Speaking in tongues builds us up and helps us toward the "rest" of God, toward the refreshing for those who are weary from attempting to please God in their own strength. Notice in Isaiah 28:11 that the stammering lips and other tongues are presented in context with growth in the understanding of doctrine and the receiving of knowledge.

The emphasis is on "command upon command, rule upon rule." The purpose of it all is that "they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."

The passage portrays the taking captive of the person by the Spirit of God. A Christian is the flesh being made the Word of God just as Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. The process of transforming the Christian into the Word of God proceeds command upon command, rule upon rule, a little here, a little there. It is a daily transformation as we keep our eyes steadfastly on Christ.

Little by little the strength of the believer's self-life is destroyed and Divine resurrection life takes its place. Here is a picture of the rulership of the Holy Spirit gradually increasing in the life of a Christian.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (II Corinthians 3:18)

This, then, is the purpose behind speaking in tongues. It is a means through which God brings people from the power of the rule of the flesh and mind to the power of the rule of the Spirit of life. Speaking in tongues teaches the Christian how to yield to the dominion of the Holy Spirit instead of acting according to the lusts of the flesh and soul and the imaginations, motives, and schemes of the mind.

The end result of the Pentecostal experience, and of all other Divine programs, is the perfecting of Christ in the believer. Perfecting Christ in the believer results in the perfecting of the Divine testimony that shines to the nations of the earth. It is Christ in us who is the Testimony, the Light of the world.

At Azusa Street the Holy Spirit was ready to instruct the churches in the doctrine of the Lord: the life in the Spirit, the oneness of the Body of Christ, the need for righteous conduct and heart holiness.

The Christians, after having experienced some of the manifestations of the Spirit of God, returned to their denominational practices and forms. They reconvened in the Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist manners. Those who did so named themselves "Pentecostal," since speaking in tongues had been added to the basically unchanged church activities.

It appears the "Pentecostal" people are not as yet ready to be ruled by the Spirit of God, to be led wholly by the Spirit in the work of the churches and in their individual lives.

To be continued.