I recently engaged in a dialogue about baptism in the Holy Spirit via social media with a friend who is a minister in a mainline denomination. I thought it might be good to share (with minor editing).
Friend: I want to begin a longer conversation with you – so I am starting it here and will come back to it from time to time. I don’t expect instant responses to my questions. I want to talk to you about the gift of tongues. My understanding of scripture is that tongues are not a gift that all people might be expected to receive and I know you believe differently. So, I want to know . . . your testimony of be “baptized in the Spirit” and, I would assume, speaking in an unknown tongue for the first time.
Me: Although I had been reared in the Church of God up to the age of 12, I was saved in a Baptist church at 15. I attended that Baptist church for about a year. During this time, I began reading a book about being Spirit-filled (Tim LaHaye). One of the spiritual exercises in the book was to pray each day for the fullness of the Spirit, especially for the fruit of the Spirit. So, I followed that discipline for months. Then for some reason I felt led to return to my home church, the Baxley Church of God. Of course, I was re-introduced to the doctrine of baptism in the Holy Spirit. One of my cousins, Garry, had recently been Spirit-baptized with the evidence of speaking in tongues. I asked him about his prayer life. He told me that he prayed each day to be filled with the Spirit and that he read the second chapter of Acts every day. So, I began to read Acts 2 each day while praying to be filled with the Spirit. Each Sunday, I would go to the altar and pray to be baptized in the Spirit. This went on for months. One Sunday night as I was praying in the altar, I was overwhelmed with a presence of joy. I began to weep and laugh simultaneously. In the midst of that I realized that I was speaking in tongues.
Friend: So, I am asking very pragmatic questions – I know this doesn’t sound very spiritual. So, what does speaking in tongues look like in your life after that? Is it something you can do at any moment? Is it a “prayer language” or do you speak in another language that actually exists somewhere? Or, does it only happen at other times where you have “prayed through?” Is it something you can control? And if not, have you ever spoken in tongues at a time that was socially inappropriate?
Me: You have great questions. I speak in tongues regularly… mostly when praying privately, or worshipping in church. Tongue-speech comes as the Spirit inspires, or “gives utterance.” I really don’t know if its an existing language in my case. I have a friend who testified that he was given the Bulgarian language when he was a missionary there. Tongues-speech can be controlled. The Spirit can be resisted, or quenched. Also, Paul’s teaching to the Corinthians suggests that there are proper times to limit the phenomena. Finally, I don’t believe I’ve ever spoken in tongues inappropriately. Many times I have felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in places or churches in which tongues-speech might have been inappropriate. In those cases I pray in a whisper, or speak in tongues in a whisper.
Friend: OK… you speak of “feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit.” How can you distinguish feeling the Holy Spirit as compared to feeling emotional about what is going on in worship? And are they related? And, do you need to “feel” the presence of the Holy Spirit to speak in tongues, or could you just do it at will because the gift is yours? And, if the gift is temporary or only available in a moment and gone another moment, does that mean a “baptism” of the Holy Spirit is not permanent, but a fleeting state of being? Finally, if not speaking in tongues when you “want to” is resisting or quenching the Holy Spirit, how could that ever be the right thing to do?
Me: First, emotions are a response to stimuli. So, I don’t think that we can separate emotional response from the presence of the Spirit. The real question is to what stimuli are we responding? Ambiance, music, etc, or a mysterious presence, a divine encounter? So, I suggest that we respond to a familiar, and filial presence of the Spirit. Tongues-speech comes from within, inspired by the Spirit. There have been times of ecstasy, but most often a sense of grief, lament, and burden. I don’t think it’s proper to speak in terms of ownership of a spiritual gift, but rather stewardship. The gifts are manifest as the Spirit wills, subject to the believer’s submission. Spirit baptism is not fleeting, but abiding. It’s an ongoing encounter. There is an operative word when discerning the “rightness” of tongues-speech. That’s edification -the edification of the speaker, and the edification of the hearers. Is God’s glory being proclaimed? Are people moved to awe? Is there a transformative encounter?
Friend: Tell me about the Pentecostal church’s bedrock principle that all Christians should be able to expect to receive the gift of tongues as evidence of baptism by the Holy Spirit. In your deepest belief, do you see someone like me who cannot testify to the experience of speaking in tongues as someone who has NOT been Spirit-baptized?
Me: Now we get into the weeds. First, early Pentecostals had divergent views on “initial evidence.” WJ Seymour, the Apostle of Azusa St, said that the evidence of Spirit baptism was love (a wonderfully biblical idea!). It took about two decades for the position of “speaking in tongues as the initial evidence” to become deeply rooted. Like Paul, I thank God that I speak in tongues. Also, there can be no denying that tongues-speech has been a regular sign of renewal movements throughout church history. Within Pentecostalism, the minority of believers speak in tongues. I don’t believe there has ever been a time in which the majority of Pentecostals spoke in tongues. With that said, my judgement is that Spirit baptism is indeed accompanied by a visible and audible sign. So, for someone like you, I suggest “desire the Spiritual gifts, earnestly desire to prophesy.” Place priority on nurturing love and being filled with the fulness of God.
Friend: Is it possible that a genuine Spirit-filled believer might not be given the gift of tongues, but one or more of the other gifts? So, I will make the story short. It’s the only time I’ve wondered if I spoke in tongues. I was simply praying in the sanctuary. I don’t remember what I was praying about. I just remember I was no longer speaking out loud and was just sitting more or less in the presence of the Lord. As I was praying I was whispering. . . I don’t know what I was whispering. In fact, it went on for a little bit more before I began to wonder if I was speaking in tongues. I have thought about that moment many times.
Me: Sounds like praying in the Spirit to me!
Friend: If you were inquiring a Pentecostal ministerial candidate for their testimony of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, how would an examining board evaluate the authenticity of that experience? And do you think there is a substantive subset of Pentecostal preachers who have never had a Pentecostal experience?
Me: All classical Pentecostal denominations (Church of God, Assembly of God, Pentecostal Holiness Church, etc) require ministerial candidates to testify to being baptized in the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues.
