There are number of posts of this important subject. This series covers the 4 main objections.
Extracted and Adapted from Kenneth Hagin book “Tongues after the Upper Room”
The 120 disciples in the Upper Room had been told by Jesus to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit. They were there for at least 1 day all together during the feast of weeks and is known as Shavuot to Jews. They would have been excited and ready for what God their Father would give them. They were expectant and hungry for the Holy Spirit so when the Spirit that burst out with tongues and praise for God.
There are some things that can keep a person from being filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, such as a lack of faith or a lack of yieldedness. Remember, the Holy Spirit gives the utterance, but the person must do the talking. That means the person must open his mouth and use his own voice to start speaking.
After a believer asks Jesus to baptize him with the Holy Spirit, he needs to quiet his mind and see if he senses the Holy Spirit giving him syllables or words on the inside. If he doesn’t sense anything, the problem may be a lack of faith. Why? Because a person must first receive the gift of the Holy Spirit he’s asked for by opening his heart to the Spirit and drinking Him in. When he receives the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will give him utterance.
In this case, it would behoove that believer to go back and study the five recorded instances in the Book of Acts where people got filled with the Holy Spirit (see Acts chapters 2, 8, 9, 10,19). He should read those verses very carefully, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). On the other hand, if that believer does speak out an utterance in tongues—even if he speaks only a few syllables—he needs to hold on to that utterance and refuse to give up on it. However, he should also expect more to come! The problem in this case is a lack of yieldedness. Therefore, when he’s alone and undistracted, the believer should pray in other tongues. He should start with the utterance he has already received but should determine to yield more and more to the Holy Spirit.
Once when I was holding a meeting in a certain church, a young businessman came forward one night to receive the Holy Spirit. When I laid hands on the man, the Holy Spirit came on him, but all I heard him speak were two words in tongues.
The next night when the pastor asked for testimonies from folks who’d been saved, healed, or filled with the Holy Spirit during the meetings, this young man got up and said, “I want to praise God for filling me with the Holy Spirit last night.” Then he sat down.
The next night the pastor once more asked for testimonies. Once again this young man got up and testified, “I want to thank God that two nights ago when Brother Hagin laid hands on me, I received the Holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues.”
At the next evening service, the pastor once again asked for testimonies, and once again the young man jumped up to testify. But this time when he jumped up, I thought he would go through the ceiling! He said, “Folks, three nights ago the Lord baptized me with the Holy Spirit, but I spoke only two words.
“Because my family has been staying up late every night to attend the services, I’ve been coming home from my business at lunchtime to take a 30-minute nap every day at noon. But these last two days, I haven’t been able to take my nap.”
The young man went on to explain why he hadn’t been able to take his midday nap. The day after I ministered to him, he was trying to go to sleep when the devil started whispering to his mind over and over again, “You didn’t get anything last night when you asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
The man said out loud in reply, “Yes, I did.”
The enemy answered, “But you didn’t speak with tongues.”
So the young man rose up, got his Bible, and opened it to Acts 2:4. Then he said, “Mr. Devil, in case you can’t read, I’ll read it for you. It says here, ‘And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.’ Last night I began to speak with other tongues, so I have received the Holy Spirit. I spoke two words, and that is a beginning!”
The next day this young businessman came home at noon again and ate a little lunch. Then he went to his room to lay down for a nap. But once again, he couldn’t sleep because the devil kept saying to his mind, “Now you’ve testified about being filled with the Holy Spirit, but you’re NOT filled! Let’s hear you talk in tongues.”
The man couldn’t speak more than those two words in tongues. Then the devil said to his mind, “See? You didn’t get anything!”
But once again the young man rose up and opened his Bible. He said, “Mr. Devil, in case you can’t read, I’ll read it to you!” Then after reading Acts 2:4 to the devil again, the man said, “I know I spoke only two words, but that’s a beginning. I began to speak with other tongues, so I’m filled with the Holy Spirit!”
Then the young man said to us, “At noon today, I tried to take a nap again, and the devil started saying the same thing he’d been saying to me for the past two days. So I got up and opened my Bible and read Acts 2:4 to him again. I said again, ‘Three nights ago, I began to speak with other tongues, so that means I’m filled’ Immediately after I said that, I started laughing at the devil. And before I knew what I was doing, I was speaking fluently in other tongues! So I spent the rest of the time praying in the Holy Spirit!”
You see, this young man had received the Holy Spirit. It was just a matter of his learning how to yield to the Holy Spirit. So, you see, when he yielded to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to laugh at the devil in faith, that helped him yield to the Holy Spirit to pray in other tongues!
It’s so important for a person to stay in faith as he learns to yield to the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, he’ll fall back into unbelief and think, Well,I just spoke a couple words, so I didn’t really receive anything. The devil likes to use doubt-filled arguments like that to bind up a believer so he can’t enjoy the benefits of the infilling he’s already received.
I’m telling you, you’re going to have to learn how to answer the devil with the Word if you’re ever going to amount to anything in the Lord!
Someone might say, “Why, I can’t rebuke the devil! I’m scared of him!”
But if that’s what you’re saying, you’ve already let the devil take you captive. You’ve already played into his hands, for the spirit of fear is of the enemy.
The devil will always bring up the same old arguments because he doesn’t know any new ones. He will try to talk you out of what God’s given you, but you can always whip him with the Word!
So if you’ve only spoken a few words in tongues, hold on to that utterance in faith and keep speaking out those words you’ve received. Certainly that’s the Holy Spirit, for He said, “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people” (Isaiah 28:11).
I like what Donald Gee, the famous British preacher, said about people who stammer a word or two of tongues when they first get filled with the Holy Spirit. He likened this situation to a whistling teakettle. As the water in a teakettle starts to get hot, every now and then the teakettle will let out a little whistle. But you don’t take the teakettle off the stove when it just starts to whistle. You keep it on the burner until it’s whistling long and loudly and giving off a steady stream of steam. Only then do you pour out the hot water to make tea!
In the same way, if you’ve spoken only a few words in tongues, it’s important that you don’t stop there. Keep speaking with tongues until out of your innermost being a steady stream is flowing out of your mouth and you enter into the fullness of God’s blessing!
Don’t Look for Outward Actions
Too often we try to judge spiritual things by fleshly standards, deciding what a person has or has not received from God according to how they act outwardly. Let’s say three people come forward to receive the Holy Spirit. One of them receives and just stands there speaking very quietly with other tongues. Another receives and also speaks with tongues, but he gets so happy he runs up and down the aisle. The third one speaks with tongues and dances a little jig for joy. Then he cries and hugs the people around him.
The next day someone asks those who were present, “What happened at the service last night?”
“Well,” someone says, “three received the Holy Spirit, but two of them really received!”
But the truth is, the two who showed more outward emotion didn’t receive any more of the Holy Spirit than the person who only spoke quietly in other tongues.
I learned a long time ago that you can’t tell what is in a book by looking at the cover. You also can’t tell whether a person has received the Holy Spirit by his outside actions at the moment— unless it’s speaking in other tongues.
Sometimes people just get stirred up emotionally, shouting and carrying on and making a lot of noise, and it doesn’t mean a thing in the world. Of course, other times a display of outward emotion is a result of a true spiritual experience. But whether or not a person has truly received from the Lord is not determined by his outward emotions; it is determined by his heart.
Are You ‘Good Enough’ to Receive the Holy Spirit?
Years ago I was holding a meeting at Brother and Sister Goodwin’s church, who were also our close friends and fellow ministers. After one of the morning services, a denominational woman came over to Brother Goodwin and me and said, “I want you to pray for me. I’ve come to understand that I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Brother Goodwin replied, “Well, there’s never a better time than now!”
She said, “Oh, no, I just want you all to pray for me, but I couldn’t receive right now. I have some more digging to do.” She meant that she had more praying and preparing to do before she could be ready to receive the Holy Spirit.
Brother John Osteen was also present at the meeting and was standing nearby. Brother Osteen came from the same denominational background as this woman, and he knew where she was missing it in her thinking.
“Well, now, Sister,” Brother Osteen said, “aren’t you saved?” “Oh, yes.”
“Aren’t you a blood-washed, born-again child of God?” “Yes.” “Do you believe that if you were to die this minute, you’d go to Heaven?”
“Why, yes!” she replied. “I know I would.”
Brother Osteen said, “Well, then, Sister, if you’re good enough to go to Heaven, you’re good enough to have a little more Heaven in you! You don’t have to do any more praying. It’s the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses you from all sin. It’s the blood that made you worthy to receive the Holy Spirit. It isn’t anything you did! It’s the blood of Jesus that made you a new creature!”
Well, this woman saw what Brother Osteen was saying to her. Then Brother Osteen, Brother Goodwin, and I prayed for that dear lady, and she almost instantly received the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues!
Too often Christians make the same mistake this woman made, thinking there is something they have to do to be worthy enough to receive what God already promised to give them. Or they get on the negative side of being filled with tongues and talk themselves out of what they already have.
This is what you have to get established in your heart: When a child of God asks in faith to be filled with the Holy Spirit, our Heavenly Father is not going to refuse his request. And when someone receives the Holy Spirit, he will receive the Bible evidence of that gift. All he has to do is yield to the Holy Spirit and begin to speak in faith, not allowing himself to speak in his own native language. As he does, he will speak with other tongues as the Spirit gives him utterance!
So open your mouth, and drink deeply of the Spirit. Keep drinking until you’re full. Then speak out the utterance He gives you. Don’t let the devil or anyone else—including yourself—talk you out of what God has already given you. There is a whole new dimension in God to explore after you receive the Holy Spirit!
Living as a Christian in this World 