Filled With The Holy Spirit

Filled with the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost

ACTS 2:1-4 ( NIV)

2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.

Acts 2:37-41

(NIV)

37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day

Tom Rohr of Rogers, AR is praying and then it happened. Surrounded by other voices, his mouth began to move on its own, and a form of speech — what Rohr calls his "prayer language" — came out.

The 2000 Charismatic Catholic Conference in Springdale was Rohr's first attempt to speak in tongues, but it filled him with peace, and he felt God's love, he said. "Speaking in tongues was something that in¬trigued me but not something I felt I needed really," he said. "It wasn't something I would consciously pray for." Now Rohr uses his prayer language daily, of¬ten silently to speak with Jesus.

"I really feel like it's made me grow closer to Jesus because I've extended my trust. When I pray in my prayer language, I really don't know who it's for or what it's for, but I get a sense that I am being very effective in my prayer."

In Christian churches all over the world, speaking in tongues — or glossolalia — is prac¬ticed fervently by many who, like Rohr, con¬sider it an integral part of their faith.

Sociologist Margaret M. Poloma, a professor at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio, and author of Main Street Mystics (due out next month from Rowan & Littlefield, $26.95), has studied the phenomenon for two decades. She said speaking in tongues is a mystical experi¬ence that brings one into a deep connection with God.

"I think people are hard-wired for these types of religious experiences," she said. "Religion has codified religious experience,

and this is different. It's a mystical experience. "For many people, it's very meditative. I think it can be very therapeutic, very cathartic."

Glossolalia is a central part of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements, which now have 500 million followers worldwide, according to David Berret, editor of the World Christian Encyclopedia.

The movements share very similar theolo¬gies, but charismatics typically belong to an¬other Christian denomination or are nonde¬nominational and use the term charismatic to avoid confusion with formal Pentecostal church¬es, such as Assembly of God, said Poloma.

Modern glossolalia traces its roots to a Pen¬tecostal church that came to public attention in 1906 through the Apostolic Faith Mission on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, a congregation that ministered to the socially and financially oppressed in the area.

As glossolalia spread across the country, it was viewed with fear or disdain by more tra¬ditional churches for decades. But by the 1960s, it was beginning to be practiced in mainstream congregations.

Still, some traditional church members called it dangerous emotionalism, a distraction from God. Others called

it heresy. But for those who practiced glossolalia, they said it was a return to the earliest Christian experience.

Using a private "prayer language" to speak directly to God is one of three types of glos¬solalia, as it is understood in Pentecostal or charismatic theology, explained Bob Fant, pas¬tor of First Assembly of God in Springdale.

What Rohr experienced at the conference might have been a second form of glossolalia, where speaking in tongues is the initial sign of rebirth in the Holy Spirit, Fant said.

A third form of glossolalia involves a mes¬sage being delivered and requires an interpreter, either the speaker himself or another, to explain "It says in the Bible in [1 Corinthians 14:27-28] that if the message is given in tongues then there should be an interpreter and if there is not, then they should really just stay quiet," he said.

In his own services, Fant said he's sure to give a short expla¬nation of what speaking in