The Lakeland Revival, Part 1: Locality
Disclaimer Number 1:
Unlike many of my Christian brothers and sisters; I do believe that the supernatural Gifts of the Spirit mentioned in the New Testament are for today if used with the strict and evident guidelines set by the Apostle Paul. I will go into specific detail in a later post under my Doctrine Series 1 Posts.
Disclaimer Number 2:
I do not believe- although I could be wrong- that Todd Bentley has any intention of leading people away from Christ or leading them into an anti-Christian cult. I do ,however, believe that Satan is using Mr. Bentley and his tactics to lead people away from the sovereignty of Christ. I believe that Mr. Bentley is, although unaware of it, a wolf amongst the flock.
That being said, I believe that one of the Biblical Spiritual Gifts that I posses is Discernment (1 Corinthians 12:10). Discernment, also known as ‘distinguishing between spirits’, is the abillity to tell if God is in something or not. It is the abillity to tell right from wrong. It is the abillity to detect evil in something.
From my first observation of the Todd Bentley-Lakekand, Florida-Revival; I felt something was not right. It started out as reports of Bentley kicking people in the face to heal them and asking people to come and get drunk off the Spirit.
Then I started to read Todd’s blogs, listen to some audio of his teaching, and watching the revivals on the internet. My feeling of something not being right was confirmed. What I have seen frightens me because so many Christians are diving into what appears to be the beginning of a possible strange cult. I grieve for those who do not look to see if God is in something, but instead just want a supernatural experience.
I’ll go into this in detail over the next few weeks, but today I want to talk about the problem of Locality.
In 2 Kings Chapter 5, there is an unusual story about an Aramean named Naaman who was stricken with leprosy. He traveled to Israel to see if the god of Israel could/would heal him through the Prophet Elisha. God does heal Naaman by using Elisha and because of this healing, Naaman realizes that there is no ther god but the God of Israel and makes a promise to no longer worship any other god but Him.
This is a fascinating story with a lot of strange things taking place, but I want to focus on one particularily unusual part of the story. You see, after God reveals Himself to Naaman through the healing, Naaman makes a weird request of Elisha. He asks if he can take “two mule loads” of dirt from Israel back to his home country of Aram…in order to worship God??
It’s wonderful that Naaman had this conversion experience, but he greatly misunderstood something about God. You see, in that day and region it was common for people to associate certain gods with certain regions- like a territorial god of sorts. So even though Naaman acknowledged God as ‘the god’, he still saw God as a god who was limited to a specific region and he thought that if he could bring some dirt from Israel back home, that maybe this god would somehow follow him there.
About 900 years after this story in the same general location (Samaria), Jesus takes on this very issue. The story is found in John Chapter 4. Jesus has a controversial converstation with a Samritan woman at a well. This is also a very fascinating story with many wonderful implications, but I want to focus on one interesting segment.
The woman says,” Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” So just like Naaman, this woman associated worshipping God- and basically associated God Himself- with a specific geographic location.
Jesus then corrects her when He says,” Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ” He then says,” But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
So Jesus clarifies that God is not a physical god who is bound by geographic boundaries- He is Spirit, He is everywhere, and can be worshipped anywhere! The Bible is clear that God is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-12).
So what does this have to do with the Lakeland Revival? The answer: a whole lot. The unofficial slogan for this ‘revival’ has been “Get Some!” The following are two direct quotes from Bentley’s Fresh Fire Ministries home page: “So we want to invite you Sunday night and every night to watch God’s power live in Lakeland, Florida. If you can be with us, “Come get some!!!” “I invite you to come and discover what it’s like to be in His presence, what it’s like to build a personal relationship with God, what it’s like to hear God, to experience God, to move in His power, and to see His purpose wrought in your own life.“
To me this wreaks of the old “God is a regional physical god who is constrained to a geographic boundry” philosophy. It says, “you have to come here to GET SOME of God.” It says basically that,” God’s not where you are, so come GET SOME of Him where we are because we have things figured out.” It says,” God is not powerful enough to meet you where you are, so come GET SOME from us because we are better than you.” Now these were not quotes from the Bently camp, but that is the essence of what they are saying.
Bottom line? If you need God- He is there for you wherever you are and is able to save you, to heal you, and restore you. You don’t need a fancy evangelist. You don’t need to be in Florida. You don’t have to have someone say,” BAM!” You just need God- He is enough. God has made Himself available to us through the cross of Christ and we can come to Him whenever we want and wherever we are.
This “Come Get Some” slogan also grieves me because it trivializes God into a god who exists to please you, meet your needs, and do what whatever you want Him to do. My hearts desire is not to “Get Some” of God. My hearts desire is to worship God and to serve Him because He is worthy of my praise whether I have some whacky experience in the Sunshine State or not.
My trust in God is based off of His revelation to me through His Word, His creation, and His goodness. My faith in Him is solid and is based off of a person- God in the flesh- who loved me so much that He died for me on a cross 2000 years ago. It is not based on a feel good experience or a one time earthly blessing. It is built on the corner stone of Christ.
Part 2: Miracles = Good? Coming Soon.
In Kindergarten I was officially voted 'Most Inquisitive'.
I have been asking questions ever since as I believe that they are the catalyst to discovering the world all around us.
The answers to these questions have led me into an everlasting committed relationship with Jesus Christ, into a marriage with the love of my life, and into being the father of the two most beautiful children on earth.
It is my personal mission to glorify God with my life, advance His Kingdom through my ministry, and to love my family with everything I have.
I am the Pastor at Fellowship Church in Salem, Oregon and these are my thoughts on life.
Goog thoughts.
However, I think there are times where we should live in the middle – avoiding both extremes of the situtation – particularly concerning the “getting some” of spiritual gifts.
Though I do disagree with the “come to Lakeland to get some of God” mentality, I also disagree with “my hearts desire is not to “Get Some” of God.”
I firmly believe that we can receive supernatural gifts/blessings (whatever you want to call it) from God today. I firmly believe that God can and does move His people in unique ways – though a true move of God in my opinion is an extreme rarity.
I don’t think we “experience” Him as much as we say we do. His existance in our lives based on a feeling or an emotion – it’s a relationship. And in that relationship, He sometimes chooses to “salt” us with gifts/blessing. Does it look like the Lakeland Florida “outpouring?”
Personally I’d have to say no.