Speaking in Tongues

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Kenneth E. Hagin


In this article, Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin shares about the moment he was filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. He also teaches about one of the benefits of doing so.

As I knelt on the living room floor of that Full Gospel parsonage, I just closed my eyes and shut out everything around me, and I lifted my hands to God. No one told me to do it; I just lifted my hands (that’s pretty good for someone who was untaught).

I said, “Dear Lord, I’ve come here to receive the Holy Ghost.” I repeated in my prayer what I had just learned from Acts 2:39 and Acts 2:4. Then I said, “Your Word says that the Holy Ghost is a gift. Therefore, I realize that the Holy Ghost is received by faith. I received the gift of salvation by faith. I received healing for my body three years ago by faith. Now I receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by faith. And I want to thank You now, Heavenly Father, because I receive the Holy Spirit.”

Then I said to the Lord, “By faith, . . . I have now received the Holy Ghost. Thank God, He is in me, because Jesus promised it in His Word. And I say it with my mouth, because I believe in my heart that I have received the Holy Ghost. Now I expect to speak with tongues, because believers spoke with tongues on the Day of Pentecost. And, thank God, I will, too, as the Holy Ghost gives me utterance.”

After I had prayed that, because I was grateful for the Holy Ghost whom I had just received and for the speaking with tongues that God was going to give me, I said, “Hallelujah, hallelujah.” But I had never felt so “dry” in all my life saying that word.

Feelings and faith are far removed from each other; in fact, sometimes when you feel as if you have the least faith, that is when you have the most faith, because you do not base your faith on feelings. So I said “Hallelujah” about seven or eight times, even though it seemed as if that word was going to choke me!

About the time I had said “Hallelujah” seven or eight times, way down inside of me, in my spirit, I heard some strange words. It seemed as if they were just going around and around in there. It seemed to me that I would recognize them if they were spoken, so I just started speaking them out!

So about eight minutes from the time I first knocked on that pastor’s door, I was speaking with tongues! The pastor had said, “Wait.” But instead of waiting, I spent that hour and a half before the church service speaking in tongues! It is much better to wait with the Holy Ghost than to wait without the Holy Ghost!

I believe in waiting on God, of course. We should have tarrying meetings for people who are Spirit-filled. It is more wonderful to tarry and wait in God’s Presence after you’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit than it is to wait in God’s Presence before being filled with the Spirit.

Also, notice that you don’t speak in tongues and then know you have the Holy Ghost. No, you believe you have the Holy Ghost first, and then you speak in tongues. Notice Acts 2:4: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost . . . .” If we stop reading there, we know that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. But if we continue reading, we find, “. . . and [they] began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). Speaking with other tongues was a result of those believers having received the Holy Ghost. You receive the Holy Ghost first; then you speak in tongues.

During that hour and a half that I was speaking in tongues, I had a glorious time in the Lord. You see, speaking in tongues edifies you. First Corinthians 14:4 says, “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself . . . .” Therefore, speaking in tongues is a means of spiritual edification or building up.

Linguists tell us that there’s a word in our modern vernacular that is closer to the meaning of the Greek word translated “edify,” and that is the word “charge.” We charge a battery; we build it up. Jude 20 says, “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.”

In other words, when a person prays in the Holy Spirit, he charges himself up. He builds himself up like a battery that is charged or built up.

Edifying yourself by speaking in other tongues is just one of the many blessings that God has provided through the baptism in the Holy Ghost. And this wonderful blessing, this glorious gift of the Holy Ghost, is available to every born-again believer.

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