Sid: As those that have been listening all week know Monday was Shavuot, Pentecost. This week I’ve been talking about this God festival because it’s not just a Christian festival, it is not just a Biblical festival, it’s not just a Jewish festival, it is a God festival. That’s the reason God said He wants us to observe these forever. Not under bondage, not having anything to do with salvation, but because there are tremendous blessings caught up in these festivals.
We were talking about, and everyone is familiar with it the 2nd chapter of Acts, the great outpouring of God’s Spirit and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit; It says in the 2nd chapter the 4th verse “and began” the implication is “they began to speak in other tongues.” What were they saying? “Wonders of God in our own dialect,” and then Peter gets up and says “Now I want to explain to you what’s going on” and he quotes from the prophet Joel. He says “These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! “No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.’” I’ve been pondering over this verse and a lot of people say it was fulfilled. Yes it was at Shavuot, at Pentecost. As you keep reading you find out just before the peering of the Messiah there’ll be a major outpouring, who is it going to be? It’s going to be on sons and daughters of these people, the Jewish people, it’s going to be on the young men of these people; Jewish young men, on the old men, it’s going to be Jewish old men, on their servants both men and women “I will pour out my Spirit in those days. They will prophesy and I will show wonders in the heaven above.”
I reminded this is being prerecorded and right now my wife Joy and I are in the land of Israel doing evangelistic meetings please pray we’re doing something that hasn’t happened since the first century, and believing God to show up in such a spectacular fashion that deaf ears are going to open, and blind eyes, people will be able to see and the lame are going to walk. There will be…
I mean what happened with this Peter this ignorant from rabbinic standards, this ignorant fisherman that literally turned his back on the Messiah. Well number one he repented he was forgiven, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. You know what happened after he made this proclamation? Three thousand Jewish people turned to the Lord. That’s the type of outpouring of God’s Spirit that is coming. One of the things I noticed is many, many Christians that call themselves Spirit filled, or charismatic, have stopped praying in tongues. Many churches that are called charismatic they talk more about the gifts of the Spirit than they demonstrate the gifts of the Spirit. It’s because we’re in between 2 moves of God’s Spirit, but when you’re in between you don’t stop doing what God is showing you to do. Because in the Bible it’s very clear in Corinthians it says “You praise God well when you speak in unknown tongues.” It says in Romans the 8th chapter that “You speak mysteries.” Well it’s more than mysteries, it’s prayers that the Holy Spirit is instructing you to pray. Since you don’t understand what you’re praying that means you’re praying with perfect prayers, perfect faith. You see how important it is to pray in unknown tongues? It not only says that they are perfect prayers and you’re doing it by perfect faith because they’re mysteries in the Spirit. It says when you pray in unknown tongues that you edify yourself. The word for edify means you charge up your batteries so the other gifts will start operating.
How in the world do you expect to have peace in the Middle East, as many people are praying for unless we begin praying for the one thing that will bring peace in the Middle East? The one thing that will bring peace in the Middle East will not be an anti-Christ, will not be a temple, will not be the nation’s muscling Israel to have peace, but the one thing that will bring peace in the Middle East is when the spiritual scales come off of the eyes of Jewish people and Arab people. Talk about One New Man. I think the greatest example of a One New Man will be a Jewish person that loves Jesus and loves Arabs, and an Arab person that loves Jesus and loves Jewish people, and the two coming together and hugging the neck of one another. That’s going to be a sign to astound the world. So the… You think you’re going to have peace in the Middle East unless you’re praying perfect prayers with perfect faith? Give me a break!
In fact I think I ought to read a little bit about praying in tongues because that’s seems to be deemphasized these days. There’re no reason that it should be deemphasized. Now one of the best chapters to understand tongues, and of course the book of Acts, and by the way, did you know that every single time in every case in the book of Acts when people were filled with the Holy Spirit outside of 2 they spoke in unknown tongues. You know what the 2 in which they didn’t speak in unknown tongues? One was Paul when he was filled with the Holy Spirit, it just doesn’t mention he spoke in unknown tongues, but in another place he said “I speak in tongues more than any man.” So we know he spoke in unknown tongues. So remember I said there were only 2 places of all the places where people are filled with the Holy Spirit that it does not specifically say that they spoke in unknown tongues. So that was the first place, and the second place was in Acts the 8th chapter when Simon the Sorcerer, and let me read this to you: “Peter and John went to Samaria.” In the 8th chapter the 15th verse “When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them.” Isn’t that interesting they were new believers and the Holy Spirit hadn’t come on them. “They had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” Now it doesn’t specifically say, and this is the ONLY ONE where it doesn’t say beyond the one of Paul, but elsewhere it says he spoke in tongues. This is the only one of all of the cases, but the 18th verse shows you what happened. It says “When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money.” The word saw is the operative word “When Simon saw” something he had to see something, he had to experience something because if they just said “Well now you’re filled with the Holy Spirit.” No he saw something! I’ll tell you what he saw he saw such an outpouring of God’s Spirit that people probably fell over in the Spirit and started praying in unknown tongues. So we might say there’s only one case in all of the book of Acts where people were filled with the Spirit that it specifically doesn’t say they spoke in tongues. Of course it doesn’t say they did not, and in this case he obviously saw something.
Now let’s go to 1st Corinthians the 13th chapter and it said in the 8th verse, and boy this is so important. “Love never fails.” So remember speaking in unknown tongues has nothing to do with your salvation. Speaking in unknown tongues has nothing as to whether God loves you more. The most important thing we can do is walk in love, but why would we ever want to leave off anything that God has equipped us with to defeat the works of darkness? So the 8th verse of the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians reads: “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled.” So people say “Well the prophecies and the tongues have ceases.” Well when will this happened? It says in the 9th verse: “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes,” or other translations say “when the perfect comes what is in part disappears.” They say the perfect is Jesus. Now you’ll know when the perfect comes because it says in the last part of the 12th verse: “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” Well let me tell you if you know everything fully please I will give this microphone to you. I wish I knew everything fully but we’re not going to know everything fully until Jesus comes back and we see Him face to face. Right now we see in a mirror dimly. So that means tongues has not passed away.
Then the 14th chapter of 1 Corinthians: “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God.” Then the 4th verse: “Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. I would like every one of you to speak in tongues.” Why?
He goes on, but I wanted to tell you about an interesting experience. It seems whenever I travel people notice the menorah that I wear around my neck. You know the menorah is the only piece of jewelry described in the Bible. There’s a supernatural anointing on the Menorah that we give to our club members. I was in Charlotte, North Carolina and I went to a mall and there was a kiosk there and a young Jewish boy was selling things and he saw my menorah. He literally made a bee line for me, and he said “Oh I’m so glad to see another Jewish person.” I found out that he was going back to Israel. Now this is prerecorded and I’m in Israel right, and I invited him to my outreach and I said “You’re going to see miracles” and he said “Well I’m taking Kabbalah what do you think of that?” I said “That’s minor league compared to the power of God, that’s not really God’s power, but let me tell you about what you’ll see at this.” I described by faith about so many people that are going to get miraculously healed through the power of God. He said “Could you teach me how to do this?” I said “Sure.” I didn’t explain to him that in Mark the last chapter it says “Those who believe in the name of Jesus will lay hands on the sick and the sick will recover.” Anyway we’re out time.
