Derek Prince Sermon: The Gifts of The Holy Spirit (Transcript)

Now I’m leaving you but in My place, I’m sending another Comforter.

Now I don’t want to be controversial, but to me the word ‘another’ indicates plainly that the Comforter is just as much a person as Jesus. One person goes and another person comes.

And in John 16, He said, “I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away.’ It’s in your best interest… because “if I don’t go, the Comforter will not come; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” There is a real genuine exchange.

While Jesus was on earth, He was the personal representative of Godhead on earth. But when He went away personally to heaven, and as far as personal location is concerned, my Bible teaches me that Jesus is now at the right hand of God the Father. But in His place, on the day of  Pentecost, He sent another person who represents Him and the Godhead. This other person is the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:33, Peter says, ‘He, (Jesus) being by the right hand of the Father exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Spirit has now poured out this which ye both see and hear.” There we have all three Persons of the Godhead involved in the Pentecostal experience.

Jesus exalted at the right hand of the Father, received from the Father the Spirit which He then poured out upon the believers. And He was always careful to say that, though He would send the Spirit, the Spirit proceeded from the Father.

One of the delights of studying the Scriptures is to see the absolute perfect coordination and cooperation between the Persons of the Godhead in every act that involves the gospel.

You see, even in the earthly ministry of Jesus, it always delights me to read in Acts 10:38, that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.

God the Father anointed Jesus the Son with the Holy Spirit, and all three Persons of the Godhead… I wonder if I could say this reverently, none of them wanted to be left out when it came to ministering deliverance to poor, oppressed humanity. The Father anointed the Son with the Spirit and the Godhead — entire — went into the business of deliverance. And the one that was responsible for man’s oppression was not God but the devil.

And so we have then these two great gifts that we spoke about God’s gift to the sinner, His Son Jesus Christ and then God’s gift to the believer, the Holy Spirit. Remember, in John 14:17, Jesus said, “The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit for it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.” The unbeliever cannot receive the Holy Spirit.

If a person has received the Holy Spirit, we know that he is a believer. That’s how Peter and the other Jews in the house of Cornelius realized, that  Cornelius and his household were believers, because they had received the Holy Spirit. Unbelievers can’t receive the Holy Spirit, the world cannot receive it. It is only for the children of God.

Jesus is God’s gift to the sinner; the Holy Spirit is God’s gift to the believer. Now as I pointed out yesterday and I just hope I get beyond today what I covered yesterday, but at the present rate of progress I don’t think I’m going to do it. Uh, but these things are so basic.

It grieves me to see people just interested in spiritual experiences without being interested in the author of all spiritual experiences. See this is a terrible condition to be in, it ends in terrible disaster sooner or later.

But anyhow, when a divine person comes to indwell a human life, things happen, there are going to be changes, things will not remain the same. If there have never been changes in your life, I question whether God has ever come to dwell in you because it’s inconceivable that God in person shall indwell a human life and leave things the way they were before. That would be out of the question.

Now I believe there is in the Scripture, in the  New Testament, one distinctive Greek word for the, any or all of the changes produced by the  indwelling of a divine person and this Greek word is ‘charisma’. And having studied this in the New Testament there are well over 20 different things that are called charismata, that’s the plural of charisma.

Today, in certain circles, this is limited more or less to the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit. So that when we talk about a charismatic renewal or charismatic people, what we mean is people that believe in and experience the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

However this is narrowing down this Greek word charisma in a way that the New Testament certainly does not do it. The first use that I know of in the New Testament of this Greek word charisma is in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the charisma, the grace gift of God is eternal life in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Notice this eternal life is a grace gift but it’s not what you’d call a supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the normally accepted term.

And notice that you do not receive the charisma first, you receive the Person first and as a result of receiving the Person, the charisma makes it felt. You receive Jesus Christ as a person and in Him you receive the charisma, the manifestation of God’s grace which is eternal life.

In another place in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 I believe, it is, Paul says, “every man has his own proper gift, one after this manner, another after that.” And the word is charisma and Paul goes on to make clear that in this connection, his particular charisma was the ability to live happily without a wife. Now this again is not normally considered a supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit but it is a charisma, it is a manifestation of God’s grace through receiving the person of Jesus Christ.

And Paul points out, not everybody is qualified for or desires this particular charisma, although he goes on to say that he could wish that everybody was as he was. So that we have then this broad phrase charisma which really covers every result of a divine person coming into your life. And I think you can find well over 20 different things that are described that way in the New Testament.

However within this total usage, as I pointed out yesterday, there is the area which are the immediate results of the indwelling of the Spirit of God within the physical temple of the believer’s body. These are charismata, but they are also classified by another name which is manifestation. They are called both.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 12 the word charisma occurs five times. So we cannot deny that they are charismata but they are charismata of a special kind, they are charismata which are manifestations of the indwelling Spirit of God. The Spirit of God Himself is invisible, He cannot be seen but the things that He does when He indwells a believer, these are manifestations of His invisible presence. They are things that can be seen and heard.

As the apostle Peter said in Acts 2:33, the verse I’ve already quoted, Jesus being by the right hand of the Father exalted and having shed forth the Holy Spirit which you now see and hear. They did not see and hear the Holy Spirit as a person but they saw and heard the manifestation of the invisible Spirit through the 120 believers that had been filled with the Holy Spirit.

And in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul says, ‘My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.’ So although the Spirit is invisible, His presence can be demonstrated by the results that are produced, and that is the New Testament pattern for preaching the Word: it’s not with enticing words of man’s wisdom but it’s in demonstration of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit by the results that are produced. And there is no substitute for this God appointed way of presenting the gospel.

Peter says that the angels desire to look into the gospel which we have, because it was preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. (1 Peter 1:12) And that’s the way it still should be preached, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, that’s what makes the angels excited about it, the fact that we have in this ministry the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, demonstrating His presence through His manifestation, through the lives of believers that are filled with the Holy Ghost.

And Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, as God has dealt to every man the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. To every man is given the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. In other words, every man means each individual believer is entitled to his particular manifestations of the Holy Spirit. It is not the will of God that any Christian should be without the particular manifestations that the Holy Spirit wants to give through Him.

In other words, in simple language, every Christian should manifest spiritual gifts. This is the will of God, this is the level on which God has ordained New Testament believers to live, in the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

Now today we will go on to these charismata, these grace gifts which are manifestations of the Holy Spirit. We’ll take a little while to deal with this particular area. They are enumerated in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I believe the list is complete: There are nine, you’ll find them in verses 8 through 10 of 1st Corinthians chapter 12.

I’ll give you the Prince version which is just a little different from the King James Version. The King James Version says, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge. I prefer to say, a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge because the definite article is not there in the Greek.

You see, God has all wisdom and all knowledge but He doesn’t bother you and me with all wisdom and all knowledge because we wouldn’t know what to do with it. But when we’re in a situation where we need wisdom or knowledge, then God gives us a word of His wisdom or a word of His knowledge.

Now all these manifestations I believe are on the supernatural plane, they’re nothing that you can get by education or study, although education and study are good things, but they are not the way that these gifts are manifested. It’s entirely supernatural. God just drops a word of wisdom into you and you know what to do in a situation where otherwise you wouldn’t know what to do.

Or God gives you a word of knowledge and you know something which you could never have known by any natural process of reason or investigation.

What’s the difference between wisdom and knowledge? Well knowledge is basically a fact, isn’t it, it gives you information. Wisdom tells you how to make the right use of the fact and therefore they’re very closely linked together. It’s almost useless to have knowledge without wisdom or to have wisdom without knowledge.

If you have wisdom without knowledge, you have no basis on which to act; if you have knowledge without wisdom you’ll probably do the wrong thing anyhow; and I mean that. I know people to whom God gave a supernatural word of knowledge but they didn’t ask God for the wisdom to do the right thing with the word of knowledge and they ended up with a lot of problems that they didn’t need to have.

I think of a specific case of a young African I know, wonderful convert. As a matter of fact you know his name, [Baraka Djiambo]. God gave him a word of knowledge about the attitude of the other Africans to him because he had been the personal secretary of Oginga Odinga who is a more or less communistically inclined African politician and when he was converted, his life was in danger when he took a stand for the gospel. And God showed him what all the other Africans were thinking and saying about him. But he was foolish enough to go and tell them what God had shown him.

Now I said to him: ‘Barak, God never told you to go and tell those people, you’ve just multiplied your problems, not solved them.’

Another occasion, a Christian businessman came to me and said ‘My wife has had a dream about another businessman and what he thinks about me, shall I go and tell him?’ I said, ‘Not unless the Lord tells you. Your first business is to pray and ask God to change that man’s attitude towards you, and then only speak to him if God shows you.’

And I’m happy to say that those two men, that could have been enemies, are the best friends today, because that man used his word of knowledge aright.

In the book of Proverbs, it says that the tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright. I know lots of people that use knowledge all wrong, they’ve got knowledge but they don’t have the wisdom to use it.

Now in Ecclesiastes 10:10, it says, ‘if the ax be blunt, he must put too much strength, but wisdom is profitable to direct.’ I believe this is the best simple account of Scriptural wisdom which is very different from, shall we say, the wisdom of this world, say philosophy, which I was a student of as you know.

In philosophy, the longer you make your words and the longer you make your sentences the wiser you are esteemed. Some of the writings of the philosopher Kant, he has one sentence that runs for more than two pages without a period, see, and I don’t believe even Kant himself knew what he was talking about, frankly. The same thing with people like Spinoza, people have argued ever since as to what Spinoza meant and nobody I think has really decided, and if anybody has decided he’s in the minority of one because nobody else agrees with him as to what Spinoza meant.

But Bible wisdom is entirely different. It’s very practical. You want to know what wisdom is in the Bible, read the book of Proverbs, how to buy the right field, how to choose the right wife, how to choose the right friend, what to do with your money. It’s very practical.

And in this passage in Ecclesiastes, which is also in the writings of Solomon, he says: now if you’ve got a blunt axe, and you want to cut down a tree, you’re going to have to put in a lot of unnecessary labor hewing away at that tree. But if you sharpen the axe and you know where to hit, just a few well-directed blows will bring the tree down, see. This is like, I always think of this in preaching.

When my axe is blunt and I don’t listen to the Holy Spirit, I can shout and I can get worked up and I can preach at people and it’s just like me trying to cut a tree down, chips are flying in all directions, sweat is running off my face but the tree obstinately remains standing. And then along comes a man who knows what to do with an axe and he sharpens the axe, looks at the tree, spits on his hands, give a few well directed blows and down comes the tree. He had the wisdom that was profitable to direct.

The same with preaching. You can go and preach the wrong thing to people and maybe very good preaching but it’ll do nothing. I remember spending a week in a certain Pentecostal assembly, preaching my best, as I thought but really nothing happened.

And I’d just been in another Pentecostal assembly where tremendous things had happened and I thought, if I brought the same message to the second place that would do the same job, see, but I was quite wrong. And only at the end of the week did I discover what I ought to have preached about which was reconciliation because half the people in that assembly hadn’t spoken to the other half of the assembly for five years.

Well what could you do? There’s no way for the Holy Spirit to move but I didn’t get my axe sharpened and I didn’t put the blows in the right place, I wasted a week.

Well now we have a word of wisdom, we have a word of knowledge. And there is one other of these gifts which is in the area of what we might call revelation. Many people have classified these nine gifts into three separate groups and I might as well do this. This is not my, doesn’t originate with me.

The Three Gifts Of Revelation: a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge; and discernings of spirits.

The three gifts of, what we call, the vocal gifts, that use the human vocal apparatus. Cannot operate apart from the human vocal apparatus: Prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues.

Then the three gifts which are often called the Gifts Of Power though that may not be the most accurate description: Faith, the workings of miracles, and the gifts of healing.

Well let’s consider first of all the area that we’ve begun in, the gifts of revelation: A word of wisdom, a word of knowledge. A little bit of God’s total wisdom and knowledge dropped into you to meet a particularly need in a particular situation; may come by a vision, may come by an audible voice, may come by an inward impression. There are many different ways in which these can come but they are supernatural, they originate with God, not with the human mind.

Discernings of spirit. This is all in the plural, discernings plural, of spirits plural. Discerning means to be able to recognize and to distinguish between and so it’s being able to recognize and distinguish between different categories of spirits.

Now spirits, to the natural eye, are invisible but they are more real than the visible because they’re eternal whereas the visible is temporal. And the whole course of human history and individual lives is ultimately decided by spiritual forces, so that unless we know what we’re dealing with in the spiritual realm, we’re like Paul when he said, I’m not like a boxer who just lands out blows but he’s fighting blindfolded because I don’t know whether I’m going to hit my enemy or where my enemy is or how to reach him.

When we get into the realm of the spiritual, then we know the enemy, we know the friend, we know what we’re dealing with, we know when our blows land, we know what results we produce. This is the realm that we have to operate in.

Now I do not believe discernings of spirits means necessarily discernings of evil spirits, for there are various categories of spirits. There is first of all the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. There are angelic spirits which are spirits. He maketh His angels spirits, the Scripture says.

Then there are evil spirits and I would say evil angels and I do not believe myself they’re identical but this is a personal opinion.

And then there is the human spirit for there is a spirit in man. These are all real, they’re all objective and they all come legitimately, within the total area of discernings of spirits. God has given me in recent years a very distinct measure of this gift, and I would  only point out that as far as I’m concerned it is not under the control of my will. People come up to me, not infrequently, say brother Prince, you have discernment, tell me what’s wrong with me?

And I say, why should I tell you when you can tell me, first of all. Secondly it doesn’t operate that way at least not in my case, it may with some people, I can only… it comes to me when it’s needed for me to help somebody, that’s all I can say and it’s not given to me to make me a critic or a judge of anybody. There is a vast gulf between carnal criticism and spiritual discernings of spirits.

If you have a critical spirit you have to get rid of that before you get any discernment. It’s not difficult to see what’s wrong with people but start with yourself, that will keep you busy.

Another thing I would say in this connection with all this is, don’t let’s forget that common sense is a gift from God too and a very important one. As far as I’m concerned in this realm, I just mention this  because one can help people most from experience. I can’t speak about the things that I don’t know much about, at least I’m better off if I don’t, but people can come to me now and tell me a little bit of their background and I can often tell them and I don’t need discernment.

If a person has had an unhappy childhood, comes from a divided home, especially if there’s been religion in that home without grace and love and that person has been in opposition to one or both of his parents, I can more or less tell that person what spirits are there immediately just on the basis of the facts. We’ll find resentment, hatred, rebellion. They’re likely to be followed by depression, fear and in extreme cases suicide. That’s just a matter of experience and common sense.

And I don’t believe God gives us supernatural revelation when common sense will do it. Why should He? Let’s never be so heavenly minded that we’re no more earthly use.

Well now I’m not, I don’t plan to deal with these gifts in detail this afternoon. I would also like to say, don’t be so demon-conscious that you lose sight of the Lord. The devil would love to have the center of the stage, don’t give it to him; Jesus is the center of everything.

Now then we have then, another set of three gifts that I don’t want to speak about in detail, what they call the Gifts Of Power: workings of miracles; gifts of healing, and faith. Faith is just a single word in this list.

You’ll find that faith is listed both under the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit and under the fruit of the Spirit. And this is very interesting when you think that Paul wasn’t sitting down and writing theological treatises but he was writing letters in the midst of tremendous outward pressure and urgent circumstances and needs that demanded his immediate attention.

But you’ll find, if you check, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, the 9 distinctive manifestations of the Holy Spirit; Galatians 5:22-23, the 9-fold fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. There is a wonderful balance and we should never get off balance on the gifts without the fruit nor should we get off balance on the fruit without the gifts.

Some people have the attitude, the anti-charismatics, well brother, I’ve got love and that’s all I need, I don’t need any gift. Now one thing experience has taught me is to question just how much love those people really do have because I found the people talk like that don’t have as much as they think they have.

Secondly, I can’t understand God-given love causing anybody to despise the gifts which God gives. That to me is inconceivable.

Thirdly, I find that the gifts are the channel through which God-given love is intended to be expressed. God’s love just doesn’t sit and feel sympathetic, it does things. God loved the world and He gave His Son. Jesus loved the world and He came and ministered to humanity and died in the sinner’s place.

And if we have genuine God-given love we’re going to do something for somebody, and the instruments with which we are to express this love, I believe, are the 9 gifts to the Spirit and they should never be used, any of them, except in love. Can you misuse gifts? Sure you can because Paul says, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I’m just tinkling sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Well God never intended any of His people to become just a tinkling cymbal or a sounding brass.

So here is an obvious case of somebody who has a gift of tongues, even angelic tongues and yet it’s misusing it because it’s not being used in love. None of the gifts is to be operated at any time except in love.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13, let all your things be done with love.

But on the other hand, as I say, there’re two sides to this. The way that love expresses itself, one vital way, not the only way, is through the supernatural gifts. If I love the church, I want to edify the church, I want to prophesy to the church. If I love the sick I want to minister healing and deliverance to the sick. If I love people that are confused and perplexed and uncertain, I want to be able to counsel them with divine wisdom and knowledge and understanding. This is practical. I don’t just sit and say I love you, that’s it. There’s something to be done about it.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FRUIT AND GIFTS

Now in these gifts, as I pointed out, faith is found in both categories: fruit and gifts. Let me just take a moment to point out the difference between fruit and gifts. See, it clears up a tremendous amount of confusion. People say, love is the best gift. Well I never found love classified as a gift anywhere in the New Testament, I don’t believe love is a gift: love is fruit, it’s the primary form of the fruit.

Now how would you distinguish between fruit and gift? I say, consider two trees, an apple tree and a Christmas tree. An apple tree produces fruit, a Christmas tree carries gifts.

How long does it take to put a gift on a Christmas tree? Just a moment.

How long does it take to get a gift off a Christmas tree? Just a moment.

But how long does it take to produce an apple on an apple tree? Quite a while. So fruit does not come by an instantaneous miracle but a gift can be received by an instance of faith.

Now faith is found in both lists but I believe there’s a different aspect of faith. Faith as fruit, I believe means two things. It means a continuing attitude of trust and it means reliability, and that’s a very important aspect of Christian fruit to cultivate, reliability. You say, you’ll teach a Sunday school class, you teach it. You say, you’ll preach in a certain church on a certain day, you’re in that church on that day to preach.

Preachers listen to me. I was in a church recently, they were really in confusion because a certain man said God had shown him he is to come there and preach, and then a week later God  showed him he was to go somewhere else to preach somewhere else and they’d put out the handbills  and made the announcement and there the man wasn’t. I don’t believe God leads preachers that way. Out of the fruit of the Spirit is reliability, dependability.

On the other hand, what is the gift of faith? I believe it’s analogous to a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge. Paul mentions it next, a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, faith. God has all faith but once again he doesn’t bother you and me with all faith because we’d never know what to do with it.

But in a moment of need He gives us just a little piece, a mustard seed size of his faith and it’s enough to move a mountain. How much more do you want? This is divine faith, you see divine faith is qualitative rather than quantitative. Jesus said, if you’ve got faith as a grain of a mustard seed, but He was talking about divine because just before that in Mark 11:22 He said, have the faith of God. That’s the correct translation, divine faith, God’s own faith.

Now what if God used to bring the world into being, His faith expressed by His word and when you have God’s faith, the word that you speak in that faith is just as effective as if God Himself had spoken but this is only when you have this supernatural faith.

Job 22:28, one of my favorite Scriptures: Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee. When you have this faith you say it, it’s just to say whether you or God said it. I like the men in the Old Testament that had that kind of faith.

Joshua. He said, ‘Now we want another 12 hours of daylight. Sun, stay up there and moon, stay over there,’ and they both obeyed him. Normally speaking God is in charge of the heavenly bodies but Joshua just had a moment of divine faith.

And then I like what Elijah said. He went to Ahab and he said, ‘as the Lord my God liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be rain or dew on the earth for these next years but by my word.’ I’m taking over the control of the rain and the dew for a little while, Ahab and I’m going to show you a thing or  two. I believe that kind of faith pleases God, it’s not arrogant. In fact, great faith always goes with great humility.

You know there were two people that Jesus praised particularly for their great faith in His earthly ministry? Both of them were gentile, and each of them was outstandingly humble. One was the centurion. When the Jews wanted Jesus to do something for the centurion, they said he’s worthy, he’s built us a synagogue, he’s a friend to our people.

You know the first thing the centurion said when he met Jesus? Lord, I am not worthy, and that’s why he got it because he wasn’t worthy and that’s why a lot of people don’t get healed because they think they’re worthy. You’re not worthy to be healed, it’s God’s grace. You receive it by faith apart from work. If you think you can work for it, well you don’t get it by grace, just one way or the other but it cannot be both.

If it’s of works, it’s no more grace; and if it’s of grace it’s no more works, Paul says in Romans chapter 11. You cannot mix them.

The other woman that had the great faith was the Syrophoenician woman. Jesus didn’t listen to her for a while, then He turned around and He said, it is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs and she said, ‘Lord, all I need is a crumb and I’m willing to take it from the floor.’

And what did Jesus say? O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt. That’s something, that is honor. No president, no king, no queen has ever conferred on any subject and honor equal to the medal that Jesus pinned on that woman’s breast when he said, o woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. That’s divine faith.

You have what you settle for in divine faith, but you can’t work it up, you can’t try to have it, you just let God give it to you when you need  it. And I would say this, if all you want to do is sit in church and sing hymns you don’t really  need any gifts of the Spirit. Why should God bother you with them?

But you put yourself out on a limb for God where you can’t survive if God doesn’t do something for you and God will do something for you. The way to receive gifts of the Spirit as far as I’m concerned is not to kneel in church all day and pray. Begin to move out for God and expect God to do more than you can do. Well this is a word of faith or I wouldn’t be accurate, the gift of faith.

The workings of miracles, again it’s plural. Both parts are plural: Workings of miracles. And as far as I’m able to understand each particular miracle is a working of a miracle and as far as I know, this is not under the control of the person through whom it operates. To me at the present time in United States the outstanding example of this particular gift is the ministry of Kathryn Kuhlman. I was in one of her services just recently in Pittsburgh but it was not under her control; she was simply the touch point, she could tell people when they were being healed but she couldn’t get them healed. She just could be open to the Spirit of God. It was not under her control and I believe the same is true with the gifts of healings and it’s plural again.

People say you got the gift of healing, brother, go into the hospital and heal all the sick but that’s ridiculous, you see, it doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t work through any human will. All that the human being can do is to be a willing, yielded, receptive channel God wants to operate that particular gift.

Here is where I believe, there is dividing line in the gift. The six gifts that we have spoken about so far: A word  of wisdom, a word of knowledge, faith, workings of miracles, gifts of healings and discernings of spirits, are under the sovereign control of God. He does not invest control of these in a human being as far as I’m able to understand although human beings may be habitually used as channels of them.

But when we come to the three vocal gifts, both Scripture and experience convinced me, that God does in a large measure give us control of these gifts. It’s an amazing thing, if I’d been God I wouldn’t have done it but then God didn’t consult me, He just did it. And so we find that there are no regulations I know of anywhere in the New Testament for the control or exercise of the six gifts that we’ve spoken about.

But for the three gifts, the vocal gifts, there is practically one entire chapter devoted to regulations for their proper use. Obviously this would be quite unnecessary if there was not the possibility of misusing them and indeed there is, and this has been one of the outstanding problems and hindrances to the Pentecostal movement, is the habitual misuse in some quarters of the vocal gifts.

And then people come along when you reprove them or correct them and they say, brother Prince, are you trying to correct the Holy Spirit?

‘Not for a moment brother, I wouldn’t dare.’ But I’m correcting your use of a gift which the Holy Spirit deposited in you and the Bible says we should.

Now let us briefly consider these gifts. Again I want to say, the person that said I couldn’t help it, the Holy Spirit made me do it, has got a misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not make people do things. The devil does.

I was praying, recently, in fact Mrs. Brown was present, I believe, when a woman interrupted the end of my message, defied me because there was a demon in her. It happened in Philadelphia and from the platform I rebuked this and eventually it submitted itself to me, because I’m a servant of Jesus Christ.

And I talked to that woman the next day, she came up and talked to me and she said, ‘you know brother Prince, I could not help what I was doing, I didn’t want to do it but I couldn’t help it.’ But she said, when I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit I could decide whether I was going to speak in tongues. There’s the difference. The devil makes people do things, the Holy Spirit doesn’t.

If you’ve got a spirit in your life that makes you do things you better question the identity of it. Peter said, the Spirit bade me go but he never said, the Spirit made me go. There’s a big difference. There can be a very strong impulsion but there’s always the possibility of resisting or saying no to the Holy Spirit.

Now with these vocal gifts let’s consider them this way: First of all, tongues. Basically this is speaking through the inspiration and operation of the Holy Spirit, a language which  you have never learned and do not understand. And you do this, as you do this you glorify and magnify the Lord; you have communion with the Lord and you edify yourself.

Now the Scripture is always very clear to set certain limits. Acts 2:4: They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit (with a capital S) gave them to speak.

People say this so often now that I think it must be brought into the public. Is it possible to speak in a tongue not by the Holy Spirit? I wouldn’t use that language but it is definitely possible to speak a language that you do not know through an evil spirit. In my experience, it’s not like speaking in a tongue but it is speaking a language.

I prayed with a young man that had dabbled in Egyptology amongst other things, and he came to me because he said, I know I need deliverance from evil spirits. And when he mentioned Egyptology, I rebuked the spirits that were behind that, and this man spoke to me in two languages he  didn’t know and I didn’t know, but it was not the least bit like the Holy Spirit speaking. And when that spirit left him, in each case, he could no longer speak that language.

Now the Bible says, as the Holy Spirit gives you to speak. We have come to the place where we’ve got to exercise caution and discernment. I don’t want to scare anybody. You do not need in the least bit ever to be afraid of getting the wrong spirit if you’re a child of God and your motives are right. For Jesus says in Luke 11:13, if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?

And in the same context He says, if you ask for bread, you will not get a stone; if you ask for a fish you will not get a snake. So if you are a child of God, now this is a vital thing… if you are a born-again child of God and you ask your Father, through Jesus, for the right spirit there’s a written  guarantee in the word of God you’ll get the right spirit. But if you’re not a child of God and you’re fooling around with spiritual and psychological experiences anything can happen, anything.

I dealt with a woman in Boston, she’d read a certain book, I don’t need to tell you the title of the book, and she was interested in psychic experiences and so she asked whatever God there might be for a gift of prophecy and she got what she asked for, she got a divining spirit, and she was tormented with it. Amongst other things she saw her own aunt in a vision died by drowning, and a little while later the aunt died by drowning, precisely as she had seen it. But this didn’t bring any blessing, it brought torment and a sense of guilt.

Without going into the details, I discovered that the whole of that family appeared to be under some kind of curse. Everything went wrong. One suicide after another. She got into the wrong spiritual realm because she didn’t go through the right door. The door is what? Jesus. I am the door, by Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture.

So wherever we are dealing with spiritual gifts and manifestations and experiences we have to emphasize the atoning work of Jesus, His divinity and His Lordship.

I was in a CFO meeting at Ardmore just a little over a week ago, prayed with about I think 50 people or more to receive the baptism in one meeting and many received. One woman came up to me afterwards, she said, I didn’t feel anything, I prayed the same prayer.

I looked at her but she said, you see, I can’t accept the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, I’m the wife of the unitarian minister.

Well, I said, on that basis the Holy Spirit won’t come near you and I thought to myself it’s probably good if some other spirit didn’t come near you. You have no right of access into the realm of the Holy Spirit but by the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not fool around with these things.

Well this is tongues. Now I believe every person baptized in the Holy Spirit has a right to his own tongue, another tongue which God gives him. This was the evidence of his baptism and if he lived in this realm, he can have this right of divine communion at any time.

Paul says, if I pray in a tongue, an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful and I believe from the way Paul writes and from other passages of Scripture, every believer is in the will of  God to have his own divine channel of communion with the Lord. But the exercise of tongues in the public assembly of God’s people which Paul calls the church, that is not always given to all believers.

So in the church, in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 28 through 34 Paul says, do all speak with tongues, implying no, but you’ll notice it’s in the church. If you start at verse 28, the public exercise of tongues in a meeting of God’s people is not necessarily available to all but the private use of the devotional tongue, I believe, is available to all. This, I think, clears up some misunderstandings which could arise.

Those of us that have preached in other countries through interpreters, we’re familiar with the fact that there are many different kinds of interpreters.  So many things when I look at brother Sinclair remind me of East Africa. For instance in East Africa I had two interpreters and they’re both known to him, [Jamie Shem] and [Isaac Taguli]; they both were excellent interpreters into the Swahili language but I could be sure that for every one word that [Isaac Taguli] used [Shem Rangi] would use two, but they were both interpreting brother Prince.

I remember a Canadian missionary came out and he was preaching through [Shem Rangi] who’s considered to be probably the best Swahili interpreter in East Africa, at least he was at that time. This missionary made one simple statement in English and Shem took off and spoke for maybe two or three minutes.

So the missionary said, did I say all that?

And Shem said, no but I had to say all that to make them understand what you were trying to tell them.

Well that’s interpretation, you see. So this clears up some of the misunderstandings. People say, well, long message in tongues, short interpretation, how could that be? Well, it’s the rendering of the sense, not necessarily a word-for-word translation.

Then again we have to bear in mind that sometimes in a public meeting an utterance in a tongue is not given to be interpreted but it’s a kind of intercession for God to intervene in the meeting and it may often be followed by a prophecy. The prophecy is not an interpretation of what was said before but it is, shall we say, sparked by the tongue.

But there are also these things, people sometimes get very moved in the meeting and that’s good and they burst out in tongues aloud without any real contribution to the meeting. And my opinion is that it was wonderful to have that spirit of intercession but it should have been kept quiet. Paul says if there’s no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church and let him speak to himself and to God.

Many people that have been baptized in the Spirit for years do not realize that they can speak in tongues to themselves. This is an astonishing fact. I’ve met many people in Pentecostal assemblies who could not speak in tongues unless they disturb the meeting. You don’t need to.

You say, brother Prince, I’ve got a burden, just pray all through my sermon but don’t interrupt me please.

You’ve heard the story of Lewi Pethrus? This is what I like. He’s one of the great pioneers of the Pentecostal movement in Sweden, he’s a Swede, of course Swedish is his mother tongue but he has a good knowledge of English. He was preaching in a public auditorium in Vancouver, British Columbia through an interpreter and while he was in the middle of his message, speaking in Swedish being interpreted, a man somewhere up in the balcony stood up and began to shout in tongues: ‘Pastor Pethrus is very small but very authoritative little man’, put up his hand and said, thank you; I have an interpreter, I don’t need an interrupter, sit down.

And I often think that. I have, I don’t need an interrupter. Normally speaking, and there can be exceptions to anything, I do not believe it is Scriptural or necessary or right to interrupt the preacher.

On another occasion, when my wife was present, she told me about this. Pastor Pethrus was speaking in Swedish and in the middle of his message a Swedish sister began to give a message in tongues, and Pastor Pethrus put up his hands, said, sister, what I have is also from God but she sat down, became quiet.

At the end of his message, she gave the message in tongues again, it was interpreted. And Pastor Pethrus said, now you see, this proves that what she had was right because she was willing to accept correction. And she was willing to learn to give it at the right time. If she’d got angry and stamped out as a lot of people would’ve done, that would have proved she didn’t have the right Spirit of God.

I’ll tell you something else that happened in a meeting in London years back. I was a visitor in this particular assembly. They were having a big convention and early on a sister gave an utterance in a tongue and the Lord immediately gave me the interpretation but as I listened I noticed that the leaders on the platform didn’t have confidence in that sister, and instead of waiting for the interpretation they began to sing her down as we say.

Mind you I believe singing down is not the right solution to these problems. I believe quiet, loving instruction from behind the pulpit is the right solution, not just from brush the thing aside, pretend it didn’t happen.

So I thought, well if they don’t have confidence in the sister that gave the tongue they’ll have no confidence in the interpretation, so I didn’t give it. Later on in the same meeting another sister from another part of the auditorium gave an utterance in a different tongue but the Lord gave me precisely the same interpretation.

Now this time the leaders apparently had confidence. They waited, so I gave the interpretation and people were blessed. But you see if I had just rushed in the first time I would have had the right interpretation but it wouldn’t have done the right thing.

Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time and a purpose to everything, a time and a season to every purpose and activity. Not enough just to know you have an utterance in a tongue, you’ve got to give it at the right time, you’ve got to wait, got to be timed right  and it’s got to be given in the right spirit.

And then let’s consider prophecy for a moment.  Prophecy is inspired utterance given by the Holy Spirit independent of the human mind but in a  language that is known and understood by the speaker and those to whom he is speaking.

Now Paul very clearly gives the basic differences between tongues in public and prophecy this way or tongues, I should say, and prophecy. And I’d just like to do it, let’s do it, use my right hand for prophecy and my left hand for tongues.

Tongues, he that speaketh, speaketh not unto men but unto God. Prophesying, he speaketh to men.

Tongues, he speaketh mysteries, things that cannot be understood. Prophecy, he speaks things that can be understood.

Tongues, he edifies or builds up himself, the speaker. Prophecy, he edifies or builds up the church, the believers that hear him. Each has its place but they’re quite distinct.

Now in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 Paul says, let the prophets speak two or three and let the others judge. The others is my translation, because it’s plural in the Greek. I believe today this is of vital importance.

There are two things I’ll point out. First of all, prophets is in the plural and you, if you check you’ll find that almost all through the New Testament in the church dispensation, from John the Baptist forward, we do not have one main operating as a prophet on his own. There’s only one case and it’s Acts chapter 20 and it is Agabus and he told Paul only what was a confirmation of what Paul had been told in several different places previously. And otherwise it seems to be Scriptural in the New Testament, not for one man to be the prophet telling everybody what to do but for a group of men who minister together.

For instance Acts 13:1, now that was in the church  that was at Antioch, certain prophets, plural, and teachers, five are mentioned. You see this makes a tremendous difference. Prophecy is never given to enable any one person to dominate or dictate to anybody else. This use of prophecy is what brought it into tremendous disrepute and caused tremendous problems.

And I believe there are two safe guards. First of all, it’s not one man, I’m the prophet in this assembly, now you all do what I say or you’re resisting God. Secondly, it’s let the others judge. And I have come to this place for my part where I am not prepared to accept the manifestation of prophecy unless it submitted to judgment and I don’t believe it’s Scriptural to do so.

I believe it’s far too dangerous. If we’re going to have prophecy, thank God for it, but let’s have judgment too. And if you’re not prepared to have judgment don’t prophesy and if you’re not prepared to exercise judgment don’t tolerate prophesying if you’re responsible for what is going on. Now this is my firm conviction and I believe it’s absolutely in line with the New Testament.

I’ll tell you one thing, it takes courage to be a leader in any aspect of God’s work and I have known areas in the Pentecostal movement where the whole movement was gone astray because the leaders lacked moral courage. They were not prepared to discipline people and you know what happened? If you do not exercise discipline this is what will happen and I’ve seen it happen in my own country Britain. You’ll lose the people that want discipline and you be left with the people that don’t want discipline and you’ve made the worst possible bargain you could ever make.

Because the people that want discipline will not go on permanently side by side with the people that don’t want. So you’ve got to choose and if you’re going to let anybody go, let the undisciplined rebels go and keep the people that want the real thing.

I can give you some examples of this. There are one or two, sister Taylor is probably a witness of these things. In Chicago, a little while back, when I was in First Tabernacle where I often preach in the Sunday morning service, a man came in. I understand that he makes the practice of doing this in the whole Chicago area and he obviously intended to prophesy to us all. He’d come there with that purpose and it wasn’t long, we were still in the  preliminaries, when he stood up from the back and began to shout out what purported to be a prophecy but it was all condemning. You’re wicked, you’ve disobeyed God, you’ve failed God and all the rest.

Now the Scripture says, he that prophesies speaking unto man edification, exhortation and comfort.

Well I sat there, I wasn’t behind a microphone and I just boiled inwardly and decided to have grace. I didn’t have too much. He got away with it the first time and this emboldened him and it wasn’t long before he did it the second time. I still wasn’t behind a microphone but this time my grace ran out.

So I stood up and I said, brother, sit down. I want to say publicly that I do not accept this as a genuine manifestation of the gift of prophecy. And he wasn’t willing to sit down so I asked the deacons to help him sit down. When he saw the deacons converging on him he sat down.

Now I said, I don’t want to be a dictator. The Bible says, let the prophet speak and let the others judge. Now I have the gift of prophecy and I am exercising my Scriptural right to judge what purports to be prophecy.

I said, the Bible says, he that prophesies speaketh unto man edification, exhortation and comfort. All I’ve heard from this brother is confusion and condemnation which is the exact opposite and I do not accept that.

I said, furthermore I’ll tell you why I’ve said this in public because we have two rows of young people sitting at the front. And I was watching their faces while he was prophesying and they were saying as plainly as possible with their faces that was phony and they didn’t accept it. And I said, I want to tell these young people, I agree absolutely with their diagnosis and we have lost far too many young people to the truths of the Holy Spirit by going along for the sake of compliance and outward conformity with things we knew were phony rather than stand up and say it. And the young people say, well if they’re fooled by that kind of thing we won’t go for their religion and I don’t blame them, I’d say the same.

And the time has got to come when we won’t do that. Well you know what happened then was two or three other brethren in the assembly that had the gift of prophecy stood up one after the other, they said, I agree with brother Prince. They had the right to say yes or no. Result was that man got away with nothing. He didn’t confuse the young people, he didn’t confuse the congregation of God’s people and you know what surprised me, he was back again in church next Sunday behaving. Think of the good that was accomplished by that.

Now, we have to stop but I believe this is so practical that I just give you another example. I was in a convention of the Full Gospel Businessmen in a certain city in a certain state and I was responsible for the afternoon Bible teaching which is a tremendous privilege and I enjoy. And I was speaking about the gifts of the Spirit and because this puts me in a tremendous responsibility because if then something is done and I don’t do anything about it I’m condemned by my own words.

Well at the end of my speaking, a sister, somewhere in the middle, gave the most beautiful anointed utterance in a tongue and a brother, now this brother, I learned later, was notorious. He travels around in that area, uninvited, moving in on conventions to breath in his own pet little doctrine which I won’t mention by name.

But you see, apart from whether his doctrine is right or wrong, his motives were all wrong. And when this lady gave this interpretation we waited quietly and reverently and he stood up and he began to say all sorts of things which were really memorized Scriptures. They had no anointing on them, they had no relevance to the present situation, it was just spoiling a beautiful tongue that we’d heard.

So I said, ‘Lord I better have wisdom now,’ and when he finished I was standing just exactly where I am now, I said, now our brother has quoted some of the Scriptures that he’s memorized for us, now we want the real interpretation and we got it.

Well you may think I don’t know what you think about me but how can we have the right thing if we’ll just take the wrong and we think about being, maybe hurting the feelings of one person. What about hurting the feelings of the Holy Spirit, did you ever think about that? How long is the Holy Spirit going to put up with our foolery?

Now this is the exception, I don’t want to give you the impression that it’s always happening but only has to happen a few times like that to discredit the whole thing in the eyes of many sincere seekers.

Now I believe we have come to the end of this Bible study period. If there are those here this afternoon that would like to receive in practical experience the gift of interpretation I will be happy to spend further time instructing and ministering to them.

The Bible says, wherefore let him that speaketh in a tongue, pray that he may interpret and I’ve proved by experience that if I can create faith in people for that those that already speak in tongues will receive the ability to interpret. God does not, I believe, intend people to be without this.

So  to give a practical conclusion to this I’m going to suggest this, that those of you that have now received as much as you want for this afternoon, after a brief prayer of dismissal you will move out. You can go by the book table on your way out. And those that are interested in receiving the gift of interpretation. If we have time we could move on to the gift of prophecy too, we’ll  see. We might do that.

You see, the Bible says, ye may all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted. Now I believe that, I believe you may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, not necessarily that all may go on doing it always but all may learn and all may be comforted.

How am I to understand that all these people sitting here towards the front are here because you’re interested in these gifts, is that right? If you’re interested in these gifts, would you put your hand up? Well that’s really wonderful, I praise God for that.

We have to have a Scriptural basis for what we do and if you have a Bible with you, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and we’ll read verses 12 and 13…

1 Corinthians 14:12-13. Now with this large company of people you’ll understand that we can only do things in a general way, I cannot minister to everybody individually and there may be tares among the wheat. So I want you to know, every one of you is responsible for your own personal motive in relationship to God, I’m not responsible. If your motives are right, your relationship is right, things will be right. I can instruct you and help you to receive these gifts but how you use them is your personal responsibility and I want to lay that before you very solemnly.

This is not a place to fool around with interesting, spiritual experiences, that’s not what we’re here for. We’re here, as brother Jim said in his prayer, to be able to better minister to human need within the church and without it, and that’s the basic motive.

One keyword in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 is the word edify or edification which occurs seven times and it’s the key. The whole thought is, building up, building people’s character up, building people’s faith up, building up the church of Jesus Christ, building up myself, building up my brother. If that’s our motive things will go right but if we have selfish or wrong motives or self seeking or self aggrandizing motives, that’s not  right.

Now I am not responsible for your motive. I’m responsible to warn you and that I’ve done. Now the responsibility is with each one of you. 

Now Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:12-13: ‘Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.’ Notice the motive. To excel not for your own glory or personal satisfaction but that you may excel to the edifying, the building up of the church which means the assembled company of God’s people and in that connection Paul says, “wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.”

Now if your motive is to excel the edifying of the assembly of God’s people and you speak in a tongue, Paul says, you may pray that you may interpret. I believe this is quite clear and straightforward.

Now if God says that we may pray that we may interpret, to me this is abundantly clear that it’s the will of God that we should interpret. God does not tell us to pray for something that He doesn’t mean us to have.

Therefore on the basis of this Scripture, I believe that where the motives are those described, it is perfectly Scriptural for a person who knows what it is to speak in a tongue to pray for the interpretation of that tongue. This is step number one, this is not the full use of this gift in a public assembly in the ordinary way. This is a kind of learner’s step but it’s the step that leads many into a public ministry that blesses others which they did not have before.

So I conclude and if you conclude with me then it will work for you, that it is God’s will, if you speak in a tongue and your motives are those described, that you may pray to interpret and you will  interpret.

Now John says in his first epistle the 5^th chapter the 14 and 15 verses: And this is the confidence that we have in Him. Notice our confidence is in a person, in Him. That if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.

In other words, if you know according to the word of God you’re praying in the will of God and you ask for something in the will of God, you know that God hears you and because God hears you, you know that you  have, not will have but do have, the thing you asked for. Now this is vital because if you pray for interpretation and it’s in the will of God for you to have it from that moment onwards you know you have it. All you have to do now is exercising.

Jesus says the same thing virtually in Mark 11:24: Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire. And the Bible says desire spiritual gifts, doesn’t it? All right? What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Now I want to ask you this question, when do you receive them? When you pray, that’s right. When do you receive them? When you pray.

So now, you ask God for the gift of interpretation, it’s in the revealed will of God, you desire it because God says desire spiritual gifts. When do you receive it? When you pray, when you ask for it.

Well if you’ve received it when you asked for it, what’s the next thing to do? Exercise it. Just exactly the same with receiving the Holy Spirit. You receive the Holy Spirit, what do you do you? You begin to speak. You don’t know what you’re going to say but that’s faith and the person that does in faith the Holy Spirit never has let them down, He’s always provided the words, a beautiful, fluent, perfect language.

So it’s exactly the same with interpretation, only the secret is this: When you’re praying for the new tongue you’ve got to stop speaking your own language to start speaking a new tongue, see. As long as you go on in the known you cannot speak the unknown because you cannot speak two different languages at the same time.

Now in praying for interpretation you’ve just got to reverse it. You’ve got to stop speaking in a tongue and start speaking in the known language and just as some people have a problem to stop speaking the known language and start speaking the tongue, others have a problem in the next stage, to stop speaking in a tongue and start speaking in your known language but the principle is absolutely the same. If you’ve proved already that it worked when you went into the moving of the unknown language, now you can know for sure it will work exactly the same when you move out of the unknown and back into the known. It’ll work exactly the same.

Now whenever a message in tongues — the word message are put in quotes because brother David du Plessis rightly points out, it doesn’t occur in the New Testament, but I think it’s a convenient way of saying something which otherwise you’ve got to say about three sentences to explain what you mean.

But let’s put it in quotes. Whenever a “message in tongues” is given it’s desirable that there’s a very definite period at the end of it. I say this, if you are moved to give an utterance in an unknown tongue in the public assembly, please know when to stop. Do not go on dribbling, a little more and a little more because think of the person that’s going to give the interpretation, how are they to know when to begin. Trust the Lord to give you a precise period, close, then everybody knows, now the interpretation must follow.

Likewise when you do it yourself, don’t go dribbling on. Speak in a tongue for a period and it’s under your control, you realize that? Paul says, I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding. It’s His will that decides.  Your will is the switch. You can turn the switch up and pray in the spirit, turn the switch down, pray in the understanding. The switch is your will.

The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. You are not subject to some outside external force that you can’t control, it’s under the control of your will. I will pray with the spirit, I will pray with the understanding.

Now experience in this has convinced me that normally when a person speaks in a tongue themselves and then themselves asked for the interpretation, the interpretation in the great majority of cases falls in one or other of two categories. It is either simply praise and worship to God. In first of all you praise and worship God in an unknown tongue, now in your known tongue you praise and worship God. You’re interpreting the praise that you gave first in the unknown tongue.

Alternatively it happens also that God will take your own lips and use them to speak to you through your lips and you will find God speaking to you through your own lips, encouraging you, admonishing you, directing you and so on.

Now I’ve taken rough proportions and I find, in a group of this size, if people come through and receive  interpretation about 40 percent will find their interpretation is praise and worship and about 60 percent will find that God is using their own lips to speak to them.

Now it’ll be interesting to see how it happens here this afternoon. I want to emphasize again, to avoid any misunderstanding, this is not the ultimate. This is a learner’s stage.

Some of you, when you’ve got this far will move on, others may not move on. But experience has convinced me that many that never had any liberty in the exercise of these gifts before will have them after this. So now the way I want you to do it is this, first of all, I want you to be grounded in the Scripture. Let’s read those two verses again. Now if you don’t have the Bible I’ll read them out for you.

Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. That’s our Scriptural basis. This is, gives faith a basis in the word.

And what I want you to do is, I’m going to pray for all of you collectively and when I finish this prayer I want each one of you that is able to do so to speak out loud but not loud, just loud enough to hear yourself distinctly, not loud enough to disturb your neighbor, in an unknown tongue. And do not go on too long because that will overburden your faith for the interpretation. I’ll leave it to you to decide just exactly how long to stop. 

Now when you’ve finished you’re not going to speak another word in a tongue. You say, Lord, now I ask You for the interpretation in the name of Jesus and what do you do after that? You speak the interpretation. No more tongue. You believe it can be done, you really sure, it can be done? All right.

Well those of you that believe it can be done, you’ll do it. Those of you that are uncertain, we don’t know quite what will happen to you.

All right. Now is that clear, have I made myself clear? Now I want you to detach yourself from your surroundings, other people, brother Prince,  the whole setup, shut yourself in with the Lord Jesus Christ because He’s the giver of every gift, amen. Now I’m going to pray for you collectively, then I’m going to ask you to set off.

Father, thank you that we’re gathered here in the name of the Lord Jesus acknowledging Jesus is the Son of God, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the Savior of the world, our own personal Savior  and Lord, the one who died on the cross in our place, shed His blood to redeem us, rose again  from the dead and is now at Thy right hand.

Lord Jesus we acknowledge You in all our ways and You have said You direct our path. Now I thank You for those of Your people here this  afternoon that are zealous of spiritual gifts and desire to excel the edifying of the church. They have already experienced speaking in a tongue and now Lord they want to launch out according  to Your word and interpret. And I pray that as we wait here in your presence, You will give them the desire of their heart according to Your word, in the name of Jesus, amen.

For Further Reading:

(Through The Bible) Genesis – Part 2: Zac Poonen (Transcript)

A. W. Tozer Sermon: The Deeper Life (Transcript)

Zac Poonen Sermon: The Fear Of God And Humility (Transcript)

Who Has Bewitched You? (Part 3): Derek Prince (Transcript)

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