Filled With the Spirit, Speaking in Tongues

This is a post that is sure to stir things up because so many people have been taught such foolishness about these things. Contrary to what you may have been taught, being filled with the spirit has nothing to do with the gifts of the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit means that you exhibit the FRUIT of the Spirit, not the GIFTS of the Spirit. Gal 5:22-23 - "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Unless you exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, you are worthless. It doesn't matter if you have all the gifts of the Spirit,without the fruit of the Spirit you are nothing. If people cannot see the fruit of the Spirit in you, you are nothing but a noisy, clanging cymbal. The gifts of the Spirit are just that - gifts. The Holy Spirit gives them as He wills to give them, to whomever He wants to give them to for His purposes and His purposes alone. 1 Cor 12:7-11 - "Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines."

I would rather have the fruit of the Spirit within me than be given all the gifts of the Spirit. Back in 1984 I attended a little Pentecostal storefront church one Sunday and there was a young guy preaching. My thoughts were that he was preaching just to hear himself speak. He really had nothing of value to say the whole time. After he finished his spiel, he began to minister in the Spirit. He pointed at me and said that I would minister in gifts of prophecy and word of knowledge. I thought "So what, I already do that." As I walked out of the building I remember saying to the Lord "Lord, if they can't see Your love in me, then what good am I? It doesn't matter how many spiritual gifts I have, unless people can see Your love in me, I am worthless." If I am not filled with the fruit of the Spirit, I am a noisy, clanging cymbal.

Yes, the Lord has given me many of the gifts of the Spirit, but they are only to use as He directs me to use them, not as I will. People seeing His love in me is all I really care about.

"When you're filled with the Spirit you'll speak in tongues." How many times have you heard that? It is 100% wrong. "Well, Cliff, when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the Upper Room on the day of Pentecost they spoke in tongues!" Yes, they did. But it was in foreign languages that the people who were outside understood since those people were from many nations and languages. The disciples were preaching the gospel in many different languages that day, languages that they themselves had no knowledge of. Indeed they were speaking in tongues, foreign languages. Because they were preaching in foreign languages that they did not know, but the people outside who were from other nations and languages understood, then many were saved that day. They were not babbling away in a heavenly language that no one understood because that would have done no good.

"Ah, but the Bible says that tongues in the church is for unbelievers." Yes, it is. But the tongue that is spoken of here is a foreign language which unbelievers from another country and language who have just come into the church, will understand and therefore be convicted by it. Use your heads people, if a person comes into a church and hears a bunch of people speaking in a heavenly prayer language, why will they be convicted? They will just think it is a bunch of nuts babbling like fools. There is a proper time and place for everything.

Yes, there is tongues and interpretations, I myself have been the recipient of this.
Back in 1982, a few days after the woman I loved and wanted to marry told me that she didn't love me and couldn't marry me, I was at the church altar crying my eyes out, my heart breaking, when one of the elders and his wife came up to me. One began to speak in tongues, then the other interpreted. The things that I remember the Lord saying to me were "You will be a tower of strength for me, you will lead many men to me, and you will be victorious beyond your wildest dreams." That was not comforting to me at the time, but it was what the Lord wanted me to hear. I have witnessed tongues and interpretation at other times also. In its proper place, it is from the Lord.

Then there is the tongue that the Holy Spirit prays for us in groanings deeper than words. I honestly don't know what this is because I have never experienced it, nor has the Lord revealed to me its meaning.

Then there is the heavenly prayer language that the Lord gives us so that the Spirit can pray through us. This is what many people experience when they are anointed with the gift of tongues and begin to speak in a language that sounds rather strange to them - they mistakenly think this is "being filled with the Spirit", it is not. This is a prayer language that is to be used for that purpose - prayer. I can say, like Paul, that I pray in tongues more than any of you. But it is not something that makes me feel special, nor powerful, nor great. It is something that I do in obedience to the Lord. I can pray in tongues (almost all of my praying in tongues is done silently in my head) while watching a football game, while reading, while driving, while taking a shower. I have no idea what I am praying, nor do I care. But this I do know because the Lord has made it very, very clear to me, my prayers in tongues accomplish much, even though I have no idea what I am praying, and many time for whom I am praying. It is only later that I see a difference in the people whom the Lord has put upon my heart. Most of the time He never shows me the results of my prayers.

As far as messages regarding what the Lord is going to do in the future to the USA, I can only post those when He gives me something to say. If He doesn't give me anything to say about it, I stay silent regarding those things.