The Power of Praying in the Spirit

You look at all the scriptures, it's always about people pursuing Jesus, chasing after him, climbing on rooftops, ripping off the roof to get to him. Zacchaeus dangling from a branch to get to him. A woman illegally out in public pushing through a crowd to get to him. Always people are coming just to get to him. You have to have that mindset in you. Hallelujah. Welcome to the CityLight 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 CityLight 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. It's good to see all of you in this third week of July in New York City. It's like a different city in the summer. All the New Yorkers are gone and then you notice all the tourists are here. Especially when you're going to Manhattan. It just makes it feel odd and different. Do I like it? Depends. Right? Do you like it? Depends, right? What can you say other than it's different? It's different. Just avoid Times Square and a quarter mile radius around it at all costs. Hallelujah. At the turn of the 19th century, it was a phenomenal event known as the Azusa Street Revival. It didn't introduce something new, but it It reformed a teaching, and by reformed I mean it just brought back to light. A teaching that had kind of fallen through the cracks. A teaching that Jesus began, that was emphasized in the book of Acts, and emphasized by the Apostle Paul. And that's the teaching on the baptism in the Holy Spirit, as evidenced with speaking in other tongues. Or speaking in other languages. Jesus first talked about it. He said it in Mark 16. In Mark 16, he said, these signs will follow those that believe. In my name, they will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues. They will speak with new languages. He didn't mean you're going to get Duolingo and practice 15 minutes a day and learn another language. That's not a sign and a wonder. That's not miraculous. He meant you will supernaturally speak in other languages. And that's what tongues is. There's a lot of spook concerning tongues. Right? Even when I say tongues, tongues is an old English word for languages. When I first heard speaking in tongues, I thought, huh? Sounds weird. Don't talk to me about your tongue. I don't know. If you brushed your teeth, if you did, you should also brush your tongue. And you're talking to me about your tongue. But it means other languages. And I want to take the spook out of it. We have to take the weird out of it. We got to take the spook out of it. Because the spook keeps people from fully entering in. Something that's beautiful. Something that's meant to be a blessing. Jesus didn't. He didn't include this for nothing. He doesn't use filler material. Everything he does is important. And you see him saying, believers will speak in new tongues. Then you see him talking to his disciples and saying, wait in Jerusalem until you're endued with power from on high. You're baptized in the Holy Spirit. And then very specifically in Acts chapter 2, you see them get filled with the Holy Spirit and supernaturally start speaking in languages they never ever heard before. No one ever taught it to them. You see the same thing happen again, specifically outlined in Acts chapter 10. The Holy Spirit fell upon them. What was the evidence? They spoke in other tongues. Acts chapter 19, Paul meets some believers. He lays hands on them. What happens? They get filled with the Holy Spirit, and they speak with other tongues. Acts chapter 8, it doesn't say that they spoke in tongues, but it says that Simon the sorcerer saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given. So there was something to see. It wasn't a non-event. There was a manifestation. There was something visible to see. So if you go by Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 10, Acts chapter 19, you can kind of deduce what it was that Simon the sorcerer saw in Acts chapter 8. Hallelujah. And so maybe you, at 3 a.m., watched a documentary about some 25-member church in the Appalachian Mountains where they dance around barefoot with tambourines. And they also spoke in tongues, and that spooked you and turned you off. What can I say? There's weird people out there. It doesn't mean speaking in tongues is weird. It just means they're weird. I can do anything weird. I can drink this water weird. Right? Don't worry about it. COVID's over. Never existed. It was over before it started. Or, or, I can be fancy about it, right? I can, with my pinky out. You can do anything weird or not weird. Come back to me now. Those of you who got wet, bless you. If this was a magic show, you wouldn't be upset at me. May the Lord release you of your bitterness. So yeah, there's some weird people. They speak in tongues weird. They do everything weird. I bet they brush their teeth weird, comb their hair weird. They're weird. But it doesn't mean we should now throw the baby out with the bathwater. No pun intended. It doesn't mean that we should now reject the gifts of God because there's weird people who also practice those gifts. Amen. When it's such a beautiful, beautiful blessing. I want to talk to you today about the benefits. What is speaking in tongues? And let's take the weird out of it. Let's take the spook out of it. And I'm not asking you to trust my opinion. I want you to see the holy, immutable, perfect word of God yourselves. And let's begin in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and verse 26 says, What is the point of speaking in tongues? Like, I want to know that. What do I get out of it? Because I was at Spirit-filled churches for years and never, ever heard anyone teach on it. You were just kind of expected to figure it out. And yet a lot of confusion is in this exact area of speaking in tongues. Anything that has power to it, Satan's going to attack. Because he doesn't want you walking in power. Anything that has power to it, Satan's going to bring confusion. And this, I would say, is one of the top three things he attacks. Because he's not excited about you walking in the supernatural. He's not excited about you walking in victory. So he tries to bring a lot of confusion on the subject of speaking in tongues. And make no mistake about it, speaking in tongues is the doorway to the supernatural. You can have two kinds of Christian lives. Only one is biblical. You can have an analytical frontal lobeian. Frontal lobeian means your Christianity is intellectual. It's analytical. Also, it's not offensive and you get to be dignified. High church. Eyebrow raised. You know that meme of the... Those pale aristocrats overlooking in the balcony. Anybody know what I'm talking about? You know what I'm talking about? Thank you. That's going to help me get through the next portion of the sermon. Thanks, man. Yeah. But your Christianity, when it's completely intellectual, it has no power. When you're in trouble... You go to a therapist. You text your friends. You go about solving the problem just as any other person without God would do. But true Christianity is supernatural. Our life should be a collection of stories of how God showed up and showed out for us. And note that... Biblical Christianity is exciting. It's an adventure. It is powerful. And a lot of Christianity has been westernized. And I don't say that positively. Christianity is not a western religion. It's an eastern religion. It's not a little supernatural. I mean the foundation of our faith is that God became man, was crucified and rose from the dead. Like we're starting right off believing in the supernatural and you can't really wrap your mind around that. And this Christianity says that we have a weakness. We all share the same weakness. It says that the spirit helps in our weakness. Then it identifies what this weakness is. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. That we all have a weakness for because there's mysteries in our lives, isn't there? When you're struggling, it's a mystery. Like if you're in debt, that's a mystery and a weakness. How do I get out of debt? I've tried for years and the debt just keeps growing. What do I do? I don't even know how to pray about it anymore. I go to pray and just, I get five words out and then, that's a weakness. You feel stuck at your job. You feel stuck at life. You don't know how to get unstuck. Trouble in your home, trouble with your marriage, trouble interpersonally. So whatever it is, and you don't even know how to pray into it, right? You understand what I'm saying? The Bible says we all have that. We don't even know how to pray. We don't know what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. You look at the Greek, it means with sounds and words that don't sound like intelligible speech. Next verse. So we have this weakness. We don't know how to pray at times like we should. But God knows. And he knows the end from the beginning. He holds the key. So what if there was a way where you can bypass your anxiety-ridden mind? What if there was a way you can get out of your head? When you're really going through it, your head is like a chicken coop. How do you pray then? You go to pray. What if there was a way to bypass your mind and pray right out of your spirit? Where God lives. So that it's actually God praying through you to himself. God the Holy Spirit praying through you to God the Father. Bypassing your analytical mind, your mind that really doesn't know much. Using your vocal cords and you're praying perfectly in accordance with God's will. Because that's another weakness we have. We're always wondering, does God agree with my prayer? Does God like my prayer? What is God's will? What if you could bypass all that and now God is praying through you to himself the perfect will of God? Next verse. He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is. Because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So when you're praying in other languages, when you're speaking in tongues, you're bypassing your analytical mind. You're bypassing this weakness where you don't know how to pray as you are. And you're yielding to the Holy Spirit inside of you. And God is praying through you to himself. You think God is going to make a mistake? No. He's praying perfectly perfectly. In accordance with what he wants for you. And rest assured, it is good. Now there's several kind of people here. Right now hearing this. Some, you've never spoken in tongues. You never have. That's okay. You're at the right church. And the gift of the Holy Spirit. I didn't say the gift of tongues. Just note that. The gift of the Holy Spirit. Where when you get the gift of the Holy Spirit, the evidence will be speaking in tongues. I want the gift of tongues. Get the gift of the Holy Ghost. Tongues come. There's a separate thing called the gift of tongues, and that's why it gets confusing. That's separate. That's when you speak in an unknown tongue and someone else interprets. I'm not talking about that this morning. I'll show you in the scriptures exactly what I'm talking about. If that's you... You can be filled. You say, how, what? Well, first of all, the evidence of desire is in pursuit. So if your attitude is, well, I like that, but it just didn't happen to me. This is something you should pursue. And you don't have to pursue much. You can just come up here after service, we'll lay hands on you, you'll get filled. You can go to the prayer team over at that blue light special over there. They'll pray for you. You'll get filled. You can, if you don't like to do it in here, man, we're going to cater to you. You can make an appointment with me. I can lead you through the baptism of the Holy Spirit via Zoom. You can be in the comfort of your own home in your pajamas from the waist down. I mean, we try to meet you every which way. But still, even though, and by the way, let me just say this. I actually have a lot of humans on staff. We don't have AI agents running this. Like, considering our church, considering our church size, I have a disproportionate amount of human full-time staff. You know why we do that? Because when we began CityLight Church, we said we don't want any person to fall through the cracks. We want to meet, we want to be available to people. But yet still, people won't take advantage of it. And they'll go, well, I just, I don't know. I didn't really feel ministered to there. Well, because you kept quiet, you sat in the very back row to anybody sitting in the back row. I'm just, I don't know. Bless you. I didn't mean to pick on you, but you know. It's a metaphor. It's a metaphor for people who want to be. Maybe you just have to go to the restroom and you want to sit in the back row because you got to, you know. But metaphorically speaking, because we hear that. Look, we know what's up. People who eventually come and they link up and they become members and go, you know, I sat in the back row for two years and I didn't really want you to know me. And well, I'm like, that's good. And I didn't know you because you didn't want to be known. But some people get offended. Like they think we're Jehovah's Witnesses. We're going to come knocking on their doors. Can we get to know you? We notice you've been coming. That's why Pastor Mo gets up. He says, fill out a connection card. That's how you connect with us. We need to know you exist. And if you really want the baptism of the Holy Spirit, pursue it. Make an appointment with us. We'll pray for you. You can't have the attitude of the God, well, if God wants it for me, then he'll just give it. What? What example in scripture do you ever see of that? You look at all the scriptures, it's always about people pursuing Jesus, chasing after him, climbing on rooftops, ripping off the roof to get to him. Zacchaeus dangling from a branch to get to him. A woman illegally out in public pushing through a crowd to get to him. Always people were coming just to get to him. You have to have that mindset in you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So there's several people in here I was saying, some never baptized in the Holy Spirit. That's available to you, and you don't have to make it hard. God didn't make it hard. It's actually quite easy when you get out of your head. Then there's another group of people. You've been baptized in the Holy Spirit, but you're sitting on speaking in tongues. Because you don't really understand the benefit of... So you spoke in tongues and you're like, yeah, I did that 18 months ago. When was the last time you did it? Well, yeah, 18 months ago. Well, maybe do it again. Maybe make it a daily habit. I mean, if it's as awesome as the Bible says, if it's as beneficial as the Bible says, it should be a part of your daily routine, like eating food and drinking water. Now... Romans 8.20, the very next verse is one of the most famous verses in the book of Romans. Every Christian loves it. But it's connected to the previous two verses. You got to look at things in context. I can do all things through a Bible verse taken out of context. I can do all things through a Bible verse taken out of context. You know that scripture in Philippians, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me? Often taken out of context. I get the spirit of it. I remember my roommate in college put on weight. He was trying to get into his jeans and he was like, I can do all things through Christ. I'm like, you can say that. Because God, you know, he will help you. But if you want to be like theologically sound a little bit, Paul said that in the context of, I know how to be a beast, I know how to abound. Whether I'm up or down, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. This verse that every Christian loves, and we know that all things work together for good. Woo! All things work together for the good. To those who love God. Hey, hey, hey. To those who are the called according to his purpose. In context, the previous two verses. It's saying those who will yield to the Holy Spirit. And allow the groanings which cannot be uttered. And the Holy Spirit within them to pray through them in another language. They've then set it up. They've set up their future because they've allowed God to pray into it through them. And all things will work together for their good. Amen. Hallelujah. What a benefit speaking in tongues is. You know how many times I'd be going about my day? There's times where I initiate speaking in tongues. And there's times where I'm just thinking about Jesus. And what comes out is, Oh, God, I think I'll stop. No, I won't. And he's just on me. Like three or four minutes. There's been times for an hour or two, but I can count those on one hand. Usually three or four minutes. And I know that he wanted to pray something through me. Why? I mean, it's 9 a.m. Because he's already in my 3 p.m. He's already in my 4 p.m. He knows the end from the beginning. And so I pray that out in the Holy Ghost. And then that day, I just noticed an extra smooth day. Sometimes 30 seconds. You know, you're at a fork in the road in the day. Do I go left? Do I go right? And you chose right. Because you prayed into it and God led you, right? And... You're in the perfect center of his perfect will. Hallelujah. What a blessing this is. What a benefit. By the way, you look at any church that's alive right now, you're going to notice something. They're spirit-filled and they speak in tongues. If you're from another church and you don't believe in this and that offends you, I'm sorry that facts don't care about your feelings. It's just a fact and it doesn't care about your feelings. You look at any church in South America that's growing, that any mega church that's 10,000 members plus, you're going to notice they all speak in tongues. Africa, every church that's exploiting the churches in Nigeria, 50,000, 60,000 people, they all speak in tongues. You say, yeah, but why are you listing these other nations? What about in America? Because in America... Because in America, you can captivate a crowd with lasers and fog machines and music and still have a large church. But even in America, if you look at the top 50 largest churches, the vast majority are going to be spirit-filled. But only in America can you get caught up with the hoopla and still have something, I guess you can call it, a church. If it doesn't resemble a first-century church, is it really a church? You say, oh, Africa, Latin America. How about South Korea? The largest church in the world. He's on to be with the Lord now. Pastor Young each show. But full gospel temple. A million members at its height. He called himself Presbyterian. It wasn't like New York City Presbyterians. He spoke in tongues. He said other people. Hundreds of thousands of people in that church. Spoke in tongues. There's a reason for that. Because there's power connected to speaking in tongues. And then you go up and down Manhattan and you see the old high churches, the Methodist churches, the ones who have the ancient beautiful buildings. And you know what you see outside every single one of them? A rainbow flag. And you peek in. Don't come here. One Sunday you should. Go in one of those churches and you'll see seven people, two of them men in dresses. It's true. They're empty. All the greats, it's true. It's true. They're empty. The only reason those buildings exist is because churches are tax exempt and you don't have to pay real estate taxes. That's why you got churches all along Fifth Avenue going on a Sunday morning. There'd be seven people in there. How do they afford this? They don't. They don't. That's why so many of those old churches are being converted into condos, restaurants, hotels. I kind of digressed there. Let's get back to the teaching. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let me show you. Ooh, this is a good one. You're going to like this one. The first service didn't get this one. 1 Corinthians 2, verses 7-14. Let's talk about some mysteries. How do I find a husband? How do I find a wife? That's a mystery. Right? You're like, ah, it's not on Tinder, that's for sure. I can't go up to him anymore and talk to him because that freaks people out. I mean, fellas, if you really want to have Holy Ghost game, walk up to a girl and talk to her. It'll blow her mind. And like hide your phone. Pretend you don't have a phone. And just talk to her. Lock eyes with her, but not too long, unless you be a creep. Just enough to show that you're not afraid of yourself. There's a lot of mysteries. How do I get out of debt? How do I get promoted? How do I experience success? But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. When you're speaking in tongues, you are praying out the answers. The wisdom of God is inside of you. The problem is your head doesn't know it because it's in your spirit. And when you're praying in tongues, it makes an 18-inch ascent from your spirit to your mind. And revelation comes. You know what revelation is? It's the Greek word apocalypto. People think apocalypto means the end of the world. The Greek word apocalypto means the peeling back of the curtain. Or like a veil that's been lifted up. It's a revelation. It's been revealed to you. So you have these mysteries, these problems. You don't know how to solve them. But as you're speaking in tongues, there's an 18-inch ascent and there's a revelation. God apocalypto to you what you should do. You know how many times I didn't know what to do? And all my stress and anxiety was because I knew that I didn't know what to do. But as I pray in tongues and pray in tongues... In the next few days, all of a sudden I notice as I'm going about my life, apocalypto. And I'm like, oh, the answer is kind of obvious. I didn't see it. It was right there all along. What happened? The wisdom of God in your spirit made an 18-inch ascent as you spoke out in tongues. And you got revelation. The light bulb turned on. Ding! But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man. By the way, this also very misquoted verse. Amongst religious people. Well what's heaven like? What's God like? What's it like serving? Well I hasn't seen. The ear hasn't heard. Right it sounds like. Religion likes to keep you in the dark. And this is practically a negative scripture. You know you don't know. You can't see. You haven't heard. You're dummy. You're going to stay that way. God's ways are not your ways. But look at what the next verse says. But God has revealed them to us. You're not one of them. By the way, even the second coming of Christ, people love to say, he's going to come like a thief in the night. Again, you're in the dark. You won't know. You're a dummy. He's coming like a thief in the night. And the very next verse says, but he's not going to come like a thief for you. Like, read the next verse. I'm going to have a book. The title of the book is going to be, Read the Next Verse. Amen. Read the next verse. That's what I'll do. I'll go through like 20 verses where the people never read the next verse. I like that. Maybe because I was speaking in tongues in the first service. That's the book. Everyone's like, when are you going to write your first book? I just got it. Read the next verse. But God has revealed them. These heavenly things. He has revealed them to us through his spirit. For the spirit searches all things. Yes, the deep things of God. When has God revealed them? Through his spirit. When you were speaking in tongues. And the wisdom of God. Because... In the previous chapter, I haven't read it, but it says, Christ has been made unto us wisdom. The wisdom of all of creation, of the universe, of the Godhead, is in every person who names the name of Jesus. You go, well, if that's true, why are there so many kind of clueless Christians walking around? Because just because it's in their spirit doesn't do them any good until it gets up in their head. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God. Just get this now. Wow. We haven't received the spirit of man. We've received the spirit of God. Why? That we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. Do you know what my job is? It's really actually kind of easy. Simple. I shouldn't say it's easy, but it's simple to describe. I got all these other people. I said, what does it mean to be a pastor? Unsafe people. But really what my job is, is to declare to people the things that they have freely been given by God. Because most people don't know. It's kind of like you got a job and... They had this huge benefits package, but you skipped it. You skipped that intro class. What do you call it? The onboarding process. And so you don't even know the benefits package. There's a lot of Christians, they don't know the benefits package. That's why the psalmist said, don't forget all his benefits. It wouldn't have said it if people weren't prone to forget all his benefits. And most people who call themselves Christians don't even know what they have. And the Holy Spirit has been given to you to reveal to you all that has been freely given to you by God. In the Old Testament, the prophet said, my people are cut off for a lack of knowledge. That word cut off there in the Hebrew means destroyed. See, if you don't know that God is prosperous, that he's generous, that he's abundant, you're going to stay check to check. You're going to stay in debt. And you're going to, huh, because nobody ever told you, you never received that actually he doesn't want you living that way and he wants your cup to overflow. So you were cut off because of a lack of knowledge. Some people live with sickness for decades. Then they find out, oh, Isaiah 53. By his stripes, I was healed physically. My mom was that way. My mom heard Isaiah 53 and got healed that night. She was cut off from healing, but when she learned all the things that were freely given to her by God, she received healing. So that's really my job. People come in, sometimes they've been beat up by the devil, beat up by life, and they sit there and they're like, I dare you to bless me, harumph, and life sucks, this is terrible, and I got to declare to them, it doesn't have to be that way. Excuse me, I get to declare to them. Can you believe we get to do this? Sorry, that's just, that's actually a meme amongst pastors. It turns out pastors, those who are spiritually abusive, they tend to use that line a lot. Can you believe we get to do this? Like, look, I'm going to ask you to stay six hours after service. I need you to clean this whole place up. And you're like, can you believe we get to do this? You know what I'm talking about? Like whipping the volunteers, they're doing everything. I'm eating steak in the back. Can we believe we get to do this? Anyway. See, you've never been spiritually abused. That's why you don't find this funny. Hallelujah. Next verse. Is there a next verse? Man, that's a good one. We can end right there. Yeah, we got two more. These things we also speak. Aha. These things, these things about what we have been freely given to us by God. See, as you speak in tongues, you're going to become more in tune. You're going to know what belongs to you. God's going to show you his will for your life. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches. Comparing spiritual things to spiritual, but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. Your natural mind. You see, natural man scoffs at the things of God. For they are foolishness to him, nor can they know them because they are spiritually discerned. So every time you go to... Several things are happening. The Bible says you're strengthening yourself. You're edifying yourself. You're giving thanks well. You're praying in line with the Father's will perfectly for your life. And also, you are uncovering the mysteries. You're declaring in another language the things that have been freely given to you by God. And as you keep declaring them, those things become manifest in your life. Yes, there is a distinct difference between the Christian who speaks in tongues on a regular basis and the Christian who does not. There just is. Just like there's a big difference between a Christian who prays every day and a Christian who does not. A Christian who worships every day and a Christian who does not. A Christian who goes to church regularly and a Christian who does not. There is going to be a difference. And when I decided to do this thing for Christianity, I wasn't going to do the hokey pokey with one foot in and one foot out. I wanted to go for gold. This is God we're talking about. I want to know him. I want to experience. I want to receive all that Jesus died for me to have. Hallelujah. Let's look at Ephesians 2 verse 10. Thank God for speaking in tongues. You know who talked in tongues a lot? The Apostle Paul. He said in the word, he said, I thank my God I speak in tongues more than you all. So if you don't like preachers and ministers who speak in tongues, you don't like the man who was used by the Holy Spirit to write over half the New Testament. How ironic. You look at the other writers of the New Testament, guess what? They all spoke in tongues too. See, how do you know that? Because I read the list. Acts chapter 2 gives you the list of who was in that room, who got filled with the Holy Spirit, who spoke in tongues. So if you don't like speaking in tongues, you're going to have a real hard time with all of the authors of the New Testament. Hey, you didn't know that, did you? That's next time. If you don't like tongues, next time you open up the Bible, I pray you see my face. And I'm reminding you that every single one of the writers, who call out a bash and a sack and a lot of us, who don't dig us down and a canter. Yeah, hallelujah. For we are his workmanship. That's the Greek poema. It means masterpiece. For we are his masterpiece created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. I want to show you this verse in the Amplified. Ephesians 2.10. For we are God's own handiwork, recreated in Christ Jesus, born in you, that we may do those good works which God predestined, planned beforehand, for us, taking paths. See, God made these paths. He prepared. Ahead of time. That's loaded. It doesn't just mean ahead of time, ahead of before you were born. It literally means ahead of the concept of time. Ahead of when, before time was even a thing. See, God lives outside of time. And he knew you. He knew you before there was time. He knew you before he said, let there be light. You are already within him. And he made plans for you ahead of time. What kind of plans? Good plans. A fair question to ask then is, if God made such good plans, and if God made my life to be a masterpiece, a Rembrandt, why does my life actually look like graffiti underneath a bridge? Scripture says my life should be a Rembrandt. My life looks like graffiti. What gives? A lot of people think that. They're afraid to ask it. Ask! Ask the hard questions. Look, my life isn't a poema. Maybe a Dr. Seuss rhyme, not a poema. Why is that? Because you still have free will. So God created these paths ahead of time. But all of us, left to our own devices, are going to swerve off of those paths. And we're going to do our own thing and then reap the consequences of our own stupid decisions. Let's keep reading. I'll tell you where I'm going with this. That we should walk in them. These great paths. Living the good life. Just note that that's biblical. There are Christians who get highly offended about living the good life. Poor Joel Osteen. So persecuted. All he's telling people is Jesus loves you? Well he's not preaching the whole gospel. Yeah he is. You just don't listen to the whole thing. You're all amped up because you're listening to little snippets. Amazing how somebody can say God is good and God wants to do you good. Heretic! Maybe I'll change my style. Maybe I'm too positive too. Maybe I should not even shower Sunday mornings. Come in here, I'll get the sleep out my eye. Come here all depressed and angry. You come in, I go, I just want you all to know you're going to split hell wide open. The Lord appeared to me this morning. He said his wrath has been kindled hot with you. Oh, you're going to have a bad week. That stuff you've been doing, he saw. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. He will repay me. But people don't know what they want. They're like, no, that's too harsh. Which, by the way, you know, with Jesus, there's a beautiful story in the Bible where, oh, I'm going to, I haven't read it in a while. I haven't memorized it. But he talks about how like... You know, first he describes the funeral services. You know, the piper came and played. You didn't like that. That was John the Baptist. He came with like a funeral-like message. John the Baptist came very, very hard. And all the Pharisees and religious leaders were like, oh, that's too depressing. That's too strict. And then he says, the Son of Man came with rejoicing and a positive message. And you say, oh, look, he's a wine-bibber and a friend of harlots. So Jesus then was saying, look, you don't want it too strict. Then I come. You go, oh, no, he's too happy, too much of a party guy. Well, I mean, what do you want? The Goldilocks gospel? You want it just right? Sometimes I'm strict. Sometimes I'm happy. You know, you don't know which way I'm going to go every Sunday. Did I get off tangent? If I did, it's for somebody. By faith. Yeah, just people, you know, they'll always find something to complain about. These paths that we should walk in them, living the good life. So let me just declare it. If you missed all of what I just said, just know this. God wants you to live a good life. Is that so hard to believe? Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and have it abundantly. He prepared a good life, prearranged and made ready for us to live. But what happened? What? Other factors come in. Just because God prearranged it, it actually does not mean that's exactly how it has to be. You have to cooperate. You have to lean into it. And so we can swerve off. Most of us have. I have yet met the person who's like, I've just by accident walked in accordance 100% of the time with God's will for my life. You swerve off the path. When you speak in tongues, you get realigned. Because when you've swerved off the path, you don't even know. When you've swerved off, how you've swerved off, what the real path is, your mind is confused. You have that weakness. Guess what? I have that weakness too. But when you speak in tongues, You begin. You give God access. You're praying in his perfect will. And you get realigned with his plans and his purposes for your life. Come on, say amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. There's really two purposes to this message. To those who've never spoken in tongues, the purpose is to get you hungry, to get baptized in the Holy Spirit. A good start would be to take those two booklets. They're outside, a blue booklet and a red booklet and just read them. And then come and get filled with the Holy Spirit. Like do whatever it takes. Hint, it won't be hard. God, if you think, I wonder if God will give me the Holy Spirit, you're already thinking about it wrong. He doesn't have to give you the Holy Spirit. You know why? Because he already has given you the Holy Spirit. You must receive the Holy Spirit. You say, oh really? He gave me the Holy Spirit when? 2,000 years ago on the day of Pentecost. That's when the Holy Spirit came. He hasn't left yet. Jesus left. Jesus went back to heaven. But in his place he gave the Holy Spirit. So he's still here. Ready to indwell whoever will receive. This is an important point. Because a lot of people they have this... Spiritual inferiority complex. Like a hang up. I wonder if God, maybe I'm not worthy. Will God actually give me the Holy Ghost? You're too late. He already has. You just must receive. And sometimes, like my job, is just to coach you and help you receive. Because when you go to receive, your monkey brain. You know what your monkey brain is? We all got it. Gets all anxious. panicking, analyzing. You know what's the funniest thing day of Pentecost when I have the line full of people? Is to actually see the shock on their face at how easily they begin to speak in tongues. They go, whoa. Like, man, I thought I'd have to beg a little longer. Like, it actually just so quickly. Yeah. You're going to realize God's actually been waiting for you. And you've been telling everybody, I'm just waiting on God to fill me with the Holy Spirit. No, he's been waiting for you. You're making it too hard for yourself. You're creating an artificial distance, an artificial barrier between you and God that actually doesn't exist. It doesn't have to be there. You're putting it there. He's not. What are you going to learn? He's so much better than people. He's so much better. He's so much kinder. He doesn't hold a grudge. He doesn't get bitter with you. He doesn't make you work for it. He's just so good. He's so kinder. Hallelujah. Let's go to Corinthians and I'll close with this. Because you can't talk about speaking in tongues without going through 1 Corinthians 14. A very misunderstood passage. And again, anything with power, Satan's going to attack and try to bring misunderstanding and confusion. One of those things is communion, of course, salvation, and speaking in tongues slash the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I would say those are the top three things that Satan tries to bring a whole bunch of weirdness and contradictory doctrines. And just basically confuse people because when you get unconfused, you've now just put the prongs in the electric outlet and you've got power. And he doesn't like that. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. So, let's just get this out of the way. When you speak in tongues, people say, well, what are you even saying? Like they got you. Do you even know what you're saying? No, I don't. But in the book of Acts, other people in Jerusalem knew what they were saying. Yeah, I know. This is different. This is different. This is my prayer language. On the day of Pentecost, that was not their prayer language that was a sign. And there is a tongues, there is a gift of tongues that's on a sign level. Like how cool would it be, right? Not that I spoke Spanish, but if I spoke Yishio. And we're up in Guatemala, and all of a sudden I'm preaching, and then I start speaking in Yishio. And I didn't Duolingo Yishio, it doesn't even exist. That would be a sign and a wonder. That's different. That's different. 99% of speaking in tongues is not that. It's your prayer language where you don't know what you're saying. Others don't know what you're saying. But God knows what you're saying. And you're praying to him. It's not for other people to know. It's not even for you to know. Because if you knew, it would blow your mind. It would be too much to bear. He's hiding it from you. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him. However, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. Remember, earlier in Corinthians, he talked about mysteries. And how you pray out the mysteries when you're speaking in tongues. And the apocalypto and the revelation comes. Hallelujah. Next verse. He who speaks in a tongue edify. Well, that's just good to know. If you remember anything, remember this. That if you speak in tongues, you edify yourself. Right? You take the phone, you put it in the charger, you're edifying your phone. Some of you, your phone, your iPhone or your nasty Android, hasn't seen a charger in six months. You know what stresses me out when someone sends me a screenshot and I see their batteries on like 4%? I get stressed for them. I'm like, I'm not even looking at whatever meme you sent me. Go put your phone in a charger. You're irresponsible. It's 3 p.m. How are you at 4%? It's 3 p.m. Well, some of you, your spirit is on 4%. You haven't been charged. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. He's not saying don't speak in tongues. He's just saying know the difference. When you speak in tongues, it's for you. When you prophesy, it's not for you. It's for others. That's it. That's the distinction. Because people will read this and go, see, see, see what? By the way, he ends the whole teaching by saying, do not forbid to speak in tongues. Because I've had people who are anti-tongues, they go to Corinthians 14 and go, see? See? I'm like, see what? I see a man who spoke in tongues. A man who says he spoke in tongues more than everyone. A man who says, don't forbid to speak in tongues. And who lists the benefits of speaking in tongues. And somehow you're walking away with tongues are bad. Like, do you see? I see. Do you see? If I pray in a tongue, my spirit is praying. And my understanding is unfruitful. You're not supposed to know. By the way, we won't go there, but Jew 20, it says, building up your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. It's called most holy faith. Because when I'm... I don't know what I'm saying. But I believe that I'm praying the perfect will of God the Father. And so it's not just faith. It's most holy faith. I believe that it's actually working. Even though to this day there's always a little voice in my monkey brain that says, you're foolish. It's not working. You think you're the only one that gets that thought. Everybody gets that thought. Whenever you step into the supernatural, your head's going to be freaking out. You got to ignore that part. And when you ignore your head and yield to your spirit, that always requires faith. Amen. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the Spirit and I will also pray with the understanding. That simply means I'll pray in tongues and I'll pray in English. I'll pray in the vernacular. I will sing with the Spirit. So you can sing in tongues. You can rap in tongues. Watch me demonstrate. No. Where's the drummer? Drop a mean bass line right now. And I will also sing with the understanding. Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say the place of the uninformed is either an unbeliever or a Christian who doesn't speak in tongues. See, Mauricio and I can be hanging out talking about the World Cup. And then I can go to Maurice. He'll jump right in. And we'll boom, right? Maurice. And we'll feel something in the spirit. Because he's not the uninformed. Yeah. Some of you know what I'm talking about. And we'll get hit by the Holy Ghost. Laugh for three minutes. And then talk about the World Cup again. But if you're at Thanksgiving dinner. You got your whole family there. Half of them don't believe. And you start speaking in tongues, how many of you know it's not going to go over too well? They're the uninformed. The Bible says don't do that. That's why actually we're a church that's big on speaking in tongues. But do you notice that we rarely do it? Like I've spoken in tongues more in this service than the last six months for you to hear combined. Why? Because I understand that the unsaved loved one you brought... If they come in and I open up the service and they go, they're going to leave. In fact, Paul says that. Will they not think you are all mad? It's a rhetorical question. Yes, they will. Yes, they will think that. And many do. How? He who occupies the place of the uninformed say amen at your giving of thanks. Since he does not understand what you say. Indeed, you give thanks well. Hey, there's another clue. When you speak in tongues, you give thanks well. But the other is not edified. I thank my God I speak in tongues more than you all. Worship team, come on up. The invitation is here. One, if you haven't been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you're not waiting on God. Aha, he's waiting on you. I've explained to you now, we're here. If you're still kind of not ready, you're filling this out, read those booklets. At least start taking steps towards God. At least learn more about it. So if you're going to reject speaking in tongues. At least know what you're rejecting. Some of you have rejected it for your whole life. Because you watched a documentary. About the Appalachian people dancing around with snakes. Yeah. At least know what you're rejecting. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, just to yourself and to the Lord, begin to speak in tongues. This is the CityLight 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 CityLight 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 CityLight Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.