What Is Being Filled With the Spirit. Are Tongues Required

Official answer 2026-08-22

The short answer to your real worry: no, nothing is missing in you. This is a genuine disagreement within the church, with careful readers on both sides, so set out both. Some churches hold that tongues is the evidence of receiving the Spirit, based mainly on episodes in Acts where the Spirit comes and people speak in tongues. Others point out that in the same Bible Paul asks a run of rhetorical questions, one of which is: do all speak in tongues? The form of the sentence presupposes the answer is no. He also lists many gifts and says the same Spirit distributes them to each one as he wills. So the claim that tongues is required runs into a counter-example inside Scripture itself. More striking is the word Scripture most often uses when describing the Spirit work. Not a phenomenon but fruit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There is not a single special experience on that list. The primary indicator of being filled, then, is what a person is becoming rather than what they can do. Practically: do not imitate in order to qualify — it is dishonest, and many people end up in deeper doubt afterwards. Do not write off every church of that kind either; there are sincere people there. And if you do want more of the Spirit, ask, then put your attention on that list of fruit, which can actually be examined. A principle worth keeping: any teaching that sorts believers into two tiers deserves a second look. In Scripture the Spirit is given to all who belong to Christ, not to those who pass a test.