As far as tongues, I guess I have a lot more pondering and research to do. I still don’t completely get it.

In Acts 2, they spoke in tongues, and it was in the other languages. I’ve heard people say that tongues should only be used to witness to people who speak a different language. That’s crazy. According to Acts 2, they were speaking in other languages (tongues) that they didn’t know, and that caused everyone to stop and say, “What the heck is going on?” (Acts 2:12, Adam Version). It was Peter preaching that witnessed to them.

Also, understand that tongues has been widely misunderstood. There is a distinction between a message in tongues and praying in tongues. A message in tongues is a spiritual gift that is meant to edify someone(s), with an interpretation. A prayer language is also speaking in tongues, but it’s purpose is to edify YOURSELF (1 Cor. 14:4). 2 Purposes.

And the last one: I don’t know, but I doubt you actually received the gift of healing – I think you’re talking about a time you were healed. When you are healed, you don’t receive that spiritual gift of healing — the person praying for you had the spiritual gift of healing (and THEY had the Baptism in the Holy Spirit). That’s what it is talking about. The gift of healing is the supernatural ability to pray for people to be healed, and they are. Oral Roberts is an example of someone who had a gift of healing resting on him (sidebar: I heard that Oral Roberts was ordained through the United Methodist Church). As far as your other examples of folks who had one of the “spirituals” in their life… there are two points I have to say:

1) Remember the spirituals are SUPERNATURAL. Just having wisdom or intuition is not a supernatural thing. The examples you know of people who had a word of knowledge may have just had good intuition or a gut reaction. It may not have been a supernatural word of knowledge, but I don’t know.

2) The Holy Spirit distributes spiritual gifts to anyone AS HE SEES FIT. I do believe that the Holy Spirit can give people who have not received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit a “spiritual.” But experience says this is certainly rare. A better way to say it would be: “The Baptism in the Holy Spirit opens yourself to the spirituals.” (not NECESSARIALLY as a prerequisite.)

First off, I firmly believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, I firmly believe in each of the roles of the Holy Spirit listed in this book. However, I don’t fully understand some things, and I hope this discussion can lead to a better understanding on my part.

The majority of my questions, for now, center on tongues. The primary word for tongues used in Acts is “glossa” (Acts 2:4, 11; 10:46, 19:6) but is furthered described in Acts 2:6 and 2:8 as “dialekto”. Glossa means quite literally the physical tongue, that red thing in your mouth with taste buds, or the “language or dialect spoken by a particular people distinct from that of other nations.” Dialekto means conversation, or “the tongue or language particular to a people.” The term glossa is also used in 1 Corinthians 12-14 (12:10, 28; 13:1, 8; 14:2, 4, 5, 9, 13, 18, 19, 22, 23, 26, 27, 39) and Paul also uses the term “phoneo” in 1 Corinthians 14:10-11. Phoneo means “the sound of uttered words” or speech as in ” a language, tongue.”

So, the words used to describe each of those gifts is the same, basically. In Acts 2 we see that the believers who have been baptized in the Spirit are speaking in other tongues, as the Spirit gives them utterance. They are actually speaking the languages of people from other nations. These foreigners are listening to the believers and are amazed that they can hear the believers in their own languages, and then become believers. These people then go back to their native lands as believers. This supernatural occurrence establishes a worldwide church to spread the good news of Christ. Is this the reason for tongues in 1 Corinthians? If it isn’t, then what is the reason? And if it is a prayer language, then why use a word that means other foreign human languages? Furthermore, why would God give us the ability to speak in Egyptian, for instance, if there are no Egyptians around to edify with this gift? (Any gift of the spirit is for the edification of the body, correct?) Is the speaking in other tongues a sign that these people have been baptized in the Holy Spirit? Is it permanent, or only as long as the Holy Spirit gives them utterance? Why do we not see references to tongues in any churches other than the church in Corinth? To the best of my understanding, the only people in Acts who received the gift of tongues (glossa) that were not mentioned as being in the presence of people who didn’t speak their language was Cornelius household.

So, as you can see, I am full of questions and I would love an answer, or some direction.

I realize that this is a controversial issue. I realize that there must be a degree of faith involved. But, I also know that the Bible is providing us with this info for a reason. But, sadly, I am something of an intellectual and analyze stuff, so I’m stuck right now, and I need a little push to get me going again.

OK, one more question and then I am done. I have personally received the gift of healing, and know several other people who were led by the Spirit in a specific word of knowledge, and neither myself nor these people had the baptism in the Holy Spirit at the time. Was there something going on here? Or was this the work of God?