Well, back in the 1970s, Vernon Falls

was on a business trip in California.

He was looking for a party.

Instead, a stranger directed him to a local church.

The next day, Vernon was baptized in the Holy Spirit.

And since then, he has seen God move in more than 100 nations

around the world.

And Vernon, it's always an honor to have you here.

A great pleasure to be with you.

Really good.

God bless you.

Praise God.

God bless you.

When you first experienced the Holy Spirit,

you felt like you had been cheated.

Yes.

It wasn't something that you'd ever heard about before.

Yes, I never heard about Holy Spirit speaking in tongues.

Why did you feel cheated?

Because, after receiving the Holy Spirit, I said,

wow, this is what I've been missing.

This is what I need.

And sure, I went to a church, but it was no Holy Spirit

speaking in tongues.

And when I got to a certain age, I didn't go to a church

anymore.

But I felt like I was really cheated.

And I mean, no one ever told me about the

being filled with the Holy Spirit

and speaking in other tongues.

Why do you think that is?

What did the church sort of lose that?

And you'll still find it today.

You'll find churches that don't preach the baptism.

Well, this was a traditional church.

And another thing, too--

I had, in my family, charismatic Christians.

They were filled with Holy Spirit,

but they never told me how to get saved, never told me

about the Holy Spirit speaking in other tongues, only be good,

and the Lord don't like ugly.

I've known you a long time.

This is the first I've heard that, within your family,

there were charismatic Christians.

Yeah.

Is there a lineage here?

You have pastors in your background?

No, no pastors that I know of.

OK.

There were spirit-filled Christians?

They were spirit-filled, but they were in churches where

they did not practice speaking in tongues.

But they never told you how to get saved.

Really?

Never told you.

Just be good.

OK, well, once you got filled with the Holy Spirit,

you were definitely on fire.

Oh, yes, definitely.

And what was the next step in the journey?

Well, first of all, it took me three years

to get cooperating with the Holy Spirit.

And when I made that--

All right, we've got to break down.

Yeah, OK.

What do you mean by you have to cooperate

with the Holy Spirit?

Well, I didn't cooperate with the Holy Spirit at first.

I went back to my city, and when I went back to my city,

I was right back into the things of the world.

So it took three years to say, OK, Lord,

I'll go wherever you want me to go.

I'll do what you want me to do.

I'll answer my calling.

And the day I said that, the very next day, my car

burned up.

The next day, my house caught on fire.

And then the third day, I stuck a nail through my foot,

but I knew I was on the right track.

Wow.

A lot of people would have given up.

Just those would say that I'm on the wrong track here.

What made you say, no, I'm on the right track?

Because I knew that was the devil

doing that to me, trying to stop me from going forth in God.

And he tried to stop me in many, many ways

during that period of time.

But it's just a matter-- you have to come and just

cooperate with the Holy Spirit and just say, OK, Lord,

I'll do what you want me to do.

Well, a lot of people right now who are

going through trouble are saying, well,

how do you get through it?

How do you get to that point where

you realize that the breakthrough was just

on the other side?

What was it for you?

For me, it was something I knew on the inside.

It's nothing that was mental, intellectual.

It was on the inside.

And it was the leading and the guiding

of the Holy Spirit working in us to do

His will in good pleasure.

One of your signatures is that you

spend a lot of time in prayer and in prayer,

specifically, in tongues.

Yes.

Why do you do that?

Because praying in tongues is--

it's refreshing.

Not only is it refreshing, but it's

faith in what God says in His word.

When a man speaks in an unknown tongue,

he's not speaking to men.

He's speaking on to God.

Romans 8:26-- it says the Spirit himself helps us,

interceding for us, according to the will of God.

I'm bringing them all together now.

But I'm praying the perfect prayer to God.

God's giving me the perfect words to fully express myself

to Him, concerning any issue I've prayed on.

Because I'm praying according to the will of God, and this

is where people cheat themselves by not praying in tongues.

They really cheat themselves.

All right, you've got to break that down.

What do you mean by you cheat yourself?

Well, number one-- when you pray in tongues,

you're praying a perfect prayer.

Number two-- praying in tongues helps release the gifts

of the Spirit in your life.

Number three-- when you pray in tongues a lot,

you always have the presence of God,

and there's nothing like the presence of God.

It's just so, so good.

Now, you've seen this work out where, in your meetings,

you have angels show up.

Yes.

You have incredible demonstrations

of the power of God through miracles,

through healings, through all the signs and wonders,

through prophecy.

Is that time in prayer the key to all of that?

That time in prayer before the service, before God,

is a real key.

On average, how many hours?

For me, I pray three or four hours a day in tongues.

But I pray throughout the days.

I have my time I get up, where I'll go for a quick long one,

and then I go for in-between ones and throughout the day.

How do you develop that?

Well, the Lord developed that in me

because, even when I was in sin, born again

filled with the Holy Ghost, OK, the Lord

would put it on my heart for devotional time.

So I would go someplace quiet in my home,

and that funny language would start coming up,

and I would just pray and that funny language.

I didn't know what it was or anything,

but the Lord started leading me in developing

a devotional life, praise and worship life, and a Word life.

It's all the Holy Spirit working in us

to do God's will in good pleasure.

Amen.

And those are the keys.

Those are the keys.

A prayer life, a devotion life, and a Word life.

And a Word life, yes.

And that goes all the way back to the apostles.

Right, because the Spirit and the Word agree.

If you're just praying, praying, praying,

and you don't have any Word in you,

you better get some Word in you.

Yeah, so the verse I was reading this morning--

they wanted to eliminate everything else in their life

so they could devote themselves to prayer

and the study of the Word.

That's right.

Prayer and the Word-- that's right.

All right.

Well, if you're here tonight in Virginia Beach,

we've got something very special for you--

a night of prophecy at the Regent University chapel.

Vernon and his wife Margareth will be our special guest

for the event.

And I know he's going to be prayed up.

So it runs tonight from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM,

and our goal is that everyone can come and get a word.

So if you're in the Virginia Beach area tonight

only 6:00 PM, come and see Vernon.