Jesus told us to keep asking for the Holy Spirit until He gives Him to us. Believing in Jesus, in fact, is the simpler part. To believe in Jesus means that I believe—I trust in His promise and rely on Him. Even today, if you were baptized, you can do so. And when you do, you come into Jesus.

After you have come into Jesus, what you must do next is to let Jesus come into you. To explain this simply, consider how a branch is grafted. When a branch is grafted into a vine, that means I have been attached to a certain tree. Once it is attached firmly, there is a purpose for it, isn’t there? It must draw the sap from that tree. In the same way, if I have been grafted into Jesus, then the Spirit of God who works in Jesus must come into me.

So from that point on, you begin to ask. You ask for the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit does not come simply because you want to receive Him or merely think about Him in my heart— you must ask. And Jesus Himself said this, and you have probably heard this many times: “Knock, and it will be opened to you. Seek, and you will find. Ask, and it will be given to you.” Many people use this passage to say, “Therefore, ask that your business will prosper!” or, “Ask that you will get a good job!” and interpret it that way. But what the Scripture is actually telling you to ask for is the Holy Spirit. “Therefore, ask for the Holy Spirit!” And how do you ask? You must ask earnestly and continually.

To explain this, Jesus gave yet another parable. You are sleeping at night, and the neighbor next door begins to knock on your door— bang, bang, bang, bang. You think, “I’m not sure what she wants, but I’ll deal with her tomorrow” and so you remain silent, but she keeps knocking. Then you hear her say from outside, “A guest has come to my house, but I have no bread— no food— so please lend me something to feed him!” So you say, “How bothersome! Come back tomorrow!” and you still do not go out. But she continues knocking. So what will you do? You end up giving her what she asked for. And why did you give it to her? It was not because she deserved it, nor because you wanted to give it— why did you give it? Because you were bothered. You could not sleep. It was better to give it quickly and then go back to sleep. So even in this world, that neighbor is not exactly a generous neighbor. If someone asks, it would be good to give quickly, but his heart is not very open, so he keeps refusing. “Yet even such a person, if you keep asking, gives, does he not? How much more will our Father in heaven, if you ask for the Holy Spirit, give Him to you?” That is what He said. So keep asking.

Even if you began asking for the Holy Spirit after hearing the message, how much have you actually asked? Right? Did you pray for two hours a day? I do not think so. But if you truly want to receive the Holy Spirit, you must ask in that way. Because receiving the Holy Spirit is so precious that even if you were to pray five hours a day, it would not be a waste, and it would not be excessive to pray that much in order to receive Him. God does not give His Spirit to just anyone. All who believe in Jesus can receive the Holy Spirit, but if one has no earnestness, no longing to receive Him, and moreover, if one has no intent to obey the Holy Spirit when He comes, then He may not be given easily. So you must ask. And if you yourself are not asking, even if someone beside you is praying fervently for you, it does not work well. Of course, those beside you pray out of concern, but rather than receiving Him by someone else’s urging, you yourself must long earnestly and pray. Those who help beside you should rather go with you to the prayer room and pray with you there, so that you may be helped to pray for a longer time.

So you must receive the Holy Spirit in that way, and the matter of receiving the Holy Spirit appears in the passage we just read in Acts chapter 10. Now Peter was invited somewhere, and the place to which he was invited was quite a unique place. Because at that time, those who believed in God were the Israelites, the Jews. But the place Peter went was to a Roman named Cornelius. He was a Gentile, a people originally unrelated to God. Yet he wanted to hear the word of God. So Peter preached the word there. And the content he preached was the testimony that Jesus Christ died and rose again. “And through Him your sins are forgiven.” As soon as he proclaimed this, it says that the Holy Spirit came upon them. “The Holy Spirit came upon them!”

Can you see the Holy Spirit with your eyes or not? You cannot see Him. The Holy Spirit cannot be seen with the eyes. But it says that they saw that they had received the Holy Spirit. How did they see it? Immediately after, it says, “They suddenly began to speak with tongues and glorify God!” These two phenomena— two visible manifestations— occurred. One was that those who were listening to the message suddenly began to speak in tongues. And they began to exalt God. What is this? What does this mean?

I experienced a very similar phenomenon when I was in China, in Shanghai, preaching in a small house church in a neighborhood. After I preached, an elderly woman there, probably over eighty years old, came forward to testify about the message we had heard that day. She was physically weak, yet she was overflowing with joy. So she stepped forward and said, “I received so much grace, and today I now know clearly that my sins have been forgiven—oh‐rul‐rul‐rul‐rul‐rul—” and then, standing at the front, she said, “God, thank You! Today I have clearly come to know that my sins have been forgiven!” and suddenly she could not control herself and began to speak in tongues. But at that time, none of the people there had ever heard of tongues. So the people sitting below were very puzzled. “What is happening?” Yet this woman would speak in tongues for a moment, then begin praising God, then speak in tongues again, and then again praise God. At that moment, the passage we read today came to my mind. It was not the one preaching who did this, but those who were sitting under the message, listening to the preaching, who suddenly became filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues and to exalt God. To some extent, she went beyond her own will. They seemed to be people very innocent and pure. Since their hearts were clean and not very exposed to various influences or media, when they heard the news, “My sins have been forgiven!” the joy and shock were overwhelmingly great. And although one could have restrained oneself, she had no such tension or concern to restrain anything. So she simply poured out what she felt.

In this way, it was visible to the eyes. The Holy Spirit cannot be seen, but the manifestations that appear when one receives the Holy Spirit can be seen. When you receive the Holy Spirit, the first visible gift you can confirm is tongues. When you hear tongues from beside you, it can sometimes sound like the croaking of a frog, and to some it may not look very pleasant. So those who do not understand it sometimes speak of it in a mocking way. Therefore, this cannot be done without faith. What you must clearly understand is that this tongue‐speaking is something we do after the Holy Spirit comes upon us in the name of Jesus. So to mock this is, in fact, to mock the name of Jesus. You must be careful.

Up until now I have mainly spoken to you about grace, but now that I am speaking about the Holy Spirit, I must first give you a warning to be careful.

For when Jesus came here, He came already determined— determined to be killed by men, to be persecuted. But the Holy Spirit—sent after He had fully borne our sins, was put to death, and ascended into heaven—does not come to be persecuted. He does not come to be mocked. He comes as our King. Therefore, after receiving the Holy Spirit, though He helps us, all of that is ultimately in order that we may do His work. The reason He helps me is, in the end, to make me serve Him. So it is extremely important to have a heart that honors Him and is willing to obey Him. It is in such a state that you ask for the Holy Spirit.

Otherwise, if someone merely says, “I just want to believe in Jesus, be saved, and that’s enough for me!” then that person does not need to ask for the Holy Spirit. But if one says, “Now I want to live according to God’s will! I want to live a life of power as God desires…,” and furthermore, not merely go to heaven with basic salvation, but truly receive glory as God desires there, then one must receive the Holy Spirit and be held by the Holy Spirit and be led by the Holy Spirit.

To do this, the first thing is to ask for the Holy Spirit. You ask, saying, “Lord, pour the Holy Spirit upon me!” Then, when the Holy Spirit comes, He causes you to repent. Of course, you have already repented and have been baptized. But now, when the Holy Spirit comes into me, I come to know what the true nature of sin is, what the true nature of righteousness is, and what judgment is— I come to know these spiritual realities, and my soul is greatly moved. So when some people receive the Holy Spirit, they weep loudly with tears, and at the same time, they outwardly manifest the gift of speaking in tongues.

So why does He give tongues? He gives it because it is beneficial to us. Tongues are tremendously beneficial. As for tongues, you cannot understand them. No one can say, “Ah, that tongue means such‐and‐such!” and interpret it. And some people say, “That person is speaking in Chinese! That person is speaking in Japanese!” but that is not true. Someone once said to me, “That deacon speaks tongues in Chinese!” so I listened, but it was not Chinese. I know because I speak Chinese. It only means that the pronunciation sounded similar to Chinese, not that it was truly Chinese. Tongues are not speaking a foreign language— no one can understand them. Then why do we do it? Why do we speak in tongues? It is not something I first decided to do because I wanted to— when you receive the Holy Spirit, you speak in tongues. If you do not forcibly restrain yourself, you will speak. And in many cases, the tongue moves on its own. So what benefit does it have? Why does He give it? Tongues are indeed prayer, but it is our spirit speaking directly to God. And if the spirit does not pray directly to God, then what else can speak to God in that way? Our intellect can pray to God. But beyond the intellect, my spirit can pray directly to God as well.

When the intellect prays, what does it pray for? From what I have heard in early morning prayer meetings and from the prayer requests people bring to me, in many cases the prayer topics of the deacons are, “Let my child get a good job,” or, “Let my child enter a good university, help them study well.” There were very many such prayers. And then, regarding financial matters, “Let my business prosper.” There were many prayers like that. Of course, at the moment such things may feel like urgent matters. But in truth, there are far more important matters piled up before us. Think about it: is it more important that my business does well, or is it more important that I continue my life of faith properly, endure well until the day the Lord comes, and finally I enter heaven? Entering heaven is far more important, isn’t it? Yet our flesh, in many cases, does not pray for such things. “Lord, fill my soul with Your word so that I may overcome and be victorious until the day You come!” Such prayers are not often prayed. In our Sungrak Church, such prayers are offered more frequently, but generally speaking, Christians do not pray that way.

However, our spirit knows well what is truly important. So it prays for the matters of my spirit. It prays, “God, let my soul truly prosper, and not only mine but also that of my descendants, my family…” It prays for the soul, and it prays very specifically for the soul. There is a passage in the Scripture about this: who knows the matters of God most deeply? The Spirit of God, that is, the Holy Spirit, knows the matters of God best. And when that Holy Spirit comes into me, then I, too, come to know the matters of God, do I not?

So when the Holy Spirit comes, what do I come to speak? Tongues. And whose prayer are tongues? They are the prayer of my spirit. Not God’s prayer, but my prayer. Yet it is not the prayer of my flesh, but the prayer of my spirit. My spirit knows my own matters best. Just as the One who knows God’s matters best is the Spirit of God, the One who knows my matters best is my spirit. Therefore, if my spirit directly speaks before God, it can ask for what is far more accurate and necessary than I could ask by speaking myself. So all I must do is simply help my spirit pray to God. How? By opening my mouth and speaking in tongues. “Abaradabss sabarad’briya kabarad’bribiya~,” like this. At first, tongues came out of me to the point where I could not control them, but once you have received tongues, from then on you can speak in tongues whenever you desire. In the name of Jesus, by faith. And then it becomes beneficial to me. So the benefits of tongues are exceedingly great— because I am able to pray for all the things I do not know. If I pray with my own understanding, as I said earlier, I can only pray for what I am currently experiencing and for what is visible to me. But I do not know what circumstances are unfolding around me beyond my sight, nor do I know what kinds of attacks are occurring in the spiritual realm. Yet when I pray in the spirit, I am able to pray to block all such things.

So I once read a testimony from a certain deacon. She was working at her workplace, when suddenly she felt the urge to speak in tongues. So she quickly went to the restroom and spoke in tongues there. Later she came to know that at that very time her son had been in a car accident. The car had hit him, yet the child was completely unharmed. If it had not been for that mother’s prayer in tongues, the boy might have been injured. Yet the mother herself did not know that her son was in danger. But the spirit knew. And by praying to God through that spirit, the child was able to remain safe. Therefore, it is good to speak in tongues much.

And this is my own testimony. When I was in China doing evangelism, my wife was five months pregnant, so she stayed in Shanghai, while I went to Shandong Province, which was quite far away. At that time it was a place that took about a full day by bus to reach. I was preaching there, and one evening, after finishing evangelism and returning to the lodging, the deacon who provided the accommodation met me with a very serious face and said, “Brother, something terrible has happened!” I was shocked. So I asked, “What is it?” Then he said, “Please do not be startled. No matter what I say, don’t be alarmed!” —but that statement made me even more alarmed. So I said, “Please tell me quickly!” Then he said, “Your wife was in a car accident in Shanghai and is now hospitalized!” So I asked, “How is she now?” but he could not tell me. He said he had only received a call that she was at the hospital and the situation was serious. So I couldn’t know what was happening, and since it was a distance that required a full day of travel, I couldn’t go immediately. At that time, we didn’t even have cell phones. So I felt unbearably frustrated.

But the moment I heard that news, to be completely honest, what came out of my mouth was, “Thank You, Lord!” If someone else had heard me, they might have said, “What a terrible man!” Yet the reason I gave thanks was this: since I was zealously evangelizing, who would hate it the most? The devil would hate it the most. And the devil had struck me with a truly severe blow. Then should I be shaken or should I not be shaken? I should not be shaken. But since my wife was five months pregnant, if something happened to her, both she and the baby could be in danger— two lives at once. If that happened and I fell into trial, stopped doing the Lord’s work, and began to complain, then all three would be ruined. From the devil’s perspective, of course it would be a move worth making. But because I am not someone who will fall because of such things, I gave thanks. And because I believed that God would turn this into good, I thanked God and praised Him.

But I had to pray for my wife, and yet I did not know how to pray, since I did not know anything about her exact condition. So how do you think I prayed? I prayed in tongues. I spoke in tongues all through the night. Continuously I spoke in tongues. No one could give me any update. And if I had prayed in any other way, offering prayers that did not match the situation, it would have been of no use. Therefore, in order for my spirit to pray according to what my spirit knew of the situation, I spoke in tongues the entire day. And then at dawn the next day, I set out for Shanghai. It took around seventeen hours for me to arrive.

When I arrived, my wife had already been discharged from the hospital. The reason she was discharged was that they wanted to take an X-ray, but since the baby was still in her womb, an X-ray could be dangerous. So she refused it. She briefly lost consciousness, and when she woke up, she asked to be discharged quickly, signed a paper saying she would not make any claims later, and then fainted again. So they sent her home. When I went home, she was lying down and could not get up. Her whole body was bruised black and blue. I heard what had happened: she had been taking a taxi on the highway, going to drop someone off at the airport, and the taxi crashed into a broken-down car. The impact sent her through the front windshield and out of the car. That is how severe the accident was— the taxi crashed into a stationary car. So I thought the situation was truly grave. I continued speaking in tongues over her. Then, the next day, something strange happened. When morning came and I opened my eyes, she was up and cooking. Just the day before she had been in a state close to death, yet the next day she was up making food. I asked, “What are you doing?” She said she was not in pain at all. And under normal circumstances, such an incident should leave aftereffects, shouldn’t it? But now it has been about twenty years since then, and she has never had any aftereffects— nothing at all.

Therefore, the power of tongues prays even for those areas we ourselves cannot think of. And in the growth of our soul, tongues pray not only for the matters of our spirit, but also for matters our flesh does not know, and the spiritual issues of our family members— all these things are prayed for through tongues. This is why tongues are so beneficial. And of course, the devil will do anything to stop you from doing this. So in order to speak in tongues, you must receive the Holy Spirit. Receiving the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues are not exactly the same, but when you receive the Holy Spirit, you can speak in tongues. Therefore, desire first to receive the Holy Spirit. Then, not only will you receive tongues, but after that, an abundance of God’s gifts will follow. From then on, when you lay hands on the sick, they will recover, and the power of your prayer will also change.

And do not forget what I told you last time when I emphasized, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” What is it? God’s word becomes opened to you. So even when you read the Bible, it is no longer the same as before— you understand it. It becomes so enjoyable. You come to know the will of God. Therefore, without the Holy Spirit, it is difficult to live a life of faith. You must come to know God more deeply. I bless you in the name of Jesus to long for the Holy Spirit. Please repeat after me.

“God, send the Holy Spirit to me!
God the Father, pour the Holy Spirit upon me!
Jesus shed His blood and died.
He has forgiven all my sins!
I am part of Jesus.
Pour the Spirit of God upon me!”

This is how you continue to pray. But along with it, say, “I will obey!”

Repeat after me— begin!
“I will obey!”

After saying, “Come into me!” you must not then reject Him. After saying, “Come into me!” you must be prepared to obey. Then you will truly experience the astonishing power of God and the glory of God in your life.

God our Father, today for those who are gathered here who have not yet received the Holy Spirit, allow them to long for the Holy Spirit with earnest hearts, and when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, help them to speak in tongues, and also allow them to truly exalt God. May such work begin among them so that from this point onward their lives may be filled with the glory of God. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.