What is speaking in other tongues?
Hi, welcome to today's little lesson. Thank you so very much for joining me, once again. We're going
to begin a discussion today about a very biblical topic, the topic of speaking in other tongues, and
it's sad that it's a bit controversial within the body of Christ, within the larger church world. It
really shouldn't be because it's certainly a biblical subject. Jesus talked about the believers
speaking in tongues and throughout the Book of Acts on a number of occasions, we read about
believers speaking in other tongues, and Paul devotes a couple of chapters that have a lot to
say about speaking in tongues in his first letter to the Corinthians. And so, it's not like it's a
obscure subject in the New Testament. It's there and you can't escape it.
It fills a predominant place in the early chapters of the Book of Acts and we're going
to take a look at some of those passages when all of the apostles with the exception, of course,
Judas, spoke in other tongues. And not only them, but scores of other believers who are present
on the day of Pentecost. I think there was about 120 altogether, the Bible says, "and the
Holy Spirit was poured out upon them," and they all spoke in other tongues. And so, when
modern "theologians", and I'm going to put quotation marks on either side of that word,
"theologian" and modern "ministers". And I think I've put some quotation marks around
their names as well, belittle or mock, make fun of, or speak disparagingly of speaking in tongues,
you're making fun of Peter and John and James and Matthew, all the writers, authors of the New
Testament. You're making fun of those guys because they spoke in tongues, so nobody should making fun
of speaking in tongues. All right, whether you speak in tongues or not.
All right. And I'm going to ask for your grace
and your open-mindedness, because this is a topic that does sometimes ignite some negative passion.
And people get upset about it and they talk about the haves and the have nots and how the Christians
who speak in tongues think they're superior to those who don't speak in tongues and all this
kind of stuff that really is just peripheral. And really not worth even talking about because
we have the Bible and Christians, that's our book. That's the book where we're all saying,
"We believe this. We're a Bible believing church. We're a Bible believing denomination, but we're
opposed to anyone who speaks in other tongues." Well then, that's kind of a contradiction because
you say you're a Bible believing church, but you're opposed to anyone who speaks in tongues, so
you're opposed to all the guys who wrote the New Testament that you claim that you believe. Okay,
so, it is sad. It is sad, but I'm believing better things for you just because you're watching this.
The mockers and so forth, they won't even have watched it, or if they do, they're taking notes
so they can refute it and so forth and God bless them. It's very clear from the Bible, nobody can
refute this, that there's a connection between speaking in tongues and the Holy spirit. And
in fact, even more specific than that, there's a clear connection between speaking in tongues
and Christians initially being baptized or filled with the Holy spirit. Those two, you find those
two things together. It's a component of the Holy Spirit's work in the lives of believers.
And so, any professing believers says, "I don't want the Holy Spirit working in my life." Well,
how could you be a Christian if you don't want the Holy Spirit working in your life? That's
what being a Christian is, is the Holy Spirit working in your life. We should all want as much
of the Holy Spirit as we can possibly get. And they'll be taking notes and putting comments to
refute what I just said. Because it's, "Oh, you're treating the Holy Spirit like it's
some kind of quantitative thing." The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He, not it,
is God. He is a person, but the Bible describes the Holy Spirit in quantitative terms and in
fluid terms to help us to understand his working. And again, of course, there's tons of mystery to
this. We're never going to totally grasp it with our peanut brains, but we can read the Bible.
And the Bible says, "God poured out his spirit." That's quantitative, isn't it. That's
using language of fluidity and liquid poured out. And when the Bible says, "People were filled
with the Holy spirit," that's quantitative, isn't it? They were filled. They were empty,
but they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Do I understand all that? No. Nobody does,
Jesus one time spoke about how those who believe in him, out of their inner most being would flow
rivers of living water. And then, John in his commentary, I think this is John chapter seven.
He said, "This he spoke of the Spirit who those who believe in were to receive." So,
Jesus himself spoke of the Holy Spirit in using fluid, liquid verbiage. And so,
out of their inner most being self, flow rivers of living water. Flowing.
All right. And this John said he spoke of the spirit.
So, how that all works, I don't understand nobody does, but this is all biblical.
All right. So, if you've been born again, the Holy Spirit's already been working in your life. If
you're truly born again, the Holy Spirit drew you to Christ, convicted you of your sin, helped you
in your faith and your genuine repentance. Okay. Holy Spirit is active, beginning, from start to
finish. And the Bible talks about being born of the Spirit. That's another way of talking about
the new birth, regeneration. When our spirit man, the person who lives on the inside of this body,
is regenerated, revitalized, goes from a state of spiritual death, to a state of spiritual life,
and the Holy Spirit comes to in dwell you at that moment. So, if you're a believer in Jesus,
you have the Holy Spirit living in you. And if you don't have the Holy Spirit living in you,
you, you don't belong to Christ. Paul said that in Romans, chapter eight, I believe.
If you don't have the spirit of Christ, you don't belong to Him.
So, everyone who's truly believed in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is in them.
But, it's very clear from scripture that there are subsequent experiences beyond just the new birth
that involve the Holy Spirit. Bible speaks about being baptized in the Holy Spirit filled with the
spirit and so on and so forth. Okay. So, this is just the introduction, but speaking in tongues
in the Bible is connected with the Holy Spirit. And so, anybody who is in favor of the work of
the Holy Spirit, shouldn't be opposed to speaking in other tongues and exploring what the Bible has
to say about it. And that's what we're going to do in our next few little lessons. Okay?
So, you'll have to tune in for the next time because we're just getting started
here. All right. All right. Very quickly. If you've never been to heavensfamily.org,
check us out. And that's one of the things that we're doing with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Okay. And it's wonderful. It's waterfall. Okay. Serving the least of these and helping to expand
the kingdom around the world, the kingdom of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Check us out.
Okay? And hope you'll get involved. Until next time, may the Lord bless you richly.