Baptism with the Holy Spirit
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11. Under the law when some people were filled with the Holy Spirit
they did not begin to speak with other tongues, could you tell me why? |
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Because God had decreed that speaking in tongues as the immediate sign
of the filling up with the Holy Spirit would follow the filling up with the
Holy Spirit from the day of Pentecost on. Why from the day of Pentecost on?
Because God had determined that He would begin to pour out His Spirit upon
all flesh on that day. It was on the day of Pentecost that these words of the
prophet Joel began to be fulfilled: “And it shall come to pass in the last
days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and
your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I
will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy ….” (Acts 2:17-18;
Joel 2:28-29). |
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Under the law, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given, that is to say,
He had not yet been poured out (however, under the law, there were some
people upon whom the Holy Spirit came or who were filled with the Holy
Spirit). This was confirmed by Jesus when during the feast of Tabernacles He
said: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and
drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water” (John |
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Therefore, from the day of Pentecost on, the filling up with the Holy
Spirit had to be followed always by an outward sign and that sign was the
speaking with other tongues. And this is confirmed by three stories recorded
in the Acts of the apostles, for in all of them it is said that when the Holy
Spirit fell upon believers they spoke with other tongues: the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit upon the about one hundred and twenty disciples on the day of
Pentecost (Acts 11:15), the outpouring of the Spirit upon Cornelius and all his household while they
were hearing the Word of God (Acts 10:44-46), and the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit upon the about twelve disciples of Jesus at Ephesus (Acts 19:1-6). |
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As I said before, the Holy Spirit under the Old Testament had not yet been
given, even though there were some men on whom the Holy Spirit came and were
filled with the Holy Spirit; nevertheless even under the law when the Holy
Spirit came upon someone or someone was filled with the Holy Spirit, there
was a spiritual manifestation that those who were present were able to see, and
that manifestation was prophecy in that those people began to prophesy. That
is confirmed by these Scriptures: |
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● “And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him [Moses],
and took of the spirit that was upon him [Saul], and gave it unto the seventy
elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they
prophesied, and did not cease” (Numbers |
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● “And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of
prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied
among them” (1 Samuel |
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● “And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the
company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over
them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also
prophesied” (1 Samuel 19:20). |
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● “And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and
prophesied ….” (Luke 1:67). |
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● “And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the
salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled
with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed
art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is
this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come
to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears,
the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed: for
there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the
Lord” (Luke |
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Therefore, the fact that under grace when the Holy Spirit comes upon some
believers He makes them speaks with other tongues should not surprise at all.
It is true that the two manifestations are different for he who prophesies
speaks unto men, while he who speaks in a tongue speaks to God, but both of
them are given by the same Spirit. |
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Then someone will ask: “Why did God change the spiritual manifestation
following the filling up with the Holy Spirit?’ I think the reason was
because with the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ a New Testament
began, thus also the outpouring of the Holy Spirit needed a new ‘sign’ which
had never occurred before. Thus, the Holy Spirit who came on the disciples on
the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem was the same Spirit that had come on the elders
of Israel in the desert, but the manifestation which followed the pouring out
of the Spirit at Pentecost was different from the manifestation which
followed the pouring out of the Spirit upon the elders of Israel, for those
disciples on the day of Pentecost began to speak with other tongues. Besides,
we know that with the New Covenant many things have changed: the priesthood is
different, the law is different, the promises are different, thus we should not be surprised if even the sign following
the filling up with the Holy Spirit is different. |