Sid Roth - I Preached That Tongues Were of the Devil, UNTIL
Sid Roth: Hello. I'm here with Pastor Todd Smith from the North Georgia Revival. It's unbelievable, the little sleepy, Southern town in Georgia. And sometimes he'll have more people on a Sunday night for the water baptism service than are in the entire town. As a matter of fact, why? Because they have found it's like a point of contact. When they go in the waters of Mikveh, of baptism, and come out, many are healed. Tell me your favorite miracle that's happened recently.
Todd Smith: It was a gentleman who had 280 cancerous tumors in his bones.
Sid Roth: Two hundred and eighty?
Todd Smith: Two hundred and eighty cancerous tumors in his bones. He was so sick, he could not even make it to the revival. His wife came to be baptized as a point of contact for her husband.
Sid Roth: He didn't even come?
Todd Smith: He did not even come. Hospice was at his house. He had two to three weeks to live. And his wife got baptized. And we sent her home with a towel, anointed it, and said, "When you get home, as a point of contact, lay it on his body". And after just a few minutes, after she laid that towel on his body and began to pray for him, the pain lifted off of his body. Goes the next day...
Sid Roth: He must have been in excruciating pain.
Todd Smith: Excruciating pain. I'm telling you, Sid, to hear the testimony. Goes the next day to get a PET scan, they wanted to see what the cancer was doing in his body. I heard with my very own ears the doctor's phone call to the couple. She says, "I'm looking at the old PET scan and the new PET scan. I'm looking at the old PET scan and the new PET scan". And she said, "We cannot find any bone tumors, cancerous bone tumors in his body". Completely healed and walking in full strength today.
Sid Roth: And again, how long did he have to live at the hospice?
Todd Smith: Two to three weeks, they said, at most.
Sid Roth: And what did the letter say from the hospital?
Todd Smith: The letter the hospice sent said that this is incurative. And they gave him a window of six months, because they said, "We may be there six months, but we're looking at a two to three week window until he dies".
Sid Roth: You get that? The power of God is so awesome! God did that! Now, as a Southern Baptist, you were as strong against speaking in tongues as you are strong for God as a miracle working God today. How bad was it? If I had walked up to you and said, "I want you to start speaking in a language you've never been taught. Here, look..." what would you have done to me?
Todd Smith: I would have said, "Sid, you've lost your mind". I would have said, "You're crazy". In fact, I mocked people that spoke in tongues. I scorned them. I literally told our congregation, "Don't do it. It's of the devil". That's when I spoke as a leading Southern Baptist pastor that was pastoring one of the fastest-growing churches in the State of Georgia. But Sid, in the midst of it all, I got hungry for God. I got thirsty for the Lord. And when I began to read my Scriptures without my denominational glasses on, it became real to me that the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues was valid for today.
Sid Roth: Tell me briefly how you...
Todd Smith: Well, after a year and a half of research, I'm talking about...
Sid Roth: You are really a cerebral guy!
Todd Smith: Yeah. I'm thinking, I want the real and I want the authentic. So I had this copious research, and I came to the conclusion that it was real. And I went to a Pentecostal prayer meeting, I did. And that's the last place...
Sid Roth: I won't tell anyone.
Todd Smith: Yes. Listen, that's the last place that a Southern Baptist pastor ought to be.
Sid Roth: Yeah.
Todd Smith: And there were four Pentecostal pastors there. And they ended up laying hands on me. And one gentleman weighed 140 pounds, soaking wet, put his index finger on my forehead, and he said, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit". Instantly, at that moment, the Holy Ghost came upon me. I'm falling out in the Spirit, and I began to speak in tongues. And my life, since that moment, Sid, has never been the same. It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, outside of my salvation experience.
Sid Roth: New York Times.
Todd Smith: Mm-hmm.
Sid Roth: The New York Times newspaper had an article about tongues. What did it say?
Todd Smith: Well, they followed a research that was done in United Kingdom. And it was a group of one thousand evangelicals that this research was conducted on. And the research came to the conclusions, now listen to this, came to the conclusion that those who speak in tongues consistently and regularly have fewer mental disorders than those who do not. And the New York Times reported on that research, and affirm that speaking in tongues is valid.
Sid Roth: And how about the University of Pennsylvania study?
Todd Smith: You know, the Neuroscience Department of the University of Pennsylvania, led by Andrew Newburg, conducted a study, it is just absolutely phenomenal, that when they took people that were praying in tongues, Sid, they analyzed the brain. They looked at what was going on in the brain, the activity. They discovered that the frontal lobe, which literally controls the speech of a person's life, when they were speaking in English and praying in English, it was firing. It was active. I mean, there was a lot of activity going on in the frontal lobe. But when they transitioned to tongues, when that individual spoke in tongues, all the activity in the frontal lobe went dormant.
Sid Roth: That proves it's not coming from the brain!
Todd Smith: It affirms what Paul said in First Corinthians 14 that when I pray in tongues, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. And this is a university, University of Pennsylvania, led by a gentleman that literally had a degree in nuclear medicine, in nuclear cardiology. So this is not just some kind of a cheap research. This was done at the University of Pennsylvania, that says the front of a person's brain goes dormant when they pray in tongues.
Sid Roth: No wonder Paul said, "I pray in tongues more than any man". He knew that that was the secret of his power. Are you ready for evidence of how praying on tongues boosts your immune system by up to 40 percent? Next, when we return.
Sid Roth: I'm here with Pastor Todd Smith. Todd, you say there is a disturbing trend going on in Charismatic Churches and Pentecostal Churches. What is that disturbing trend?
Todd Smith: Sid, as I travel around and pray, especially since the revival has hit our church, I had the privilege of going in the Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches, and I'm finding out that too many of them do not pray in tongues. And many of them don't even know about the power of praying in the Holy Ghost. And these are Pentecostal Charismatic Churches, where we should be talking about the significance of praying in the Holy Spirit. So here's what I as a Southern Baptist, I doubted the validity of tongues. But we're discovering that Pentecostal and Charismatic pastors are devaluing tongues.
Sid Roth: They're taking it for granted.
Todd Smith: Taking it for granted, and not making it a priority of the people of God. I've discovered in reading the Scriptures that the very first thing that Jesus gave the church, the first thing, when the Holy Spirit came was the ability to supernaturally communicate with Him in tongues. The first thing that He gave. And now we, this trend is, we're minimizing what Jesus gave the church, the ability to talk to Him supernaturally.
Sid Roth: You know what I think is so amazing? Sometimes Pastor Todd is at a meeting where over 80 people are actually praying in tongues for the very first time. That's almost like the original Pentecost. How did that happen?
Todd Smith: We were at Pastor Kevin Craig's church in Apopka, Florida, and we were baptizing, started baptizing at 9:30 at night, because I told the people about the vision on the water, fire on the water, and then when they get baptized, they're going to be baptized with Holy Spirit fire. He told me that 80 of his members that he had pastored for years, when they got baptized and came up out of the water that the fire of God touched them and hit them, and immediately began to speak in tongues. They started baptizing at night, and at 9:30 the next morning, 12 hours of continuous baptism, and people were getting baptized with the Holy Spirit, Pentecostal people, baptized with the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues as they came up out of the water.
Sid Roth: Now, you told me that there was a medical doctor that did scientific tests about praying in tongues and the immune system.
Todd Smith: Oh, a fascinating study that we uncovered and discovered. Carl Peterson at ORU did a study on the effects of praying in the Holy Spirit, praying in tongues. And he came to the conclusion in his research that if you pray in tongues consistently, now the language that he used is very important, that there are extended periods of time in praying on tongues, not just one or two sentences once or twice a week, but extended times of praying in tongues, that the immune system of that individual gets a boost 35 to 40 percent. Thirty-five to forty percent, their immune system gets activated. Why? Because praying in tongues does impact a part of the brain where your immune system is centered, and that's the hypothalamus. So they ran the test and found out that that part of the brain is activated and functioning at a high level when we pray in tongues. And it release a supernatural immunity in our bodies.
Sid Roth: I'm wondering if it does any other thing when it starts, beyond immunity. I have an idea there's a lot more things that are...
Todd Smith: There's a lot more. I agree.
Sid Roth: Now you talk about, use a phrase, "flipping the switch". Explain.
Todd Smith: Flipping the switch, because people ask me all the time, "I prayed in tongues at one time, but I don't anymore, because I'm waiting on a feeling. I don't feel it. I don't know, it's not the same". I tell them, it's like walking into a room. And you walk into the room and the light is off, but you flip the switch on, and the light comes on. When you walk out of the room, you flip the switch down and the light goes off. I tell people, praying in tongues is no different. When you pray in English, your tongue is connected to your brain. As I am communicating to you, Sid, everything that I'm saying started right here. And in a nanosecond, it has made its way through my mouth, and I give words to it. Now praying in the Holy Ghost, praying in tongues, is when my tongue is connected to my spirit. Paul says that when I pray in tongues, my spirit prays. So I have to learn the discipline of flipping the switch from praying in English to connecting my tongue to my spirit. And the more you pray in the Spirit, the easier that becomes. And you don't wait on a feeling, you don't wait on an emotion. You don't wait when the worship music is on. It is as natural as breathing. You flip the switch from your head to your spirit, and then you give voice to those words coming out of your spirit.
Sid Roth: Now many that are viewing right now have never spoken in tongues. Others use this marvelous gift very little. Both groups will change when we return.
Sid Roth: Todd, you and I have both witnessed, there are methods that the enemy uses to stop us from praying in tongues, because he realizes this weapon means we're praying perfect prayers with perfect faith. And he goes, a Hebrew word meshuga: crazy. What are some of the methods he uses against people for praying, about praying in tongues?
Todd Smith: Well, for one, he tell us that we're not making a difference, that what we're doing is null and void. Since we don't understand it, we're thinking, he's saying, "Oh, you're just wasting your time". Everybody I know wants to have their prayers answered. And every time we pray in the Holy Spirit, we pray the perfect will of God. So it stands to reason that the devil is going to use every means possible to keep us from this supernatural ability to communicate with our Heavenly Father, absolutely. So he works overtime, minimizing it, and maximizing us praying in English. When I pray in English, I only pray what I know. I'm limited. But when I pray in the Holy Spirit, the possibilities are endless, because the Spirit of God prays perfectly through me, the will of God.
Sid Roth: Okay. Tell me two supernatural benefits of praying in tongues.
Todd Smith: Well, one of those, Sid, is you get to pray the perfect will of God, as we've said already, every single time. Second of all, it builds up your body, your structure, your spirit. You become edified, the Bible says, when you pray in the Holy Ghost. You literally put on spiritual muscles. There may be a 100-pound, 93-year-old woman in the physical, and she seems to be weak. But in the Spirit, if she prays in tongues, she's a giant in the faith, and she can move mountains. One of the greatest examples that I have heard was with Bob Rogers, Sid, that I was on Prayer Mountain with him getting ready to address hundreds of pastors. He was introducing me, and he shared this story. And he said on one particular day, a few decades ago, there were seven plane crashes that killed 40 people. Now these were small aircrafts, small planes, two or three on board. And he said, on this day seven planes crashed, 40 people died. My wife was awakened at 2:30 in the morning, and she had no idea why she was being awakened by the Lord. And she said, "I'm going to get up and pray". Well, in her mind is limited, so she doesn't know what to pray. She prays all she knows in English, and then kicked into tongues. She began to pray in the Holy Ghost. And she didn't get a release, she just felt that gnawing in her spirit. And after 30 minutes, she finally found peace and went back to sleep after praying in the Spirit for 30 minutes. Well, that morning, Bob Rogers got into his plane that he was piloting, a small aircraft. Had three system failures, three system failures, and crashed his plane. His plane was the seventh plane that crashed on that day, but he was the sole survivor. He's the only one that walked away. And he told all of those pastors on prayer meeting, he says, "I'm here today because my wife got up in the middle of the night and pushed back the plan of the devil against me, who wanted to kill me. I'm alive because my wife prayed in tongues".
Sid Roth: I love the way you say every area of your life, your health, your job, your family, your relationship with people. How do you pray? So we'll take one, because I want you to pray for everyone to be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues. How do you pray for your family using the gift of tongues?
Todd Smith: You see, I don't know everything that's going on in my wife's life. I don't know what she's going to face at work. I don't know what's going to happen to her when she's driving down the road, nor my children, who may be bulled, or they may be someone texting and driving coming down the road. But the Spirit of God knows all things. So the Spirit will move upon us to pray for our people, but if I don't know how to pray, then bad things can happen to my family. So here's what I do. This is the suggestion that I ask that everybody does. One, take a picture of your family, put on your phone, and have it in front of you. The first thing in the morning, for instance, my wife, I will have her portrait in front of me, and I will pray for three minutes in tongues for her, nonstop. One hundred and eighty seconds praying in the Holy Ghost for her. The Spirit of God knows exactly what she's going to face that day, the evil, the calamity, the good things, the possibilities, the witness opportunities, the kingdom advances, and I will pray the perfect will of God for her. Then I will turn and I will pray for my son the same way for three minutes. Then I will pray for my next son, three minutes, in tongues, all right? Now imagine this, Sid, if that happened in every person, and then we also prayed for our pastors in tongues, three minutes a day.
Sid Roth: I think that that is such a simple, doable, wonderful suggestion. His book is filled with things he's experienced, and had such benefits from. But right now, I'm going to release you to pray for a supernatural baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues. Todd, pray.
Todd Smith: You know, Jesus literally wants you to speak in tongues, because He said, "The believing ones shall speak in tongues". So how does this happen? You have to believe that Jesus wants you to experience this, and He's going to give it to you right now. And I want you to flip the switch from your mind to your spirit, man, and release the sounds from your spirit. I'm going to pray for you, and then I'm going to give the command of faith. And at that very moment, you're going to no longer speak in your native language, no longer in your English language, but you're going to speak out of your spirit. Don't worry about what it sounds like. It may be a simple syllable. It may be just one word. But continue to release it. And God's going to give you more and more. Jesus Christ, I love You. I need You in my life. I want to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. I know it's a gift from You. By faith, I receive your fullness, and I will speak in new tongues. Baptize me with fire right now, in the Name of Jesus. When I count to three, right here. Right here, connect your tongue with your spirit. One, two, three. Right now. Release it. Begin to pray in the Holy Ghost. Don't worry about what it sounds like. From your spirit.