Decades ago I read an article in Charisma Magazine which discussed Billy Graham. Apparently there was great debate in the charismatic world over how he managed to attract such huge crowds, and how he seemed to lead so many thousands of people to saving faith in Jesus Christ, even though he hadn’t been baptized in the Spirit (the writer believed) and didn’t speak in tongues.
IF YOU’RE TRULY A BELIEVER, YOU ALREADY HAVE IT
According to some Christians you can’t be an effective, powerful witness unless you as a believer go on to get baptized in the Spirit after your conversion and speak in tongues. If you don’t speak in tongues, you’re only half baked, they think, and you have little power to witness to the world. I intend to show here that this is faulty theology, and it’s a theology which creates an ungodly, unnecessary and prideful class structure within the Church.
As I’ve noted in previous parts of this series, New Testament writers said many things in direct opposition to this claim. For example, Jesus Christ stated that wherever two or three are gathered in his name He is present by His Spirit (Matthew 18:20). However, Paul took this thought further:
“…no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3).
If you can say that Jesus is Lord and mean it, says Paul, you are speaking by the Spirit of God. Imagine then, the possibilities and potential you have as a professing Christian, without the need to claim a higher spiritual position or a charismatic gift. This explains the success of Billy Graham’s ministry and that of many other great evangelists and speakers through the ages, who never once claimed to have spoken in tongues. Billy was speaking by the Spirit, and won many thousands of souls to Christ without any second blessing or tongues.
The idea that some saved, born-again Christians do not have the Spirit is totally unscriptural, as I’ve noted in previous parts of this series, because:
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ (Romans 8:9).
The gospel of Jesus Christ given by the first apostles did not include speaking in tongues or seeking a second blessing. This means that according to Paul’s words to the Romans, all believers, since the earliest times of the Church, have the Spirit of Christ in them.
BEING IN THE SPIRIT
Reading through the examples of apostles and disciples witnessing in the book of Acts and other New Testament books, we find many times in which the way to effectiveness was through courage and prayer, and the words of Scripture. Being “in the Spirit” did not require speaking in tongues. John was “in the Spirit” when he received the Revelation, but said nothing in tongues (Revelation 1:10).
The idea that we have to seek a second blessing before we can be effective for God comes from a faulty understanding of the events of Pentecost, from a failure to study relevant Scriptures in context, and from a worldly pride which allows some to think they’re higher up on a spiritual ladder of success and power than other Christians. The truth is that when we come to Christ in repentance and in faith, we are-every one of us-complete in our spiritual standing and potential:
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness (Colossians 2:8-10).
A SIGN GIFT-NOT A WITNESS GIFT
The actual use or demonstration of the gift, even if it’s the real gift, will not be a positive witness to the world, but a hindrance, because while Paul said that tongues are a sign to unbelievers, they are a sign to a specific brand of unbeliever, that is, to the Jew:
Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. In the Law it is written:
“With other tongues
and through the lips of foreigners
I will speak to this people,
but even then they will not listen to me,
says the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:21-22).
Paul said to the Gentile Corinthians that if unbelievers come into your church and everyone is speaking in tongues they will think you’re crazy (1 Corinthians 14:23). Your speaking will do no good at all, and as I’ve already demonstrated, Paul said that if nobody knows what you’re saying you will just be “speaking into the air” (verse 9). This says nothing of an effective witness.
CARNAL TONGUES SPEAKERS
The Corinthian church was rich in gifts, or at least claimed gifts including tongues, but Paul told them that they were not a powerful church but “worldly” or “carnal”:
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:1).
These tongues-talkers were “infants in Christ” and “worldly”. That’s not to say that the real gift makes you worldly, but that it has no power of its own to make you into a godly, effective witness.
REQUIREMENTS FOR CHURCH LEADERSHIP
In some denominations and circles today a speaker or a pastor or church leader is chosen based on whether he (or she) has the gift or has had a second blessing. However, Paul’s first-century requirements in choosing men for ministry did not include or even mention the gift of tongues or a second blessing. Instead he required a holy and upright life (1 Timothy chapter 3).
THE PURPOSE-MADE WEAPON
When speaking of the armour of God, Paul described Scripture, not the gift of tongues, as the one weapon of attack:
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17).
AN UPRIGHT LIFE
James summarized the way to effectiveness in the Christian life succinctly, without saying a word about tongues:
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (James 5:16).
The most stark notice that being an effective witness has nothing to do with speaking in tongues comes from the apostle Peter. The man who led the church on that great Day of Pentecost at the beginning of Acts, in speaking about the way to effectiveness in the Christian walk, says nothing about speaking in tongues or receiving a second blessing. Instead, he says we have received all the potential we need by receiving Jesus Christ into our hearts:
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness… For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:3-8).
If you want to be an effective witness, you must do it by the way you live out your life in front of others.
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 