10 Reasons for Speaking in Tongues
Most Christians—charismatics included—don’t understand the true benefits of speaking in tongues, nor why this gift is so valuable. Here are 10 reasons to prove why we need this wonderful gift. 1. The manifestation that came with the gift of the Holy Spirit was speaking in tongues. It wasn’t the wind, fire, noise or feeling of God’s presence that was evidence of the gift being received but a spirit language—believers began speaking languages of the Spirit they didn’t understand. It was God’s plan for the gift to function as a spirit language for His children (Acts 2:4, 11; 1 Cor. 14:2). 2. Jesus commanded us to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus commissioned the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Father, He didn’t say, “Do this if you feel led to do so, or if it fits in your doctrinal or denominational beliefs, or if you have the time, or if you are so inclined, or if you feel comfortable about it.” No! Jesus commanded them to wait until they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Since Jesus put such importance on their receiving this gift, that’s more than enough reason for every Christian to seek God until they receive it too (Acts 1:4; 5:32; John 14:16-17; Eph. 5:18). 3. The Scriptures exhort us to be filled with the Spirit and to pray in the new tongues of our spirit language. Our spirit language enables us to live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, be led of the Spirit, have the fruit of the Spirit, manifest the gifts of the Spirit and go from glory to glory until we are transformed into His same image (Gal. 5:22-25; Rom. 8:14; 1 Cor. 12:7-11; 14:15; Eph. 5:18; Acts 19:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). 4. A spirit language is the greatest gift the Holy Spirit can give a believer. Jesus is the greatest gift God could give for the redemption of the world, and the Holy Spirit is the greatest gift Jesus could give to His church. Of all the resources in heaven and the eternal universe, nothing is more valuable, beneficial or important for the Holy Spirit to give the individual child of God than her own spirit language (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:4). 5. Our spirit language enables us to have spirit-to-Spirit communication with God. Humans are spirit beings clothed with flesh-and-bone bodies. While man’s sin deadened the spirit, Jesus brings the spirit back to life by imparting His everlasting life into us. The Holy Spirit gives us a spirit language so we can communicate directly with God (John 4:24; 1 Cor. 15:45; Gen. 2:7; Rom. 5:12; John 3:3-5, 16). 6. Praying in tongues builds and increases our faith. Faith is the medium of exchange for all heavenly things, just as money is the medium of exchange for all earthly things. A major way to increase our faith is to pray in the tongues of our spirit language (Rom. 12:6; Jude 1:20; Mark 9:23; Matt. 9:29). 7. Praying in tongues activates the fruit of the Spirit. It’s vital and beneficial to have each of the spiritual attributes become active and mature in us. Praying in tongues helps us fulfill God’s predestined purpose for us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Gal. 5:22-23; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Cor. 13:1-13; Rom. 8:29). 8. Praying in our spirit language is the main way we fulfill the scriptural admonition to “pray without ceasing.” Christians can pray in tongues at any time. If we are in a place where it isn’t convenient or wise to speak out loud in tongues, we can pray with our inner man without making an audible sound (Eph. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17; Matt. 26:41; Luke 18:1; 21:36; 1 Cor. 14:15). 9. The Holy Spirit directs our spirit language to pray in accordance with the will of God.Probably the only time we can be assured that we are praying 100 percent in the will of God is when we are praying in our spirit language. God always answers requests that are made in alignment with His will (Rom. 8:27; 1 John 5:14-15). 10. Praying in tongues quiets the mind. When Dr. Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist, compared brain scans of Christians praying in tongues with Buddhist monks chanting and Catholic nuns praying, the study showed the frontal lobes—the brain’s control center—went quiet in the brains of Christians talking in tongues, proving that speaking in tongues isn’t a function of the natural brain but an operation of the spirit (1 Cor. 14:2, 14). ![]() The man who played Jesus in Mel Gibson's film The Passion of The Christ is no newcomer to the world of film production. Jim Caviezel is a respectable actor with a respectable career. The Count of Monte Cristo, The Thin Red Line, Pay It Forward, and Angel Eyes are just a few of his films. But his role of Jesus may have jeopardized his respectability. Many moviegoers have been stirred by The Passion of The Christ. But only a select few know what it took to make a film of such great significance. Obviously, Jim Caviezel was one of them. And it wore on him to the point where he was angry and yelling at God. Caviezel went to great depths to help 700 Club producer Scott Ross understand what it meant to play the crucified Savior. This is Part II of that interview. (Read Part I) JIM CAVIEZEL: I got into Julliard and then I got this movie with Kevin Costner, it was about '93 or '94. SCOTT ROSS: What was the movie? JIM CAVIEZEL: Wyatt Earp. A small role, and I played the brother. And then I got a deferment from Julliard, which led me to a role where Mel Gibson saw me, which was The Thin Red Line. At one point [during the filming of 'The Passion'] I remember yelling out, "You obviously don't care! Here we are breaking our backs for you." At that point this cross is swaying from one direction to the next, and I'm on a thousand foot cliff. If that thing snaps, I'm toast. And Mel didn't know what to do. We're in the middle of a shot and all of a sudden the wind started. It's like going to the Grand Canyon and sticking a cross at the edge of it. It's all cemented in and you think you're safe, but the winds blow, it's teetering back and forth, and hypothermia is horrendous. I'm itching all over the place. I have this shoulder separation. I don't know if you've ever gone through one of those. But I thought, "Well, we got it." But the next day we watch the film, and it looked great, but Mel said, "We can't use it." And I said, "What do you mean we can't use it?" You know, literally, yelling at him. He said, "If they're focused on that cross, they're not focused on Jesus, they're looking at that thing going back and forth. Forget it, we're doing it again." And that went for another five weeks, just the crucifixion scenes alone. SCOTT ROSS: Good grief. JIM CAVIEZEL: Just for the crucifixion scenes. SCOTT ROSS: In one part of the movie Isaiah the prophet is speaking. He said that Jesus was disfigured and he was beaten and bruised so much that he was hardly recognizable as a person. JIM CAVIEZEL: We didn't even go there. We didn't even go to the full ... What we read, you're reading right there. And we wanted people to get a visceral reaction of he's human, you can still see him. Because there is something about how it can be so repulsive and so much that you kind of shut off, and we didn't want that. We wanted to take it to the point and keep people there. SCOTT ROSS: It's been rumored, I don't know if this is true or not, but as you were filming you were hit with lightning? That's true? JIM CAVIEZEL: I was lit up like a Christmas tree! I was doing the Sermon on the Mount. I knew it was going to hit me about four seconds before it happened. I thought, "I'm going to get hit." And when it happened, I saw the extras grab the ground. What they saw was fire coming out the right and left side of my head. Illumination around the whole body. And during the shot they said, "Do you have it on camera?" What happened was Mel had said, "Action" and the cameras were panning to me and here is where this light just flashed. And by the time the cameras got to me, I hear Mel screaming out, "What the heck happened to his hair?" I looked like I went to see Don King's hair stylist. JIM CAVIEZEL: Five minutes after I got hit, Jon Mikalini, an assistant, walks over and says are you okay? And then he got hit. The difference was that they saw the bolt come down and hit Jon; they didn't see that when I was standing there. All I felt was this giant tremendous slap on my ears and a few seconds of a pink, red static infront of my eyes. SCOTT ROSS: You had a literal miracle on the set. What do you attribute it to? You could have died. JIM CAVIEZEL: Yeah. Or I could have been incinerated. Jon, who came up to me, had already been hit. I mean three lightning strikes on one film, one guy getting hit twice, and me obviously getting hit one time. And there were a lot of miracles other than that kind of a miracle. SCOTT ROSS: On the set? JIM CAVIEZEL: Well, one of the guys working on the film was a Muslim. He was one of the guards who beat me, and he converted. He had a real big experience there, you know. But what was going on is that we had so many prayers worldwide while we were going through it, I really believe this is important because when things started happening they were praying for us. All the actors that worked on this film, some aren't going to accept it, but the opportunity will always be there for them. Here's the other thing, it will stay with them the rest of their lives. People will always come up to them, people will always ask them about the movie they were in, it will always be with them. SCOTT ROSS: What do you think it's going to do to your career? And if it did blow it out of the water? JIM CAVIEZEL: Right. This is what I feel. I believe I was called to play this role. When I look out to all my fellow Americans and people in the world, I say to them I want you to do this in the public and shamelessly express your faith in public. That's what I've done here, and I can rest as it is. I don't know where it's going, but if it doesn't turn out where I'm continually working, I'm still an actor. I'll always be one, whether I get another job or not. I fulfilled my mission right now. I felt what I was right now. That was my opportunity, and I would have done it again. ![]() During the peak of his wrestling career, Sting experienced a serious burnout. He was out on tour 340 nights in a given year and suffered intense loneliness and depression. Along with that came serious injuries and drug and alcohol addiction. In 1998, Sting found God and made a decision to become a born-again Christian. Finding God helped him stop his drug addiction cold turkey. He said, “Some people believe in a 12-step program, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I did a one-step program to Jesus Christ, and I stopped cold turkey.” He even left wrestling to serve God and live a holy life, resisting calls from Vince McMahon to make him an even bigger star... for a while at least...
Step through the Last Days' Timeline The timeline details section provides a step-by-step walk through of the events of the last days. These descriptions span the time from the establishment of the church through God’s gifts of the perfect and indescribably beautiful new creations (heaven and earth). The descriptions are grouped into seven separate phases suggested by the book of Revelation:
Ray Pritchard
If the meaning of baptism could be boiled down to one word, that word would be identification. Baptism speaks primarily of a personal, public identification with Jesus Christ. In Romans 6:3-4 the Apostle Paul puts the matter this way: Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Notice the strength of the expressions—"baptized into Christ" and "baptized into his death" and "buried with him in baptism." Someone may suggest that the primary reference here is to Spirit baptism. That's true, but at the very least, water baptism is in the background of this passage. How important is your baptism? It is your personal identification with the greatest act of human history—the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism doesn't save you—salvation comes by faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). Your guilt before God is removed the moment you trust in Christ. But baptism is your personal testimony to, and the inward assurance of, your passage from the old life to the new life.... What, then, does baptism mean? 1. It means we have turned from the old life of sin to a new life in Jesus Christ. 2. It means we are publicly identifying with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. 3. It means we are openly joining the ranks of those who believe in Christ. When you are baptized, you are in fact visually preaching the gospel. As you stand in the water waiting to be baptized, A, you symbolize Jesus dying on the cross. As you are lowered into the water, B, you symbolize Jesus buried in the tomb. As you are raised from the water, C, you symbolize Jesus rising from the dead. And since you personally are being baptized, you are also saying, "I died with Jesus Christ, I was buried with him and now I am raised with Christ to brand-new life." In short, in your baptism you are preaching a sermon without using any words at all. And your sermon in your baptism will be more effective with your friends than any sermon the pastor preaches on Sunday morning—more effective because it comes directly from you. The Greek word translated “baptize” is the verb baptizo. According to most contemporary lexicons, the primary meaning is “to dip, plunge, immerse.” The secondary meaning is to “bring under the influence.” Dr. Merrill Tenney notes that “after making allowances for certain occasional exceptions, such as passages where washing is implied, the etymological meaning indicates that baptism was originally by immersion. (Basic Christian Doctrine, p. 257) A brief survey of baptism in the New Testament reveals the following interesting facts: Baptism requires water. (Matthew 3:11) Baptism required plenty of water. (John 3:30) Baptism requires going down into the water. (Acts 8:30) Baptism requires coming up out of the water. (Matthew 3:16, Acts 8:39) Furthermore, the figures of speech used by the Apostle Paul accord well with immersion. Baptism is called a “burial” in Romans 6:4 and Colossians 2:12. Baptism is “into his death” and involves being “raised to walk in newness of life.” It is difficult to see how sprinkling or pouring could convey these meanings. Finally, the testimony of church history is that immersion was indeed the mode of baptism practiced in the early church. ![]() John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ![]() Matthew 8:11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, ![]() Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” ![]() Revelation 21:21-25 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. ![]() Revelation 7:17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” ![]() Luke 20:36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. ![]() Luke 23:43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” |
Do Not Let Anyone Look Down On You Because You Are Young 1 Timothy 4:12
Awesome Jesus Wallpaper
Jesus is coming again for you Who is Jesus? (Audio) Jesus second coming wallpaper 7 Awesome verses about Heaven What Does Baptism Mean? Revelation Step By Step The Rapture! Enemies At Peace Miracles on the Set: Behind the Scenes of 'The Passion' with Jim Caviezel Christian Alphabets 10 Ways to Love By Christian 10 Reasons for Speaking In Tongues The Gospel Wallpaper Archives
October 2019
Martin SCome Lets go to heaven..Jesus is the way, truth and Life. |