Eight Cylinders: Why Every Believer Should Speak in Tongues

Sermon outline

Speaking in tongues charges up your spirit man, and a believer who is built up in the Spirit and renewed by the Word will think, speak and live like the anointed, chosen child of God he already is.

1. Number one: the Word of God teaches it

   The Word teaches that believers are filled with the Holy Ghost and speak in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance. Tongues are a gift from God, not from the devil, and every believer should have a prayer language. Praying in tongues stirs up power on the inside that then shows in how a person talks and walks.

   Illustration: A Christian without tongues is like an engine running on one cylinder: you'll get to heaven, but you'll drag yourself through life. A believer who talks negatively has let his battery run low.

   “Speaking in other tongues makes you function on eight cylinders as a Christian.”

   • Isaiah 28:11-12
   • Acts 2:1-11
   • 1 Corinthians 14:18
   • 1 Corinthians 13:1

2. Renew your mind and think like God

   You are spirit, soul and body, and the soul, your mind, must be renewed by the Word so you think God's thoughts. When God shows up, chaos becomes order and lack becomes overflow. Prosperity is far more than money; it starts with the Word of God, not with your wallet, so stop speaking lack over your home and children.

   Illustration: A man of God kept a sign on his office desk that read 'No little plans made here.' A multi-millionaire who is an alcoholic, a drug addict and newly divorced is not prosperous.

   “Prosperity does not start with your wallet.”

   • 1 Thessalonians 5:23
   • Proverbs 23:7
   • Romans 12:2
   • Matthew 14:13-21
   • Psalm 119:105
   • 2 Corinthians 8:9
   • Revelation 2:9
   • 2 Corinthians 5:7
   • Philippians 4:19

3. You are anointed now

   Jesus commissioned His disciples to do what He did, so believers can take Luke 4:18 for themselves. The gospel is good news: money to the poor, healing to the sick, freedom to the oppressed. Stop crying out for an anointing the Word says is already on you, and pull your experience up to the Word instead of dragging the Word down to your experience.

   Illustration: Parents who tell their children 'Daddy can't afford that' or 'Do you think money grows on trees?' are speaking destruction over their own finances.

   “We pull our experience up to the Word of God.”

   • Luke 4:18
   • Joshua 1:8
   • 2 Timothy 1:7
   • John 8:44

4. The Holy Ghost on the inside makes you successful

   Life in the Spirit is a deeper level of the Christian walk: the believer is the temple of the Holy Ghost, carrying God's presence everywhere. Joseph prospered in every place, Daniel had an excellent spirit, and your tongue is the pen that writes God's words on your heart. With the mind of Christ you function in divine wisdom rather than hiding behind 'waiting on the Lord'.

   Illustration: A venomous snake bit Paul and he shook it off into the fire and did not die. Uzzah touched the Ark and died, while Obed-edom kept it in his home and prospered.

   “God does not sponsor failures. You're wired for success.”

   • Leviticus 17:11
   • Acts 28:3-6
   • 2 Corinthians 5:17
   • 1 John 4:4
   • 1 Corinthians 6:19
   • Daniel 6:3
   • Psalm 45:1
   • 2 Samuel 6:6-11
   • Romans 12:19
   • 1 Corinthians 2:16
   • John 10:27

5. The tongues of angels charge up your spirit man

   Your native language is the tongue of men, but when you pray in tongues you speak the language of angels and mysteries in the Spirit. You may not understand what you are praying, but you are commissioning angels to do what needs to be done. The signs that follow believers include new tongues and laying hands on the sick, who shall recover, not maybe recover.

   “So when you speak in other tongues you are charging up your spirit man.”

   • 1 Thessalonians 5:23
   • 1 Corinthians 13:1
   • Mark 16:17-18

6. A chosen generation and a royal priesthood

   Every word of Scripture carries spiritual weight: God carefully chose you out of millions, and you belong to royalty. True humility is an attitude of the heart, being obedient to the Spirit and saying what God's Word says about you. Jesus went to the cross not out of weakness but out of willingness, and believers must let His mind be in them.

   Illustration: Soon after he was born again, he bought suede Grasshopper shoes to look humble, wore them once, and the Lord told him humility is not what you wear but an attitude of the heart. He also tells of a beggar who scorned a five-cent coin, proving a poor man can be proud and a rich man humble.

   “He didn't do it out of weakness, he did it out of willingness.”

   • 1 Peter 2:9
   • Revelation 1:6
   • 1 Peter 5:6
   • Philippians 2:5
   • John 8:23
   • Matthew 26:53
   • John 19:11

7. Be possessed by the Holy Ghost and build yourself up

   Many Christians struggle because their spirit man is shrivelled up. Fill yourself with the Word, speak in tongues and you build yourself up, so that you cannot be kept down by poverty, sickness, retrenchment or the negative words of others. The good news is that the poor can become rich, the sick can be healed, and the empty can be filled with the Holy Ghost.

   Illustration: Watching National Geographic, he saw people possessed by evil spirits piercing themselves, and told the Lord that if that is real, he wanted to be possessed by the Holy Ghost.

   “For he that speak in an unknown tongue edify himself.”

   • 2 Corinthians 5:21
   • Jude 20
   • 1 Corinthians 14:4