Message from the Monthly Flyer from July 2010

THE EVIDENCE OF THE HOLY GHOST (Part 1) Why did God choose tongues?

He was a deacon in a fashionable church, but he did not believe in the Pentecostal doctrine relative to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Yet he had been exposed to that belief through members of his immediate family. One night, at the close of an evangelistic service in an Apostolic Church, he went forward to pray, and was overwhelmingly filled with the Spirit of God. He spoke in other tongues fluently and was so inundated in the Spirit that even hours later he could not speak English. Definitely, this was a Biblical experience accompanied not only with the speaking in another tongue, but also with the joy and peace of the Holy Ghost.

Millions have experienced this same baptism in the Spirit. Wherever this message is proclaimed concerning the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the question is asked, "Why did God choose speaking in tongues as the initial, physical evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost?" There may be many answers to this question, and I do not claim to know them all. However, some are obvious, and these, all should consider. First, one must recognize the SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. God is not accountable to us for what He chooses to do.

Isaiah asked, "Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding!" (Isa. 40:13, 14). We have no license to question His ways, nor to dispute His actions. His purposes are supreme, His promises sure, His performances sane and sensible. After reading the following scriptures: Isaiah 28:11, 12; Mark 16:17; Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:1-6; Romans 8:15; and Gal. 4:6, anyone with a hungry heart and an open mind will realize that there is a decided connection between speaking with tongues and the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Why did God choose blood as a basis for atonement? Why did God choose water as the element in baptism? Why did God choose gold as the overlaying metal for the ark of the covenant? Why did God choose stone as the material upon which to record the law of Moses? Why did God choose Jerusalem as the site for His Temple? Why did God choose dust out of which to form man? That there is divine purpose and reason behind each of these choices, I am sure we will all agree. We may not understand it all, but we most certainly would never attempt to deny or disavow God's sovereign right to do as He pleases or to choose what he wishes. F.E.K.