_______________________________________________

ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

Edification Doesn’t Spell Feelings

 

A lot of times, people look for feelings when they pray

in tongues. That’s why I pin people to a chair during

corporate prayer — to help them get beyond looking for

feelings.

“Do you ever feel anything when you pray in tongues,

Brother Roberson?” Oh, yes, don’t get me wrong. I

welcome the emotions when they come. Once in a while

something will build and build and build in my spirit

until it is finally delivered to my soul, and then my

emotions go,“Wow!” But I don’t judge whether I’m

receiving anything based on what I feel. I just keep

praying in tongues, believing the Word that says I am

edifying myself.

You see, tongues originate in your spirit by the power of

the Holy Spirit. Emotions are added when the tongues

pass through your soul. That’s why whether you shout

or whisper in tongues doesn’t make a lick of difference

to the outcome of your prayer if you’re the one who

added the emotions.

In my early days of praying in the Holy Ghost, I thought

that maybe I wasn’t praying effectively if I didn’t feel a

tingling in my fingers or rise to a certain state of

emotional “high.” Then I went through a period of time

when every time I prayed in tongues, an emotional war

would wage on the inside of me. I almost quit praying

because I thought Heaven had been closed against me. I

was judging whether or not I was getting through to

Heaven on the emotions I was or was not experiencing

in prayer.

Now I know that edification doesn’t spell feelings.

Praying in the Holy Ghost is a step deeper than our

emotions. Emotions belong to our soulish realm, but

power and edification belong to the spiritual realm.

The Holy Ghost even leaves our intellect out of praying

in tongues. That’s a big blow to our carnal pride! We

may pray three hours in the Holy Ghost without God

ever letting us in on what we were praying about!

For example, one time I had a vision of Old Mexico, and

I prayed and prayed in the Spirit,trying to find out

when that vision would come to pass. I badgered God

about it, asking Him why He wouldn’t show me more of

the coming revival I had seen in the vision. “Please

show me what meeting it was that I saw,” I prayed.

“Show me what I have to do.”

Finally, the Lord interrupted me one morning in prayer

and said, “If I tell you in English what I have planned

for you, you will just mess it up!” He was right, because

later when I found out what it would cost to fulfill what

He wanted me to do in Mexico, I needed a lot of extra

edification just to handle it!

So praying in tongues is deeper than your emotional

realm. It comes from your spirit — the foundation upon

which your life rests, the part of you that the Holy

Ghost was sent to nourish, teach, and edify.

That may not mean you’ll always enjoy wonderful

emotions. But edification is the necessary process by

which you are transformed to the Word you have heard

— the Word that sets the standard in your life.

_______________________________________________

The Role of Worship _______________________________________________

So edification doesn’t necessarily include my emotions.

If I want feelings, I worship,because that is designed to

bring the godly emotions I need for fortification to my

soulish realm.

You can’t do anything better in the midst of a trial than

to worship. Worship sustains you,stabilizing your

emotions to go through the trial victoriously.

However, you don’t want to just be sustained through a

problem; you want to go further in God and be set free

from it. That is the job of the Holy Ghost, and that is

where praying in tongues comes in, because all

permanent change comes from within.

That’s why James said you are to count it all joy when

you fall into temptations, testings,and trials. Rejoice in

the midst of your afflictions, your infirmities, your

perplexities. Just count it all joy. As you turn all of your

attention to God, releasing your emotions in

admiration and worship of your Father, that joy will

stabilize your soulish realm, which is the part of you

the devil likes to operate against.

_______________________________________________

UNTIL NEXT TIME

SERVANT LARRY