Expert: Marilyn - 3/14/2006

Question
i was told that you have to talk in tongues to get the holy ghost and im not sure if i did because don't remember

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Followup To
Question -
I HOPE YOU CAN HELP ME FIRST I WANT TO TELL YOU WANT HAPPEN TO ME FRIDAY NIGHT I WENT CHURCH AND AFTER CHURCH THE PASTOR AT THE CHURCH ASK ME TO GO UP TO FRONT HE CALLED ME SMILE AND HE PRAY OVER AND HE TOLD ME THAT HE FEEL THAT I WANTED MORE IN CHIRST LIFE AND THAT THERE WERE THINGS BOTHER ME AS WELL AND I FELL TO FLOOR I THOUGH THAT IT WAS HOLY GHOST AND AFTER I GOT BACK UP THE PASTOR SAID THAT NIGHT WAS FOR ME AND NEXT DAY I TOLD SOMEONE WHAT HAPPEN AND THEY ARE TELLING ME THAT IT DID NOT HAPPEN I DID NOT GET THE HOLY GHOST AND IT HURTING ME I WANT TO SO BAD I BEEN PRAYING THAT I GET IT BUT I WAS NOT SURE IF I SHOULD TRY SO ASK FOR SIGN AND I THOUGHT THAT PASTOR ASK ME IF I COME UP SOME MY SIGN AND NOW THIS PERSON TELLING IT WAS NOT AND PRAY AGAIN ASKING IF I DID GET WHAT I WANT
Answer -
Dear Veronica;

You have received the Holy Spirit.  

The Lord is not stingy and would not withhold from you His Holy Spirit.  Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all--how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?"  

The Lord desires you should be filled with the Holy Spirit.  You believed you received Him and therefore you have!  Paul asks the Galatians, "Did you receive the Spirit by observing the Law, or by believing what you heard?," Galatians 3:2.  You believed what you heard!  You believed you could receive the Holy Spirit, therefore you HAVE received Him!

All it takes to receive the Holy Spirit is to ask for Him and believe you have received Him.  He is with you, you are filled, do not worry.  You have received the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus said He must suffer at the hands of the authorities and die, Peter exclaimed, "Never, Lord...This shall never happen to You!" Jesus replied, "Get thee behind me Satan!"  (See Matthew 16:21-23)  

Like Peter, even the most well-intentioned people can unwittingly repeat what the enemy has placed in their minds.  Jesus went straight to the source of the words and told Satan to "Go AWAY."    

I don't recommend you go to this person and tell him (or her) he's only repeating what Satan has planted in his mind.  Allow the Lord to deal with the problem.  Pray for this person.

I recommend you recognize that anytime the Lord does something BIG in your life, the enemy is going to send opposition!  The enemy is trying to steal from you.  He can't take the Holy Spirit from you, but he can take away your connection to the Holy Spirit by making you doubt!   

Be prepared for opposition.  Do not permit doubters to distract you or throw you off course, but cling firmly to the Lord through praising Him and thanking Him for the wonderful Gift He's given you.

Fill your mind with God's Word and be quiet in your spirit so that you may listen to God's Holy Spirit and begin to walk in revelation knowledge.  Always begin by praising God, perhaps reading praise Psalms aloud ("faith comes by hearing," Romans 10:17), then learn to quiet your own thoughts, listen for the Holy Spirit.  

If you praise God first, the enemy will leave.  He can't stand to listen to God's praises!  (See Psalm 8:2)  If you begin by praising God, then you will be free to open your mind to hear God speak to your heart.  You were created to fellowship with Him.  You are His beloved daughter.

You are at the beginning of your personal war for the cause of Christ and you've been hit with the first attack.  Know this:  The fight isn't over until YOU win!

Allow yourself to bask in the Lord's great sea of love for you and ignore the doubters. You are His beloved daughter, and somehow, just as He loves me the best, He also loves you the best too!  You are His princess.  You are His special treasure, one-of-a-kind, created for a purpose!  Let God's great LOVE sink into your heart.  Absorb it like a sponge, bask in it the way a sunbather basks in the sunlight, bathe in it as if you were in a swimming pool full of LOVE.  If you live in God's vast pool of LOVE, how can anything evil even touch you?  It can't!  Nothing evil can survive in His Presence!

Blessings,

Marilyn  

Answer
Veronica;

I thought a person had to speak in tongues also, as evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit, but I can't find the Scripture saying this.  Read I Corinthians 12:4-11.  Paul has a list where he says, "to one" is given this and to another is given that, the implication being persons receive different gifts--some may receive tongues and others don't!  

Verses 12-30 talk about how each person in the Body of Christ is uniquely gifted.  Verses 29 & 30, "Are all apostles?  Are all prophets?  Are all teachers?  Do all work miracles?  Do all have gifts of healing?  DO ALL SPEAK IN TONGUES?  Do all interpret?"  Yet, all these have received the Spirit, even the ones who don't speak in tongues or interpret.  

I Corinthians 14:22-25 says, "Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not unbelievers. So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?  But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare.  So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!" "

The first part of I Corinthians 14:22-25 seems to say that speaking in tongues is a sign to unbelievers that a person is a believer, but in the later passage Paul talks about how confusing and frightening it is to an unbeliever to hear people talking in tongues--he will think they're out of their minds!  Then he says, if the unbeliever hears prophesy, which is more often speaking about present situations in people's lives, then he will know God is there because believers will be telling him things they could not have known except by the power of God.

I understand this to say that an unbeliever who is converted and speaks in tongues--tongues are for him to show evidence of what's happened.  However, prophecy (see I Corinthians 14:1) is the greater gift and belongs to those who already believe so that when unbelievers come into their presence, their prophesying will be evidence to the unbeliever of God's Presence and the unbeliever will then believe.

Read I Corinthians 12-14 and see what you think.

Many churches expect a believer to speak in tongues to show evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  In various places in Acts you can read of persons who were saved and then began speaking in tongues.  Or in one case, of people who were saved, but had not been baptised yet who after baptism in the Holy Spirit began speaking in tongues.

Jesus says in Mark 16:17 & 18, "And these signs will accompany those who believe:  In my Name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."  

Does every believer manifest ALL these signs?  NO.  Jesus is talking about the whole body manifesting these signs, not specific individuals.  Some of us are not called to drive out demons, but are instead called to teach.  Some of us are called to heal the sick, while others of us are called to work in the business world transforming it for the glory of God.  Each of us are uniquely gifted according to the call on our lives.

If you desire the gift of tongues, ask the Lord to speak through you.  To do this, first be quiet in your mind and center yourself upon the Lord and His Great Love.  Open your mouth and let the sounds that come to your mind come out of your mouth.  They're not supposed to make sense to you, they are your "prayer" language or languages of angels as others call the sounds.  You can do this at home in your bathroom first. You can do this in private until you feel assured one way or the other regarding the matter.  

But you can stop the language if you feel embarrassed or ashamed.  You have to relax and be prepared and willing to sound like a fool.  I knew a young man once who began to speak in tongues, but stopped himself because he felt foolish.  Then he announced he couldn't do it and as far as I know, he hasn't tried again since.

Here is what I believe is the end of the matter:  

1)  Many Pentecostal churches teach a believer must speak in tongues as evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  I can't find in my Bible any Scriptural evidence to back this assertion.  God MAY give a person the gift of tongues, but He MAY give a person prophecy or teaching or healing or any number of other gifts INSTEAD!  NOT every person baptized in the Holy Spirit is going to speak in tongues.  

2)  No matter what church you attend, you will discover that church is not perfect!  The Lord Jesus is represented to us by the unleavened bread, perfect, without sin, but the church is represented by a leavened loaf of bread, the Lord's Body, made righteous by His Blood, but not without sin.  

We believers strive for sinlessness and perfection, but though we may reach higher and higher levels of perfection we will never attain Christ's perfection.  The church, therefore, is not going to be perfect.  Not every belief of any given church will be perfect.  

If you are otherwise very happy at this church, then remain where you are, but cease worrying about whether or not you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.  As the Lord works through you, transforming you into His Dear Image, the evidence of the Holy Spirit inside of you will vindicate you before the body of believers where you attend.  

If the pressure to speak in tongues is great and the Lord has not gifted you with tongues, then ask Him to give you that gift.  (I addressed this in a paragraph above)  But if you aren't gifted with tongues, you may have been gifted with another gift instead!  This is a matter between you and the Lord, the two of you will have to settle it.  If the Lord doesn't gift you with tongues and the church will not accept you, perhaps it would be best if you searched for a new church home.

The Lord never feels compelled to prove anything to anybody.  He doesn't have to prove to these people that you are His precious daughter or that He has gifted you with His Holy Spirit and is preparing you for works to do for His Glory.  The other side of this is that while we struggle to cling to the revelation He's given us of who we are in Him and what He's called us to do, we must suffer until we reach maturity and can manifest His power.  

Think of Joseph who was given a vision of sheaves bowing to him and stars bowing to him.  The very next thing that happened to him was his brothers sold him into slavery, he was falsely accused and ended up in jail!  Joseph went through those trials until he reached maturity, all the while continuing to believe the revelation God had given him of who he was and to what he was called.  When he was mature, he was able to exert power and influence and the sheaves and stars did bow to him!

Think of David who was annointed king of Israel and then spent many years running and hiding, fighting for the nation and living off the kindness of its citizens!  

Those of us who must suffer and endure until the revelation of who we are and what we're called to do can manifest in the material world are in good company!

3)  Paul says the Holy Spirit is given to the person who believes what he has heard.  You believed you received the Holy Spirit, therefore you HAVE received the Holy Spirit.  

You have a direct link to the Father and you can receive revelation knowledge from Him.  You can study the Word and you can KNOW what it says.  The Lord can tell you the end of this matter and it's HIS ruling that counts.  Read I Corinthians 12-14 and pray about it and let the Lord tell you what is the truth.  YOU can hear his voice, you were created to fellowship with Him!  

"And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from the Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts--deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds--[in that peaceful state] to which {as members of Christ's} one Body you were also called [to live].  And be thankful--appreciative, giving praise to God always," Colossians 3:15, Amplified Bible.  

Regardless of the pressure you must endure, cling to the Lord and bask in His love, study His Word and come to KNOW it so that you will not be buffeted about by people's opinions.  Let the Lord tell you the truth of this matter.

http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=393

Please write again and let me know how you are doing.

Blessings,

Marilyn