I believe the most important thing in life, after believing in Jesus, is being filled with the Holy spirit like pentecostals believe, this is real, not every believer gets filled at believing in Jesus, like in the bible, sometimes we need to seek it, and for me is the meaning of life to have Him like that, he is our creator and he can be guide and friend. He is not like the kings of this earth who don't give even the time of day, but he is more important than any of those, the bible says he wishes us i don't remember the exact word in English, but our creator is such a beautiful person and wants to be our comforter guide and friend, is so awesome but people miss him, for wrong beliefs, like "everyone gets filled at believing" that has to be one of the most damaging beliefs ever.
The first gift that we receive from God is a person, Jesus Christ. The Greek word for "gift" in this case shows that the gift is a person. The next gift that God gives us is another person, the Holy Spirit. The "gifts" of the Holy Spirit are manifestations of the indwelling Holy Spirit. They are the outflow of the Holy Spirit from within us.
Being born is again is when Jesus comes to live within in us by faith. The baptism with the Spirit is when the Holy Spirit comes to live in us, and we receive Him by faith also. In the three references in Acts where the Holy Spirit fell on those who received Christ, tongues was a feature. These are the three times where the infilling of the Holy Spirit is described in detail. When the Apostles heard Peter's testimony of the Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit, they had no doubt that they received it because they spoke in tongues. That was the only way that Peter, and the Apostles knew that these ones had received the Spirit. Tongues is a manifestation of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and is an outflow of the Spirit from our mouth.
Can you imagine an elephant without a trunk? No. The elephant comes with his trunk. Can we know that a person is really filled with the Holy Spirit without them speaking in tongues? This is why the three descriptions in Acts showed that these ones showed they were filled with the Spirit when they spoke in tongues. Try asking your pet cat what the use of tongues is. It can't answer, because it doesn't have a trunk, and knows nothing about elephants. The only ones who can describe the use of a trunk is the elephant itself. In the same way, only those who are baptised with the Spirit and speaking in tongues can show the uses of the manifestation.
Derek Prince tells of praying for a German woman in Berlin for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The woman spoke perfect English, and it was praises to Jesus. The woman had no knowledge of English at all. In a meeting in Tennessee, a woman received the baptism with the Spirit and spoke for an hour in perfect French, having no knowledge of the language. In my own church, a guest from Ghana heard my friend speaking praises to Jesus in his own village dialect, and my friend had never been to Ghana and know nothing of the dialect. I had a personal experience of praying quietly in tongues during a meeting and a NZ Maori friend sitting beside me told me I was speaking encouraging things to her fluently in the Maori Language, and I had no knowledge of that language at the time.
These events absolutely blows the cessationist notions that tongues is not for today, right out of the water!
Of course, we have a type of hyper Charismatic which preaches prosperity, guaranteed healing, and ignores the Gospel involving Jesus dying on the Cross, and has its faith in experiences rather than the Bible and encourages a type of self righteousness. I believe this is counterfeit Charismatic, and the tongues and prophecies come out of this movement are also counterfeit. Unfortunately, prominent cessationists tend to use this false Charismatic as examples why prophecy and tongues is not for today.
