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WHAT About FALLING DOWN??
-by Andrew Strom.
After reading what we have published regarding the dangers of Kundalini, etc, a
lot of people may be wondering what is "OK" - what is really from the Holy
Spirit?
Does the Holy Spirit sometimes cause people to "fall down" under the power of
God? Yes - sometimes He does. But He does not need to make some big "show" about
it. And neither does He need men to "push" people over, either. There are
counterfeits for everything.
What about the gifts of the Holy Spirit - like tongues, prophecy, healings,
discernment and the casting out of demons, etc? Yes - I believe very strongly in
ALL the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are right the way through the New
Testament. But the key is this word "Holy." The real gifts of God have a
holiness and purity
about them. You can sense this. Counterfeits tends to have a "weirdness" or
ugliness about them.
Let me give you an example. I received the following account from a preacher in
England several years ago: "There were about 20 fellow ministers all gathered
together in one large room at a local minister's house. We were introduced to
the special guest... The next 3 hours were the weirdest three hours I have ever
had to
endure. We started listening to [her] testimony which seemed very powerful, next
she spoke of the times that she meets with the Angel Gabriel and other spiritual
beings, next we moved on to portals between this world and the next and then
finally to how she was going to open up a portal to Heaven in the room that we
were all in. Now things started to happen, really crazy things and strange
noises... As [she] moved around the room ministering to individual people they
were crashing to the ground, bouncing up and down, running around as if on fire
and making all sorts of sounds. When she came to me she had no prophetic words
for me and nothing happened to me so she just moved on. My Vineyard friend was
the first to crash to the floor. Since that day his church has taken on a
different guise, it is not the same church any more."
Please notice that the PREACHING was different from true Biblical preaching -
and the SPIRIT that the lady was ministering in did not seem like the pure Holy
Spirit. Can you tell the difference?
We need to watch out for preachers who bring unbiblical or "New Age"-sounding
terms into their preaching - or who talk about "angels" all the time. Can people
have true encounters with real angels? Yes - but always these beings that come
from the presence of a Holy God carry His "holiness" with them. Angels in the
Bible always carried this weighty presence of a Holy God. There is too much
weirdness, ugliness and silliness in a lot of Christian meetings today. And I
believe a lot of these encounters are not real angels at all.
So should we go forward with prayer needs for healing, etc? Absolutely!
-If the preaching is sound and biblical and they are not putting on some big
"show." As long as the preacher has not gotten some weird "impartation" from one
of these strange "revival" meetings then they are probably fine. In fact, I am
all for the real power of God being demonstrated in the earth! I wish we were
seeing a lot MORE true healings and deliverances and miracles - not less! Jesus
said, "These things will you do - and greater things than these"! (Jn 14:12).
Just think about the Book of Acts for a moment. Not only are there healings and
miracles and demons being cast out right through the whole book, but there are
also occasionally angels appearing with instructions from the Lord, and an
abundance of dreams, visions and prophecies, etc. So we see that God is
definitely a
SUPERNATURAL GOD. He does do "unusual" things. Angelic visitations DO HAPPEN.
Prophetic signs DO OCCUR. But please notice that all of these things have a
certain holy "character" about them. And that is the key right there. They have
a holy character, because they come from a holy God.
I believe in a true Revival that has the piercing "word" of a John the Baptist
or a Jonathan Edwards or a Charles Finney - accompanied by the most powerful
MIRACLES that anyone has ever seen. I believe in a Revival like that - the
"word and Spirit joined." True, piercing 'holiness' preaching with real signs
and miracles following. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it is
what the Book of Acts shows us again and again. Bring it on, Lord!
So please be discerning - but don't be afraid of the real super-natural power of
God. Without it, we simply cannot reach this lost and dying world in the way
that God has called us to. The devil wants us to be so afraid of the
"counterfeit" that we run right over to the other extreme - where we don't want
God's power or
anything "unusual" at all. This is just as big a trap as the "Charismania"
excesses on the other side. The devil loves to push us to extremes - either
hyper-Charismania or dead orthodoxy. I believe in a powerful balance right
in the middle - the "word and the Spirit" joined. That is where real Revival is
to be found. Don't let the devil rob you by pushing you to either extreme, my
friends.
God bless you all!
Andrew Strom.
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