Daily Affirmations - Day 1- Spirit Language: Tongues of Fire

This week's Theme: Spirit Language

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Day 1: Tongues of Fire

Barely 20 and over four thousand miles (almost seven thousand kilometers) away from home, I felt a little lost in the crowed auditorium. Our two-day orientation was in a city over 100 miles (200 plus kilometers) north of my eventual destination. I was not looking forward to the upcoming train journey—I had already experienced a major travel misadventure in the first few days of my school-year abroad.

I’m not quite sure how Jean and I met, but it was a relief to connect with another Caribbean National in the sea of faces. We weren’t the only ones drawn together by a sense of shared background. All around the room, language variations and accents became the basis for introductions and information exchange, and potential long-term friendships.

But we were definitely in the minority. The Americans filled the space, laughing and talking in groups; the English exuded an air or understated confidence clearly born of geographic advantage and institutional familiarity with the process and its expectations.

Jean and I traveled most of the remaining journey together. I would travel for over another hour beyond the large city where she was to reside. But we stayed in touch, and when I had occasion to travel to the city, I would happily reconnect with her.

Our orientation during those two days was not the last time I would notice how magnified familiar tones became in a strange country with a different language. It’s hard to imagine now, with our current level of global interconnectedness, but in those prehistoric - um - pre-Internet times, it was very different.

We had been cautioned against seeking out other English speakers lest we rob ourselves of the opportunity to practice and become totally immersed in the language, but it was difficult, especially in the early months. Sometimes, as people established relationships based on language and nationality, I would hear them comment that they were “starved” for their familiar language.

I believe this experience adds to my fascination with the Pentecost account in the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 2:

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?  Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:5-12).

Sometimes, key elements and simple truths are lost in all the debate and mystique surrounding this passage and other references to “tongues.” Since I’m no theologian, and since I do not want to become entangled in the weeds of dispute and debate, I will simply zoom in on the important things that have been clearly stated:

A great number of people were in Jerusalem. It was the Feast Day of Pentecost, celebrated every year 50 days after Passover to mark the giving of the Torah and the summer wheat harvest. Many people came to Jerusalem for the festival, but scholars believe that the majority of people described in the passage actually lived in Jerusalem:

[staying in Jerusalem] probably used not merely of temporary dwellers for the Feast, but of the devout Jews of the Diaspora, who for the purpose of being near the Temple had taken up their residence in Jerusalem, perhaps for the study of the Law, perhaps to live and to die within the city walls (Expositor’s Greek Testament).

These people from various backgrounds and languages (Acts 2:9-11) heard their own particular language being spoken (vs. 6); each heard in the individual’s native language (vs.8) —"we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (vs. 11).

The technicalities of whether the miracle was in the speaking, or in the hearing, or in both, are subordinate to one paramount truth—the promised power of the Holy Spirit had come, and was the reason for the amazing events that were unfolding (Luke 24:49, Acts 2:2-4). And the Spirit’s power was given—and is still given—not for razzle-dazzle, but for the purpose of pointing the way to Jesus, and to the hope and salvation He offers (Acts 2:21, 40-41).

Pentecost, rightfully, reminds us of God’s enabling power in our lives. But our view of power may be skewed, or incomplete. As humans we are drawn to great demonstrations of power.

Religious leaders and others demanded signs of Jesus and of the apostles (Matthew 16:1, 1 Corinthians 1:22), and even Herod was hoping for a “performance” of power (Luke 23:8). Ironically, they all failed to see the power in His patience, His restraint, His sacrificial love.

Perhaps God may have occasion to empower me by His Spirit to bring His gospel of peace to a multi-lingual group of people, and startle me and them, by enabling me to speak—and them to hear—in their native language. That would indeed be extraordinary!

But what if the “tongues” the Holy Spirit gives to me are the quiet, everyday, but no-less-extraordinary ability to speak the language embedded in the gifts of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)? What if His power in a given moment to speak the gentle answer [that] turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1) opens a door to hope?

What if I leave myself open to be filled with His language of love and caring so that His light would reach into dark places, and bring peace to restless hearts? What if He gives me kind, encouraging words that touch someone far from home—maybe a “barely twenty-year-old” lost in a sea of strangers?

The apostle Paul urged the Corinthian believers to eagerly desire the greater gifts (1 Corinthians 12:31). What if the greater gifts were not only God’s marvelous demonstrations of power in "tongues of fire," but in an everyday Pentecost of steady and consistent demonstrations and utterances of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)? Just like Jesus?