"Merger.............................."

My pastor’s message last night was extracted from one of the Psalms, a cry for those who are barren to break forth into singing by reason of their being about to birth many. His morning sermon, based once again on the prodigal son, proclaimed the Church having been given authority, among several other blessings, a statement enthusiastically received by the congregation, but considered by this old man to be without sufficient explanation when served to this present-day bunch of Pentecostals. In this one, while I recognized his heart pleading for a return to those depths that the old-time holiness folk knew in a connection with the Holy Ghost, it seemed to me without essential information and a false witness to just what is required of us if we wish to step “behind the veil”, to find ourselves, not just in a flow of living water, but submerged in Him. He spoke of being “consecrated”, but put that in terms of a condition achieved through works. In such manner one ascended to a higher “level”. I maintain that the only necessity in this is a complete surrender unto the Spirit within us. He is not impressed by OUR righteousness, but by our willingness to submit all that we are unto HIS reality. He, alone, is our sanctification, the One who speaks peace over troubled waters, the One who brings assurance of salvation, the One who indeed IS our faith, our grace, our witness unto whosoever; and when we fail to recognize Him as the Third Person of the Godhead alive within us, reducing Him to a force controlled by our actions, His power ours to manipulate rather than our vessel made one with Him through temporary merger, the Gospel gets distorted. I believe in “boldness”; but I have also read about the seven sons of Sciva……