Speaking in Tongues Is Not Evidence Of the New Birth
As I said, one extreme is believing a person has all of the Holy Spirit there is to have in the
new birth. On the other extreme, some people think that a person doesn't have the Holy Ghost
in his life at all until he speaks in tongues. These people would say the disciples did not
receive the Holy Ghost at all in the new birth when Jesus breathed on them. They believe the
disciples didn't have the Holy Ghost until they spoke in tongues.
But speaking in tongues is not the Bible evidence for the new birth. It is the Bible evidence for
the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as we will later discuss in detail. Only believers can receive the
infilling of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the disciples had to be born again before they could have
been baptized with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues (Acts 2:4).
So did the disciples receive the Holy Ghost in the new birth as recorded in John 20:22, or not?
If they didn't, then Jesus sure did pull a funny trick on them. He sure did fool them when He
said that to them! No, when Jesus said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," He meant what He said!
The disciples received the Holy Spirit in the new-birth experience at that moment.
This is when
the disciples were born again, yet fifty days later they gathered with other believers in the
Upper Room to be endued with power from on High by the same Holy Spirit.
It Is the Same Holy Spirit In the New Birth and In the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
I knew as a young Baptist boy preacher that I had been born of the Spirit when I was born
again (Rom. 8:16). But I didn't know the Bible that well back then, and I didn't understand that
there was also the promise of a dual working of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life (Luke
24:49).
Some Pentecostal folks I knew made it sound like you didn't have the Holy Ghost in any
measure until you spoke with tongues. So from listening to them, I thought that I was going to
receive another "Spirit" when I got baptized in the Holy Ghost.
When I was baptized in the Holy Ghost and began to speak in other tongues, I said, "Why, this
is the same Spirit I've had all the time. It's the same Holy Ghost! There aren't two Holy Ghosts
— there's just one! He's not twins!"
Before I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, some of my Baptist colleagues would warn me about
associating with Pentecostal people. They would say, "Now those are good people all right.
They live better lives than people do in our church. But that speaking in tongues is of the devil!"
I wouldn't say much when they said that, but I would think, Isn't it strange that people can get
something from the devil that will help them live better lives!
One man in particular, a graduate of a Baptist seminary, had warned me again and again
about Pentecostal people and speaking in tongues. After I had been baptized in the Holy Spirit,
I rushed over to see him.
He gave me the same warning that he had given me many times before: "I want to warn you,
Kenneth, about going around with those Full Gospel people. That speaking in tongues is of the
devil!"
I told him, "Well, if it is, then the whole Southern Baptist movement is of the devil!"
"What are you talking about?" he asked, surprised.
I said, "I got baptized with the Holy Ghost in the Full Gospel pastor's house.
I didn't get any
new Spirit. The same Holy Spirit that I received in the new birth in the Baptist church is the
same Holy Spirit that gave me utterance in other tongues!"
I had just discovered what the Bible had taught all along. Just like the disciples in Acts 2:1-4, I
had received an enduement of power from on High from the same Holy Spirit who had
recreated my spirit when I was born again.
FFT: This same Holy Spirit is all in all!
ACTION POINT: Launch into the deep for more of the Holy Spirit.
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