Hi Pastor John,
Have a question that has been on my mind lately. I know from what I have read, heard, and learned from your teachings and that wonderful first book I received on Baptism of the Holy Spirit and Speaking in Tongues that the only way to Heaven, where God Reigns forever, is to have that Baptism WITH evidence of speaking in tongues.
Some moments I can accept this idea but more often it is a struggle. When I learned of the Gift of Tongues, I thought it was a Gift and not a requirement. I guess I might need to read that book again and pray more as I read.
I suppose the adversary is working extra on me these days.
ron
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Hi Ron.
It’s good to challenge yourself concerning your faith, and it is good to challenge others concerning the faith. Paul told the Corinthians to examine themselves, to make sure they were in THE faith of Christ. I have doubted and examined myself many times, and told myself, “OK, let’s just start over again from scratch.” Then, I’d try to throw out the window everything I had been taught to believed and try to read the Bible as if I were a blank page, and I earnestly prayed that God would help me do that. I believe that He did, repeatedly. He is VERY patient.
In brief, the answer to your question is this. There is no such thing in the Bible as a “gift of speaking in tongues”. The gift mentioned in 1Corinthians 12 is a the gift of “diverse tongues”, which is an added measure given to some of those who already speak in tongues, just as “the gift of faith” is an added measure given to some of those who already have faith, and the gift of healing is an added measure given to those who can already pray and be healed.
On page 1 of my book, Speaking in Tongues at Spirit Baptism, I say that the book does not deal with the issues of praying in the Spirit or the gift of diverse tongues. It is only a book about the baptism of the holy ghost and the evidence of it; namely, speaking in tongues, or “stammering lips”, as Isaiah said, or the “pure language” that Zephaniah foretold, or the “sound of the Spirit” that accompanies every new birth experience (Jesus), a sound which “cries out, ‘Abba, Father!’ declaring us to be the children of God (Paul), because it is the Spirit that bears witness that we are the children of God (Paul and John), giving rest to the spiritually weary (Isaiah, Jesus, and Paul), and providing a sign for unbelievers” (Paul).
Pastor John