All with One Accord (Donald Gee) - Deal Pentecostal Church

personal experiences. The tarrying meetings and the
insistence on tongues were what made him go back."
Audacious though it may sound to affirm it, I believe that an
unanswerable case can be made out, if we stand on the
Scriptures alone, for the doctrine of the Pentecostal
movement that there is a manifest initial evidence divinely
ordained for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and a very strong
case for that evidence being speaking with tongues. The
movement has never gained in power when it has
compromised on this point to placate its critics. It does
contain something vital.
But Pentecostal people need to give deep thought to the
practical outcome of this distinctive doctrine. It follows that
in their prayer meetings for the baptism in the Holy Spirit
("tarrying meetings" in accepted parlance) there simply must
arise a desire, indeed an eagerness, to hear seekers speak with
tongues as the evidence that they indubitably have received
the longed-for blessing. The ever-present temptation that has
dogged the Pentecostal revival for over fifty years is to try and
"make" seekers apparently speak with tongues so that it can
be claimed that they are "through" into the promised personal
Pentecost. At the highest level this desire to help people speak
with tongues when the power of the Spirit is manifestly upon
them is entirely pure, for it springs from nothing but love and
a longing for the seeker and helper to mutually rejoice in
arriving at a desired spiritual objective. At the lowest level it
can be the carnal desire of the worker conducting the tarrying
meetings to build up a personal reputation for ability to "get
people through." In order to make people speak with what
are claimed to be "tongues" there have been methods adopted
for which we make no excuse. They have been our shame. We
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