How to Receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit

When it comes to teaching on how to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, let’s just keep it simple, because God made it simple.

Humankind, churches, denominations, religion, traditions, etc., have complicated it (Did I get everybody in there?).

Just like EVERYTHING else with God, it all comes down to FAITH. Faith in what He clearly states in His word. We shared the below scripture in the previous blog post, Speaking in Tongues Explained: Objections, Evidence, & Its Purpose, but I need to emphasize it again because it so, so, extremely important.

Hebrews 11:6 states, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (emphasis mine) (nkjv)

It does not say it is difficult or hard. It says it is impossible. Not at all possible to please God without faith. This is what we could call ground zero with God. Everything regarding God springs from this. So, what is faith? If it is so vitally important, how do we get it. Hebrews 11:1 is one of the few verses in scripture that literally defines specifically what something is.

“Now faith is the certainty of things hoped (expected) for, a proof (conviction about) of things not seen.” (emphasis mine) (nasb)

We exercise faith in the natural every day without even giving it much thought. Natural faith is based on things we see, feel, touch, etc. The supernatural God kind of faith is based on what we cannot see, feel, touch, etc., yet believe anyway. For example, when we are about to be seated in a chair, we exercise faith that the chair will support us without question, or we will not sit down. We see the chair with our physical eyes, so that emboldens us so to speak. Well, the faith God wants us to exercise is based on what we cannot see, feel, touch, etc., with any of the five natural senses.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight (appearance).” (emphasis mine) (nkjv)

How do we get this God kind of faith?

“…faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” – Romans 10:17 (nkjv)

Please see the section entitled, The Advertising Industry Gets It, in my previous blog post, which explains this Godly principle very clearly. It is very important.

Acts 1:8 says, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (emphasis mine) (nkjv)

Question: To whom is this being addressed?

Answer: The disciples and the rest of the believers. In reading verses 12-15 in this chapter, we find the number of them in the upper room that day were “about one hundred and twenty.”

Misconceptions Are the Biggest Stumbling Block to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit

There are many misconceptions about receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in other tongues. Let’s cover a few of them here.

Misconception #1: The Holy Spirit Will Speak, Not You

This appears to clearly be THE number one stumbling block.

In Acts 2:4, it states, “And THEY were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (ability).” In other words, the urging “to speak out.” (emphasis mine)

“They….began to speak.” It does not say the Holy Spirit began to speak. It clearly states THEY began to speak.

The number one misconception by those who have struggled with receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in another language/tongue is they think the Holy Spirit is going to take over their vocal cords and speak through them like He is some sort of ventriloquist and we are His dummy, so to speak.

NO! We have to speak.

In Acts 2:4, THEY, not the Holy Spirit spoke. In every single account we previously pointed out in the prior two blog posts and will point out, it states “They spoke”, not the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit moved upon them and gave them the utterance or ability, but He did not speak, They spoke. This is extremely important and where most people get bogged down. They think God is going to come upon them and turn us into some type of robot or something.

NO! We have to speak.

This is where FAITH comes in because to speak out what we perceive to be unintelligible words, and believe it is your human spirit being powered by and urge on by the Holy Spirit of God prompting you, takes faith. But, that is no different than everything else with God. It takes faith to believe in God, whom we have not seen, Jesus’ crucifixion when we were not there, His resurrection which we did not see, eternal life, which we really do not know what that is like, etc., etc., etc.

Another thing most people may not be aware of is that there are between 6,500 and 7,100 different languages and dialects on earth today according to Ethnology reports! (worldatlas.com; ethnologue.com) If you and I were to visit some of these countries that speak in a language that is other than our native tongue, we would not have a clue what they were saying. Yet they are effectively communicating with one another. Even in your own country, if you hear someone not native to your country speaking in their native tongue you probably would not understand what they are saying unless you knew that particular language.

The point is, there are literally thousands of unique languages on earth.

1 Corinthians 13:1a says, “If I could speak all the languages of earth (mankind) and of angels, ………” (emphasis mine)

The second part of this number one misconception and is HUGE, is our BRAIN/MIND.

Why would I say that?

Because immediately, and do mean immediately, like in a nanosecond after you utter something out of your mouth that is not your native language and sounds like utter nonsense or vain babbling, our brain will “kick-in” and naturally reject it because it doesn’t understand what it is hearing. Again, this is where FAITH must come to your rescue and shut your brain’s opposition down and let the Word of God override any doubt.

Go to what the Word of God says and focus on that. “They spoke as the Spirit gave them the utterance.”

Now I know that may sound like “brainwashing” to some people, but it is not. It is simply exercising faith in God’s word over a carnal, natural resistance to it. This part is extremely important and where it seems many people give up and lose the battle so to speak. And it is a battle because we live in this natural physical world and when we delve over into the spiritual realm of the things of God, there will be opposition from the enemy. And make no mistake, our carnal, natural, fleshly mind is hostile toward God (Romans 8:7) and must be brought in line with Him based on His Word.

Understand this about praying in other languages. The devil will fight you on this to try and stop you by using doubt. (The same weapon he used on Eve in the garden at the beginning. See Genesis 3:1-5).

We must, “Fight the good fight of faith…….” (1 Timothy 6:12)

Misconception #2: Tongues Are Not for Everyone

If you receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, you should expect to have the same Bible evidence and examples that all the other believers in scripture displayed (Acts 2:4,10:44-46,19:6). (It is also implied in Acts 8:15-18)

The scriptures people use to try to support the position that tongues are “not for everyone” is 1 Corinthians 12:29-30 which states,

“Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” (emphasis mine)

Because the obvious answer to these questions is no, people then conclude tongues are not for everyone. However, if you take one verse or part of one out of context and put it with another verse, you can make the Bible say almost anything you want.

In reading the whole context of this passage in verses 27-30, we find that God, in speaking through the Apostle Paul, is not talking about spiritual gifts here. He already spoke about that in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

The passage in 1 Corinthains 12:27-30 is not talking about spiritual gifts given to individual people. It is talking about ministry gifts given to the “Church”, i.e., Body of Christ, to equip the saints. Ministry gifts are people called to the fivefold ministry and equipped with gifts of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:11-12).

How do we know that?

If we look at the specific offices or titles given in verses 27-30 we find an apostle, a ministry gift, a prophet is a ministry gift, evangelists, pastors and teachers are all ministry gifts. It then goes on to say “….After that miracles, then gifts of healings …(1 Corinthians 12:28). “Miracles, then gifts of healings” is referring to the office of the evangelist.

After the office of the evangelist in verse 28 the helps ministry is stated. The ministry of helps are those people called by God to assist ministers who are called to the fivefold ministry. Then the ministry gift of governments, which refers to the pastoral office that leads the government of the local church. It then lists diversities of tongues.

Notice that “diversities of tongues” is listed with the rest of the ministry offices because it is also a ministry gift. It is saying that God set some, i.e., specific people in the church who have a ministry of diversities of tongues. The ministry gift of diversity of tongues is essentially equivalent to the office of the prophet. It refers to one who is called to minister in the public assembly in tongues and interpretation. There are those who God calls to minister that way. Obviously, not everyone is called to that ministry.

However, every believer could and should receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speak with other languages as the Spirit of God gives the utterance. Those languages are not for the public assembly interpretation in church but are to be used in the believer’s private prayer time with God.

So, the point is, we should not take that question in 1 Corinthians 12:29-30 out of its scriptural context and conclude that “tongues are not for everyone” i.e., believers.

We should always go to God’s Word for the answer to any question or statement being made relative to God. Not the opinion of a particular person, denomination, or traditional belief. The more in line with the Word of God we are, the more accurate we will be in whatever we believe.

1 Corinthians 14:14-15 says,

“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.” (emphasis mine) (nkjv)

We covered this above under misconception #1 but it bares repeating. Who prays, you or the Holy Spirit? It says I will pray. The Holy Spirit helps us pray.

So verse 15 clearly says, “I will” pray with the spirit …..” In other words, it is saying we can will to pray with our spirit just as we can will to pray with our understanding.

As I covered in misconception #1 above, the devil will fight you on this. He does not want you to enter this realm of praying in tongues, in the Spirit, whenever you want to. Why? Because he knows the benefit and value of this more than most believers do. We will cover that next.

The Benefits to Receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and Speaking in Tongues

Benefit #1: Divine Communication with God

In 1 Corinthians 14:2 it says,

“For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.” (emphasis mine) (nkjv)

That word mysteries in the Greek carries the Biblical usage of hidden or secret thing. In other words, divine secrets. We find that word mystery also in 1 Corinthians 2:7-8, which says,

“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (emphasis mine) (nkjv)

In other words, had the carnal people and spiritually blind demons had known about God’s plan of redemption for humankind, they would have never crucified Jesus.

In war, how important would it be to know the enemies’ plans beforehand, and conversely, the enemy not knowing yours? It would be vitally important. A very good example of this is World War II. There was a war, within the actual war, between both sides trying to break each other’s military codes.

Pertaining to 1 Corinthians 14:2, some have argued, what benefit is it to pray in tongues when they don’t understand what they are saying.

Well, the answer to that is two-fold.

1. The devil does not know what you are saying either.
2. What you are speaking is undoubtedly very good divine secret communication with God Almighty. It doesn’t get much better than that.

God, through the Apostle Paul, encouraged believers to continue speaking with other languages/tongues in their private prayer and worship time with the Lord.

Why?

Because 1 Corinthians 14:4 says, “The one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but the one who prophesies edifies the church.” (emphasis mine) (nasb)

Edifies means “to build up.” Tongues are primarily for a believer’s own personal spiritual edification! That is extremely important. It’s huge.

Jude 20 states, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,” (emphasis mine) (nasb)

The Holy Spirit not only knows what God’s will is for us, but He will never lead us away from the Word! (Which is where we could miss it.)

Romans 8:26-27 says,“Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (emphasis mine) (nasb)

In v.26 the word “weaknesses” is often thought to be speaking of physical sickness or disease. But the word “infirmities” from which it is taken, in this context is referring to our shortcomings.

How do we know that? Because the wording right after that in the same verse says, “for we do not know what to pray for as we should,…” Our prayer “weakness” is we don’t always know what we should pray about. There is a difference between WHAT we should pray about and HOW to pray. Both have at least two components to them.

If we need healing, finances, or something specific like that, we do know what to pray for in that respect. However, we don’t know every underlying condition going on behind the scene in the spirit world that may be trying to come against us (Ephesians 6:12).

Also, with respect to praying for someone else, we may know they need prayer but unless they tell us, we don’t know what specifically.

Regarding the how, we do know we are to pray to the Father, in Jesus’ name (John 16:23). But we do not know the future and again, we cannot see into the spirit world and always know specifically how to pray beyond our native language, or a foreign language(s) if someone is multilingual.

Speaking in another language/tongue is not always speaking in someone’s foreign language. That is not the scriptural purpose for tongues. Tongues are a supernatural language given to us by the Holy Spirit so we can talk to God! Sometimes the Holy Spirit may give you an unknown language in tongues. It may be unknown to you (1 Corinthians 14:14), but may not be unknown to others.

1 Corinthians 13:1, says, “If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, …” Usually we speak in heavenly languages when we speak divine secrets to God, but it is also possible to speak in the languages of men.

As stated above under the number one misconception, in order to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues, we have to SPEAK! The Holy Spirit is NOT going to “take over” our vocal cords and speak for or through us like a ventriloquist. This is where our faith comes in. This is critical to understand. It is vitally important and where many people will give up and think it’s not for them. It is, but we have to SPEAK.

I know it sounds too simple or not authentic, but it is that simple and it is authentic. But as also mentioned above, the devil will most certainly fight you on this and attack you with doubt right away. We just have to open our mouth and speak.

A good way to get there is to block out all distractions, focus on God and who He is. His goodness, His mercy, His grace. Just start praising Him until your native language cannot express it adequately enough. The best way I know how to overcome distractions is to press into the Holy Spirit in you, keep on speaking no matter how ridiculous you may think it sounds. A very good way to get there is to focus on God with praise, worship and thanksgiving for who He is and block out, cast down those doubts.

But you have to keep at it. Make it a daily routine. Do it for how ever long you determine. Relax. No pressure. A good way is to listen to your favorite praise and worship song(s) and just praise and thank Him for saving you, etc. You will find the longer you speak in what may seem like gibberish, the more your faith will grow and the less doubt you will have to contend with. Do not let anyone, that includes you yourself, the devil, friends, relatives, NOBODY, talk you out of it. Over time, you will grow in a stronger, deeper measure of faith and understanding of the Word and relationship with God.

There is more that could be said on this subject which space does not allow for in this blog post. I will have a couple video teachings on this to compliment these blog teachings because this is a very important subject. I have presented what to me are some of the most important points in understanding and walking through this experience in a practical way.

God has made it simple for us, but human tendency seems to complicate things because of denominational biases, religion, tradition, cultural differences and the carnal minds’ natural inclination to resist the supernatural.

For those who would like further information on this subject, I recommend two resources that will be helpful.

Andrew Wommack’s book, The New You and the Holy Spirit. (The second part of that book focuses on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.)

Also, Tongues Beyond the Upper Room, a compilation of teachings of Kenneth E. Hagin on this subject.

Maranatha. (Our Lord comes.)