Genuine Revival in China
This video reveals something of the beautiful Christlike spirit of those Chinese Christians who are true examples of what it means to love and serve Jesus Christ. It seems that genuine revival thrives in an atmosphere of government repression.
Get your free registration and log in to view entire article
Towards a Culture of Discernment in Full-Gospel/Charismatic Churches
I was brought up in a part of the Anglican church where we were encouraged to read and study the Bible for ourselves. We were taught that the beliefs we have concerning theology and the gospel should be based on what the Scriptures say, and not merely on the pronouncements of "God's chosen leaders". Of course no church movement has really been able to follow this principle through fully until now, but it is a noble thing to at least espouse the principle.
Get your free registration and log in to view entire article
Why I don't trust the Todd Bentley Lakeland phenomenon
Dear friends in Christ,
Even before the Lakeland phenomenon broke out, I heard a report about Todd Bentley's meetings on the Gold Coast that dismayed me somewhat. It had to do with the way he raises money, by telling people that they should "sow" money into his anointing so that they can receive an impartation of it.
Get your free registration and log in to view entire article
A Watchman/Prophetic Ministry worth Hearing
In my view, many of the big-name ministries of today's pentecostal/charismatic world have now entered into deception. The love of money has corrupted them.
The sin of Balaam is to seek to prophesy and trade in spiritual things for FINANCIAL REWARD. If its not obvious to you that the majority of television preachers/prophets today on the major networks are doing just that, then I submit to you that you need to WAKE UP.
Get your free registration and log in to view entire article
Your Money Perish with you!
Simon was a sorcerer who had impressed the people of Samaria with his occultic powers for a long time. But when he heard the gospel and saw the power of God moving through Philip the evangelist - especially in miraculous healing and deliverance from evil spirits, he believed and was baptized. I wish the story had ended there concerning this man, but it does not.
Get your free registration and log in to view entire article
Popular content
All time:
Last viewed:
- Deliverance Testimonies
- The Main Points of the Sermon on the Mount - Part 1
- True Stories of God at Work
- The Fight to Overcome Fear and New Age Deception
- Bible Teaching
- I need help
- Spiritual Power - Getting the Right Stuff
- Browse all profiles
- How I Met JESUS,My Love
- Gold Dust from Heaven
- Prayer for Deliverance
- Involving Accidents
- Browse Profiles
- myra
- All About Christian Faith
Re: Revival
Michael,
Thank you for the great writing on revivals you posted here. I know that you mentioned the Toronto Blessing in your post and I want to add that i recently saw a video taken at a recent meeting just 2 weeks ago. I was struck by some of the focus on the Holy Spirit without the foundation of the Word. I spent 2 hours watching this DVD and came away with a mixed feeling of what I saw. There were plenty of "manifestations" but had a sense that there was something a little off in the way that they showed themselves. i know that I am new to the Baptism in the Holy Spirit but I cannot say the my Spirit was in tune with the spirit there. It seems to me that there is a search to catch some of the "blessing" before it leaves. I for one would like to have seen more of the Spirit manifesting itself with changed lives and true expressions of praise and worship to Jesus Christ. I myself am longing for and looking for a revival but not at the cost of seeing people desire salvation and a deeper need for personal holiness and worship to the Savior. I am looking for the revival that brings people to their knees as they see Christ for the very first time as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Until then i will continue to worship him in Spirit and in Truth. Praise be to God.
Cesar-
Walk in Wisdom Toward Them That are without Redeming the Time. (Col. 4:5)
http://walkonbendedknees.blogspot.com/
Re: toronto manifestations
Yes, I am coming round to the view that these manifestations are questionable. Thankfully God is definitely moving and bringing people to Christ without all this stuff in many places.
The Holy Spirit puts the emphasis on Christ, the gospel, sin, righteousness, judgment. That is what the Word of God says. But if the emphasis is always on the Holy Spirit, and the "move" itself, but not bringing a sense of conviction, I wonder about the source.
They have the Fruit
I've personally been to a Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship conference, and to churches associated with Toronto Fellowship,and I often stream live into their meetings.
I admit that the manifestations do put people off to start with in fact it takes about 3 days to get used to them. They tend to offend the mind rather than the spirit. But when all is said and done they are not really anything to be bothered about, it's just people getting so filled with the Holy Spirit, that
something has to give in their flesh. Sometimes it is a deep groan or groans, or other times it's another type of sound like a whooooooooo, or a hooooooooooo. Or an involuntary boldly movement a bit like a spasm. But more often than not most people don't have anything like that happen to them, they just feel a warm, loving presence of the Holy Spirit come upon them. But the most remarkable thing about it all is, people often find their life and ministry changes often quite radically; for the better as a result of having ministry there.
The fruit of the ministry from Toronto is huge in terms of people saved, healed and delivered. There have been many who have gone on missions in some very difficult places in the world, and they have brought revival there. Countries that are Muslim and have associations with Islamic fundamentalists. Some very difficult parts of Africa were things are dire really, they've brought revival there too.
The list is almost endless, I could go on and on and on....
As for signs and wonders there is one lady missionary called Heidi Baker who has seen the Lord raise up about 80 from the dead. There was another lady at tacf meeting who had, had her leg amputated from just below the knee, God has given her a new leg down to her ankle and she is now believing for a new foot. Not to mention the new teeth people frequently get at tacf...
Then there is the worship which is authentic Holy Spirit worship,and they do all honour Jesus as Lord and worship Him, and they also have a revelation of God the Father as a real Dad, Abba and receive his love as such...
Once more the revival at Tacf has been going for 13 years now, and long may it continue. KT.ORG, arguably the must successful pentecostal church in the UK, with hundreds of cell groups all over London; is very much a friend of Tacf too. Colin Dye the Pastor at KT has spoken at tacf conferences, something he wouldn't do if tacf was off beam.
Measuring fruit
Do you believe that these manifestations always happen when people are genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit to this level? Can we establish any kind of relationship between the acceptance of these manifestations are the fruitfulness of a minister?
Why do many pastors who formerly embraced these manifestations now discourage them in their churches? Are they opposing the work of the Holy Spirit? Or have people stopped being filled with the Holy Spirit where these things don't take place?
What documented evidence is there that God has transformed the ministries of people exposed to TACF. Hundreds of thousands went through it - where are all the people who came to the Lord through it? If one of my readers has, I'd be happy to hear of it.
Many people were being greatly used by God before they came to TACF or embraced such things. And many of them have sinced moved on to the "next big thing". What do you think?
Tacf
There really needs to be a time of preparation and teaching before a lot of people can fully benefit from a tacf conference. A prayer soaking conference would be a good first introduction.
That way folk get the teaching behind soaking or marinating in the Holy Spirit, and learn just what is going on when the Holy Spirit comes on them in power and also how to go with the flow. Sometimes mental strong holds and prejudices need to be demolished. But once someone learns to soak in the Holy Spirit and be continually filled with the Holy Spirit, then they want to do what Jesus wants to do more & more.
I remember a preacher once saying That the main reason the Nazi party got control in Germany in 1930's was because the Christian Church in Germany made a covenant outlawing the Holy Spirit. This happened because there were manifestations of the Holy Spirit - revival - that didn't fit in with German thinking and the German way of doing things. The Consequence was something had to fill the void and that was Nazism and the vile demonic spirit behind it. Apparently the preacher used to minister in Germany and had Lutheran Pastors repent and renounce the covenant.
As for pastors who once welcomed the manifestations of the Holy Spirit and now don't. I think it might be more to do with respectability than anything else. I've no doubt they can come up with a doctrinal reason/excuse for it, bit like the pre 2nd world war Germans Christians.
It would be a huge job tacking down people who have been through tacf conferences, It would even by quite a task tracking down those who go through the school of ministry. Many are involved in over seas missions In a sense tacf seems to exist as a resource that is used by the Lord to bring personal revival into people's lives and then they take the blessing with them to wherever. There are lots of friends of tacf, the founding Pastor is John Arnott & his wife Carol. Friends are Bill Johnson, Pastor of Bethel Church. Roland & Heidi Baker they have a big mission in Mozambique. Pat King of Extreme Prophetic ministries, Todd Bentley of Fresh Fire Ministries, to name but a few. There is a free e-book by Heidi Baker about a revival they were involved with in a Chinese orphanage. It's called 'Visions beyond the Veil.' in pdf.
Not sure what you meant by moving on to the next big thing. The whole purpose of tacf ministry seems to be to refresh and equip people and send them out into the harvest.
Visions beyond the veil
I read the book 'Visions beyond the veil' by H.A. Baker in the 1980's. It was not written by Heidi Baker, unless she has been around ministering like before World War II. It happened decades ago. It seems that Heidi Baker is the wife of the grandson of the author, from something I found on the web.
The German pastors made a serious error and you may be right about it opening the door for Nazism. However, to equate what they did with distrusting the TACF is taking it way too far.
What we want is biblical proofs of God's power. They certainly exist when I minister the gospel. The key is spending time in God's presence. We don't need to do all kinds of strange things in God's presence. It could happen, but if it does, its not important.
However, some people seem to think that weirdness is proof that God's supernatural is there. This is an error.
I have seen evangelists operate in situations with ZERO TACF type manifestations and tonnes of power. All sorts of genuine healing miracles, young people from other religions earnestly desiring to follow Jesus.
I've also been in lots of meetings with TACF type manifestations where there was no clear proof that God was there afterwards except that people felt good. Most of us will feel good during a secular rock concert also if we go with the flow, throw out our brain and jump in. It doesn't make it right.
I would also say that if anyone spends a lot of time in prayer and the Word they will ultimately get far more from God than a person who goes to a special meeting hoping to get the revival anointing. There are now hundreds of thousands of people who have gone for the latter and still no measurable revival comes through their lives.
And the communities around these western revival locations seem to be totally unimpacted by the move of God in the area, except for the tourist trade. They do well out of it.
Misunderstandings of Manifestations and Responsibilty
Michael,
I have had many conversations with my former pastor, a Fundamentalist Baptist minister, about this very thing. Actually, he did more talking than me as he is trying to convince me that my "Baptism in the Holy Spirit" and speaking in "tongues" is scriptural error.
He keeps talking about the emphasis of "moves" of God and an overabundant concentration on "emotion". He keeps harping on the point that this leads to all sorts of fleshly manifestations and pursuits. He keeps talking about how this is a great example of spiritual immaturity. One of the things that he kept pointing out is that because of this type of emphasis, there will be a great deception that will ensnare even the very elect as the Great Deceiver will easily fool Christians into believing he is the Promised Messiah. He believes that because there is no concentration to be doctrinally and scripturally pure there will even be people that will be deceived into believeing that they are children of Almighty God and thus miss out completely on the promise of the Heavenly Kingdom. I usually sit there and allow him to finish but always go back to the fact that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is avalaible to all generations and that it was given for all of God's children but that because of a desire for the church's heirachy to assume control of religious services it has been relegated to the status of "offbeat" doctrine or belief. My point in stating all of this is that as long as their is a certain contingency that is irresponsible with this wonderful gift that was bestowed to us by Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit, there will always be a certain faction that will shun this most precious gift. I long for all of my brothers and sisters in Christ to receive this wonderful annointing and glory in a life of spiritual power for the benefit of the Kingdom of God. I believe that it is incumbant on all of us which call themselves "Full Gospel Christians" to show that there is a great benefit that is received through the Baptism by fire and less oddity. However I do not not want to pass judgement on those that are sincere for if the Spirit moves He moves as He wills not by me trying to control the way that I respond to His flowing through me.
Blessed be His Name,
Cesar
Walk in Wisdom Toward Them That are without Redeming the Time. (Col. 4:5)
http://walkonbendedknees.blogspot.com/
Fundamentalism vs Supernatural Christianity
Hello Cesar,
It never fails to astonish me that there are still churches and Pastors about in this country – I'm assuming your in the UK – that still think in a way
that is basically anti supernatural. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit with the gifts of the Spirit, tongues etc has been happening since the revival in the early part of the 1900's, 1907 I believe.
I've heard a testimony and read teaching material by a man called Mark Virkler, who was brought up in a church much like the one you have come out of. You can down load the teaching for free from cwg.minitries.org
It's called Wading Deeper into the River of God. It's about how the Lord lead Mark Virkler out of a type of Christianity, that had no emotion in it,no supernatural, they even believed that God didn't speak to people any more. They claimed God had left us with the Bible and a brain and He expects us to use our brain to understand the Bible. This in turn lead to a form rational humanism where the mind becomes an idol and man becomes dependent to large degree on himself, instead of God, the whole thing is rather awful.
But the book is mostly about the way out from under the bondage of rational humanism. Which should have nothing to do with Christianity but unfortunately it does in fundamentalist Baptist churches.
Mark Virkler
Yes I love Marks teaching. CLU online teaches you how to hear the voice of God daily. It is very good and teaches you to line all your word from God with the bible and submit it to spiritual counsellors for confirmation. Im not sure if I can paste web adresses on here but if you do a google search for communion with God ministries or christian leadership university you should find it. it was a breath of fresh air to me!
Post new comment