Is Speaking in Tongues Evidence that a Believer Has the Holy Spirit?

IS SPEAKING IN TONGUES EVIDENCE THAT THE BELIEVER HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

My view is that speaking in tongues today is not evidence that a person is infilled or controlled by the Holy Spirit. I am persuaded from my study of Scripture that the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 was intended to authenticate the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ during the New Testament church period. The incident recorded in Acts 2:1-13 was therefore a peculiar event that God permitted in the Jerusalem church to facilitate the spreading of the gospel among Gentile people. 

It is instructive that this incident coincided with the Jewish festival of Pentecost, also known as Shavuot. This was the Feast of Weeks, a pilgrimage festival celebrated 50 days after the Passover. It marked the end of the grain harvest and a thanksgiving for the wheat harvest and the first fruits. 

God used the Day of Pentecost to reach out to the Gentile people who attended the feast so that the participant heard the gospel in their own ethnic languages. This incident had been predicted by Jesus when He commanded the disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they received the gift of the Holy Spirit which Jesus describes as "the Promise of the Father" (Acts 1:4). 

There are a few other occasions in the Book of Acts where some Gentile believers spoke in tongues (Acts 10:44-47). Besides the Book of Acts, there is no record in the New Testament Scriptures of an incident or occasion when believers spoke in tongues other than perhaps 1 Corinthians (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:10, 28-30, 14:1-28). 

Paul rebuked the Corinthians for their spiritual immaturity in handling the gift of tongues and prescribed for them some etiquette and decorum (1 Corinthians 14:6-18).

Yes, speaking in tongues under the New Testament church context was evidence that the believer was filled with the Holy Spirit. However, there is considerable debate as to whether this gift continued to be available to the church after the New Testament church period. 

Pentecostal and charismatic groups insist that the gift of tongues has been available to believers in all church ages. They consider the Azusa Street revival of 1905 as evidence of the continuity. Conservative Evangelical traditions generally believe that the gift of tongues ceased after it served God's divine purposes for the church in the New Testament era. 

Evangelicals teach that every born again Christian is under the control and the leading of the Holy Spirit from the moment they turn to Christ and does not require to speak in tongues to authenticate his faith (John 14:15-31). They are firmly indwelt by the Holy Spirit who guides them and reveals the truths of God's word to them (John 14:15-31). 

Evangelicals observe that the sealed cannon of Scripture conveys the mind of God in the preaching of the gospel and that it is sufficient, authoritative, and final on all matter touching on the Christian faith and practice. 

My concluding view is that every true follower of Jesus is a child of God whose name is written in the Lamb's book of life (Revelation 20:11-15). The believer daily feeds on the exhortation of the Holy Scriptures and is indwelt and guided by the Holy Spirit in his journey of faith. The believer's body is the temple of the Holy Spirit Holy (1 Corinthians 6:19). He walks in true fellowship with the heavenly Father and is a witness of God's saving grace in Christ Jesus. 

I am further persuaded that the gift of tongues ceased after the New Testament church period. It served God's purposes for the New Testament church as recorded in the Book of Acts and 1 Corinthians. We do not require tongues to proclaim Christ today. To proclaim Christ crucified, believers do not require the gift of tongues. Instead, they require the holy Scriptures and the illumination of the Holy Spirit who dwells in them. He is the divine superintendent who preserves and illumates the truths that Christ has revealed to us in the Scriptures (2 Timothy 1:14). 

The burden of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ today does not depend on whether a believer speaks in strange tongues. It is anchored on their passion for the Macedonian call - rescuing souls from the sinful world and bringing them to Christ (Matthew 28:19-20) and contending earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3).

Shalom 

© Ezekiel Kimosop 2026