I'm so expectant for today, because I feel like the word I have for you guys today is one everyone in this room needs. In fact, I feel like this entire Valley needs it. I need it more than anything else, because I believe that if there's one message God has called us to share here at Spirit, here in Arizona, it's the message I'm going to talk about today.

I believe there are people in this room today experiencing some things, and your life feels incredibly dry. Maybe there are some areas in your marriage that feel dry. There are areas in your job that can feel dry. There are areas in your family that can feel dry. Some of you are overcoming an addiction, and you feel like sometimes it gets the better of you. Others of you are struggling with a thought pattern you felt like you got victory over, but for some reason it is just kicking your tail. And there are others of you here who feel like this wave of depression has come over you, and it follows you around, and you're saying, "Man, I just need the breath of God to come into this place."

And let me just say, I think I need this more than ever before. I need the power of God more than ever before. I need the power of God in my family. I need the power of God in my life. And let me just say this: you need it too. Every single one of us needs it. If we're going to do what God is calling us to do here in the Valley, we are going to need the power of God, because I know me, and I'm not good enough. And I know you, and you're not good enough. What we need more than anything is the Holy Spirit's presence.

What does ruach mean?

Sometimes we can come into a place and white-knuckle things: "I'm just trying to do this in my own power." But there's a scripture that talks about this. Zechariah 4:6 says this is the word of the Lord: "'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord Almighty." Not by might, and that's human might. Some of us are trying to do this thing by ourselves. He says, "No, it's not going to happen by might. It's not going to happen by power. It's going to happen by My Spirit."

And that's an interesting word. We talked about it last night. The word for spirit there is ruach. Say ruach. If it sounds like you've got some popcorn in your throat, you are saying it right. And the definition of that word, get this, is wind, breath, and spirit. For us it is three words, but in the Hebrew mind it is one word.

I want you to catch this. The air that exists in this room, the breath moving in your lungs, and the Spirit of God that is moving: the Bible uses the same word for all of them, ruach. And why is it one idea in the Hebrew mind? Because it means this: something invisible that makes us alive. The wind, we can't see it, but it makes us alive. Breath, we can't see it, but it makes us alive. We can't always see the Holy Spirit, but He makes us alive.

That doesn't mean the Holy Spirit is wind, and it doesn't mean the Holy Spirit is breath. Every time the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the Old Testament with that word ruach, there's a modifier attached to it. Ruach haqodesh, the Spirit of holiness. Ruach Yahweh, the Spirit of the Lord. Ruach Elohim, the Spirit of God.

We need His Spirit more than anything else. Let me just say, you need the ruach for your next breath. You need the ruach in your family. You need the ruach in your life. You need the Holy Spirit. And some of you are wondering why you feel dead, why your marriage feels dead, why your life feels dead, why things around you feel dead. Let me just say: you need breath. You need the Holy Spirit more than anything else. And it's going to happen not by might, not by power, but by His Spirit.

So I feel like the topic God has given me today is one of the most important topics I can share with you. I want to talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit. I want to answer some questions. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? Who is this for? How does that happen? And if I'm filled with the Spirit, does that mean I need to speak in tongues? Because I know some of you are freaked out about that. You're like, "Bro, is that what it means? I have to speak in tongues?" And why should I care about it? Let me just say, you should care about it because it is the enabling power we need to do everything God has called us to do. Is that okay? Can we talk about being filled with the Spirit today? Amazing.

Lord God, I want to thank You for who You are. Lord Jesus, we worship You. We praise You. Holy Spirit, we give You this room, and we pray that You would do what only You can do. In Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen and amen.

What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?

If you have your Bibles, go to Ephesians chapter 5. In Ephesians 5:15, Paul is talking about what it is to be filled with the Spirit. He says this in verse 15: "Be very careful, then, how you live." And that is good all by itself. Be careful how you live. "Not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled," there's our word, "be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Ephesians is this incredible book written by the apostle Paul. He is writing to people who do not understand the God of Israel. He is writing to Gentiles. Gentile means people who weren't born Jewish, so people like us. And he's trying to explain to them who the Holy Spirit is. He's trying to explain who God is, because they have no concept of who God is. So when he's trying to describe the Holy Spirit, he says this: when the Holy Spirit is in you, when you are filled with the Spirit, there should be evidence. There should be something different about you because you are filled with the Spirit.

Why does Paul compare being filled with the Spirit to wine?

So he's looking for a metaphor to describe what this is like, and the metaphor he uses is alcohol. And you're like, "Paul, what are you thinking? Why would you use alcohol when you're trying to talk about the Holy Spirit?" And then I got it. It's because the Ephesians are heathens, and they have no idea of this concept of God. So he's reaching for something they would understand. He's saying, "No, no, no. You need to understand this, because if you drink a bottle of alcohol, it doesn't matter how much willpower you have. It changes the way you think. It changes the way you act. It changes the way you speak."

So when he's looking for a metaphor to describe the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit who hovered over the waters of the deep in Genesis 1 when God created the heavens and the earth, the Holy Spirit who empowered Samson to kill a thousand Philistines with a jawbone, the Holy Spirit who transported Philip, he says this: just like alcohol, when you are filled with the Spirit, it should change the way you act. It should change the way you speak. It should change the way you walk. It is impossible to be filled with the Spirit and not be completely different.

So he says you need to be filled. Turn to your neighbor and say, "Be filled." Be filled with the Spirit. It's such a short phrase, but it's so important, and we have to understand what it means. I want to show you a couple of observations about that phrase, "be filled."

Here's the first thing: it is an imperative. You're like, "Brad, why are you taking me back to English class? I do not come to church because I want to go to English class." No, no, no. Hang with me. We'll dust off the cobwebs. I didn't like English either. An imperative is a command, not a suggestion. Being filled is a command, not a suggestion. The same way the Bible says, "You shall not commit adultery," the same way it says, "You shall not give false testimony," the same way it says, "You shall not covet," it creates this command: be filled. It's not based on personal preference. If we aren't filled, that's not a preference. It's disobedience.

Second observation: it is plural. It's second person plural. He's basically saying, "All y'all, be filled." Question: are you a y'all? You're a y'all. And if you're a y'all, he's saying you have to be filled. This is not a personality thing. This is not a denomination thing. This is not just for the people who lift up their hands in worship. No, he's saying all y'all, every single one of you, be filled with the Spirit of God.

The third observation is this: it is present continuous, which means it's saying keep on being filled. Being filled with the Spirit is not a one-time badge you get to wear. It is not something that happens once at a conference or a worship night. He says no, there is a continual filling of the Holy Spirit that needs to be present in your life.

And the fourth observation is this: it's passive. Okay, we're going back to English. An active verb is when you do the action. A passive verb is when you receive the action. There is nothing you can do to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes and He fills you. All we can do is position ourselves to be filled.

The Holy Spirit is received, not achieved

It's a passive verb, which leads me to my first point: the Holy Spirit is received, not achieved. People ask, "How do I fill myself?" You cannot fill yourself. You can only position yourself to be filled. In other words, you cannot strive for this, which eliminates pride. You can only position yourself.

Many of us, before we get saved, are like this bottle. Many of you will look at this bottle and say, "This bottle is empty." You agree? Okay, this bottle is not empty. This bottle is actually full. Like, what? It's full of air. And so often we don't realize that it's full, because it's carrying something it wasn't meant to carry. It's living below its potential. It's living below its calling, because it's carrying something it wasn't supposed to carry.

We are like this bottle before we come and meet God, because so many of us are actually full of something. Some of you might be filled with shame. Some of you might be filled with worry. Some of you might be filled with anxiety. And what Paul is saying is, we're filled with things, but I don't want you to just top up with the Holy Spirit. I want you to trade what is in here for the Spirit. It's not a top-up. It's a trade. He wants you to be filled with the Spirit. We need to get the stuff out of our lives so that we can be filled with the Spirit.

Indwelling, baptism, and filling: three words to understand

Whenever the Bible talks about being filled with the Spirit, there are three words I need you to understand so you can get this concept. Not three experiences. Three words. A lot of times people talk about three experiences. No, no, no. We're going to talk about three words.

1. The indwelling of the Spirit

The first word I need you to understand is the indwelling. Say "indwelling." The indwelling of the Spirit is this: when you get saved, the Holy Spirit comes into you at conversion. In other words, if you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit in you. Can I get a good amen? The Holy Spirit is in you.

I want to show you in Scripture. Go to John 20. Here's what's happening. On Thursday is the Last Supper. Jesus is about to go to the cross, and He tells His disciples, "I'm about to send the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is going to come and empower you." That night He is captured. On Friday He is crucified. He is in the tomb. On Sunday He rises from the dead. He appears to Mary Magdalene, who goes to the disciples and says, "I saw Jesus." And they're freaking out, so that night they go and hide.

That's where we pick it up. John 20:19 says this: "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders." So they're afraid, okay? They're like, "I don't know what's going on. People are saying Jesus has risen from the dead. I don't get this." "Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you!'" And the reason He said that is because they were freaking out. Imagine being in a room, and all of a sudden Jesus is like, "Hi." "After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, 'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.' And with that he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'"

Receive the Holy Spirit. Now, there's a lot of debate about this moment, but many people believe this was the moment the disciples became New Testament Christians, because in that moment they received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Some people say it's prophetic and it only happened 50 days later at Pentecost. But the Greek word in this moment is lambanō. It means to acquire, to take possession of, to accept. They received the Holy Spirit.

And when it says that He breathed on them, that is a very rare word. That is the word used in Genesis when God breathed into Adam. That is the word used in Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones we talked about last night, where the Spirit comes and breathes on a nation that is dead. And here is the same moment, where Jesus is breathing on the disciples. This is a picture of what God said was going to happen, because in Ezekiel 37:14 He says, "I will put my Spirit in you and you will live." In this moment the Holy Spirit is coming into the disciples. They are Christians. They are New Testament believers. This is what John said was going to happen all along: the Holy Spirit is going to come in you, but Jesus first has to be glorified. It was prophesied, and this is the moment it happened.

And it happens to every single one of us. Romans 10:9 says this: "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." When you say "Jesus is Lord," like they did in this moment, you will be saved, and what happens in that moment is you receive the Holy Spirit. So here we have this bottle, which is you, filled with all of our stuff. And what happens is we believe in Jesus, we accept Jesus, and the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us. Can you see that? The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So now you have the Holy Spirit in you. But just because the Holy Spirit is in you doesn't mean you are filled with the Spirit.

I want to show you a couple of scriptures about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The first is Romans 8:9: "The Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ." Verse 11: "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you." Y'all get the picture? Y'all see it? 1 Corinthians 6:19: "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you?" 2 Timothy 1:14: "Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." John 14:17: "The Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."

The Holy Spirit was with the disciples the same way He was with all the Old Testament prophets. But this is saying there's coming a point when the Holy Spirit won't just be with you. He will be in you. 1 John 3:24: "The one who keeps God's commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

I want you to understand, the Bible doesn't use the phrase "indwelling of the Spirit," but it will often say He dwells with us. He is in us. He lives in us. And there is never a question as to whether the Holy Spirit is in you. If you are saved, every theologian will say you have the indwelling of the Spirit. Galatians 3:2: "Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?" You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. So when we believe the message about Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit in a moment, and then the indwelling of the Spirit becomes an ongoing reality. But just because you have the indwelling of the Spirit doesn't mean you are filled with the Spirit.

2. The baptism in the Spirit

Which leads me to the second word I want you to understand: baptism in the Spirit. Now, this is the one people fight about. This is the one people like to argue about. The indwelling of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit coming in you. Baptism in the Spirit is the Holy Spirit coming upon you. You see it all throughout the Bible. It uses phrases like being clothed with the Spirit, or the Spirit of God falling upon people.

When does the baptism in the Holy Spirit happen?

There's no debate that it happens. There's just debate about when it happens. There are some people who say, "No, no, no. Baptism in the Holy Spirit happens at salvation. It happens at conversion," because you see that in Acts chapter 10. But sometimes it also happens after conversion, which you see in Acts 8:14–17 and with the disciples themselves, and according to the letters it happens at conversion. So which one is it? People come up to me and they're like, "Brad, does it happen at conversion, or does it happen after conversion? Which one is it?" And here's my answer: yes. Does it happen at conversion? Sure. Does it happen after? Sure. You have to have space in your theology, because in the Bible it happens both ways.

So often I see all these theologians, and what they're doing is fighting about when it happens. And I think about Jesus, who says we need to come to Him like a little child. Sometimes we come to Jesus as an intellectual. And there comes a point where I need to say, "Lord, I don't know. It happens both ways in the Bible, whether it's at or after. I want it. If it happened at salvation, thank You for baptizing me in the Spirit. If it happens later, please baptize me in the Spirit. I want it." Man, we're fighting about it, and I'm like, I just want what You have for me.

So, back to our story. Jesus says, "Receive the Holy Spirit," the indwelling of the Spirit. In a different Gospel, Luke 24:49, the same story says this: "I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed," there's that word, "with power from on high." That Greek word means to dress, or to put on. So they've received the Holy Spirit, but there's coming a point when they're going to be clothed with Him.

I'll show it to you in Acts 1. If you're still in John, you can flip the page. Acts 1:1 says this: "In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God." We're reading about those moments right here. Verse 4: "On one occasion," and it seems like it could be this occasion, "while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: 'Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'"

Isn't that beautiful? You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. The Greek word there is baptizō, and it means to be submerged, or to be made fully wet. So what He's saying is that when you receive the Holy Spirit, you now have the Holy Spirit in you. That's the indwelling of the Spirit. And then there comes a point when you get baptized, submerged, dipped into the Holy Spirit, where the Holy Spirit now surrounds you. He's part of every single part of you. You're baptized, clothed in the Spirit.

I think this is so incredibly powerful. People need to understand that you are baptized in the Spirit, not by the Spirit. He is the element. You see this all throughout the Gospels. It's mentioned four times in the Gospels, and anytime something's mentioned four times, we have to pay attention. In Matthew 3:11, John is talking, and he says this: "I baptize you with," or in, "water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I." Who is that? Jesus. "He will baptize you with," or in, "the Holy Spirit and fire." So John is saying, "I'm going to baptize you in water, but someone is coming who is greater than I am, and He will not baptize you in water. He will baptize you in the Spirit of God."

And I love that word, baptizō. The Holy Spirit is the element we get baptized in. That word was used around 200 BC by a Greek poet and doctor named Nicander, in a pickle recipe. Get this. He wrote a pickle recipe, and this is what he wrote: to make a pickle, first the vegetable must be dipped, baptō, into boiling water, and then it must be baptized, baptizō. Baptō is a short, temporary dipping. Baptizō is an immersion for so long that it produces a complete change in the vegetable. In other words, it's a cucumber, but it gets baptized and it becomes a pickle. When you are baptized in the Spirit, everything about you changes. The Holy Spirit comes upon you. He surrounds you. It's the same word used when you take a white cloth, put it into red dye, and pull it out. It got baptized into it.

3. The filling of the Spirit

So you get this indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and then you get baptized in the Spirit. And the final word is the filling of the Spirit. Here's what Acts 1:8 says: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Why do we need this power? Because we have an assignment God has called us to.

Acts 2:1 says this: "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly," say "suddenly," "a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting." "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." They're gathered in this place. The indwelling of the Spirit is in them, they are baptized in the Spirit, and then the Bible says they are filled with the Spirit.

Can you be filled with the Holy Spirit more than once?

I want you to notice this. Whenever you read the Bible, there is a pattern. How many times do we receive the indwelling of the Spirit? Once. How many times do we receive the baptism in the Spirit? Once. How many times are we filled with the Spirit? Multiple times.

I'll show it to you in Scripture. Acts 2:4: "All of them were filled." Acts 4:8: my man Peter is filled again with the Holy Spirit. Acts 4:31: that exact same group, "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." Then my man Paul, in Acts 9:17, is filled with the Spirit. And then again in 13:9: "Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit." And then he writes to the Ephesians, who have already been filled with the Spirit, and he says this in Ephesians 5:18, our key verse: "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled," continually filled, "with the Spirit."

Because here's the challenge: we can have the Holy Spirit in us, we can be baptized in the Holy Spirit, but there's still a lot of us in this bottle. We've allowed the Holy Spirit into some parts of our lives, but not all parts of our lives. We're like, "You know what, Holy Spirit? You can talk to me about my Bible reading. You just can't talk to me about that thing I watch. I kind of like that. You can talk to me about my prayer life, but do not talk to me about the way I talk to my wife. I like that." So we say, "You can come into some parts of me, but You can't come into all parts of me." We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we're baptized in the Spirit, but we haven't let Him into every single part of us.

When it says you are filled with the Spirit, I say, "Holy Spirit, come into every part of me. That thing I'm fighting by myself, can You come into that space? Can You fill that space? This arrogance I'm struggling with, can You fill that space? The doubt that exists in my mind, Holy Spirit, can You fill it? I'm done white-knuckling this thing." And we're filled with the Spirit.

The challenge is that we can be filled with the Spirit and have moments when we're filled with the Spirit. I don't know if you've ever had this, where you're trusting God, and then God doesn't do what you want Him to. Y'all know that's happened to y'all. And then someone's mean to you, and you want to be resentful, and the Bible says not to be resentful, and you're like, "But it just feels good. They should say sorry first. I ain't going to do that." "Yeah, Holy Spirit, You can have some parts of me. I just don't want You to have that part of me." Oh, we have the indwelling. We can be baptized in the Spirit. But we can grieve and reject the Holy Spirit. So he says, "Uh-uh. Be filled."

And the beautiful thing about being filled is this. Some of you are like, "This bottle is full." But the crazy thing is, as you grow with God, your capacity can grow. So you can get a bigger bottle, and you can become more full. And as you keep growing with God, you can get another bottle and become more full. This isn't weird. This isn't strange. We are supposed to be filled with the Spirit of God, which means every single part of us. Some of us have given Him 95 percent of our lives, but we haven't given Him that final 5 percent.

Here's my encouragement. As Paul says, be filled. Continually be filled with the Spirit. I don't just want the Holy Spirit in me. I don't just want to be baptized in the Spirit. I want to be full of Him: my every word, my every action. The same way that a bottle of alcohol changes everything, Holy Spirit, fill me. Change everything inside of me. The way I act, the way I talk, the way I pray, the way I read my Bible, the way I treat my wife, the way I am at work. Fill me. Fill me. Fill me.

We need the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We need the baptism in the Spirit. And then we need to be filled with the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 says, "Do not quench the Spirit." Ephesians 4:30 says, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." How? "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice."

What are we supposed to do? Romans says it: offer your body as a living sacrifice to the Lord. What does that mean? I'm offering every part of me to the Lord. Why? So that He can use me. 2 Timothy 2:21–22: "Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

I want you to see this. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit brings His presence. The baptism in the Spirit brings His power. But the filling of His Spirit brings direction and control. It's almost like you're driving a car. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit saying, "Can I get in?" "Yeah, You can get in." Baptism in the Spirit is the Holy Spirit surrounding the car. Being filled with the Spirit is Him saying, "Can I get in the driver's seat? Can I steer? That thing you've been fighting for, will you hand it to Me and see what I'm going to do with it? Will you trust Me? You trust Me in 90 percent of your areas. Will you trust Me with your finances? Will you trust Me in that relationship? Will you trust Me in that conversation?" We ought to have the Holy Spirit in us, be baptized in the Spirit, and then be filled with the Spirit.

Do you have to speak in tongues to be filled with the Spirit?

And the final question people have is, "Okay, okay, I get it. Does that mean I've got to speak in tongues? Because I'm really afraid about the tongues thing. The tongues thing kind of freaks me out." Here's what I need you to know, for everyone who's afraid of that: a prayer language is a benefit to receive, not a bar to reach. I'll say it again. A prayer language is a benefit to receive, not a bar to reach.

You see it in the Bible. There are times they are filled with the Spirit and they speak in tongues. But there are also times they are filled with the Spirit and they don't speak in tongues. If someone has told you that the evidence of the Holy Spirit baptizing you is speaking in tongues, let me just say this: that is not in the Bible. You do not have to speak in tongues to be baptized in the Spirit.

And I know there are some of you who have come from places where you felt like a second-class Christian because you haven't spoken in tongues. It was like the first-class Christians go over there, and everyone else goes over there. If that has happened to you, if someone said, "Man, you're not leaving until you do this," you may never hear it from them, so hear it from me: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And please don't let an experience like that keep you from everything God has for you. Speaking in tongues does not make me better than you. It makes me better than me. It makes me better. I need it more than anything.

What's the difference between the gift of tongues and a prayer language?

And for those of you who feel like people haven't been taught about this: yes, there's a gift of tongues. We talked about that. It's the gift of tongues, which needs interpretation. My daughter Sunday comes up to me and says, "Ba ba ba ba." And my wife says, "She wants a bottle." And I'm like, "How do you know that?" And she's like, "She wants a bottle." So I get her water, and Sunday's like, "No." And I give her milk, and she's like, "Yeah." See, Sunday speaks in tongues, and my wife has the interpretation of tongues. Kidding. I'm kidding. Don't laugh at that. I'm kidding.

There is a difference between the gift of tongues and the grace of tongues. The gift of tongues is something spoken to people from God, and it needs to be interpreted. The grace of tongues is a prayer language you speak to God, and it is for your edification. A couple of things I want to show you about this, and then we'll pray.

1. It's biblical

For those of you who have never been taught: speaking in tongues is biblical, despite what people say. 1 Corinthians 14:2 says this: "For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God." Everyone who says, "No, no, speaking in tongues was just speaking a different language. It was a foreign language," I want you to read that again. Those who speak in a tongue do not speak to people; they speak to God. "Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit." It is a mystery.

1 Corinthians 14:14, again, this is Paul speaking: "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do?" What is the conclusion? "I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding."

And if you find yourself getting a little resistance, I haven't said anything yet. I've just read the Bible. These aren't my words. They're Paul's. They're the Holy Spirit through Paul. And if there's resistance, there could be an experience you're basing your theology on instead of the Word of God. I love you enough to say that.

"I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding." What does that look like for me? Most of the time when I'm praying, 50 percent is words I understand and 50 percent is words I do not understand. I pray naturally with my mind, with my understanding, and then I don't know what to pray, and then I pray in the Spirit. Then God gives me something, and I pray with my mind, and then I run out, and then I pray with the Spirit. That is my prayer language. That's how I pray.

Verse 16: "Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say 'Amen' to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified." And people are like, "Yeah, but you think Paul spoke in tongues? He's just talking." No, no, no. Verse 18: "I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you." And people are like, "I don't care. I just think you're not supposed to do that. That shouldn't happen in church." Great. Verse 39: "Do not forbid speaking in tongues." This is the Bible. And there are churches that forbid it. I need you to understand that it's biblical.

2. It's a benefit

The second thing I need you to understand is that it is a benefit. 1 Corinthians 14:4: "Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church." When you read the Bible in your own personal time, it edifies you. When you read the Bible in a congregation, it edifies the church. This is for your edification, for your building up. Jude 20: "But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit." And my question is this: why would you not want to be built up?

3. It's a choice

The final thing I'll say about tongues is this: it is a choice. In 1 Corinthians 14:14 he says, "If I pray in a tongue." Do you know what that means? It means he can choose. "If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will." Again, that is him making a decision. He says, "I will." In other words, it is a choice. You're not going to walk into Fry's one day and have the Holy Spirit take over your body, grab the intercom, and start speaking to everyone in tongues. It's not going to happen that way. For everyone who's afraid that's how it works, it's not going to happen that way. It is a choice. If it wasn't a choice, why would he give instructions on how to govern it? And like I said, if it's biblical, why wouldn't you?

I remember when I was a young teenager. I've told you guys that I was homeschooled. I was super quiet and weird. People are like, "You're still weird." Praise God. I was super quiet. I could never speak in front of a small group. It was so bad. And I remember coming to a youth event, and we were all praying and saying, "Holy Spirit, can You fill me? Can You fill me?" And I was like, "Lord, I want to receive my prayer language."

I don't know about y'all, but I'm really cerebral. If anything is not going to happen for someone, it's not going to happen for me. That's just who I am. And I remember being at this youth conference, and everyone was speaking in tongues. It was awesome. And then everyone left, and I was the only guy in the room. I just couldn't. I was like, "Lord, I prayed for the gift and I received the gift." And then you have to release the gift by faith. I had it here, but I couldn't get it past my mind.

Many of you have had that experience, saying, "Holy Spirit, give me my prayer language. Fill me with Your Spirit." And you have it. You just won't speak. Why? Because it sounds like gibberish. Again, your mind is unfruitful. You do not understand it. It is an act of faith. And I had a youth pastor who stayed with me, and he was like, "I ain't leaving until you're ready." And I tell you what, there came a point when I was able to overcome my mind, and I was able to speak. Y'all, I was ecstatic. The next day I woke up, had my quiet time, and literally wrote my tongue in my journal, because I was worried I was going to forget it. It doesn't work that way, but that's how young I was.

And let me just say, there is a remarkable difference between Brad before that moment and Brad after that moment. Why? It edified me. Don't you want that? Here's what I encourage you to do. We won't make it weird. In your prayer time this week, in your Bible reading time, when you're driving in the car listening to music, crank it up and just say, "Lord, may I receive the gift?" And speak.

If you want to know more about that, we're starting Freedom Groups. It's not the entire curriculum, but there's a part of that curriculum where we go deeper into explaining tongues. There are some groups already live that you can join, and there are more coming. But let me just say this: why wouldn't you want it?

Be filled with the Spirit

I promised you I would spend a little time talking about it, and I didn't want to end this series without it. What are we to be? We ought to have the Holy Spirit in us. Have the Holy Spirit around us. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. And for some of us, that's the next step you can take. Can I pray for you?

Lord God, I want to thank You for every single person who is here. Holy Spirit, I thank You that You are in this room. And I pray that for every single one of us, You will fill us. The parts of our lives we haven't given over to You, Holy Spirit, may You fill them. We give them over to You. We give our lives over to You.

There are people here today, and maybe you haven't given your life to Jesus. You've wanted to, or you've heard about it, but there's been some resistance. I'm here to say today's your day. Today's your moment. If you're here and you haven't said yes to Jesus, you haven't given your life over to Him, the gospel is simple. Every single one of us has made mistakes. But God sent His Son Jesus, who came to this earth and died on a cross for your sins. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, but Jesus took that death. And all you have to do, the Bible says, is declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved.

So as you're praying, I just want you to pray this after me: "Dear Jesus, I believe that You're the Son of God and the Savior of the world. I believe You came to this earth, You died on a cross, and You were raised so that I can have life. I make You my Lord. I make You my Savior. In Jesus' name."