jeremiah1five
Member
Hello Yeshua1.
There is no 'second act of grace.'
Tongues, apostles, prophets, everything God began on Pentecost with the Advent of the Holy Spirit is alive and well today in a Biblical Church. But not all church-fellowships is a Biblical church. There is criteria for recognizing a Biblical Church. The first one is the Holy Spirit in you:
Romans 8:16 (KJV)
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
So, if you enter a church when they are gathered and there is no 'witness' then there is a possibility - a very good possibility - the Holy Spirit is not there.
[but there must be knowledge and wisdom in such a case hand in hand with the Spirit bearing no witness in you.]
When a person becomes saved/born-again it is the Holy Spirit that regenerates, 'baptizes/immerses' 'you' into the Body of Christ and God places you into the Body of Christ in a function (apostle, prophet, pastor, etc.), you receive your spiritual gifts at that moment in order to fulfill that call and ministry to the Body of Christ - not necessarily to the world for all the gifts of the Holy Spirit of God are given to be used in fellowship (but that is not written in stone) and to be used to grow the other believers with whom you have to do, but when first saved there may or may not be tongues depending on the Wisdom and Will of God for that person.
So, there 'you' are. A newbie. A neophyte. But a child of God and the Holy Writ of God now applies to 'you' as God begins to grow you in Christ and conform you into the image of Christ. Some new Christians may backslide in a few months or a few years, return to their old life, God may at His perfect timing bring that believer back into the fold, and backslide again and may do this over the course of TIME several times, but each TIME the person backslides they return stronger, more knowledgeable, more experienced, and more mature. But the Holy Spirit has NEVER left the new believer and a person DOES NOT 'lose' their salvation. Their fellowship with God may be strained from the human stand-point (God is never strained by our sin or return/backsliding back into the sin He's delivered us from.) God has ever seen His Elect as 'saved,' holy, righteous, sin-less for that is how He contemplated His Elect in His Mind in Trinity when He first contemplated us), but we never 'lose' our salvation.
Depending on the place in the Body and the call placed upon the new Christian God needs to raise that child of God in His Word and at the appointed TIME the Holy Spirit may manifest Himself in the believer and he/she may speak in tongues. After all, what God began on the Day of Pentecost He continues to this day until Christ returns and these 'things' or manifestation of the Holy Spirit will no longer be necessary for we will be with Christ and all has been said and done in the history of man.
I know a man who spoke in tongues in a room filled with unbelievers while in prayer with a couple of other men in that fellowship 17 years after he had been born-again. Several days later the interpretation came and it was the Scripture the man was speaking when he spoke the tongue. The interpretation was Scripture and it revealed to that believer who he was in the Body of Christ and his call. A couple of years later in church fellowship he spoke in tongues again in congregation and the pastor gave the interpretation which was the revealing of the spiritual gifts the Lord had given that person in order to accomplish his call.
What I am getting at is that once a person is born of God that person never 'loses' that salvation as the Promise of Christ that "I will NEVER leave 'you' nor forsake 'you'" kicks in and that person is now under direct instruction and command of God Himself. That child of God has to mature and that takes TIME. And God in His knowledge and wisdom WILL raise His kids as He sees fit and if tongues is a part of that growth then who are we to oppose God in His Fatherhood in raising His children? As I like to say, "Once a son, ALWAYS a son." There is no way in this universe that God (or the person) can un-son themselves from the parentage of God. His Seed (DNA) is in "you.' Just as the man that provided the sperm towards your natural birth can never say, "you are not my son."
God ordained in Genesis the following...
Genesis 1:12 (KJV)
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:21 (KJV)
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
One is either born into the world a sheep or a goat. We are not born into the world saved, meaning born into the world a goat and years later become born-again and now we are sheep. You follow?
If our names are in the book of life of the lamb slain from [BEFORE] the foundation (creation) of the world, then we are sheep, we are born into the world as sheep - although oblivious to God and His Christ - and when we are born-again we continue to be sheep but now in TIME we have a Shepherd who raises us in everything appointed to the person to become in Christ, as the song says, "In HIS time..."
Everything God began on Pentecost continues to this day and man - Christian or no Christian - does not have any authority to say, "THAT [tongues or apostles] ended on such and such day."
I hope this helps.