Sid: My guest Dave Roberson speaking to him at his headquarters at Tulsa, Oklahoma and Dave doesn’t know this but we have a mess in our computer program. I mean a first class mess and a woman came applied for work that had worked for a major ministry and she had more credentials than I would ever need and I knew that God sent her. So I offered her the job and she aid “Well let me pray about it.” She goes home she calls me and she says “I can’t work for you.” And I said “Why can’t you work for me?” She said “Because I saw your webpage and I saw you believe in speaking in tongues and laughing in the Spirit and miracles; now I believe in healing but I don’t believe all those things.” She’d been listening to a man on the radio that didn’t know what he’d been talking about and she adopted his philosophy. So I said “Well come on in and when she came to the office I said “Listen whether you work for me or not I know God sent you here for a purpose.” And so I gave her a couple of videos of… I gave her one of the Smithton Outpouring that I had moderated and then I gave her a book called “The Walk of the Spirit the Walk of Power” the vital role of praying in tongues. So she thanked me for these things and I didn’t know if I ever hear from her again but she went home she watched the videos, she read every word of the book “The Walk of the Spirit the Walk of Power,” She calls me the next day and she said “Sid I don’t understand this but I have completely changed all of my thinking on praying in tongues and I believe that I’m supposed to work for you.” Now she’s doing a marvelous job but I’ve never seen someone from Dave from that type of a mindset just reading a book and just having a transformation like that.
Dave: Sid the book was 2 years alone in editing 2 years. About 4 or 5 years I got moved into the Spirit one day and I began to He said “Son” the Lord was talking to me in a season of prayer and He says He said “The book is going to, the book I’ve given you is going to going to do a work in the Body of Christ in the last day.” He said “It’ll have an anointing to change people’s lives that read it and it’ll change the very foundation they walk in from not walking in power to walking in power; it’ll change the very foundation of even error in doctrine because the mysteries that you’re praying when your praying in tongues is the mystery of everything Christ is in you to you the hope of glory. When the Father is able to answer this then the Holy Spirit is able to begin to feed to your spirit revelation knowledge and truth.”
Sid: But David let me read to you what my producer wrote about your book in my notes and keep in mind her job is to read as many good Christian books as possible and she does this and she does it well; this is what she wrote about your book for me she said All I can say this is the best spiritual book I’ve read in years; he says things about speaking in tongues that I’ve never heard anyone explain so clearly. Now keep in mind this woman is charismatic and has been a believer over 25 years and to make a statement like that but help me out Dave. I understand why some people believe you should not speak in tongues in churches obviously I don’t agree with them that I understand. But you know what I don’t understand, is most charismatic churches today very few of the members even pray in tongues that I don’t understand. It’s all most like a new generation has grown up that missed the original move of the charismatic moment and they really don’t understand the necessity and the life changing experience by praying in unknown tongues. Are you bumping into this yourself?
Dave: Oh yes and I think I understand it, there’s an advantage of praying in the Spirit and He starts feeding these mysteries to you and that’s where all of this came from. But the early church the high literacy rate one of the main sources of teachers even was the prophets and they operated of course under the foundation and revelation of the apostle. But when He said about prophesying and one stands by and let him judge and the others wait their turn and God is not the author of confusion. That the kind of prophesying he was talking about was the kind that when they were able to receive a mystery from God and they would come and it was a lot of the fruit of the church. Paul gave a glimpse into his private prayer life when he says “Look in church he says I’d speak the language I’d rather that you’d understand so you could receive also 10,000 words in the unknown tongue.” Then Paul also gave a glimpse into his private prayer life when he says “That I thank my God that I speak in tongues more than you all.” And what he was really saying is “I thank my God that I pray more in the mysteries that encompass the understanding of Christ than all of you.” He says “But yet in church I’d rather be speak in the language you speak that you might understand also the revelation that I’ve been receiving from praying the 10,000 words in the unknown tongue. So praying in tongues to Paul was a real source of revelation knowledge and the devil knew that. They didn’t have copies of the New Testament when the churches were first forming. And so he knew that to kill their revelation that he’d have to kill the effectiveness of this one particular revelation gift which is praying in tongues. So of course he pushed it into the dark ages but the devil walks with same fear of this real simple gift as he did then. He knows that if a charismatic person will start praying any amount at all in tongues in intervention that God is going to be astounding. They’re going to find His plan, they’re going to start understanding the moves of the Spirit and this would be the last thing that the devil would want them to find out. So as a master strategy, a master of deception and seduction, he won’t tell them if their already filled and being charismatic he won’t tell them “Don’t have this experience if they’re that far along” he’ll just convince them not to pray or down play the effectiveness or fight very very hard anybody with any revelation that’s on it. A lot of people will say “Well you will pray too much in tongues and you’ll get weird.” Well Sid I knew a lot of people that were weird and prayed too much in tongues and ended up getting sane and not weird. But he fights it because it takes the ceilings off of people’s lives.
Sid: Well the fact is that many of us will pray in unknown tongues and not have one spiritual feeling and then say “Well I don’t feel anything so maybe it’s not so effective.” Did you have many feelings when you started praying long periods of time in tongues?
Dave: No Sid sometimes I’d have some but sometimes my emotions would even be fought. I got… feel negative feelings it’s the only reason that I stayed in because of the vision you know and I made a commitment not because of what I was feeling. But since then I can make this statement boldly “If you want edification pray in tongues.” The book will tell you all the forms that you build up and got it. But for feelings you know worship God I’ll worship God. But edification doesn’t necessarily come in the form of feelings.
Sid: What does edification mean?
Dave: Edification is to build yourself up into God by understanding his word or through anointings that will come to cause you to understand above the things that Jesus said you’re free from. And answer the things that He said you can have. Edification is a process that takes place that delivers you out and into.
Sid: I’m going to ask you a very difficult question. Is it possible in your opinion to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and not be given the ability to pray in unknown tongues?
Dave: Sid I believe that the strongholds can be erected right on the mind. And the Holy Spirit creates the words in our spirit and so our mouth will try to shape what He’s creating to finish the circuit of prayer. If they’ve got a block or been taught against it but as far as letting Him step in a block will rise up and they’ll get fear when that manifestation begins to come. So personally I believe that they can get short circuit just short of tongues.
Sid: Yes but in the book of Corinthians it says “Do all speak in tongues?”
Dave: That was part of the gifting he listed “Do all work miracles or all healing?” He was talking about the qualifying gifting of the Holy Spirit. Then he said “Do all interpret?” And that particular gifting for the edification of the body he was speaking “Would all have the tongues for interpretation in a public assembly?”
Sid: So where people miss it there are different types of tongues. There’s the private devotional but then there’s the tongue for a public assembly.
Dave: That’s right.
Sid: So he was talking about all the gifts in the public assembly not the private devotional prayer language that throws a lot of people for curves because they think all tongues are the same, and that wherever Paul’s talking about it he’s talking different rules for different types of tongues.
Dave: That’s correct. And in fact this book “The Walk of the Spirit the Walk of Power” it’ll set you so free. The testimony you gave Sid boy we have testimonies of people that fought day and night almost. And the book took such a hold of them that built such faith in the Spirit. One guy threw it against the wall 5 different times only to go pick it up again and ended up baptized in the Holy Spirit in an avid prayer service.
Sid: But you know what I see something that’s even better and what I see is although the book is wonderful for someone fighting it to get all of the answers I see the book for someone that already is baptized in the Holy Spirit and prays in unknown tongues to push them into that next level there was an anointing to push them there.