What is it to be a Pentecostal?

To be Pentecostal is to fundamentally believe in the direct personalized experience of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit , as what the apostles of the early church encountered on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-4 with them being filled with the Holy Spirit speaking of what was not of their language which they do not know but understood by others with the enablement of the Spirit.
Evangelization is of great importance to be Pentecost stressing the great need to be abide by the Bible and transforming one’s life with undivided faith in Jesus Christ.
For salvation, it is fundamental for Pentecostal to be born again or regenerated in accordance to scripture as in John 3:3 & 5. Jesus said that unless one is to be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven. For the Pentecostal, the gift of salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and no way can it be earned through good works or deeds, Ephesians 2:8-9.
Receiving of the Holy Spirit after salvation with repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus is greatly emphasized for the Pentecostal.
Pentecostal believes that the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit prevail in the church at the present time particularly in the speaking in tongues: - words of wisdom to provide supernatural guidance in decisions; words of knowledge in the impartation of factual information; healing miracles, prophecies of God’s messages, distinguishing of spirits from that of the evil, tongues and interpretation of tongues as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8-11.
To the Pentecostal, doctrinal beliefs of speaking in tongues are that firstly it is that of the baptism of the Holy Spirit with believer doing it for the first time which is the personal prayer to God or glossolalia of unintelligible utterances. Secondly it is the gift of the tongues for interpretation to the congregation to understand or xenoglossy which is the experience of the gift of tongues from the Holy Spirit speaking a natural language unknown to the speaker proclaiming the Gospel.