Link between the gift of tongues and the infilling of the Holy Spirit:

John the Baptist said “I baptise you with water for repentance ….. but He that comes after me will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  (Mat 3:11  NKJV)                      (The Passion Translation quotes the Aramaic text of Luke 3:16 “he will baptise you into the Spirit of the Holy One and in Light”)

On Resurrection Day evening Jesus ‘breathed on (them) and said to them, Receive (admit) the Holy Spirit!’ (John 20:22 AMP)

• This can remind us of Jesus’s words to Nicodemus: (John 3:7-8  NIV) ‘You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’
• It can also remind us of Jesus’s words at the well to the Samaritan woman ‘but whoever drinks the water that I give will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ (John 4:14 NIV)

(Acts 2:1-4 NIV)  When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

• This can remind us of (John 7:37-39)  Now on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him keep coming to me and drinking!  Whoever puts his trust in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his inmost being!” (Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who trusted in him were to receive later – the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)

• As Robby Dawkins says (Do What Jesus Did, Chosen Books, 2013) ‘God wants absolutely nothing less than to fill you with Himself and make you shine with His presence through the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said, “I tell you the truth: It is for your own good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go , I will send him to you”(John 17:7 NIV)’ 

Tongues was the sign that the first non-Jews were included  ……….    (Acts 10:44-46)

While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came down on those who were listening to his message.  The Jewish believers who had come from Joppa with Peter were amazed that God had poured out his gift of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles also – for they heard them speaking in strange tongues and praising God’s greatness. And Peter later reported to the church in Jerusalem “Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts11:16 TEV)

Arriving in Ephesus Paul found about 12 believers who had never heard of the Holy Spirit.  When they were baptised and Paul laid hands on them ‘the Holy Spirit came upon them. They began speaking different languages and prophesying.’ (Acts19:6)

• It seems that when people commit their lives to Jesus and accept his forgiveness for sin then the Holy Spirit indwells/lives in them.
• When people ask for the infilling/baptism/release of the Holy Spirit this is when tongues and other gifts of the Spirit are activated.  Tongues is often the first ‘gift’ to appear and it lets us know how all the other gifts must be received spontaneously and without our own effort (just as co-operation).

For some believers this happens all at once – for others these are two separate events, possibly years apart.

(2 Cor 4:6-7 NLT) For God who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this treasure.  This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

(John 7:63 TEV) Jesus says “What gives life is God’s Spirit; man’s power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God’s life-giving spirit.”