The Power of Praying in the Spirit: Part Two
Key Takeaways
- The first century church placed a massive emphasis on the Holy Spirit as the source of supernatural power, boldness, and transformation, setting a biblical standard that remains essential for believers today.
- Speaking in tongues and operating in spiritual gifts are not weird or spooky doctrines, but rather biblical practices meant to be embraced and pursued in a genuine relationship with God.
- Cultural Christianity and unanointed religion offer only dead rituals and guilt, whereas a true Spirit-filled life brings God's dynamic power to break through personal challenges and swampy stuckness.
- Scriptural examples from the book of Acts—such as the accounts in Samaria and Ephesus—demonstrate that receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a distinct and vital experience following salvation and water baptism.
- Yielding to the Holy Spirit and removing self-imposed boundaries in prayer allows believers to pray in the perfect will of God, uncover mysteries, and experience miraculous breakthroughs.
In this episode of the CityLight Church Podcast, Pastor Bo continues his teaching on the baptism of the Holy Spirit by exploring why the early Church placed such a strong emphasis on living a Spirit-filled life. Looking through the book of Acts, he explains that the Holy Spirit is not an optional part of the Christian experience but the source of supernatural power, boldness, and transformation for every believer. Pastor Bo also addresses common misconceptions that have caused many Christians to keep the Holy Spirit at arm's length, encouraging listeners to pursue a genuine relationship with Him rather than settling for powerless religion. Whether you're seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit or longing to experience more of God's presence, this message offers a biblical invitation to embrace the life Jesus intended.
00:00 Introduction: Power When the Holy Spirit Comes
00:44 Welcome and Opening the Heart to God's Anointing
02:38 Taking the Spook Out of Speaking in Tongues
03:38 Don't Be Anti-Christ: Embracing the Anointing
06:27 Why Church Needs the Supernatural
08:14 Expecting God's Surprises and Suddenlies
21:58 The Day of Pentecost: 120 Filled in the Upper Room
23:18 Cultural Christianity vs Spirit-Filled Life
25:40 Removing Self-Imposed Boundaries in Prayer
26:51 Don't Let Flakes Keep You From the Holy Spirit
28:47 Breaking Free From Swampy Stuckness
30:24 Acts 8: Peter and John Sent to Samaria
32:50 Releasing Bitterness and Chemical Addiction
34:24 Acts 19: Did You Receive the Holy Spirit?
37:27 Speaking in Tongues: Uncovering Mysteries
39:51 Worship and Yielding to the Holy Spirit
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the significance of the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
The baptism of the Holy Spirit provides believers with supernatural power, boldness, and anointing to live out the Christian life and experience God's miraculous presence.
Is speaking in tongues biblical and relevant for today?
Yes, speaking in tongues is a biblical practice taught by the Apostle Paul and demonstrated throughout the book of Acts, serving as a supernatural tool for prayer and spiritual edification today.
What is the difference between cultural Christianity and a Spirit-filled life?
Cultural Christianity relies on tradition, rules, and dead religion, whereas a Spirit-filled life is empowered by the manifest presence and dynamic power of the Holy Spirit.
How can believers overcome self-imposed boundaries in prayer?
Believers can overcome self-imposed boundaries by inviting the Holy Spirit into their prayer time, letting go of fear or skepticism, and opening their hearts to experience God's supernatural surprises.
The first century church put a great emphasis on the Holy Spirit, starting with Jesus and his last words when he said, but you shall receive power, power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will have dunamis power. You'll be like me. You'll have the supernatural. You'll have the anointing. And you'll be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that He has for us. If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com. Pastor Boyan Jancic and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you. And welcome to everybody joining us online. And thank you, worship team. Thank you, Jesus. So wonderful to see you. Lord, may you give her a bolder sneeze, Lord. She's so bold in real life. But my daughter sneezes louder than that. It was so... It was so cute. It's a... She said, I was afraid. Like Adam and Eve, I was afraid, so I hid myself. I was afraid, so I sneezed myself. If you were here last week. By the way, you know, my mother used to do that in the second row with candy. And I'm preaching. This was like when there's nine people in the service, you know. So you hear everything. But you'd have to have a cough drop. So it would take her like ten minutes to open it. And it was like, ruffle, ruffle. I'm like, then again, it echoes all when you got nine. Roger. And I'm like, later, Mom, why? She's like, well, I was afraid. I didn't want to disturb the service. I'm like, just rip it open. That's so much less disturbing than the 10-minute unraveling. Just tear it off. So if you're watching, Mom, Pepperidge Farm remembers. If you were here last Sunday, I was talking about speaking in tongues. Speaking in other languages. Supernaturally speaking as the Holy Spirit empowers you. It's biblical. It's for today. It's very, very important. And to way too many Christians, it's weird and it's spooky. And it shouldn't be weird and spooky because it's biblical. It's biblical. Yet, people are put off on it, probably influenced by the media, and probably just challenged because when you lack information on something, it's so much easier to just write it off as weird and spooky. But I'll say something I didn't say in the first service. I'll put it in a more offensive way. Don't be anti-Christ. What do you think Antichrist is? Some guy who will come one day? Be real charismatic and charming? Maybe. And there is a final Antichrist coming, but even in the first century, Paul wrote, there is a spirit of Antichrist working among you. Christ, Christos, is anointing. Antichrist is anti-anointing. Satan has always been anti-anointing. The anointing is the manifest presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus ministered by the anointing. Christ is not his last name. He's Jesus, the anointed one. Everything he ever did was by the anointing. So of course Satan is anti-anointing. And when you're anti-Holy Spirit, anti-gifts of the Spirit, anti-tongues, you're operating under the spirit of anti-Christ. So don't be anti-Christ. Someone asks you, what did you learn in church today? I learned how not to be an anti-Christ. Maybe I didn't learn, but at least I was admonished and challenged lovingly to not go the way of anti-Christ. The things of the Holy Spirit must be embraced. They must not just be embraced, they must be pursued. The Holy Spirit is not some weirdo third party of the Godhead. He actually is the Spirit of Jesus. He's the Spirit of God. The Spirit of Christ. Paul refers to the Holy Spirit also as the Spirit of Christ. So they're the same. And Jesus in John chapters 14, 15, and 16. He was teaching his disciples. He said, I'm going away. But I won't leave you orphans. I will come back to you. I, first person, I will come back to you. Aren't you going back to the Father? Yeah, but I will come back to you in the person of the Holy Spirit. And he kept talking about the Holy Spirit. Because yes, the person of Jesus went back up into heaven. But he's still here in the person of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Christ. Who the great emphasis was placed on. The first century church put such an emphasis on him. That it really leaves us without an excuse today. How can any church exist without... Placing just as much emphasis in proportion to what the first century church did. How can we? How can we relegate him somewhere to the back row? We can't. Or at least we can't and have a truly biblical church. A functioning church. It's impossible. A church without the Holy Spirit is really not a church. You say, what is it? I don't know. It's something. A social club. A building with people. A church. But you have to have the Holy Spirit. There has to be the supernatural in a church. Otherwise, why come? You know, moving to Long Island, I've been blessed. I've really lived, I have to confess, I've lived inside a bubble most of my life. Did you ever think about that with pastors? I didn't until it kind of happened to me. Like in college, when I went to secular university, I had lots of unsafe friends. And then after secular university, I went to Bible college. And that was kind of the end of that. I had a secular job for one year. And then I got ordained. And then most of the people you run into are Christians. And then you begin to pastor. And now you don't really have time to hobnob and meet other people. And most of the people in your life are believers. So you can really, really lose touch with... And what I've discovered now, like having more unbelieving friends, is that they don't go to church because they don't know it should be a supernatural place. I wouldn't either. In fact, that's why I didn't. I didn't go to church but five times, forced by parents. Until I was 16 years old and I was invited into a church that gave place to the supernatural. And I had a supernatural life altering encounter with God. Everything was different after that. This place would be flooded if people knew you can actually experience the miraculous here. You can get something from heaven. That will change your life. Hallelujah. So please get your expector up. Otherwise why do anything? Why come? We have to expect the surprises and suddenlies of God. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the constant surprises and suddenlies of God. All the time. All the time. He shows me I'm with you. At least every week, definitely at least one good problem every two weeks. I'm not talking about a little problem. I'm talking about where, whoa. Like, God, this is going to be really bad if you don't show up. And then tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. You know, on the clock. And you're like, when are you going to show up? Tick, tick. I'm like, it's almost midnight. And then 11.59 in 59 seconds. Jehovah Sneaky. Surprise! Surprise! Lord, why do I still get nervous? I don't know, but I still get nervous. Yet you never fail. You always show up. And I'm like the disciples, who after he fed the 5,000, then there was another feeding, and they were like, what are we going to do? They have no food. And she's like, that was like three weeks ago I fed that other group. Like, did you forget already? And they're like, yeah, I guess we did. He was faithful then, he'll be faithful again. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And so right now I'm looking at beautiful faces. So nice. Right here. I mean, she's so glowing like the noonday sun. You have a face that puts a person just that you know they're not going to get hurt. Like, I know it would be inappropriate, but right now I just want to sit in your lap and have you hold me, you know? I just know everything would be okay. Right? You got to admit, right? You just... Like, you should have a children's show on YouTube. And it doesn't have to be complex. Just read children's stories. That's it. I'm telling you, a million subscribers by next year. Just as long as you smile like that into the camera. What was my point? I actually... Oh, I'm looking at the beautiful faces. And I realize that behind the beautiful faces is also a bunch of problems. Some of you little problems, some of you mid-sized problems, some of you... It's a genuine need for a real miracle. And I'm telling you, there is nothing in the natural that I can say that can help you. And that's why most of you didn't come here to get information. In fact, in the information age, it almost doesn't make sense to go to a church where the supernatural isn't available. That's really what's separate. Otherwise, people just stay home and watch their favorite preachers 10 in a row on YouTube. You can fast forward, I don't like that worship song. Fast forward through that. You can even fast forward through the parts of the preacher, you don't like what he says. And just, I mean, you can have it your way. So what's the point of coming together? Because of the anointing. Because of the supernatural. This is why Paul said, my speech and my preaching was not a TED talk. That's what Paul said. He said, my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration. In demonstration. But in demonstration of the spirit and of power. So right now, to those who have those Goliath-sized problems, may there be a release of the yoke-destroying miracle power of God in your life. God sees, God knows, and it is not too difficult for him. Hallelujah. It's not too difficult for him. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Open up your heart. Really, hit that button. Like those big concrete plates. You know, like in every treasure hunt movie ever, there's always a scene. They hit the button, the stone button, or pull some hidden lever and then, and the giant 60-ton stone plate. Get that stone plate off your heart. And just open it up in this atmosphere and say, Jesus, do it in me. I believe. I believe. I trust you. Do the impossible in my life. That activates his power. Just something as simple as that. Hallelujah. So I want to continue. This is actually part two to last week's sermon, which was on understanding the benefit of speaking in tongues, understanding the purpose of tongues. Paul, in Corinthians 12, he writes something interesting. He says, now, brethren, concerning spiritual gifts, I don't want you to be ignorant. He really said that prophetically. Because one of the most ignorant subjects in the entire body of Christ is that of spiritual gifts. Isn't that interesting that he said, I don't want you to be ignorant. And yet even today, most people are ignorant concerning spiritual gifts. My goodness, why did they got me in a sweater in a July? That just doesn't, we got to up our photo game. We got to, like I'm wearing a cable knit sweater. Like we got to at least have proper seasonality figured out. Maybe put a, can you put that through AI? Put a set of skis behind me? Maybe a hat with a pom-pom? Crackling fireplace? Let's really confuse them even more. So, you know, if you've at any time said, hey, I don't go to church because I don't like organized religion, welcome to City Light. As you can see, we're not that organized. This is the place for you if you don't like organized religion. What's that? Yeah. Hallelujah. So people are ignorant, and we should get un-ignorant. And let's take the weird out of it. Take the spook out of it. Speaking in tongues is something that Jesus said we would do in Mark 16. It is something you see throughout the book of Acts. Paul teaches on it in Corinthians. It's not some weird, wacko doctrine. Over a billion people. At least documented, at least since the Azusa Street revival of the early 1900s. Over a billion people. have been baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. It's not some weird fringe movement. Overseas, if you're not a spirit-filled church with the evidence of speaking in tongues, you just don't make it. You don't. And by make it, I mean you're actually a thriving, growing church. There's a lot of churches. The buildings are intact. Nice, beautiful stone. Lots of stained glass. Smells like candles and incense. But there's no power. And also there's no bodies. Back in the day, you'd still have a powerless church full of bodies because people were easily manipulated and people were easily guilted. Guilted by religion and tradition to just keep going. But today, in the information age, and people are coming up out of poverty and illiteracy, and they become thinking, and they realize right away, wait a second here. I'm being manipulated through guilt and shame and condemnation to go to church every Sunday. I refuse to do it. And then if all you have to offer is guilt and shame and condemnation and dead-wrote religion, your building's going to be empty. Yeah. That's why at least when I preach and... The place is somewhat full-ish. At least I know whoever is here actually wanted to be here. Like nobody came today going, oh, God's going to be mad at me if I don't go. Because we don't do that here. Amen. And you know better. So I guess that's where we can get along. I know that you're here because you want to be. Amen. And every teenager said, amen. Let's go to Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. Teenager, you want to be here. You do. I don't know what's brighter, your smile or that light behind you. I think it's your smile. How old are you now? What? Huh? 13. So I did. I thought you were 13. That's why I called you a teenager. Today's, this year is that year. I got a word for you. It's just going to get more awkward. Hallelujah Peaks around 14, 15 Oof, that was awkward My dad didn't let me shave until I was 16 But I was ready to get a mustache You know, like my son's voice already changed, but mine was changing for about two years. So I would always walk into a room at 15. I'd be like, hi, everybody. All my friends say, why do you got a caterpillar above your lip? This is why I gravitated towards spirit filled churches because of all the inner healing that I needed. But the Lord is with you. He's going to hold you, protect you, work with you. I want to just say this. You don't carry yourself. I know you're 13. I've known you since you were like nine. Maybe even longer. But he doesn't carry himself like a 13-year-old. You're what other people would call an old soul. You're like a 20-year-old in a 13-year-old's body, you know? Just stretch your hands towards him. We bless you. Through difficult seasons. The Lord be around you like a hedge of protection. Protecting you. Protecting your heart. Blessing you and your brother. And your sister. Wrapping his arms of love around you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The Lord is so good at blessing a great messing. Hallelujah. You look at the Bible and it's really a collection of stories where mistakes were made. And then God brought great redemption out of what looked like horrible mistakes. I mean the first one that comes to mind is Solomon. His very existence. Right? People would have categorized as a mistake. Because he was the fruit of David's adultery with Bathsheba. Yet, he built the temple. Wrote Proverbs to the newly married couple in the back. He wrote the Song of Songs, which I know you've both been studying. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Newly married. And Chris has style. So I just picture him walking around in a silk robe with the Bible open, a song of songs. And he's like, Catherine, come here. Your neck is like the Tower of David. Catherine, your teeth are so white. They're like sheep fresh from the shaving. That's all in the Song of Songs, by the way. You want to get game, fellas? Read the Song of Songs. That's how you compliment a woman. Should I go further? I mean, it's in the Bible. Your two breasts. I never got so quiet. It's in the Bible. Your two breasts are like fawns, twins of a gazelle. What does that mean? No one knows what it means. But it's provocative. It gets the people going. Hallelujah. Anyway, Solomon had it going on. But he was the fruit of a great mistake that God redeemed. By the way, all of that, you say, what was all that? So we're gonna get into diversities of gifts. That was a very, very diverse type of prophetic word for your family. Gotta really go, oh, there it is. Amen, which I know you got, but for the sake of the kiddos. In fact, the most pleasurable parts of my life right now that I'm like, oh, I take delight in, were the nastiest, look like a car, not car, train wreck. And then when the Lord, he's a master recycler, he'll take pure garbage and recycle it, and 24 karat gold comes out. Hallelujah, it's what he does. So the first century church put a great emphasis on the Holy Spirit, starting with Jesus and his last words when he said, but you shall receive power, power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will have dunamis power. You'll be like me. You'll have the supernatural. You'll have the anointing. And you'll be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And then in that next chapter, Acts chapter 2, we see 120 of them. All the disciples, Mary the mother of Jesus, other characters, they cram them in that upper room. It's the same room Jesus had the last supper in. So that was a fairly big room, 120 people in there. And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And then suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. And it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared unto them divided tongues like as a fire. And one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with a person. Not a thing. They were filled with the person of the Holy Spirit. How dare we keep the Holy Spirit at arm's length. And you know you can go to church every single Sunday and still keep the Holy Spirit at arm's length. It's an anti-anointing spirit. It's an anti-Christ spirit. That's actually what religion is. You get caught up all with the work of the Lord and forget the Lord of the work. You can come, you can serve, you can go to church. It's what cultural Christianity is. Down south, you go to some place. My friend was just telling me in Virginia, which is arguably the buckle of the Bible Belt. And was saying this guy, he's a Baptist. He said, At this church, he was the director of evangelism for 10 years, and then he got saved. And he really got, and he let everybody know, whoa. But he was direct. You say, how is that even possible? Because when you have cultural Christianity, you're raised, you know how to say, amen. Praise the Lord. If the Lord wills, all the little churchianity, Christian-y stuff. And you think that's all there is until God confronts you. Then you really get saved. And you go, whoa. What did I have before? Oh, I had religion. I had an unanointed, unholy spirit Christianity. I was under an antichrist thing. Yeah. So we must have the Holy Spirit. We must give place to the Holy Spirit. In your daily lives, look to the Holy Spirit. Just look to him. Invite him. You say, I don't know what that looks like. When I started discovering the Holy Spirit, it was awkward. I'd go into my room with my dorm room at Stony Brook University. I first opened it up. Oh, my roommate's not there. Yes. I can have some time alone with God. And I didn't know what I was doing. So I said, God, teach me to pray. Because I don't feel like, I feel like it's so awkward. Teach me how to pray. Lord, teach me how to enter your realm, your zone. When Paul said, I'm going to go and speak on the realms of God. Paul said that. I want to know about those realms. The third heaven, the abode of God. And so it started off, we had a boom box and a CD. Ron Cannoli. I put out Ron Cannoli. Lift him up. That's exactly the CD. Yeah. I would just start singing along. And then I would notice he'd want to take me someplace else. And I think, do I do that? Am I going to get weird? Because the one thing I was afraid, I was like, I don't want to become one of those weirdo fanatics. That was actually a legitimate concern. Back then, we used to have subway preachers all throughout New York City. Where did all the subway preachers go? No more subway preachers. Back then, you couldn't ride on the subway. And to me, I was always thought, stay away from them. Those are religious fanatics. You know, we didn't have those back in Yugoslavia. We had communist fanatics. I was like, I don't want to become a fanatic. So I don't want to like do something weird and think it's God. Take a risk. Bungee jump. Take a risk. See, I don't want to get weird. I got news for you. Probably weird already. Might as well get weird for God. I'm encouraging you to go in your prayer time alone. Remove the self-imposed boundaries and begin to explore the person of the Holy Spirit. Remove self-imposed boundaries and keep the boundaries of the word of God in place. So you don't get too flaky or hopefully not flaky at all. But sometimes people don't want to experience the Holy Spirit because of flakes. But don't let flakes. You know what a flake is? Just a weird flaky, which means you get blown away in the wind, unsubstantial Christian. You know what Jesus said? He said, the flakes you have with you always. There will always be flakes. You cannot have flakes. I say that as a recovering flake. There were times where I was very flaky in those formative early years. I shaved off all my hair because I read that Paul did that. I'm walking around looking like a Buddhist monk, thinking I did it for Jesus. A little flaky. I'll never do that again because you don't know, but underneath his hair... My head looks like a moon crater. And right now as I'm saying that, sir, you have the most perfect dome I've ever seen. Like that is beautiful. Mine, it looked like a cheese wedge. Like that was not good. And it's whiter than white up there too. Like that hasn't seen the sun at that point in 23 years. And I shaved my hair and it... Maybe I'm crying out for help. Maybe I need more inner healing. That's why I'm sharing this stuff. Hallelujah. Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. Holy Spirit come. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Anything can happen. Anything can happen this week. Anything. Satan loves to just discourage you and get you looking at the natural. In the swampy stuckness. Where you feel like nothing ever changes. That's the swampy stuckness. That's the swampy stuckness. The first thing that's got to change is your thinking. And the first place to start is at least start thinking anything can happen. That's a good start. Anything can happen and probably will. And God is the God of miracles and the supernatural and, There's always going to be that in your life. Listen, if everything is wonderful, man, enjoy it. Thank God for it, but next week's coming. And there's always going to be an element. There's just always going to be an element where you're going to need him. Until you get to heaven, you'll never be fully self-sufficient. You're going to need him, and there's going to be something that feels pretty catastrophic in your life. So what are the options? Since you know that's already going to be there, you can look to the natural, you can be miserable, you can have ruminating thoughts, get all cynical and negative, or you can say, Lord, I trust you'll get this one too. I believe in you. I believe you're the one who invades lives. I believe you're the one who brings surprises. I believe. Start with I believe. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I believe. Now, back to the sermon. As though that wasn't a part, but you know. Back to more of the flowy part. Where we're talking about the emphasis that the first century church put on the Holy Spirit. Look what happened here. Acts chapter 8. Remember, this is the first century church just getting started. Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God. Samaria got saved. They receive the word of God. Fill out commitment cards and everything. They sent them Peter and John. Or they sent Peter and John to them. Why did they send Peter and John to them? Today, if a whole town got saved. And look at the next verse. It actually says they got baptized. That means they got their Samaria and I have decided t-shirts. Look, who when they had come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet he had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. That means they got baptized. They believed. But the first century church put such an emphasis on the Holy Spirit. That they said Peter and John go and lay hands on them. And make sure they don't just have cultural Christianity. Make sure they don't leave anything on the table. Make sure they don't have half gospel. Make sure they get everything Jesus died for them to have. And they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. So there was such an emphasis on the Holy Spirit. And that emphasis should never have changed. Today, we're not living under a different dispensation. It's still the dispensation of the new covenant. It's not different. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Sananamanda, laravavanda, laramamanta. You know, a good place to start right now is let go of bitterness. Really, let go. Bitterness. Let it go. Let go of bitterness. You know, bitterness can be an addiction. This is not me from a spiritual standpoint, but secular scientists have said, your brain, I don't know what the chemical is, secretes a chemical when you're bitter, that if you sit in it long enough, you actually get addicted to that chemical. That's why bitter people get addicted to sitting and stewing and replaying the same events in their minds. Because they want another hit of that crack pipe called bitterness. Bitterness. You ever meet someone and that's all they can think about and talk about? I mean, they can win the Powerball jackpot, $1.2 billion, and they'll still be talking about what happened in 2007. And what she or he did to them. They're addicted to a chemical. That's just physically speaking. Spiritually speaking, there's demons behind that too now pressing in on that chemical addiction. Amplifying it. Mocking you and provoking it. Release that person. Hallelujah. Acts 19. I want to ask you a question from Acts 19.1. Why is Paul doing what he's doing? Why can't he just leave him alone? And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples. Not unbelievers. Believers. Disciples. He asked them a very controversial question. Normally you don't meet Christians and ask them this question, but maybe you should. He said, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? So look at the emphasis the first century church placed on the Holy Spirit. He didn't just say, oh, high five. You're a Christian. I'm a Christian. He, he, he. Who do you like to listen to? You know who I like to listen to? What's your favorite ministry? He said, hey, it's great that you believe and you're a disciple, but you're a disciple. But have you been filled? Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? And they said to him, We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And he said to them, into what then were you baptized? So they said, into John's baptism. Then Paul said, John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And Paul said, here's your I have decided t-shirt, and I'll see ya. No. Paul said, okay, great. Now you believe, and you've been baptized in water, and now I'm going to lay hands on you so you receive the Holy Spirit. How sad is it that so many Christians have never gotten part three? And if that's you here, this isn't to condemn you. This isn't to make you feel bad or like a second-class citizen. It can't be, because I'm saying this is all available to you and for you. It's all available. It's available. All you have to do is say yes, and then if you don't know what to do next, come and talk to the ministry team. Meet them and say, help me receive the Holy Spirit. If you don't like how that goes, come and talk to me. Send me an email. We can do it over Zoom. I prefer right here after service. But God can touch you via Zoom. You can be in your pajamas from the waist down. And get filled with the Holy Spirit. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them. And they spoke with tongues. So there's this evidence, speaking in tongues. And prophesied. Hallelujah. What an amazing advantage speaking in tongues is. We talked about it last week, that you're praying. You don't know what you're praying. But you know you're praying the perfect will of the Father. You're also uncovering mysteries. You may not know what's ahead. Most likely you don't. I don't. The specifics of it, but as you speak in tongues, revelation happens. There's a peeling back of the curtain, and there's this 18-inch ascent from all the wisdom of the universe right here in your spirit, and it comes up, and revelation comes into your mind. Do you know Oral Roberts... built all of Earl Roberts University that way. And I may mention that today, and you're like, who's Earl Roberts, and what's Earl Roberts University, and why is that important? What he did back then was unprecedented. Unpre... To be a spirit-filled faith healer, born-again Christian, and to build this gargantuan giant university that back then cost an astronomical sum. And he would share this for years. He would speak in tongues, and then he would wait. And what he would get after speaking in tongues, after praying out the mysteries, he would write out. Oh, the Lord wants it to look like this. From whole wings of buildings to how the school was going to be structured. That was birthed while he was speaking in tongues. Chris, I mean, Song of Solomon, you went to Oral Roberts. Have you heard this story? You have, right? Can you just say yes? Because I don't want... Thank you. She's taking your voice away, huh? Got nothing left. Just barely came here today. Okay. They used to sit in the front row together. Now they're in the back row. He's like, honey, let's sit in the back row. We can take off quicker that way. Hi, I'm Pastor Awkward. It's good to meet you. Is that Moe? What? Do you still love mangoes? No more? Oh, okay. It's like one of the few stable things in my life. The Lord, his presence, and then Mo loves mangoes. Thank you, Jesus. So let's talk about speaking in tongues. Let's talk about speaking in tongues and the different... You know what? Worship team, why don't you come on up? I'm not finished, but I want to just sing a song. I had something, obviously. I got lots and lots of notes. Look, six pages, double-sided. You didn't come to a TED Talk. The Lord wants to give you something right now. Close your eyes, lift your hands. I want you to... Kate the Great, just come out of yourself right now. Come out of your head. Yield to the Holy Ghost. You've done it before. This is your specialty. Come out of yourself. Come out of yourself. Hiananamande lere gesta sananta lakalala mahoya kainanana vranta lara brestetanana. Hayakanata lara vashanta lara brasonda kananamanta. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Zenanande lere veveso koyunanana hayakayatana. Sholoburata talara vassanda lararamanda. Lord Jesus, we open ourselves up to you. This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message, or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jancic and City Light Church, visit us at CityLightNYC.com. That's CityLightNYC.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.