I would like to give you an example from my life which
I believe will help you. This is a case where the revelation that I received from the Lord
came through a different manifestation of the Spirit, and one that many folks
in the Church don’t walk in or even understand. One time recently when I recounted this story in a sermon as an illustration I had some folks looking at me like I had three heads or
something because it was so far out of their understanding. Let us as we always do look
at the Word of God to lay the foundation:
“Therefore let him who
speaks in a tongue pray that he may
interpret. For if I pray in a
tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.” 1 Corinthians 14: 13 & 14 NKJV (Emphasis
Mine)
There are two applications that can be made from these two
verses. They are similar but yet different. They both deal with Tongues, but
one deals with the Public Gift of Tongues which must be interpreted to be in
order Biblically, the other deals with your Prayer Language, which doesn’t need
to be interpreted, but it is to your benefit if it is.
Let us consider the first one regarding the Public Gift of
Tongues. Notice the Apostle Paul said if you speak in a Tongue, pray that you
may interpret. That is because the Public Gift MUST ALWAYS be interpreted. We
know this because later in this chapter Paul gives this direction:
“If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most
three, each in turn, and let
one interpret. But if there is no
interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself
and to God.” 1 Corinthians 14: 27
& 28 NKJV (Emphasis Mine)
There are many things I could bring out of this passage but
we are not teaching on Tongues here, so I will limit my observations and
explanations to the matter at hand. Paul is basically saying that if you speak
in Tongues but there is no one to Interpret the Public Message, don’t speak out
the Public Message. A MIKE RULE…not a Bible Rule is: “If you can’t give the
interpretation, don’t give the message!”
Let us now go back to 1 Corinthians 14: 13 & 14 to make
our application regarding your Prayer Language. Paul says that when you pray in
Tongues, your spirit prays but your understanding or mind is unfruitful or does
not understand. However, before he says that he says if you speak in a Tongue
pray that you may Interpret. Why should your mind or understanding be
unfruitful or not understand when you pray in Tongues? Ask God to give you the
Interpretation of what you prayed in your Prayer Language (Tongues).
One time somebody asked Oral Roberts what the secret to his
success in the ministry was. How many think Oral Roberts had some success in
the ministry? Are you ready for his secret to success? He said: “I pray in
other Tongues to God, then I ask Him for the Interpretation to what I prayed,
then I pray out the Interpretation in English what I prayed in Tongues, then I
go and do the Interpretation.”
So how does this relate to us? We can pray in our Prayer
Language, which is always praying God’s will, then pray back the Interpretation
of what we prayed in Tongues and we have just prayed back to ourselves the Will
of God regarding our life or the situation we were paying in our Prayer
Language over. We now have God’s direction.
Now to how this worked in my life and how I got direction
and almost missed God by not understanding timing: Right after I graduated from
Rhema in 1987, I locked myself in our spare bedroom of our two bedroom
apartment in Tulsa, OK intent on getting alone with God and getting direction
for my life now that I had graduated. I was prepared to be in there for days if
need be. I told my wife to not come in and get me but to just leave me be.
I began to pray in my Prayer Language, which is how I do
most of my private praying. After a while I hit a vein. I am not sure you know
what I mean by hit a vein, but that is a place in the Spirit where all of a
sudden it is like you have tapped into a stream or a river and just take off
and go with it. As I hit this vein I just went with it and prayed in the Spirit
for quite a while with great ease. After about an hour, I began to pray back in
English what I had been praying in the Spirit.
There were two major themes to my prayer that afternoon. One
is not relevant to this illustration, but was extremely important for what was
transpiring in the Church in 1987. If you remember, 1987 was when we had the Jim
Baker (PTL) and Jimmy Swaggart scandals, not our brightest hour. Part of the
interpretation that I prayed out first that afternoon was for the restoration
of both of those men of God; then came the interpretation that was for me
second.
You see when I graduated I did not know what I was going to
do or where I was going to go. I didn’t know what the will of God was for my
life. Should I stay in OK? Should I move back to NJ? Did God want me to go
somewhere else? All I knew was I had completed my last instruction which was to
finish Rhema and graduate. Now what? So as I prayed out the second theme of
that vein I hit in English I began to pray my future. I was praying about
moving back to NJ from OK to work in the ministry with my parents.
Now I knew the plan of God for my life. What I didn’t know
was the timing of God. This is where we can really get messed up. I tried two
or three times to move back to NJ and make it happen in my own ability and in
my own strength because I knew that God wanted me to come back to NJ and work
with my parents. But I every time I tried it was like I hit a brick wall and
nothing fell into place or came together at all.
It took five years for that direction that I received in
prayer to become a reality. And when it was time to come back everything fell
into place quite quickly and easily. Within a matter of a couple of months we
were back in NJ. I look back in retrospect now and realize that there were
things that I needed as part of my Ministry Training that I had not yet
received. There were many things that I received from my Mom and Dad growing
up. There was a tremendous impartation that was received at Rhema, even though
I am only now realizing the impact of the Prophetic Mantle that was imparted
through Dad Hagin, as I started as an Evangelist and did not really use it.
During the five years between graduating from Rhema and
moving back to NJ I worked with Billy Joe Daugherty at Victory Christian Center.
This is where the other impartations that I needed came from. I wore many hats
and worked in many areas of the ministry including being one of the head ushers
in the church which allowed me to work hand in hand with some of God’s Generals
up close and personal. I also had tremendous impartations from Billy Joe who
was without a doubt one of the meekest, gentlest men I have ever had the privilege
to know. I needed an impartation of his spirit to soften my bull in a china shop
ways.
So you see that day when I prayed and got the direction, the
direction I received was correct, but my understanding of God’s timing wasn’t.
I thought because I had graduated from Rhema my training was complete, but God knew
otherwise! He knew where to send me to get what I needed to complete my
training in OK before I could move back to NJ.
No comments:
Post a Comment