Online Bible Study Reader’s Request: Must All Christians Speak In Tongues?

NOTE:
This post is scheduled.
By the time you read this, I should already be on my way to Jos.
Yes!
It’s time to sit in at Jesus’s feet without distractions.
NCCF(Christian corpers) will be having their national conference at Jos starting today. You guys know how I don’t play with time to soak in the Spirit, even shifted a book launch date for it in the past.
So bear with me, I will be off line and there will be no posts on the blog till next week.

 

 

So on last week’s #OnlineBibleStudy, where I talked about praying in the Spirit, I got a question from a blog sister, and I sent her a mail with my answer and asked her if I could share on the blog and she graciously said yes.
Her words: “you can share on our blog” (this made me smile).

 

So what you’ll read below is her question and my answer with just a little bit of difference with me pasting the Bible verses here (I didn’t do that when I mailed her because I wanted her to check the Word for herself).

So here it is:

 

T
September 23, 2015 at 11:12 am
Definitely doing a prayer session….. but is speaking in tongue learnt and does everyone have to speak in tongues?

 

Frances:

‎Hi T,
I saw your comment on yesterday’s #onlinebiblestudy and I will reply there and reply here too. Hopefully you’ll see the both of them.

 

Ok, you asked if speaking in tongues can be learnt and whether all Christians should speak in tongues.

 

Ok, firstly, no, speaking in tongues cannot be learnt.
Tongues is a gift of the Holy Spirit which comes on us when we receive the in filing of ‎the Holy Ghost.
I say “receive” because He has been given to us already.
Acts Chapter 2 is a basic foundation for how the gift of speaking in tongues came to be.
Acts 2.1-4
“On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.”

 

That was the first time Christians ever spoke in tongues and ever since then, He has been filling believers…

 

Now how do we receive the Holy Ghost and the gift of speaking in tongues?
One by desiring Him.
Paul says in 1Corinthians 12:31 that we should desire the most helpful gifts and the gift of the Holy Ghost sure is a most helpful gift.
Jesus didn’t even want the disciples to do anything till they received Him

Acts 1:4-5
“Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

 

Now someone can be born again without receiving the in filing of the Spirit and this is no crime, lots of believers don’t speak in tongues but I believe that we should all desire to do so. Because we would be missing out on this wonderful free gift of God if we don’t.
Who wouldn’t want to be filled with the same Spirit that is in God?
It’s a privilege that Jesus asked of the Father and He granted it to Him for us.
John 14.16-17
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.”
(You can also read John chapters 14-16, it spells out why Jesus wanted us to have the Holy Ghost.‎)

 

Speaking in tongues is simply a manifestation of the fullness of the Spirit in us… it’s the reason why Jesus could say in John 7:37-39 that rivers of living water will flow from our hearts…

 

John 7.37-39
“On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)”

 

Rivers of living water is speaking in the language of the Spirit which He gives you utterance to do when you are filled with Him. (I’m being hinted that rivers of living water is also something more than speaking in tongues, I will share when I get rev on it)

 
Putting into consideration the mighty benefits of speaking in tongues, who wouldn’t want to receive this free gift?

 

See 1Corinthians 14:2
“For one who speaks in an [unknown] tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding].”
Notice the “he speaks to God directly?”
And he speaks divine secrets in the Spirit – divine mysteries and secrets which the Spirit then reveals unto His own mind. That’s like a free pass to insight and revelation on the things of God.

 

Jude 1:20
“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost”
You can also build on your faith by praying in tongues!
Think spiritual growth!
Waxing stronger in the spirit… increasing spiritually.
These are just a few benefits…

 

Now how can one receive Him?
Firstly by being born again.
If you are born again, your body(temple) has been cleansed so God’s Spirit can come and dwell within you.
So you can either ask to be laid hands upon by a pastor or someone ‎ who God can use to do this.
Eg, in Acts 19, Paul met some believers who hadn’t received the Holy Spirit though they were born again.
He explained to them who the Spirit is and laid hands on them and instantly they received the Holy Ghost with evidence of speaking in other tongues.
Act19.1-7
“While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers.
“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them.
“No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” “Then what baptism did you experience?” he asked.
And they replied, “The baptism of John.”
Paul said, “John’s baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.”
As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all.”

 

If your faith can carry you too, you might not need the laying on of hands.
I wasn’t laid hands on before I started speaking in tongues. I went to a service where I purposed in my heart to have something different happen in my spirit. They called for those who desired to be filled with the Spirit and I went. The pastor just said lift up your hands in faith and say “I receive you Holy Spirit” and I did that in faith. And boom, that was it. Others spoke in tongues while they were in front of the altar but as‎ I returned to my seat still in faith, He filled me and the utterance just rushed right out of my belly.
And it has been that way since then.

 

So if you desire Him in faith, sometimes, even without the laying on of hands, you can receive Him. But still faster, you can see a trustworthy man of God to lay hands on you and you in faith, receive the Holy Ghost.

 

Like I have said, not all believers have received the Holy Ghost and it’s not a sin.
The believers in Acts 19 hadn’t received Him yet too but Paul knew the power of the Spirit and knew that they should have Him in them that’s why He quickly educated them and laid hands on them.
The Spirit in us gives us direction.
The Spirit in us gives us power over sin.
The gift of speaking in tongues that He gives is a treasure that builds up our faith, helps us pray according to the will of God(Romans 8:26), gives us access to directly speak to the Father(1Corinthians 14:2) and then helps us even worship God truly in Spirit and in truth.
There are times your own words aren’t enough to tell God how awesome He is and the Spirit takes over from there.
He helps us in prayers too. There are times you get a burden and don’t know what it is, but the Spirit nudges you and you start releasing His utterance in your heart in tongues till you get release of that burden and know that you’ve gotten the victory.
Oh, the benefits are too numerous for us not to receive this free gift the Father gave to us.
It’s God’s own Spirit – the very power that raised Jesus from the dead that He gave to us to dwell in us for free!

 

Romans 8.11a &15
“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you…So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
The only currency to receive Him is faith.

 

You don’t learn how to speak in tongues, He gives you the utterance when He fills you. It doesn’t sound like something that makes sense because it’s a language of the Spirit and that’s okay.
All you have to do when you receive the Spirit and feel the words in you is to speak them out. As you do so, you get more fluent and get taken into deeper and deeper depths.

 

I hope I have been able to clarify things for you and help with just how you can gain access to this wonderful gift of God to us believers.
I also hope that you will take some required steps to get filled with Him… its a free gift, please go ahead and receive in faith. either through laying of hands (fastest way to do so) or exercising your faith yourself.
Which ever way it happens, I pray that you get to partake of this amazing gift our Daddy has given to us.

 
She again sent me a message:
T:
Tongues have always been confusing for me but it has been perfectly explained and received. I will try to put what you have spoken to practice. We don’t practice tongues in my church; I go to a predominantly white church. But thanks. I will let go and let the holy spirit descend on me cause sometimes I feel a knot inside me but its like I’m not fully allowing it. But I don’t know how to fully let go and accept it. I don’t know what I’m holding on to. I will keep praying and will try not to be too controlling and just let him.

 
Frances:
Oh, I understand now why you are confused about it, based on your church… my family church too which is Anglican didn’t use to do anything like receiving the Holy Ghost(not sure if they do now) but when I went to Uni and gave my life to God, everything changed.
Like you, I used to feel the words in my belly but was too scared to speak them out.
I remember a day in my room, I knew words were in me but I held my mouth tightly. I didn’t understand till I went to the programme where I finally let go and received Him.
The only difference between both incidences was that “I desired to be filled with the Spirit with evidence of speaking in other tongues”.
In my room, I was holding back and scared. But after the explanations in the programme attended, I wanted Him. Badly too if I might add.
I didn’t want to go back home without that change happening In me and He came. I remember begging Him never to leave on my way home (how silly because the gifts of the Lord are unrepentant). But that was in 2012, and He is still in me.
It’s been amazing really. Really amazing.

 

So let your desire to be filled with Him be stronger and override all fear.
Don’t look at the practice of the Church, look at the word of God.
That’s why I sent the Bible verses and didn’t paste them in the mail, so you will dig into them yourself and get the truth.
Did you know that Kenneth Hagin (the late one) got kicked out of Baptist because he believed in the Holy Spirit?
But his whole life was changed when he received Him. He went to a pastor in the morning, eager to be laid hands on and eager to receive the Spirit and that was the difference between not receiving Him and receiving Him. Faith. The Word. And desiring Him. Wanting the free gift. (You can and should get Kenneth Hagin’s book – Tongues beyond the upper room”)

 
And my prayer for T is my prayer for all of us who haven’t received the infiling of the Spirit…

I pray you’ll send me a mail soon with your experience on the day He came into your heart fully. (you know your being born again is still by the Spirit’s work, the in filling just takes it farther).
God bless you my sisters and brothers.

 

And if you have words to add to this, please comment below.
I understand that this is an area that confuses people. It’s in the Word but somehow we still don’t understand it.
So please help the family of believers by sharing your thoughts according to God’s word on the Spirit and speaking in tongues below.

 

 
Till our next #OnlineBibleStudy
Love,
Frances.

 

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