Acts, Chapter 2, they heard them speaking in tongues, declaring the wonderful works of God. Acts, Chapter 10, they were filled with the spirit. They heard them speaking in tongues and magnifying God, so the first evidence that your life has become filled with the spirit is, you begin to start to honour God, you begin to overflow and say something! Silent men are a problem again in this area. Our tongue is to speak. It's to speak, and we're to do something with it, so one of the things that happened in the New Testament was - the first thing that happened was, they honour God, who is the source. Acts 2:11, they began to speak in tongues, declare the mighty works of God. Acts 10 and Verse 46, they spoke in tongues and magnified God. What was the second thing they did? Oh, you're going to love what the second thing they did was. You're just going to love this. They acted as God's representative, and spoke words that created new lives. How about that. Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, stood up, began to speak the things of God, as God's representative, spoke on behalf of God into the earth, and 3,000 people were born again. Now what does that mean, 3,000 born again?
It means a supernatural miracle of God came into their life. They were born again. Sin was broken off their life. They got charged with the Holy Spirit. They came alive on the inside. That is a miracle! That was the new creation, the Bible calls it when you're born again, any man born again a new creation. Well so isn't this amazing? The two things that happen straight after people get filled with the Holy Ghost; number one, firstly honour God; number two, act as His representative, and begin to create things. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing. Act as His representative. First of all to honour God, and then to act as His representative, and begin to create things. Now you begin to see what you're designed to do. See, honour God, speak as His representative, and make things happen, create things.
I'll give you three things that'll show you how you can honour God, and speak things as God's representative. Let's quickly do them now. Okay, so God's designed you to do some speaking. You say well, I'm not a man of words. Well no, some people are far more strong in actions. They're able to do acts of kindness. Some are very compassionate. There's a whole range of different expressions, but you have been given a tongue, and words are necessary. Words are necessary. A gift without words is actually quite empty, and it's when you give it the words you create the value, the honour, tongue is your glory, your honour. So when you get at a function, one of the things at a lot of Kiwi functions, notice this, they don't speak words, or if they do speak words, they're so awkward and embarrassing and sometimes dishonouring, that you cringe and you wish no one had spoken. I think it's wonderful in the church in Bay City here you've got the message, because I go to any function anywhere, and I hear people stand up, and no matter how good or how simple or extravagant the meal has been, I here the words of value.
Interesting, when Rachel invited us to her birthday in a restaurant, and we went to the restaurant, and she had half of the people from church, half of the people from her work, and then she got to that magic moment where she asked me to actually speak words of honour. It's not an ego trip for her, it's actually she's wanting her unsaved friends to understand the power of words to create something in the atmosphere. They just were - like that. Bryden had a 40th birthday in Little India, and it was surrounded by people. We had lots of people there, and there was a bit of party atmosphere going on. Right next to us, there was a whole table of people who'd been boozing, and the guys were quite noisy. One after another people stood up, and they began to use their tongue for the purpose it's designed, create value, and his wife and his children and various friends and various people spoke. Do you know what happened? It changed the whole atmosphere. It added value, shut down the boozers and the drinkers, and they actually - actually, the wives were telling the guys to shut up, because we want to listen to this.