Being Filled With The Holy Spirit & The Power of Gifts (Part 5)

I have spent four articles thus far building the case that the average Christian believer walks out their Christian experience periodically fueled by their knowledge of the Scriptures and yet very little by the counsel and power of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by the carnality within the church or individual believers. If one would just study the nature of the church today you would quickly discover that most churches and denominations came out of church splits, and not expansion from evangelism since the 1500s when the reformation happened. To be truthful, this had to happen because carnality had been settling into the church since Constantine in 320 AD and the breakaway factions wanting to get back to what the bible said about living as Christ intended believers to live. 

The church has always struggled when its believers have questioned doctrines and practices as they would read the scriptures with an open and flexible mind. When church structure doesn’t match up to the ideals and teaching of Jesus, people should question what is going on if it doesn’t match the word of God. Yet most leaders generally are not open to people questioning their teaching or doctrine.

The teaching Jesus and the apostle Paul gave us in the New Testament, along with the history and activities of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, rarely match the common teaching or practice of the average church. When I got converted in 1969 all the way through the 1990s, the topic of the Holy Spirit was the hottest controversy in most churches, regardless of the type of church, because of the glaring inconsistency between what the church taught compared with what Jesus said we should expect from a relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Jesus Movement of the ’70s forced the church to wrestle with who the Holy Spirit is, and does he indeed give the individual believer power, let alone counsel.

If we remember what John the Baptist said about Jesus baptizing us in the Holy Spirit he said it would be that we would receive the Holy Spirit and “FIRE” not the Holy Spirit and good feelings or any number of experiences. Fire in the scriptures relates to passion, commitment and power. It’s not hard to see that the average believer does not possess this trait, or at least it is in short supply.

Paul wrote whole chapters on the Holy Spirit for the believer to embrace and exercise, and none more important than 1 Corinthians 12 & 14 as well as Ephesians 4. The first was all about the Holy Spirit giving gifts to individuals for the common good and in chapter 14 the two most important gifts all believers can function in: namely prophecy and tongues. In the book of Ephesians, Paul provided a very important explanation of what the Holy Spirit gives the church in the Five-Fold Leadership gifting to keep the church structured in such a way as to keep the church and individual believers walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, and not just in human willpower with out the Holy Spirit. Funny and sad how the believer is taught mostly what the bible says without teaching believers how to operate in the Holy Spirit.

In article four I pointed out the three times in the book of Acts the gift of tongues is present as a manifestation or evidence of being filled, and in a few other places prophecy is mentioned. Acts 19 happened some 20 plus years after the resurrection of Jesus so this is significant that the Holy Spirit didn’t do something different when baptizing individuals after Pentecost than he did at Pentecost.

The church has been arguing for years about what is the “Evidence” of being baptized in the Holy Spirit all because many don’t like the idea that the gift of tongues may make them look foolish in front of others. So lets get right in and look at the importance of the gifts of tongues as Paul wrote about the role of the Holy Spirit in the individual as well as local church gatherings.

1 Corinthians 14:2-4

For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.             One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.

First, the gift of tongues is the only gift of the Holy Spirit that is given mostly to edify or “Build Up” the individual believer. All the other gifts are given to help fellow believers in the church. The word edify is the same word for “Architecture” meaning to design structure in our lives in order to stand strong and secure in this broken world.

Secondly, when someone speaks with the gift of tongues they don’t understand the words they use because they are a spiritual language in which we speak “Mysteries” that build us up spiritually. Consider the scripture that tells us how we speak life or death with our tongues and how the Holy Spirit enables us to speak truth and life over our own lives when we open our mouth and speak. Paul goes further in Chapter 14 and says we can both speak in tongues with or without understanding as we grow in our ability to rely on the Holy Spirit. When I lay my hands on people or pray in a group I often speak in tongues to get the mind of God how and what to pray for rather than just using my human understanding in my prayer life. Being guided by the Holy Spirit is what we are called to do.

Provers 18:21

Death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Thirdly, Paul says he desired that “Everyone” would speak in tongues. If this gift is only for a select few why would he state such a bold desire if all could not receive? So often teachers of the word of God create doubt in peoples minds in order to remove supernatural ability for the individual in the body of Christ. So many pastors and leaders would rather control their people than set them free in the Spirit This is evident by the powerlessness of the body of Christ. Paul, on the other hand, professed that he spoke in tongues more than anyone because he saw the benefit and power that came from such practice. He would not be persuaded to live without this powerful benefit so why should we?

1 Corinthians 14:5

Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying.

1 Corinthians 14:18

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.

When I was in grammar school, which was a long time ago, we had a Spanish class once a week. Growing up in California this made sense, considering all the people coming from Mexico would come to live part of the year there in order to work the agriculture industry. Today Hispanic people could possibly outnumber non-Hispanic people in California.

Here is my reason for sharing this tidbit of my past experience with Spanish: Although I was taught Spanish for a good number of years, I can barley speak 5-6 total words in that language today. Why? Because I don’t live in a community of Spanish speaking people. To keep a language fluent and growing you have to practice that language and be around people that speak that language as well. Speaking in tongues is the same thing. If I rarely exercise that gift I will lose the ability through neglect and will be reluctant to try to use it in the future.

Here is the bottom line: I can be “Aware” I am fueled by the Holy Spirit because I am operating in a spiritual gift that is beyond a natural ability like a Word of Knowledge, Prophetic Word, Gift of Healing or the Gift of Tongues. The gift of tongues is, in my mind, the most basic of of the spiritual gifts and yet it demonstrates the supernatural in operation. Paul lists only prophecy and tongues as gifts every believer can function in, regardless of their age or experience, yet so often these two gift are neglected in the individual as well as the congregation.

If the gift of tongues gives us the power to build ourselves up, why in the world would we deny it’s practice? Fear is the ultimate answer. We fear what other people think and say about us, and thus we hesitate to move in faith that the Holy Spirit either gives us this special gift or that we can rightly use it. How sad we we choose to care more about what others think than what the Holy Spirit thinks.

Lastly, there is a right way and a wrong way to use any gift the Holy Spirit may give us. Paul makes a strong statement when he says we still have control of our gifts and when in the congregation of God should use them to edify the body and not use them to prove we are spiritual, or better than someone else.

1 Corinthians 14:39-40

Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophecy, and do not forbid people speaking in tongues. But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.

Questions:

1) Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit? The answer should be you have and are being regularly filled             (Eph 5:18)

2) Do you speak in tongues regularly? If not, is it because you have been taught you can’t, or is it because you’re afraid of how it looks?

Embracing the challenges of God’s word,

Pastor Dale