Oh That Waging Tongue! 533-1 - 2 - 8

James 3:5, “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!”

Winters I attend the local Assembly of God Church and have repeatedly failed the speaking in tongues test. Therefore in accordance with the following I haven’t been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

"Though many non-Pentecostals teach a baptism in the Holy Spirit without speaking in tongues, the position of the Assemblies of God is clearly declared in Section 8 of its Statement of Fundamental Truths: "The baptism of believers in the Holy Spirit is witnessed by the initial sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit of God gives them utterance (Acts 2:4)." The evidence always occurred (and still does today) at the time believers were baptized in the Spirit, not at some indeterminate future time."

http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/topics/gendoct_02_baptismhs.cfm

Nevertheless, according to CM and other Christian Apologists the Spirit’s baptism occurs once for each believer at the moment of salvation.

1 Corinthians 14:33, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” Jesus spoke the word and the person was healed. Peter’s shadow would fall across the afflicted person and he or she would be healed.

We read in Act 2:4, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” When the apostles spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost it was not some kind of babbling, rather it was in a language and/ or dialect understood by those present in Jerusalem. This was a corporate type of tongues spoken in an orderly manner unlike the sense of confusion I experience at church.

Our church is very involved with the Spiritual Gift of healing. Several members of the church will surround a person needing healing prayer and lay hands on him or her. Then most will start praying out loud and several in tongues with no interpretation. The same people will ask for healing prayer for the same condition again and again

It is my understanding that in addition to corporate speaking in tongues, there is private prayer that is accompanied by speaking in tongues. It is my further understanding that in this case the Holy Spirit is conveying the prayer to God in a language He will understand even though to it sounds like babbling. Also, it would seem to me this to be better done in one’s prayer closet.

I agree with Paul. 1 Corinthians 14:19, "Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."