About that time someone knocked at the door and the priest's wife went to answer it. While she
was gone and Wigglesworth was kneeling there alone, suddenly with his eyes shut he had a
vision.
In the vision, Wigglesworth saw the empty cross and the glorified Savior. He was conscious of
the cleansing of Jesus' precious blood, and he began to cry out, "Clean! Clean! Clean! I'm
clean through the blood! Through the blood, I'm clean!"
About that time Wigglesworth realized he wasn't saying "clean" anymore; he was talking in
some kind of strange language! And he traveled back home speaking with other tongues. 1
After Wigglesworth was baptized in the Holy Ghost, he would tell people, "I used to have an
argument, but now I have an experience inside the Bible and outside the realm of argument!"
He found out there was more to receive of the Holy Spirit after being born again.
Speaking in Tongues Is Not Evidence Of the New Birth
As I said, one extreme is believing a person has all of the Holy Spirit there is to have in the
new birth. On the other extreme, some people think that a person doesn't have the Holy Ghost
in his life at all until he speaks in tongues. These people would say the disciples did not
receive the Holy Ghost at all in the new birth when Jesus breathed on them. They believe the
disciples didn't have the Holy Ghost until they spoke in tongues.
But speaking in tongues is not the Bible evidence for the new birth. It is the Bible evidence for
the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as we will later discuss in detail. Only believers can receive the
infilling of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the disciples had to be born again before they could have
been baptized with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues (Acts 2:4).
So did the disciples receive the Holy Ghost in the new birth as recorded in John 20:22, or not?
If they didn't, then Jesus sure did pull a funny trick on them. He sure did fool them when He
said that to them! No, when Jesus said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," He meant what He said!
The disciples received the Holy Spirit in the new-birth experience at that moment. This is when
the disciples were born again, yet fifty days later they gathered with other believers in the
Upper Room to be endued with power from on High by the same Holy Spirit.
It Is the Same Holy Spirit In the New Birth and In the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
I knew as a young Baptist boy preacher that I had been born of the Spirit when I was born
again (Rom. 8:16). But I didn't know the Bible that well back then, and I didn't understand that
there was also the promise of a dual working of the Holy Spirit. in the believer's life (Luke
24:49).
Some Pentecostal folks I knew made it sound like you didn't have the Holy Ghost in any
measure until you spoke with tongues. So from listening to them, I thought that I was going to
receive another "Spirit" when I got baptized in the Holy Ghost.
When I was baptized in the Holy Ghost and began to speak in other tongues, I said, "Why, this
is the same Spirit I've had all the time. It's the same Holy Ghost! There aren't two Holy Ghosts
— there's just one! He's not twins!"