Bible Question:
What does it mean if you are born again(saved) and baptized and you have the Holy spirit but not the evidence of speaking in other tongues? |
Bible Answer: Most of my life since childhood, I have belonged to and attended a major Pentecostal local church and denomination. I am now a member of a church that is part of that denomination. At the age of 14, two years after my salvation experience, I was *filled* with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave utterance. Later in life, after years of study, I could no longer go along with my denomination's doctrine of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, and speaking in tongues, which somehow got all mixed in together. Was my experience valid? Yes, it was. Did I actually receive the gift of tongues at age 14? Yes, I did. Do I believe the initial physical evidence of being baptized in OR filled with the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues? No, I don't. A prominent Pentecostal writer (Ralph M. Riggs) himself wrote: "The BEST evidence of the fullness of the Spirit is A CHANGED LIFE (caps are mine for emphasis). " Do all speak in tongues? The implied answer in 1 Cor 13 is no, not all speak in tongues. I now understand that I was baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:13) when I first was saved, when I was born again. At the same time, I began to be indwelt by the Spirit, as are ALL believers (Rom 8:9) On the night that I spoke in tongues, what happened.? I was filled (controlled and empowered) by the Holy Spirit, received the gift of tongues, and began to speak in tongues. Was I baptized by or in the Holy Spirit that night? No, that had taken place 2 years earlier when I first trusted Christ for salvation (2 Cor 2:13). My point is that I had an experience -- a valid experience -- in which I spoke in tongues for the first time. I continue to speak in tongues, almost daily, as I have for the last 42 years. But there are no exceptions to this principle: We don't prove the Bible by experience; we prove experience by the Bible. Even though I speak in tongues, I cannot ignore the clear Biblical teachings on being baptized by the Holy Spirit, being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, the gift of tongues, and the proper use of the gifts, including tongues, as outlined in 1 Cor chapters 12-14. I still believe tongues to be a valid, current gift of the Spirit. I do not believe that tongues have ceased, as some do. Yet I abhor some of the Pentecostal and charismatic excesses that are contrary to Scripture, the misuse of the gifts, and just plain bad doctrine about the gift of tongues and the baptism by the Holy Spirit. |