Luke 11:11-13 “If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? (12) Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? (13) If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
The sign of filling the saints with the Holy Spirit so that they can speak with new tongues can also only be performed by the power of God. In the above passage of scripture our Lord Jesus teaches us the truth that we can be assured that our heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. We will discuss the sign of tongues in more detail later in this series, but the main point that I wanted to mention here is that tongues is a language that is given to the spirit of the believer (1 Corinthians 14:14), and Satan has no access to the spirit of the born again believer (1 John 5:18). In other words, the devil has no ability to perform this sign and cannot therefore use his ministers to try deceiving the church through it. And so, we see that the devil has no ability to perform any of the signs which the saints can scripturally expect to take place among them at all times, i.e. casting out demons, healing the sick and filling the saints with the Holy Spirit so that they can speak in tongues. What this means, is that whenever these signs are manifested in the church, the saints can be fully assured that this is the work of the Holy Spirit and not the work of unclean spirits. This also means that it is entirely scriptural for churches to hold healing meetings, which would include deliverance from demonic oppression, i.e. casting out demons. And it is also scriptural for churches to have meetings for the saints to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Michael E.B. Maher
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