getting the holy spirit

I joined this forum tonight so that I can ask a question that's been bugging me for the last year. If I don't speak in tongues does this mean I have not had a baptism of the Holy Spirit? (I got water baptized in Israel last year). And how do you know for sure if you've got it?I've been a Christian for 3 1/2 years after having been a New Ager for 42 yrs?

You receive the Holy Spirit in the same way you
receive Christ. HE glorifies and reveals Christ
to you; He counsels and teaches and ministers
grace to us. You know and experience Christ as
a living, real, and true Savior, a personal
Lord. You need to understand the Spirit in the
same way, as a living, real, true personal
Spirit!! GOD is Spirit, and He desires for you
to be filled with the Spirit, led by the Spirit,
and to walk in the Spirit!!

Ok. If I understand that correctly then since Jesus is totally real for me for the last 3+ years,I always talk to him and believe he's physically present then I must be being led by the Holy Spirit right? But does it mean I've got less Holy Spirit because I don't speak in tongues? I feel really stupid asking such basic questions but I figured I might get some answers here.
Many Thanks

YES, YES!! If Jesus is living and real to you
and you sense HIS presence near you and with
you, you have the Spirit of the LORD! Is there
peace in your heart?? Is there joy in your life??
Those are the fruits and the evidence of the
Spirit.

No, you are not any less a Christian because you don't speak in tongues. There are many different manifestations of the Holy Spirit: prophecy, knowledge, teaching, administration, giving, tongues, etc.

All these can also be manifested in some way even if you know not God (1Co 13:1-13), but the one undeniable proof that you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit is an abiding and complete love for God and for your fellow men.

[i]1Jn 4:7-8 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. [b]Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God[/b]. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Mt 22:37-40 Jesus replied: [color=CC3300]“ ‘[b]Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.[/b]’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘[b]Love your neighbor as yourself[/b].’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”[/color]

1Co 13:1-3 [b]If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal[/b]. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and [b]if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing[/b]. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.[/i]

Be careful though, there are many who speak in tongues who would pridefully claim that one must speak in tongues when filled by the Spirit. Do not believe such false teaching.

BTW, welcome to the forum! :-)

liz100 wrote:
Ok. If I understand that correctly then since Jesus is totally real for me for the last 3+ years,I always talk to him and believe he's physically present then I must be being led by the Holy Spirit right? But does it mean I've got less Holy Spirit because I don't speak in tongues? I feel really stupid asking such basic questions but I figured I might get some answers here.
Many Thanks

No it dont meen you have less, the spirit may give you this gift, the bible says we can pray for this gift, but you may also get some other gift, the church need more then speaking in tongues, this is important but there are other gifts we need also. So you may receive one of these. that dont make you less spirit filled.

The main point for the spirit as i have seen it is not to equip you with a set of gifts, although he does that :-) but rather the spirit is a person, and he transforms you into the likeness of Jesus. He convicts you of sin, when such are there, he shows you when you spoke words unchristlike, he encourages you when you stop or fell discouraged. he slows you down when going to fast. Sometimes he will tell you "go" when all the world says stop, sometimes he says stop and everybody else says "go".

read the NT and see, ask God to show you, and keep in mind the spirit glorifies Jesus. So the spirit will never do anything unchristlike so to speak, others may fill in with more wisdom and knowledge.

but safes is to study the scripture, and see what the spirit did and did not do, how he works and so on.

God bless

You might find helpful background reading on the Holy Spirit here:

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/nee/normal.xii.html

Although not specifically about tongues, it is a good summary on the basis for us receiving the Holy Spirit.

Liz: Although speaking in tongues is a valid, and I believe very powerful, part of being filled with the Holy Spirit, tongues are not the point. A life immersed in and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Victory over sin like you have never had before. Power to lay down your life (figuratively or literally, who knows?) I believe the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a separate and subsequent experience to Salvation. "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" Acts 19:2. It is as simple as asking and receiving by faith.