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The Baptism of the Holy Spirit with Evidence of Speaking In Tongues

7 Mins read

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit with Evidence of Speaking In Tongues

Part II – “How Essential Is It?”

 

Ephesians 6th Chapter

 

            11Put
on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of
the devil.  12For 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.

            13Wherefore
take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the
evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14Stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of
righteousness;  15And
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  16Above all, taking the
shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked.

            17And
take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God: 18Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all
saints;

 

            I’m sure
that all of you have heard at least one sermon preached from this text.  If not, then I’m sure that we all have heard
one reference made to “the whole armour of God.”  From this text, Paul gives us six elements for spiritual
battle.  Five of these elements are
defensive and one is offensive.  Let’s
look at the five defensive elements and what they protect.

 

(1) Truth – To protect our loins

The Greek word for loins here is “osphus” which means
internal procreative power.  In simpler
terms, this is the power that makes more power.  The only thing our procreative power knows how to do is to
reproduce what has been produced. 
Therefore, we need to guard this power with the truth so that it can
produce more truth.  If that internal
reproductive power is surrounded and encompassed with lies, then it will
produce more lies.  In short, if we are
in the midst of a trial, we don’t want our loins (our reproductive power)
surrounded by lies because those lies wind up being multiplied, which
definitely will not help our situation.

 

(2) Righteousness – To protect our hearts

Being that the breast plate covers our hearts, often
translated “spirits,” we are told to protect the essence of our beings with
righteousness.  In our text,
righteousness is defined as that which is just.  The amplified bible translates righteousness as follows: “of
integrity and of moral rectitude and right standing with God.”  In short, if we surround our beings only
with righteousness, then that righteousness will protect us by only allowing us
to do that which is right in the sight of God.

 

(3) The Gospel – To cover and place on our feet

The amplified version of the 15th verse tells us that having
our feet covered with the Gospel equips us with promptness and readiness to
face the enemy with the firm-footed stability. 
I’d like to see this as, “footwork.”  
In boxing, “footwork” is vital. 
I’ve seen knockdowns occur simply because a fighter slipped.  However, if his feet were in the proper
position, the knockdown would not have occurred.  Also, the boxer, just like the spiritual fighter, needs
promptness and readiness regarding the positioning of his feet.  No opponent will give a detailed list of
what combinations, jabs, and punches will be thrown for the next round, just
like satan won’t tell us what he’s going to do next.  But if we have our feet “preconditioned” with the gospel, then
our feet will be trained to stand firm if necessary or be quick and mobile if
needed.

 

(4) Faith – To quench the fiery darts of the wicked

It’s sad to say, but there are some folk who don’t want you
to see your manifestation.  In the 16th
verse of our text, we are told to some degree that we will have to deal with
people (the wicked) who attempt to get between us and our blessings.  This reminds me of Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46)
who was sitting on the road side.  When
he heard that Jesus was coming, he cried to Jesus, but the people in the crowd
told him to be quiet. 

            After this
the bible states, “But he cried the more a great deal” (48th).   The 49th verse then tells us, “And Jesus
stood still, and commanded him to be called and THEY CALLED THE BLIND MAN,
saying unto him, Be of comfort, rise; he calleth thee.”  

            Wait a
minute — “they called the blind man.” 
Who were the they?  The same
people that told him to be quiet.  The
same people who didn’t mind him being blind. 
But Bartimaeus put out their fiery darts by keeping his faith, and in
the end he received what he was believing for.

 

(5) Salvation – Helmet to protect our thoughts

            Two of the
best tactics the enemy has are (1) making us forget who we are or (2) never
allowing us to find out who we are.  If
he can hide the promises of God from a person, then that person will more than
likely not get those promises.  If he
can get the believer to forget who he/she is in Christ, then all he has to do
is step back and watch that person negate God’s promises for him/herself and
this starts through bad thoughts. 
Therefore, we should guard our thoughts with the helmet of salvation
because those thoughts can eventually guide us by becoming our beliefs.  (If you did not read last week’s message on
Bad Beliefs [Part I], please do so.)

 

After all of this, I’m sure that you can clearly see how
important these elements of spiritual battle are.  Without a shadow of doubt, every Christian needs each element of
battle listed.  However, no battle or
war can be won by defense alone.  There
has got to be an offensive launched to place the enemy on his backside.  The end of the 17th verse lists the only
offensive weapon in this text — The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God.  So how do we use this weapon?  Paul gives us two methods yet they both
reside under one principle. 

 

18Praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and
supplication for all saints;

 

The principle is to pray as the 18th verse starts, “Praying
always.”  Our best weapon is to
pray.  Praying on your knees, praying in
the car, praying before dinner, praying in church….  Just Pray according to these two methods :

 

(1) With Understanding

After telling us to pray always, the 18th verse
tells us to pray “with all prayer.” 
This includes prayer with your natural tongue and understanding.  The prayers that we know to pray can be
powerful and effective against the plots, plans, and principalities of
hell.  Our prayers can move mountains
and make the impossible, possible.

 

Matthew 17:20And
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. 21Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by
prayer and fasting.

 

However, the problem that we may often face is knowing WHAT
TO PRAY!  We all can learn, HOW to
pray.  The “how” to pray can include BUT
IS NOT LIMITED TO: (1) Starting off our prayers, “Father… In the name of
Jesus, By The Holy Ghost” (2) including the scriptures in our prayers.  After this, what’s next?  If you know what your mother, father,
sister, brother, friend, neighbor is going through, then it’s possible you know
the what?  But let’s say the Lord wakes
you up at 4:00 a.m. (He’s been know to do this) and places me and Veronica on
your heart.  We haven’t talked to you
and we haven’t been in contact with you for months or years.  WHAT do you pray?  Again, you know how to pray, but you might not know WHAT to pray?

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.

 

Romans 8:26 confirms that we really don’t know what
to pray as we ought to.  In that case,
we need some assistance.  So let’s go
back to Ephesians 6:18.

 

18aPraying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit…

 

We are told to pray with all prayer.  Again, this does mean the prayers that we
understand and can speak, yet there is a word that we should not overlook.  The word “ALL.”  Now, I’m not an English major, but to me ALL means ALL.   If we can pray with our understanding,
that’s included.  And if we can pray
without understanding the words we are speaking(i.e. in the Holy Spirit) that’s
included as well.  This is confirmed by
the remainder of the 18th verse which states that we should pray
with “supplication in the Spirit.”

 

(2) Without Understanding

 

The word supplication means to make your humble and earnest
request, and we are asked to do this in the Spirit (That’s capital “S” for Holy
Spirit.)  So we see right in the midst
of the elements of spiritual battle, we are told to pray in the Holy
Spirit.  Why in the Holy Spirit?  Because, as Romans 8:26 told us, we don’t
really know WHAT to pray as we should. 
This is why the Holy Spirit is available to help us pray what we need to
pray.

 

Romans 8:26a
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities:

 

As the Body of Christ, we have the to power to stay “one up”
on the enemy.  We have the weapons to
wage an offensive attack on hell rather than praying a prayer to fix something
that’s already been destroyed or attacked. 
I urge you not to stay bound by tradition which makes “the word of God
of none effect” (Mark 7:13). 
Unfortunately, many saints stay bound while standing on the seven words
of a dying church, “We have always done it like this.”

 

So in closing, if you don’t need Truth, Righteousness, The
Gospel, Faith, and Salvation, then you don’t need the Baptism of the Holy
Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues. 
But each of us knows that we need each element of battle to elevate
above the enemy at every level — even the first.  The best armour can fail if it has no offensive weapon to relieve
it, so it is essential that you have an offensive weapon to win your spiritual
battles.  If your armour has been
pounded, dented, banged up, and dinged up, maybe it’s time to give it relief by
becoming the attacker and not the attacked.

 

Next
week Lord willing — “What Is Speaking In Tongues?”

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