ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

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The Edification Process

Are you beginning to grasp just how wide and deep and

high this subject of tongues really is? Well, there is

much more territory to explore! Let me take you

further now into the edification process that occurs as

you allow the Holy Spirit to pray through you.

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What Does It Mean To Edify Your Spirit?

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First Corinthians 14:4 tells us what happens when we

pray in tongues for any amount of time:

He that speaketh in an unknown tongue EDIFIETH

HIMSELF; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.

The word “edification” is derived from the word

“edifice,” which means a massive, magnificent building.

So when you pray in tongues, you are actually erecting

a superstructure, a divine operation, on the inside of

your spirit to house the anointing of God and to qualify

you for your divine calling.

Most of the time when ministers preach on the subject

of tongues, they emphasize the fact that when you pray

in tongues, you charge up your spirit the way you would

charge up a battery in the natural. They tell you that

your spirit is actually receiving a spiritual charge, a

tangible force or anointing something like electricity.

Then later when you lay hands on someone, that

tangible force goes “pow!” and the power of God goes

into that person to heal, deliver, and set free.

Well, that’s true as far as it goes. However, before that

tangible anointing is manifested through a person, he

must go through the edification process that causes it to

manifest. No to many Christians seem to know anything

about that process. Often they think that they receives

some kind of “magical” charge from praying in tongues

that will immediately begin to operate through them.

I used to believe like that. I thought God would anoint

me just as I was. Little did I know that He wasn’t at all

intending to leave me in my carnal state! That isn’t

what edification is all about.

I remember what a surprise it was to me when the Lord

started to use me after I had spent several months

praying in my prayer closet. The second meeting I ever

held, the Holy Spirit prompted me to call a woman out

of the audience. I was scared; this was all new to me. I

told the woman, “Ma’am, you have something wrong

with your body, and God wants to heal you.”

Then I laid my hands on both sides of her face, closed

my eyes, and began to pray my hardest prayer. But in

the middle of my prayer, this lady left! Talk about

humiliating! I was too embarrassed to open my eyes.

Here I was, standing in front of a crowd of people, and

the woman I was praying for had just left!

When I had exhausted everything I could think of to

pray and finally got brave enough too pen my eyes, I

looked around to see where the woman had gone — and

there she was lying on the floor! I thought, Oh, Lord,

look at that! That must be what it means to receive a

charge from praying in the Holy Ghost!I didn’t know

what to do. But when the woman got back on her feet,

she was healed!

For a long time, that was all I thought being edified in

the Holy Ghost meant God was charging up my spirit,

pouring a powerful anointing into me to use when

ministering to others. But as I kept praying in tongues, I

began to realize that there was much, much more to

this edification process than anyone had ever told me.

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The Devil Can’t Understand the Mysteries

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Some people wonder what effect we are having on the

devil and his plans when we pray in tongues for

edification. One thing we are not doing is ordering the

devil around. He doesn’t even understand what we are

saying.

The Word says that when a man prays in an unknown

tongue, he isn’t talking to men; he is speaking with God

(1 Cor. 14:2). If I don’t understand what I am praying,

why would it be the devil’s business to know? Why

would God allow him to have the upper hand on me? If

the devil understands the mysteries and I don’t, then he

has an edge on me.

That’s why I can’t accept the idea that the devil can

understand us when we pray in tongues. When we

begin to pray in tongues for personal edification, we

enter into a holy “closet,” and our born-again,

recreated,seated-in-heavenly-places-with-Christ-Jesus

spirit is locked in a divine communication with God

Himself. It is a personal communication, a holy

communion, and the devil cannot enter there.

If I were to call the President of the United States and

he personally answered the telephone, you would find

me passed out on the floor from shock! The President is

much too busy of a man to talk to me.

On the other hand, my Heavenly Father is continually

administrating over the life of every believer both in

Heaven and on earth. Yet when I speak with tongues, I

immediately enter into divine communication with God

Himself. He picks up the “red telephone” on the other

end and says, “I know that’s you, Roberson, and I know

what you want. And because the Holy Ghost in His

wisdom is praying this prayer in your stead, I want you

to know that the answer is on its way — and there is

nothing the devil can do about it!”

That’s why the devil hates praying in tongues — because

he has absolutely no idea what we’re saying to God, and

it makes him nervous!

Why doesn’t he understand? Well, look back at the

temple built under the Old Covenant.Within the temple

was the outer court, where the people sacrificed to God;

the inner court,where the priest offered sacrifices to

God on behalf of the people; and finally, the Holy of

Holies, where God’s Presence dwelt. Only the high

priest was allowed in the Holy of Holies once a year to

present the blood sacrifice for the Israelite people.

If the devil had ever had the audacity to try to break

through that veil and penetrate the Holy of Holies, he

never would have made it. It was completely out of his

jurisdiction; he had no access there. The temple is a

shadow or type of the believer. As a believer, my body

is the temple of God because the Holy Spirit has come

and made His abode on the inside of me. My flesh is the

outer court; my soul the inner court. But my born-

again, recreated spirit is a type of the Holy of Holies —

and nobody, but nobody except my High Priest is

allowed inside there.

So when I pray in tongues, Satan has no idea what God

is saying to me. Why? Because the Holy Spirit creates

that supernatural language within my Holy of Holies,

and it is outside of all satanic jurisdiction.

I know a man whose sister was in a car accident. She

was transported to the hospital, her life hanging by a

thread. This man was a faith man. As he headed for the

hospital as fast as he could drive, he confessed over and

over, “My sister will live and not die;

she will live and not die!”But every time this man

would make his confession, “She’ll live and not die,”

something would shatter his emotions so badly that it

just shook him up from the top of his head to the

bottom of his feet. Then the thought would hit, She’ll

die!This happened again and again as the man sped

toward the hospital. It was really shaking him up.

Then suddenly through the gift of the discerning of

spirits, God opened this man’s spiritual eyes. (The

discerning of spirits allows you to see into the realm of

the spirit, whether angels or demons.)

When God opened this man’s eyes, he saw two demons

— one sitting on his left shoulder,the other on his right.

Every time the man would make his confession, “She’ll

live and not die,”one demon would scream through his

ear to the other demon, “She’ll die! She’ll die!”

Then the Lord spoke to the man in his spirit: “Make

your confession, and then begin to praying tongues.” So

the man made his confession one more time and began

to pray in tongues. After a while, one of the demons

looked around the back of the man’s head at the other

demon and said, “ What do you think he’s saying?”

The other devil said, “I don’t know, but is it burning you

the way it’s burning me?”“Yes,” the other demon

answered. “Do you think we should leave?” So they left.

And you may as well know, the man’s sister lived and

did not die!

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UNTIL NEXT TIME

LARRY