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HELEN SANDERS
7-28-2021
THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT PART 3
Now that we have learned about receiving the “second blessing” that Jesus wants every believer to have let’s talk a little more about speaking in tongues and also the gift of tongues.
At the initial receiving of the baptism of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost all the believers in the upper room spoke in “tongues” which were languages they had never learned. This continued to be the sign to the early church that someone had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. It came upon both Jews and gentiles.
In I Corinthians 12 it lists the gifts that God has given to the body of Christ. One of them is tongues along with the interpretation of tongues. This is a gift for public worship, not private worship. Many times, people that speak in tongues speak out in church, but they do not have the interpretation of this tongue. They work together. Paul said in I Corinthians 14: 5-6, “I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth (speaks in their own language a prophetic word from God) than he that speaketh with tongues, EXCEPT HE INTERPRET, that the church maya receive edifying.”
This is different than speaking in tongues in your own private worship. When it is spoken publicly with interpretation it benefits the entire church that hears the message. Not everyone is given this gift, but everyone that has been baptized with the Holy Spirit and has spoken in tongues can speak in tongues for their own private benefit. In Jude verse 20-21 it says, “But ye, beloved, building yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost (tongues) keep yourselves in the love of God…” So, you see, your faith is built up when you pray in tongues privately, and you keep yourselves in the love of God while praying in tongues also.
Many have mistaken these two separate functions of speaking or praying in tongues. It has brought much confusion to the body of Christ. It has brought much disorder in church services also. We must not confuse the office of tongues and interpretation which is a ministry gift with the private speaking in tongues for our own personal benefit.
Speaking in tongues should not be forbidden, as long as it is in order. The gift of tongues and interpretation is needed today just as much as faith, wisdom, healings miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, word of knowledge.
Remember, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the doorway to all of these gifts. You will never have the fullness of the gifts from God without first being baptized in the Holy Spirit.
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