| Welcome to Give Me The Truth. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Speaking In Tongues | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 13 2011, 11:51 AM (88 Views) | |
| PASTOR107 | Aug 13 2011, 11:51 AM Post #1 |
|
Administrator
|
In the truth of the scriptures we find two important facts. First, the baptism of the Holy Ghost is for all believers. John said it was for all those he had baptized in water (Matthew 3:11), and Jesus said it was for anyone who would believe on Him (John 7:38-39). Jesus could not baptize anyone with the Holy Ghost until after He had entered His priestly office, through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. We shall now consider the initial physical evidence signifying that someone has received the Holy Ghost: “But when the Comforter is come . . . he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27). Here we find two Witnesses: First, the Holy Spirit, who testifies of Jesus, is actually Jesus speaking for Himself: “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:20). Secondly, we also are to bear witness (Acts 1:8). On the Day of Pentecost, the 120 disciples were in one place and in one accord; they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in other tongues (Acts 2:4). Here we see that the Holy Ghost bore witness of Jesus. Then after the multitudes came together, the disciples also bore witness, when Peter said, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16). Speaking in tongues, as recorded in Acts 2:4, is the initial evidence of the Holy Ghost baptism. Acts 10:44 records the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the Gentiles: “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.” How did the Jewish Christians who came with Peter know that the Gentiles had received the Holy Ghost? “For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God” (Acts 11:46). In Acts 19:6, around twenty-three years after the Day of Pentecost, the apostle Paul met some disciples of John the Baptist who had not yet received the Holy Ghost. He laid his hands on these disciples, and true to the pattern established at Pentecost (Acts 2:4) and at Cornelius’ house (Acts 10:46), they spoke with tongues. Acts 8 records a great revival in the city of Samaria. “For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed” (Acts 8:7). Following Philip’s preaching, many had turned to the Lord. However, though they had been baptized in water, none of them had received the Holy Ghost. When Peter and John came to Samaria and prayed for the believers, they received the Holy Ghost. It appears that they, too, spoke with tongues, because Simon the Sorcerer saw something that convinced him that the people had received the Holy Ghost. He offered Peter money that he might have the power to lay his hands on people and give them the Holy Ghost in the same miraculous way. God established the correct pattern for people receiving the Holy Ghost in the Book of Acts. Importantly, the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost was always the same—speaking in tongues. How will honest hearts, who are seeking for the truth of God, be able to claim the baptism of the Holy Ghost unless they have spoken in tongues as the Spirit gives the ability? To what passage of Scripture will they point to as the pattern and say, “I thank God that I have received the Holy Ghost just as it is recorded there”? Many people claim that the fruit of the Spirit is the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but God’s Word does not record a single instance where anyone received the baptism of the Holy Ghost with this stressed as the evidence of the baptism. On the other hand, the Samaritans had great joy even before they received the Holy Ghost (Acts 8:8, 15-16). Moreover, Luke 24:52-53 says that the company of disciples who witnessed the ascension of Jesus returned to Jerusalem with great joy and continually praised and blessed God in the Temple. So we see that joy and blessings are not the evidence, as these disciples did not receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost till the Day of Pentecost (See Acts 2:4). Many, in failing to place the books of the Bible in their proper setting, confuse the teaching of Paul in I Corinthians 12 and 14 with the accounts in Acts. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, was teaching those who had already received the baptism of the Holy Ghost how to act in the church and was instructing them in the use of the gifts of the Spirit. He gave instructions concerning the gift of tongues for the edification of the church. The tongues recorded in Acts served a different purpose; no interpretation is required when one receives the baptism of the Holy Ghost. But Paul, writing to those who had already received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, instructed them that they must interpret any message in tongues given to the church. In summary, the Acts of the Apostles records how believers entered the church, while First Corinthians teaches how they should act after they have entered the church, or in other words, how the gifts of the Spirit should operate through the Spirit-filled saints. It is the baptism of the Holy Ghost evidenced by speaking in other tongues that makes us different from all other people. If it were not for this experience, which so many today do not accept, we would have no excuse for being a separate movement. Some would like to have the Holy Ghost but do not want tongues as the evidence. But one can just as easily have boiling water without steam as the Holy Ghost without tongues! To be sure, we should never seek for tongues, but we do urge those who have repented and given their lives to Christ to seek the Holy Ghost, and when He comes in, there will be tongues to witness His arrival. When one sends for a pair of shoes, it is the shoes he is after; but when he receives them, he finds the tongues are there with the shoes! People who were not spiritual were creeping into leadership in the closing days of the apostles. This caused Jude to urge the church to “earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). A thorough study of the Book of Acts will prove to any honest seeker after truth that the Spirit-filled life is the normal New Testament standard for the present-day believer in Christ. |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · BIBLICAL TRUTH DISCUSSIONS · Next Topic » |







2:28 PM Jul 11