Archive for the 'Doctrine' Category

Railing Against the Prophetic Again

Published
by
carl
on March 11, 2008
in Carl's Writings, Christianity, Doctrine, Holy Spirit, Prophesy, Prophetic and Revival
. 6 Comments

One of my disciples asked me the other day about a “national prophet” that had given a specific prophecy regarding a rapper that did not come to pass.  He questioned how this national prophet could have been so wrong.

I restated the question asking how people who are wrong so often are regarded as national prophets.  The prophetic ministry in America has a serious lack of oversight and accountability.   I have remarked in the past about the abundance of homosexual sin in the prophetic movement and I truly believe there is a link here.

I personally know less than a handful of people that I would consider prophets.  I see lots of people who consider themselves prophets but I think the fruit does not bear witness.  If we are going to be a New Testament church, we have to use the New Testament as the measuring stick.

Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians that the five-fold ministry was for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry.  For too long we call people who prophesy real good prophets.  I do not believe that is the case.  You can have a deep and strong gift of prophecy without being in the office of prophet.   And just because you can’t tell who is calling without looking at the caller id and you don’t see the voice of the Lord in ever headline out of Jerusalem does not mean you are not a prophet.

I take the call of the prophet to come from Jeremiah 1:10

See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”

And I think that this is the test of a prophetic ministry.  IT would seem that the test of a prophetic ministry these days lies in the ability  to tell the head of a church you are visiting how much God favors your church over the one down the street and how special that pastor is.

Do prophets prophecy?  Of course they do.  Does a person in the office of prophet get it wrong now and then?  Of course they do.  Not every pastor give the perfect counsel every time.  Sometimes the evangelist gets it wrong when witnessing.  Sometimes the teacher doesn’t fully understand a scripture.

But the pastor is held accountable for bad counsel.   The teacher is held accountable for false teaching.  The evangelist is held accountable for bad doctrine.  So too the church must not be so enamored with the prophetic to keep from demanding accountability for those who minister the “Word of the Lord.”

Prophets, by the nature of their call, should be more open to confrontational accountability and should demand more from the Church then we are seeing.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Gather ‘Round as I Rail Against the Prophetic

Published
by
carl
on March 5, 2008
in Doctrine and Prophesy
. 6 Comments

No, I am not a cessationist. If you don’t believe what the Bible says about the gift of prophesy and you are looking for someone to blaspheme with you will be really disappointed with this post.

My primary giftings surround the prophetic. But much of what I see today is just plan pathetic. In the next couple days I will outline what I see wrong with the church regarding prophetic ministry. Much of which is encapsulated in this little video.

Without being unkind, the woman shows an obvious lack of self control, flows in judgment, behaves like a complete loon, and in the end, the woman does not really stand for anything.

Popularity: 19% [?]

The Seduction of Riches

Published
by
carl
on February 28, 2008
in Christianity, Doctrine, Holy Spirit and Revival
. 2 Comments

I believe that the church in America would be better served if it followed the Bible.  I know that the church of Fox News has the Church convinced that Jesus’ plan to keep America safe is to torture and or kill our enemies but I would like to shine the spotlight in another direction.

Paul made this little plea that we should remember the poor.  Once you see Jesus’ heart for the least of these you really cannot look past them again without pain.  I challenge you to read this post in its entirety:

shaun
We went to lunch and I bought her a hamburger.  She only ate half and when I asked her if she was full she told me she wanted to save the rest so her little sister back home could eat it.

She fell asleep on the ride back to the hotel, her sweaty brown cheek squished up and buried in my t-shirt.  And I prayed, asking God to forgive me for not giving away more of what he’d given me in my lifetime.  “Forgive me” was all I could say holding a child who ate once every three days before Compassion saved her life, didn’t go to school before Compassion educated her, didn’t know she mattered until Compassion told her how much God loved her.  Forgive me.

We have got to return to the Gospel as a church.  I am not talking about a social works gospel.  I am talking about returning to a place where we can be affected by the love of God in a way that it changes how we look at the world around us.  How many people do you know that live below their means for the sole purpose of being able to give?  What are we doing with all this money?

TBN has over $300 million in the bank.  Why do people keep donating to it?  Because they think it will get them rich!  This is perversion!

What will it take for us to have a Gospel centered Christianity in this country?

Popularity: 22% [?]

The Hermeneutics Quiz

Published
by
carl
on February 26, 2008
in Doctrine
. 7 Comments

I stumbled onto the hermeneutics quiz from the merge. I scored a 49. They labeled this as a conservative. This is clearly a perfect score but here is what they have to say about my grouping:

First, the conservative hermeneutic group scores 52 or lower. The strength of this view is its emphasis on the authority, ongoing and normative authority, of all of Scripture. It tends to operate with the line many of us learned in Sunday school: “If the Bible says it, that settles it.” Such persons let the Bible challenge them with full force. Literal readings lead to rather literal applications. Most of the time.

The problem, of course, is that very few people are completely consistent here. At times one suspects something other than strict interpretation is going on when the conservative is willing to appeal to history to suspend the commandment to observe a Saturday Sabbath, but does not to appeal to history on other issues (e.g., capital punishment or homosexuality).

Popularity: 19% [?]

The Year of Prayer

Published
by
carl
on February 6, 2008
in Christianity, Doctrine and prayer
. 0 Comments

I know a church that has declared that for them, 2008 is the year of prayer. That makes me wonder a few things:

  1. What was last year?
  2. What will you move on to next year?
  3. If you didn’t pray before, were you a church? (Mark 11:17)

Prayer is supposed to be the key to other things. It is not a goal unto itself. If the goal of the church is to get people to pray then we have come up waaaaaaay short of the call.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Is Tongues Biblical?

Published
by
carl
on January 30, 2008
in Doctrine, Holy Spirit and Tongues
. 4 Comments

1. 1 Corinthians 12:28. “And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.” God has appointed, ordained, commanded, tongues to be exercised in the church, with or without denominational approval. There is no such thing as an “apostolic-Church” and a “post-apostolic-Church”. Jesus established one Church for all time. Period!

2. Mark 16:17. “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues.” In this passage, tongues is wholly a matter of one’s relationship with Christ through personal believing; the gift has nothing to do with the death of Apostles or canonizing of Scripture. Observe that in this case, believing is the same requirement as given to the Philippian jailor, Acts 16:31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” And Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart.” In each case, belief is the foundation of relationship with God. It is dangerous to predicate such relationships upon historical events or chronological dates.

Continue reading ‘Is Tongues Biblical?’

Popularity: 24% [?]

The Church is Pagan? Please!

Published
by
carl
on January 18, 2008
in Christianity, Doctrine, Emergent and The Goofy Church
. 8 Comments

Bob Hyatt has taken on George Barna’s book titled Pagan Christianity. I heard George speak at a minister’s conference last year. According to his research nobody in the room was saved (except for him).

He went on and on about how people were becoming disconnected with Christianity except for a little subset of Christians called Pentecostals.

I never read this book. I have run into enough people who agree with it to know that it is not of interest to me. That’s why I am glad someone like Bob has taken him to task chapter by chapter.  The series is worth reading just for the laughs you get out of finding the nonsense that people get paid to write in books.

You know those churches that God inhabits when people gather to worship Him? You know, the ones that He saves people in, touches their hearts causing them to fall in love with Him and give their lives to His cause? Apparently God hates those places according to Barna.

Maybe one day Barna can bend a knee and ask the Father what He thinks about the situation.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Quick Rant

Published
by
carl
on November 6, 2007
in Christianity, Doctrine and Holy Spirit
. 4 Comments

I was on a Christian jewelry site and saw a link to their doctrine. My first question is to wonder why a jewelry site needed to post their doctrine. I looked however and came down to the last point of the section titled:

IV. PNEUMATOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

4. The Spirit bestows gifts, however the sign gifts (e.g. tongues, miracles) gradually ceased as the New Testament Scriptures were completed and their authority was confirmed (1 Cor. 12:4-11; 2 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 2:20; 4:7-12; Heb. 2:1-4; 1 Thes. 5:1).

Now, for the sake of being a good Berean lets take a little look see here:

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (Listen)

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

Says that there are gifts and goes into detail listing them.

2 Corinthians 12:12 (Listen)

The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.

Ok, signs attest to the office.

Ephesians 2:20 (Listen)

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

The foundation, these gifts must be pretty important.

Ephesians 4:7-12 (Listen)

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”

(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

More gifts given to men by the Spirit of God.

Hebrews 2:1-4 (Listen)

2:1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

God bares witness to doctrine with signs and wonders. Very important indeed.

1 Thessalonians 5:1 (Listen)

5:1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.

huh? Not sure what this has to do with anything.

But I did not read anywhere in this list of Scripture that says it is ok to rip out whole chapters of the New Testament with a doctrine that is contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Does someone else see it in here?

—————-
Now playing: Extraordinary - Hear Us From Heaven

Popularity: 7% [?]

Where are the Apostles and Prophets?

Published
by
carl
on August 8, 2007
in Asemblies of God, Carl's Writings, Christianity, Doctrine, Holy Spirit and Revival
. 21 Comments

This is the post I do not want to write.

The Assemblies of God is having its convention this week and they will elect a new General Superintendent. The only reason this is a big deal is because so many people think this will have a great effect on the direction of the AG.

Follow me here.

The Assemblies was born in revival as people were kicked out of their congregations for receiving the baptism in the Holy Ghost. Others formed new congregations that were on fire and sought fellowship with like-minded ministries. From the AG website:

A cooperative fellowship emerged from the meeting and was incorporated under the name “The General Council of the Assemblies of God.” Most of the delegates had little desire to form a new denomination or sect, and they structured their organization to unite the assemblies in ministry and legal identity while leaving each congregation self-governing and self-supporting. This structure continues to the present.

While it is true that the structure continues to the present, the need for the structure and the desire of the delegates has strayed far off of that original path.

You want to know the definition of a “Spirit-Filled” church today? Loud music and a little tongues. That is it. The Spirit may come in worship but He better leave in time for the welcome and announcements because we are moving the service along.

I wonder what would happen if a church could not call itself Pentecostal unless the Apostles and Prophets came and tested the meetings against Pentecost and discerned whether or not the same Spirit that fell on Pentecost was at work in the service.

Ooops, I forgot, the AG does not believe in Apostles and Prophets anymore. In fact they have a whole position paper on it. No, today the AG has senior pastors and missionary evangelists. The other terms might offend somebody. And they might actually carry the anointing that comes with the office.

No, we are happy to hear Bible stories of miracles and declarations that we will see them again but we do not want to take any risks and declare “And we are going to wait until it happens today.” And we certainly are not going to call a fast to hurry its coming.

I read lots of comments in blogs where people pray that God send revival to the AG. Have you forgotten Brownsville? God did send revival. The denomination got itself wedged into the middle and the thing and caused a series of splits in the congregation.

The move in Toronto that was mocked by many AG people still has all the key players on staff a dozen years later. The real difference? Toronto recognized that God was doing something new, left their denomination and started a new move. Brownsville tried to make the move of God fit into a denominational structure. God was merciful and touched many lives but the effect is still there. Toronto has a convention center that is paid for and all their staff either in tact or sent out with blessing to start a new work while Brownsville is strapped with debt and the wounds from the splits.

I know this is a wandering, meandering train of thought but an important point here: The AG of today lacks focus and has sought expansion at the cost of its founding mission: revival. I read Mark Batterson’s blog every day and I love what his church is doing but there is no connection between his fellowship and Brownsville, or Azuza, or Pentecost for that matter.

What does the AG need? Decentralization. Right now, churches operate within the structure of the organization. The national structure needs to be cut back to the point of only supporting missionaries. Tell the congregations to seek the Lord as to the direction He is leading and then come back in 10 years to see what structure is needed. Determine that religious spirits will be cast out of the fellowship and declare that we are moving forward in revival. Partner with what Bill Johnson, Randy Clark, Che Ahn and others are doing.

Get a fresh move of God. Open the door to let congregations that really just want to be a slightly more spiritual then Calvary Chapel to leave. Rebuild a fellowship of churches that want revival and move on in that path.

In the end, the AG needs to decide if it wants to be a cooperative fellowship of ministries born in the fire of the Holy Ghost or just the new Methodists.

I will pray for this convention. But my prayer is not for the right leader, it is for purpose.

edit:  I wanted to add that this is in no way an indictment of all AG churches.  I was speaking about the denomination and its direction.  I attend an AG church and I do not hesitate to recommend it to those seeking a church.  Simply being a part of the AG is not wrong and in fact there is much good in the denomination.

—————-
Now playing: Jeff Deyo - Bless the Lord (Featuring Rita Springer)

Popularity: 44% [?]

Ministerial Credentials - From Who and Why?

Published
by
carl
on July 23, 2007
in Christianity and Doctrine
. 11 Comments

For those looking for a theological discussion regarding the priesthood of the believer, you will be disappointed.

In the other churches I have been a part of, the ministers were ordained by the local church.  All the formal ministers were on staff.  There were never ministers that were not a part of the governmental structure of the church.

In my church, we have a mixture of pastors licensed by the denomination and another accrediting agency.  We even have a pastor that is not licensed.  He is called a staff pastor but could not perform a wedding.  This is a bit of an odd phenomenon.

But here is my question for you,

What benefit do you get from your credentialing authority other than meeting the legal and denominational requirements to minister?

I have ministerial credentials from Christian Ministries International Fellowship.  It is headed up by my pastor so it made sense to get licensed through them.  There is a monthly meeting that is available for fellowship and an annual conference.

Popularity: 38% [?]

The Devil Hates My Appliances

Published
by
carl
on July 19, 2007
in Christianity, Doctrine, Evangelism, Healing, Holy Spirit, Preaching, Revival, ministry, prayer and salvation
. 3 Comments

We had The Mission Tuesday night as usual. But things are never usual at an urban outreach.

I preached on living a double life and how Jesus never changes. I gave a warning about playing in the anointing and then playing in the world. I felt the need to warn the people who come and minister and then lead a double life on the outside. The Mission has become their God time break and then they leave and go back to nonsense.

Don’t fool yourself. Randomly pick 10 on fire young people in your church and visit the pictures on their MySpace page. I guarantee you you will find near pornography on many of them.

I talked about how you can probably live a mildly Christian life and make it to heaven but if you want to be part of the end time harvest it is going to cost you something. And if you throw your hat into the ring and seek the anointing of God, and turn back to the world, the devil will be waiting. Choose wisely I told them.

The conviction fell and I invited all those making the choice for Jesus to come forward for prayer. Among them was a guy I will call Jimmy.

Jimmy had come off and on. He has a (fallen) angel that visits him at night. Sometimes it tells him that he is Jesus. Other times it tells him to do really bad things. I am not making this up. about a month and a half ago he came and ran out of the house at the altar call. I later found out that the angel had told him to come to the meeting, listen to the message, and then kill me and two other guys. After the message he left because he did not want to kill us. Thank you Jesus! This guy is about 6′4″ and over 300 lbs (135 kg, 21.4 stone).

I was happy he wanted prayer . . . for a minute.

When I began to pray he almost instantly began to manifest. He began to grunt and growl. He clenched his fists and tightened his jaw and began to snarl. His eyes turned blood red and he began to stare at me as if I was a lineman on the opposing team. Apparently I had stumbled onto something.

I began to command the demon to stop manifesting and to come out of the man but it would not budge. When the manifestations would increase I would rebuke the demon and tell it that it could not put on a show. I would then command it to leave until it began to increase the manifestations again. There was a minute when the people kind of gathered around, stopped worshiping, and began to stare in wonder. Fortunately my disciple let them to begin worshiping God who is the only one who can truly deliver.

I have found that one of the keys to deliverance ministry is to establish that the enemy has no authority in the person. I normally lead the person in a confession regarding the birth, life, death, resurrection, and the second coming of Jesus. After this I tell the demon that they have no authority and that it has to leave. Sometimes confession of specific sins is required or the renouncing of sin, but you get the idea.

So I say to this guy, “Repeat after me, Jesus is alive.”

He says, “Jesus is a lie.”

Huh? Maybe I heard him wrong, “Repeat after me, Jesus is alive.”

“Jesus is a lie.”

Wow, that sounded pretty clear that time. That was a new one for me. Not exactly knowing where to go from here I say, “Say - Jesus - IS - ALIIIIVVVEE.”

“Jesus … IS … A … LIIIIIEEEE.”

Hmmm. I was a communication major in college so I can make a sentence more than one way. You want to play games? I can play games.

“Say, Jesus lives.” HAH! Try to mess that one up! Got you devil!

He looks me dead in the eyes and says,

“I am alive.”

Wow! Wasn’t expecting that one. We are now on uncharted territory for Carl Thomas Ministries (if there were such a thing). I pulled the ole ace in the hole and the devil trumped me with a joker. But now I was stuck. This thing was like engaging a pitbull. You can’t just attack it for a minute or two and then walk away. One of you is going down. And every time this thing would manifest this spirit of fear would try to jump on me. And I knew if I let it take root that this guy would split my head open.

And I really did not want that to happen. I like my head just like it is.

So I decided that since Jimmy asked for ministry, that was all the authority I needed. I grabbed this guys head with both hands and began to command every demon in his life to leave. I normally don’t use that language because it is not necessary. I normally just declare freedom and the devil has to leave. But we were way beyond niceties.

I told the devil to get out of him and leave in the name of Jesus. Then Jimmy began to cough so hard I though I might see his liver. You might not believe this next part but I then saw all these demons standing around looking kind of bewildered like, “What happened?” It was almost funny.

I had someone open the front door and I told them, “Get out!”

Needless to say a real soberness came over the prayer time and several others were delivered that night.

The devil truly is defeated and has no authority in the believer. We can all agree with that, right? But does he have authority in my appliances?

The next day my washing machine completely died. It seems every time I have some sort of spiritual breakthrough, something breaks in my house. Once I had a really seasoned minister who has been mightily used in revival come to dinner. The garbage disposal decided to die as they showed up. I have lost my microwave in these times, my refrigerator, my car has broken down as has my van and various plumbing issues. These regularly happen when I see these types of things. This all leads me to believe that the devil does not mind me so much but he hats my appliances.

Coincidence? Maybe so. But it is annoying none the less.

Remember that old Steve Martin movie, The Jerk? “He hates these cans!”

Popularity: 54% [?]

The Toronto Outpouring - My Experience

Published
by
carl
on July 18, 2007
in Christianity, Doctrine, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Prophesy, Prophetic, Revival, The Goofy Church and ministry
. 11 Comments

I have told this story lots of times but have never set it to paper.

When I got saved, I really got saved. I was in my late 20s and had live a pretty wicked life. I had gotten out of the military a few years earlier and was in college. I went into a Charismatic church, got set free from the devil, and never looked back.

Within a year I was part of a rogue deliverance/healing ministry and saw all kinds of signs and wonders. We prayed for people all over the place and saw miracles in pizza places, hospitals, living rooms, and anywhere else you find people. I distinctly remember casting the devil out of a homeless man in the doorway to Winn Dixie before buying Swiss Cake Rolls to break a fast. (Oh the college years)

Within two years of getting free I was part of church plant team sent to south Florida. I was beginning to move in the prophetic in general and had a pretty keen word of knowledge. The church I helped plant was not a very healthy one but I was young in the Lord and I did not know any better. There was lots of judgment. I thought that was part of leadership. Maybe the leaders need to know the struggles of the people but this was something else. The church leadership I was a part of would gossip about people. If anyone left the church, all their dirty secrets would be laundered in an effort to discredit them and their criticism of the church.

Because of my critical spirit, almost all the prophetic words I got were filled with judgment. I spoke lots of words about repentance, sin issues, pride and rebellion.

As time went on our church became friendly with a man who lived in town who had spoken at Toronto. My pastor went there and got really blown away. Though he was not completely sold on what was going on, he knew God was in it somehow.

Several months later, Jeremy & Connie Sinnott, who were worship leaders at Toronto, were coming to a church in South Florida for what was billed as a worship conference. The congregation was odd to me but the presence of God was there and so I worshiped. On the second day of the conference, Jeremy and Connie were praying for some people so I was waiting for Jeremy (because I was a man and only men could minister to me). Eventually someone said to me that I should have Connie pray for me because she has a real anointing.

I went to her and she ministered to me what I now know to be the Father’s love. She spoke some words, laid hands on my chest, and I literally began to feel hot liquid flow into my heart. I could only cry. When she was done I could not even talk. I told someone that it felt like my heart was being circumcised. Strange indeed.

After that weekend a work of grace began to develop in my life. The hard prophesies began to be softened and I began to flow in a compassion I had never experienced before. When someone came to me for counsel, no longer was my first impression to find a reason to blame them for their problems. Before, no matter what you were going through I could always find a way to make it your fault. That was not the initial response after that.

So this love of God began to swell my heart but I had this problem. I had this word of knowledge that I seemingly could not control. I could look at people and see the sin in their lives. I only had to listen to someone for a minute before I could clearly see all their moral transgressions. This made it almost impossible to have meaningful relationships. All I could see was people’s sins. They would tell me they were fine but I knew better and I wanted to rebuke people so badly.

I now had this issue. I knew the love of God but I was getting all this dirt on people and I was in the leadership of a church that was constantly bringing accusation against everybody. There was no issue that could not be solved with a rebuke.

As an example. When my son was born he had a slight problem keeping down food that caused him to be hospitalized. It turned out to be minor but they had a hard time diagnosing it and he was quite ill. In the midst of this hard time I went to my pastor and told him that I was having a hard time and that I was being tempted with lust. While my son was dieing in the hospital he said to me,

“You know that this sin is the reason your son is in the hospital right?”

Blech! I have to spit that out every now and then. I cannot believe I thought that was godly counsel. (If that man is reading this please repent. If you go to his church, RUN!)

So I had this revelation of the love of God in conflict with what I was receiving and how I saw Him ministered. In the midst of this conflict, I took a pilgrimage to Toronto.

At first, I was really disappointed. The services were quite tame. The ushers did not let people remain in the isles during the preaching and most extravagant behavior was stopped. This was not the kennel I was told it would be.

There were lots of great sessions with great speakers but as I look back God did two things. The first was I got a revelation that I am exactly how God created me to be (this is a major post in itself so I won’t go into it). The second was almost as impactful as my time with the Sinnots.

In the middle of one session John Sanford said, “Just because you have access to the spirit realm does not mean you can go snooping around in everybody’s life. If they have not asked for your ministry, stay out of their business.” This is not a direct quote but pretty close. John then talked about how you can read people by staring at them long enough and how people today call that prophesy but it is not. It is soulish and does not glorify God. His wife Paula talked about walking into a room and picking up the burdens of every person in the room and that she had to learn to not allow that to happen. She had to reject that natural reaction.

This was revelation to me! Just as the ministry of the Sinnots revolutionized my relationship with God, this one little teaching revolutionized my ministry. After that time, when I would start getting accusations against a person I would have to tell myself that I am not going there.

God began to use me in genuine prophetic revelation. That is revelation minus the anger. Since the church could not bring accusation against me regarding my personality they began to tell me that I did not have a prophetic gift and that I was an evangelist so I should only bring prophetic words to the lost. And it just got goofier from there. Eventually the God I knew conflicted with the church I was attending and it was time to go (can you say deliverance?).

In the past few years I have had people tell me that I am one of the nicest people that they know. And I have people call me saying that I always have a word of encouragement. This is a miracle! I was genuinely changed by a few encounters. Now I have read books by lots of the people in this movement and have listened to lots of teaching series and watched lots of conferences online but these two moments were landmarks in my walk.

So when I hear people say that Toronto was a counterfeit move or that it was really the devil I quietly pray that the Lord forgives them. It really is a frightful thing to call the Holy Ghost a demon. Not an area that I would tread.

Were there things in Toronto that were off? Aren’t there in your church? Aren’t there in your ministry? Could you testify that every single person that has ever heard your teaching will respond in a biblically sound manor will produce good fruit? If your church sees a couple hundred people a year how many of them are fruitcakes that you could not help or would not be helped? Imagine if that number was a half million that came through. Give a little grace.

In the end, I know that God was in that place. They have since ended the nightly meetings and the crowds have disbanded but there are congregations all over the world that were birthed in a move of the Father’s love the same way I was.

update:  this post was in response to a post by Michael at Charismatica.

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