would be interested to know the doctrines ;as most here seem to be just religious !?
??? Nowhere does Scripture prescribe speaking in tongues as a vital indicator of genuine salvation.
Are you suggesting that those who have not had a moment of speaking in tongues are "just religious"? If so, can you show from God's word the basis for such a suggestion?
Gods response to your token obedience = gives you the Holy Spirit and the signs as in
mark 16v16+ .
This is a commandment, but most here don't seem interested in what Jesus said only a religious show ??
Well, a couple of things to note here: First, the last part of
Mark 16 - from
verse 11 or so to the end of the chapter - are, by various Bible scholars, considered to be a later accretion to the chapter, an addition not part of the original text of the chapter. It might not be a good idea, then, to argue strongly from a section of Scripture under such doubt as to its veracity. Second,
verse 16 describes various signs that will follow those who believe, but the verse does not
prescribe such signs
for all Christians, making the signs essential or necessary to saving faith in the Gospel and genuine salvation.
A description is not necessarily a prescription: describing something doesn't, by itself, constitute making it a command. When one looks at
verse 16, one does not find a prescription, a command to do likewise, or the assertion that such things MUST follow all genuine believers in all times. The verse merely says that such signs will (not absolutely must) follow believers (though, not all believers throughout all time). It is an unwarranted extrapolation from the verse to assert that what is described in the verse is prescriptive for all believer everywhere in all times. The verse doesn't say or imply this.
Joh 4:24 God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.
Joh 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
so according to the word, how to pray in the spirit....
1Co 14:14 For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
1Co 14:2 For he that speaketh in an [unknown] tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth [him]; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
1Co 14:18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:
I'm not clear on why you've offered this selection of verses. Are you assuming that
John 4:24 is referring to tongues-speaking? In context, Jesus's words were addressing the Samaritan doctrine (to which the woman at the well referred) that mount Gerizim in Samaria was the proper place of worship for the Jews rather than Jerusalem. Jesus indicated that geography, a physical location, wasn't key to worship of God but, rather truth and spirit. His exchange with the woman had nothing at all to do with speaking in tongues.
And
John 17:17? Talking about his disciples, Jesus said the following:
John 17:14-22
14 "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
16 "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
18 "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
19 "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
20 "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
22 "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;
What "word" is Jesus speaking of in
verse 17? Tongues? No, he is referring to
his teaching of them (
vs. 14).
Verse 20, then, is not indicating that, through tongues-speaking, the disciples will cause others to believe, but through the sharing of
the teaching - the word - of Christ. This is exactly what happens in
Acts 2. Filled with the Spirit, the gathered disciples immediately go out into the street and begin to preach the Gospel - the teachings, or word, of Christ - to those they encounter. Each person hearing the the word of Christ, the Gospel, preached by the disciples, hears it in their own mother tongue, however. The "tongues" of the disciples were not nonsensical babbling, an indecipherable tumult of noise, but a translation of the teachings of Christ to all those who heard the disciples' words.
1 Corinthians 14:14? Is Paul mandating speaking in tongues for all believers in all times?
1 Corinthians 14:8-19
8 For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?
9 So also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.
10 There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of languages in the world, and no kind is without meaning.
11 If then I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me.
12 So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.
13 Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.
14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
15 What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.
16 Otherwise if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the "Amen" at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying?
17 For you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified.
18 I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all;
19 however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.
In all that Paul wrote in this passage, there is not one
command, no prescription, to
all believers to speak in tongues. Why would Paul give such a command when he had written earlier in his first letter to the Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 12:9-11
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.
11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
Paul does NOT say here that
all believers are given all of the same spiritual gifts. Rather, the Spirit distributes the various gifts "to each one individually as He wills." And so, Paul also wrote:
1 Corinthians 12:30
30 All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?
Paul not only stipulated that tongues-speaking is the spiritual gift of
some, but, in the passage from
chapter 14 above, that it is far more important to speak in a manner that edifies the Body of Believers, in
a manner that is comprehensible, than to speak ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. Taken together, Paul's comments on tongues in the two chapters I've offered, do not support a "tongues for all" doctrine and certainly not a "tongues prove you're saved" belief.
So, looking at your selection of verses I don't see anything that supports the notion that speaking in tongues is
essential to salvation and/or an experience of the Holy Spirit. Tongues certainly don't place a person spiritually above those who don't speak in tongues.