SPEAKING IN TONGUES
Good evening and a very happy Wednesday to you dearly beloved. I hope you had a good night rest and an amazing day so far. I know some persons may skip this first paragraph because I only greet and thank viewers and as such may see it as a waste of time. The truth is sincerely, I don't do it for courtesy sake, I truly truly appreciate every single person who reads these posts published, get blessed by them and most especially share to their friends, families and colleagues on social media in whatever form in any country across the world. I do not know you but my heart goes out to you and from the depths of my heart, I appreciate and love you specially.
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This evening I will be teaching us on a very interesting topic titled: Speaking in other tongues. I must confess when I was inspired to teach this topic I was super excited. Firstly I do not claim to be an authority in spiritual matters nor I am trying to improving on anyone's doctrines. I rather hope to show you with, from and through scriptures how the gift of speaking in tongues is gotten, who should manifest this gift and the difference of speaking in tongues as a spiritual gift and as a ministerial gift.
Firstly, how is the gift of the Spirit gotten? First there has to be a baptism of the Holy Spirit. You see, we all receive the Holy Spirit at the point of our conversion that is why we can say, we have received the Spirit of adoption. It is only at conversion that we can call God our father because we have his Spirit in us like the Apostle Paul and John tells us
Rom 8:14 - 16
14
KJV:For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
KJV:For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
KJV:The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
1 John 4:12
12
KJV:No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
KJV:Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
This is not different from the baptism with the Holy Spirit that we have been taught. So every believer by virtue of repentance or accepting Christ as Lord and Saviour has received the Holy Spirit. How to receive the Holy Spirit isn't part of the scope of this write-up but I will touch it a little for our benefit. From the above scripture we have seen that the proof that we are children of God, born of God is the Holy Spirit He gives us. Now using common sense, if after getting converted we are waiting for another special experience for receiving His Spirit and scriptures tells expressly that we are believers because we have His Spirit. It means that from the time we get saved to the time of the other special baptism of the Spirit, we are not Children of God. Which means God only accepts us and calls us His children when we are baptised? Does that sound logical to you? The proof that you are a child of God is the Spirit of God we receive. Let's look at another scripture:
Eph 1: 12 - 14
KJV:That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
KJV:In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
KJV:Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
So every believer who has baptised with the Holy Spirit is supposed to speak in tongues as a spiritual gift.
Of the five places it was recorded in scriptures that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was witnessed, three of them expressly states that they spoke in tongues. Let's look at three scriptures that shows this to us:
Acts 2:1-5
KJV:And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
KJV:And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
KJV:And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
KJV:And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance
Acts 10:44 - 45,
KJV:While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
KJV:And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
KJV:For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,
Acts 19: 1 - 5
KJV:And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,
KJV:He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
KJV:And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism.
KJV:Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
KJV:When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
KJV:And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
While in one of them, it doesn't tell us expressly that they spoke in tonguee but we can infer from the passage that there was enough outward manifestation that could cause the kind of reaction it did. Let's look at that scriptures.
Acts 8:14 - 19
KJV:Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:
KJV:Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:
KJV:(For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)
KJV:Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
KJV:And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,
KJV:Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.
We can safely assume that the sign that made Simon want to buy the gift has to be speaking in tongues or prophesy or even healing. Scripture also tells us that in the mouth of two or three witnesses let a thing be established, and I have shown with three scriptures that speaking in tongues is an evidence of baptism with the Holy Spirit which is so very often. Another debate or argument along this line is also that the kind of tongues which the Apostles spoke on Pentecost is different from what happens today, so the ones we hear today are fake. Well, to come to that assumption can only mean that you don't read scriptures. Looking at the argument that ensued in 1 cor chapters 12 - 14, we see that the early church also spoke in the kind of tongues that is very common today. On the day of Pentecost the apostles spoke in other tongues of men that they had not learnt so that souls can be won that day but what is common today is the kind that no other man can understand except you and God. The apostle Jude in his epistle makes us understand that one of the benefit of this spiritual gift of tongues is for the building up of our spirit man on our most holy faith not only restricted for evangelism like it happened on the day of Pentecost. In summary, the day of Pentecost the tongues spoken was purely for evangelism, reading scriptures properly will make you understand that the kind of tongues common today was also prevalent in the early church and also caused confusions as it does today.
Finally persons like to quote 1 Cor 12: 29-31(please read this up yourself), to support their argument that all believers aren't supposed to speak in tongues. OK, sorry to burst your bubbles, let's do a little Bible study again
Eph 4:7- 13
7
KJV:But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
NIV:But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
8
KJV:Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
NIV:This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.”
9
KJV:(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
NIV:(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?
10
KJV:He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
NIV:He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)
11
KJV:And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
NIV:So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
12
KJV:For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
NIV:to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
13
KJV:Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
NIV:until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
I used two different translations, so you would get the message clearer. Do you notice the gifts that came before speaking in other tongues?, Apostles, Prophets etc, these are ministry gifts so why do you think the intelligent and smart Apostle Paul will just all of a sudden switch from ministry gifts to spiritual gifts? This is different from 1 Cor 12:1-11, please read that up on your too.
So in summary, firstly we all receive or are baptised with the Holy Spirit at the point of our conversion. You are not supposed to wait for another special experience. All the scriptures we have seen above has shown that we don't need to wait for another experience.The only time persons were made to tarry for the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit was when He was sent to the world the very first time in Acts chapter 2. Since then He has been sent into the world, we receive Him as soon as we believe and are ready.
Secondly, every believer is supposed to pray in other tongues. I say that without apology to anyone. If you don't pray in other tongues, it is not because you can't, it is because you don't want to. If you want to and desire to, you would pray in tongues because you have received the Holy Spirit. I believe you should have been blessed and learnt something new.
I hope you have been blessed by this write-up. If you realise that men need to hear the gospel more than any other thing in the world then assist us in increasing our world audience by being a constant visitor to the blog and see sharing of the blog as an opportunity to evangelise the gospel to the ends of the earth that you may never get to but internet has made possible. God bless you as you do so in Jesus name. Amen. Remember the world is in dire need of the word of God, so join us spread this word. God bless you richly and do have a wonderful weekend. Shalom
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