A more comprehensive article (available here) looks at the question: Is baptism in the Holy Spirit accompanied by speaking in tongues? And a second question that accompanies the first: What is the meaning of speaking in tongues? The following is a brief conclusion of the article.
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Conclusion: Where does the “speaking in tongues” fit, or what is the meaning of speaking in tongues with regard to the baptism in the Holy Spirit:
Speaking in tongues is not a sign of baptism in the Holy Spirit, it is, as has already been said, more than that. Speaking in tongues is the spontaneous and accompanying response of the believer to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. It is the physical expression of the “overflow”, of the “streams of living water”. A continuous flow of the presence of the Creator God in action in the believer during and after the experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit. It is the believer’s spontaneous surrender to and the concrete and observable working of the Spirit of God in his life. This experience and process is described in the Bible as talking to God about “mysteries”: the truth and experience of God’s indescribable omnipotence and intense close love, which is beyond human comprehension or understanding. A participation of the believer through and with the Spirit who takes him on a journey from slave to child of God, to coheir with Christ. Speaking in tongues is nothing less than a participation in the power and glory of the risen Christ on the throne.
It’s not about speaking in tongues per se, the dialect or about being loud or soft. It may never become a cult, a holy sacrament, or a proof of a believer’s holiness before God. It is communication with God in which the believer is inspired. A concrete communication in words and about truths, a way of meditation that can sometimes be whispers between God’s Spirit and people’s spirit. Sometimes it is loud and clear, depending on the content being communicated: it may be a battle with evil in which the intensity of the struggle will become clear. Sometimes it is an accompaniment in awe and exuberant ecstasy when God’s greatness and love are experienced. Sometimes it is accompanied by sadness when it comes to talking about one’s own shortcomings or when interceding for people in need. The believer becomes a true partner and must consciously experience the content of the communication himself. God and man en route in the most concrete way, hand in hand, but it is God who sets the agenda and lets his will be done. Speaking in tongues, just like God and everything God does for the believer, should not be foreign to the believer, but rather be part of his daily walk with God, because the “in you” the Bible talks of, is too close and the need for knowledge and the experience of God and his calling is too great.
What is important is the believer’s surrender, coexistence, conversation, and the consequent change that is experienced. He – although part of a secular world captured by a rational and sensory perceptible worldview – must make himself at home in the strange world of the Spirit with an insatiable thirst for the living water that Jesus gives. There must never be haste when speaking in tongues, but deliberate surrender, in order to come to a meaningful understanding, “…the trumpet must give a clear call…” (1 Cor 14: 8). Even if there is no audience present that needs an interpreter to understand the tongues, the believer who speaks to God in the mystery of the Spirit must understand, experience, change, and be built by the conversation. It becomes “private prophecy” between God and a believer but may never be privatised to one’s own interests or reduced to evidence. It should always be about the great deeds, plan, and love of God for all people. It is important in the history of redemption: It is part of all of God’s saving act in Jesus and is not a truth created by the Pentecostals or their property, nor is it a truth that may be considered optional. These are end-time events promised by God the Father and made possible by Jesus; most likely the key to revival.
Watch or listen to a reading of the full article, or read it yourself.
It is a very interesting article. Wish to see more of this kind