A teaching series in seven parts. This is the overview — start here, then read the parts in order.
There is a lot of confusion about the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. Most of it comes from listening to people instead of reading the Bible. So this teaching is built on the text. I will point you to the scriptures as I go, and I want you to look them up — don't take my word for it, take God's. If you are not used to reading much Bible, let this be the start of something new.
But I will tell you one more thing plainly. This is not only theory to me. There are subjects where all a person can honestly do is read carefully and reason. This is not one of them — not for me. I have prayed in tongues for many years. I have laid my hands on the sick and watched God heal them in front of me. I have followed the leading of the Spirit when being wrong would have cost me dearly, and found that it was Him. So when I say these things are real and that they are for you, I am not passing on a doctrine I read about. I am telling you what I have walked in. Read the scriptures — and then go find out for yourself.
The short version
If you read nothing else, read this.
The Holy Spirit is God Himself, come to live inside you — and, unlike in the Old Testament, come to stay. What Jesus did on the cross made you righteous enough to be His dwelling place.
There are two distinct works of the Spirit, and mixing them up is where most confusion begins. First you are born again — born of the Spirit — which gives you a new nature and brings you into the Kingdom. Then you are baptized in the Spirit, which clothes you with power. Together with water baptism these form what I call the threefold cord of salvation: born again, baptized in water, baptized in the Spirit.
Speaking in tongues is not one single thing — and treating every verse about tongues as if it were is the root of half the arguments. There is the sign of real languages at Pentecost; there is the private prayer language, which is Godward and builds you up; and there is tongues-with-interpretation in a meeting, which functions like prophecy. The private prayer language is where you stop leaning on your own mind and learn to draw from the Spirit — and that is for every believer.
Does everyone speak in tongues? No. Should everyone? Yes, preferably. Tongues is a proof of the baptism in the Spirit, and it is for everybody — God does not play favorites. The gifts have not stopped; people are still empowered, still healed, still speak in tongues today. And you do not need to fear that seeking this will open you to something dark: the Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him, not a counterfeit. And hold it all in proportion: tongues is essential, but love is greater — the gift is never the point.
That is the whole teaching. The rest is the scripture behind it.
