And THE thing that’s been on my mind is: Where is the power????

Mark 16:15-18 says;

[15] And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. [16] Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. [17] And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; [18] they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

A pastor’s wife had asked a question about what to do about a “sweet lady” in their church who does something very distracting and embarrassing each weekend during their Sunday morning services.

Here are some of the powerful thoughts that emerged from the mind of Pastor Joe Champion of Celebration Church in Austin, Texas in regards to that question.

Worshipers in a public worship service- especially where unbelievers may be present- must see their public acts of worship as an interstate; meaning they must merge with the flow of worship of the rest of the congregation. If they do something extreme compared to others (i.e. running, falling to their face in the front, waving flags, playing tambourines, etc…) they will simply become a distraction and others will think that the entire experience is weird and may not allow themselves to encounter God.

Leaders must confront those worshipers who are going against the flow of worship traffic in order to be sensitive to the others there- especially the unbeliever so that they may encounter God.

Leaders mustn’t be afraid of offending that one person because that one person may be hurting everyone else.

As the pastor and leader of your church and its services, you make the call as to what is out of order in the service.

If you want to know what kind of spirit is behind the extreme (or bizarre) displays of worship, confront the person. If they respond with humility and sorrow for disrupting the service, they have the right spirit. If they respond with offense and anger, they have allowed the enemy to use them to hijack your services and the spirit behind their extreme displays of worship was evil.

Champion made this statement;” God is more concerned about your stewardship than He is your friendship.” In other words, you can’t be afraid of offending your friends when it comes to leadership decisions at your church. You must be more concerned for the spread of the Gospel and the advancement of the Kingdom. This is what God cares about, not whether or not you offend your friends.

And through all of this, the people who leave your church, are the people who think that church is about them- not Christ and others.

The other  people in your church are waiting to see if you are a true leader who will confront the problems in your church. They are trying and waiting to see if they can trust you to not allow someone to hijack the church service that they want to be a part of and that they want to invite their friends to. If they can trust you, THEN they will invite their friends.

A final statement that ties all of these thoughts together so well: Your greatest strength (loving people) can also be your biggest weakness (people pleasing). If you love people so much that you are overly concerned with pleasing them and not ruffling any feathers, your ministry and your life WILL suffer for it.

Each of us have unique giftings that have been appropriated in order to see mission take place, but those giftings are not efficient if used on their own. It’s just like how an ER doctor couldn’t accomplish his/her job to the best of his ability without the help of a nurse. And how an ER nurse couldn’t accomplish his/her job to the best of his ability without the help of an ER doctor.

So for those of us who have already discovered our giftings, passions, and talents in ministry; we hopefully have also figured out that our ministry won’t be done effectiently without someone else who has been gifted in such a way that compliments and completes what we have- someone who posseses gifts that we may lack.

I’ll call this the puzzle principle. Ask yourself where your giftings, talents, and passions are, then ask yourself who you need (and what gifts you lack) to see your ministry accomplished more effeciently and completely. Also ask,” How can my gifts compliment and complete someone else’s?” I believe that our giftings will always require the help of someone else’s, and that someone else’s giftings will always require ours- so that we too can serve others.

For me, I have found the most important puzzle piece that fits next to mine: my wife. But I still have some other sides of my “piece” that I desparately need to find fitting ‘pieces’ to comiment my piece of the puzzle and for me to comiments others as well. I’ve been praying that God would send such puzzle pieces for me so that I can bring other people to the table to see my (church’s) mission accomished- and I think I actually may be seeing that happen. When they do come, I hope I recognize it right away and connect. Because a puzzle piece by itself is pretty powerless.

Leadership (Romans 12:8): I use this gift to organize the ins and outs of ministry events and worship experiences; and to lead people to Jesus, past the fads, and to things that are good and eternal; and to counsel, encourage, and help people out of the trials they experience in life.

Distinguishing Between Spirits (1 Corinthians 12:10): I use this gift to discern what is of God and what is not to make sure that myself and those I minister to are not led astray from the Gospel.

The Bible says absolutely nothing about/ gives no indication that the supernatural manifestations of God would stop after the completion of the Bible. In fact the Bible is very clear that God is sovereign and can do what He wants, how He wants, when He wants, with whomever He wants. It also says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever- not that He would one day decide not to use supernatural gifts.

Before I continue though, I want to make it clear that I can agree to disagree with Christian brothers and sisters on issues of Spiritual Gifts, Speaking in Tongues, Miracles, Healings etc….That the presence of said gifts is not essential, a marker of spiritual maturity, or an indication of a closer walk with God.

The verse that most people who don’t believe in the fullness of the Scriptural Spiritual gifts today usually use to discredit them is 1 Corinthians 18:8-10.

That verse says’” when perfection comes” that prophecies will cease and that the spiritual gift of tongues will cease. It then says that knowledge will pass away, but goes on to say that we know in part and prophesy in part and when the perfection comes that we will have those things wholly. For Spiritual Gift detractors, this “perfection” is usually referred to as the whole Bible- with the New Testament. But usually in Scripture perfection is referred to as the state that God intended the world to be and intends to restore it to. The New Testament is perfect, but if you use that argument that means that we know longer have need for knowledge because we know everything- which we clearly don’t.

So are those gifts in action today? The Bible says nothing to the contrary.

As for ‘miracles’; the word means an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.

The ability of God to save a totally depraved sinner and to impute to him Christ’s righteousness, indwell him with Holy Spirit, and give him a regenerated heart- that’s the greatest miracle of all! And it’s one that’s happening today. The ability to sustain the creation of the universe and keep everything in perfect balance for the substation of human life on planet earth- that’s a miracle! As for other miracles? If God can do those awesome things; he can do anything!

I believe with all my heart that God still heals people today .The Bible says that every good and perfect gift is from above. If I am sick; and then I get better- God made me better. He healed me. Whether a doctor helped, medicine helped, time helped, or rest helped- God was the one who healed me.

James 5:14-15 is clear that we are to pray for healing when it says,” Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.” And Jesus constantly taught that we could come before God, asking Him anything and He would answer those prayers.

Tongues? Oh man! This is probably the most contested issue in Scripture and I don’t claim to have it all figured out.

It appears that there are two kinds of tongues mentioned in Scripture: tongues of men and tongues of angels.

I believe that ‘tongues of men’ are when someone speaks a human language unknown to them in a location where someone else understands that language and is used for the purpose of bringing that person to faith in Christ (Acts 2).

I believe that ‘tongues of angels’ are when someone prays and possibly speaks in a language unknown to man for the sake of interpretation. (Romans 8:1; 1 Corinthians 14).

Do those things happen today? There is no Scripture that says that can’t or don’t.

Paul himself said he wished that all people spoke in tongues and to forbid not speaking in tongues. There is no reason to apply this Scripture to only a specific time period, but not the rest of Scripture as well.

If tongues are practiced, the Bible lays strict guidelines on how they are to be used in a church gathering (1 Corinthians 14).

All that being said; I want to clarify that I do not consider myself to be Pentecostal. My Pentecostal brothers and sisters typically believe that Speaking in Tongues is the initial evidence of being baptized in (or filled with) the Holy Spirit.  

I believe that the first incident of Believers speaking in tongues on the Day of Pentecost was a descriptive portion of Scripture, not prescriptive: Meaning that you can be baptized in (or filled with) the Holy Spirit without speaking in tongues. It doesn’t mean that you won’t or can’t speak in tongues when you are baptized in (or filled with) the Holy Spirit; simply that it is not the indicator of said activities of the Holy Spirit.

I believe that one is baptized in the Spirit upon salvation, and that the Holy Spirit dwells within you from that moment forth. I do, however, believe that there are times when the Holy Spirit fills you up beyond what is normal to you; sometimes until you are overflowing. This will always be done by the will of God and for His glory only. The gifts that manifest themselves during these times exist to bring God glory, to point people to Jesus, and to strengthen and encourage the Believer. They are not for the physical or emotional pleasure of the Believer.

I believe that these two things (being baptized in the Spirit, and being filled with the Holy Spirit) are two separate events, but can take place simultaneously.

Sadly, many Christians grossly misuse the Spiritual Gifts for their own pleasure and glory, and turn them into a circus. I am sure that grieves the Holy Spirit.

So, in conclusion, I do believe that all of the Spiritual Gifts mentioned in the Bible are available to the Church today for God’s glory, but are to be used only under the strict regulations set by Scripture and the supernatural leading of the Holy Spirit. Specific Spiritual Gifts do not indicate whether or not someone is saved, whether or not someone has been baptized in the Spirit, whether or not someone has been filled with the Spirit, whether or not someone is spiritually mature, or whether or not someone is closer to God than others. 

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.

As mentioned earlier (in God), there is only one god who exists co-equally and eternally as three persons: God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is one of those three persons of the Godhead or Trinity.

He is equal and One with God the Father and God the Son as referenced by His power (Micah 3:8; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 2:10), His work in creation (Genesis 1:2; Psalm 104:30), and His omnipresence (Psalm 139:7).  In the New Testament of the Bible the Holy Spirit is clearly called “God” (Acts 5:3-4; John 14:16; 2 Corinthians 3:16-18).

The Holy Spirit is not merely an impersonal force or just an extension of God, but a unique individual that is equally a part of the Godhead or Trinity, shown by His ability to be grieved (Ephesians 4:30), resisted (Acts 7:51), and insulted (Hebrews 10:29).

Before Jesus’ ascension into heaven, He promised that the Holy Spirit would be sent to His followers (John 14:15-17; Acts 1:4-8). On the Day of Pentecost this promise was fulfilled as the Holy Spirit did descend upon the Followers of Jesus (Acts 2:1-40)  and continues to be fulfilled today as the Holy Spirit is active in the world.

The Holy Spirit is active today in convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11); thus having an active part in God’s gift of salvation through Jesus(John 6:63; John 3:5-7).

The Holy Spirit baptizes the believer into the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-15), dwells within every believer from the moment of salvation (Acts 2:38; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20), and seals the believer until the Day of Redemption (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13; Ephesians 4:30).

The Holy Spirit sanctifies the believer-making them more like Jesus- (John 14:26; Romans 8:9), thus regenerating the believer and giving them a new life (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The Holy Spirit comfort us in times of trouble (Acts 9:31), even giving us words to say when we know not what to (Matthew 10:19-20).

The Holy Spirit helps us and empowers us to do God’s work and spread the Good News of Jesus to all men (John 3:34; John 7:38-39; John 15:25-27; Acts 1:8; Acts 9:31). The Holy Spirit gives every believer a Spiritual Gift (or Gifts) to accomplish His work on earth (Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:7-11; Ephesians 4:11-12).