that just doesn’t care about the lost, the poor, the naked, or those who
are cast out of God’s house. It’s the day you decide to quit hiding from whatever ceiling is in
your life stopping you from operating in God’s power. The day you decide to fast is the day you
decide to quit running from yourself.
Jesus said, “That demon didn’t come out because of your unbelief.” He also said, “That kind
only comes out by prayer and fasting.” And what does fasting have to do with your unbelief ?
It executes the position of the flesh that God has declared: It has no right to dominate you. It
has no right to rule over you.
When you live a lifestyle of fasting and prayer, there is no operation of the flesh that the
devil can lay hold of to destroy your life with. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “The
prince of this world comes, and he has nothing in me” (John 14:30).
Why is that? Because fasting and praying in the Holy Ghost destroys those fleshly works
and releases God’s power in you. And the moment the operation of the flesh drops below the
level of the operation of the Spirit, you receive a new anointing in your life and ministry.
Prepare for Satan’s Tactics
As we pray and fast, hiding not from our flesh, we set captives free. Let’s look at Isaiah 58:6
again:
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo
the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
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Often the first captive that needs to be set free is ourselves. As the flesh is dealt a death
blow through fasting, we rise in freedom to walk more fully in the Spirit. Once we grow to a
place of greater spiritual maturity, we begin to set others free.
Remember, it is at this point that we will draw the devil’s attention. He doesn’t want anyone
to be free, and we have become a major threat to his kingdom of darkness!
You may ask, “Aren’t you inviting trouble?” No, I’m not inviting trouble; I’m anticipating
the strategies of Satan. The Bible tells us that when the Word is planted in any way, shape, or
form, the devil comes to steal it so that it will not produce fruit (Luke 8:11-15).
If we aren’t spiritually aware of the devil’s tactics, we will have a rude awakening. We will
be caught unprepared, and the devil will have a better opportunity to steal from us or from
those we love.
We aren’t in Heaven yet. We are living on a planet that has had war declared on it. The
devil was thrown out of Heaven, and now he is active here on the earth. He cannot cause trouble
in Heaven, so he does his best to cause trouble here.
As long as the devil is active here on earth, the storms will continue to beat down upon our
homes. But just as surely as Jesus revealed that the storms would come, He also guaranteed
that if our house is built on the rock of hearing and doing His sayings, the devil can do nothing
to tear that house down (Matt. 7:24-27). The enemy isn’t powerful enough. He doesn’t have
the equipment to force our house off the Rock of Jesus Christ.
The more that we get a revelation of the entire plan of God, the more victory we are going
to have here on earth. The more quickly we come to a place of esteeming the glories of Heaven
as a greater prize than the temporary short-sighted goals of this earthly existence, the more
power we will have operating in our lives for the victories in the battles here on this earth.
The Missing Ingredient:
Supernatural Peace
I didn’t understand how all of this worked until several years ago when I fasted and prayed
during an extended seeking time. I was looking for the change in my life that would make the
difference. I wanted something I could put my hands on. I was waiting for the angels to appear
or the heavens to open.
Those things didn’t happen, but when I came out of the seeking time, I was left with something
I never had before. I entered into a degree of peace I never knew existed. God put me on
the Rock to stay!
You may ask, “Didn’t you always walk in peace?” If you had asked me that before the fast,
I would have answered, “Oh, yes!” because I didn’t have anything to compare it with. But this
new peace was different. It was unshakable!
This peace felt so good and so strange at the same time. When things seemed to go wrong,
I found out that I could enjoy waiting with patience for God’s plan to materialize! I could take
my responsibility in a situation without taking the care or burden of it.
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So through prayer and fasting, God had caused me to enter into a peace that was a tangible
force keeping me in a position to receive His power. He spoke to my spirit about this peace,
saying, “This is what you’ve been looking for. It is the missing ingredient.”
You see, conditions on this earth aren’t going to get better. Jesus told us in Matthew 24
what the last days would be like: wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, sorrows, persecutions,
false prophets, and the love of many waxing cold. The storms of life are getting more violent.
As time goes on, they will rage more and more severely.
Fasting and prayer empty us of our fleshly nature and allow God to fill us with His character.
As the flesh loses ground, the peace of God can begin to rule in our lives (Col. 3:15). We
climb from one level of peace to another. Our faith becomes greater and greater.
All of this is waiting for you and me. We are capable of so much more than merely overcoming
the crises of life. Each of us is meant to be a force on this earth for God — and prayer
combined with fasting are the power twins that help us attain that goal!
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For in the quietness of My Spirit,
My voice is known,
and My ways, My principles, and My precepts are shown.
So fly away with Me, saith the Spirit of Grace,
for I and no man will exalt you
and give you your rightful place in Myself.
For peace will be the fruit,
saith the Spirit of Grace,
the peaceable fruit,
when you give me that rightful place.
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Chapter 14
How To Effectively
Pray in Tongues
There seems to be a need in the Church for some down-to-earth, practical teaching on the
“how-to” of praying in tongues. So let me give you some basic guidelines to help you effectively
“build yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.”
It Isn’t How Loud
Or How Soft You Pray
People come to me all the time and ask, “How do you pray in tongues, Brother Roberson?”
I just simply answer, “I pray like this,” and then I demonstrate, praying quietly under my
breath.
“But don’t you pray out loud?”
“No, not usually,” I reply. “God isn’t hard of hearing.” (Of course, if I do pray louder, He
isn’t nervous either!)
Then someone asked me, “Well, what about warring tongues?”
I asked, “How do you do that?” The person demonstrated, almost screaming in tongues.
“Why do you yell like that when you’re talking to God?” I asked.
“Well, I thought I was talking to the devil.”
“No, no, First Corinthians 14:2 says you’re talking to God. Now, you can pray that loud if
you want to. But I’ll tell you what, it won’t be long before your tonsils will be playing Bach’s
Fifth Cantata! You’re going to blow those tonsils out!”
So there is the group that says, “You aren’t getting anywhere with God praying in tongues
unless you pray in a warring tongue.” They scream and shout in tongues, thinking they’re
addressing the devil.
But the issue isn’t whether you shout or whisper when you pray in tongues. You aren’t producing
any more for the Kingdom of God by yelling in tongues than you are by praying in
tongues under your breath, because it’s the Holy Spirit who supplies the language. You didn’t
create it; He created it. And if the Holy Spirit is the Originator of the language, it is always
full of power.
(The same is true with worship: It isn’t how loud or how quiet you worship; it’s how much
of your entire being you pour into every statement of adoration. You can’t truly worship the
Lord while your mind is wandering off down the street analyzing some problem.)
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When I first began traveling in the ministry, I used to walk back and forth in my motel
room, praying in the Holy Ghost. I was still very ignorant about prayer, so I would pray in
tongues just as loud as I could. I thought that increased volume made my praying more powerful.
I hadn’t learned yet that God isn’t deaf and that He can hear my prayer anywhere and
in any tone of voice.
Later I came to realize that the moment the Holy Spirit’s supernatural language comes out
of my mouth, it is released to God. It doesn’t make any difference if I am whispering or shouting;
the words that come out of my spirit in tongues still mean the same because I’m talking
to God.
Is Fervency in Prayer a Requirement?
You may ask, “What if I don’t pray real fervently when I pray in the Holy Ghost? After all,
doesn’t James 5:16 say, ...The effectual FERVENT prayer of a righteous man availeth
much?
Yes, it does say that, but James is talking about the prayer of faith in that verse. The
prayer of faith occurs when you line up your sights on some “mountain” in your life and say,
“Mountain, move!” That kind of fervent prayer avails much when you have enough strength
in your character to stand your ground against hell or any other opposition until that mountain
moves.
But if you don’t have enough strength of character yet to do that, praying in the Holy Ghost
will help bring you to a place where you can hold your ground until you receive your answer.
So whether or not you’re praying fervently in tongues doesn’t really matter. It just depends
on what God is doing in your spirit.
For example, sometimes the Holy Spirit gets quite forceful in my spirit as I pray in tongues,
and I feel like I’m fighting something. But when that forceful unction lifts, I let it lift. I trust
the Holy Ghost to lead me; He knows what I’m praying about. But I don’t stop praying. I just
go back to praying quietly under my breath.
Pray to a State of Peace
At the church I pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, we meet together regularly to pray as a corporate
body. At these prayer meetings, I often have everyone sit down and “glue” themselves to
the chair. They are to do nothing but sit there and pray in tongues.
Over the years, some people have had a hard time doing that because their flesh was still
“on the go.” They couldn’t even sit and pray in the Holy Ghost for two hours without moving.
It was obvious that they weren’t well acquainted with themselves or with the Holy Ghost.
Sometimes in prayer I enter into such a state of peace that I just lie on the floor for two or
three hours. Everything is so quiet, I don’t even want to move. At those times, the Holy Spirit
begins to teach me things from His Word, and the truths He reveals seem so crystal clear.
What a wonderful place in the Spirit that is!
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But most Christians don’t know anything about the place of utter peace that can be reached
through praying in tongues. They have never stayed still long enough in prayer to get
acquainted with it.
“Do you have something against walking while you pray in tongues, Brother Roberson?” No,
I have nothing against walking and praying. But there comes a time for learning discipline in
prayer and for getting acquainted with the Holy Ghost. These can often best be accomplished by
keeping your body as still as possible while your spirit prays out the mysteries of Christ in
tongues.
Edification Doesn’t Spell Feelings
A lot of times, people look for feelings when they pray in tongues. That’s why I pin people
to a chair during corporate prayer — to help them get beyond looking for feelings.
“Do you ever feel anything when you pray in tongues, Brother Roberson?” Oh, yes, don’t get
me wrong. I welcome the emotions when they come. Once in a while something will build and
build and build in my spirit until it is finally delivered to my soul, and then my emotions go,
“Wow!” But I don’t judge whether I’m receiving anything based on what I feel. I just keep praying
in tongues, believing the Word that says I am edifying myself.
You see, tongues originate in your spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit. Emotions are
added when the tongues pass through your soul. That’s why whether you shout or whisper in
tongues doesn’t make a lick of difference to the outcome of your prayer if you’re the one who
added the emotions.
In my early days of praying in the Holy Ghost, I thought that maybe I wasn’t praying effectively
if I didn’t feel a tingling in my fingers or rise to a certain state of emotional “high.” Then
I went through a period of time when every time I prayed in tongues, an emotional war would
wage on the inside of me. I almost quit praying because I thought Heaven had been closed
against me. I was judging whether or not I was getting through to Heaven on the emotions I
was or was not experiencing in prayer.
Now I know that edification doesn’t spell feelings. Praying in the Holy Ghost is a step deeper
than our emotions. Emotions belong to our soulish realm, but power and edification belong
to the spiritual realm.
The Holy Ghost even leaves our intellect out of praying in tongues. That’s a big blow to our
carnal pride! We may pray three hours in the Holy Ghost without God ever letting us in on
what we were praying about!
For example, one time I had a vision of Old Mexico, and I prayed and prayed in the Spirit,
trying to find out when that vision would come to pass. I badgered God about it, asking Him
why He wouldn’t show me more of the coming revival I had seen in the vision. “Please show
me what meeting it was that I saw,” I prayed. “Show me what I have to do.”
Finally, the Lord interrupted me one morning in prayer and said, “If I tell you in English
what I have planned for you, you will just mess it up!” He was right, because later when I
found out what it would cost to fulfill what He wanted me to do in Mexico, I needed a lot of
extra edification just to handle it!
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So praying in tongues is deeper than your emotional realm. It comes from your spirit — the
foundation upon which your life rests, the part of you that the Holy Ghost was sent to nourish,
teach, and edify.
That may not mean you’ll always enjoy wonderful emotions. But edification is the necessary
process by which you are transformed to the Word you have heard — the Word that sets
the standard in your life.
The Role of Worship
So edification doesn’t necessarily include my emotions. If I want feelings, I worship,
because that is designed to bring the godly emotions I need for fortification to my soulish
realm.
You can’t do anything better in the midst of a trial than to worship. Worship sustains you,
stabilizing your emotions to go through the trial victoriously.
(However, you don’t want to just be sustained through a problem; you want to go further
in God and be set free from it. That is the job of the Holy Ghost, and that is where praying in
tongues comes in, because all permanent change comes from within.)
That’s why James said you are to count it all joy when you fall into temptations, testings,
and trials. Rejoice in the midst of your afflictions, your infirmities, your perplexities. Just
count it all joy. As you turn all of your attention to God, releasing your emotions in admiration
and worship of your Father, that joy will stabilize your soulish realm, which is the part of
you the devil likes to operate against.
Personal Breakthroughs
Through Worship
A prominent evangelist and close friend of mine was once caught up into Heaven to visit
with Jesus. While there, Jesus told him, “My people do not worship Me enough.”
Often the only time we spend time in praise and worship is at church. If this is true, a
change needs to be made.
The greatest experiences with God I’ve ever had in my life, besides seeing Him heal a blind
or deaf person, took place while I was worshiping Him privately with only a few other people
present.
For example, I mentioned earlier that soon after I had been baptized in the Holy Spirit at
church and had spoken “with stammering lips,” I had a spiritual experience while worshiping
God in my own home.
At that time I was going through an intense spiritual battle. I could just feel the fleshly carnal
nature trying to creep back and overpower me.
As Rosalie prayed with me, I walked back and forth, back and forth in my living room, fervently
praising and worshiping God. I didn’t want to give in to the flesh, but it seemed as if I
was almost powerless.
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I really didn’t know how to pray at that time. I hadn’t been saved very long, and the year
after I was born again, I had been in and out of church. When I was “out,” I could be found in
some not-too-nice places.
So I walked back and forth, resisting the temptations of the flesh as I prayed and praised
God the best I knew how. I didn’t know what to do except lift my hands to God and say
“Hallelujah” and “Praise God” over and over.
Suddenly a warm sensation came over me, beginning in my uplifted hands. The sensation
flowed down through my arms and shoulders into my chest and seemed to reach up into my
mind.
As this sensation flowed into my legs, I fell over backwards. My breath was knocked out of
me, but I hardly noticed. Instead, I immediately began to effortlessly speak another language.
For hours I continued to yield to the Holy Spirit, and that supernatural language increased
until it had become a full, fluent prayer language.
This strong anointing of the Holy Spirit, which began at about midnight, was on me until
four o’clock in the morning. It was a life-changing experience for my hungry heart.
The second time I experienced a powerful move of the Holy Spirit, I was once again worshiping
God. At this time, I was thinning trees in Oregon, working to provide for my family.
I was on a campaign to get my boss and a fellow employee nicknamed “Fort” saved. Fort
was a skinny young man who was burnt out on dope and a habitual liar. I testified to him and
the boss night and day.
Later when my boss didn’t have enough money to pay me anymore, I quit and continued to
work for free just so I could continue witnessing to these two men. Because I wasn’t being paid,
my boss couldn’t tell me where to fell trees. This worked to my advantage, because I could
choose to work by Fort’s side.
Anytime Fort would turn off his saw for a break, in my zeal I would begin to preach. You
should have seen how quickly he turned his saw back on again!
Well, I finally talked Fort into getting born again. He received Jesus in a logger tent about
a quarter mile from the Lake of the Woods outside of Klamath Falls.
As Fort sat there in the tent, I and another Christian logger walked around with uplifted
hands, worshiping the Lord and trying to “pray Fort through” to salvation. (At this time, I didn’t
believe someone was truly saved unless he “felt” something.) Every few minutes, I would
lay hands on Fort and pray in the Holy Ghost.
Then all of a sudden in the early hours of the morning, the Presence of God entered that
tent. To this day, I can’t tell you if it was an angel or the Holy Ghost.
I fell over backwards onto a cot and began laughing hilariously in the Holy Ghost. I became
so drunk in the Spirit that I couldn’t rise off the cot. In the midst of all this, Fort was saved
and filled with the Holy Ghost.
All three of us laughed and giggled in the Holy Ghost and prayed in tongues and rejoiced
until dawn. Everyone within hearing range must have thought we were crazy.
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The next day my boss was angry at me for what had gone on in that tent the night before.
But I didn’t have to answer to him because I was working for free. Then to my surprise, the
boss came to me that night and said, “Something is wrong with me.”
I said, “I know what it is. We need to pray through.”
My boss replied, “Okay, but can we go to the other side of the lake where there aren’t any
people?”
“Sure, we can,” I answered. So the other Christian logger and I took the boss to the other
side of the lake and prayed him through to the Kingdom as well!
Soon afterward, Fort disappeared. When he reappeared a few days later to pick up his paycheck,
he was drunk and back on drugs. He didn’t come back again.
Then a few years later, after I had entered full-time ministry, I held a meeting in Klamath
Falls. I was sitting in the back room after the service when a plump, clean-cut young man
walked in.
“Hi, do you remember me?” he asked.
“No, I don’t,” I said.
“I used to work with you in the woods. My name is So-and-so.” That didn’t mean anything
to me. Then he said, “You called me Fort.”
“The only Fort I knew was a habitual liar and a dopehead!”
The young man just laughed and said, “That was me!”
I looked at him in amazement. “That was you? Well, what are you doing at this meeting?”
“Oh, haven’t you heard? I’m one of the cooperating pastors sponsoring this meeting!” I just
about fainted! That all-night Holy Ghost revival we had experienced in the logger tent years
earlier had produced good fruit for God’s Kingdom after all! And it all came about as two
believers worshiped God.
How To Spend Three Hours
With the Lord
From time to time I have been asked what I consider to be the most powerful way for a person
to spend three or four hours in the Presence of God if that’s all the time he has to do so in
a given week. After many years of praying and waiting on God, my answer boils down to these
three basic things:
1. Worship and praise (which supplies the sustaining power needed for the duration of
our trials, trading our weaknesses for Christ’s strength)
2. Confession of God’s Word (speaking to the “mountains” in our lives that need to be
removed — sickness or pain, finances or torment, worry or fear, etc.)
3. Praying in tongues (the supernatural language that not only edifies but supplies revelation
knowledge)
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You see, it isn’t the general messages that you hear a minister preach for an hour each
week that will change your life. The anointed teacher or pastor can only supply some of the
information required for needed change.
But the real change comes when in the privacy of your own home, you apply the Word to
the problems you are facing. Your life is transformed in direct proportion to the private time
you spend praying in the Spirit and in confession of the Word and worship.
Now, it’s important to understand that the guidelines I’m about to give you for spending
time with God are just that — guidelines. They are not a set formula that you must follow to
the letter in order to enjoy fellowship with the Father.
Just follow the leading of the Holy Spirit as you develop these three areas in your walk with
God. As you do, you will enjoy a new dimension of answered prayer and a strong, continual
awareness of God’s Presence.
The First Hour: Worship
The first hour I would enter God’s Presence in worship, praise, and thanksgiving. I’d say,
“Here I am, Father. I don’t have any needs to present, because all of my needs were met at the
Cross two thousand years ago. I’m just here to fellowship with You because You’re my Father
and I’m your child. I’m going to ascend on Your holy hill and see how high I can go praising
and worshiping You.” My goal is to develop a relationship with God based on fellowship
instead of need.
Too many times believers enter into God’s Presence only when they are instructed to do so
in church or when they need something. But one of the highest forms of worship is to enter
into His Presence in our private lives to praise and worship Him as our Heavenly Father simply
because our name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
God is exceedingly glad that we are His children and that He is our Father. And as a Father
who enjoys His children, He wants to spend time with us fellowshiping around His throne. He
likes it when we lift up holy hands and tell Him just how much we love Him in pure fellowship.
So how do we enter the Presence of God? Well, the Holy Spirit was sent to glorify Jesus
(John 16:14). His entire ministry is to bring you into Jesus’ Presence. Then Jesus in turn
brings you into the Presence of the Father. And the same principles Jesus taught His disciples
about entering into the Father’s Presence applies to entering the Presence of Jesus.
Jesus said, “When you pray, say, ...Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy
name (Matt. 6:9). That word “hallowed” means to sanctify His Name in our lives, raising it
high above everything else. It means to enter His Presence with reverent worship.
Hypothetically speaking, we are always in God’s Presence. We have Jesus’ Name. We can
petition God at any moment of the day.
But when we have time to enter the Presence of God with protocol, then let me tell you
right now, there is a way that pleases Him.
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First of all, there is a way to offer myself to God in private worship. The first part of me I
should offer up before Him is my soul — my intellect, my will, and my emotions.
I may not feel like offering up my soul to God. No one may be leading me to do so. A band
doesn’t follow me around, creating an atmosphere for worship. I don’t always have a cassette
or a compact disc available to play worship music for me. But when I enter into God’s Presence
offering my soul, I almost always end up worshiping Him in spirit.
Secondly, when I come before Him, I am to show Him respect. An ambassador will show
honor to an earthly king by bowing before him and offering him gifts. How much more should
I show respect as I enter the Presence of the King of Kings with the offering of my soul?
Sometimes we forget whose Presence we are entering into. Yes, Jesus is our best Friend.
Yes, He is our Confidant. But when we approach Him with a petition or with worship, He is
our High Priest, and He deserves our highest honor and respect.
For that very reason, it is highly important that we do not let our soul wander off down the
street to solve some problem when it is supposed to be worshiping the King of Kings. If we
want our soul to be blessed by the King, then we must keep our soul in the Presence of the
King. To do otherwise would be highly disrespectful, to say the least.
The Second Hour:
Confession of God’s Word
Then I would spend my second hour with the Lord reconciling the problem I’m currently
facing to the Cross. How? By replacing with the words of my mouth the image of the problem
that the devil sends my way with the image that is in the Word. That is my inheritance and
my right as a believer.
As I entered the second hour, I’d say, “Father, I thank You that devils are subject to me. I
thank You that disease, which is caused directly or indirectly by devils, is subject to me in
Your Name. I thank You that I have been delivered from poverty and that it is also subject to
me in Your Name. I thank You for all these things, Father.
“Now if You will excuse me, Father, the devil is invading my territory. So I’m going to use
the faith and the Word You have given me to meet that invasion head-on with the power of
confession.
“You said that if I do not doubt Your Word with my heart and if I confess it with my mouth,
the same incredible power that wrought the most phenomenal miracle of all, the rebirth, will
also operate to remove my mountain.”
So I would spend the next hour hurling the confession of God’s Word directly at my problem.
I’d talk to that mountain in my life the same way Jesus talked to the fig tree in Mark
11:14.
For example, if I was dealing with financial lack, I’d confess something like this over and
over: “Poverty, you have been reconciled to the Cross. Jesus Himself has borne my poverty by
an act of grace. Though He was rich, for my sake He became poor that I through His poverty
might be made rich [2 Cor. 8:9].
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“Do you hear me, poverty? I have a covenant with God. You cannot stay in my life. You are
cursed. You are leaving my life!
“And, prosperity, I call you in from the north, the south, the east, and the west! Finances,
I command you to increase! I am enforcing my rights as a believer by a gift God has given me
— the confession of faith in His Word!” For that entire second hour, that’s how I would talk to
that mountain of poverty, cursing it and commanding it to move out of my life.
I’ve had the time of my life just picking on the devil, doing exactly what I’ve just described.
I don’t think anything makes him more upset!
Now, someone may say, “I can understand worshiping God for an hour, but isn’t confessing
the same thing over and over to your problem a form of begging?” No, it isn’t. You are begging
God when you ask Him again and again for something He has already provided, such as healing
or deliverance from an addiction that has kept you in bondage.
Confessing the Word of God is using the faith God has already put in your heart to enforce
what He has already said about your problem. Once we have prayed the prayer of faith over
the problem, we are not to talk to God about the problem — we are to talk to the problem about
God!
The Third Hour: Praying in Tongues
Finally, as I entered the third hour I’d say, “Well, Father, I have reconciled that problem
to the Cross. I have aggressively wielded the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, this last
hour and have changed a few things in the Spirit. I thank You that I have received my answer.
“But now will You excuse me, Father? I need a little edification, a little strengthening of
my spirit man, a little praying out of the mysteries of Christ.”
Then I’d spend that third hour praying in tongues. I’d just lie down, sit down, or walk back
and forth, building myself up on my most holy faith as I prayed in the Holy Ghost.
When you do that, many times you will start feeling so edified that you won’t want to quit!
You’ll say, “I think I will tag another hour of praying in tongues onto this one!”
You see, I have found something I can do during that third hour on purpose, just because
I want to, that carries a promise from God to edify the part of me in which I’m not supposed
to doubt — my heart.
What am I saying as I pray? Most of the time I don’t know because my understanding is
unfruitful. But I do know that my spirit is communicating divine secrets and mysteries before
the Father and that I am building myself up on my most holy faith in my inner man, or my
heart.
So if I had only one three-hour time period that I could spend with the Lord during a week,
that would be the way I would spend it. If for some reason I only had one hour that I could
spend in prayer that week, I would break it into three segments of twenty minutes apiece for
worship, confession, and praying in tongues. All three kinds of prayer are designed to benefit
you and to make you receptive to the finished work of the Cross.
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The Benefits of
Meditation on the Word
Meditation on God’s Word is one of the most important guidelines I could give you for
unlocking divine mysteries through praying in the Holy Ghost. For more than a quarter of a
century, I have endeavored to pray in tongues just as much as possible in my own walk with
the Lord, and I have reaped rich rewards. And some of the greatest benefits I’ve experienced
have come from meditating on the Word as I pray.
What is meditation? Meditation is the process of assimilating God’s Word into your soul
and spirit. As you meditate on the Word of God, the Holy Spirit takes God’s counsel in the form
of the Word and reconstructs it in your spirit in such a way that it becomes your insight, wisdom,
and counsel.
Meditation can take you from simply acknowledging that God’s Word is true to having the
Word engrafted into your spirit. In other words, the Word not only becomes a part of you, but
as it becomes implanted in your heart, you become a part of it!
Meditation on the Word
And Praying in Tongues
I gave you some practical guidelines about what to do if you only have three hours to spend
with the Lord. But that doesn’t negate the fact that the more you pray in tongues, the more
clear and definite the divine channel becomes through which God communicates with you. It
is to your eternal benefit that you pray much in the Holy Ghost, building yourself up on your
most holy faith.
As you pray in tongues, the Teacher of your new nature uses the supernatural language He
brought all the way from Heaven to begin an illumination process inside of you. Within that
language resides not only the mysteries of God’s plan for your life, but the understanding of
all Scripture.
Therefore, the Holy Spirit lives in hope of the day that you’ll give yourself over to the meditation
of God’s Word. When you do, you make His ministry of illumination so much simpler.
I consider it to be a blessing that my mind is unfruitful while I spend three or four hours
praying in tongues. Why? Because I’ve learned to employ my mind with God’s Word while my
spirit is praying. It has become automatic for me: When I sit down to pray in tongues, I pick
up my Bible and start reading.
My favorite practice is to take a book like Galatians, Ephesians, or Philippians and just
read that book over and over again while I pray in tongues for hours. Often I sit in a chair or
lie on the floor and pray an hour or two. Then I set my open Bible in a convenient place and
start walking around the room praying.
I pray for a while, my spirit listening in case the Holy Spirit says something through that
channel of communication. Then I go back to the Bible and read the entire book through again,
still praying in tongues.
I’m glad that my mind and my spirit can receive from God at the same time. The Holy
Spirit takes all the accumulated knowledge that I’ve deposited into my mind through reading
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something in the Bible over and over, and He uses it for the day-and-night meditation process.
This is where much of the revelation knowledge I receive originates.
Meditating on the Word
In the Early Church
Meditating on the Word while praying isn’t something new or unique to me. Think back to
the early apostles. In Acts 2, the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of
Pentecost. Then in Acts 6, they faced a problem regarding the fair administration of food
among the believers.
The apostles said, “Look, it isn’t right that we are distracted from the Word of God to serve
tables. Let’s appoint some men who are highly esteemed among you for this job so that we may
give ourselves continually to the Word of God and to prayer” (Acts 6:2-4).
Now, what part of the Word did the apostles give themselves to? All of the Old Testament
promises. Remember, that’s all the Word they had at that time. They couldn’t open a Bible and
have the entire foundation of the Church laid out before them on their lap like you can!
So the apostles gave themselves continually to all the Old Testament promises while at the
same time giving themselves to prayer. What kind of prayer would the apostles be talking
about? Well, what experience was freshest in their minds? They had just received the promise
of the Father — the baptism in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. So
they were praying in that new language the Holy Spirit had given them!
The apostles prayed in tongues continually while meditating on the promises of the Old
Covenant. This practice helped establish the foundation of the Church, because God was able
to bring forth the mysteries of Christ.
We can also see the principle of meditating on the Word while praying in the Spirit in the
life of the Apostle Paul. Remember, except for Jesus, Paul received more revelation knowledge
than any other man since Moses.
We already know one of his keys to receiving that revelation knowledge: After he was filled
with the Holy Ghost, he made the statement that he prayed in tongues more than anyone (1
Cor. 14:18). But meditation on God’s Word was another important key.
You see, Paul said he was a Pharisee, a “Hebrew of Hebrews” (Phil. 3:5). That means he
began to memorize the Old Testament scriptures for seven hours a day beginning at the age
of three.
I believe that all of the Old Testament scripture stored inside Paul, combined with his
praying in tongues “more than ye all,” were crucial in enabling Paul to receive so much revelation
knowledge for the foundation of the Church. That revelation knowledge brought the Old
Covenant together with the New Covenant.
As far as I can ascertain, Paul was the only apostle who thoroughly understood the relationship
between the Law and our covenant with God through Jesus Christ — the law of the
Spirit of life: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2). Today that understanding seems commonplace, but in
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Paul’s day, it was unheard of. And two keys that enabled Paul to receive such a depth of revelation
knowledge was praying in tongues and meditating on the Old Testament scriptures.
Confession:
The Highest Form of Meditation
God created you and me with a capacity not only to believe, but to conform to whatever it
is that we are believing and continually subjecting ourselves to. Unfortunately, this ability can
operate in us for the bad as well as for the good.
That’s why God gave Joshua this instruction when Joshua was about to lead the children
of Israel into the Promised Land:
This book of the law SHALL NOT DEPART OUT OF THY MOUTH; but thou shalt
MEDITATE THEREIN DAY AND NIGHT, that thou mayest observe to do according to
all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then
thou shalt have good success.
— Joshua 1:8
What an incredible set of instructions! First of all, God said, “Don’t let the Word of God
depart out of your mouth.” That means there should never be a time when the Word in your
mouth is replaced by anything else. When you let the Word depart from your mouth, you set
yourself in agreement with the circumstances that are arrayed against you.
But if you continue to confess the Word, you are operating in the covenant between you and
God against the adverse circumstance. And as you continually subject yourself to the Word
by confessing it over and over, you are applying one of the highest forms of meditation.
Circumstances are no respecters of persons. They will come at you day and night. But when
you stand face to face with those situations that seem impossible to overcome and keep confessing
God’s promises over and over, you are meditating day and night. Through meditation,
you are giving the Word of God the opportunity to transform you and your thinking so you can
actually become that victorious person you are meant to be.
You will eventually conform to what you continually subject yourself to. That’s why God told
Joshua to let not the Word depart from his mouth and to meditate day and night; He wanted
Joshua to continually be subjected to the Word.
Paint a Picture of Your Answer
Due to our busy schedules, most of us cannot read, study, or memorize the Word day and
night. But we can meditate on the Word day and night. Reading, studying, and memorizing
can only assist meditation; they do not replace it.
You can actually take a journey into a whole new set of circumstances in your spirit and
mind as you meditate day and night on what God has said about you and your problem. Soon
you won’t be conforming to the problem anymore. Instead, your faith, your thoughts, and your
attitude will leave the problem behind to embark on a journey into God where every promise
is yea and Amen (2 Cor. 1:20).
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You can find a place in God where your mouth has described the victory so many times that
it has painted a picture on the inside of your spirit. That picture of victory becomes so powerful,
it replaces anything and everything that spells defeat.
So whenever you face a problem or are about to charge ahead to conquer something for the
Kingdom of God, start hearing and reading scriptures that address your particular problem.
Keep on doing that until there is a huge reservoir of the Word on the inside of you.
Then meditate on those scriptures day and night, saying them over and over. Roll them
over and over in your mind until the picture the Word paints in your heart becomes stronger
than the picture the obstacle paints in your mind.
Pull the Word up out of your spirit and roll it over and over in your mind while you are driving,
cleaning house, or working on your job. Whenever you can, describe your victory out loud.
Use your words to paint pictures of your victory. Then God will do for you what He promised
Joshua: “For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
The Role of Meditation
In Overcoming My Failure
I can attest to the truth of this vital principle from my own personal experience. For example,
I will never forget the first time I tried to preach. It was a Wednesday night service in a
small Holiness church in Oregon. Besides my wife Rosalie, there were only three or four people
present.
I was sure I could do it. Many times those same four people had sat with my wife and me
in coffee shops, talking about Jesus. I would get so carried away preaching and pounding on
the table that I’d almost spill our coffee!
But now as I stood up in church in front of those same four people to deliver the Word in
an official capacity, something happened! I guess it was the fear of being put in a position
where I felt as if I had to produce.
Even in high school, I’d choose to take a lower grade in English rather than to give an oral
report. The blood would drain out of my face; I’d turn white and get dizzy just at the thought
of doing it.
Yet here I was, standing behind a pulpit with an entire page full of notes and everyone
looking at me. Rosalie said I turned white as I stood there, trying to gather my courage to
begin. Then the door suddenly opened, and three more people came in and sat down. That did
it! They were perfect strangers!
I almost passed out as I leaned forward, gripping the pulpit for support. I can still remember
watching my knuckles turn white as I stared down at them. I was afraid to look at the people.
Finally, I pulled myself together enough to read my text — but then my mind went completely
blank! Earlier that day I had thought of a hundred things to say, but my mental “slate”
had been wiped clean by panic.
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So, as an emergency measure, I picked up my notes and began to read. But the situation
only grew worse. By the time I had finished reading my notes, I had absolutely nothing left to
say. I was paralyzed with fear!
I looked sheepishly toward my pastor for help, so she walked up to the pulpit to rescue me.
I hurt so bad inside I wanted to cry. It was a long walk back to my chair. I sat down just in
time to hear the pastor apologize to the people, saying, “I’m sorry, folks. He told me he was
called to preach...”
The entire ordeal had lasted about seven minutes. That night I buried my face in my pillow
and cried until some of the hurt was gone. It was a long time before I stood behind a pulpit
to preach again — almost two years!
It seemed as though that night had confirmed everything I had already known. I just didn’t
have what it took to be a preacher. My grandpa’s words rang in my ears: “You’re never
going to amount to anything!”
After being devastated by my first attempt at preaching, I knew there was a mountain of
bad programming and poor images to overcome. But, glory to God, in the months that followed,
something happened to break that deadly pattern. I learned about the importance of meditating
on God’s Word!
Two years later, I summoned the courage to make my second attempt at preaching. But
something was very different this time.
Even though I hadn’t physically stood before a crowd for any reason for those two years,
through meditation I had stood before crowds and preached hundreds of times. I would close
my eyes and see myself preaching. I could even hear myself preach the message over and over
again in my spirit. I was painting a picture of victory on the inside of me.
You see, I meditated on verses that described the image of truth that I needed to conform
to — verses such as I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me (Phil.
4:13) and ...greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4). I kept
meditating on those verses until they actually changed the way I saw myself!
It was incredible. When the moment came, it was as though I had preached hundreds of
times. I was amazed at how easy it was to conform to the image that had been created in my
spirit through meditation.
That’s what makes meditation so powerful: It replaces the problem with the Word and the
fear of failure with faith in every area of your life.
Assimilating the Word Into the Soul
Your soul was created to assimilate. For example, if you moved to a country where people
spoke a language you didn’t know, you would begin to assimilate that language just by being
in constant contact with its use. Your entire soul would kick in to cause you to learn that language
automatically. You wouldn’t have to deliberately sit down with a tape that told you to
say “Thank you” or “How are you” in that language over and over until you finally memorized
it.
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In the same way, you can approach God’s Word in such a manner that your soul — your
intellect, will, and emotions — automatically assimilates it and then begins the process of
transforming you according to its truth.
For example, some men in my church who are called to helps asked me what books of the
Bible they should meditate on in order to excel in their particular calling. As businessmen, one
of their main concerns was that they could learn to possess money without money possessing
them.
So I told them, “Take the Book of Proverbs and read it fifty times. Read it deliberately and
precisely, acknowledging what is in each verse. You may not understand what the verse
means, but at least understand what it says.
“If you run across a word you don’t know, look it up in a dictionary so that the next time
you see it, you’ll know what it means. But don’t do any studies or cross referencing. Just read
the Book of Proverbs fifty times.”
Why did I instruct those men to do that? Because by the time they read Proverbs at least
fifty times, they would have assimilated the entire book into their soul!
Perhaps there are three verses — one in chapter 2, one in chapter 5, and one in chapter 9
— that will give them understanding of a verse in chapter 14. But it won’t come together for
them until they’ve read the book fifty times and assimilated it into their soul.
You see, when you read a book of the Bible over and over, you set yourself up for day-andnight
meditation. You are feeding your spirit the raw material that the Holy Ghost needs to
illuminate the entire book for you! Eventually the central theme will be born in you. Then all
satellite verses will be pulled in, along with the understanding of how they relate to each
other.
Understanding how verses relate to one another in a passage of Scripture is an important
part of the meditation process. One of the first things the Lord taught me regarding meditation
was never to take a verse out of context.
If there is a verse I’m trying to understand, the Holy Spirit alerts me to find where the subject
of the verse begins and ends and then to read over that passage many times. In this way,
I assist Him in my meditations.
The assimilation process will happen automatically, even when you go to sleep. For
instance, suppose you read First John one hundred times. (By the way, that’s a good beginning
assignment for offering your soul for meditation. Anything in you that doesn’t love people will
go to war against that book!) Then suppose that soon afterward, someone wronged you in some
way, and you made a mountain of unforgiveness out of a molehill of offense.
The mind of God that you assimilated from First John will help you sort out what is and
what is not important while you sleep. It will magnify the truth you assimilated regarding
God’s love and level that mountain of unforgiveness.
That’s what I mean by day-and-night meditation. The assimilation process will happen
automatically, just as it does when learning a new language in a country where everyone
speaks that language but you.
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Your soul was designed to transform you to whatever you subject it to the most. If it’s a
new language that everyone is speaking but you, you will automatically begin to learn it. And
if you’re giving yourself to praying in the Holy Ghost and to the Word — reading it, speaking
it, rolling it over and over in your mind — then your spirit man will automatically begin to be
illuminated by the revelation knowledge of God’s truth!
These guidelines I’ve given you for praying in the Spirit are by no means exhaustive. They
are just signposts pointing the way to a more effective prayer life. Remember, your key to
unlock divine mysteries is praying in tongues, your destination is God’s perfect will for your
life, and your Helper throughout the journey is the Holy Spirit living within!
Continue seeking My face
so you can go from death to death
[of the fleshly nature]
and from glory to glory.
You will see wonderful, wonderful things
take place.
Not only will you be in the planting,
but you will also be in the harvest.
For I have spoken, and it shall be so.
So I give you the keys, and I call.
Come. Come. Come.
Come, saith the Spirit of Grace.
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Chapter 15
The Divine Progression
To Agape Love
I consider it the utmost honor to spend an hour in God’s Presence with the third Person of
the Godhead as He creates a supernatural language on the inside of my spirit. Why? Because
with every syllable I speak in that language, the Holy Spirit is working a miraculous transformation
within me.
You see, years ago I thought tongues for personal edification had to do strictly with speaking
mysteries and divine secrets and building myself up with revelation knowledge. Only later
did I find out that it has just as much to do with purging me so I can learn to walk in agape
love — the kind of love that seeks not its own and denies itself on behalf of others.
Agape vs. Phileo Love
I have no higher goal in life than to learn how to walk in this God-kind of love, so I want
to know more about it. I know a lot about “phileo” love, but I want to know about agape.
I have yoked myself to Jesus, whom John revealed when he said, “God is love” (1 John
4:16). Jesus doesn’t just love us; He is Love. He is incapable of anything else but love. That’s
why we haven’t understood Him the way we should — because we haven’t understood agape
love.
We usually don’t have trouble with phileo love. Phileo can be a strong love, but it has its
own interests at stake, as well as those of the one loved. It’s more of a conditional love that
says, “I can love you if somehow you bring me pleasure” or “I will love you, but I want something
back from you.”
So most of us know how to love people with phileo love. But we haven’t done very well at
walking in agape. Agape is a self-denying love. Its total focus is the interests and welfare of
the beloved.
Phileo love may send me to war because I love my country. I may even give my body to be
burned for the hope of a better life for my children. I will sacrifice my life on that altar.
But if agape love goes to war, it is with higher motives. I may still sacrifice my life so my
children can live free from threat of harm. But at the same time I have the enemy soldier on
my heart. My prayer is that the war would cease and that my enemy would be born again.
Most marriages are based on phileo, not agape. The spouses love each other for what they
can receive from each other. If marriages were always based on God’s selfless, agape kind of
love, there would be no more divorces.
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Agape Love Is Merciful
Agape love says, “Be merciful just as your Heavenly Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). How
merciful is our Heavenly Father? Well, you and I were lost and headed for hell. We had nothing
to bargain with. We had absolutely no right to approach God. We were not capable of bridging
the gap on our own.
But God had mercy on you and me. We didn’t deserve and couldn’t earn His mercy; we had
no way to approach an infallible God. But He approached us in His mercy. He crossed that void
with Jesus’ blood.
So how do you obey Jesus’ command to be merciful even as the Father is merciful? Jesus
provided the guidelines in Luke 6:27-38.
When someone sues you for your coat, you give him the cloak you are wearing. When he
slaps you on the cheek, you turn the other cheek. When he takes away your goods, you give
him more than he asked for. When he despitefully uses you, you pray for him and forgive him.
When he hates you, you keep walking in love.
Why? Because you are having mercy on him. You are bridging the gap with the blood of
Jesus when the person doesn’t deserve it. That is agape!
The result of walking in this agape kind of love is revealed in Luke 6:38:
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken
together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure
that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Jesus was saying this: “If you will be children of the Most High, who is merciful even to the
evil and the unthankful, and give agape love to others, then My Father will restore whatever
you may have lost — pressed down, shaken together, and running over. While the thief is taking
your money out the back door because you extended mercy, My Father will march in the
front door with agape and restore to overflowing all that you lost!” That’s why agape cannot fail
(1 Cor. 13:8)!
However, walking in agape love is easier said than done. For most of us, if someone came
against us with a lawsuit, our first reaction would be, “Oh yeah? Well, go ahead and sue me
— but you’ll know that you have been to court, buddy!”
So how do we ever attain that place of agape where we are merciful just as the Father is
merciful? The Scriptures teach us that praying in tongues is a major key to help purge us as
we journey through a progression of steps toward the agape kind of love.
Feeding the Seed of Agape
Through Prayer
Even though God has planted the nature and force of agape love in your spirit, it may be
so repressed and so dominated by your soulish emotions that you hardly know it exists inside
of you. But when you pray in tongues, you bypass the operation of the physical soul and throw
a lifeline to your spirit.
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Soon the edification process starts feeding that seed of agape in your heart, causing it to
germinate and grow. The force of love in your spirit grows bigger and bigger until one day, it
dominates the emotions of the soul instead of the other way around. This is called taking off
the old man and putting on the new.
That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts;
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness.
Eph. 4:22-24
Perfect Love Casts Out Fear
As you clothe yourself with your new man by giving yourself to the Word and to prayer, the
Holy Spirit through your spirit edifies, purges, and develops your character until everything
you say, think, or do is governed by agape. Let’s look at First John 4:17,18 to learn more about
this powerful force.
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment:
because as he is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love; but PERFECT LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR: BECAUSE
FEAR HATH TORMENT. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
That word “herein” points us to the next verse, which tells us how we will know when love
is being perfected in us. Herein is God’s love perfected in us: Perfect love casts out fear, for fear
has torment. So when we find ourselves being purged from torment and fear, then love is being
perfected in us.
For instance, if you decided to sue me, how could I extend mercy to you if I had fear and
torment about the outcome of the situation? But when love has been perfected in me, I know
I can’t lose. Oh, you may take everything I possess at the time, but Luke 6:38 says that my
Father is going to restore it all back to me, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
He’ll give me more than I had before!
So what is the sign that I am drawing nigh unto God and approaching agape love? It is this:
Along the way, I am shedding torment and fear as I enter into rest and refreshing.
I used to think love was a feeling, but it isn’t a feeling. I used to think love was an attitude
that would help me survive through dealing with the unlovable. But it isn’t an attitude either.
Encompassed within agape is an abiding presence of peace. As you grow close to God and
His love is perfected in you, that peace begins to dominate as fear and torment lose their hold.
That is the first sign that you are being purged from phileo to agape.
As a minister, I wish I could open up your heart and just put agape in you in such strength
that you would forever lose all the torment and fear that has plagued your life. I understand
the process by which you can attain that goal, but all I can do is teach you about it.
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I can hammer it into your intellect. As much as possible, I can teach with the anointing of
God straight to your spirit. But I can’t make that process toward perfect love take place in your
life.
However, if I can talk you into giving yourself to praying in the Holy Ghost, then you will
cause that process to begin in your own life. You will start to edify and build yourself up in
your inner man through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Then the Holy Spirit will begin the mortification process by building up your inner man to
purge all those insecurities, intimidations, carnalities, and lusts that have hindered your life.
This is how God’s love is perfected in you. As the Holy Spirit edifies your new nature, torment
and fear begin to fall off you and you draw close to agape.
Covet Earnestly Agape Love
To discover more about the role of praying in tongues in moving us toward a fuller revelation
of agape love in our lives, let’s take a look at First Corinthians 13, the great “love chapter”
of the Bible.
First, let’s look at this chapter in context to the chapters that surround it. First Corinthians
12 is a magnificent chapter dealing with the eradication of ignorance concerning the spiritual
gifts, operations, and government of God. Chapter 14 is a most phenomenal explanation of
spiritual forces as pertains to praying in tongues.
So Paul goes from a discussion of the government of God to an explanation of the operation
of the Spirit and of tongues. Then he nestles First Corinthians 13 in between these two chapters.
But first, he makes a profound statement:
But COVET EARNESTLY the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you A MORE EXCELLENT
WAY.
— 1 Corinthians 12:31
Paul was saying in essence, “I want to show you a more excellent way. If you want to save
yourself a lot of trouble, then you need to covet this kind of agape love with everything in you
the same way you covet the best gifts.”
Just how important is it to pursue agape love? Paul makes this statement in First
Corinthians 13:13:
And now abideth faith, hope, charity [agape love], these three; but THE GREATEST
OF THESE IS CHARITY.
If I had been the one to choose, I probably would have said that faith is the greatest thing,
followed by hope. Hope encompasses the time you spend feeding yourself with God’s Word,
which causes your faith to manifest. But Paul says, “Greater than faith and greater than hope
is self-denying agape.” That means there is nothing more important in your life to covet and
earnestly desire than agape love.
The word “covet” in this verse is just as strong in meaning as it is in the Ten
Commandments, where it says, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife” (Exod. 20:17). When
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this word is used as an emotional negative, it means a lust so powerful that it consumes a man,
causing him to relentlessly pursue what he covets until it takes over his entire character.
But when “covet” is used in a godly sense, it means pursuing something God wants you to
have with a heartfelt hunger until you apprehend it.
I never had a problem with coveting earnestly the best gifts. I have fasted, I have prayed
— I have done everything I knew to do in order to be qualified for God to use me.
So it came as a shock to me when God spoke to my spirit, saying, “Go ahead and lust after
My gifts with everything that is in you. But I’m going to show you a more excellent way to
covet after the best gifts.”
I said, “God, You have the audacity to say that after I have spent my life in fasting and
praying and coveting after Your best and highest, You are going to show me a more excellent
way?”
The answer to that was yes, God did have the audacity, and yes, He was going to show me
a more excellent way!
In Paul’s original epistle to the Corinthians, there was no division between chapters 12 and
13. So right after Paul’s statement about coveting the best gifts and showing the Corinthians
a more excellent way, he goes on to introduce the subject of love: Though I speak with
tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity... (1 Cor. 13:1).
In other words, the most excellent way to covet earnestly the best gifts is to go after agape
with that same intensity. When you do, you will be pursuing and coveting the best gifts God
has for you in the most powerful manner possible.
What are the “best gifts”? Well, you are called to fill one of the eight operations of God. For
you, the best gifts are those that qualify you for the office or operation you are called to fulfill.
The Purging Before the Power
With great intensity I sought God for years for the gifts that would equip me for my call. I
would pray, “Oh, Lord, please use me in Your power. I’ll fast and pray — I’ll do anything I have
to do so You can move through me in Your power!”
You see, since the day I was born again, God’s call has raged on the inside of me. Every
time I get lost in the Holy Ghost while I am in prayer, I see the Spirit of God moving in revival.
I see people running to the altar to be born again and great miracles happening everywhere,
such as missing limbs growing out and eyes popping into empty eye sockets.
This vision follows me; whenever I lapse into the Spirit, I see it. It is a driving force. And I
have determined that I will keep yielding myself to the Holy Spirit until one day I see with my
own eyes the Presence of God move in my life and ministry with magnificent glory beyond my
imagination.
So for years I sought God earnestly — begging, fasting, and praying for an anointing powerful
enough to cause great revival. But I can testify now that had He delivered to me what I
was pressing Him for, it would have destroyed me. There were faults and character flaws that
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still had to be purged. If God had given me the power before the purging, my life and ministry
would have eventually been destroyed.
This was actually the case for many men of God in the past. They sought God and His
power with just such intensity, but then hidden weaknesses began to surface as they yielded
to the deceiving strategies of the enemy.
For instance, Alexander Dowie was so greatly used in the miracle power of God at the turn
of the century that he was able to form an entire city called Zion outside of Chicago with ten
thousand of his followers. God’s power operating through Dowie’s ministry caused raging
revival. But eventually Dowie began to believe that he was the Elijah to come. That deception
led to the downfall of his ministry.
Learning To Hate Whatever Hinders
So instead of immediately answering my intense, fervent prayers for an anointing that
would cause revival, God told me to pursue conforming myself to agape love with that same
intensity and fervency. He assured me that as I pursued love, I would also be pursuing His
power in a more excellent way.
So I began to pursue agape love, and I learned to hate those things that were wrong in my
life with more fervency than I had ever hated them before. It was a godly anger that preceded
their purging.
You see, when you get to the place where you hate with an intensity those faults you know
are keeping you from a close walk with God, you will finally do something about it.
So in pursuit of the most excellent way, I made it my quest to conform to the agape kind of
love. But my efforts seemed to achieve the opposite results. The more I learned about love, the
more my knowledge magnified the things that were wrong in my life. It left me in a hopeless
state, believing that I was the most miserable of creatures who would never be able to walk in
the level of agape outlined in First Corinthians 13.
I didn’t understand that the Holy Spirit was bringing to the surface for purging anything
that the devil could use to destroy me in my pursuit of agape. It was all a part of the process
to help me become yielded enough to God for the full equipping of the office He has called me
to. I also didn’t know about the progression to power outlined in this same chapter that would
deliver me to the agape love I was pursuing.
Agape Isn’t Learned Overnight
You see, all of us preachers love to preach on this thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians.
We love to major on this agape kind of love.
Agape love doesn’t behave itself unseemingly. It seeks not its own, asking no recompense
or reward for services rendered. It isn’t given based on the reaction of the other person. It isn’t
easily provoked. It thinks no evil. It rejoices not in iniquity but rejoices in the truth. It bears
all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
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This love never fails; you will take it to Heaven with you. Tongues will cease. Prophecies
will cease. Knowledge will vanish away. You won’t need any of these. But you will cross that
heavenly border and enter the Presence of God with agape.
Oh, yes, we preachers love to talk about agape love. We break down the word in the Greek;
we paint a picture of this perfect Christian who is not easily provoked. Then the next day we
counsel someone, “Oh, yes, you have your rights. Sue them!” God help us! We get so engrossed
in the subject of love in First Corinthians 13 that we miss the sequence of power that delivers
us there!
We think that we can preach on agape love one day, and the next day everyone who heard
the message is going to be perfect and nice to each other. They won’t act ugly anymore. There
won’t be any more criticizing, backbiting, throwing of fits, or stomping out of the room in a
temper tantrum.
We tell the people, “You shouldn’t do that sort of thing,” and then assume that everyone
will just automatically stop. Why do we assume that? It seems like most of us preachers were
born yesterday!
When you start understanding all that agape love encompasses, you realize that most
Christians don’t walk in this kind of love on a daily basis. Most never will. That kind of love
is difficult to conform to if you have even an ounce of flesh that hasn’t been mortified.
So it is one thing to preach about this agape and say that once we conform to it, we will
never fail. But it is another thing to understand the process by which we can conform to that
kind of love.
This process is what we have missed. It is a progression through the edification of tongues
that leads us to a place in the Spirit where we are finally strong enough to yield totally to
agape love.
Agape Love by Willpower Alone?
We will never walk in agape love to the fullness that God intends by the strength of our
own willpower. For instance, have you ever noticed that people can only be nice for so long to
a person who is getting on their nerves before their will snaps? Then they say, “Get out! Get
out of my house!” They stretched their will as thin as they could stretch it — and when it
broke, there went their ability to act nice!
It’s easy to fantasize about agape. We can get this faraway look in our eyes and quote,
“Though I give my body to be burned and give away all my goods to feed the poor, but have
not love....” But there is a deadly, knock-down-drag-out fight for our lives out there in the
world, where people try to destroy other people and the devil is out to destroy everyone. The
prospect of walking in agape love doesn’t look as nice and easy out there as it does in church
while we are under the anointing.
Do you want to be just like Jesus? You may say, “Oh, yes, I want to raise the dead, be the
head of a big organization, and become the best preacher in the world. Oh, yes, I want to be
just like Jesus.”
Okay, then, Jesus says to owe no man anything but to love him (Rom. 13:8).
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What does that mean? Well, it doesn’t matter how many payments I make on my debt of
love to you, I can never pay that debt in full. You could slap me on the cheek, and I would turn
the other cheek. You could despitefully use me, and I would pray for you. You could hate me,
and I would do good for you.
Those are all descriptions of agape. No matter how many times you “do me ugly” and I in turn
make another payment of love to you, agape will keep me in your debt.
Another thing about Jesus — He seeks not His own. And He says that if a man sues you
for your car, you are to go fill it up with gas, polish it, and get it tuned. Then tell the man, “I
am giving this to you in the Name of Jesus. I want you to know that you didn’t take it from
me, because the only thing that is taken from me is what God allows. And if He allows it, I sow
it. I’m sowing this car to you, so I polished it, tuned it, and filled it up with gas. The devil is stealing
nothing from me.”
It is nice to admire someone who walks in enough agape love to do something like that. But
how do you get to that place in your spiritual walk?
You might as well face it — you aren’t going to make it to agape unless you find some way
to let the Holy Ghost purge you of anything that is contrary to agape love in your life. If I were
you, I would take His way!
The Progression to Agape
We have seen that in First Corinthians 12:28, the government of God begins with the office
of the mighty apostle, the first operation, and ends with the diversities of tongues, the eighth
and final operation of God. Then in First Corinthians 13:1-3, Paul reverses the order.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am
become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all
knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have
not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Starting with the eighth operation of diversities of tongues, Paul builds us through six
phases all the way through mountain-moving faith and ultimate giving to agape love.
So because the subject of agape love is so dominant in First Corinthians 13, we have missed
the sequence or the step-by-step progression that would eventually build us up through six levels
of spiritual maturity and deliver us to agape love.
At this point, you may be saying, “I’d sure like to see that reversed order you’re talking
about, Brother Roberson.” Well, let’s take the first three verses of First Corinthians 13 phrase
by phrase and find out what Paul was really saying. As we do, we’ll discover the divine progression
to agape love.
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Six Steps to Spiritual Maturity
There are six distinct levels of spiritual maturity listed in these first three verses that the
Holy Spirit will work in the life of any believer who will spend time praying in the Holy Ghost.
Level One: Let’s look at verse 1 again:
Though I SPEAK WITH THE TONGUES OF MEN AND OF ANGELS, and have not
charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
When we received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and began to speak with tongues, it automatically
qualified us for the first level of spiritual maturity, the unlimited accessibility to
tongues.
The term “tongues of men” refers to the supernatural empowerment of the Holy Spirit to
preach in any language on the face of the earth of which we have no previous knowledge.
“Tongues of angels” is talking about the language used in Heaven. I suspect that most of the
time we are speaking the language of angels when we pray in tongues to edify ourselves and
to pray out the mysteries of God’s plan for our lives.
This verse isn’t discrediting tongues for the sake of love. In essence it is saying this: Even
though I am baptized in the Holy Spirit and have the ability to speak with other tongues, it
will do me no good unless I begin to employ that gift to build myself up on my most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Ghost and keeping myself in the love of God (Jude 20,21).
There are multitudes of church congregations who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit
and speak with tongues, yet the people are full of strife and unforgiveness. And I have personally
known so-called Spirit-filled people who would destroy a person at the drop of a hat.
So a person can speak with tongues, but those tongues will not profit him unless he yields
to the Holy Spirit’s purging work that will deliver him to agape. It is impossible to pray in
tongues for extended periods of time and not undergo change.
Level Two: Then in verse 2, it says this:
And though I have THE GIFT OF PROPHECY, and UNDERSTAND ALL MYSTERIES,
and ALL KNOWLEDGE; and though I have ALL FAITH, SO THAT I COULD
REMOVE MOUNTAINS, and have not charity, I am nothing.
Somehow praying in tongues produces in us the second level of maturity, which is the use
of the gift of prophecy.
As you pray out the mysteries of Christ in your spirit, God begins to answer them. Suddenly
the Holy Spirit latches on to one of those mysteries, pulls it out of your spirit, and reveals it
to your intellect so you can release it through prophecy.
Level Three: As we continue to pray in tongues, we will attain the third level of spiritual
maturity through the understanding of divine secrets or mysteries.
Level Four: The revelation of these mysteries will come alive and begin to operate in our
spirit, producing in us the understanding and accumulation of knowledge, the fourth level of
spiritual maturity.
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Somehow, then, as the mysteries of Christ are revealed to me — the mystery of healing,
the mystery of righteousness, the mystery of love — I begin to erect pillars in my spirit. As I
pray mysteries up before the Father, God answers those prayers by a supernatural imparting
of divine insight. Every time the Holy Spirit causes me to understand a mystery, one more pillar
of that superstructure is erected.
One pillar is erected by a revelation of righteousness, another by a revelation of peace, and
still another by a revelation of agape love. Finally, the entire edifice is framed through praying
mysteries in the Holy Ghost.
It is a combination of all these divine secrets revealed to my spirit that will eventually construct
an entire library of knowledge, an edifice full of the revelation knowledge of Jesus on
the inside of my spirit. And whenever I want to, I can reach in and pull out any volume that I
need!
Level Five: So the mysteries are prayed in pillars, but the building constructed is knowledge.
It is the understanding of all these mysteries filling your inner library of knowledge that
produces the capacity for mountain-moving faith in your heart as you are transformed by the
Word of God. This is the fifth level of spiritual maturity.
It is the combination of praying in the Holy Ghost and the meditation of God’s Word that
produces the kind of faith that moves mountains. Why? Because faith comes by hearing the
Word of God, and the Holy Spirit is the One giving divine insight into the Word through the
supernatural language of tongues.
At this level, Jesus said that nothing shall be impossible to you!
Level Six: First Corinthians 13:3 gives us the sixth level of maturity:
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Somehow our praying in tongues will help produce in us the capacity for agape giving.
I always wondered how a person could bestow all their goods to feed the poor and give their
body to be burned, yet still not have the agape kind of love. Then the Holy Spirit revealed the
answer to me.
Some Christians live off the self-exaltation that comes from putting their giving on display.
They even delight in extreme sacrifices — especially the kind that puts their humility on public
display to be admired by men. Some have even made the ultimate sacrifice of losing their
lives for the wrong reasons.
I finally began to understand that sometimes it takes a lot more to stay and labor your
entire life for the Gospel’s sake than it does to die and go home to be with the Lord. Agape love
would rather be a living sacrifice than a dead martyr.
I cringe inside when I think of how many times I have given into an offering because of the
lust of my flesh. It wasn’t the preacher’s fault. I was the one who saw the Cadillac in my mind
and gave him my dollar to make sure I would get it. But the Bible says that if I don’t give out
of agape love, it simply will profit me nothing.
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However, when agape love becomes the basis for our giving, God cannot and will not let us
down, for love never fails.
My Purging
In the Pursuit of Agape
Those six levels are the step-by-step progression God uses to help bring us to a place of spiritual
maturity where agape love is a way of life. Throughout this progression, the purging
work of the Holy Ghost continues.
How do I know? Because the Holy Spirit is still in the process of purging me. I have prayed
and sought God for more than two decades to understand the price of revival and of walking
in His power. During that time I have had wonderful visitations from God.
But I have also had times when the devil attacked me right after a divine visitation, and I
found myself one-quarter of the way down before I was able to turn around and stop the
attack! The Holy Ghost used those difficult times to help me get a good look at myself, and I
didn’t like what I saw. It was after one of these attacks of the enemy that the Holy Spirit took
me to First Peter 5 to help me understand what I was going through.
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you
in due time:
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour.
— 1 Peter 5:6-8
What is the price of revival? The Holy Ghost took me to this passage of Scripture and said,
“This is it.”
You see, the devil is seeking people who are “devourable.” And according to this scripture,
those who fit this category are people who did not get rid of all their care by casting it on the
Lord. They pamper their cares; they bathe in their worries; they let their anxieties promenade
back and forth in their imaginations until an anthill is an immovable mountain. Thus, they
remain vulnerable prey, easily devoured by the strategies of the enemy.
But Peter says, “Go ahead and cast all your care on God. To do so is an act of humility. It
is an act of the power of the Holy Ghost.”
‘After That Ye Have Suffered A While’
Then Peter goes on to say in verses 9 and 10:
Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world.
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
AFTER THAT YE HAVE SUFFERED A WHILE, MAKE YOU PERFECT, STABLISH,
STRENGTHEN, SETTLE YOU.
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When the Holy Spirit first took me to this passage of Scripture, I thought, What in the
world do afflictions accomplish in a believer? And for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why
the God of all grace would allow us to suffer for a while.
I asked the Lord, “With the devil trying to devour me and with all these afflictions and trials
raging around me, why didn’t You just reach down and deliver me out of it all? What did it
accomplish for You to let me suffer awhile before coming in and helping me overcome the situation?”
Now I can tell you exactly what afflictions and persecutions accomplish. These trials cause
your impurities to float to the surface as you progress toward a life of agape. Nothing will
expose those impurities faster.
And notice, you’re not unique in this uncomfortable experience. The same afflictions are
being accomplished by Christians around the world. Every believer that desires to go on with
God will at some point experience the purging work that takes place during a difficult test or
trial.
However, it’s important to understand that God doesn’t send you tests and trials. He said
that Satan is the one who comes to devour through cares, worries, and fears. But when the
devil engages you in conflict and causes your weak places to be exposed, God expects you to
use the power of His Word to weld those weak places with truth and make them strong.
Those difficult times of trial brought things to the surface that had to be purged from my
life so God could establish, strengthen, and settle me. I didn’t understand why God was letting
me suffer through the trial at the time, but I do now. I’ve seen the fruit of His purging work
in me!
After Purging, Peace
In the last several years, a deep peace has grown in my heart that defies description and
surpasses understanding. I have found a secret place in the Holy of Holies of my spirit where
I enjoy constant communion with the Prince of Peace Himself. There in that secret place, He
has explained revelation knowledge to me that I wanted to understand for years.
This peace is an aggressive weapon against the enemy because nothing has made me more
unmanageable for the devil. When this peace began to dominate my life, the worries, fears,
and intimidation I used to operate under gave way. Those deeds of the flesh literally died
beneath the power of this peace.
Established, Strengthened, Settled
Years ago if you had asked me, “Brother Roberson, what are you asking God for?” I would
have said, “I just want to be used by God. I want Him to be able to anoint me to bring about
great revival.
“I want the kind of revival in which fifty deaf and dumb people are brought to the service,
and the power of God fills that section until they jump up yelling, ‘I can hear! I can talk!’ Then
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those who were healed infiltrate the city. Within ten days, the entire city is trying to get into
the meeting, and revival is born! That’s what I want.”
Then if you had asked, “Do you think you can handle that kind of anointing, Brother
Roberson?” I would have said, “Yes, I do. All the Lord has to do is give it to me, and I’ll show
you!”
But then the devil began to rage and fight me over this revival I was desiring. Through
every attack, I was thankful for the supernatural peace that sustained me.
After I suffered awhile, the impurities started coming to the surface. I got a good look at a
few major faults and told the Lord, “Okay, God of all grace. I see what You’re trying to purge
out of my life. I will get right on it.”
Did God stand by and let me suffer for a while? Yes, but only because I had been asking
Him to use me, and He said, “These things are keeping you from being used by Me.” When I
asked Him why He didn’t deliver me from my struggles the first day, He said, “Because you
didn’t believe those things stood between Me and you the first day.”
Afterward, I came to better understand why God answered my prayer for revival the way
He did. He had to put to death whatever it was in my character that had given Satan a
foothold through intimidation and fear.
Otherwise, right in the middle of revival at the opportune moment, the devil would have
exposed those weaknesses and used them against me. But instead, God stepped in with His
grace to establish, strengthen, and settle me through the purging process of praying in
tongues.
I was even ready for some more purging toward agape love when it was all over. The truth
is, I don’t mind the purging anymore because of the degree of peace I have attained by yielding
to the Holy Ghost in this process over the years.
Besides, I know God wants to exalt me above all my messy trials. It isn’t His fault if I have
to remain in the fire until I can see the flesh that still operates in my life.
I thank God for every one of my weaknesses that is exposed by the turmoil around me. I
want the God of grace to step in and deal with those weaknesses. I don’t want to just keep living
with unpurged weaknesses, going through the same suffering and the same kind of trials
year after year because I’m unaware that they even exist.
I don’t want to take my place in history as one of those who failed. I want to clean myself
up so God can send revival!
I’m too hungry for God to just sit in church, pay my tithes, and warm a pew with the seat
of my pants every Sunday and Wednesday. I desire His highest and best too much to spend
the week on the golf course and then step up to the pulpit with an intellectual discourse that
tickles people’s fancy.
Revival is raging in my spirit. I don’t want to remain on neutral ground until the devil
comes and steals what I have, making me just a nominal preacher one step away from not even
preaching on prayer anymore.
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If fasting and praying in tongues will cause my impurities to surface, so be it. If the progression
to power includes praying in tongues to edify me up above a carnal, sense-dominated walk,
then let’s get on with it.
If the more excellent way to attain God’s highest and best is to seek after agape, then go
ahead, God of grace, purge everything out of me that keeps me from walking in love! If it takes
letting me suffer until I can see the problem, I don’t mind, because I want to be established,
strengthened, and settled. I want to experience even greater waves of God’s glory!
However, I have decided that I’m not waiting around for a test or trial to reveal my weaknesses.
I found out that praying divine secrets and mysteries in the Holy Ghost causes the lit
candle of my reborn human spirit to burn brighter and brighter, illuminating all my dark
places that need to be purged.
If I yield to the Holy Ghost’s work in me, those weaknesses will come out on their own without
a difficult trial. That is called growth and edification on purpose, just because I want to!
Tongues Will Cease
So the goal is agape, and the means for attaining the spiritual maturity to walk in agape
is tongues for personal edification. But notice what Paul says in First Corinthians 13:8:
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether
there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Whereas agape love is eternal, tongues will cease when we leave this earth. Love will cross
the barrier of death and go on to Heaven with you. But you won’t need to supernaturally speak
in any of the languages of this earth once you’re in Heaven. The diversities of tongues will
cease. The only language you will speak there is the common tongue of Heaven. You will be
able to walk up to anyone you meet and hold a conversation with them in perfect clarity.
I remember hearing a well-known minister speak of a visitation he once had from Jesus
Himself. Witnesses say that he just seemed to be looking at something they couldn’t see,
speaking in an unknown language. He seemed to be having a conversation with someone,
because he would speak in tongues for a moment and then stop to listen as if someone was
answering him.
Later those in attendance at that meeting found out that the minister had had a vision in
which Jesus stood there and talked to him. He would hear the unknown language Jesus spoke
as English in his own mind, and then he would answer back to Jesus in tongues. The two were
holding a conversation in the language of Heaven.
So the time for gaining the benefits of praying in tongues is now, not after you die and go
to Heaven. God has given you this gift to use in this life for your own good.
But this precious gift will do you no good unless you let the Holy Spirit create His supernatural
language inside of you and then speak it out of your mouth. You have to give yourself
to praying in tongues so the Holy Spirit can edify you, purge you, and build you up on your
most holy faith, keeping you in the agape love of God.
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God Can’t Pour Out His Glory
On an Unpurged People
Why does God want to set us free from everything that hinders and binds us in our lives?
Of course, He sets us free so that we ourselves can be blessed. But also, God wants us to serve
humanity. He wants us to be free from sin so that we can bring the lost to Jesus, motivated by
the agape love of God.
We have a Great Commission to fulfill: And he [Jesus] said unto them, Go ye into all
the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15).
God wants us to be full of wisdom and empty of sin so we can offer people the truth in love.
You see, God wants revival on this earth. You don’t have to coax Him. He isn’t sitting on
His throne, saying “Oh, I rather enjoy sitting on My throne and watching people go to hell. I
just don’t feel like revival. I have a headache and don’t feel like a big move of My Spirit.”
No, God isn’t like that. He is constantly searching to and fro for a people to whom He can
prove Himself strong. He wants so desperately to pour out His anointing on people for the purpose
of revival.
But God knows that as soon as He does, Satan is going to come in with a “mop-up operation”
that puts intense pressure on those operating in God’s power. And those who can’t stand
against the devil’s attacks will wish they had never been born!
So God pours out His glory in a measure, and that glory saturates our being. But the only
part that makes it to productiveness is the part that isn’t eaten up by dead limbs that haven’t
been pruned out of our lives.
That’s why it is so crucial that we continually yield ourselves to the purging work of the
Holy Ghost — not just for our sake, but for the sake of a lost and dying world.
Walk in the Spirit
In this book I have outlined the ability of the Holy Spirit as He works on the inside of us
to guard us against deception and to help program our spirits with that very special plan that
God has set aside for us.
Sometimes I feel like a voice in the wilderness crying, “Pray, please pray!” Long and hard
I’ve been crying out, for God has ordained me to preach on how to walk in the Spirit and how
not to fulfill the warrings and lusts of the flesh. As much as possible, I have been faithful to
do so.
God desires to lead you out of a walk dominated by the flesh into a walk of maturity and
sonship. This is His priority, and it is your option. You have to choose to accept the leadership
of the Holy Spirit. You have to choose to walk out of a life dominated by the flesh and into a
life dominated by the Spirit.
As God taught me, I have taught you that one of the major keys to this walk in the Spirit
is the edification that comes to a person who spends any amount of time at all praying in the
Holy Ghost.
The Divine Progression to Agape Love
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So are you going to pray in tongues a little more than you used to? A lot more? If you are,
then watch out, my friend, because you’re going to take your place in history! You’re going to
find God’s compassion. You’re going to find His power. You’re going to find His plan.
The time is short, so don’t delay in your quest to unlock the greatest mysteries of all time
— the mind of God for mankind, for your generation, and for your own personal life!
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Appendix 1
Hindrances To Receiving
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit
Receiving the Holy Spirit is such a simple thing. However, the devil tries to complicate
matters, doing his best to build strongholds in people’s lives against speaking with other
tongues.
Maybe you have desired the baptism in the Holy Spirit for a long time, but something
seems to hinder you from receiving this precious gift from God. I’m going to talk about some
of the most common hindrances to receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit that I have come
across in my years of ministry. I also want to give you some scriptural truths and guidelines
to help you overcome those hindrances.
Strongholds of the Mind
The devil will try to reach into a person’s past and use negative teachings the person has
heard to build mental blocks or strongholds in his mind against speaking with tongues.
A mental stronghold is a system of thoughts empowered by a person’s emotions. This system
has been created by a lifetime of faulty reasonings and thought patterns that block the
mind from cooperating with God’s truth. However, these strongholds can be pulled down by
replacing them with God’s reasonings found in His Word.
Some people may have sat under the wrong teaching that tongues are not for today. Others
may have been taught that only uneducated, emotional people speak in tongues. Whatever the
deception, these people need correct teaching to help them break out of the stronghold of the
mind that hinders them from yielding themselves over to speaking in tongues.
Also, sometimes a spirit of denominationalism is present. Religious spirits often try to blind
the minds of people so they cannot comprehend truth. They convince people to camp on their
own “revelation,” even if their doctrine is contrary to the Word. When these “mind-blinding”
spirits are in operation, they must be bound in Jesus’ Name. Only then will the person who is
seeking the baptism in the Holy Spirit be set free to receive from God.
‘I’M NOT GOOD ENOUGH
TO RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT’
One of the main strongholds in people’s minds comes from the teaching that a person has
to become good enough to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Some “holiness” churches teach that a person must be sanctified before he or she can be
baptized in the Holy Spirit. People are taught that God will not fill them with His Spirit unless
they are already free from deeds of the flesh, such as smoking, drinking, and chewing tobacco.
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Consequently, people seek the sanctification experience for years and years but never seem
to have the power to get rid of certain sins in their lives. And because they don’t believe they
are good enough to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit until they are sanctified, they never
get filled.
But the fact is, the opposite is true. The Bible says that it is through the Spirit that you
mortify the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:13). The Holy Spirit works in your new nature to put to
death everything that is displeasing to God in your life. So to deny people the infilling of the
Holy Spirit — the very means God uses to accomplish the clean-up process in a person’s soul
and flesh — is against the Scriptures.
You see, you can never become good enough to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit on your
own. That’s why God literally takes out your old nature and creates a new nature in your
human spirit when you are born again. It is this new, righteous nature, not your works, that
God uses as the basis for baptizing you in the Holy Spirit. No other preparation can be made
other than what has already been accomplished when you were washed in the blood of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit who has done the work of recreation is now ready to infill you — to step
into that new nature you have received and help set you free from every form of sin and
bondage. This is the work of sanctification Paul talked about in Second Corinthians 7:1:
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
To accomplish that work, the first thing the Holy Spirit wants to do when He infills you is
to pray for you. So He begins to create a supernatural language of tongues on the inside of your
spirit. That same language He is creating in your spirit then automatically begins to form in
your mouth.
The moment you give utterance to those words and start praying in tongues, you walk into
a divine classroom. Standing at the chalkboard is none other than the Master Teacher, the
Holy Spirit. He has come into your life to teach, empower, edify, and sanctify you.
That’s one reason God took the understanding of tongues away from us. That way we don’t
know when He’s praying for us about the sin in our lives we don’t want to deal with. As we
pray in tongues, we may be thinking, I want a Lexus, while the Holy Spirit is actually saying
in the language of tongues, “I think you should stop yelling at your spouse!”
So don’t try to become good enough to receive the Holy Spirit. Let Him dwell in you in His
fullness, and determine to pray much in other tongues. As you do, He will lead you in the mortification
process that will make you more like Him.
‘I DON’T HAVE TO SPEAK IN TONGUES
TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT’
There is a line drawn in the Spirit between the actual creation of the supernatural language
in a believer’s spirit and the journey of this language from his spirit to his lips to be
uttered. It is on this line that the devil is most successful in erecting strongholds that hinder
believers from speaking in tongues even after they have been filled with the Holy Spirit.
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For example, many believers wrongly believe, for one reason or another, that God wants
them to have the baptism in the Holy Spirit without the experience of speaking with tongues.
Although this type of situation is possible, it is not the perfect will of God. People who think
that way truly do not understand the great things God wants to accomplish in their lives
through this simple but precious gift of speaking with tongues.
‘I’M WAITING FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT
TO MAKE ME SPEAK’
Other Christians labor under the misconception that they must wait for God to move on
them and cause them to speak in tongues. In reality, God is trying to get them to receive what
He has already done.
You see, when we ask the Holy Spirit to fill us — He fills us! The entire time we are trying
to get Him to give us the language of tongues, He is waiting for us to receive and give utterance
to the language He has already created inside our spirits. He creates the language, but
we are the ones who do the praying. This truth is revealed in Acts 2:4:
And THEY were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and BEGAN TO SPEAK with other
tongues, as THE SPIRIT GAVE THEM UTTERANCE.
But the devil doesn’t want people to know that. He tries to make them believe that the reason
they haven’t spoken in tongues is God’s reluctance to give them this foundational revelation
gift. The enemy knows that if he can convince people that, for some reason, they are not
able to receive the gift of tongues, he can discourage them from pressing on through to the actual
utterance of the language itself.
Many times people in this situation become so discouraged, they stop seeking the baptism
in the Holy Ghost because they are afraid of failing again. They come to the wrong conclusion
that, in some way, they aren’t worthy enough for God to fill them with His Spirit and give
them the gift of tongues.
That’s why many believers are actually filled with the Holy Spirit when they pray but have
yet to speak in tongues.
The Holy Spirit created His supernatural language in these believers’ spirit as soon as they
asked to be filled. But the strongholds in their mind blocked them from yielding over their
tongue to the utterance of that language. The Holy Spirit does as much as He can in these
believers’ lives, but they forfeit the great benefits that speaking in tongues provide.
How To Overcome Strongholds of the Mind
If the devil is trying to use any of these strongholds of the mind against you, I have some
good news for you. There is nothing more powerful than God’s Word, centered around godly
worship, to pull those strongholds down!
Perhaps you have struggled to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Maybe you have spoken
only a few words in tongues and would like to be set free to speak fluently in the language
the Holy Spirit has given you. Well, the key is to build up your faith until it is stronger
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than the stronghold in your mind that prevents you from receiving what you desire from
the Lord.
I would suggest that you diligently study what the Word has to say on the subject of the
baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in other tongues. Listen to teaching tapes on the subject.
Read this book you hold in your hands again and again until these scriptural principles
about speaking with tongues are planted deep in your heart.
Then find yourself a place of worship, put on some worship music, and spend some quality
time alone with God. The fact is, one of the most powerful ways to minister to your own soul
and to get yourself ready to receive from God is to worship Him. This is why Ephesians 5:18,19
says:
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT;
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody in your heart to the Lord.
As you worship the Lord, begin to speak the Word and praise Him for the answer: “Lord, I
am a receiver. Thank You, Lord, for filling me with the Holy Spirit. Thank You for giving me
the ability to speak with other tongues.”
You see, your soul will transform you to whatever you subject it to the most. Jesus will
become to you whatever you call Him, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word
(Rom. 10:17). If you call Him your Baptizer long enough, you will destroy with the Word all
those strongholds in the soul that have hindered you from receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Focus in on God and His faithfulness to give you the gift you desire. As you stay in that
place of worship, your mind and emotions will begin to be baptized with the Presence of God,
and the Holy Spirit will come upon you to fill and overflow your spirit. Continue to worship
the Lord until all the debris in your mind that is keeping you from speaking with tongues is
cleared away.
You may not tangibly “feel” anything at this point, but you will notice that new words are
floating up from your spirit and forming in your mouth. The Holy Spirit is creating that language
on the inside of you.
When that happens, just stop worshiping in English and speak out the words your tongue
wants to form. Yield over to that language the Holy Spirit is creating in your spirit. Then continue
to speak in tongues until those supernatural words are flowing out of you fluently, like
rivers of living water.
Demonic Strongholds of the Soul
Another reason some believers are hindered from receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit
is that some kind of demonic stronghold has been carried over from their unsaved lives, and
they have not yet been delivered from it.
For example, these believers may have been involved in drugs, in a cult, or in the occult. Their
involvement could have been as simple as dabbling with horoscopes or “playing” with a Ouija
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Board. But even dabbling in these areas of darkness can open the door for demons to take up
residence in people’s lives.
The more heavily involved a person has been in this type of activity, the greater the possibility
that a demon actually gained access to possess that person’s unregenerate spirit.
Now, when people are born again, any demons present have to move out of their newly created
spirits. But sometimes an evil spirit finds opportunity to merely move over and take up
residency in the new believer’s soul. In this case, the demon may hinder a person from receiving
the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues, but he CANNOT stop the person from
receiving.
So if you have ever had any association with a cult, drugs, the occult, and so forth, and you
have had trouble receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit, consider this possibility: A stronghold
may exist in your soul because of that past association. Subconsciously you may still be
leaning to some of that old influence.
If that is your situation, you can take hold of your rights according to the Word of God and
confess by faith that you are free of the strongholds that are hindering your soul. Just pray
this prayer by faith:
Heavenly Father,
I repent for seeking knowledge outside of You through the occult [or
through drugs, a cult, etc.]. I ask You to forgive me.
I also command every evil spirit who may have gained access to my life when
I opened the door through these demonic activities to leave me now in the Name
of Jesus. I now shut the door to all such spirits.
I ask You, Heavenly Father, to fill those empty places with Your Holy
Spirit.
Now according to Your Word in John 8:36 that says, “If the Son therefore
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” — I am free!
In Jesus’ Name, amen.
Perhaps you were once strongly involved in these activities. For instance, most cults
instruct people to invite spirit guides into their lives, which constitutes idolatry. If that is the
case, you may need to fast and pray to prepare yourself to receive your deliverance from that
stronghold of the soul. When you sense you are ready, pray the prayer outlined above.
After you have dealt with any possible stronghold of the soul that may have been hindering
you from receiving, follow my earlier suggestions. Find a place of worship, and begin to
thank God by faith for setting you free, filling you with the Holy Spirit, and giving you a supernatural
language of tongues.
Stay in that place of worship until you receive what you desire from God. Then as you go
about your daily life, remember to continually praise the Lord for your new freedom and for
the gift of the Holy Spirit you have received.
Appendix 2
Prayer of Salvation
Before you can be filled with the Holy Spirit and receive His supernatural gift of tongues,
your human spirit must be born again in Christ Jesus. Without the new nature that sets you
free from sin, the Holy Spirit has nothing to work with.
Do you believe that Jesus actually died for your sins and rose again to give you new life?
Would you like to receive Him as your Lord and Savior right now? If so, please pray the following
prayer from your heart:
Dear Lord Jesus,
Please come into my heart and forgive me of my sins. I want to receive you as my
Lord and Savior. I want to be born again.
I receive you now as my Lord and Savior. I receive God as my Father.
Thank You for saving me. Amen.
Welcome to the family of God! Please write us at the address on page 409. We would like
to hear about your decision for Christ and want to help you get started in living a victorious
life as a child of God.
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Appendix 3
Prayer To Be Filled
With the Holy Spirit
If you are reading this book and have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit, it is a simple
matter to receive this precious gift. All you have to do is just ask in faith for the Lord to fill
you with the Holy Spirit and give you the gift of speaking in tongues.
When you do that, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will sense His Presence.
Immediately the Holy Spirit will move into your new nature and begin to create a language on
the inside of your spirit. When He does, your tongue and mouth will begin to shape the same
words He is creating inside.
Now pray this prayer from your heart:
Heavenly Father,
Your Word says that You are faithful to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask You
(Luke 11:13).
So in the Name of Jesus, I ask You to please fill me with the Holy Spirit. I thank
You for giving me a new language. I believe I receive it now. Amen.
After you have prayed this prayer, don’t speak your native language any longer. Yield yourself
to the Presence of the Holy Spirit, and begin to speak out those words that you don’t
understand with your mind.
It may sound a little like baby talk in the beginning. But as you continue to yield yourself
to speaking the words the Holy Spirit gives you, you will begin to pull more of a flow out of
your spirit. Soon you will be speaking fluently in your new, supernatural language. Continue
to pray in your new language for at least fifteen minutes to establish yourself in this gift you
have just received.
You have reason to rejoice! You have just entered through the doorway that will lead you
into the supernatural realm of God!
For additional copies of this book
or for more information about this ministry,
please write or call:
Dave Roberson Ministries
The Family Prayer Center
P. O. Box 725
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74101
(918) 298-7729