But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Acts 1:8 (NIV)

When the day of Pentecost had fully come, those who waited in the upper room were all filled with the promised Holy Spirit. They received power to evangelize unto the ends of the earth. When the Spirit fell on them in Acts 2:4, they began to speak in languages they had not learned. Their speech was inspired by the Spirit of God. In the King James, it says that the Spirit gave them utterance. The Greek word translated “utterance” is apophtheggomai. Many of us have experienced speaking in an unknown language under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but how many of us are aware of the Spirit’s power that inspires us to speak in our native tongue?

When the crowds heard all the commotion in Jerusalem that morning, they began to gather in the streets and question what these things meant. Some began to joke around and chalked it all up to some folks drinking too much wine. But when Peter heard that, he stood up and got the attention of the crowd saying: these men are not drunk like you think. This is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophesy. He foretold the day when God would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. Let us look at the King James, in Acts 2:14a. But Peter standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said: The word translated “said” is also the same Greek word apoptheggomai. (inspired speech) That tells us that Peter’s words, though spoken in his own language, were given through the same inspiration as when he spoke in an unfamiliar tongue.

There were many from other countries in Jerusalem who heard the disciples of Jesus speaking. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Acts 2: 7-8 NIV

Speaking in Tongues attracted the attention of the crowd, but it was after Peter spoke in the common language of the people that three thousand souls were saved. I am by no means trying to minimize speaking in tongues but, rather, to maximize the concept of speaking our own language under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is an amazing evangelistic strategy. Imagine, God speaking through us to people we meet. This phenomenon occurred after the disciples had yielded their tongue to the Spirit in the upper room. The same can happen today whether our speech is familiar to us or not. The key is yielding. In one respect, the more we yield to speak in an unknown tongue the more naturally we will yield our tongue to the Spirit in our own language. The bottom line is: we need the power of God in our speech to bring the lost to Christ.