The Glory Within [Sections]

THE GLORY WITHIN

Corey Russell

The Call To Fellowship

So here are the facts: If we have surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ and made Him our Lord and Savior, then right now—whether we feel it or not, whether our circum-stances are good or bad, whether our relationships are positive or negative—we have the very Spirit of God dwelling deep within our spirits. The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, the God of Genesis 1 who spoke the universe into existence, lives in us. Jesus Christ now dwells within all believers, regardless of their ethnicity, their gender, their background, or their struggles. And not only is Christ in us, but more than that, we are in Him. Our lives are hidden in Christ, and right now, in the presence of God, we are clean as Jesus is clean, and we are close to the Father as Jesus is close to the Father. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (see Eph. 1:3). We are one spirit with Him, which means that His thoughts, His desires, His plans, and His life are now ours.

Few believers truly understand what now dwells in within them. We have treasures living inside of us—all the riches and glory and strength of God Himself deposited within our spirits (see Eph. 3:16), and so many of us don’t have a clue. I say this often: We have a billion dollars in our bellies, yet most of us live on 20 cents a day. The great preacher and revivalist Leonard Ravenhill recounted a conversation he had with theologian A.W. Tozer concerning this reality:

I think again of a statement A.W. Tozer made to me once. He said, “Len, you know, we’ll hardly get our feet out of time into eternity that we’ll bow our heads in shame and humiliation. We’ll gaze on eternity and say, ‘Look at all the riches there were in Jesus Christ, and I’ve come to the Judgment Seat almost a pauper.’” For God had not only given us Jesus Christ—He has with Him freely given us all things (see Rom. 8:32).

We’re living as starving beggars, and we don’t even know it. We spend millions of dollars on counseling and self-help, yet we see so little fruit in our lives. We wear ourselves out with religious activity, and still we find ourselves trapped in cycles of fear, depression, rejection, and self-hatred. As a result, we turn to comfort zones of overindulgence found in alcohol, entertain-ment, food, ungodly relationships—all of this to run from the poverty of our souls.

At some point, each of us has to take an honest look at our lives and ask: Where is the breakdown? If I have been given the fullness of the life of God, why don’t I experience it? If I have everything in Christ, why do I walk in so little love and joy and peace? Where is the breakdown? Hopefully by now the revelation of all that we have been given in Christ is creating a deeper hunger in our spirits and a prayer is growing inside of us: How can I access the life of God in me? How can I begin to see the Holy Spirit break out of my spirit and transform every area of my life—body, soul, and spirit?

This question is what John 15 is all about. In John 15, Jesus states that He is the Vine and we are the branches. Think about the analogy Jesus used. The vine contains the life source—it contains the sap—and the vine also contains the branches. In the same way that the branches are connected to the vine, we are in Christ. We are in the vine, yet Jesus still gives us this command as branches. He calls us to abide in the vine. This means that, even though we are already in Christ, we must, through an act of our own will, consciously and deliberately draw on the sap of the life of God within us. We must draw on the sap, the life source, the power that has been placed within us through deliberately fellowshipping and communing with the Holy Spirit.

Many of us think that when it comes to our transformation, God will do everything and we don’t have a part to play. The truth, though, is that God has a part and we have a part. We cannot do God’s part, and God will not do our part. This is a major stumbling block on the road to maturity and transformation. We are all guilty of passivity—so many of us sit around wishing that our lives were different while refusing to go on the treasure hunt to discover what we’ve been given and how to access it. The author of Hebrews states that God rewards those who diligently seek Him, which means this: If we answer the call to actively fellowship with God, then we will see the power and life of the Holy Spirit break out of our spirits and spread like wildfire, transforming every area of our lives.

Now that we’ve looked at what we possess in Christ, felt the sting of the gap between what we possess and what we experience, and heard the call to deliberately access what we have been given through fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit, the question remains: How do we fellowship with the Holy Spirit? How do we access the glorious riches dwelling deep within us? This question haunted me for years, but as I searched the Word of God, I found a clear roadmap. The way to access the life of God is very simple, so simple that few actually practice it. I want to highlight the three specific practices that I discovered in my journey of fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit. All three have been a significant source of life and breakthrough, but I will focus specifically on the third. The first is meditation on the Word of God, the second is dialogue with the Holy Spirit, and the third is praying in tongues.

The Testimony of Paul

In First Corinthians 12-14, Paul was addressing a group of sincere yet immature believers. The Corinthians were zealous for the gifts of the Spirit, but their immaturity created confusion in corporate settings. In the Corinthians church, believers would simply shout in tongues without providing any interpretation; the result was a lot of chaos and very little edification.

Many believers today look at these chapters and conclude that Paul preferred prophecy over the gift of tongues: “Prophecy is better than tongues, so why bother with tongues at all?” But in context, this is not what Paul says. When tongues are not interpreted, then prophecy is better in a corporate setting because believers understand what is said and are edified, and unbelievers are not freaked out! However, Paul did not denounce the gift of tongues. He affirmed the glory of praying in the spirit while establishing guidelines to create a culture of honor—a culture that made room for the gifts of the Spirit while serving and respecting the Body. Paul’s message to Corinth can be summarized thus: pray in tongues as much as possible, but not in a manner that will dis-rupt the corporate meeting.

Let’s look at this verse again: “I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all” (1 Cor. 14:18). This is a bold and significant statement. It reveals how heavily Paul relied on praying in tongues to build up and edify his spirit and connect with God. In his epistle to the church in Thessalonica, Paul commands the believers to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Paul was a man who lived in unceasing prayer, and in this verse, we have a glimpse of what that looked like. Whether he was traveling, working, discipling, or in prison, he constantly prayed in tongues. We cannot overlook this: the mightiest apostle in Christian history declared that he prayed in tongues all the time. What did he understand about the power of praying in the Spirit?

A Personal, Devotional Prayer Language

The subject of speaking in tongues has been controversial throughout Church history. Could it be that the gift that has stirred some of the greatest debate and division within the Body of Christ is actually the greatest key to unlocking the power of God in the Church in these last days? Could it be that the devil has worked overtime to make this point of contention because he understands the power it will release? The enemy doesn’t spend his energy on things that don’t matter, but on the realities that can potentially destroy his kingdom. This is why, I believe, the subject of our prayer language has so much warfare around it.

Let me take a moment to put a few disclaimers out there. When talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, I like to think of Him, with us, in us, and upon us. He is with us prior to and after salvation, He is in us at salvation, and He comes upon us at the immersion into the Holy Spirit. The question of whether or not a believer speaks in tongues is not a question of salvation. Praying in the Spirit is not evidence of salvation. That day you said yes to Jesus, you received the Holy Spirit completely on that day, and by the power of your confession of Jesus Christ as your Lord, you are saved. The purpose of our immersion or baptism in the Holy Spirit is for the purpose of power in ministry, and I believe there are several of these encounters that release greater authority in our lives over a span of one’s life. Looking at the Book of Acts, we see that speaking in tongues is prominently featured as a sign of this baptism.

In First Corinthians 14:27-28, Paul gives directions to individuals who wish to speak in tongues:

If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God.

In these directions, Paul assumes that there is an experience of the life and power of the Holy Spirit available to all believers: the personal, devotional gift of tongues. He taught the Corinthians that when we speak in tongues, it is a private conversation between our spirits and the Spirit of God. Paul considered this expression of tongues so important that, earlier in the chapter, he declared that he wished all believers spoke in tongues (see 1 Cor. 14:5a).

I believe that God is bringing a generation back to this gift that fueled the man whose conversion and apostolic ministry is one of the strongest testimonies of the resurrection of Jesus. Paul’s testimony is not the only apostolic testimony when it comes to the power of tongues. The same witness exists in recent history. John G. Lake, a missionary and revivalist who moved in powerful signs and wonders, declared that “tongues has been the making of my ministry.” It is said that Smith Wigglesworth, a great leader of the Pentecostal revival in the late 19^th century who was noted for his healing ministry, spent at least an hour every morning praying in tongues.

We are hearing a lot in recent years about restoration of the apostolic ministry, and I am convinced that at the forefront of this restoration there will be an exponential increase in praying in the Spirit, I desire to see this reality sweep across the Body of Christ, transcending denomination and affiliation.