"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues,  as the Spirit gave them utterance..."  Acts 2:4.

Please let me share with you freely and boldly what the gift of Pentecost and its practical bearing means to me as the promise of the Spirit has to do with my gospel testimony as "the work of  evangelist"  which means, as far as I´m concerned, to "fulfill the ministry"  (2 Tim. 4:5).

Let me try to clarify myself.  When I realized the practical implications of the Spirit as "another Helper" in us (Joh. 14:16-17) to glorify Christ (16:14) through His followers with words "easy to understand" (1 Cor. 14:99, my relationship to English ( not my mother tongue!) and to other languages has to do with my relationship to the gospel and the Pentecostal Spirit.

That´s humbling in my encounter with Orientals whose languages in writing are "characters" and not our letters. They try to learn Danish, but in practice I sometimes use an interpreter like Joseph did (Gen. 42:23).

An old Danish brother sometimes had ministry in Germany.  I don´t think he was practically good at German as such, - I mean he learnt that language in school like the rest of us - but he trusted the Lord to give him the  words he needed when preaching, as his relationship to German had to do with his relationship to the word of God. I think the Lord liked that.

That´s where I stand myself.  But not only when it comes to foreign languages, indeed it applies to my own Danish language as well.  The Pentecostal blessing hasn´t made me a MS preacher or lecturer, but a free, simple and failing witness "to speak as the Spirit gave utterance".

It´s one thing to master your language, it´s different to be controlled by the Spirit of Pentecost no matter what language we happen to talk about.

The truth is that the majority of Christians don´t speak the kind of language the Lord wants them to speak, and so the witnessing part of it often becomes merely clichés without the Pentecostal unction.  "For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power!"  (1 Cor. 4:20)

May 21, 2018 - jn