This year, Pentecost was on Sunday, May 28th, occurring seven weeks after Easter Sunday. This day is celebrated to designate what happened in Acts 2 when for the first time God made it available for human beings to be born again of incorruptible seed and filled with the gift of holy spirit, the divine nature of God and His Son. On that day, people were instantly and permanently equipped with the same power that created the heavens and the earth, the power that raised Jesus from the dead, and the power that he manifested to leave a wake of deliverance in his ministry. When you made him Lord, he gave you that same power, and He gave you something else that very few Christians have ever truly understood.
Have you ever noticed that most Christians cannot fully answer what is perhaps the most crucial question a Christian can ask. It is a question that plagues many saints, and one that has no doubt caused many of them terrible consternation, even to the point of mental illness, thus diluting both their faith in God and the quality of their Christian lives. The vital question is: How do I know for sure that I am saved?
Matthew 7:13-14
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
Matthew 24:37-44
“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
In the above verses, Jesus was speaking of future events relative to the people of Israel, for whom the new birth wasn’t available, and whose salvation was therefore tentative. None of these verses have anything to do with Christians today, who are born of God, and whose salvation is thus very permanent. But how do we know we are signed, sealed, and delivered?
One of the greatest biblical truths to know and understand is that speaking in tongues is the only absolute proof to us that we are forever saved from sin and death, and guaranteed everlasting life in Paradise. Speaking in tongues is the one and only thing you can do with the complete assurance that you are doing something perfect in God’s sight.
I know there are some believers that may have taken for granted, and forgot the magnitude of something they learned and became convinced of many years ago. If a once magnificent truth to you now has become dulled or abandoned all together, what will the fruit of your life bear as a result? If speaking in tongues has become unimportant in your private prayer life to the degree you no longer do it, will you still receive the benefits from it? Certainly not.
As you know, Satan introduces as much error as he possibly can regarding the most important truths in God’s Word. When it comes to speaking in tongues, and the whole subject of the (H)holy (S)spirit, the amount of wrong teaching to which Christians are subjected is impossible to calculate. But for those of us who have been privileged to understand it and receive the unique blessings it brings to our lives, it should be paramount in our spiritual walk before God.
Why is the Enemy so bent on obscuring and distorting the truth about speaking in tongues, a phenomenal ability that no doubt the majority of Christians throughout history have never utilized. First, it is one’s only absolute proof that they are guaranteed everlasting life. It is also your proof that the Bible is true, that Jesus conquered death, that you are filled with the power of God, that you can do the works Jesus did, that you have overcome the world, and that you are righteous in the sight of God, and His beloved child forever. In that regard, consider the following Scriptures:
Romans 8:15-17
“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
1 John 3:24
“The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the spirit he gave us.”
Another magnificent element to speaking in tongues as per what happened on Pentecost, is that God wanted everyone who became a Christian to immediately speak in tongues. What does that entail? That the individual will trust that God will give them the words to speak. Think about what God is doing in that process: He is proving to you that whenever you trust and obey His Word, He will fulfill His promises. When you hear yourself speak in tongues, you know you have very concrete proof of that mutual relationship with the Creator – one that will never change.
When you speak in tongues, what does God’s Word say you are you doing? “Speaking the wonderful works of God (Acts 2:11), “magnifying God” (Acts 10:46), “giving thanks well” (1 Cor. 14:17), and “worshiping God” (Phil. 3:3). You are using a language beyond the scope of your limited understanding to tell God you love Him, and in essence, you are giving Him something that He doesn’t already have – your lavish praise (Heb. 13:15). All of the above should strongly motivate you to speak in tongues as much as possible. The apostle Paul said that he spoke in tongues more than all the Corinthian saints. At the very least, that means he did it a lot – and so can we.
The bible says a tree is known by its fruit (Matt 12:33), and as believers if we want to bear good godly fruit, we must remain in Christ by being obedient to God’s Word. Is it any wonder that God tells us in 1 Corinthians 14:5 that He desires that each of us speak in tongues? So how about we do just that!
In His Love,
