Paul seems to make the case the singing in the Spirit was something of a normative experience, at least for him.
Whenever I have sung in the Spirit, in tongues, it often felt like God was using the situation as almost like some kind of tribal warsong.
I was in a service years ago, and the pastor began by having the men sit on one side, and the women and children on the other, making the case from the idea of the church in Corinth beginning in a Jewish synagogue, where such a separation existed.
He read some verses from
1 Corinthians 14, and then encouraged us all to seek the Lord. There wasn't anything arranged from that point on. Just a leading of the Spirit. God used people in tongues and interpretation, prophecy, and at one point, my step-dad starting singing in tongues to the congregation.
It was very much like as described by Bartleman and others.
That pastor never did that again, for no explicable reason ever shared with me, as I was a member of that church at the time, for many years prior and afterward.
I can't figure out why.
Eventually he moved on and new leadership took over. Right before we left there, my brother, who was one of the pastors, was holding meetings in his home with members of the assembly. We attended, and so did a few others who lived nearby.
The first meeting we had, my brother told me how he had been praying before we arrived, and repented to God and asked His forgiveness if ever he had tried to act as someone's head instead of allowing Christ to be the head of everyman.
That was music to my ears! Those meetings were real
Acts 2:42, 1 Corinthians 14 meetings. One night, a sister was travailing and holding back, and wouldn't speak the diverse tongue God was giving her. I encouraged her, and she finally allowed God to speak through her. Then, after her, another woman spoke a diverse tongue. Then, after that, God gave my brother the interpretation, and it was along the lines of "Wisdom cries out in the streets..." a quote from Proverbs.
I looked at the man standing next to me. Before the meeting began, he took me aside to ask me some questions about Proverbs and wisdom. My brother never knew. No one, but me, the Lord, and this man, did.
He was amazed that God spoke directly to him that night through the gifts of the Spirit. But that was also when things fell apart, because, unbeknownst to me, this man later asked the Pastor (who wasn't attending the meetings) a question about women being allowed to speak in a meeting in a diverse tongue, and if it was okay, or not.
But before he spoke with the Pastor, he asked me my view, and I gave it to him, saying women are allowed to pray and prophesy and be used by God in the gifts of the Spirit.
But the Pastor said otherwise, because he had a beef with the women, one he thought was too much of a new convert, the other, too young over all, so convinced this man that God couldn't have used these two women, it was all out of order, and what my brother spoke was a prophecy, not an interpretation, and blah, blah, blah...
That's when the facade of what I thought was the beginning of a real New Covenant, Acts church, fell down, and the ugly face of what was really going on showed itself. There was only one more meeting, then the Pastor shut it down.
We were gone less than three weeks later.
I give the pastor there credit for wanting to be zealous for what he believes is the truth. I do not give him credit though, that he is not open to discussion for when others believe he is wrong about what he believes is the truth. That's a misguided zeal.
Oddly enough, last summer the man who God spoke to about wisdom married the "too young over all woman" who was at my brother's house that night who was afraid to speak the diverse tongue. She was about 19 then. She is about 23 or so now.