Transcript Slide 1

Brengle Create
Finding Nemo
Holiness, the Holy Spirit
and the world
Session 2
The Experience of Holiness
We can know about God with our minds; but it
is not until we allow our hearts to become
involved that we actually begin to know God.
The Experience of Holiness
People experience God in different
ways
Because people are different!!
The Experience of Holiness
Confusion can occur when experience
becomes separated from the biblical and
systematic theology. When this happens
people develop their theology based on
what they experience.
Acts 2 – 3
(Selected Verses)
Pentecostals - celebrate the coming of the
Holy Spirit, and their worship re-enact the
signs and wonders of Pentecost.
The Salvation Army - celebrates the Holy Spirit
by focusing on what the Holy Spirit did … the
creation of the church
First Purpose of the church:
Preach the gospel of Christ
Second Purpose of the church:
Gathered the new believers of the church
together for teaching, supporting, and
community – they did Fellowship
Third Purpose of the church:
Reaching out to a suffering society (healing
the sick)
Proclaiming the gospel
(saving souls)
Sharing and teaching in fellowship
(growing saints)
Caring for the sick
(serving suffering humanity)
Discuss:
How do you personally
respond to this
interpretation of Acts?
Hebrew – ruach
Greek – pneuma
How do we translate this dynamic ‘ruach’ into
our Salvation Army expression?
Let me suggest that for us, the ‘power of the
Holy Spirit’ comes through our personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. It is all about
a permanent ongoing close personal
relationship with Jesus through the
indwelling of his Holy Spirit.
I think that this is more powerful,
more alive, more dynamic that any
‘sign or wonder’. Why? Because it is
a whole of life experience – a life
lived in holiness – a life of “walking
with my Saviour, heart in heart, none
can part” (Herbert Booth).
Earl Robinson – about
John Wesley
“The complete assurance of salvation which
he sought still eluded him … he was
convinced to replace outward acts of
righteousness with inward ‘mental prayer
and the like exercises, as the most effectual
means of purifying the soul and uniting it
with God,’ but these too proved of no
comfort or help”. (Robinson pp.14-15)
John Wesley
2 Peter 1:4
“Through these he has given us his very great
and precious promises, so that through
them you may participate in the divine
nature and escape the corruption in the
world caused by evil desires”.
The “problem” of
experience
Trying to understand a balance
Emile Brunner
“ … we ought to face the New
Testament witness with sufficient
candour to admit that in this ‘pneuma’
which the Ecclesia was conscious of
possessing, there lie forces of an
extra-rational kind mostly lacking
among us Christian today”
Early Salvation Army
1.It was the supernatural action of the
Holy Spirit
2. This ‘baptism’ was a blessing that
happened after a person was saved
(hence 2nd Blessing)
3. The result was a cleansed life in which
purity of life was the evidence of
holiness
The War Cry 1880
“The experience is a definite experience. It is not
mere growing in grace – that will come. It is not trying
to do better, or be better, or feel better, but is a
definite, distinct gift as clearly offered, and to be a
clearly received and realised as pardon. Purity is not
desiring to be pure … it is not more justification …
that first sanctification is the superb work whereby we
‘become as little children’ … conviction for entire
sanctification is a definite conviction for a definite
work – in whatever form it may come … the work is
instantly and perfectly done. It is immediately done
and well done. The heart is cleansed, entirely
sanctified, and stands complete in love. Hallelujah!”
William Sangster
How the saints come to their awareness of
God’s love varies with individuals, but
usually the place of revelation is the Place of
the Skull. They see it normally at Calvary –
and no wonder! Here is the heart of God
unveiled. This He is through all eternity:
from everlasting to everlasting. What most
of them had known all their lives, they now
realise for the first time – and it blinds them.
They weep. They wonder. They are men and
women made new.
General Frederick Coutts
Crisis and Process
General Clarence Wiseman
The New Testament does not teach that
Christians need a new baptism in the Spirit,
for they already possess the Holy Spirit,
otherwise they would not be Christians.
What is required is an awakening to the
necessity for an utter and complete
surrender to the Spirit.'
General John Larsson
“The main thrust of Salvation Army holiness
teaching today would seem to be an
emphasis on the process of sanctification,
with the crisis seen as the gateway to
growth in holiness”
Salvation Story
We should be cautious about requiring for every Christian
'a second work of grace' that must be chronologically
subsequent to the 'first work of grace'. The sanctifying
grace of God is not limited to human timetables. In the
experience of some, full salvation may come at conversion
while for others it happens subsequently. A 'second
blessing' does not imply that there are only two blessings,
or that a second blessing is the final completion of
Christian maturity and development. The Wesleyan
doctrine of the second blessing relates however to actual
experiences of a spiritual crisis subsequent to conversion.
As a vision of the potential for all believers in Christ, it is a
powerful means of encouraging all Christians to partake in
the fullness of the grace of God.
A Way Forward
O To Be Like Thee
Verse 1
O to be like Thee! blessed Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer,
Gladly I'll forfeit all of earth's treasures,
Jesus, your perfect likeness to wear.
Chorus
O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as you are!
Come in your sweetness, come in
your fullness;
Stamp your own image deep on my
heart.
Verse 2
O to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the
fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
Chorus
O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as you are!
Come in your sweetness, come in
your fullness;
Stamp your own image deep on my
heart.
Verse 3
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer, others to save.
Chorus
O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as you are!
Come in your sweetness, come in
your fullness;
Stamp your own image deep on my
heart.
Verse 4
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out your Spirit, fill with your love;
Make me a temple meet for your dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Chorus
O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as you are!
Come in your sweetness, come in
your fullness;
Stamp your own image deep on my
heart.
Firstly comes our part – our ‘active faith’ in
which our focus needs to be the goal of
holiness
Our absolute desire to be like Christ
Secondly, we completely open our lives up
to the Holy Spirit and allow him to take us
to the goal of holiness
Our submission to the Holy Spirit
Thirdly, we accept the way the Holy Spirit
works in our lives
Its is God’s work and this alone is
the source of our joy.
Brengle Create