The Justification of Real Moves of God
I was forwarded this link from a commenter from another post.
The link was to an article that had posted a letter from Bill Keller at liveprayer.com about what he was seeing being paraded as ‘today’s Christianity’. Bill has some very interesting perceptions in his letter such as:
Since that time, it has
deteriorated into mostly hype and lots of spiritually dangerous practices.
First of all, the vast majority of the people attending these meetings are
not the lost from the surrounding community, but experience chasers from
churches across the country seeking to be part of a move of God. Most
nights, there is no message, the Gospel is not preached, it simply goes from
praise and worship right into the “healing service.” As I stated in my
first Devotional on this, in the Bible signs and wonders followed the
preaching of the Gospel.Let me share this with you. Real revival is not a
bunch of church people flying to a city to be part of the latest hot
experience. When real revival breaks out, yes there will be signs and
wonders, yes people will be healed, yes miracles will happen, but that will
all be secondary to the LOST PEOPLE GETTING SAVED! The lost, not the
church, will be coming to these meetings to get saved, and if God chooses to
do other things while they are there accepting the Lord it will be the icing
on the cake.Real revival won’t be one man, one ministry, but a move of God’s Spirit
through dozens, hundreds, thousands of people who will be His conduit to
bring people the message of Christ!
To this I have to say, AMEN!
This isn’t a ‘revival’. This is more like either an ‘annual believer’s mega-conference’ or in many ways like a “Christianized’ form of a Greatful Dead concert where the ‘gospel groupies’ (some are ‘gospel gypsies) travel from city to city in their SUV or Caravan (it replaced the VW Microbus) looking for the next ‘pentecostal party’ to ‘get drunk in the Spirit, high on Jesus, or ’spiritually stoned’.
The history books I read on ‘revival’ always stated that in the true and genuine revivals, the local people in the cities were the primary attenders of the revival meetings and not a ‘messianic migration’ of people. In those home bases, the businesses/economies of the bars, peep shows, and other vices was severely altered as many of them closed down due to conviction. In those home bases, the family came together in further unity? In those cities, the crime rates went down. In those citites, real freedoms came forth as the Word of God was preached. The sinners came alongside the saved to the meetings and had a life-altering change via salvation and the power of God.
I look at many of the modern revivals such as Brownsville, Toronto, Smithton, and now Lakeland and what do I see? The locals are not attending the revivals. The locals are not being affected. I’ve been told that the church where the Brownsville revival was located at was in the red-light district of Pensacola and the red-light district that was there before and during Brownsville is still there today. I see families furthered splintered as parents get all ’spiritually spaced out’ while their children sit beside them and color in coloring books or told to do keep quiet and focus on their homework in the midst of Charismatic chaos.
When did revivals get justified because they shared the ’same manifestations’ as a past revival? I remembered when The Toronto Blessing came into fruition and this logic was used to justify it:
The Toronto Church has jerking and shaking.
The Great Awakening had jerking and shaking.
The Great Awakening was considered as a move of God.Therefore, since Toronto has the same signs as the Great Awakening and the Great Awakening is considered as being Godly, therefore, the Toronto Blessing is Godly.
There exists a mentality in Christian America for the spirit of nostalgia. Pentecostals want to take us back to Azusa Street. The religious right wants to take us back to 1950 and Leave It To Beaver and Mayberry. Charismatics have wanted to take us back to California / Dennis Bennett / early John Wimber Vineyard times.
Today, it seems as if the revivalists want to take us back to the mid 1960’s to Haight and Ashbury streets in San Francisco where ‘free love’ reigned and we learned to ‘turn on, tune in, and drop out’ while being ‘hippies and gypsies’ looking for the ‘next high’ and at the same time also acting like the Jesus Freaks of that time frame. They are looking for a new experience to replace the Jesus Freak movement because they really believe that the Jesus Freak movement was the last genuine and authentic move of God that ever reached America that was squashed by the mainline churches.
They are looking for a new Woodstock to have another weekend festival to ’show their voice’. They are also avidly looking for dissenters in order to establish the ‘establishment’ to begin the ‘us vs. them’ war. They are looking for a new guru like Timothy Leary. They are looking for a new beat poet to write their books like Ken Kesey. They are looking for a new musician like Jimi Hendrix or the Greatful Dead to sing their new songs.
And it has been 40 years ago since this happened and based on the value of the number 40 in the Bible, and what we have is a formula and not a genuine Faith. This started last year when Lou Engle had his 40 day fast that ended with a ‘Call’ on 7-7-07 in Nashville (if the Call was a success, why do we need Lakeland revivals today?) that continued as a journey from Nashville to San Francisco for the ‘real summer of love’?
And America is still in a deep state of spiritual turmoil…
Just like the pentecostals and Azusa Street…. Just like the Religious Right and Mayberry…., the riverites will end up much like their ‘christian’ counterparts mentioned earlier. Disillusioned and sowing/reaping another generation that will repeat the same formula for futility. Why?
Because true and genuine repentance and change was never the focal point of the ‘revolution’ that has instead turned into an ‘evolution’ descending into a chaotic spiral. The pentecostals went from repentance to tongues and manifestations. The religious right went to an attitude of government will pass laws forcing repentance. The riverires never focused on repentance but wanting signs and wonders, gyrations, and kookiness.
The real move will be given only when we start seeing the true and genuine repentance and an overall change appears within the society. From the link from the person in Lakeland, it appears that we are not seeing this. We are seeing deception via angels named Emma, portals, Bob Jones babbling, and what the Grey Coats call “Bam Bam Bentley’, we see another ‘mess’, another black eye for Christianity, and another dance step.
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Comments
Outstanding!
Today, it seems as if the revivalists want to take us back to the mid 1960’s to Haight and Ashbury streets in San Francisco where ‘free love’ reigned and we learned to ‘turn on, tune in, and drop out’…
As in “Tokin’ the Ghost/Killer bud Jehovah-juana/Yoing Yoing Yoing”?
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