Brentwood Baptist Church
People finding God

Eagerly Desire Spiritual Gifts

 -  a personal study guide

Many people are eager to move on in their understanding and experience of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and this short series of studies are an exploration of this area. In particular we focus on the gifts of prophecy and speaking in tongues from 1 Corinthians 14. Paul says, “Eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.”

Each part has an introduction to the subject for 10-15 minutes on VIDEO, linked to questions to think about and then further reading. Each study will take between 20 and 30 minutes to work through.

FURTHER READING FOR STUDY 1

A. Especially the gift of prophecy

“Eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.”  (1 Corinthians 14:1). This verse encourages all Christians to seek the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to open our lives to the many ways the Holy Spirit works to bring glory to God and to build up the church. But in particular Paul refers to the gift of prophecy, of speaking God’s messages. And this should not be surprising to us when we think about the nature and essential character of the Holy Spirit as He works in our lives.

What actually are the most important work and activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer? We think of the Holy Spirit as the Lord, the Giver of life, the breath of God in creation Who brings new birth (John 3) and a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). We think of the Holy Spirit as the Helper, who helps us to know Jesus better, to be more like Jesus and to tell others about Jesus.

You may be surprised to discover that Biblically the most widely referred to and most important activity of Holy Spirit is actually this - inspiring prophetic gifts and messages. The essential character of the Holy Spirit promised in the Old Testament and experienced in the church in the New Testament is the communicating Spirit, the Spirit who inspires prophecy.

We find the words prophet, prophecy and prophesying 384 times in the OT. The ways in which prophets received God's message varied. So did their subject matter and the ways that they delivered God’s messages. But the prophet was always essentially God's spokesman in the world. The authenticity and authority of all prophecies rested upon their divine origin: "thus says the LORD". God spoke to the prophet and the prophet then spoke to the people. And it was the Spirit of God who inspired the prophets so that they received direct revelations from God. This was the dominant activity of God's Spirit in OT. It was the "Spirit Who inspires Prophecy" who was the agent of direct communication between God and his prophets, inspiring them with dreams and visions and messages.

Before the birth of the Church at Pentecost the Holy Spirit only came upon special individuals for specific purposes or occasions. But even Moses said, “Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them!” (Num 11:29). In Joel chapter 2, God promised that in the Latter Days the Spirit will come and rest upon all God's people, communicating prophecies, dreams and visions.  "I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions." (Joel 2:28).

And this is the promise fulfilled at Pentecost in Acts 2.

Peter’s sermon there on the day of Pentecost teaches us that the Holy Spirit poured out on every Christian is the fulfilment, not so much of Old Testament promises of a new creation or a new heart, but of Joel’s promises of the Spirit who inspires prophecy. Acts 2:38-39 indicates that it is THIS Spirit who is poured out on ALL who repent and believe. Peter repeats Joel’s words for emphasis, "and they will prophesy". This underlines the principal activity of the Holy Spirit who came down and filled the church, the Spirit who had inspired the prophets, the Spirit who inspires prophecy. It is first and foremost THIS Holy Spirit who is now given to every believer, the Spirit who is "the channel of communication between God and man". So now ALL believers will be able to see visions and dream dreams, ALL believers will be able to prophesy.

B. The Prophet-hood of All Believers

We’ve heard the phrase, “the priesthood of all believers,” the idea that every one of us can come into God's presence and pray - we don’t need special priests as intermediaries. The prophet-hood of all believers implies the reverse, the corollary. We won’t need other people to bring us messages from God - God will speak directly to ALL of us - because the Spirit who lives in every Christian is the same Holy Spirit who inspired the prophets!

Bob Gordon commented, "It is this universalizing of prophetic potentiality to every believer that marks the greatest difference between Old Testament and New Testament prophecy."

We find this promise fulfilled throughout Acts. Time after time the church receives prophecies, specific revelations from God, giving guidance, assurance, solutions to problems and predictions about personal and national events.  See e.g. 13:2ff; (Antioch) 15:28ff; (Guiding Council)  20:23; (warning Paul) 21:11 (Agabus) and 11:28 (predicting famine). Throughout Acts the Holy Spirit is more than anything else the Spirit who inspires prophecy.

But if you stop and think about it, so many of the activities of the Holy Spirit are actually the works of the communicating Spirit. The Spirit is Paraclete, "another Counsellor / another Helper" (14:16), who continues Jesus’s work of revealing God and bearing witness to Jesus. In John the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit in a special role, as the personal presence of Jesus in the Christian while Jesus is with the Father. The Helper’s activities include teaching (14:26), testifying (15:26) and guiding into truth (16:13). He will "speak what He hears ... tell you what is yet to come ... take from what is mine and make it known to you" (16:13ff). All these are activities of the Spirit who inspires prophecy bringing believers into direct communication with their heavenly Father.

The Spirit brings eternal life, and what is eternal life but a personal relationship with God, mediated by the Spirit? “This is eternal life, to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Jesus says in John 17:3. Again according to the apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit makes us God’s children. The Spirit is the agent of our Sonship, the agency of our relationship with God, the one who cries within us “Abba, Father”, “the Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children”. And it is the Spirit who inspires prophecy who does these wonderful things in our lives.

Paul himself experienced revelations, dreams, visions and inspired speaking. (Acts 16:9f; 18:9f, 1 Cor 2; 2 Cor 2, etc). Paul also clearly viewed the activity of the Holy Spirit inspiring prophecy as an essential and ongoing aspect of the life of the Early Church. So when he comes to speak about spiritual gifts, in 1 Corinthians 12-14 Paul reckons that, next to love, prophecy is the gift to be valued most highly (1 Corinthians 14:1-5, 24-25, 29-32).

A good definition of prophecy is this. "Prophecy is receiving a revelation from God and subsequently communicating it to others." We need to consider the two separate stages. How does God speak to us? How can we expect to receive God’s messages? And then, how should  we share these messages and how can we test whether they are really God speaking?

C. The ways God speaks to us

 (see especially D.Pytches, Prophecy chapter 6)

We want to be very clear that the most important way God speaks to Christians today is through the pages of His word, the Bible, especially as it teaches us about His supreme revelation through His Son Jesus Christ. The Bible gives us the standard by which all other “words from God” must be tested and judged. So we study long and hard to understand the teachings of Scripture.

And sometimes God also speaks to us through specific Bible verses and passages which come to us as if they were God speaking directly and personally to us.

But God does speak to Christians through the Holy Spirit in other ways too. Prophecy and other communicating gifts (see below) all rest on Christians receiving revelations or messages from God. God spoke and God still speaks to people in the following ways.

·        Dreams (Deut 13:1, Joel 2:28) 

·        Visions (Dan 7:15, Acts 7:55-56; 16:9-10; 18:9-10)

·        Pictures (Jer 18:1-6) or symbols.

·        Voices  (1 Sam 3:4, Acts 9:4)

God can also speak directly to people through situations and circumstances, subjective impressions, riddles, allegories and parables.  Much rarer, and needing much more careful testing are supernatural visitations, trances, and out-of-the-body experiences.

Most of us need to grow in the many ways of "Listening to God"! We need to explore silence in prayer and meditation much more, to discover an awareness simply of the presence and love of the Father and to learn to hear His messages to us more clearly. Rev. Margaret Jarman, in her Presidential Address to BU back in 1987, said, 

"Have you listened for God's voice speaking directly to you? Have you considered that He may speak through your intuition, through your imagination, through dreams and visions, through flashes of inspiration?" 

I believe in the prophet-hood of all believers. I believe that God the Holy Spirit is often trying to speak to us in all these kinds of ways – but we all have so much to learn about Listening To God. David Watson wrote, "God is the living God ... and every day He wants us to enjoy a living relationship with Him, involving a two-way conversation". We can so easily forget that our Christian life should be a relationship with God. We can easily sink into duty and routine. In our prayers our conversations with God can so sadly become one-way monologues.

Looking at the New Testament, prophecy and prophetic gifts are not peripheral to activity of Holy Spirit in life of believer - but central activities of Spirit of Prophecy. Christian prophetic gifts rest on direct revelatory experiences. No believers are excluded from receiving such direct communication from God, and many more might expect to, because we have all received the communicating Spirit, the Spirit Who inspires prophecy. So we share in `the prophet-hood of all believers'.

FURTHER READING FOR STUDY 2

D. What is prophecy in the Bible?

Prophecy rests on and experience of a revelation from God. So when the Jesus is blindfolded and mocked, "Prophesy! Who hit you?" (Lk 22:64) the expectation was that any true prophet would receive supernatural knowledge from God about people and events. Jesus knowing the sinful life of the woman who anointed him in Luke 7:39, and Jesus' knowledge of all men's hearts (John 2:24) are examples of prophecy.

Prophecy means not only foretelling (as in e.g. Mark 13) but much more often forth-telling a revelation from God.  David Watson gave this definition of Christian prophecy. "While the written word is God's truth for all people at all times, the prophetic word is a particular word, inspired by God, given to a particular person or group of persons, at a particular moment for a particular purpose."  Prophecy is not just good Bible teaching. "Prophecy would express a new word from God as such, whereas teaching would tend to denote more a new insight into an old word from God." "Prophecy receives its content through revelation, teaching from tradition".

According to Paul the function of prophecy will always be to build up the church, "strengthening, encouragement and comfort." (1 Cor 14:3). Paul would like all believers to prophesy but recognises that God will not use all in a regular way as prophets. He envisages that some believers will exercise a regular ministry as "prophets" subject to their recognition by the local Christian community, whereas others (not known as "prophets") will occasionally prophesy. But Paul longs that ALL Christians would prophesy.

Before we look in more detail at Paul’s teaching about prophecy below, note that there are a number of other spiritual gifts listed in 1 Cor 12 and 14 which can be grouped together under the general description of  COMMUNICATING GIFTS. All these spiritual gifts involve God speaking to believers in some way. All of these are aspects of what the Bible broadly means by prophetic phenomena. See 1 Corinthians 12:7-11.

"Words of knowledge" and "words of wisdom" refer respectively to specific supernatural insight into situations and to divinely revealed solutions to practical problems

(See Acts 5:3; Acts 10:17-23)

"The discerning of spirits" refers to a God-given knowledge of the divine, satanic or psychological origin of another's prophetic words (c.f. 1 Jn 4:1ff) or of their actions. (Acts 16:16-18, 1 John 4:1-6)

Speaking in tongues as divinely inspired speech is also a prophetic phenomenon. In Acts 2 Peter used Joel’s promises about prophecy to explain what the people were seeing and hearing, which was actually the disciples speaking in tongues. So also are interpretations or explanations of tongues. (1 Cor 14:1-5,13-19, 22-28)

All these communicating gifts are activities of the Holy Spirit who inspires prophecy.

E. Recognised and unrecognised prophecies

We need to learn to recognise prophetic messages when we hear them. In general it is the sense of the prophetic message which is inspired, rather than the precise words. So prophecies delivered in King James' English or in the first person in the name of God are no more authoritative or authentic for that.

Pentecostals may be used to that kind of “explicit” prophecy. Pentecostals may prefer direct speech. But as good evangelicals we may be too shy to speak on behalf of God. We might tend to say something like, “The Lord laid this on my heart last night ..." and carry on in indirect speech. These "words from the Lord" which we may have may come from an equally strong experience of revelation, yet because we report them to others in a different form they may not be recognised as "prophecy".

An example of that kind of "unrecognised prophecy" might help. 17 years ago I was in a church meeting which was on the point of approving a scheme of major renovations to the buildings costing £40000 when one member said, "I was praying about this. Our God is a great God. This scheme isn't big enough." The mood and direction of the meeting was transformed and six months later the church embarked upon a much more ambitious project for structural alterations costing three times as much, which proved to be a turning point in that church's life and growth and witness. That prophecy was a very powerful message from God.

It is not the way the message is delivered but the element of direct communication from God, which is at the heart of this kind of unrecognised Christian prophecy. Convictions like that about the will or the heart of God, shared with church or friends after prayerful reflection, fit very well into the New Testament pattern of prophecy. Looked at in that way, very many Christians might realise that God HAS actually spoken to them and through them. And as we move forward into exciting new directions as a church, we need to be very open to hearing God’s voice, guiding us and leading us and challenging us and correcting us, whatever the ways He may choose to speak to us.

In the New Testament, prophecy and prophetic gifts aren’t peripheral to the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. They are central activities of Spirit who inspires Prophecy.  And no Christian is excluded from God speaking to us or through us in such ways if He chooses. Indeed we all could expect to receive much more direct communication from God, because we have all received the communicating Spirit, the Spirit Who inspires prophecy. So we share in `the prophet-hood of all believers'. That is the very reason why we are committed to being led and governed by the whole Church Meeting.

F. Prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14

We are taught about Christian prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14:1-5, 24-25, 29-32; and 12:29-13. For Paul, prophecy is (next to love) the spiritual gift to be valued most highly (see1 Cor 14:1ff).

"Prophecy is receiving a revelation from God and subsequently communicating it to others." Its function will be to build up the church, edifying, "strengthening, encouragement and comfort." (14:3). As such prophecy is also in itself a "sign for believers" of the presence and love of God (14:22). Paul would like all believers to prophesy but recognises that not all will be used by God in a regular way as prophets ("ou me" in 12:29 implies "surely all do not", c.f.14:5). He envisages that some believers will exercise a regular ministry as "prophets" subject to their recognition by the local Christian community, whereas others (not known as "prophets") will occasionally prophesy. But he longs that ALL Christians would prophesy.

` Do not put out the Spirit's fire. Do not treat prophecies with contempt.' (1 Thessalonians 5:19f)

Prophecy is reception and SUBSEQUENT communication of a revelation: "Two or three prophets should speak...and if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn." (1 Corinthians 14:29-30) This implies that the Christian prophet will always be in complete control of his utterance, able to stop speaking at will, rather than in a trance or some other ecstatic state.

In the Biblical pattern prophetic messages should generally be received in their entirety and then communicated later to other people, in sharp contrast to some "practitioners" who suggest that they may only receive the first few words and then the Spirit supplies the rest of the message while they are speaking. The reflective refining involved in subsequent rather than immediate communication might well considerably improve the quality and value of much prophecy in certain circles today. 

Again I stress that in general it is the sense of the prophetic message which is inspired, rather than the precise words which are under the control of the speaker. Thus prophecies delivered in King James' English or in the first person in the name of God are no more authoritative or authentic for that. `Prophesy does not rant.' (Michael Green).  When God impresses something on our heart or gives us an insight into something, that could well be prophecy. But as we saw above, many such prophecies may go UNRECOGNISED.

G. Evaluating and weighing prophecy

(See B.Yocum  Prophecy ch 7, D.Pytches Prophecy ch 8,  David Watson, Called & Committed)

Christian prophecy is always mixed, UNLIKE Old Testament prophecy which was simply true or false.   

"We prophesy in part. We see through a glass, darkly;" (1 Cor 13:9ff AV). People who prophesy falsely, i.e. make mistakes in their prophesying, are not “false prophets”.

Prophecies may be "bad" because they are "impure", "weak", or "sloppy".   (B.Yocum chapter 7). In Acts 21:4; 11ff,  Agabus's prediction was correct but the hearers' interpretation was mistaken.

IMPURE (mixed with the speaker’s own thoughts)  

The Curate caught sneaking out of retreat said, “The Spirit told me to go do some shopping” to which the Bishop replied, “I trust that the Spirit and yourself are aware that today is early closing day.”

WEAK (with little content) - so many!!!!

SLOPPY (delivered carelessly or irrelevantly)  “I the Lord who created and redeemed you, who know everything about you, I the Lord, although just at this moment I forget thy name, I am with you.” (Dave Tomlinson)

HERE ARE ELEVEN TESTS we should apply when we think God is speaking to us:-

1.       Scripture and sound doctrine.

2.       The traditions of the Church

3.       Effects - in building up the hearers and the church and glorifying Christ.

4.       All who prophesy must be judged by their works and  lifestyle, "by their fruit," (Matt 7:15ff).

5.       The spirit of love with (or without) which the message is delivered.

6.       The gift of discerning spirits - and "resonance" or "inner witness" of Spirit

7.       Specific utterances must be evaluated  by others with prophetic ministries (1 Cor 14:29)

8.       "Two or three prophets should speak" (1Cor 14:29) Tim Pain argues that this implies a prescriptive minimum, and that "Isolated prophecies are highly questionable". Is he right?

9.       Does the speaker submit to the church leaders?

10.    Is the speaker in control of himself when speaking? Evil spirits take over people, the Holy Spirit very rarely does. (1 Cor 14:30-32).

11.    Most prophecy is not foretelling but forth-telling, “telling forth” God’s word. For rare predictions the biblical test is whether the prophecy is fulfilled, or not (Deut. 18:22). But then, remember Jonah!

Throughout history “false prophets” have succeeded in leading Christians astray. But just because a spiritual gift can be counterfeited and needs testing does not mean that the real thing does not exist. The Biblical Criteria for testing prophecy are only abidingly necessary if genuine prophecy also remains a possibility.

We all need more education about prophecy. We all need to build up our experience of hearing God speak directly to us. But above all, we all need greater expectation. We may expect the Holy Spirit help us to understand the Bible, but some Christians can be deaf to the Spirit if He speaks to us through prophecy or dreams or visions or pictures.

Samuel prayed, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." We can pray that same prayer, confident that God still wants to speak directly today, not just to some but to all of his children. Because each believer has received that Holy Spirit who inspires prophecy and communicates revelations. But we all need to become more open to the word of God coming to us in all sorts of different and unexpected ways. Or when God does speak, we may not hear Him!  

`Eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. '  `He who prophesies edifies the church.'  ` Do not put out the Spirit's fire. Do not treat prophecies with contempt.'

`Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.  (1 Corinthians 14:1,4; 1Thess 5:19-20; 1 Sam 3:10)

FURTHER READING FOR STUDY 3

Speaking in tongues – a way of praying

No spiritual gift has generated as much misunderstanding, controversy and division within the church as the gift of ``speaking in tongues''. We must approach this topic with humility, love, prayer and open minds.

What is the gift of speaking in tongues?

The gift of tongues is ``spontaneous inspired utterance by the Holy Spirit, where the normal voice organs are used, but the conscious mind plays no part. The languages spoken or sung are entirely unlearned by the speaker.'' (David Pytches of St Andrews Chorleywood, in Come Holy Spirit p.62)

There are three distinct expressions of this spiritual gift of speaking in tongues.

1. An utterance not understood by the speaker but recognised by hearers as a known human language.

This is clearly what happened at Pentecost. Read Acts 2:4-12. Some suggest that such tongues-speaking will only ever be evangelistic, but this certainly was not the case here: the tongues praised God, then Peter preached in Aramaic (probably) or Greek.

Other people say that only the Early Church needed to speak in tongues. They say that all the gifts of the Holy Spirit were only needed to authenticate the Apostle's preaching, or until the New Testament was written. But there are many reliable accounts of tongues-speaking of a recognised human language from around the world today. The gift, as it was used in Acts 2, seems still to be very much in operation in the church today.

Other people suggest from Acts 2 that the gift of tongues should always involve recognisable human languages only. This is far too limiting. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1 ``If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels''. Throughout 1 Corinthians 14, Paul teaches about forms and uses of the gift of tongues other than in recognised human languages.

2. The use of tongues with interpretation in corporate worship

Read 1 Corinthians 14:26-28.

In seems clear that when praise or prayer was offered in public through the gift of tongues the Early Church expected God then to give an ``interpretation'' into the common language. The interpretation was not a simple translation, but rather an explanation of the prayer. The interpretation given of a message in tongues can sometime seem to be a prophecy. However since speaking in tongues is a form of prayer and praise then interpretations, or better ``explanations'', will also usually be a prayer addressed to God and not to the church. The tongues may in some way trigger a prophecy, but a prophecy addressed to the church will not usually be the explanation.

Examples of such “tongues with interpretation” are widely reported in a variety of churches today. Paul encourages all who speak in tongues to seek the gift of interpretation also, and discourages speaking in tongues in public without interpretations, but instructs do not forbid speaking in tongues. (v 39)

3. Tongues as a private prayer-language.

Over the last hundred years the Pentecostal Tradition has re-awakened interest in the idea of the gift of tongues being exercised in private prayer and worship by individual believers. We find this kind of prayer in 1 Corinthians 14. Speaking in tongues as a private prayer language is genuine prayer.

“For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no-one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.” (vv 2, 4)

Praying in tongues is a form of prayer inspired by the Holy Spirit where our spirits communicate directly with God in some way “bypassing” our minds. This is as valid and beneficial as “ordinary prayer”.

“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.” (vv 14-15)

Richard Foster calls this kind of prayer where our spirit communicates speaks directly to God “heart prayer.”  Paul speaks of a similar form of “heart prayer” in Romans 8:26-27.

“The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.”

Private use of praying in tongues would be unique among the spiritual gifts in that it edifies the believer and only secondarily the church (in contrast to 1 Cor 12:7). But many Christians today in most denominations would claim to share such an experience of the gift of tongues. They claim that speaking in tongues is helpful to them in at least three areas of prayer:

- in praise and worship, as a ``love language'' with the Father;

- in intercession, especially when the person is uncertain what to pray for;

- in spiritual warfare, in direct confrontation with evil and the demonic.

Doesn't Paul teach that speaking in tongues is unimportant and unhelpful to the church?

This is certainly not the teaching in 1 Corinthians 14. Here Paul is saying that in corporate worship everything must be done decently and in order. Indiscriminate private use of tongues in that context is unhelpful. The believer can choose whether to speak or not. The problem over tongues in Corinth was that Christians who had the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues as a private prayer language were using that gift in public as a way of showing off. Paul’s criticisms of such exhibitionism do not cast any doubts on the value of tongues in private prayer. “Do not forbid speaking in tongues,” he says (v 39). Just use the gift properly! Paul himself is enthusiastic about praying in tongues. “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues”. (v5) “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” (v 18)

It is wrong to conclude that Paul thought the gift of praying in tongues was unimportant just because he puts it last in his lists of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. Paul clearly believed that there were other things which were more important, such as prophecy and love. It is sad that some Pentecostals and charismatics have tended to over-emphasise speaking in tongues. But no spiritual gift or activity of God the Holy Spirit should ever be dismissed as unimportant.

Are all tongues genuine and from God?

No. There are instances of tongues-speaking in many other religions and also in occult practices. Many of these are surely of satanic origin. It is also true that phenomena very similar to tongues can be induced psychologically through emotion and hysteria. We are called to ``test the spirits'', and the gift of discernment helps here.It may well be true that some of the ``speaking in tongues'' found in so many churches today is psychological rather than spiritual in origin.

Non-charismatic evangelicals have sometimes suggested that the gift of tongues was only for the Early Church, or that the use of tongues in private prayer is not found explicitly in Scripture. (I would argue that 1 Corinthians 14 IS explicit).  Some have coldly condemned ALL modern so-called speaking in tongues is either psychological or satanic in origin. It is very good that few Christians hold or teach such an uncharitable and unbiblical position today. Just because a gift can be counterfeited does not mean that the real thing doesn't exist.

What is the point of praying in tongues if the person is not able to understand what they are saying?

Michael Green helpfully lists some of the benefits of speaking in tongues. It gives a genuine liberty in prayer, ``a new dimension'' making prayer a joy instead of a great effort. It gives a greater depth to praise and worship, and a greater intimacy with God. There are reliable accounts of praying in tongues releasing other blessings too – for example of addicts coming off drugs without any painful withdrawal symptoms as they call on God by prayer in tongues. And there are reliable accounts of tongues which are human languages being recognised by others both guiding Christians and bringing non-Christians to conversion.

In our ``over-cerebral'' age the gift of tongues enables communication with God at a spiritual and emotional level to supplement our rational approach to Christian things. In our ``dis-enchanted'' world speaking in tongues gives an encounter with the God who is either supernatural or no god. The misunderstandings and divisions with previous generations of Pentecostalism and the excesses of the extremes of the House-Churches have made many Christians suspicious of spectacular spiritual gifts and of the gift of tongues in particular. Happily, suspicions are fading.

Should all Christians be able to speak in tongues?

Paul would like all believers to speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:5). However he feels the same about prophecy, and 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 and especially 28-30 make it very clear that he does not expect any of the gifts to be exercised by all believers. There is no Biblical ground for supposing that tongues would be different from all other gifts in being given to all believers. The Greek form of the question in “Do all speak in tongues?”  (1 Corinthians 12:30) clearly demands the answer “NO”. Paul was saying, ``Surely all do not speak in tongues?''

At first, Pentecostal churches expected all their members to speak in tongues. Today only about half do. That seems a reasonable proportion. Most Charismatics would say that the gift of tongues will not be given to all believers, although all believers should be encouraged to ask God to see if it will be given to them. Neither tongues nor any other gift requires a special initiatory experience after conversion. Exercising this (or any other) spiritual gift should never be a cause of pride, and not receiving a particular gift should never lead to discouragement or jealousy. Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-21

Ø              What is your attitude to the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues?

Ø              If God wanted to give you that gift, what would your response be?

FURTHER READING FOR STUDY 4

"BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT"

Baptism in the New Testament is always connected to Christian initiation (see Matt 28:19, Rom 6:3f, 1 Cor 12:13). The N.T. phrase "Baptism in the Spirit" refers to the initiating reception of the Spirit at conversion which brings new life in Christ to the believer. In that experience (often unspectacular and unseen) each Christian becomes united with Christ and receives all the spiritual resources he or she will ever need, in the Spirit who brings new birth, life, sonship and all the blessings of Christ. It is mistaken to separate this work of the Spirit giving new life at conversion from any subsequent work of the Spirit, empowering for Christian service or giving gifts. There is no "second blessing" or "second installment" which Christians must seek in some special way later.

However, since the beginning of this century (and in various periods before) many Christians have been blessed by God by experiences which have transformed their lives in ways that their initial conversion did not. They talk in terms of finding new joy, new victory over sin, new reality in prayer and new freedom in witnessing, and many have also begun to exercise spiritual gifts, notably tongues and "spectacular gifts". How do we explain this?

The concept in the N.T. which best helps us to understand these things is “receiving the Holy Spirit” which is sometimes phrased as "being filled with the Spirit".

The phrase "being filled with the Spirit" carries three meanings.

1. It can refer to the general characteristics of a Christ-like life (Jesus Himself, Luke 4:1; Stephen and the Seven, Acts 6 and 7:55; Barnabas, Acts 11:24).

2. The words “filled with the Spirit” are also used to describe the sudden inspiration of the moment (Acts 4:8,31; 9:17; 13:9). That experience is often linked to boldness in witnessing.

3. “Receiving the Holy Spirit” and being “filled with the Spirit” can also refer to the beginning of a new work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life (Acts 2:4; 4:31; 9:17; 19:6) EVEN IF that person has “received” or “been filled with” the Holy Spirit previously.

Michael Green explains it this way. Being filled with the Spirit “should be the continual state of the Christian, but he can also look for special fillings of the Spirit in special circumstances”. This is picture language, of course. The Spirit is not a liquid and we are not containers which can hold different amounts of Spirit. In "being filled with the Spirit", we don't receive more of the Spirit. It might be better to say that He receives more of us. As we open our lives to God in obedience and faith, so He chooses to transform us and use us the more.

Each of us would admit that there are times in our Christian lives when we are more obedient and more trusting, when we are walking more closely with our Lord.At those times we reflect better the glory of Christ and we are more open to God's Holy Spirit working in our lives. Many Christians would also say that they have experienced all kinds of blessings (not just once but many times) and these have deepened their relationship with God or empowered them for witness and service. "Being filled with the Holy Spirit" describes both this state of close fellowship and these uplifting occasions.

“Keep on being filled with the Spirit” Paul commands all Christians in Eph 5:18. Many of us are far from being "filled with the Spirit" for much of the time. As D.L.Moody said, "I am filled, but I leak!" We drift from God and we need to repent and be lifted back to Him. There is no one experience following conversion which will lift us up on to a higher plateau of Christian living from which we can never fall. Time and time again we need to return to God in repentance, to draw closer and closer to Him.

In addition, there are times when we need special grace and power from God to meet specific situations. For some people sometimes (especially the first time) such experiences of "refilling" or "filling for specific situations" or “filling as the beginning of a new work of the Spirit” “or filling as the first experience of a new spiritual gift” can be very spectacular. But the Biblical command is to "keep on being filled with the Spirit". It implies a continuous appropriation of the Spirit's power to become more like Christ, not one "second blessing" but many further blessings, some of which may be spectacular but most may not.

Bob Gordon compares our Christian life to a canal boat journey up a mountainside, through a series of locks. "Many of us know God to one degree or another but we are not unlike a canal boat sitting in an empty lock. It is not that there is no water there but we are just not full. We have enough experience to keep us afloat in the Christian life, but not enough to take us ahead." We need, he says, "a conscious awareness that we have come as far as we can as we are. There needs to be a closing of the doors behind us ...... and an opening up to a fresh infilling of the water of the Holy Spirit." Such infillings, not once but many times, should lead to more Christ-like living, greater love in relationships, bolder witnessing, greater praise and worship and thanksgiving, and more effective service. These are blessings which God surely wants all Christians to enjoy to the full.

How can I be filled with the Spirit?

Any experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit is a gift of God’s grace, neither deserved nor earned. Sometimes people are filled with the Spirit suddenly and unexpectedly. But often the Holy Spirit comes upon Christians while they are actively seeking God and desiring His moving.

Eagerly desire spiritual gifts – we need to desire God the Giver and not just His gifts.

Receive through prayer – Acts 4:31; Acts 2:1; Luke 11:9-13

Through the Laying on of Hands – Acts 8:17-19; 9:17-19; 19:6; Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6.

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