Aineo wrote:hisway, I praise God you have found true freedom from gay life. However, speaking in tongues is not the only sign of being baptized in the Holy Spirit. God works differently in each of us and the Holy Spirit gives gifts as He pleases not on demand.
In reply to Aineo:
So often I've heard it said that a person is first "converted" and then afterwards they may be filled with the Spirit (Speaking in tongues) as an extra blessing and/or optional gift. But what that amounts to is that a person receives the Spirit twice. A person cannot be born of the Spirit twice anymore than they can be physically born twice. A backslider can be forgiven and renewed in Spirit, but not re-born. In natural birth, conception preceeds the birth. In the spiritual new birth its the same. That is, when a person believes in Jesus and turns from their sin under conviction they are like a seed in conception. They then must carry on to obey the terms of the Gospel - Acts 2:38 to be born again. Many confuse the conviction (conception) with the conversion (new birth). For example, Apostle Paul was convicted on the Damascus road, not converted. He was converted three days later, when he received the Holy Ghost -Acts 22:16. This is exactly what happened to me. In my own experience it was nine months from when I first believed and repented to when I got baptized. But tragically many who are conceived (convicted) are not converted (baptized with the Holy Ghost). They have been convicted of sin by the Spirit, but have not continued to conversion.
Furthermore, the Scriptures declare the necessity of speaking in tongues as: the sign of true "spiritual rest" (Isa 28:11,12), as the way God's people must "call upon His Name" (Zeph 3:9), a sign to the unbeliever of God's real presence (1Cor 14:22), as the way of building up ourselves in prayer (Romans 8:26,27; 1Cor 14:4; Jude: 20). Moreover, Jesus said it is a sign which "follows them that believe" (Mark 16:17) and a sign that comes with a "sound" that is evident in every case of new birth experience(John 3:1-8). Notice how Jude ties in "praying in the Holy Ghost" ie "speaking in tongues" in verse 20, with "mockers, in the last time, -"having not the Spirit" in verses 18 and 19. Indeed, most people will not have the faith to believe in the evidence of "speaking in tongues".
"In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that they will not hear me, saith the Lord" (1Cor: 14:21)