I do believe that speaking in tongues is an evidence of
being baptized in the Holy Spirit, I am not certain as to whether it is the
only evidence, there may be other evidences as well, it is also stated in
the book of Acts that people spoke in tongues and prophesied. Prophesy as
spoken of here is not merely preaching. It is speaking something by divine
utterance that is given by the Holy Spirit. Someone who is preaching can be
prophesying but it is not always the case. True prophecy is never dry and
boring, it is always fresh and alive, but it will not disagree with the Word of
God. The Word and the Spirit are always in agreement. One thing that is very
certain from scripture is the fact that the entirety of the New Testament was
written by people who were Baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. All
the authors of the New Testament except for the Apostle Paul were in the upper
room on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was initially poured out and
all spoke in tongues. As we discuss later in this blog the Apostle Paul also
states that he spoke in tongues as well in the book of 1 Corinthians 14:18. Let’s
look again to the book of Acts, in Acts 2:1-4 we are shown the first recorded instance in the New Testament Church of anyone being baptized in or filled with the Holy Spirit.
After being baptized in the Holy Spirit the apostle Peter preached a sermon in Acts 2:14-21 and the remarkable thing about this sermon is the power and boldness with which Peter spoke. This is the same Peter who due to his fear had denied Jesus three times before he was crucified. Here he was filled with such boldness and the power of the Holy Spirit that through the preaching of a sermon that lasted maybe 10-15 minutes 3000 people were saved. The baptism in the Holy Spirit imbues people with the power of God and a boldness to speak the truth of His Word that simply was not there before. In Acts 8:14-17 we have another example of people receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit after salvation. These people had been baptized in the name of Jesus and they had received the Word of God but they had not yet been baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Stay tuned for my next post which will explore the Baptism in the Holy Spirit further yet.
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ReplyDeleteSorry I deleted the post because it said unknown. I wanted to post with my name.
DeleteI think some Christians put so much pressure on themselves when it comes to speaking in tongues that they spew out gibberish and not actual tongues. From my understanding, speaking in tongues is speaking a different language that you are not familiar with but is a language that can be understood by its native speakers. For e.g., a french man speaking a local African language. This days, a lot of tongues cannot be understood and recognised. I haven't been able to speak in tongues and I'd love to but I don't want to be pressured and just make up words.
ReplyDeleteThat is a common misconception that many people have, now there is a type of tongues that are exactly as you have said I have heard of it being manifested before it however is not the most common type of speaking in tongues that there is. If we look at scripture in 1 Corinthians 13:1 Paul says that there are tongues of men and of angels. He also states later on that he will pray with the spirit and with the understanding implying that when he prays with the spirit it is something that his natural mind does not understand otherwise why would he have felt the necessity to differentiate between the two spirit and understanding? The things of the Spirit are foolishness to the natural man. I remember when I was first baptized in the Holy Spirit my natural mind kept telling me that it was foolishness just gibberish just as you said but I could not deny that the power of God came along with it. There was a boldness in the things of God and an understanding and unfolding of the scriptures that I had never known before. The Holy Spirit will never pressure you, people may but God will not. He also doesn't over power you, He doesn't make you speak in tongues, he will however give you the utterance to do so it is your choice whether you use that utterance or not. The most common type of tongues that we usually see is the personal prayer language. God gives us a heavenly language to pray in that we do not understand but neither does the devil understand it. It will sound to your natural mind like gibberish when you first receive it but as you continue to exercise the gift it will become more and more beautiful, sometimes you will use the language to sing and praise God but your natural mind still will not understand it it is all on faith that is the way God operates. When we yield that small member the tongue to the Holy Spirit in this way something wondrous happens within us, He has started us down a path where we will understand deeper and deeper levels of yieldedness to His Spirit and from that more and more manifestations of the Spirit will flow forth.
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