Our Guest John Bevere
Sid: Well my guest says he’s red hot for the Messiah because over the years he has developed such intimacy with the Holy Spirit and I believe that God has raised John Bevere up to be a teacher of the word of God but did you know that over 20,000 churches in North America uses his materials? Millions of his books have been purchased by Christians worldwide. But on yesterday’s broadcast or I’ll get some people upset with us John if I don’t go right there. You were talking about a scripture that is misunderstood that has stopped many people from going further with the Holy Spirit, pick up right there.
John: That is correct many times people will discount gifts and the manifestations and I want to emphasis as I did yesterday. I think the greatest mistake people have made is that they taught and they’ve sought and to understand the manifestations of the Holy Spirit before coming to know Him as a person. You know Sid I had a dollar for every time I head the Holy Spirit referred to as an it I would be a wealthy man. But you know when you read scriptures you realize that He has a mind of His own. In Roman’s He has a will, in Corinthians He has emotions, He can be grieved, He can be insulted, He can be lied to, He speaks He speaks clearly. And Jesus made the statement that He’s going to be exactly like Me. And so Jesus even said “It’s better that we go away because I can’t reveal any more to you than what I have done unless the Holy Spirit comes and then He can show Me in a much greater way because He communicates with our spirits. And so in 1st Corinthians people will discount the manifestations and the gifts of the Spirit so quickly because there is a scripture that says in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 verse 10 “But that which is perfect has come then that which is in part will be done away with.” Well what is part? That refers to verse 9 which says “We know in part; we prophesy in part.” But their contention for the gifts being passed away is that the perfect has come because they say the perfect is the scripture. However, Paul goes on to verses later in verse 12 and tells us what the perfect is. He says “For now we see in a glass dimly but then when the perfect come face to face “Now I know in part” he says so we know in part and we prophecy in part. “He says “Now I know in part but then when the perfect has come I shall know just as I am know.” Now there’s two things that we have to say right here. Are we looking at Jesus face to face yet? No. Do we know Him as He knows us? Because those are the two things Paul says is going to happen when the perfect comes. The answer to both of those is no. So that means the perfect has not yet come which means we still need prophecy, we still need the gifts that he wrote about, they haven’t been done away with.
Sid: Well what about people that say “Okay, I am filled with the Holy Spirit but I do not believe that the gift of tongues is with us anymore because the scriptures says “Do all speak in tongues?”
John: Well that’s another misunderstanding and the reason they misunderstand that is that they don’t understand that there are 4 different types of tongues the New Testament speaks about. Two of them are private 2 of them are public. If you look at the 2 public tongues that Paul talks about they are when we speak in another language of this earth that we’ve not been previously trained in the wonderful works of God. That’s what happened on the day of Pentecost those guys were unlearned were speaking different languages from all over the earth and the men from all over the earth were there for the Feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem. They heard them speaking in their natives tongues the wonderful works of God that was assigned to them; that was tongues for a sign. The other tongue that’s public is when a heavenly language is given the language not of this earth that one has to be interpreted which is another gift of the Spirit. When Paul talks in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 and says “Do all speak in tongues?” The tongue that he is speaking of is that one right there if you read it all in context. It’s not the private tongues when praying in tongues it’s the public tongues. No, because if everybody spoke in tongues in a public assembly it would be mayhem and confusion. So he goes on to say in speaking about private tongues “I wish you all prayed in tongues.” Because he talks about praying in the Spirit, praying in the understanding. He talks about singing in the Spirit; singing in the understanding. You know Sid I look at it like this you know when we speak in a tongue God is giving us the ability to communicate with Him on His level. If I walked into President Obama’s office right now President Obama would have to come down to my level of understanding. Because I don’t know all of the security things that are going on in this nation and the different things that are going on in the government. So he and I could only have fellowship on my level of understanding. So when I walk into the King of the Universes office He wants, because I’m His child, you’re His child, He wants us to be able to communicate on His level. The only way… if we only speak in English the only way we could communicate is if God came down on our level. God has made a way that we His children can come into His throne and communicate to Him on His level because the Holy Spirit gives us the words when we pray in the Spirit to be able to communicate with God on His level.
Sid: You know John you were talking about speaking in different languages and actually in the Greek where it talks about it even says different dialects. I had a Bible study many years ago and there was a Filipino couple. The wife had received the Lord, the husband was a Professor of Medicine at Howard University, he had not. I spoke in tongues and there was the most amazed expression on his face because he heard me speaking not only in the Filipino language but in his dialect. And they’re like 30 different dialects in the Philippines. He first thought “My wife must have coaches Sid in that language to get me to be saved.” And then he thought “No, my wife doesn’t even speak the same dialect I speak. I mean that made me a believer and it made him a believer even more important.
John: You know I had a similar experience. I was speaking in a large church. One of my staff members was sitting in the back and thought they were just praying in the Spirit. They were praying very quiet and at the end of the service a gentleman stood up walked over to my staff member and said “Not only I’m a French teacher.” Actually his first question to her was “You speak French very well.” That’s the first thing he said to her and she said “No, I don’t speak French at all.” And he said “No way.” He said “I am a French Teacher and not only were you speaking the Old French but you were using a perfect accent as you spoke it. And she said “Sir, I don’t speak any French.” And he said “You were speaking and he was repeating almost verbatim what you were speaking. And he said “I couldn’t figure out if he given you all of his notes.” And she “No, I don’t have any of his notes.” And he said “But you were saying scriptures, you were quoting them in French and right after you finished quoting them he would say “Turn to that scripture.” And so it was a sign to him of how real the person of the Holy Spirit is and that He’s here to glorify Jesus.
Sid: John we don’t probably have the time necessary, but when I was a brand new believer I use to pray in tongues 1 hour a day and then I got too busy. And then I stopped. Well about a couple of years ago the Holy Spirit convicted me I needed more now than ever before and I’m back to an hour a day. How important is that?
John: I think it’s extremely important because the Bible says you build up your inner-man on your most holy faith praying in the Holy Spirit. It also says in 1st Corinthians 14 “He who speaks in an unknown tongues edifies himself.” That word edify means to build a large Ephesus. So you basically increasing the capacity of the presence of the Spirit of God in your life. You’re building a larger house for Him if that makes sense. (Laughing)
Sid: Well actually that’s what’s going on in the ministry too. I think it’s a direct correlation.
John: Our team members you know they come to work at 8:00 every morning right.
Sid: Right.
John: Well for years and years I remember when I first came to Colorado Springs they didn’t understand praying strong in the Spirit. So they would come into work, I was with them at the prayer meeting and for the first 15 minutes they were like “Oh, my gosh have of them they’re going to fall asleep it’s so dry.” And I remember I really started bucking against it and said “Guys, we’re going to pray fervently the Bible says the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” And I said “We’re going to pray in the Spirit because the Holy Spirit’s going to help us to pray in unison; I want a good portion of our time in prayer in the morning to be in the Spirit as I call out these needs on our prayer board.” Well do you know we’ve done that ever since we’ve had our office building here in Colorado Springs which is like 12 years ago. Every morning I’ve had so many people come in and say “They are completely overwhelmed by how much life is infused into them when they join up with our team praying in the Spirit in our morning prayer meetings.
Sid: ….I tell you you must have intimacy with the Holy Spirit. And God because he’s a teachers teacher and he’s not teaching theory; he’s teaching what he has done step by step. John is there any reason why someone can’t have the same or greater intimacy with the Holy Spirit….
John: We’re going to look at it like this God anoints people to teach and I realize that the anointing that’s on my life it’s not mine it wasn’t given to me for my benefit, it was given for the Body of Christ. And I realize when I looked at how this came together my son and I actually wrote it together. When I saw how it came together you can just see the hand of God on it so strong….
