If you have not read the first part in the series I would suggest having a look at the Previous post on Objection #1.
Extracted and Adapted from Kenneth Hagin book “Tongues after the Upper Room”
Objection #2: ‘Tongues are of the devil’
When I was just a young boy preacher, I would fellowship with the Pentecostals because they believed in divine healing. I had been healed and raised up from a deathbed by the power of God, and it strengthened my faith in healing to fellowship with others of like-precious faith. As a result, my denominational colleagues were deeply concerned about me, and they would warn me about “those Pentecostal people.” They spoke in all sincerity and honesty, but with minds befuddled with unscriptural theological concepts.
I remember in particular the words of one Bible teacher, a graduate of a denominational seminary. He said to me, “I admit that almost everything those Full Gospel people teach and preach is fundamental and right. And I’ll also admit that they live better lives than we do in our church. But that speaking in tongues is of the devil!”
I didn’t answer this man right then, but I thought to myself, How in the world can people get something from the devil that makes them better? I thought it was always the other way around! Isn’t it the devil that tries to make people do bad things and the Holy Ghost who helps them to do right?
That unscriptural thinking reminds me about something that happened to a fellow from east Texas who was wild before he got saved in his early thirties. As a boy, he had attended a denominational church, although he had never gotten saved. But once he hit his teenage years, the young man went wild and began to frequent bars every night.
Any sin you want to mention, this man did it in his younger years, from drinking and cussing to brawling and fighting. In fact, there were some nights when he’d whip everyone who challenged him and clear out the bar! They’d have to call in two or three squad cars to come and take him to jail. This young man was tough!
Years later, some Full Gospel people started witnessing to this man, and he got saved, baptized in the Holy Ghost, and spoke with other tongues. The church he’d attended as a child just left him alone during the more than 20 years he’d been so wild. The pastor hadn’t bothered to visit him even once. But all of a sudden, the pastor who had ignored him for all those years came to visit the man with deep concern—because he’d “gotten something from the devil.”
It would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic!
That man told me personally what happened during the pastor’s visit. He said, “I let the pastor talk for a while, but when he said, ‘That speaking in tongues is of the devil,’ I stopped him and said, ‘Wait a minute, Pastor. I know that tongues isn’t of the devil, because I had everything the devil could give me when I was a sinner. If tongues were of the devil, I would have had it long ago! But I didn’t receive this gift until I turned my back on the devil and got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit!'”
No matter how much the pastor tried, he couldn’t talk that man out of speaking in tongues. The man knew he had received that gift from God.
As for me, the moment I was filled with the Holy Ghost and began speaking with other tongues, I went looking for that Bible teacher who had told me that tongues were of the devil. In times past, he would always bring up the subject, but this time I brought it up because I wanted to get something over to him.
Once again, the Bible teacher warned me about “those Pentecostal folks.” Again he told me, “That speaking with tongues is of the devil!”
I replied, “Now wait a minute—stop right there. You say that speaking with tongues is of the devil?”
“That’s right!”
“Well,” I said, “if tongues is of the devil, then so is our entire denomination!”
The man’s eyes got as big as saucers. He looked like he’d seen a ghost! Finally he sputtered, “What are you talking about?”
I said, “You know I’ve been filled with the Holy Ghost and speak with other tongues. Well, the same Holy Spirit I got acquainted with in our denomination, the same Spirit who recreated my spirit and witnessed to my spirit that I am a child of God—that’s the same Holy Spirit who gave me utterance in other tongues down at the Full Gospel church when I was filled with the Spirit!
“The Pentecostals don’t have a different Holy Spirit than we have. He isn’t twins or triplets or quadruplets or quintuplets. There is only one Holy Spirit! It’s identically the same Spirit— just a different dimension.”
“Oh no, no!” he protested. “That isn’t right.” I said, “You’re a Bible scholar, aren’t you?” “Oh yes, I’m a seminary graduate and have taught the Bible for 25 years.”
“So let me ask you something,” I said. “Have you ever spoken with other tongues?”
“No, of course not,” the man said.
“Then how do you know what Spirit is behind it?” I asked. “You say you know the Bible. Then you must know the proverb that says a man who answers a matter before he hears it is a fool [Proverbs 18:13]. According to that proverb, you’re being foolish right now!
“I’m the only one qualified to speak on the subject of tongues in this conversation,” I continued. “You’re not qualified to comment unless you’ve spoken with tongues. If you had, you could tell me what Spirit gave you that utterance. But I can tell you right now that it’s the same Holy Spirit. I didn’t receive any strange or new spirit. He is identically the same Spirit I had all the time. When I got filled with the Spirit, I just experienced a greater measure of the Holy Spirit. So if speaking with tongues is of the devil, our entire denomination is of the devil!”
My words shocked this Bible teacher so much that he opened his mouth a time or two but couldn’t think of anything to say!
Of course, that denomination is not of the devil, and neither is speaking with tongues! It’s all of the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongues just opens you up to a deeper dimension of the same Spirit. You can go deeper in God if you want to!
Your Father Will Give You What You Ask For
Now, here’s something I want to get over to you along this line: If you’re a child of God and ask to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit, you’re not going to get something else.
I remember a Bible teacher from another church who had come to my meeting to get filled with the Holy Spirit. Before I prayed for him, he said to me, “Now, Brother Hagin, I’ll just be honest with you ahead of time. I’ve been studying the Bible, and I’ve begun to see that tongues are not of the devil. But I’m still having trouble with it. I guess it’s the way I’ve been taught against tongues for so long. Can you tell me how I can know that I won’t receive the wrong spirit when we pray?”
This man had heard all kinds of stories about people receiving false spirits when they prayed for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. As a young denominational preacher, I had heard all those tales myself before I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit in 1937. But since then, in more than 65 years of preaching among Full Gospel people, I never once saw someone receive a wrong spirit when the person asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit—not one single time.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’ve seen some Spirit-filled folks get in the flesh. But I’d rather have a little wildfire while God is moving than no fire at all! I’d rather have a little disorder than to have the order of a graveyard with nothing happening!
This man wanted to be sure he would receive the Holy Spirit and not some other spirit when we prayed, so I simply read Luke 11:11-13 to him.
LUKE 11:11-13
- If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
- Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
- If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father GIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THEM THAT ASK HIM?
I asked the man, “Do you have any children?”—to which he replied, “Yes.” Then I asked him, “If your son asked you for a fish, would you give him a serpent? Or if he asked you for an egg, would you offer him a scorpion?”
The man replied, “No, of course not.”
“Neither would God,” I told him. “I want to show you what Jesus was actually talking about in this passage. We can find the answer one
chapter earlier in Luke 10:19, where it says, ‘Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions ,and over all the power of the enemy.'”
I continued, “You see, Jesus wasn’t talking about literal snakes or actual scorpions here. He was talking about the power of the enemy! He was talking about demons and evil spirits, and that’s what He called serpents and scorpions.”
This lets us know that Jesus was actually saying, “If a son asks for a fish, will his father give him a serpent (an evil spirit)? Or if he asks for an egg, will his father offer him a scorpion (an evil spirit)?”
Then I said to the man, “You’re a child of God, and that means God is your Father, right?” “Yes,” he said.
“Well,” I said, “Just as you would never give something evil to your children, do you think your Heavenly Father would give you, His child, an evil spirit when you ask Him for His Spirit?”
Do you know what that fellow did when I said that to him? He started laughing—and then he immediately began to speak in tongues! Once he was released from his fear, I didn’t even have to pray with him to receive the Holy Spirit!
He said, “Brother Hagin, if I’d known what you just told me, I could have been talking in tongues long ago!”
That man had been bound up as a result of what he’d heard, missing out on the blessings God had for him. The devil had bombarded his mind with fearful thoughts that he might get the wrong spirit if he prayed for the Holy Spirit’s infilling.
That never has to happen to you, friend. You never have to be afraid to receive the Holy Ghost. But here is what you must always keep in mind: The Word of God will always set you free!
JOHN 8:32
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Jesus didn’t say the truth will bind you. He said the truth of God’s Word will make you free.
There is absolutely no danger—none whatsoever—of a believer receiving the wrong spirit when he asks God to fill him with the Holy Spirit. In fact, I’ll be even plainer about it and say this: If anyone claims he received the wrong spirit when he asked for the Holy Ghost, he lied about it!
To say that Christians can receive a wrong spirit when they ask for the Holy Spirit is saying that Jesus Christ is a partner to a lie. And I would much rather call a person a liar than to call Jesus a liar. As Romans 3:4 says, ” . . Let God be true, but EVERY man a liar…”!
Jesus said, ” How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13). In other words, if you ask for the infilling of the Holy Spirit, that is exactly what you will get!
Living as a Christian in this World 