Tongues: The Initial Evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Grab a cup of coffee and your Bible and let’s delve again into this important subject once again!  I enjoyed our study yesterday and I hope you did as well.  Again, I will be using Kenneth Hagin‘s “Prayer Study Course”.   This is a continuation of yesterday’s post, so if you missed it, it will help you to go back and read the last post before moving on to this one.  With that being said let us get right into it and enjoy!

“Notice first of all  that speaking with tongues is always manifested when people are filled with the Holy Ghost.   Acts 2:4 states, ‘And they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.’

I would not argue and fuss about whether tongues is evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit.  According to  Acts 2:4, it is.  On the other hand,  I know that Christians who do not speak with tongues have experiences in the Holy Ghost, too because, after all, the new birth is effected or wrought by the Holy Ghost according to John 3:3-8:

³ Jesus replied, “I assure you: Unless someone is born again,^[a] he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴ “But how can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked Him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

⁵ Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit,^[b] he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be amazed that I told you that you^[c] must be born again. ⁸ The wind^[d] blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

And God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God according to Romans 8:16:

¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children,

Before I go further with Ken Hagin’s book, let me explain something that has confused me at one time and can confuse others.  There is a difference in the Holy Spirit dwelling within you and the infilling, or baptism of the Holy Spirit.  When Paul asked the disciples “Have you been filled with the Holy Ghost since you have been saved?”  That shows the distinction in the Holy Spirit dwelling WITH you and the baptism of the Holy Spirit filling you where you speak in other tongues, also known as a Heavenly language.  It is a special gift and you qualify for this gift once you are saved, and not before.  You can go to heaven without EVER speaking in tongues, but it is a powerful gift that flows from believers thwarting the enemies evil plans against them and others.  He cannot understand this language and the Holy Spirit is praying God’s perfect will out in this manner.  It is a gift that brings an infusion of mighty power to your everyday prayer life!

Over the years, I’ve read in several accounts that before Smith Wigglesworth actually received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, he would argue with people that he was already filled with the Holy Ghost.  Then he heard that Christians were speaking in tongues in a local Episcopal church, and he went to see about it.  He found that the pastor and his wife had received the baptism in the Holy Ghost.  Many church members, as well as others from all over Europe, had also received this New Testament experience.  The pastor and his wife asked Wigglesworth, “Have you received the Holy Ghost?”

Wigglesworth replied, “Yes.”  Then they asked, “Did you speak with tongues when you were filled?”  Wigglesworth said,  “No, but I’m just as much filled with the Holy Ghost as you are.”  Wigglesworth was so adamant about it, he almost disrupted their church meetings.

Wigglesworth finally went to the parsonage or rectory to the Episcopal pastor to pray fo him to receive the Holy Ghost, but the pastor wasn’t there, so the pastor’s wife said, “I’ll pray for you.”  Wigglesworth said, “Just pray for me that I’ll get the tongues.”  She said, “No, you don’t want tongues, you want the Holy Ghost.  The tongues will take care of itself.”  He said, “I have the Holy Ghost.”  She said, “Nevermind.  Kneel down here.”  She was tired of arguing with him.  He knelt down, and she laid hands on him, the Holy Ghost power came upon him.  Just then there was an interruption, so she left the room, pulling the door closed so Wigglesworth wouldn’t be disturbed.  As the power of God came upon him, God gave him a vision.

Wigglesworth said, “In this vision I saw a stream of blood flowing from Calvary like a mighty river.  I saw myself in that stream.  I began to cry out, ‘Clean, clean, clean.  I’m clean; the blood of Jesus has cleansed me.  I am clean because of the blood of Jesus.’  In a few moments I noticed that I wasn’t saying ‘Clean’ in English.  I was talking in some kind of language I had never spoken before.  I was speaking in tongues.  Then I had another vision.  In it I saw the mighty power of Pentecost and of God.  The Holy Ghost settled all my arguments for me.  I had been arguing with Spirit-filled believers every day I had the Holy Ghost as much as they did.  In a moment’s time I saw that I had never really been filled with the Holy Ghost until then.  Certainly, I’d had some wonderful experiences as a minister.  God had blessed me and had anointed me to preach.  My wife and I had gotten many saved and even healed.  But I had never really been filled with the Holy Ghost until then.  When you get an experience inside the Word of God, you have an experience outside the realm of argument.  Before, I had an argument, but now I had an experience with God.”

Well, a Bible based experience is always better than an argument!  And the initial evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit according to the Word is speaking with other tongues.

We also need to realize that the gift of tongues with interpretation is distinctive of this dispensation, the New Testament era, the Age of Grace.  All the other gifts of the Spirit were manifested in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament.  Even in the life and ministry of Jesus, all the other gifts of the Spirit were manifested except tongues and interpretation.

Because tongues and interpretation of tongues are distinctive of this Church Age dispensation, that is one reason they are more frequently distributed and used in the Church than the other gifts of the Spirit.  That is another reason it seems we have an abundance of this particular manifestation.”

Join me again tomorrow, dear reader as we discuss “Divers Kinds of Tongues”.  Blessings in abundance, dear reader!  I will see you soon!!