Paul’s rhetorical question, “All do not speak with tongues, do they?” (1 Cor. 12:30) to which the obvious answer is “No,” must be harmonized with the rest of the New Testament. His question is found within the context of his instruction about the spiritual gifts, which are all manifested only as the Spirit wills (see 1 Cor. 12:11). Paul was specifically writing about the spiritual gift of “various kinds of tongues” (1 Cor. 12:10) which, according to Paul, must always be accompanied by the spiritual gift of the interpretation of tongues. This particular gift could not have been what the Corinthians were always manifesting in their church, as they were speaking in tongues publicly without there being any interpretation. We should ask, Why would the Holy Spirit impart the gift of tongues to someone in a public assembly without giving someone the gift of interpretation? The answer is that He wouldn’t. Otherwise, the Holy Spirit would be promoting something that is not God’s will.

The Corinthians must have been praying in tongues out loud during their church services, without there being any interpretation. Thus, we learn that speaking in tongues has two different uses. One is praying in tongues, which Paul said should be done privately. That usage of speaking in tongues is not accompanied by interpretation, as Paul wrote, “My spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful” (1 Cor. 14:14). Obviously, Paul didn’t always know what he was saying when he spoke in tongues. There was no understanding on his part; neither was their interpretation.

There is also, however, a use of speaking in tongues that is for the public assembly of the church, which is always accompanied by the gift of the interpretation of tongues. That occurs when the Holy Spirit moves upon someone as He wills, giving him that gift. That person speaks out publicly, and then there is an interpretation given. God, however, doesn’t use everyone like that. That is why Paul wrote that not all speak in tongues. Not all are used by God in the sudden, spontaneously-given gift of tongues, just as God doesn’t use everyone in the gift of the interpretation of tongues. That is the only way to reconcile Paul’s rhetorical question, “All do not speak with tongues, do they?” with the rest of what Scripture teaches.

I can speak in tongues any time I desire, just as Paul could. So obviously neither Paul nor myself would say that whenever we speak in tongues it is “only as the Spirit wills.” It is as we will. So what we are doing whenever we desire cannot be the gift of speaking in tongues that only occurs “as the Spirit wills.” Furthermore, Paul, like me, spoke in tongues privately without understanding what he was saying, so that cannot be the gift of tongues of which he wrote in 1 Corinthians, which he said would always be accompanied by the gift of the interpretation of tongues.

It is only on rare occasions when I’ve spoken in tongues in a public assembly. That is only when I’ve sensed the Holy Spirit move upon me to do so, although I could (just like the Corinthians were doing) pray in tongues out loud anytime I wanted to in church without there being any interpretation. When I’ve sensed the Holy Spirit move upon me with that gift, there has always been an interpretation that has edified the body.

In conclusion, we must interpret the Bible harmoniously. Those who conclude, because of Paul’s rhetorical question found in 1 Corinthians 12:30, that not all believers should speak with other tongues, are ignoring many other scriptures that do not harmonize with their interpretation. Because of their error, they are missing a great blessing from God.

The fourth mention of believers being baptized in the Holy Spirit is found in Acts 10. The apostle Peter had been divinely commissioned to preach the gospel in Caesarea to the household of Cornelius. As soon as Peter revealed that salvation is received through faith in Jesus, his entire Gentile audience immediately responded in faith, and the Holy Spirit fell upon them:

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 10:44-48a).

In this case, it seems as if the members of Cornelius’ household, who became the first Gentile believers in Jesus, were born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit simultaneously.

If we examine the surrounding scriptures and study the historical context, it is apparent why God didn’t wait for Peter and his fellow believers to lay hands on the Gentile believers to receive the Holy Spirit. Peter and the other Jewish believers had great difficulty believing that Gentiles could even be saved, much less receive the Holy Spirit! They likely would never have prayed for Cornelius’ household to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, so God sovereignly acted. God was teaching Peter and his companions something about His marvelous grace toward Gentiles.

What convinced Peter and the other Jewish believers that Cornelius’ household had genuinely received the Holy Spirit? Luke wrote, “For they were hearing them speaking with tongues” (Acts 10:46). Peter declared that the Gentiles had received the Holy Spirit just as the one hundred and twenty had on the day of Pentecost (see 10:47).

When a person’s spirit is reborn, his soul initially remains essentially unaffected (other than the fact that he has made a decision in his mind to follow Jesus). God, however, expects that we do something with our souls once we become one of His children. Our souls (minds) should be renewed with God’s Word so that we think as God wants us to think. It is through the renewing of our minds that a continued outward transformation is wrought in our lives, causing us to become progressively more like Jesus:

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom. 12:2, emphasis added).

James also wrote of the same process in the life of the believer:

In humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls (Jas. 1:21b).

Notice that James was writing to Christians—people who already had their spirits reborn. But they needed to have their souls saved, and it would only happen as they humbly received the “word implanted.” This is why new believers must be taught God’s Word.

Can we say with certainty that all those who have never spoken in tongues have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit? Personally, I don’t think so.

I’ve always encouraged people to expect to speak in tongues when I’ve prayed for them to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and probably 95% of them have within seconds of my praying for them. It would amount to thousands of people over the years.

I would never say, however, that a Christian who has prayed to be baptized in the Spirit and who hasn’t spoken in tongues is not baptized in the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit baptism is received by faith and speaking in tongues is voluntary. If I have an opportunity, however, to share with a believer who has prayed to be baptized in the Spirit but who has never spoken in tongues, I first show that person all the scriptures in the book of Acts on the subject. Then I also show that believer how Paul wrote that he was in control of when he spoke or did not speak in tongues. Like Paul, I can speak in tongues any time I desire, and thus I could decide, if I desired, to never speak in tongues again. That being so, I could conceivably have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and never spoken in tongues in the first place by not cooperating with the Spirit’s utterance.

So again, when I have the opportunity to share with a Christian who has prayed in faith for the baptism in the Holy Spirit but who has never spoken in tongues, I don’t tell him (nor do I believe) that he isn’t baptized in the Holy Spirit. I simply explain to him how speaking in tongues is not something that the Holy Spirit does apart from us. I explain that the Holy Spirit gives the utterance, but that we must do the speaking, just as when one speaks in his known language. Then I encourage that person to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and begin to speak in tongues. Almost without exception, all of them soon do.

After their new birth, Christians soon discover that they are two-natured people, experiencing what Paul calls the war between “the Spirit and the flesh”:

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please (Gal. 5:17).

The residue of the old, sinful nature that remains Paul refers to as “the flesh.” These two natures within us produce different desires, which, if yielded to, produce different actions and lifestyles. Notice the contrast Paul makes between the “deeds of the flesh” and “the fruit of the Spirit”:

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law (Gal. 5:19-23).

Obviously it is possible for Christians to yield to the flesh; otherwise Paul would not have warned them that if they make a practice of following the flesh, they will not inherit God’s kingdom. In his letter to the Romans, Paul also wrote of the two natures of every Christian and warned of the same consequence of yielding to the flesh:

And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness….So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Rom. 8:10, 12-14, emphasis added).

This is clearly a warning to Christians. Living (that would indicate a regular practice) according to the flesh results in death. Paul must have been warning about spiritual death, because everyone eventually dies physically, even Christians who “putting to death the deeds of the body.”

A Christian might temporarily fall into one of the sins that Paul listed; but, when a believer does sin, he’ll feel convicted and hopefully repent. Anyone who confesses his sin and asks God’s forgiveness will, of course, be cleansed (see 1 John 1:9).

When a Christian sins, it doesn’t mean he has broken his relationship with God-it means he has broken his fellowship. He is still God’s child, but he is now God’s disobedient child. If the believer doesn’t confess his sin, he places himself in a position to be disciplined by the Lord.

If you’ve found yourself desiring to do things that you know are wrong, then you’ve experienced the “desire of the flesh.” No doubt you’ve also discovered that when you are tempted by the flesh to do wrong, something on the inside of you resists that temptation. That is “the desire of the Spirit.” And if you know the feeling of conviction that comes on the inside of you when you yield to temptation, then you recognize the voice of your spirit, which we call our “conscience.”

God knew full well that our fleshly desires would tempt us to do wrong. That is not an excuse, however, for us to justify yielding to the desires of the flesh. God still expects us to act in obedience and holiness and to overcome the nature of the flesh:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh (Gal. 5:16).

There is no magical formula for overcoming the flesh. Paul simply said that we should “walk by the Spirit,” and we “will not carry out the desires of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). No Christian has any advantage over any other Christian in this area. To walk after the Spirit is simply a decision we each must make, and our devotion to the Lord can be measured by the degree we do not yield to the desires of the flesh.

Paul similarly wrote:

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Gal. 5:24).

Notice Paul says that those who belong to Christ have (past tense) crucified the flesh. That happened when we repented and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We crucified the sinful nature, deciding to obey God and resist sin. So now it is not a matter of crucifying the flesh, but of keeping the flesh crucified.

It isn’t always easy to keep the flesh crucified, but it is possible. If we will act upon the leadings of the inward person rather than yield to the impulses of the flesh, then we will manifest the life of Christ and walk in holiness before Him.

There is one word that best describes the nature of our recreated spirits, and that word is Christ. Through the Holy Spirit, who has the identical nature as Jesus, we actually have the nature of Jesus living inside us. Paul wrote, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

Because we have His ability and nature in us, we have the wonderful potential to live like Christ. We don’t really need more love, patience, or self-control—we have the most loving, patient, self-controlled Person living in us! All we need to do is allow Him to live through us.

We all have one major adversary, however, who fights against the nature of Jesus, hindering it from manifesting itself through us; and that is our flesh. No wonder Paul said we must crucify our flesh. It is our responsibility to do something with our flesh, and it’s a waste of time to ask God to do anything about it. Paul, too, had troubles with his fleshly nature, but he took responsibility and overcame it:

I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified (1 Cor. 9:27).

You, too, will have to make your body a slave of your spirit if you want to walk holy before the Lord. You can do it!

When people repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they are “born again.” What exactly does it mean to be born again? That is what this chapter is all about.

In order to understand what it means to be born again, it helps to first understand the nature of human beings. Scripture tells us that we are not just physical, but also spiritual beings. For example, Paul wrote,

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thes. 5:23; emphasis added).

As Paul indicated, we can consider ourselves to be three-part beings consisting of spirit, soul and body. Scripture does not precisely define those three parts, so we do our best to differentiate between them by our understanding of the words themselves. We usually conclude that our body is our physical being—the flesh, bones, blood and so on. Our soul is our intellectual and emotional being—our mind. Our spirit is obviously our spiritual being, or as the apostle Peter describes him, “the hidden person of the heart” (1 Pet. 3:4).

Because the spirit is invisible to the physical eye, unregenerate people tend to discredit its existence. The Bible, however, is very clear that all of us are spiritual beings. Scripture tells us that when a person dies, it is only his body that ceases to function, while his spirit and soul continue to function as always. At death, they vacate the body (as one) to stand judgment before God (see Heb. 9:27). After judgment, they go to heaven or hell. Eventually every person’s spirit and soul will be reunited with his or her body at its resurrection.

Paul described what it means to be spiritually dead in Ephesians 2:1-3:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest (emphasis added).

Paul was obviously not referring to physical death because he was writing to physically alive people. Yet he said they were once “dead in their trespasses and sins.” It is sin that opens the door to spiritual death (see Rom. 5:12). Being spiritually dead means having a sinful nature in your spirit. Notice Paul said that they were “by nature children of wrath.”

In addition, being spiritually dead means possessing, in some sense, Satan’s very nature in your spirit. Paul said that those who are spiritually dead have the spirit of the “prince of the power of the air” working in them. The “prince of the power of the air” is no doubt the devil (see Eph. 6:12), and his spirit is working in all of those who are unsaved.

Jesus, speaking to unregenerate Jews, said,

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).

From a spiritual standpoint, those who are not born again not only have Satan’s nature residing in their spirits, but Satan is their spiritual father as well. They naturally act like the devil. They are murderers and liars.

Not all unsaved people have committed murder, but they are motivated by the same hatred as murderers, and they would murder if they could get away with it. The legalization of abortion in many countries proves that fact. Unsaved people will murder even their own unborn babies.

This is why a person must experience a spiritual rebirth. When one does, that sinful, satanic nature is removed from his spirit and is replaced with God’s holy nature. God’s Holy Spirit comes to reside in his spirit. He is no longer “spiritually dead” but is made “spiritually alive.” His spirit is no longer dead but alive unto God. Instead of being a spiritual child of Satan, he becomes a spiritual child of God.

In 1 Peter 3:4, Peter referred to the spirit as the “hidden person,” indicating that the spirit is a person. Paul, too, referred to the spirit as the “inner man,” indicating his belief that the human spirit is not just a concept or a force, but a person:

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16; emphasis added).

The “outer man” obviously describes the physical body, whereas the “inner man” defines the spirit. While the body grows older, the spirit never ages because it is eternal.

Notice again that Paul refers to both body and spirit as men. So when you imagine your spirit, don’t imagine a spiritual cloud. It is better to imagine a person with a form who looks like you. If your body is old, however, don’t think that your spirit looks old. Imagine how you looked in the prime of your life because your spirit has never grown older! It is renewed day by day.

Your spirit is the part of you that is born again (if you have believed in the Lord Jesus). Your spirit is joined with God’s Spirit (see 1 Cor. 6:17), and He is the one who guides you as you follow Jesus (see Rom. 10:14).

The Bible teachers that God is also a spirit (see John 4:24), and so are angels and demons. They all have forms and they all exist in the spiritual realm. The spiritual realm, however, cannot be perceived with our physical senses. Attempting to contact the spiritual world with our physical senses would be comparable to trying to feel radio signals with our hands. We cannot perceive with our physical senses that radio waves are traveling through a room, but that doesn’t prove there are no radio waves present. The only way to tune in to the radio frequencies is to turn on a radio.

This is also true of the spiritual realm. Just because the spiritual realm can’t be perceived with the physical senses does not disprove its existence. It does exist, and whether people realize it or not, they are part of the spiritual realm because they are spiritual beings. They are either spiritually related to Satan (if they have not repented) or spiritually related to God (if they are born again). Some spiritualists have learned how to relate to the spiritual world through their spirits, but they are contacting the realm of Satan’s domain—the kingdom of darkness.