The Baptism In The Holy Spirit
Lesson Sixteen - The Perfect Spirit, The Perfect Prayer, The Perfect Power

TEXT: Romans 8:25-26 - Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

The Holy Spirit makes intercession for us and through us to the Father according to the will of God. When we pray in other tongues we are assured that our prayers are being heard and the Father will answer what the Holy Spirit is asking. Other than the model prayer Jesus gave His disciples, this is a perfect prayer. It's all of HIM, none of us because we sometimes just don't know how to pray as we ought to.
This summer "The Perfect Storm" was one of the hit movies of the season. It depicted a perfect storm at sea that developed when tremendous forces in nature came together and produced one of the most awesome things in meteorology. Waves of up to 100 feet high and winds up to 200 M.P.H. were reported in measuring instruments out in the open Atlantic. The force of water destroyed the Andrea Gail and killed her crew of 14. Whatever happened in the atmosphere produced such a collision of nature's forces that weathermen called it "the Perfect Storm." It was something never seen in weather records dating back to 1861 up to the time the storm occurred in 1991. We have not seen anything like it since.

There is a similar force available to us as believers to produce the same type results in eternity. It's the power of the Holy Spirit and it is available to all believers who want to be endued with power from on high. When we are endued with power from on high we believe that we speak with other tongues as the Spirit of God gives us utterance. This utterance becomes another language or prayer language. It gives us the power to embrace the PERFECT PRAYER that the Spirit prays for the believer to the Father. It releases more power than anything Hollywood might try to depict about the Perfect Storm in 1991. This power shakes eternity!

The Holy Spirit is so vital to our walk with the Lord. I feel sometime that those of us who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking with other tongues take the Holy Spirit for granted. We have an experience and we feel like we have won some gold medal or something but we never pursue a deeper walk with the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to truly control us and empower us for service. The Holy Spirit does not originate truth nor does He originate attention to Himself. Jesus said when the Holy Spirit came He would speak of JESUS. He would take of the Father and show us what the Father had for us. He would glorify CHRIST. Christ is the center of our worship. Christ is the center of our salvation. Christ is the center of every breath we take. It was JESUS who created the worlds with the word of His power. God the Father laid the plans, Jesus spoke the worlds into existence and the Holy Spirit carried out the groundwork. All three are perfectly God. All three are perfectly one. All three are different personages though of the Triune Godhead.

Praying In Tongues

In the Old Testament we see God the Father speaking directly to men through Moses, the tabernacle, angels and the prophets. The revelation of God takes on a new meaning with the birth of Jesus, His only begotten Son. The Gospels record His life, work and death, burial and resurrection. He ascends to heaven and promises to send one back that will take His place on earth - the Holy Spirit. Jesus spoke more about the Holy Spirit during the last 3 weeks of His life than He did the entire 3 1/2 years of His life. WHY? Because He knew the ministry of the Holy Spirit would so vital to the lives of His disciples and those who would later come into the Kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit is God. He is not a force. He is not an abstract object. He is not a movement. He is not an "it." We are not seeking an "it," we are seeking HIM. When He comes in He will bring with Him a new language that is unknown to us but is known in the heavens, a heavenly language if you will.

Christ gives this heavenly language to the believer. Jesus is the baptizer in the Holy Ghost. This is what Jesus Himself promised through John the Baptist and His own teachings:

Matthew 3:11-12 - I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: [12] Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Acts 1:4-5 - And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. [5] For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

Jesus Himself commanded the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father. What was the promise of the Father? It was the mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. These disciples were not meeting to get saved; they were waiting for an endowment of power. Jesus made it clear - John had baptized them in water, He was about to baptize them with the Holy Ghost. When the Holy Ghost came on the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost something radically new happened to those gathered:

Acts 2:1-4 - And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. [2] And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. [3] And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. [4] And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Without having a college understanding of the Bible one can plainly read it in verse 4- and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Spirit gave them utterance. The Spirit gave them utterance. The Spirit gave them utterance. Man didn't give it to them. Their education didn't give it to them - in other words they didn't learn it through intelligence. The church didn't bestow it on them - in fact after this happened the Jewish synagogue leaders basically sought their lives to kill them. NO! The Spirit of God gave them the utterance and the Spirit of God has been doing it ever since - EVEN TODAY!

Right now as we write this the largest group of people on the face of the earth right now in Christendom are people who have been gloriously baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. Sadly, the enemy has fought tooth and toenail to get people to doubt this experience. He has caused some to attack it claiming the experience is of Satan and demonic. He has caused Pentecostals to be divided over it - not just with other denominations such as the Baptist and the Methodist - but within our own camp. Sadly, many Pentecostals who have received this blessed experience have placed it on the shelf and never talk in tongues on a regular basis when they pray. We do this to our death! WHY? Because when we pray in other tongues we are allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through us directly to God. When we allow the Holy Spirit to pray through us we know that we are not praying selfishly nor are we praying amiss. We are praying the will of God. It's a PERFECT PRAYER. It is as perfect as what Jesus told the disciples to pray in Luke 11 - the prayer we often refer to in Christendom as the Lord's Prayer.

This prayer is the Spirit's PRAYER and it shakes hell. Satan cannot stop this connection - except one way - UNBELIEF and LAZINESS on the part of the believer. People who don't believe in speaking in tongues will not have this connection and people who have the gift and are lazy and don't use it will not have this connection either. The ones who have and don't use it are missing a chance to shake the gates of hell and touch heaven!

Romans 8:26-29 - Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes 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.

1 John 5:13-15 - These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. [14] And this is the confidence that we have 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.
Paul writes in Romans when we pray in tongues the Spirit is making intercession for the saints according to the will of God. John compliments Paul's verse by stating that we have confidence in knowing that if we ask any thing according to the Father's will that He not only hears us but whatever we ask of Him - HE WILL GRANT OUR PETITION! That is an awesome thing. No wonder the devil fights this experience like he does. No wonder he doesn't want people receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit. It's more than just getting chill bumps or getting a gold medal. It's a link to heaven and that link crushes HIS HEAD when we pray in the Spirit!

You see the Spirit, who is God, searches our heart and knows what is best for us. That's why it's good we don't understand what He is praying through us when this occurs! That's why it's good we can't understand the language because if we did we might not pray what's truly best for us. Our prayers in English most of the time are laced with selfishness or lust. We ask amiss to gain something from the Lord instead of asking the Lord to change our inner nature, which if that is changed, will allow us to receive more and more of the things of God. When the Spirit prays for us, we know He has searched our heart and knows what our true condition is. He then asks the Father to make that condition right and align our lives with His Word and His Truth - JESUS CHRIST.

We are seeking to be in union with JESUS. Only the Holy Spirit can bring us to that place. Only the Holy Spirit can enlighten us on that path. Only the Holy Spirit can pray for that without "us" getting in the way of that. Most of us want a deeper walk with God but we don't want to pay the price for that walk. When the Holy Spirit prays for us He is asking the Father what's best for us REGARDLESS of the price! He wants to bring the CROSS OF CHRIST into reality into our Christian walk. The cross speaks of death and that's where the Holy Spirit wants to be - DEAD TO OURSELVES, alive only to Jesus through the power of the Holy Ghost:

Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Paul said, "I am crucified with Christ," even though "I live, Christ is the one LIVING within me." How could Paul write that? Easy. Paul knew the power of the Holy Ghost and he was one who prayed in tongues OFTEN:

1 Cor. 14:12-20 - Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. [13] Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. [14] For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. [15] What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. [16] Else when thou shall bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupies the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understand not what thou sayest? [17] For thou verily gives thanks well, but the other is not edified. [18] I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: [19] Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. [20] Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit-in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

Paul said when he prayed in the Spirit (in tongues) his own understanding was unfruitful. He was not saying that in a negative way. He was saying there are times when we don't need to understand what we are praying. We need the Holy Spirit to take over and pray for us. He had wrote earlier in Romans that sometimes we do not know how we are supposed to pray:

Romans 8:26-30 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.

Praying in tongues is how we ought to pray. Do we pray like this all the time? Certainly there are times that we do not need to such as when we are giving thanks for our food, etc. Common sense will tell you that there are times in public when we need to use wisdom and allow the Spirit of God to direct us. But in our personal devotion time we need to spend at least an hour if not more a day constantly praying in other tongues allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through us.

Someone reading this may say, "well, I've been baptized in the Holy Spirit but I don't really have a language. I only have stammering lips when I pray." Well pray in those stammering lips. The Holy Spirit will use those stammering lips and give you a language to use over time. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is like salvation - you had to learn how to walk as a new Christian and this is no different if you are new to Pentecost. It's a walk in the Spirit and this walk is a walk of maturity. You will grow in Christ and He will direct you and help you. Just take what the Lord has given you and USE IT! He will take care of the rest.

Building Yourself Up

Jude 1:18-21 - How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. [19] These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. [20] But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, [21] Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Praying the perfect prayer not only assures you that you are praying the will of God; it builds you up in the faith and grants you the perfect power! Jude says that "praying in the Holy Ghost," or in other tongues, helps keep us in the love of God and looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ UNTO ETERNAL LIFE. The implication is here is simple - the more you pray in the SPIRIT - the more strength you will have to encounter the evil of these last days.

This is another reason the enemy fights this experience. He knows that people who are baptized in the Holy Spirit and doing this on a daily if not hourly basis are not too good of targets for his darts. That is why it's so vitally important that if we have this gift we need to use it - EVERY DAY! You don't need to go months or years without speaking in tongues. You don't need to go days! You need to make a conscious effort to get before the Lord and just allow the Holy Spirit to pray through you. He's not just praying through you - HE'S BUILDING YOU UP! The naysayers will claim it's all from the devil and not for today - that's a lie of Satan. If this experience is of Satan, then our born again experience is of the devil - the same SPIRIT DOES BOTH!! Jude said there would be mockers in the last days who walk after their own ungodly lusts, separate themselves and will have a sensual NOT HAVING THE SPIRIT OF GOD. The implication is that people who HAVE THE SPIRIT OF GOD will be people who will not mock the Spirit, will not walk in ungodly lust and will not be separate from the Body - they will be in agreement with others. They will have the Spirit of God.

Mortifying the Deeds of the Flesh

Romans 8:13-14 - For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. [14] For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Paul said that if we live after the flesh we would die. In other words if our flesh controls us we will be turned over to SIN. Our flesh is sinful. It is fallen. There is nothing good in it. The works of the flesh are listed in Galatians:

Galatians 5:19-21 - Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, [20] Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, [21] Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

The things listed here are NOT THE FLESH but they are symptoms of a life that is controlled by the flesh, or fallen nature of Adam. It is the nature to which the enemy attaches himself to in our lives and uses to destroy not only our walk with the Lord but our eternal soul. People who live in the flesh will NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD! When you are born-again you now have the SPIRIT OF GOD living inside of you to MORTIFY the deeds of the flesh and live a Godly life. This is a choice. People who are Christians still have choices. They can live after the things of the SPIRIT or they can live after the things of the flesh. If we live after the flesh we will die. SIMPLE. If we live after the things of the SPIRIT, we will live. SIMPLE.

Galatians 5:22-25 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, [23] Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. [24] And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. [25] If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Walking in the Spirit produces a life that exhibits the things listed in Galatians 5:23-24. How do we attain this walk? BY PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST! The more we pray in tongues, the more our spirit-man is built up and the more we want to live according to the ways of the Spirit. They that are Christ's have CRUCIFIED the flesh! That is the cross experience I talked about earlier. Our flesh wars against the Spirit. Our flesh does not want to come into subjection to the Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to BIRTH a passion so hot for Yeshuah in our hearts and lives that NOTHING this world or our flesh offers us to do in disobedience to Him will phase us. We’ll be so IN LOVE with HIM what our hearts fire will BURN those sinful desires and wicked unctions away like paper in a flame. The flesh produces corruption and death. The Spirit generates life and freedom. Praying in tongues helps us build ourselves up in the faith to the point that when the flesh rears its ugly head - the Holy Ghost comes to crush it! (Fasting helps too!)

It's not legalism. It's not a formula. It's the inner power God has placed inside each of His children. And the magnificent baptism in the Holy Spirit that grants you a prayer language that gives you the power to mortify, or KILL, or CRUCIFY the deeds the body is NOT AN OPTION - it's a command! You need the Holy Ghost!


The Spirit HELPS our infirmities with Groanings and Moanings That Cannot Be Uttered

Romans 8:26 - 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.

Another aspect of the perfect prayer is that when we are praying in the Holy Ghost, or praying in tongues, the Spirit is HELPING our infirmities with groanings and moanings that cannot be uttered. This is something that is not easily described with words. There comes a point in our praying when the Holy Spirit takes over our tongues so much that the words coming out of our mouth are coming from the deepest recesses of our heart. These words turn into groanings and moanings that sometimes are not words at all but "wails" and "cries" of the Holy Spirit over us. God help us to see our condition to the point that we WAIL over it! We are like the people in Jeremiah's day:

Jeremiah 9:18-20 - And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. [19] For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out. [20] Yet hear the word of the Lord, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation.

Jeremiah 9:10 - For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.

Jeremiah 4:31 - For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

1. We are spoiled (Every movement wants to do it their own way. If you don't believe like they do, then you're not apart of them)
2. We are greatly confused (Each man teaches his own doctrine, no one centers on CHRIST)
3. We have forsaken the land (Our heritage - we have lost sight of our Jewish roots)
4. Our dwellings have cast us out (No unity in the Body)
5. Our inhabitants are burned up (People are dying - sin is killing our people)
6. The land is filled with murderers (Never a time in the history of the Body have we seen so much hatred among our brethren)


God told Judah through Jeremiah to take up a WAILING for their condition. A voice of WAILING WAS HEARD OUT OF ZION. That voice of wailing has taken up residence in US! That's the ministry of the HOLY GHOST. Groanings and moanings that cannot be uttered. The same word used for "groaning" in the New Testament is the defined the same way in Hebrew for "wailing" in the Old Testament. Both words speak of mourning, crying, weeping, LAMENTATION over one's condition.

Think about this for a moment. That is how much the Lord Jesus loves us. HE WAILS OVER OUR CONDITION. He MOANS and CRIES over our condition. The places of our heart that need healing and restoration HE WAILS OVER US and THROUGH US. The Bible says HE HELPS our infirmities. Some people are too proud to admit they have infirmities and for those people God can do very little with. But to those of us who need HELP the SPIRIT OF GOD has been given to HELP OUR INFIRMITIES! I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost on that!

The inference here is to a woman who has labor pains and is ready to give birth to a child. In the pain of her childbirth she mourns and cries over that child as she pushes to bring forth the birth. Those labor pains are the same as the groanings and moanings of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is birthing a breakthrough in our lives. He is giving birth to the solution to our problem and no matter how long it takes Him to do it He plans to lock HIS legs around us and WAIL!!!!! GLORY! GLORY! GLORY!

John 16:21 - A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.

Galatians 4:19 - My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

Jesus said that when a woman is in travail she has sorrow because her hour is come. But as soon as the child is delivered she does not remember the anguish. Paul used the same analogy to picture his anguish over his children in the faith. He wailed and moaned and groaned for them until Christ was formed in them. THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THE BELIEVER IS THE SAME! Every time you pray in tongues to the point that the Holy Spirit moans and groans through you - CHRIST IS BEING FORMED IN YOU. The Holy Spirit does not walk away when you are in need. That's the time He is closest to you. That's the time He just locks His legs around you a little tighter. That 's the time He takes up a louder WAIL in the heavens. GLORY TO GOD. This is the perfect prayer! This is the perfect prayer and its prayed BY THE HOLY GHOST THROUGH YOU!

It only takes faith. It takes us yielding ourselves to the Holy Ghost. It takes us allowing Him to give us a prayer language. A language that is unknown to men, but known to God and God alone. Satan doesn't know what you're praying. Demons don't know what you're praying. Hell doesn't know what you're praying. It's the power of the Holy Ghost praying through you.

1 Cor. 14:1-5 - Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. [2] For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. [3] But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. [4] He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesies edifies the church. [5] I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.

The Spirit Will Present Us Faultless

Jude 1:24-25 - Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, [25] To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

What is the end result of all this? Why is it so important we pray the perfect prayer as much as we can? Because as a result of the Holy Spirit's ministry to us as believers He plans to keep us from falling and PRESENT US FAULTLESS before the presence of his glory WITH EXCEEDING JOY. In other words the Holy Spirit is happy about doing what He is doing. He will be with us to the end.

I remember Rick Joyner speaking of an experience he had in 1995 when the Lord took him in a vision to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. While standing before the Judgment Seat of Christ he said he never experienced the role of the Holy Spirit as Comforter as he did at that moment. Nothing he had experienced on earth had prepared him for standing before the glory of Christ but at this awesome moment in eternity the Holy Spirit was still there with him. Why was he still there? Because one day when we stand before the awesome judge of the earth and have to give an account of our lives our INTERCESSOR ON EARTH plans to be there to present us before HIM PERFECTED! He plans on being there with us forever. He plans on keeping us from being ashamed at the judgment seat of Christ.

cmc4jesus@aol.com