Power is missing (more on the gift of tongues)

2 Timothy 3:5 NLT

" They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!"

Over the past century, the modern day pentecostal church movement has been weaned on many biblical "facts".

One of them is a phenomenon called the "infilling" of the Holy Spirit. The arch-advocate of this strand of modern Christian thought is the late Kenneth E. Hagin.

In several books he wrote, he insisted on 2 key phenomena.

1. That in becoming born again, the Holy Spirit plays a role, in bringing the spiritually dead person to life and making a home in the person's heart. This is called the "indwelling" of the Spirit

2. That this "indwelling" is not all of the Holy Spirit that such a born again Christian can have. There is therefore a further dose of the Holy Spirit known as the "infilling" of the Holy Spirit.

He buttresses his point with [1] above described in John 20:22 NLT

" Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit"

Acts 2:3-4 NLT then describes [2] above

"Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability"

Throughout his ministry, brother Hagin consistently identified speaking in tongues as a clear evidence of 2 above, the "infilling" of the Holy Spirit. In other words, His ministry (and that of several protégés and offspring today) revolves around the doctrine that the 1st sign of an "infilling" of the Holy Spirit is the gift of speaking in tongues.

Therefore, according to Kenneth Hagin &  Co, the inability to manifest the gift of speaking in tongues means one does NOT have an "infilling" of the Holy Spirit, and therefore no accompanying power.

Is this view strictly biblical though? Or is it merely biblically contrived?

The first specific biblical mention of being "born again" is done by Christ himself, In John 3:3. Jesus specifies being born again as what can enable the visualization of God's Kingdom.

In verse 5 of the same passage, Jesus went further to specify being "born of water and the Spirit", as what allows entry into God's Kingdom.

There is only one instance of a birth by the Spirit in the above instance. Therefore, as we ascertain from Jesus lips Himself, only one phenomenon of Spirit birth is what enables a man to access God's Kingdom.

In Luke 10:19 NLT Jesus said,

" Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you"

Further down in Luke 24:49 NLT, Jesus told His disciples,

" And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven."

In other words, Jesus first gave his disciples (and other followers) authority, but the power to exercise that authority was delayed till Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to them.

Of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said in John 16:7 NLT,

"But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don't, the Advocate won't come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you"

Who is this Advocate? John 14:16-17 NLT

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.
He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. But you know him, because he lives WITH you now and later will be IN you" (emphasis mine).

The Advocate is the Holy Spirit, and He couldn't come into the world until Jesus ascended into heaven as the sacrificial offering and was accepted by God in heaven. Jesus alluded to being the Holy Spirit in the last sentence of the verse above.

Therefore, in John 20:22 when Jesus breathed on His disciples, and said "receive the Holy Spirit", they couldn't have done so until Jesus had ascended into heaven.

So why did Jesus say so at that time if it wouldn't happen immediately? The reason is because Jesus had to physically give the gift of the Holy Spirit to his disciples before He left.

But they could only receive the gift after he had ascended into heaven!

In Acts 1:7 NLT, Jesus laid in His disciples the secrecy of the timing of events,

"He replied, "The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know"

So the precise date of the release of the Holy Spirit was unknown even to Jesus himself! The apostles only instruction was to wait in Jerusalem till they were filled with the Holy Spirit!

Therefore, before this time, they had not received any part or form of the Spirit. They were "born again" (John 3:3), so they could now begin to understand the purpose of Christ's ministry on earth (which is the Kingdom of God), but they could not yet enter into it (John 3:5), because they had not yet been born of water and the Spirit!

We will agree that not one miracle was performed by Christ's apostles or disciples until after Pentecost. At that event, they gained power, in addition to the authority they had already received earlier from Christ. And it then became evident that they had entered into the kingdom of God by the power they were able to wield.

In Mark 16:17-18 NLT Jesus said,

"These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages.
They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”

These signs which Christ enumerated above are an indication of power. But the verses don't stipulate one attribute over another. They are simply characteristics of believers, those who have accessed God's Kingdom and the power therein.

Apostle Paul said in Romans 14:17 NLT

"For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit"

In other words he also acknowledged that the Kingdom of God is not a place but a lifestyle (I will discuss this in another topic). Suffice it to say that the Coordinator of life in God's Kingdom is the Holy Spirit. He alone distributes spiritual gifts at God's discretion.

True, in the Acts of the Apostles, it was recorded extensively how several believers received the Holy Spirit and indicated this through speaking in tongues. But this cannot be a conclusive reason we should think that only speaking in tongues signifies an infilling or indwelling (we have established  that the two are the same) of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, I close this piece with the question; Where is the power today? Virtually every pentecostal church in the world today is full of "tongue speakers", but how many of them exhibit the power that was evident in the 1st golden era after Pentecost?

Where is the power today?