Ekaputra, I think you have me confused with my father. I am George P. Wood, he is Dr. George O. Wood. Like you, however, I believe that what is most important about Spirit-baptism is not its initial physical evidence (as important as that may be), but its long-term, substantial evidence.

Steve, thanks for sharing your testimony!

Much of the power for evangelism (including church growth) is to pray in tongues. When we pray in tongues, we pray Gods perfect well; we pray for souls. Not only is tongues initial physical evidence, but tongues a vital ingredient of power for evangelism.

I came into the Assemblies of God because a church had a message in tongues that was interpreted as, “If you will pray diligently in the Spirit, I will bring in someone off the street seeking ministry.” The following Sunday night I was “supernaturally” led into the last part of that Assemblies of God church’s service.

I am an Indonesian AoG Bible School teacher. Frankly, I am fascinated with your post. But it is interesting to note that Indonesian AoG does not adopt exactly 16 fundamental truths of American AG. We have only 11 points. I suspect that it was brought by our early missionaries and taken from “we believe” statements before 1960s. It means that in our official doctrinal statements (Indonesian AG), we don’t have “initial physical evidence”. I am really thinking hard about this now. Is it really necessary to add “initial physical evidence” in our doctrinal statement? this is just a thought. If the “initial” is not as important as “ongoing” working of the spirit, then maybe we should not be too dogmatic about it. Please understand that i say this for a theological discussion sake. Anyway, thank you for you post. I like the last paragraph too. May God bless you