PROCESO ÚNICO DE EJECUCIÓN
B) Las excepciones procesales en el proceso único de ejecución en la modalidad de ejecución de garantías
5. Nulidad formal del título
Pentecostals also experience union with God in personal practices such as individual prayer and reading the Scripture. Prayer is the primary, significant, and explicit personal
239 Warrington, ‘Healing and Exorcism’, 161. 240 Ibid.
241 Archer, The Gospel Revisited, 79. 242 Ibid.
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theological activity of Pentecostals,244 for whom it is impossible to have an intimate relationship with God without prayer. Indeed, persistent prayer is the heartbeat of the Pentecostal movement.245 Prayer is an encounter with God,246 in which ‘one responds to the Spirit of God’.247 Through prayer, believers communicate with God: they speak to God, and God responds to them. Similarly, reading the Scripture is another means of relationality for union with God. The Spirit speaks to believers through the Scripture, and Pentecostals seek to live in intimate relationship with God in light of the Scripture.248 With this in mind, this subsection highlights relationality in personal prayer and the reading of Scripture.
Pentecostal prayer is in the Spirit, who mediates us to God. The Spirit is the relational mediator between the Father and the Son, and between God and human beings. Through the most significant activity of the Spirit, believers’ affective richness is evoked and expressed in prayer.249 Pentecostals experience love, compassion, gratitude, and hope towards God through praying in the Spirit because affections are the fruit of the Spirit. Their affective confessions such as ‘I love you God’, ‘You are faithful’, and ‘Thank you Lord’ are a feature of union and deep communion between God and believers, because ‘being filled with the Spirit is being yielded to, directed, and empowered by God to give a witness more consistent with his Spirit to Jesus Christ’.250 Thus, praying in the Spirit is the heart of relationality for union with God in Christ.
244 Land, Pentecostal Spirituality, 165–6. See also, Warrington, Pentecostal Theology, 214.
245 C. P. Wagner, ‘America’s Pentecostals: See How They Grow’, Christianity Today 31 (October 16,
1987), 28–9. See also, Vondey, Pentecostal Theology, 86.
246 Warrington, Pentecostal Theology, 214–5. 247 Land, Pentecostal Spirituality, 24.
248 Kenneth J. Archer, A Pentecostal Hermeneutic: Spirit, Scripture and Community (Cleveland: CPT
Press, 2009), 251–2.
249 Land, Pentecostal Spirituality, 165–72. 250 Ibid., 169.
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Pentecostal prayer as an altar of encounter manifests the reciprocal relationship between God and believers. In prayer led by the Spirit, believers participate in deep communion with God.251 That is, in prayer believers speak out their love, gratitude and compassion to God, and God responds to their prayer in the Spirit. Hence, believers are full of comfort and joy in the Spirit.252 Sharing and communicating with God and with others is also manifested in communal prayer such as concert prayer, and prayer with others and for others.253 Albrecht sees concert and corporate prayers as ‘a symphony of holy sounds’ which gives ‘a sense of security’ to the Pentecostal worshipper.254 In concert prayer, many Pentecostals pray together with ritual sounds and music, thus directing the worship community into the presence of God, so that they sense ‘the proximity of the Holy Spirit and the reality of close communion with the divine’.255 Land describes the feature of concert prayer as ‘a cacophony of sound’, ‘a pandemonium of celebration’, ‘a stereophonic praise’ and ‘a proleptic dance of the kingdom’.256 In the corporate prayer, Pentecostals experience an intense union with God and with others,257 which directs them to a ‘dance with the Spirit’, so that they speak in tongues, dance with joy, clap hands and shout ‘hallelujah’.258 In the sense of unity, they pray for others by laying hands on the
shoulder.259 These behaviours manifest Pentecostals’ union with God and with others in the community.
251 Land, Pentecostal Spirituality, 169. 252 Ibid., 171.
253 This subsection deals with the communal prayer in worship. A discussion of personal prayer
follows in 3.2.3.
254 Albrecht, Rites in the Spirit, 143.
255 Ibid. See also, Delton L. Alford, ‘Pentecostal and Charismatic Music’, in Dictionary of
Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, ed. Stanley Burgess, Gary McGee and Patrick Alexander (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 1988), 688–95. Land, Pentecostal Spirituality, 106–7.
256 Land, Pentecostal Spirituality, 106–7. Land states that the concert prayer is like an ‘orchestra
warming up for concert’ rather than ‘playing the same musical arrangement’. See, Ibid., 165.
257 Ibid., 106.
258 Ibid. See also Albrecht, Rites in the Spirit, 143.
259 Albrecht, Rites in the Spirit, 234. Prayer for others bring about union with others in the
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Regarding Pentecostal prayer, Land suggests three forms: with words understood, without words, and with words not understood.260 All of these forms manifest an intimate relationship between God and believers. First, the most common form of Pentecostal prayer is to express one’s gratitude with words because in prayer Pentecostals focus on what God has done for us in Christ.261 The verbal expressions to God are closely
connected to certain actions such as offerings, praise, lifting hands, clapping, swaying and devotions, through which Pentecostals respond and devote themselves to God. In this sense, praying in the Spirit achieves mutual fellowship with God. Second, prayer without words is carried out with sighs, groans and holy laughter in the Spirit, which evoke
compassion and joy towards God.262 Prayer with groans is sometimes related to Romans 8, regarding the Spirit who intercedes for those in need with groans.263 Through sighs, groans and laughter in the Spirit, Pentecostals taste God’s sighs, groans and laughter towards their sins, disorder and restoration, which give them compassion. Holy laughter is common in prayer led by the Spirit.264 Through holy laughter, believers taste God’s satisfaction towards themselves, who are created in the image of God. Sharing sighs, groans and laughter with the Spirit of God leads believers to the mystery of divine fellowship. Finally, speaking in tongues is relational because the Spirit intercedes between us and God.265 For Pentecostals, speaking in tongues in prayer gives believers confidence and courage so that they live with a passion for the kingdom which is established ‘already’ and ‘not yet’.266 The confidence and courage through praying in tongues enable them to live with a passion
260 Ibid., 170–2. For Land, Pentecostal prayer with words understood has been shaped by Scripture
and the understanding of the Christian life influenced by the early Holiness movement.
261 Ibid. More details regarding Pentecostal affections will follow in Chapter 4. 262 Ibid., 171. Land suggests that sighs, groans, and laughter shape compassion and joy. 263 Michael Wilkinson and Peter Althouse, ‘Soaking Prayer and the Mission of Catch the Fire’, Pneuma 36 (2014): 191.
264 Land, Pentecostal Spirituality, 171.
265 In one Spirit, however, one who has the gift of interpretation of tongues can understand tongues.
See 1 Cor. 12:10. Land asserts that tongues with interpretation are good for the whole body. See Land,
Pentecostal Spirituality, 171.
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for an intimate relationship with God in Christ, who is coming soon. Thus, all prayer in the Spirit is relational with God in Christ.
There is another form of prayer that facilitates union with God. Soaking prayer267 is an experience of being intimate with God in Christ through the Spirit, expressed through falling down on the floor.268 Participants in soaking prayer experience ‘resting, breathing, groaning, weight or pressure, smell, heat, dreams and visions, often associated with healing, and love’.269 Believers are encouraged to rest in God’s love and to expect an experience of love.270 Soaking is not striving prayer but the time for an encounter with God, who speaks to the participants. Believers expect to experience rest and divine love through hearing God’s voice, resting in God’s presence, and experiencing ‘the Father heart of God’.271 Michael Wilkinson and Peter Althouse view the love of God as bond of union: ‘Soaking is central to experiencing intimacy with God, to know that one is loved
unconditionally.’272 In soaking prayer guided by the Spirit, the beliefs and confessions regarding Christ’s life, death, and resurrection immerse participants in the intimate fellowship with God.273 In this sense, in soaking prayer believers foretaste the heavenly union with God.
For Pentecostals, Scripture is a crucial medium of personal practices. Scripture itself invites us to union with God in the realm of praxis and mission.274 Pentecostals
267 According to Land, soaking prayer is a complex of Pentecostal prayers in which one can see three
modes of prayer. This type of prayer exhibits diverse features of Pentecostal prayers. See Wilkinson and Althouse, ‘Soaking Prayer and the Mission of Catch the Fire’, 183–203.
268 Wilkinson and Althouse, ‘Soaking Prayer and the Mission of Catch the Fire’, 184–5. The
experience of falling down is described by mainstream Protestants and Roman Catholics as ‘resting in the Spirit’. In Toronto, resting in the Spirit is considered as ‘carpet time’, because many believers lie on the floor.
269 Wilkinson and Althouse, ‘Soaking Prayer and the Mission of Catch the Fire’, 190. 270 Ibid., 188.
271 Ibid. 272 Ibid. 273 Ibid., 189.
274 Craig S. Keener, Spirit Hermeneutics: Reading Scripture in Light of Pentecost (Grand Rapids:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 19. I intend to elucidate reading Scripture in an aspect of relationality rather than Scripture itself.
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consider the Scripture as the key source for knowing God because it is inspired by God (2 Tim. 3:16).275 Pentecostals experience God, who is revealed in Scripture, in the light of the Spirit. In this sense, personal reading and applying the Scripture are crucial not only to be sanctified but also for continued authenticity of one’s faith.
For Pentecostals, creeds have been less important as doctrinal formulation; rather, they prefer to ‘track their theology through the pages of Scripture’.276 They believe that the Scripture is a useful means to direct them towards an encounter with God in Christ and to be more beneficial to the ministry of the Spirit.277 In the Scripture, believers encounter God, who created the world and human beings. The Scripture manifests God, who gives us His Son, Jesus Christ. Here, The Spirit plays a crucial role as a teacher of believers, to lead people into truth.278 The Spirit is the subjective interpreter of the Word for the
community.279 Theological interpretation of the Scripture is inspired and guided by the Spirit.280 Indeed, no one can understand the meaning of the Scripture ‘without the proper engagement with or endowment by the Spirit’.281 However, true understanding of the Scripture is not the ultimate purpose of the interpretive work by the Spirit. Rather, the Spirit is ‘desirous to lead readers into not just truth, but a true relationship with himself, not just factual orthodoxy but also friendship that is authentic’.282
275 Warrington, Pentecostal Theology, 181. 276 Ibid., 180.
277 Ibid., 188.
278 Ibid., 199. Hollenweger, Pentecostalism, 307–21. Chris E. W. Green, Sanctifying Interpretation: Vocation, Holiness, and Scripture (Cleveland: CPT Press, 2015), 146.
279 Yong, Spirit-Word-Community, 219–20.
280 Ibid., 219–44. The Spirit inspires the Word and builds up the community; the Word enables us to
understand our experience of the Spirit and teaches us the form of our common life; the community forms the context in which the Word is understood and the Spirit encountered. See James W. Jones, The Spirit and
the World (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1975), 100, 106. Land, Pentecostal Spirituality, 29–30; idem., ‘The
Triune Center’, 207; idem., ‘A Passion for the Kingdom: Revisioning Pentecostal Spirituality’, JPT 1, no. 1 (1992): 32.
281 Emerson B. Powery, ‘The Spirit, the Scripture(s), and the Gospel of Mark: Pneumatology and
Hermeneutics in Narrative Perspective’, JPT 11 (2003): 186.
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Scripture reading through the Spirit often evokes in readers a response towards God. Through the redemptive story in the Bile, readers confirm God’s love and passion for them. The early Pentecostals believed that ‘through searching the Scriptures and their hearts everything could be kept under the blood’.283 God’s love and passion shed abroad in believers’ hearts so that they give thanks to God, and love God in Christ. Through reading and reciting the Scripture, they communicate with God and show their affections to God. That is, God reveals His affections such as mercy, joy, compassion, and hope, and believers express their affections towards God. The mutual communication strengthens relationality for union with God through the Spirit. The Spirit creates ‘hunger and thirst’ for believers who are seeking the truth, and leads believers into authentic relationship with God in the Scripture.284 In this sense, the Spirit is the authentic communicator between God and believers. The Spirit is not just an interpreter of the Scripture, but mediates the relationship between God and human beings by means of the act of interpretation.
Accordingly, the Spirit facilitates union with God through personal practices. Praying in the Spirit is deep communion with God.285 Reading the Scripture in the Spirit directs one to union with God. However, individual practices alone do not build up the union; rather they demand the ongoing integration not only with beliefs and affections but also with the communal practices such as worship and sacraments. It is the holistic
approach to Pentecostal practices that leads to authentic union with God.
Conclusion
In this chapter, I have transformed Pentecostal orthopraxy through the lens of Spirit- Christology in relationality. Then I have reconfigured Pentecostal practices in relationality
283 Land, Pentecostal Spirituality, 161. See also, AF 1.3 (November, 1906), 2. 284 Land, Pentecostal Spirituality, 163.
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for union with God. Through transformation and configuration, I elevated the discussion regarding union with God to the realm of Pentecostal rituals, such as worship, sacraments and personal practices. Authentic Pentecostal practices seek union with Christ because Christ is a mediator between God and human beings. For Pentecostals, the Christocentric practices begin with an encounter with the Spirit, because the Spirit is the medium of the mediator, Christ. Spirit-filled practices facilitate union with God in Christ. Both
Christocentric and pneumatic practices are evidenced in Pentecostal practices such as worship, sacramental ordinances and individual practices. However, based on a shared Christocentric and pneumatic approach to relationality, I found that early Pentecostals tend to emphasize the role of the Spirit rather than the holistic role of Christ and the Spirit in Pentecostal practices. This pneumatic focus is evidenced by, for example, early
Pentecostals’ strong emphasis on speaking in tongues and gifts of the Spirit in practices. Therefore, a dual emphasis on Christ and the Spirit is needed in Pentecostal practices, because Christ and the Spirit together bring union with God.
Pentecostals experience union with God through conversion, sanctification and Spirit baptism in Pentecostal practices that are Christological and pneumatological. That is, on the way of salvation they expect, experience and taste union with God. This union is commonly shared with others in the worship community. Here, a passion for union with God is animated with rituals, which are the means (vehicles) of relational union. In this sense, the relationality in Pentecostal practices, which is mediated by the Spirit, can be described as relational union, which directs believers to God in Christ on the way of salvation. Indeed, authentic Pentecostal practices led by the Spirit and seeking relationality achieve union with God and with others in the community. Thus, union with God and with others reaches deep into Pentecostal orthopraxy led by the Spirit.
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Pentecostal practices in relationality expand Land’s apocalyptic approach to Pentecostal spirituality. Pentecostal relational practices are not limited to eschatology but are, rather, open to relationality for union with God. Pentecostal practices with close proximity to God fertilize not only eschatology but also other Pentecostal beliefs in soteriology, Spirit baptism and divine healing. In this respect, union with God in Pentecostal practices elevates Land’s work to the level of relationality.
In Pentecostal practices, Pentecostals share their confessions and affections not only with God but also with others in the community, so that they experience union with God and with others. In this sense, Pentecostal practices are mutually connected with beliefs and affections. Union with God is fertilized by beliefs and affections in Pentecostal rituals/rites inspired by the Spirit. Practices in authentic affections and beliefs are authentic outcomes of relational union with God and with others. In the following chapters, I will further elucidate relationality with regard to orthopathy and orthodoxy.
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