Holiness in the Pentecostal church

I love the Pentecostal church, it was a Pentecostal minister who prayed for me when I was baptised in the spirit – indeed one could argue that the Army is at its heart Pentecostal – but there is something lacking in the contemporary charismatic movement that concerns me and that is the lack of practical personal holiness.

Then I came across this great quote from Donald Gee*

"This Pentecostal movement is something which God has started at high speed, but the faster we go the greater the need of holiness. The more power we have, the more we need to have every obstacle cleared out of the way. That which cannot be noticed in an old dead church can wreck a revival in a Pentecostal church. May God give us holiness with our Pentecost, for we surely need it. No revival can continue with the blessing of God upon it that does not have a high standard of holiness."

As Matthew 7 verse 21-23 reminds us…

“Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'”

If the Christian is to make real progress then sin must be eradicated, not just its eternal consequences but the daily bondage of habitual sin. The whole person, body, soul and mind must be cleaned and kept blameless. Pentecostal power without purity will fizzle out – we have witnessed this within the last decade. ‘Refreshings’ which promised revival have come and gone without making the impact we had hoped for.


Yours set apart

A

*Donald Gee (1891-1966) was an English, Pentecostal theologian. Considered by many to be the father of modern British Pentecostalism he took part in the first international, Pentecostal conference in Stockholm in 1939.