The Scribes and Pharisees interpreted God's command to honor your father and mother. They said that if you offered your life up as a sacrifice to God, you would no longer be bound by the command to honor your parents. They negated God's command by their interpretation of it. Jesus was none too happy with their interpretation and gave them what for (Mark 7). Our Church leaders have done the exact same thing with Jesus' command in Acts 1:4, causing the majority of the Church to enter into a daily disobedience of the one command Jesus gave His Church. This has got to break God's heart. Even though our God is very merciful, to a fault from my prospective, He must eventually judge sin for our own good.
Consider the Nation of America. God sent God fearing men and women from all across Europe to establish a new nation on these shores. A small band of men defeated a much larger army of trained men of war much in the same way Gideon did. God established America with a strong arm and an outstretched hand. He blessed this country much in the same way He blessed the nation of Israel. He has sent revival after revival across this land for 200 years. There has been a large move of God approximately every 20 years in the last century. Several new denominations have been birthed through these mighty moves of God. There was Azuza street and the Assemblies of God, Maria Woodsworth Etter and her tent that seated 10,000 souls, the great healing revivals of the 40's and 50's, the Jesus movement, Charismatic movement, Word movement, and Times of Refreshing. With each mighty move of God the gift of tongues was at the forefront, but somehow the Church missed what the Holy Spirit was teaching by precept and example. The gift of tongues was relegated to backrooms, it was given the status of least of the gifts, and most pastors try their best to hide the gift from view. Yet Jesus said you shall receive power to witness of me after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and when the Holy Spirit fell on those first believers the gift of tongues came tumbling out of their mouths. How can the gift of tongues be the least gift when it caused 3,000 souls to ask how to be saved? The gift of tongues was the power to witness then and it is today. As those first disciples gave themselves to the gift of tongues, praying diligently, the power to witness was displayed again. This time a healing was performed. However, we cannot and should not overlook the disciples devotion to the gift of tongues. They gave themselves to the study of the Word and to prayer.
For 200 years the Lord has tried to get us to see that the key to Christianity is the gift of tongues. It is the reason Jesus only gave the Church one command, and it wasn't to love one another, but to allow Jesus, the God of love, to flow out of your belly freely, as rivers. The truth is, if there is no flow of Living Water out of your mouth, there is no baptism with the Spirit. The gift of tongues is not the evidence of the baptism with the Spirit, it is the baptism with the Spirit.
Some how we must get the Church to repent of this great sin of disobedience. We are on the brink of losing the great nation God has given us. There is only one sin the Lord is judging us for, the disobedience of the one command He gave us. Please Join with me in prayer that the eyes of the Church would be enlightened, that the masses would see that their leaders have led them astray. The command of Acts 1:4 is not a command to be ignored, it is the most important command for those of His Church to obey. It is the only command He gave us!