Acts 1:4 reads thusly: "And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith He, you have heard of Me.
Did you notice the word command in this verse? Do you realize this is the only command Jesus gave specifically to His Church? In Matthew 28:18 we are told that Jesus has been given all authority both in heaven and in earth, in Acts 1:4 He stands before the charter members of His Church with an authority He has not had until now, He stands there as King of kings and Lord of lords. As King of kings and Lord of lords He gives His Church a command. This Greek word "command" is a military term and is unlike other commands Jesus gave. This word literally means "to give orders to."
The orders Jesus gave that day was to wait for the promise of the Father. The word "wait" in this command is in the continual perfect tense of the verb, making it a command to wait to all Church members for all time. By the language of this command there is no point in time when it will sunset and not be valid to the Church. By commanding the Church, then using the word wait in this manner Jesus has issued the command twice. He gave them a direct order as commander in chief and made it for all time by the use of the continual perfect tense of the verb wait. Any negation of this command would necesarily need to be stated just as strongly as the original. The scripture holds no such negation.
In Acts 2:4 the disciples and those who had gathered with them in the upper room received the Father's promise and the gift of tongues rolled out of their bellies.
In Acts 1:4 Jesus mentioned that the disciples had heard Him speak of this baptism with the Spirit before. In John 7:37-39 Jesus said: "If any man is thirsty, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of Living Water." Verse 39 goes on to say this Living Water flowing out of the belly would be the Holy Spirit who was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Can any doubt that the gift of tongues that flowed out of the belly of those who waited for the promise of God was the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus promised? The Holy Spirit came flowing out of the bellies of those who had believed on Jesus as rivers, rivers of languages.
In John 16:13-14 Jesus said: "Howbeit when He the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me; for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." In Jesus' earthly ministry He said, "if you have seen me, you have seen the Father," He said, "I do only those things I see my Father doing." As Jesus prepared to leave the earth to return to the Father, He said, I will send you another comforter. The Holy Spirit's job on the earth is to represent Jesus. When any one gets saved, we say, Jesus is in your heart. Technically this is not true. Jesus is sitting beside the Father in heaven interceding for us. The Holy Spirit is in your heart, but He does not represent Himself, He represents Jesus, just as Jesus represented His Father in His earthly ministry.
The gift of tongues, pouring forth from believer's bellies, is the Holy Spirit revealing Jesus. Therefore, he that disparages, or makes light of, or belittles the gift of tongues is disparaging, making light of, and belittling Jesus. He that avoids the gift of tongues is avoiding Jesus. And He that hates the gift of tongues or prevents the gift in any way, is hating and preventing Jesus. If you want to know why we are having trouble getting God to answer our prayers, you have your answer. Jesus said, "He that hates me, hates the Father who sent me." How can we say we love Jesus while disobeying His command and limiting His flow in the earth? How can we expect to have God's blessing while we are seeking to control the one we professed as Lord?
The command to wait for the promise of the Father was made just as strongly as any other command Jesus made. Yet 90% of the Church exempts itself from obedience to it. This command is routinely overlooked by even those who embrace the baptism with the Spirit as a valid experience, and most all pastors seek to control the gift of tongues. They take it as their prerogative to control the gift, even though Jesus described it as the Holy Spirit representing Him, the Lord of the Church. We are not going to have much success as long as we are endeavoring to control Jesus, not to mention disobeying a direct order given by the head of the Church.
Consider Paul's words to the Corinthian Church. Here was a church who was zealous of spiritual gifts and in their zeal they were horribly abusing them. Paul offered some rules of etiquette and admonished them not to prevent anyone from speaking in tongues (1Cor. 14:39). This is the exact opposite approach to that of most all churches today, and the exact opposite approach common sense would advise. Paul's approach to the gift of tongues stands in stark contrast to the Church of today, but he received his gospel straight from Jesus, after being caught up to heaven. If you want to know why we are having trouble getting the power to witness to work for us, here is the answer. Our gospel is based on traditions of men and experience, with some of the Word of God mixed in. On the day of Pentecost, when the power to witness of Jesus' resurrection was first revealed, it was the gift of tongues that came rolling out of believer's bellies. Do you think maybe God is trying to tell us something? Paul's approach was to teach proper etiquette and encourage the use of tongues at every opportunity. The modern Church seeks to control the gift of tongues at every opportunity. They teach against it, ignore it, and disdain it.
Jesus said, "All who believe in me will have rivers of Living Water flowing out of their belly." Let's face it, if rivers of the gift of tongues are not flowing through you, you are disrespecting Jesus, the very one who died to save you. Once again we know what Paul thought of the gift of tongues, he spoke in tongues more than the Corinthians (1Cor.14:14). Paul said God would use the foolish things to confound the wise and the gift of tongues is foolishness to those who consider themselves wise. They reject the gift of tongues as having any merit, yet they are the power to witness of Christ's resurrection. We will not see much power until we quit belittling and disparaging the gift of tongues.
If we believe in Jesus, rivers of languages will flow out of our bellies continuously. This is right and fitting. The use of the gift of tongues should not be discouraged in any way, contrarily, people should be encouraged to pray in tongues, speak in tongues, sing in tongues, intercede in tongues, and speak to one another with spiritual songs. They should be encouraged to give thanks with tongues, praise with tongues, and worship in tongues. Each believer should be prepared to yield to the Holy Spirit in inarticulate speech, groaning, and sighing, and weeping before the Lord. If any one wants to find fault with the chaos created by the gift of tongues, they are going to have to find fault with Jesus, the Holy Spirit is merely showing us Jesus. He doesn't represent Himself. Since Jesus is the head of the Church, He has every right to interrupt our services as often as He would like to. He might interrupt us just to see what we might deem to be the more important, his interruption, or our order? The apostle John spoke in tongues so much he was eat up with love. He hardly leaves the topic of love at all in all three of his epistles. We know this was caused by the gift of tongues because it is the Holy Spirit flowing out of your belly when you speak in tongues, and the Holy Spirit is God, and God is love.