Sid Roth - Why 100% of Believers MUST Pray in Tongues?
Welcome, Holy Spirit. My favorite prayer, "Jesus, help"! I've been studying, as many of you have, the lives of generals of the faith, and I found there was one major secret they had to their power. One common habit, they all spoke many hours in supernatural languages, tongues. And one of my favorites that I read about was a pastor by the name of Dr. Cho, in Korea. He had upwards of a million people going to his church. I can't even comprehend a million people going into a building. Of course, they went in shifts, but still. And this is what he said that really touched me. Every day, the first thing he would do is pray 6 to 8 hours in tongues. And they said, "Dr. Cho, how can you take that time out of your day"? He said, "Because I could not have a church this large if I didn't take that time to pray in tongues".
Paul says in Galatians 5:16, "But I say, walk," and this is in the Amplified Classic. "I say, walk and live habitually", that's the key word, "Walk and live habitually in the Holy Spirit". And then in I Thessalonians 5:17, he commands, "Pray without ceasing". I don't know if you ever saw that command. Well, you ignore it. Pray? What? It's a command? "Pray without ceasing". But how can we live habitually in the Spirit? How can we pray without ceasing? When you're sleeping? When you're working? How do you do this? He wouldn't say do it if there wasn't a way. This is where the supernatural comes in, and I'm going to share a revelation in a moment that very few Christians have ever even heard that many, many believers have understood throughout the centuries.
First, I want you to explain. Why speak in tongues? What is the big advantage of speaking in tongues? Number one, God commands it. In I Corinthians 14:5, Paul says, "I desire that all speak in tongues," pretty conclusive. Why speak in tongues? You're praying 100 percent from the spirit. That means it's 100 percent perfect prayers. When you're praying from the mind, let's face it. We're humans. It's a mixture. But when you're praying from the spirit, you are praying perfect prayers with perfect faith. Why do you have perfect faith? You don't know what you're praying. Your brain isn't getting in the way and saying, "Well, that's impossible".
Of course, God says nothing is impossible. Another reason, you see, when you pray out loud, the devil and all the demons hear you, and they try to obstruct what you're doing. But they go... There's a Hebrew word, meshuggah, meshuggah, a little crazy. When you pray in tongues... Because unless God reveals what you're praying, you don't even know what you're praying. They're called unknown tongues for a reason, unknown to the devil as well as people. When you pray in tongues, you're edifying your spirit man. The word edify in the Greek means, you are charging your battery. You are lifting the weights in the gym. You are getting muscles in your spirit man, where you need it. It says in I Corinthians 14:17, when you pray in tongues, you praise God well. Who wouldn't want to praise God well? I would.
The most important reason Paul talks about, a lot of people miss it. This isn't the point I'm going for, but I want to explain this. Do you know how much revelation Paul had? That's where he got his revelation. Paul spoke in tongues, I Corinthians 14:18, again the Amplified Classic, I always felt this, but then I saw it in print. I never realized it. Most of the Bibles I see say this, "I speak in tongues more than any of you". But the original Greek says, or "more than all of you put together". Now, he's talking to the Corinthian church which was very fanatical on the gifts of the Spirit, and he's saying, "You think you guys are fanatical? I speak in tongues more than all of you put together".
It had to be important. That's where he got his revelation from. Recently, I discovered Paul's hidden secret about how to have habitual fellowship with God and how to pray without ceasing. First, there's scientific evidence. In 2008, the University of Pennsylvania released findings that prove the practice of speaking in tongues does not come from the brain. In the study, participants' brain activity was monitored while they spoke in tongues, and you can look this up on the Internet. It's not coming from the part of the brain, the frontal lobe, that speech in the language you know comes from, that you've been taught.
Two, there's a Biblical explanation. The Bible says, Paul says, "I will pray with my spirit, by the Holy Spirit that is within me, but I will also pray intelligently with my own mind and my own understanding". That really distinguishes it. Everyone knows where the mind is, but not everyone, even believers know where your spirit is. Again, Jesus actually told us where our spirit is. Most people go, "Here, in my heart". No. Jesus said, "Out of your innermost belly will flow rivers of living water". So I pray with my understanding, my mind, and I pray from my spirit, my belly. Your spirit is in your belly. In I Thessalonians 5:17, Paul commands us to "pray without ceasing". I believe you can and will pray without ceasing. Be right back.
I remember years ago, as a young Jewish believer, I observed a great man of God, Kenneth Hagin, Sr., and I would go to his conferences, and I would notice when he wasn't speaking and he was seated on the platform, he's always have his hands together like this, and his lips would be going. And then I found out from someone I interviewed, Dr. Norvel Hayes, who is also now in Heaven. He was on his board, a personal friend of Dr. Hagin, and he found out from Dr. Hagin that speaking in tongues without ceasing was his secret, and he wherever, I'll give you a quick story. His son shares this story. His son says, one afternoon, they're watching a good football game, and he looks over at his dad, and his dad is going, "Dad, chill out! This is football. This is fun".
And he looks at his son and said... That was his secret. That's Dr. Cho's secret, went to the grave with most of them. So how do you pray without ceasing? This is what I've learned. First of all, you can pray in English out loud, and you can pray in English almost thinking it without even mouthing it, can't you? That's with your brain. How much more should you be able to pray from your spirit? And this is what I've been doing. I have been praying without making a sound, and then I found I could make, I could pray by moving my tongue, in tongues, I'm saying, without moving my lips. I heard a judge in Fairfax, Virginia say, with my own ears, "When I do a case, I'm praying in tongues without ceasing because I need wisdom beyond myself".
So I started doing it without moving my tongue and without moving my lips, but I started first speaking without making an audible sound, and I started moving my tongue and moving my lips. Then I eventually went, step two was not move my lips and just move my tongue. And step three, it started becoming a habit. You know how you pray without ceasing in your sleep? If you pray hours and hours without ceasing while you're awake, guess what your spirit man does the whole time that you're sleeping?
Now, the best way I know to make a habit of this is to, number one, make sure that Jesus is your Messiah and Lord. Number two, ask God to fill you complete. See, you couldn't make Jesus your Messiah and Lord unless the Holy Spirit was in you, contrary to a lot of teaching. Hey, let no one tell you the Holy Spirit is not in you if you don't speak in tongues. Come on now, you only are led to the Lord by Holy Spirit coming upon you. It's the only way you can do it. So the first is you pray to make Jesus your Messiah and Lord. Usually... The Bible actually says out loud. Something about you hearing your own self speak out loud to your spirit man, making Jesus your Lord. Then the second thing is, you're filled with the Spirit, and you have the gift to speak in tongues. Here's the greatest analogy I've ever seen with the gift to speak in tongues. It takes faith.
Do you know it actually says speaking in tongues is the least of the gifts? Do you know why it says that? It's the easiest to manifest. That's why it says that. It's the easiest for you to enter the supernatural realm where all the gifts are. So there was a Jewish guy that, by the name of Peter, and Peter was in a boat, and he saw Jesus walking on the water. And he said, "Hey, that's pretty cool, Jesus. I'd like to do that". And Jesus surprised him. He said, "Come". And then Peter said, "I will only come if You move my legs and give me the supernatural ability to walk on water". No. You see, he could not walk on water, and he knew it. Only Jesus could help him walk on water, but he knew how to move his own legs. "No, I'm not going to move them".
That's what people do with their prayer language. "No, I'm not going to speak until I hear it". Well, then God can't do His part. God always cooperates with man. There's a part for man to play and a part for God to play, and I have found everyone that doesn't manifest their prayer language, even though they have their prayer language inside of them, is because they're not willing to do what they've been doing their whole life, speak. The only difference is, you're going to speak before you hear it. Why won't you hear it first? Because it's not here. It's not in the brain. You will speak, and it'll come out of you. "Oh, I'm not going to do that. I might make it up".
Well, just remember whose Name your prayed it, Jesus! "Every knee will bow and every tongue confess". Your tongue will confess, that's what it says. Now, when I pray with you... So the step two, filled with the Holy Spirit. If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you don't have to speak in tongues, but you have the ability to speak in tongues. You have the ability, and you can do your part. You just can't do God's part. But you'll never see God's part, Peter, if you don't move your own legs and get out of that boat! So those at home and those in this studio audience, and then we're going to go into the third phase, how to pray without ceasing by doing what I said. You start praying silently. Move your lips, move your tongues, and then you close your lips and don't move them.
So you be like that judge that needed supernatural wisdom. You can have a complete intellectual conversation with someone and be praying nonceasing? Why? One is coming from the spirit, the others from the brain. They even proved it scientifically. I just told you about the study. So let's start out by reaffirming or for the first time, a lot of you have made Jesus your Savior, rightfully so. Now it's time to make Him your Savior and Lord. That's the only gear. We've been lied to. It's Savior and Lord in the Bible. It's not just Savior. Repeat after me out loud, mean it to the best of your ability at home and right here, out loud:
Dear God, I've made many mistakes for which I'm so sorry. I believe the Blood of Jesus washed them away. And I'm clean. And now that I'm clean, Jesus, come and live inside of me. I make You my Savior. You saved me from my sins. And now I make You my Lord. Amen.
Continue praying out loud, raise, do it... What's the universal form of surrender? Someone puts a gun in your ribs. Okay. You don't have to keep your hands up the whole time, but let's physically surrender to God. Raise your holy hands. It says in scriptures, "I lift holy hands," because you said the prayer, holy, "unto God". I'm surrendering. I'm making You my Lord, God. Now repeat out loud, continue the prayer. In the Name of Jesus, fill me with Your Holy Spirit and power. I love You, Lord. Begin to pray out loud, Peter. You move your tongue, Peter, begin to pray out. "I don't know what to say". Perfect. If you know what to say, it's not tongues. Only hear it, you'll only hear your language if you speak it. And do it as quickly as you can and don't stop. God will do His part, if you'll do yours. Move that tongue, in Jesus' Name.
Okay. All right. Now, those that are praying in tongues right now, stop doing it out loud but continue. Now continue and don't move your lips. Let's conclude by praying out loud in tongues now. I'll give you a clue. When God is happy, I start laughing in the Spirit. If you do it as quickly as your tongue can move, you'll break into a new language. You've been praying in tongues one language the last 30 years, break into your new language. As quickly as your tongue can move. Shalom, shalom, shalom.