For Out of the Abundance of the Heart the Mouth Speaks

In closing this week, let us consider briefly, today and tomorrow, three different, but basic, principles of Scripture, all of which confirm that speaking with other tongues is the appropriate evidence that a person has received the Holy Spirit. First, Jesus says:

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34).

In other words, the heart of man, when it is filled to overflowing, overflows in speech through the mouth. This applies to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. When a person’s heart has been filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit, the overflow of the heart then takes place in speech through the mouth. Because the infilling is supernatural, the overflow is supernatural also. The person speaks a language which he has never learned and does not understand, using this to glorify God.

Second, Paul exhorts us as Christians:

“Present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” (Rom. 6:13)

God’s requirements go beyond the mere surrender of ourselves – that is, our wills – to Him. He demands that we actually present to Him our physical members, that He may control them according to His own will as instruments of righteousness.

However, there is one member of the body which none of us can control.

“But no man can tame [or control] the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” (James 3:8)

As the final evidence or seal that the presenting of our physical members to God has been made complete, the Spirit takes control of the very member which none of us can control – that is, the tongue – and then uses it in a supernatural way for God’s glory.