SPEAKING IN TONGUES

You don’t speak in tongues and then know you have the Holy Ghost. No, you believe you have the Holy Ghost first, and then you speak in tongues. Notice Acts 2:4: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost . . . .” If we stop reading there, we know that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. But if we continue reading, we find, “. . . and [they] began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). Speaking with other tongues was a result of those believers having received the Holy Ghost. You receive the Holy Ghost first; then you speak in tongues.

You see, speaking in tongues edifies you. First Corinthians 14:4 says, “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself . . . .” Therefore, speaking in tongues is a means of spiritual edification or building up.

Linguists tell us that there’s a word in our modern vernacular that is closer to the meaning of the Greek word translated “edify,” and that is the word “charge.” We charge a battery; we build it up. Jude 20 says, “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.”

In other words, when a person prays in the Holy Spirit, he charges himself up. He builds himself up like a battery that is charged or built up.

Edifying yourself by speaking in other tongues is just one of the many blessings that God has provided through the baptism in the Holy Ghost. And this wonderful blessing, this glorious gift of the Holy Ghost, is available to every born-again believer.