_______________________________________________

ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

_______________________________________________

How To Effectively Pray in Tongues

_______________________________________________

There seems to be a need in the Church for some down-

to-earth, practical teaching on the “how-to” of praying

in tongues. So let me give you some basic guidelines to

help you effectively “build yourself up on your most

holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.

_______________________________________________

It Isn’t How Loud Or How Soft You Pray

______________________________________________________________

People come to me all the time and ask, “How do you

pray in tongues, Brother Roberson?”

I just simply answer, “I pray like this,” and then I

demonstrate, praying quietly under my breath.“

But don’t you pray out loud?”

“No, not usually,” I reply. “God isn’t hard of hearing.”

(Of course, if I do pray louder, He isn’t nervous either!)

Then someone asked me, “Well, what about warring

tongues?”

I asked, “How do you do that?” The person

demonstrated, almost screaming in tongues.

“Why do you yell like that when you’re talking to God?”

I asked.

“Well, I thought I was talking to the devil.”

“No, no, First Corinthians 14:2 says you’re talking to

God. Now, you can pray that loud if you want to. But I’ll

tell you what, it won’t be long before your tonsils will

be playing Bach’s Fifth Cantata! You’re going to blow

those tonsils out!”

So there is the group that says, “You aren’t getting

anywhere with God praying in tongues unless you pray

in a warring tongue.” They scream and shout in

tongues, thinking they’re addressing the devil.

But the issue isn’t whether you shout or whisper when

you pray in tongues. You aren’t producing any more for

the Kingdom of God by yelling in tongues than you are

by praying in tongues under your breath, because it’s

the Holy Spirit who supplies the language. You didn’t

create it; He created it. And if the Holy Spirit is the

Originator of the language, it is always full of power.

(The same is true with worship: It isn’t how loud or how

quiet you worship; it’s how much of your entire being

you pour into every statement of adoration. You can’t

truly worship the Lord while your mind is wandering

off down the street analyzing some problem.)

When I first began traveling in the ministry, I used to

walk back and forth in my motel room, praying in the

Holy Ghost. I was still very ignorant about prayer, so I

would pray in tongues just as loud as I could. I thought

that increased volume made my praying more

powerful. I hadn’t learned yet that God isn’t deaf and

that He can hear my prayer anywhere and in any tone

of voice.

Later I came to realize that the moment the Holy

Spirit’s supernatural language comes out of my mouth,

it is released to God. It doesn’t make any difference if I

am whispering or shouting; the words that come out of

my spirit in tongues still mean the same because I’m

talking to God.

______________________________________________________________

Is Fervency in Prayer a Requirement?

_______________________________________________

You may ask, “What if I don’t pray real fervently when I

pray in the Holy Ghost? After all,doesn’t James 5:16 say,

…The effectual FERVENT prayer of a righteous man

availeth much?

Yes, it does say that, but James is talking about the

prayer of faith in that verse. The prayer of faith occurs

when you line up your sights on some “mountain” in

your life and say,“Mountain, move!” That kind of

fervent prayer avails much when you have enough

strength in your character to stand your ground against

hell or any other opposition until that mountain moves.

But if you don’t have enough strength of character yet

to do that, praying in the Holy Ghost will help bring you

to a place where you can hold your ground until you

receive your answer.

So whether or not you’re praying fervently in tongues

doesn’t really matter. It just depends on what God is

doing in your spirit.

For example, sometimes the Holy Spirit gets quite

forceful in my spirit as I pray in tongues,and I feel like

I’m fighting something. But when that forceful unction

lifts, I let it lift. I trust the Holy Ghost to lead me; He

knows what I’m praying about. But I don’t stop praying.

I just go back to praying quietly under my breath.

______________________________________________

Pray to a State of Peace

_____________________________________________________________

At the church I pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, we meet

together regularly to pray as a corporate body. At these

prayer meetings, I often have everyone sit down and

“glue” themselves to the chair. They are to do nothing

but sit there and pray in tongues.

Over the years, some people have had a hard time

doing that because their flesh was still“on the go.” They

couldn’t even sit and pray in the Holy Ghost for two

hours without moving. It was obvious that they weren’t

well acquainted with themselves or with the Holy

Ghost.

Sometimes in prayer I enter into such a state of peace

that I just lie on the floor for two or three hours.

Everything is so quiet, I don’t even want to move. At

those times, the Holy Spirit begins to teach me things

from His Word, and the truths He reveals seem so

crystal clear.What a wonderful place in the Spirit that

is!

But most Christians don’t know anything about the

place of utter peace that can be reached through

praying in tongues. They have never stayed still long

enough in prayer to get acquainted with it.

“Do you have something against walking while you pray

in tongues, Brother Roberson?” No, I have nothing

against walking and praying. But there comes a time for

learning discipline in prayer and for getting acquainted

with the Holy Ghost. These can often best be

accomplished by keeping your body as still as possible

while your spirit prays out the mysteries of Christ in

tongues.

______________________________________________

UNTIL NEXT TIME

SERVANT LARRY

_______________________________________________

Read Full Post »

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

The Missing Ingredient: Supernatural Peace

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

I didn’t understand how all of this worked until several

years ago when I fasted and prayed during an extended

seeking time. I was looking for the change in my life

that would make the difference. I wanted something I

could put my hands on. I was waiting for the angels to

appear or the heavens to open.

Those things didn’t happen, but when I came out of the

seeking time, I was left with something I never had

before. I entered into a degree of peace I never knew

existed. God put me on the Rock to stay!

You may ask, “Didn’t you always walk in peace?” If you

had asked me that before the fast,I would have

answered, “Oh, yes!” because I didn’t have anything to

compare it with. But this new peace was different. It

was unshakable!

This peace felt so good and so strange at the same time.

When things seemed to go wrong,I found out that I

could enjoy waiting with patience for God’s plan to

materialize! I could take my responsibility in a

situation without taking the care or burden of it.

So through prayer and fasting, God had caused me to

enter into a peace that was a tangible force keeping me

in a position to receive His power. He spoke to my spirit

about this peace,saying, “This is what you’ve been

looking for. It is the missing ingredient.”

You see, conditions on this earth aren’t going to get

better. Jesus told us in Matthew 24what the last days

would be like: wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes,

sorrows, persecutions, false prophets, and the love of

many waxing cold. The storms of life are getting more

violent. As time goes on, they will rage more and more

severely.

Fasting and prayer empty us of our fleshly nature and

allow God to fill us with His character. As the flesh loses

ground, the peace of God can begin to rule in our lives

(Col. 3:15). We climb from one level of peace to another.

Our faith becomes greater and greater.

All of this is waiting for you and me. We are capable of

so much more than merely over-coming the crises of

life. Each of us is meant to be a force on this earth for

God — and prayer combined with fasting are the power

twins that help us attain that goal!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

For in the quietness of My Spirit, My voice is known,and

My ways, My principles, and My precepts are shown. So

fly away with Me, saith the Spirit of Grace, for I and no

man will exalt you and give you your rightful place in

Myself. For peace will be the fruit, saith the Spirit of

Grace,the peaceable fruit,when you give me that

rightful place. (word given thru Dave Roberson)

UNTIL NEXT TIME

SERVANT LARRY

Read Full Post »

____________________________________________________________________________________________

ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

____________________________________________________________________________________________

WAYS TO FAST

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

We just looked at a forty-day fast that Jesus went on to

prepare to confront the devil’s temptations. But there

are several ways to fast. The one I have found to be the

most practical and effective for the person carrying on

in today’s busy society is the common three-day

fast.This can be done in one of two ways.

If you can’t get away somewhere and just pray because

of your schedule, I recommend that you go on a juice

fast using mild juices such as grape or apple juice.

During that time, pray as much as you can. But if you

can get away, I suggest you go on a total consecrated

fast of just water (filtered or distilled, available at most

supermarkets).

If you aren’t familiar with fasting and want to go on

more than a three-day fast, I recommend a series of

shorter periods of fasting. For example, you could fast

three days a week for three weeks straight. For that

time period, stick to fresh vegetables, fruits, and salads,

staying away from heavy meats and breads. Then when

your time of fasting is over, you can go back to those

foods if you desire.

Eventually you may want to go on a more extended fast,

especially if you are dealing with some kind of

stronghold in your flesh realm (mind, emotions, or

body) that you want to shutdown or mortify for good.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

The Fast God Chooses

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

To understand the kind of fast God chooses, let’s take

this subject one step further and go to Isaiah 58. Is not

this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of

wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the

oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou HIDE NOT THYSELF FROM THINE OWN FLESH?—

Isaiah 58:6,7

That last phrase of this passage of Scripture was the

part I got stuck on. I thought, Lord,what do You mean

when You say the fast You have chosen is that I hide not

myself from my own flesh? I wondered if God was

talking about the same thing Jesus spoke of in

Matthew6:17,18:

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and

wash thy face;

That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy

Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in

secret, shall reward thee openly.

Or was God making the same point in Isaiah 58:7 as

Paul made in First Corinthians 7:5 when he addressed

husbands and wives?

Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent

for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and

prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you

not for your incontinence.

Jesus taught about a fast in which we are to wash our

faces and go about our daily business, not appearing

unto men that we are fasting. Then Paul taught about a

fast in which we could lock ourselves away on the

“mountain,” so to speak, giving ourselves completely to

fasting and prayer. Both types of fast are taught in the

Bible.

But I still wondered what the Lord meant when He said

I am not to hide myself from my own flesh. It took me

about three years of study and meditation to

understand what He was talking about.

The day you decide to fast is the day you decide to quit

hiding from your own flesh — from whatever it is in

you that just doesn’t care about the lost, the poor, the

naked, or those who are cast out of God’s house. It’s the

day you decide to quit hiding from whatever ceiling is

in your life stopping you from operating in God’s

power. The day you decide to fast is the day you decide

to quit running from yourself.

Jesus said, “That demon didn’t come out because of

your unbelief.” He also said, “That kind only comes out

by prayer and fasting.” And what does fasting have to

do with your unbelief? It executes the position of the

flesh that God has declared: It has no right to dominate

you. It has no right to rule over you.

When you live a lifestyle of fasting and prayer, there is

no operation of the flesh that the devil can lay hold of

to destroy your life with. This is what Jesus meant when

He said, “The prince of this world comes, and he has

nothing in me” (John 14:30).

Why is that? Because fasting and praying in the Holy

Ghost destroys those fleshly works and releases God’s

power in you. And the moment the operation of the

flesh drops below the level of the operation of the

Spirit, you receive a new anointing in your life and

ministry.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Prepare for Satan’s Tactics

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

As we pray and fast, hiding not from our flesh, we set

captives free. Let’s look at Isaiah 58:6again:

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the

bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to

let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

Often the first captive that needs to be set free is

ourselves. As the flesh is dealt a deathblow through

fasting, we rise in freedom to walk more fully in the

Spirit. Once we grow to a place of greater spiritual

maturity, we begin to set others free.

Remember, it is at this point that we will draw the

devil’s attention. He doesn’t want anyone to be free,

and we have become a major threat to his kingdom of

darkness!

You may ask, “Aren’t you inviting trouble?” No, I’m not

inviting trouble; I’m anticipating the strategies of

Satan. The Bible tells us that when the Word is planted

in any way, shape, or form, the devil comes to steal it so

that it will not produce fruit (Luke 8:11-15).

If we aren’t spiritually aware of the devil’s tactics, we

will have a rude awakening. We will be caught

unprepared, and the devil will have a better

opportunity to steal from us or from those we love.

We aren’t in Heaven yet. We are living on a planet that

has had war declared on it. The devil was thrown out of

Heaven, and now he is active here on the earth. He

cannot cause trouble in Heaven, so he does his best to

cause trouble here.

As long as the devil is active here on earth, the storms

will continue to beat down upon our homes. But just as

surely as Jesus revealed that the storms would come,

He also guaranteed that if our house is built on the rock

of hearing and doing His sayings, the devil can do noth-

ing to tear that house down (Matt. 7:24-27). The enemy

isn’t powerful enough. He doesn’t have the equipment

to force our house off the Rock of Jesus Christ.

The more that we get a revelation of the entire plan of

God, the more victory we are going to have here on

earth. The more quickly we come to a place of

esteeming the glories of Heaven as a greater prize than

the temporary shortsighted goals of this earthly

existence, the more power we will have operating in

our lives for the victories in the battles here on this

earth.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

until next time

servant Larry

Read Full Post »

____________________________________________________________________________________________

ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

____________________________________________________________________________________________

THE 40 DAY FAST OF JESUS

We can learn much about the purpose of fasting by

looking at the forty-day fast Jesus went on when He

faced Satan in the wilderness and defeated him.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness

to be tempted of the devil.

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he

was afterward an hungered.

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be

the Son of God, command that these stones be made

bread.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not

live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth

out of the mouth of God.

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and

setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast

thyself down: for it is written,He shall give His angels

charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall

bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against

a stone.

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not

tempt the Lord thy God.

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high

mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the

world, and the glory of them;

And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if

thou wilt fall down and worship me.Then saith Jesus

unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou

shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou

serve.

Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came

and ministered unto him.— Matthew 4:1-11

 

As I read this passage of Scripture, I wondered, What

was the reason for Jesus’ forty day fast, and why did

Satan challenge Him at the end of it?

When discussing this with others, the answer I often

heard went something like this: “The fasting reduced

Jesus to the weakest state of vulnerability. In that

weakened state, Jesus showed the supremacy of His

power over the devil by not giving in to temptation.”

But, in reality, the opposite is true. Jesus fasted forty

days in preparation for facing the devil. Why? Because

He knew that fasting shuts the flesh down and

strengthens us, not weakens us, against the devil.

Why was Jesus led by the Spirit into the wilderness to

be tempted by the devil? Because He as our Substitute

was being tempted in our place. Then after He

overcame the devil, He could turn around and give us

the perfect standing that He had obtained from

defeating Satan in the temptations of the flesh. That’s

why Jesus could later say in Luke 10:19:

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and

scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and

NOTHING shall by any means hurt you.

So then fasting has the same effect on our flesh as it

had on Jesus’ flesh: It braces us against the temptations

of the devil and helps us mortify or shut down the flesh

by enforcing the perfect standing Jesus has already

given us.

In order to understand how perfect and powerful this

standing is that Jesus has given us over the flesh, we

must learn what Jesus had to withstand to obtain it. You

see, nothing can be declared perfect unless it cannot be

improved upon. This means that the standing Jesus has

given to us over the flesh and the devil could only be

declared perfect if it had withstood Satan’s most

diabolical testings and schemes.

Jesus had to be subjected to the worst that Satan had —

the worst torments, fears, pressures, and cares, the

worst temptations of lust and riches. This was the

entire reason Jesus was led into the wilderness. He was

on a mission from God as our Substitute to obtain for us

as part of our redemption a perfect standing over the

flesh.

Now we can enter into God’s Presence, armed with the

standing of grace He has given us— not because of what

we have done but because of what Jesus has done.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched

with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points

tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore

come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may

obtain mercy,and find grace to help in time of need.—

Hebrews 4:15,16

There before the throne of God, we can find mercy to

help in our times of need — our temptations, testings,

and trials.

In order for Jesus to deliver this kind of standing to us,

He had to face Satan on three levels: spirit, soul, and

body. This confrontation had to be carried out not in

Jesus’ deity, but in His humanity. That’s why Jesus said,

“Man (referring to His humanity) shall not live by

bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the

mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).

The pressures, the torments, the loneliness, and the

fear that Satan attempted to put on Jesus are

indescribable. They can only be described as similar to

the horrors one may see in the lower level of an insane

asylum where people reside whose spirits have been

completely taken over by demons. The demonic

opposition Jesus faced was the type that spawns such

deranged drives for power and wealth as Adolph Hitler

and the Nazis possessed, where one culture tries to

completely annihilate another in the quest for

dominance or world power.

You see, Jesus had to face the worst Satan had. He

couldn’t just win a victory over some low-level,

expendable, second-rate demon that simply afflicts or

torments. He couldn’t even deal with just a ruler of the

darkness or a principality. Jesus had to face Satan

himself! And in doing so, Jesus defeated Satan on all

three levels: spirit, soul, and body!

Number one, Jesus defeated Satan on the level of the

body. Satan challenged Him to meet the needs of His

physical body — but on Satan’s terms:

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be

the Son of God, command that these stones be made

bread.— Matthew 4:3

Satan attempted to pressure Jesus with the worst

torment of the physical body: the threat that the basic

necessities to sustain life will not be met. The attempt

failed.

Number two, Jesus defeated Satan on the level of the

soul when Satan tried to tempt Him to commit suicide.

Satan took Jesus up to a high pinnacle of the temple in

the Holy City and began to pressure Him in the

emotional realm of the soul to commit suicide by

jumping off the pinnacle:

And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast

thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels

charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall

bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against

a stone.— Matthew 4:6

Jesus knew that God had given the angels charge

concerning Him, but He wasn’t about to tempt God by

jumping off the temple just because the devil told him

to.

You see, suicide is the last step into a state of

hopelessness after a long battle with torments and

fears. In that hopeless state, the person says to life,

“You have no real answers.” In that sense, it is the worst

torment of the soul, and Jesus defeated Satan in that

very arena.

Satan may try to badger us in the soulish realm of our

emotions, but today we have access to a perfect

standing against soulish torment. That standing was

given to us by Jesus, the Prince of Peace, and will

sustain us no matter what Satan tries to do.

Number three, Jesus defeated Satan on the level of the

spirit when Satan tried to tempt Jesus to worship him.

It’s interesting to note that when Satan tested Jesus in

the physical realm, he used food,and when he tested

Him in the emotional realm of the soul, he used suicide.

But when Satan tested Jesus in the realm of the human

spirit, he used power and money by offering Him the

glory of the kingdoms of the world.

This shows us that Satan has a strategy to conquer a

man’s spirituality.

The devil knows that men will switch

their allegiance more quickly from

worshiping God to worshiping him

because of power and riches than any

other thing he has to offer.

Satan offered to make Jesus the

wealthiest, most powerful Man in the

world. All Jesus had to do was turn

Himself over spiritually to Satan and

worship him.

But, thank God, Jesus withstood Satan. Then he turned

around and gave us the standing He had attained

through His victory on all three levels. Somehow

fasting had helped prepare Jesus for that time of

temptation so that He could, as our Substitute, give us

His standing. Now when we fast, we execute Jesus’

standing over the flesh as we yield to God and

withstand the devil.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

UNTIL NEXT TIME, AND PLEASE PRAY FOR ME, AND PLEASE PRAY FOR MY DAUGHTER LEAH WHOSE HUSBAND PAST AWAY TODAY.

SERVANT LARRY

 

 

Read Full Post »