by Charlie Rogers

Eph 1:13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

The Holy Spirit is part of our inheritance. He is our earnest. Our deposit. Our seal toward the day of redemption. He will set up housekeeping in us. Purge out false doctrine. Purge out the things that are not of God. Wrong thinking, doubt, and unbelief. We cannot afford not to pray in other tongues, allowing the Holy Spirit freedom in our life. Illuminating the Word of God which contains our inheritance causing it to come alive in our life so we can begin an image change.

A lot of people think that when you talk about praying in other tongues it means intercession or tongues for interpretation. Most of the tongues talked about in the New Testament are tongues for edification. That means we can begin to get the Holy Spirit in on our life and let Him start transforming us and purge out those things that weight us down.

This is what Paul talked about for the most part. There are tongues for interpretation, tongues for the unbeliever, and tongues of intercession. Mainly tongues are for our personal edification. Our private “Hot Line” to God. When we pray in other tongues, we pray down the plan of God, and the mind of Christ for our life is revealed. Therefore, we don’t have any excuse but to be on the right path receiving everything from God.

“Well Brother Rogers, I don’t feel like I’m receiving everything from God. In fact this morning when I got up, you should have seen my body. I could hardly get out of bed.” That’s all right, the grace of God is there and that’s what the Holy Spirit is there for. To purge you of that doubt and unbelief that you’ve been walking in, and transform you to that inheritance so you can receive your healing, and get up a healed person. Alleluia!

We’ve got to begin to get an image on the inside of ourselves of somebody with an inheritance. You say, “I’m failing. My prosperity message is failing me. I need to listen to a television prosperity message this coming Sunday morning, because my prosperity message is failing.” No, what you need to do is begin to change the image on the inside of you of who you are. Let the Holy Spirit begin to build upon that image. “Well Brother Rogers, I’m not even that far. I just can’t get up every morning without sinning before the morning is over.” You need to begin to change the image of who you are on the inside. It starts with an image. We’ve got to get the image on the inside before we can have the manifestation on the outside. The Holy Spirit will begin to bring alive to us who we are the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We are over comers!

We can’t keep on with the same image we’ve got right now and have change in our lives. It doesn’t happen that way. “Well, how does the Holy Spirit help us transform?” I’m glad you asked. I’ll give you an example.

We cannot begin to change the image inside us without the Word of God. The Holy Spirit will take the Word of God and begin to change that image if we will begin to turn ourselves over to Him. He will begin to change that image on the inside. We’ve got to have an image to change to. If we are falling short in our life, we’ve got to have an image change. Whatever area it is that we are falling short in, then we need to take the Word of God and begin to meditate on it. We got in the shape we are in by what we did in the past; we will change things by what we do now and in the future!

We get to thinking that the Holy Spirit is just going to do it for us without us doing our part. Wrong. That’s not the way it works. He takes what we give Him to work with. First of all, it’s our surrender to Him. Second of all, we’ve got to have something to develop an image of. We’ve got to begin to give Him something to work with. That’s where the Word of God comes in.

2 Cor 8:9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

He was able to do that, because He took on our poverty. See, we’ve got to begin to take that and meditate upon that and let the Holy Spirit begin to develop that image inside of us. That image starts to take hold because we are getting that image developed on the inside that He already took on our poverty that we’re walking in. Now we are changing the image that we have to the riches of heaven. Now things don’t look so bleak. Unless we change our image, we are never going to walk out of where we are at.

So about right now you must be thinking “How do you know that God wants to change me?” That’s just the way He is. He wants to change you. He wants to change me. You’ll just have to believe me. “Well, you’ll just have to accept me the way that I am.” No we won’t! God wants to change us from glory, to glory, to glory, to glory. That’s the job of the Holy Spirit, among other things. He’ll get in on our act, and begin to purge us, begin to transform us, but He’s got to have something in us to work with.

He’s got to have an image from the Word of God. “I was crucified with Christ.” There’s an image! Crucifying the flesh, leaving that sin behind. “Sin shall not have dominion over me.” There’s another image. If sin defeats you every day, you need to begin to get that image on the inside. Sin shall not have dominion over me! The Word of God does not lie! If it says “Sin shall not have dominion over you”then, “sin shall not have dominion over you.” It has no dominion. It does not rule in your life. You need to begin to get that image on the inside. You can’t have the manifestation of no sin, without that image first. It comes first.

You need to begin to look at yourself differently. “I’m the righteousness in Christ”. You need to begin to get the image on the inside of you, that you can become what the Word says. That you can receive the inheritance that you’ve been freely given. Not just written words on a page, but manifested and alive in your life, so all can see. I want to see it in my life. I want others to see it. I don’t want them to have to question. I want them to be able to see it “working in” my life. I won’t settle for anything less.

This is part of the job of the Holy Spirit if we will let Him get involved. With the Word of God He will begin to change us until we conform to that image of Christ. You see, the Word of God is the image of Christ and that’s the direction that we’re to head. But there’s just one problem. We’ve got to let Him get involved in our life. We’ve got do decide, “Maybe we are not so perfect after all. Maybe we have more doubt and unbelief than what we thought we had.”

Jude 20 “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.”

When we go up we leave something behind. Example: When you go up a ladder, you leave things behind. Well, when we pray in the Holy Spirit and build ourselves up on our most holy faith, we begin to leave behind those things that we once were. Now the Holy Spirit can take the Word of God and begin to change us and make us into the image of Christ. But if we don’t get Him involved, there is nothing He can do, because He won’t force us.

So we thought when we received the Holy Spirit that it was a wonderful experience. It was for a week or two, and then the experience wore off. Ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty years have passed. Then we think back to when we received the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful experience it was. Well, it ought to be experience every day for us to get with the Holy Spirit.

When the Pastor gets up and preaches about prayer, you think it’s spending five minutes out of your day. Well, five minutes is a little bit of a start. It would be nicer though if you would spend a least an hour with the Holy Spirit each morning, everyday. “Well, I can’t do it every morning; I can do it at night.” Well fine, stay up all night! He’d like for us to get to know Him. He’d like to get a chance to work in our lives. “Well Brother I just don’t have time!” You really don’t have time not to!

There have been a lot of rough times that my wife and I have been through in the ministry. One thing I’ve found though, as long as I keep praying in the Holy Spirit and keep building myself up on my most holy faith, I never lose that image of what He’s called me to do. What He’s called me to be. Where He’s called me to go. I never loose that image. But it’s because I give Him the chance to renew it day by day, hour by hour.

We’ve got to begin to let Him in. He won’t force His way into our life. We’ve got to invite Him in. “How do we invite Him in?” By asking the Holy Spirit to dwell in us with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.

The most fun I had in Peru was getting Baptist Pastors filled with the Holy Spirit! I’ll never forget this one, a wonderful man. He came to me and through the interpreter and said he’d been having all kinds of miracles by laying hands on people. People were receiving miracles in his church. They were going out getting people saved, the lame walking, the blind seeing, and lots of things happening. He said, but, there’s just one thing, I just haven’t been able to get filled with the Holy Spirit. I thought, my goodness, most Holy Spirit filled people are not even doing what you’re doing. He got his wish that night. I laid hands on him, and in a split second, he was spewing out those other tongues.

It’s more than just a Pentecostal experience. It’s a way of life. We’ve got to stop long enough to begin the way of life. It’s not just when we get excited while listening to good preaching. It’s not just when we have a good praise report. It’s an every day way of life offering ourselves over to the Holy Spirit. Spending that hour each day praying in other tongues.

1 Cor 14:2 For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.

Mysteries meaning the mind of Christ, the will of God for our individual lives. His plan for every part, every step we take. All in line with the Word of God, that image we have planted in our life.