GRACE UNVEILED, #37: Tongues: The Fire Is Still Burning | Jim Hammond
Recap
Have you ever been in a place in your life where you don’t know how to pray or what to pray… where you don’t have the words to express to God what you need from Him? It’s a place in which all born again believers have found themselves. This is the subject matter Pastor Jim taught us in his 37th installment of his ongoing series on the book of Romans—“Grace Unveiled.” It is the Holy Spirit that makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered in articulate language. About tongues, Pastor Jim said, “I do this for myself. You should pray in tongues for yourself. It’s a mistake not to!”
Dive Deeper
Pastor Jim started the message with Romans 8:24–25: “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”
Pastor Jim said, “These two scriptures are telling us that what is coming for Christianity is far beyond what we are dealing with in the present.” If you believe Jesus died on the cross, rose from the dead three days later, you don’t have everything the cross and resurrection gave you. What we received when we became born again is simply a down payment. We’re waiting for the day of Jesus’ return when we will receive glorified bodies. There will be no comparison in the amount of power, right down to the bodies in which we operate.
Author Kenneth E. Hagin wrote “Tongues Beyond the Upper Room”
Kenneth E. Hagin wrote a book titled, “Tongues Beyond the Upper Room.”
Pastor Jim said his parents, Pastors Mac and Lynne Hammond, consider Kenneth E. Hagin to be their spiritual father in the faith.
Romans 8:26–27 are the verses of scripture Brother Hagin used in his book: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
PC Nelson, number one authority on the Greek language…
Pastor Jim said, “Just like my parents viewed Brother Hagin as their spiritual father in the faith, brother Hagin also had a spiritual father in the faith by the name of PC Nelson.” At the time, brother Nelson was considered to be “the” number one authority on the Greek language in America. Also, he could speak and write 32 different languages.
With regard to Romans 8:26, PC Nelson said, “In the Greek language, the phrase ‘the Holy Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered’ means the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered in articulate language.”
In the Greek language, articulate speech refers to just regular speech. This intercession with groanings by the Holy Spirit cannot happen with regular speech.
PC Nelson pointed out that groanings is not something the Holy Ghost does apart from you. Read Romans 8:26 again: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
It is making the point that this is not something the Holy Ghost is going to do that’s apart from you. You have to be involved in this. The Holy Spirit is helping you pray a prayer that cannot be uttered in articulate speech.
The Holy Spirit gives you utterance…
Let’s look at 1st Corinthians 14:14: “For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the Holy Spirit within me] prays, but my mind is unproductive [it bears no fruit and helps nobody].”
When you pray in tongues, it’s not your mind doing the praying. It’s coming out of your spirit, the Holy Spirit within you. It is your spirit by the Holy Spirit praying. The Holy Spirit gives you utterance—utterance that’s not being spoken in articulate speech. Through this, He is helping you pray out the perfect will of God.
He’s praying out the plan of God for you through your tongue language when you do not know what to pray.
Pastor Jim said, “I do this for myself. You should pray in tongues for yourself. It’s a mistake not to. Or if I’m lifting up someone else or another situation, I just simply direct Him. ‘You know what to pray here.’ I’ve made the request in my understanding. And you’ve got to pray this situation out. The actual groaning is speaking of a burden of prayer, and it’s a hard thing to put into words. So this is saying it’s coming from the heart. And there’s no better way to put it.”
Jimmy Swaggert Bible commentaries…
Jimmy Swaggert has written commentary on every book of the Bible. His commentary on Romans 8:26 says, “The Holy Spirit is looking for a soul searching that cries to God to such an extent that such a burden really can’t even be put into words. Groanings means ‘to cry’ in the Greek language.”
Pastor Jim said, “Brother Swaggert was a pray-er just like my mother is a pray-er.” About prayer, Brother Swaggart’s Bible commentary said, “Many times in prayer, the Holy Spirit will move through me in exactly this manner. The tears will begin to come as the Lord takes me into the very throne room of God. You cannot generate this. You cannot plan for this. You can’t say, I’m going to go groan. I’m going to go cry and pray something out.’ There’s no way that one can properly express these times except with tears. And while the weeping comes from my heart, it is the Holy Spirit who is actually moving upon me that this type of prayer would go forth.”
Brother Swaggart also said, “I personally believe it’s the highest type of prayer. In times of prayer such as this, when the Holy Spirit does move in this fashion in my own spirit, I feel that I’ve gotten through to the throne of God as at no other time in my life. To fully describe what has happened, one is unable, and at the same time there is a peace that fills one’s heart. Because beyond a shadow of a doubt, that which what the Holy Spirit wanted has been prayed through, has been done through the groanings, through the cry, which cannot be uttered.”
The Greek word for infirmities…
Let’s look again at the first line of 8:26: “Likewise, the Spirit also helps our infirmities.” The Greek word for “infirmities” in the Strongs Concordance means “feebleness of mind or body.” Tongues helps your mind, and tongues helps your body. That’s what it’s saying: He’s going to help your feebleness of mind.
What would be feebleness of mind? If you have a porn problem, that’s feebleness of mind. Your mind is dominating your life. You can’t get the pictures out of your mind. You keep going back. And you keep going back because you’re condemned. That is an example of a feebleness of mind.
Romans 8:26 in the Amplified: “So too, the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our feebleness of mind or body in our infirmities and our moral frailty.” Moral frailty is feebleness of mind. “So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication…”
Remember, you are the one praying here. “…and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.” So the Holy Spirit comes to our aid, bears us up in our feebleness of mind or body, helps our infirmities.
Read About It
Romans 8:24–25, “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”
Romans 8:26–27, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
First Corinthians 14:14, “For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the [d]Holy Spirit within me] prays, but my mind is unproductive [it bears no fruit and helps nobody].”