BD: Welcome to "Something More." I'm your host, Bob Duvall, and I'm here with
Pastor Todd Smith. And I'm excited because
we're going to tackle the question of what's the
most controversial subject in the Bible. Now, before we
get to that, Todd, you're a former
Southern Baptist Pastor, you're pastor of a church in
a small town in Georgia. But tens of thousands of
people have been touched by what's going on in
your church right now? TS: Well, we're in the
middle of a revival. The glory of
God has sat down. And over the
last two years, we baptized over 13,000
people in our small church, in our
small community. There's literally fire in
that water and lives are being changed as people are coming to meet God
in the baptismal waters. BD: And I've been to
your church and at that particular service, you had
your regular baptismal. You had an above ground
pool set up in the sanctuary. You had
another above ground pool set up in
another sanctuary. And still, it
went for a long, long time to try to
get all the people. Okay, let's, let's
tackle this topic now. What's the most
controversial subject of the Bible? I
mean, there's some- there's like eschatology.
There's baptism. There's once
saved, always saved. What what would
you say it is? TS: The most controversial
subject in the Bible is the baptism of the Holy
Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.
Yes, speaking in tongues is the most
controversial subject. I've seen it
divide families, split marriages,
divide denominations and churches. Nothing
in the Bible is more controversial
than Tongues. BD: Why, Todd,
why is that? TS: I believe that the
devil understands the power, the significance
and the value of believers praying in the spirit. And he wants to
minimize its impact, minimize its
expression in the church. And so we have dug
in, denominations have, pastors have on their
particular opinion of tongues. And again, it has divided the
church in many, many ways. BD: Now, a moment ago, I
mentioned that you are a former Southern Baptist
pastor. So I knew that you were born and raised
Southern Baptist. You went to a Southern
Baptist University. You went to a Southern Baptist
seminary. You became pastor of a Southern
Baptist church. Todd, you weren't a likely
candidate for the baptism, the Holy Spirit with speaking
in tongues. In fact, what was
your position on that? TS: That's a great question. I was anti-pentecostal. I was anti-charismatic. And most definitely
anti-tongues. In fact, I mocked it. I scorned those that
practiced it and forbade it to really be a part
of our church in any way, shape or form. So
I had a very strong opinion that this
was not of God. It was of the devil. And in fact, if
you practiced it, you were emotionally weak. BD: Hmm. TS: Yeah, that
was my opinion. So I went to seminary at Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary, which was the at the time
largest seminary in the world and emphasis, and
my emphasis was in biblical languages. And so I just really felt
that Tongues was not for today, but pastoring a
very fast growing church, one of the fastest growing
Southern Baptist churches in the state of
Georgia at the time, about three and a
half years into that, Bob, I started reading
the Bible and I said, why isn't what happened in
the disciples lives not happening in my life? The signs, the
wonders and the miracles. And I said, "God, I want
to know their secret. I want to know why they
were able to lay hands on the sick and
see them recover. And me, I've not seen
anybody get healed in my ministry. BD: Now, did you know that
that was going to take you in the direction that you
ended up going with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit,
speaking in tongues? TS: No, no, not at all.
Not at all. I just wanted, I just
wanted to to be used of the Lord in a
powerful way. We were seeing hundreds
of people get saved, but yet we were not seeing
the power demonstration that the scriptures
talk about- the Kingdom of God manifest. And I said, "God,
I want that." And I literally, I had
to take my glasses off, my denominational glasses
because I was reading the Bible from my
Baptist perspective. And a lot of
people do that. A lot of people will read
the Bible through their Methodist glasses,
their Nazarene lenses, and everything gets
filtered through that. And I literally, and I use
illustration before I lay down my glasses, my
denominational glasses that costs me a
lot of money. I spent tens of thousands
of dollars for those denominational glasses and
to being educated and I laid them down
and I said, "God, would you speak to me as
if I'm reading the Bible for the very first
time in my life?" BD: Okay. You became open to
what He had for you next. How did you begin to
realize it was kind of leading in that direction? How did you get
interested in the baptism? The Holy Spirit
and in tongues? TS: Another
great question, because I would, I
would read sophisticated, educated, Pentecostals
that wrote books and put tapes out on the
baptism Holy Spirit. And then I
would read anti- ! You know, thoughts on
the baptism Holy Spirit of highly educated
people as well, pastoring great churches. And I just compared the
two and both of them were great men and
great teaching. But this side over here
had an element that I longed for and I thought
these people would not willfully deceive me. So, I said there must
be something to it. And the more that I
researched and it took me a year and a half on,
the more I researched it. I realized that these
people had authentic ministries that were
filled with character. And I said they must be,
they must have tapped into something that I've
not yet experienced. BD: So it got you to the
point where you actually attended a Pentecostal
prayer meeting with Pentecostal pastors to
go to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. What happened
at that meeting? TS: Well, I've come to the
point where I knew that the baptism Holy Spirit
was real in my research. And someone invited me to
this prayer meeting and I went for the sole purpose
of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, because I
had come to the point. Yeah, it's real. BD: It's still you must have
been a little uncomfortable. That's not your normal
service- TS: Oh, I was nervous! No! BD: -for a southern
Baptist Pastor. TS: No, That's the last place,
the last place a Southern Baptist pastor ought to be
is in a prayer meeting of Pentecostal pastors.
That's the last place that, you know, a
baptist should be. But my hunger
drove me there. And so I went in knowing
I was going to come out a different man. I didn't know exactly what
it was going to look like, but I knew that I needed
the baptism Holy Spirit. And not only
that, but Tongues. And so I am, I'm in
this prayer meeting. And I said, "All
right, fellas, I'm ready." They lay hands on me. And I was so disappointed
because nothing happened. BD: Todd, hold that thought.
When we come back, we're going to find out
what was blocking Todd [Music] from receiving
the full baptism with the evidence of
speaking in tongues. And you might be pretty
interested to find out what it is. Come right back
in just a moment. [Music] [Music] BD: Welcome back to
"Something More." And I'm here with
Pastor Todd Smith, and we've been talking about
the most controversial subject in
the Bible. The baptism of the Holy Spirit
with evidence of speaking in tongues. Now, maybe you've
heard about tongues. Maybe you haven't. But it's where the Spirit
gives you the supernatural ability to pray in a
supernatural language or even a new language
that you've never learned. But it's the Spirit
speaking or praying through you. Now
Todd, we were talking about this Pentecostal
prayer meeting that you went to as a
Southern Baptist pastor. You're like, okay, I want
it. I'm ready. I want to receive the
baptism of the Holy Spirit, with evidence
of speaking in tongues. Only problem was they
were laying hands on you, they're praying for you. And what happened? TS: There seemed
to be a block. They're really did. I was so hungry and
thirsty for everything that God had for me. I mean, I came to
that prayer meeting. Thank God I'm not going to
leave until I'm changed. And they laid hands on me
and nothing happened and my heart was crushed.
I was so disappointed. I mean, I'm
thinking I came in. It didn't happen. Well, they
did the next thing. They started circling me
like I was the walls of Jericho. You know, they just
started walking around me praying. And a
gentleman walked in front of me and he said, "Todd, you need to
repent before the Lord of teaching false doctrine
and repent for believing false doctrine that the
baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of
tongues is not for today." And I go, "You're right." So I confessed in
front of all those men. And I said to
the Lord God, "I'm sorry for teaching
against the baptism of the Holy Spirit, this precious
doctrine for not believing it." And I repented in
front of these men. He took his little index
finger and placed it on the center of my forehead. He was one hundred and
forty pounds soaking wet. And he simply said, "be
filled with the Holy Spirit." Now, this is after I
repented and he said, "Be filled with Holy Spirit!" He put his finger
on my forehead. And immediately,
Bob, immediately, the power of
God came upon me. The presence,
I'm telling you. The Holy Spirit came upon
me and I immediately began to speak in other tongues. Now, before that, my
throat was constricted. I just felt that
I couldn't talk. It was like I couldn't, I
couldn't express myself. I could barely breathe.
And when he laid his hands on me and
after I repented, woosh! It released! And I experienced the
baptism of the Holy Ghost. And this is
the funny thing. Everything that I had
preached against as a Southern Baptist pastor
from my pulpit and taught in my classes, everything
that I've preached against happened to me at
that very instant! BD: [Laughs] I'm falling
out in the Holy Spirit. I'm going back in
the Holy Spirit. I'm speaking in
other tongues. And while I'm
speaking in tongues, in my mind, I'm thinking
my deacons are going to kill me. BD: Well, that's that's
the one little problem you had here. You're
still a pastor of this Southern Baptist church. And it's and it's one
that's had thousands of people saved. You guys are in a
building program. You're building
a new sanctuary. Did that, you know. How did you
deal with that? TS: Well, I remember, I
remember walking out of that prayer meeting
and one of them said, "Don't tell your people
what just happened." And I'm thinking why? This is, this is the most
incredible thing that's happened to me. He
said, "Don't tell them." And it is so changed me. The baptism of
the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of
speaking in tongues, so changed me that within
three weeks I'm teaching a series to my Southern
Baptist Church on the dynamite of God,
the Holy Spirit. And listen to this.
And within three to four weeks, we had
already probably seventy-five to a
hundred Southern Baptists in my church groups get
filled with the Holy Ghost, with the evidence of
speaking in tongues. But there was opposition
and we lasted, Bob, 10 months in
that church. And then we eventually got the
left foot of fellowship. [Laughter] BD: Did you know it was
going to end that way? TS: No, Bob, because I
thought this is the most remarkable encounter I
ever had outside of my salvation experience
because I had such a passion for Jesus. See,
as a Southern Baptist pastor, I loved the
Lord. But when I experienced the fullness
of the Holy Spirit, it went from loving
Jesus to being in love with Him. And there is a
big difference. I would read the
scriptures before. But after the baptism, the
Holy Spirit just took my encounter with the Word
of God to the next level. I had such a boldness
and courage and just a strength inside of me that
I'd never known before. And my prayer life,
I'm talking about, exploded and it
was beautiful. BD: Now, some people might
be watching and thinking, "Well, well,
that's great for him." Is this for
every believer? TS: Absolutely! When Jesus gave the
instruction to go to the upper room, don't
start your ministry, don't go share the
gospel with the world. But when he said go,
in Luke Chapter 24, he said, "Go to the room
and you shall be endued with power. That
instruction's for all of us as well.
Because when you get saved, the Holy
Spirit comes to live on the inside of you.
He indwells you. But it is completely
different when the Holy Spirit comes upon you to
empower you for ministry. So absolutely, the baptism
of the Holy Spirit and even- here's the
controversial part. Even the speaking in
tongues is for every believer, not just
the Pentecostals, not just the charismatic,
but every believer should be praying in a
prayer language. BD: Now, we've been
throwing out the term tongues, baptism
of the Holy Spirit, specifically with tongues.
Are are there different kinds of tongues?
You know, it talks about it in the New
Testament? TS: Yeah. The Bible
talks about there's various types of tongues.
And this is where people don't have
understanding. I didn't have
understanding. So, I just grouped
them all in one category. And anything outside
of that box that I had packaged it in was
heresy or out of order or demonic. So,
we're all used to the tongues of,
the gift of tongues where someone inside of
a church speaks in an unknown
language. And then somebody interprets that. That's one type of tongue
that we're all saying, okay, when you
speak in tongues, you need an interpreter.
But Paul also talked about in First
Corinthians 14, he says, "When I pray in
a tongue," which is completely different
than the public tongue. This is a private tongue. The private tongue is to
be used by believers in their prayer closet, or
when they're driving down the road. But
it is to be used in private to communicate
to the Lord, to pray to the Lord, to sing
into worship unto the Lord because
He even said, He says, "I will pray in tongues." And then He says, "I will
also sing in tongues." That's First Corinthians,
Chapter 14, verses 14 and 15. BD: Todd, we're going to
take another quick break. And how about you?
Are you interested? Yes. Does it sound
exciting to you? I hope so. And when we come back,
Todd is going to share with us a couple
of the benefits. There are many. Couple of the
benefits- [Music] -of praying and
speaking in tongues. And if you're open, he's
going to pray for you to receive as well.
Come back and join us in just a moment. [Music] [Music] >>: Call now
and get Todd Smith's powerful book,
Speaking in Tongues, Your Secret Weapon, and
his anointed two audio CD series, "The Power of
Praying in Tongues," which includes 10 sessions,
"Releasing the 10 Supernatural Benefits."
This is an exclusive offer for our "It's Supernatural!"
audience. Yours for a
donation of $25, shipping and
handling is included. Ask for offer number 9690. TS: I, as a Southern Baptist
pastor, did not believe in the topic of speaking
in tongues. But when I got baptized
with the Holy Spirit, it opened a new
world for me. >>: Through Todd Smith's
brand new, powerful book, Speaking in Tongues,
Your Secret Weapon, you will obtain a
biblical understanding of the importance and
necessity of speaking in tongues,
receive clarification addressing the common
misunderstandings concerning speaking
in tongues, understand that Jesus gave tongues
so you can talk to your Heavenly Father in a way that
the devil cannot understand. Learn that when you
speak in tongues, there is a release
of brain hormones, which in turn increases
the body's general health. Plus, the book includes
a "Pray in Tongues Now" step-by-step approach,
to help release you in operating in your
new prayer language. You will also receive Todd
Smith's anointed two audio CD series, "The Power of
Praying in Tongues," which includes 10
different sessions. You will understand the
10 important benefits of speaking in tongues.
Discover how tongues helps you pray the
perfect will of God. Find out that tongues
strengthens you to walk in the Spirit and not
give in to temptation. Understand that you will
speak divine mysteries and the enemy cannot
break the code. Discover how tongues will
unlock creative ideas and solutions, better discern
the will of God and wisdom for your
children and family. At the end of the series,
Pastor Todd pronounces a prayer of impartation
over you to receive your heavenly language.
Don't miss out on getting Todd Smith's
powerful book, Speaking in Tongues,
Your Secret Weapon , and his anointed two
audio CD series, "The Power of Praying
in Tongues," which includes 10 sessions,
"Releasing the 10 Supernatural Benefits." This is an exclusive
offer for our "It's Supernatural!" audience. Yours for a
donation of $25, shipping and
handling is included. Ask for offer number 9690. Call, or you can send
your check to Sid Roth,
"It's Supernatural!" P.O. Box 39222, Charlotte,
North Carolina, 28278. Please specify
offer number 9690. Or log on to SidRoth.org.
Call or write today. [Music] BD: Welcome back to "Something More"
and Todd, before we get into the
benefits of praying or speaking in tongues.
Is that the only indication that
someone is baptized in the Holy Spirit? TS: No. But the devil
wants us to make that categorization. You know
what I'm saying? But holiness is a
manifestation of the baptism, of the Holy Spirit.
Power, being courageous, being
bold in your faith to share Christ. Those
two are manifestations of the baptism of
the Holy Spirit. BD: Now, Todd,
I know people, and I'm sure you do, too.
They're believers. They're strong believers.
I respect them. They don't
speak in tongues. They're not what we would
call baptized Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues. There's others
who are if some, if a believer is not
speaking in tongues, just, does that make them
a second class believer, that they're somehow
not as good as others? TS: Absolutely not. We're
all on a journey. All of us are trying
to discover the truth. And if someone hasn't
experienced the baptism, of the Holy Spirit,
it's just not yet. And we're just
believing that they will. But it doesn't
mean that they are. Second, not as
spiritual- by any means, it's not that at all. BD: Okay. We, there
are many benefits to praying and speaking
in tongues. But let's just hit
a couple right now, of the benefits. TS: Yeah. And here's
where the devil gets involved,
because he doesn't want believers
speaking in tongues. This is why it's
so controversial. That's why there
are different camps. The devil has
divided the church. But let me give you
the, the the benefits, a couple of them. One is, every time
that you pray in tongues, you're edifying yourself. The Bible talks about
you're building yourself up in the most holy faith. It is like you're
adding structure, stamina, strength to
your life when you pray. And the Holy Ghost
is building up your spiritman.
The second one is, and I love this one
probably the most, you pray the perfect
will of God every single time because Romans
Chapter eight says, "We don't know how to
pray for as we ought to, but the Spirit of God
makes groanings and utterances
through us basically. So when I pray in tongues,
I am releasing the perfect will of God in my
life. But not only in my life, but my
family's life as well. Because when you and
I pray in English, Bob, we only
pray what we know. The experiences
that we're aware of, what's going on
with our spouse, what's going on
with our children, BD: With our
understanding. TS: We pray with our
understanding and we must! And
that's beautiful. But the Spirit of God
knows all things they know or, the Spirit of God
knows the temptations that your spouse is facing,
the struggles that your children are
going through. The Spirit of God knows
whether or not someone is going to harm your child
or if there's a drunk driver coming down the
road and you may have a pushing and a leading by
the Holy Spirit to pray. Well, what do I pray?
Pray for your child. Well, what do I pray?
Well, Lord bless them. But the Spirit God
knows. Pray this. And so I immediately
connect my tongue to my spirit and release
my prayer language. Because Paul says"When
I pray in tongues, my spirit prays."
And he says, "I'll pray with
understanding." But I will also
pray the spirit. And that is the
perfect will of God. So I encourage
people to do this. But every day
when you get up, have a picture
of your family, perhaps your spouse or
your child in for three minutes, nonstop. Pray in the Holy
Ghost for your spouse. And then that's a
beautiful thing. Pray in English,
all that, you know. But there are temptations
and struggles and inner issues that they're
facing. But just pray in tongues over your
spouse. Three minutes a day, a hundred
and eighty seconds. And you're releasing
the perfect will of God. There's no telling what
kind of temptation you can block for
them. Danger. Harm may be
coming their way or, releasing wisdom
into their life. This is why the
devil fights it. He knows the power of
praying in tongues and what it can do for the
church in the Kingdom of God. BD: What if I'm scared? I mean, I don't want
to open myself up to something that
might not be of God. How do you address that? TS: And we hear that
all the time. We hear people saying, I'm afraid
I'm going to get a demon. And we tell people, "Let's
go to the scriptures because Jesus
addresses this." He says, how, you know,
"We being equal on the earth as men and women,
give good gifts to our children? How much
more will our heavenly Father give us
the Holy Spirit to those who ask. And
if we ask for bread, He's not going to
give us a stone." So our heart is to
know Him more intimately. And to walk in an
element, in a power that we've not known. And if we go to
the Father and say, Jesus, I just
want more of you. I want this precious
ability to communicate with you in a
supernatural way. There is absolutely zero
chance that the devil is going to come in and
intervene in that. Father longs for us to
know Him more and to communicate with
Him in a better way. BD: Okay, now Todd, I've
got to believe there are many watching
right now who say, "Okay, I'm ready. I want to receive." Would you take a minute
or two and look into the camera and pray with
them? It struck them on receiving the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. TS: Yeah. I just want encourage
you that you're in a very sweet place right now. You're in a great place. And there is a hunger
stirring inside of you. There is something going
on that you're longing to know God more and you're
longing to walk in an element with the Spirit
that you've not known. You see, this is not a
cafeteria where you get to choose what you want,
what you don't want. When the baptism of the
Holy Spirit comes upon you, Tongues
comes with that. Now, some of you may be
struggling with that. Will, how do I
pray in the Spirit? Well, you pray in the
Spirit when you ask the Holy Spirit to baptize
you with His fire and immediately the Spirit of
God is going to come upon you and you release that
new prayer language out of your spirit. Not going to come
from your mind, is going to come from your
spirit. Because Paul says, "When I pray in tongues my
spirit prays." You literally have to
connect your tongue to your spirit.
It's like walking into a room and you turn a light
switch on, off and on. When I pray in English, my
tongue is connected to my mind. When I
pray in the spirit. My tongue is
connected to my spirit. And so you literally
say, got out of my spirit, I'm going to
pray in tongues. Let me encourage you right
now to begin praying in that supernatural
prayer language. TS: And I just want to
begin to pray with you. And I want you to release
this language out loud as you speak. The Spirit of God will
give you the utterance. [Speaking in Tongues.]
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for
blessing your people. The Holy Spirit is
coming upon you right now. [Speaking in Tongues]
Come on, receive! Release it now. Connect your tongue to
your spirit man right now. [Tongues]. Don't be afraid. Release it.
Let it go. [Tongues] There you go.
Keep going. Keep going. In
Jesus's Name, the Holy Spirit is
falling on you. He is filling you right now.
[Tongues] BD: And even
as we go off the air, you continue to press in. Continue to use this gift. And if you're
not, still not sure, just ask God. Ask
Him to lead you. Open yourself up to Him
and every gift He has for you in the Spirit.
And if you don't know God, that's the
best gift of all. Salvation through
Yeshua, Jesus. [Music]
Your Passover lamb. So today is the day
of your salvation. Thank you for joining us
and join us again next time for "Something More." [Music]
