I was a member of a denomination and had been healed by the power of God. After that, I
fellow-shipped with Full Gospel people because they preached divine healing, and it stimulated
my faith. You need to fellowship with people of like-precious faith in order to stay strong in
faith.
However, these Full Gospel people also preached the baptism in the Holy Ghost and speaking
with tongues.
People in my denomination said, "Those Pentecostal folks are good people and
they're all right in many ways. They preach a lot of good things, and much of what they preach
is true." But I was warned by many who genuinely cared about me to be careful about that
"tongues business" because they said that was of the devil.
However, in the course of time, I was filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking
with tongues. And I know from experience and from the Word of God that the baptism of the
Holy Spirit is not of the devil.
I didn't get some spirit that I didn't have before and didn't know
anything about. It was the same Spirit — the Holy Spirit.
The same Holy Ghost whom I became acquainted with in the new birth — the same Spirit who
bore witness with my spirit that I was a child of God — was the same Spirit that gave me
utterance in tongues.
I told my denominational friends, "You said that speaking with tongues is of the devil. Well, if it
is, then the new birth is of the devil too. For the same Holy Spirit who led me to Christ, and the
same Holy Spirit who bore witness with my spirit that I am a child of God, gave me utterance in
tongues."
You see, when you are born again, you don't have all the Holy Spirit there is to have. There is
a further experience; an experience subsequent to the new birth that God desires every one of
His children to experience. Jesus said, ". . . If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink"
(John 7:37).
In the infilling of the Holy Spirit, one can drink of the rivers of living water until he
gets full!
Someone asked, "How can you tell when you get full of the rivers of living water; that is, after
you are filled with the Holy Ghost?"
Acts 2:4 tells us how we know when we are filled: ". . . they were all FILLED with the Holy
Ghost, AND BEGAN TO SPEAK WITH OTHER TONGUES...." If you are a believer, it is just as
simple as Jesus said it is in John 7:37. Just come and drink and keep on drinking until you get
full. And when you get full, you will start speaking with other tongues. That is the initial sign or
evidence that you are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaking in Tongues Is Not The Evidence of the New Birth
So you see, on one hand, an extreme teaching in many denominations is that when a person
gets saved, that person has all the Holy Spirit there is to have. However, on the other hand, an
extreme teaching and error in some Full Gospel circles is that no one is really saved unless he
has spoken in tongues. But speaking in tongues is not an evidence of the new birth; it is an
evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
We know that the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues is not for
the world — for unbelievers — because of something Jesus said in John 14:16,17.
JOHN 14:16,17
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may
abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth [the Holy Spirit]; WHOM THE WORLD CANNOT RECEIVE,
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with
you, and shall be IN you.
Jesus said that the world cannot receive this experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Now
God does have a gift for the world, and that gift is salvation. The Heavenly Father has another
gift for His children, and that is the gift of the Holy Ghost.
LUKE 11:13
13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much
more shall YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
God isn't the Father of everyone. He is the Father of those who have been born again and
recreated in His image and likeness (2 Cor. 5:17).
We hear a lot about the Fatherhood of God
and the brotherhood of man, and that God is the Father of all of us as humans and that we are
all brothers. But that isn't true.
In John 8:44, Jesus said to the Pharisees, the strictest sect of the Jewish religion, "Ye are of
your father the devil. . . ."So you see, God is only the Father of those who have been born
again. And to those who have been born again, God the Father gives the gift of the Holy
Ghost.
FFT: Salvation and Spirit-baptism are products of the same Holy Spirit.
ACTION POINT: There is more in the Holy Spirit! dig deeper!
INTERACTIVE SESSION: Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believe?
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