Opening the Gates of Heaven Perry Stone

• Acts 19:1–6: In Ephesus Paul laid his hands upon twelve disciples of John the Baptist, and they were all filled with the Spirit, spoke with tongues, and prophesied.

The other two references in Acts are Acts 8, where Peter and John laid their hands upon the believers in Samaria to receive the Holy Spirit, and Acts 9, where after Paul’s conversion Ananias laid his hands upon him to receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:17). Later we read where Paul acknowledged that he spoke with tongues (1 Cor. 14:18). The Greek word for “tongues” in the Acts passages is glossa and refers to a language spoken that was received by the infilling of the Holy Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost, the Galilean disciples spoke in actual languages understood by the Jews out of every nation (Acts 2:6). Others began to speak a supernatural language unknown to the person speaking, which was actually a prayer language from the Holy Spirit for that person to speak to himself or herself and to God (1 Cor. 14:2). Paul implied that it was possible for a tongues speaker to speak in the languages of “men and of angels” (1 Cor. 13:1). There is a common belief among some that the operation of speaking with tongues was only for the first century church, and then it ceased. This is contrary to Scripture, which clearly states that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29). We are to “come short in