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In today’s Christian circles, the term "unity" is frequently spoken of, little understood, and seldom truly put into practice. Natural man cannot make unity happen. As individuals totally yield and submit to the Holy Spirit, He joins people’s hearts together. God has designed a way for us to practically surrender our spirit, soul and body to the Holy Spirit—glossolalia, or speaking with other tongues. When we speak with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance, we are declaring the mind of the Holy Spirit.

Unfortunately, the tongues issue has often brought division rather than unity. Some believe that glossolalia ended during the days of the Bible. They close their minds to the intimacy and humility that comes with speaking in tongues. Others may simply be confused by what tongues are all about. The apostle Peter had to dispel some confusion the first time the Holy Spirit manifested Himself in glossolalia. He explained to the multitude that had gathered for the Feast of Pentecost that what they were witnessing was the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. Jesus’ followers were yielding to the personality and power of the Holy Spirit and speaking wonderful works of God. Some scoffers mocked, but many heard the magnificence of a glorious God.

Many brethren misinterpret speaking in tongues as some type of benchmark of maturity. Obviously, this brings dissension in the church.

Understanding and practicing speaking in tongues are vital steps in bringing healing and restoration to the Body of Christ. The reprinted material by Dr. Howard Ervin in this booklet blows away the smoke of misinterpretation that clouds the mind.

Dr. Ervin graduated from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary and earned his doctorate at Princeton Theological Seminary. His understanding of Scripture and the anointing of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his essays compiled in the book This Which Ye See and Hear. Dr. Ervin explains how tongues bring humility, power and unity to the Body of Christ. He writes in a scholarly, reader-friendly manner to equip the saints to fulfill their ministry by surrendering to the Holy Spirit.

In his essay "The Community of Pentecost," Ervin writes,

"Pentecost produced unity. The biblical record declares that ‘they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers’ (Acts 2:42). Even more explicit is this summary: ‘And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul’ (Acts 4:32).

"The ‘Pentecostal’ experience is not divisive. The gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit are not sectarian. Specifically, tongues, or glossolalia as they are otherwise known, are not schismatic. One cannot look objectively at the evidence of Scripture and arrive at any other conclusion. The Pentecostal experience fostered community, not disunity.

"The Pentecostal visitation upon the apostolic fellowship in Jerusalem produced a unity of ‘heart and soul¼ ’

"As a matter of record, a sectarian spirit did not reveal itself until Peter returned to Jerusalem to relate the workings of the Holy Spirit among the Gentiles. Then it was that a contentious spirit surfaced within the brotherhood. Aroused at the news from Caesarea, ‘they that were of the circumcision contended with him, saying "Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them"’ (Acts 11:2-3). Observe carefully that it was not the ‘Pentecostal’ experience that provided the catalyst for sectarian controversy in the Christian community. It was not tongues that fueled strife in the Jerusalem assembly. It was the legalism of a sectarian faction that abetted schism."

God is bringing restoration and unity to the Body of Christ today. This comes as we totally yield to the person of the Holy Spirit and release His spiritual language in our lives.

Ironically, many believers practice the mechanics of glossolalia but do not allow the Holy Spirit to change some of their man-made doctrines that divide the church today. For example, their eschatology (view of end times) keeps many of them in bondage and brings strife and confusion to the Body of Christ.

Please open your heart and mind as you read Dr. Ervin’s essay, "The Signs of the Pentecostal Visitation." If you have never experienced speaking with other tongues, the Holy Spirit can use this writing to further empower you in your walk with the Lord. For those of you who practice glossolalia, surrender all of your agendas and preconceived ideas to the Holy Spirit so that He can bring you into line with the mind of the Father.

A. Wilson Phillips, Senior Pastor

"And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:1-4).

 

The Holy Spirit came to the church in power on the day of Pentecost. He came then. He has been in the church ever since, and he has never left it. Thus when we pray for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, we are not praying him down again upon the waiting candidate. God is love, and it is love’s chief attribute to give, and give, and give again. Jesus, therefore, is not arbitrarily withholding the Spirit’s power. He wants to baptize believers in the Holy Spirit more passionately than they can desire the experience. Jesus is here. The Holy Spirit too is here. All God awaits is the act of commitment on the part of the believer to consummate the Pentecostal experience in his or her life. A study of Scripture, confirmed by experience, underlines the fact that we receive him by simply yielding in faith and obedience to his supernatural self-manifestation.

That the Pentecostal "baptism in" the Holy Spirit is a genuine spiritual experience, the source of which is God himself, is self-evident both biblically and experientially to those who are personally involved in the present charismatic quickening of the church. The descent of the Holy Spirit is prefigured in the Old Testament, promised in the Gospels, and poured out in the Acts.

The initiation of each new stage in God’s redemptive program for fallen mankind has been signalized by a supernatural self-disclosure.

At the inauguration of the Sinaitic covenant, God summoned Moses and the people of Israel to meet with Him at the foot of the mount. "And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud¼ And Mount Sinai, the whole of it, smoked, because Jehovah descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice" (Exodus 19:16, 18-19).

The Lord’s taking of his Spirit that was upon Moses and bestowing him upon the seventy elders gathered at the Tent of Meeting, who "when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied," (Numbers 11:25) provides a theological rationale for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the church as the New Israel. Especially significant is the account of the two elders who remained behind in the camp and prophesied when the Spirit rested upon them. In reply to Joshua’s indignant appeal to Moses to forbid their exercise of the Spirit’s manifestation among the people, the latter said, "Would that all Jehovah’s people were prophets, that Jehovah would put his Spirit upon them!" (Numbers 11:29). The charisms of the Spirit were not to be reserved exclusively for an aristocratic or sacerdotal caste. The "all Jehovah’s people" of the account in Numbers suggest a relationship of type to antitype with the "all flesh" as quoted by Peter in the Pentecostal narrative.

The divine manifestations affecting the spheres of both nature and supernature are tokens of the presence of the invisible God in the experience of Elijah, when he fled from the wrath of Jezebel and hid himself in a cave on Mount Horeb. "And, behold, Jehovah passed by, and a great wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before Jehovah; but Jehovah was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but Jehovah was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but Jehovah was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice¼ And, behold, there came a voice unto him¼ " (I Kings 19:11-13).

God was not in the wind nor in the fire, but they were the audible and the visible accompaniments of his presence. His personal self-manifestation was the divine utterance with which he addressed Elijah.

In addition, the typological significance of the physical phenomena accompanying the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is foreshadowed in the Shekinah fire that fell at the dedication of the Temple, for "when Solomon has made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt-offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Jehovah filled the house" (II Chronicles 7:1). Thus the falling of the heavenly fire upon the prepared sacrifices signified the divine acceptance, and the glory of God which filled the sanctuary revealed his presence among his people. On the day of Pentecost, the heavenly fire fell upon the "prepared" sacrifice, but without consuming it, thus signaling its acceptance. We are reminded of Paul’s exhortation to the church at Rome, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God" (Romans 12:1).

Awesome though the signs in nature attendant upon the divine manifestation were, none endured. Only God’s word, inscribed first upon tables of stone, then upon parchment, and finally upon the tables of devout Israelite hearts, continued as the abiding sign of God’s self-disclosure at Sinai.

At Bethlehem "the Word became flesh," and wise men, drawn by a supernatural sign in the firmament, followed it to his obscure abode. Shepherds, alerted by angelic visitants, received the announcement of the divine incarnation while watching their flocks at night. The angel of the Lord heralded the glad tidings, announcing "a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger" as "the sign" of the divine self-disclosure (Luke 2:12).

The "star," its silent mission completed, retreated into the farthest reaches of the universe, and the angelic heralds returned to their celestial sphere, but the Word garbed in mortal flesh remained as the continuing sign of God’s self-disclosure in the events of the incarnation.

The coming of the Spirit is promised in the Gospel in the words of John the Baptist, who, as the forerunner of the Messiah, announced the Holy Spirit’s Parousia as immanent when he said, "I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance¼ he (i.e., Jesus) shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire" (Matthew 3:11). The parallel with the words spoken by Jesus to his disciples prior to his ascension connects the promise of John with the Pentecostal bestowal of the Holy Spirit upon the church. Jesus said, "John indeed baptized you with water; but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence" (Acts 1:5). The words of John, "and in fire," look back to the Shekinah fire of the Old Testament type and forward to the "tongues of fire" in the Pentecostal antitype.

The predicted baptism in the Holy Spirit took place on the day of Pentecost, when, in Luke’s phenomenological language, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the assembled disciples: "And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:1-4).

Peter, interpreting for the crowd of curious onlookers the awesome manifestations of the Spirit, connected Pentecost and prophecy by quoting the words of Joel, "And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh" (Acts 2:17). He thereby placed the Pentecostal appearance of the Holy Spirit in a specific eschatological frame of reference. Borrowing the very idiom of the ancient seer, he concluded, "This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses. Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear" (Acts 2:32-33). The effusion of the Holy Spirit is "the promise of the Father" poured forth by his glorified Son, Jesus Christ, upon a waiting church, already commissioned for its worldwide missionary ministry.

The sound as of "the rushing of a mighty wind" depicts a violent storm wind or a tornado, and it is the first or audible sign of the Holy Spirit’s coming. The second is the fire which suggests the Shekinah of the Old Testament. It is the visible sign of God’s presence in the midst of his people. The Holy Spirit was not in the wind nor in the fire. Much less are they to be interpreted as personalized attributes of his presence. They were the audible and the visible accompaniments of his coming to the church. The wind and the fire, the audible and the visible signs of the coming of the Holy Spirit are not, therefore, a necessary consequence of every subsequent Pentecostal visitation. They are not, for example, mentioned in the Pentecostal visitation upon the household of Cornelius in Caesarea ten years later. Nor are they mentioned when twenty-five years after the day of Pentecost, Paul baptized in water the twelve disciples of John the Baptist, and with the subsequent laying on of his hands they had a Pentecostal experience. And since the Spirit came to stay, we need not anticipate, nor is it necessary for the Holy Spirit to repeat these two signs every time there is a Pentecostal visitation, whether it be individually or corporately experienced.

This brings us to the third sign of the Pentecostal visitation of the Holy Spirit. "And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). The Spirit’s personal self-manifestation in tongues-speech announced his presence in power in the midst of the priesthood of believers. In every subsequent reference to the Pentecostal experience found in the Book of Acts, either explicitly spelled out or implied, we find that one sign of the Spirit’s presence is the common denominator binding them into an organic whole. Once again, we shall see that the enduring sign of God’s self-manifestation is divinely inspired words.

The initial sign of the Spirit’s coming, the common denominator that binds together every reference to the Pentecostal manifestations in the Book of Acts, is speech in "other tongues as the Spirit (Himself) gave them utterance." As we have argued in a previous work, These Are Not Drunken As Ye Suppose, tongues-utterances are explicitly mentioned in the Jerusalem, Caesarean, and Ephesian "Pentecosts." They are implied in the "Pentecostal" experiences of the Samaritans, of Paul, and of the Ethiopian eunuch. And there is, we submit, an appropriate rationale for the phenomenon.

Speech is the most distinctively personal activity in which we engage. Speech cannot be separated from personality. It is the uniquely personal self-manifestation of each one of us. By speech we disclose our innermost being. Without the inherent power of speech, we have a creature made by God, but not a creature made in the image of God. Formed in the image of the divine Word, man is himself the creation of the creative Word.

God, a personal Being, speaks to man. The characteristic which preeminently distinguishes man from every other creature is that, having the power of speech, he can respond intelligently to God. For instance, we read that "as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them’" (Acts 13:2); they understood that a personal Being was speaking to them.

The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Triune Godhead, manifests his personality in divinely inspired utterance. The norm of apostolic experience is this, that when the Spirit came upon them and they felt divine power surging through their being, God articulated that power in terms commensurate with personality. This understanding of tongues as the personal self-revelation of the Spirit of God provides a rationale for understanding tongues-utterance in the Pentecostal experience.

A brief non-technical analysis of the speech process clarifies that statement. When we speak, the words are not in the mouth. What issues from the mouth is a mechanically contrived sound; the words, and by this we mean the pattern of the language, is not in the mouth, but in the mind. For instance, before an infant learns its mother tongue, it makes speech sounds, but does not say anything intelligible. In other words, it does not communicate. It is only after the pattern of the language is learned that these speech sounds become coherent and intelligible communication. When one speaks a learned language, the mind by controlling the articulators¾ the tongue, the lips, the larynx¾ forms the sounds being uttered into the pattern of the words that are in the mind. What issues from the mouth, then, are verbal symbols that correspond to the pattern of the words in the mind. Therefore, when we speak any learned language, the pattern of the language is in the mind. This provides an analogy whereby we are able to understand the source and the nature of glossolalia, or tongues-utterances. When we speak as the Spirit gives utterance, the same mechanical, physiological process is involved. The utterance is produced by the air issuing from the lungs and passing over the vocal cords and through the mouth. Now, however, instead of the intellect of the individual guiding the articulators in forming words known to the mind of the individual, the speaker surrenders his speech organs to the mind of the Holy Spirit within him. The utterance, then, is of those words that are in the mind of the Spirit.

Having said this, we are aware of the usual objections. If, it is urged, the Holy Spirit energizes our speech, why does he not inspire words in our mother tongue? Why some unknown language? To this we would reply that as long as one speaks a known language, that is, a learned language, there are at least three limiting factors.

The first of these limiting factors is vocabulary, for no matter how much the Holy Spirit may energize or inspire utterance, we cannot speak words that we have not learned as long as we are speaking those words that are in our own intellect. In fact, were we to speak words in a learned language that we had not hitherto learned, they would to all intents and purposes constitute tongues-utterance since they are not part of our known vocabulary. We repeat, then, that as long as we speak in any learned language, vocabulary exerts a limiting factor upon our communication with God.

A second limiting factor, as long as we speak in a learned language, is the thought categories in which we have been trained to think, since these thought categories mold and direct the choice of words. For instance, when the astronauts landed on the moon, the engineer presumably thought of the accomplishment in terms of the space mechanics; the doctor probably thought of it in terms of space medicine; the theologian interpreted it in terms of theology. These categories then exert a limiting factor upon any statement they would make about that achievement.

There is, however, a third and far more subtle limitation when we speak in a learned language. As long as we speak words that are in our own minds, our ego censors what we are saying. It is a commonly observed phenomenon that we more often use language to conceal thought than to reveal it. A moment’s reflection indicates the truth of this statement. For example, time, place, circumstance, and audience dictate the choice of words that we use. The fact, then, that choice of words is left with us as long as we speak in the vernacular tongue means that our ego sits in censorship upon all that we say.

Therefore, no matter how much the Holy Spirit should inspire utterance, as long as that utterance is in a known or learned language, the utterance must submit to these limiting factors. However, when we speak those words that are not in our minds but in the mind of the Spirit, none of these limiting factors function. In the prayer life, Paul recognized the supranational nature of such utterance when he wrote, "If I pray in a ‘tongue’ my spirit is praying but my mind is inactive" (I Cor. 14:14 Phillips). The tongues-utterance becomes then not only a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s personality but a manifestation of his sovereignty, an illustration of that power which Jesus promised when the Holy Spirit comes upon us (Acts 1:8).

Admittedly, tongues-utterances are the most controversial aspect of the whole subject of the baptism in or filling with the Holy Spirit, terms which are used interchangeably by Luke in the Acts. Misunderstanding of and resistance to the phenomenon of "tongues," a real "hang-up," to borrow a vernacular idiom, are communicated in at least three frequently asked questions.

First, "Must I speak in tongues to be filled with the Holy Spirit?" The answer is "no" on at least two counts. One, as the question is stated, it makes the baptism in, that is to say, filling with the Holy Spirit, contingent upon speaking in tongues, rather than making speaking in tongues a consequence of the Spirit’s filling. Stated another way, it implies that the speaking in tongues precedes rather than follows the infilling with the Spirit. Two, the Spirit of God will never violate the integrity of anyone’s personality. Speech is subject to the autonomy of our wills. We speak, or we do not speak, as we choose. This is true of speech in our mother tongue, or speech as the Spirit gives us utterance. If, therefore, we yield voluntarily to the Spirit’s inspiration, we can speak in tongues after we have been filled with the Holy Spirit.

A second query is usually stated affirmatively. "I have had an experience with the Holy Spirit in which I believe I was filled with the Spirit, but I do not speak in tongues." The implied question is, "How do you explain this?" The question was answered in part above¾ you can if you will.

Let us look at it from another perspective. When we speak any language, the words, that is, its pattern, are not in the mouth but in the mind. What comes out of the mouth are mechanically produced speech sounds. Only as the mind imposes on these sounds the language pattern it has learned, do they become meaningful speech. Therefore, by voluntarily yielding the voice to the learned pattern of the language, we speak those words that are in our minds. Again, we would remind the reader that speech is subject to our volition. By the same token, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can yield our voice to the Spirit’s direction. We then speak the words that are in the mind of the Holy Spirit.

In the third place, it is often asked: "But is not the manifestation of any one of the gifts of the Spirit in I Corinthians 12:7-11 evidence that I have been filled with the Holy Spirit?" The fact that this question is so often prefaced with the adversative conjunction "but," betrays its intent. If it is conceded that one has a manifestation of one of the other gifts of the Spirit, why then should tongues be necessary? There are two false assumptions in this position.

In the first place, the gifts of the Spirit are evidences of a Spirit-filled life. They imply an initial "Pentecostal" experience that initiates the Spirit-filled life. A study of the Book of Acts shows that the Spirit’s gifts came after the initial manifestation of tongues at Pentecost. They neither preceded nor preempted the unique place of tongues-utterances at the threshold of the Spirit-filled life.

The second false assumption is that of confusing the manifestation of tongues as initial "evidence" of the baptism in the Spirit with it as a "gift" of the Holy Spirit. As we have suggested above, the "evidence" of tongues is a concomitant of the Pentecostal experience that inaugurates the Spirit-filled life, while the "gift" of tongues is a ministry of the Spirit to the assembled worshipers and must be accompanied by the companion gift of interpretation to be in divine order. The first is an individual and personal experience, while the second is a corporate ministry.

Here a clear distinction must be made between the manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s personality and the response of the individual experiencing the manifestation. Whatever emotional response is evoked in the one receiving the Holy Spirit is the manifestation of his human personality. May we not illustrate it yet another way? If someone receives the baptism in the Holy Spirit and in a transport of joy "jumps over a church pew," this is a manifestation of his personality. When he speaks with "other tongues," the tongues-utterance is a manifestation of the Spirit’s personality.

Now let it be said in extenuation of such exuberant conduct, that no two persons can interact without emotion. The Holy Spirit is a person, and when man meets the Spirit in the divine manifestation of His power, there will be an emotional response, call it awe, reverence, fear, love, or whatever. Individuals may discipline their responses to a greater or a lesser degree, but nonetheless there is an emotional response. One person may be very vivacious and exuberant and respond to the Holy Spirit unrestrainedly. Another may be by temperament more phlegmatic and reserved. Each responds in a way compatible with his own innermost nature.

Honesty as well as tolerance bids us say that there is nothing wrong with these normal emotional responses as long as they do not transgress the law of love and cause someone else to stumble. Divine order requires that time, circumstances, and the needs of others exert a moderation influence upon the expression of our emotions.

Thus, it must be kept clearly in mind that the emotional response of the worshiper is not the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, but the manifestation of individual human personality.

For those whose interest in the baptism in the Holy Spirit is practical rather than theoretical, this additional statement ought to be added. From God’s standpoint, the only condition limiting the giving of the Holy Spirit is the predisposition of the Giver. Since God is love, and the highest expression of love is unconditional giving, the bestowal of the Holy Spirit is called "the gift" of the Holy Spirit.

From the standpoint of the one receiving the baptism, however, there are two conditions: the first is faith, and the second is obedience. By faith we mean that total commitment to God that surrenders to him the most jealously guarded attribute of our personalities, that is to say, the power of the tongue. This commitment involves yielding our speech organs without reservation to the Holy Spirit for him to structure, as he deems best, the sounds which we utter, thereby speaking those words that are in his mind. Faith says that if we submit ourselves thus to the Holy Spirit, he will not fail us. We will speak to the praise of God, words that are in the mind of the Spirit. Obedience says that whether he "fails" us or not is of no consequence; we will still yield our voices as long as it is in his will and glorifies Jesus Christ.