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|  I said on a previous blog that discernment will save your life these days.
The Lakeland Revival fiasco is over. Todd Bentley is no longer "in the ministry" after an affair and heavy drinking problems have come to light. I have to wonder...did he really think his sins would not find him out???
I could go so many different directions with all this...
But I won't...
For myself, my prayer is "God, strip me of every false belief, doctrine and tradition of man". I read a new term this week "post-charismatic". Hhmmm...maybe... I believe for me personally it is time to really get serious and go back to the very foundations and rebuild the house. Psalm 127:1 says "If God doesn't build the house, the builders only build shacks". I think I've been living in a shack.
I don't want the newest, greatest revelations anymore. Torah and the ancient paths are calling my name...
Sandy | | |
| "We cannot attain the presense of God. We're already totally in the presence of God. What's absent is awareness." This is the core of the spiritual journey - learning to discern the presence of God, to see what really is. But nothing is more dangerous than presuming that we already see when we do not... from the book "The Gift of Being Yourself" by David G. Benner | | |
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Grandchildren are a great invention. :) | | |
| I am an avid reader but I have to say that nothing I have read in recent months has so profoundly influenced me as Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard. Another words...it's been kicking my butt... He pretty much says that if you are a Christian who is continually led around by your feelings then you can't call yourself a mature Christian. OUCH!!! Character development is painful. We throw around the scripture about "crucifying our flesh" but for me whenever the sacrifice really begins to pinch, I will run back to my ingrained areas of comfort. This book, more than any other I have read, is showing me how to recognise the feelings and take control before they run me off the path. It is seriously hard work but profitable. | | |
| I've been watching Todd Bentley's "revival" that is going on in Lakewood FL the last few nights on GodTV.
I can only talk out of my own experiences with ministries like Todd Bentley's. There are many streams that make glad the city of God. I'm thankful for that. I've dipped my toes in several different streams over the years. It's up to each one of us to find the stream where we fit best.
Todd Bentley's stream represent the maniacs in the "church". Now, do I believe that God moves in this stream? Absolutely. God looks at individuals, not streams or movements. Do I believe what is going on in Florida is real? NO, and yet, yes. I was caught up in the shepherding movement years ago. We were as off the wall as any movement can be but yet God would move in our midst. It's because He looks into our hearts. But He expects us to grow up and learn discernment.
Let me tell you my experience.
I attended a meeting in Topeka Kansas a couple of years ago. The name of the conference was Topeka Storm. A compatriot of Todd Bentley's was the speaker, Jeff Jansen. I went anticipating a great meeting.
There were probably 700 - 1000 people in attendance. Almost immediately people began manifesting all manner of stuff. Shaking, crying, laughing, bowing, jerking, etc. After a while, I started wondering what was wrong with me. I didn't recognise the Spirit of God anywhere in the room. Jeff Jansen jumped up on the platform and starting yelling that the glory was over in a corner of the room. Then he yelled that there were angels in another part of the room. I must have looked pretty silly because I turned around and was looking, trying to see what he was talking about. I kept thinking "if God is here, why can't I see too"?
About that time a young girl "danced" by me. She could barely stand and when I looked into her eyes I saw that she was totally gone. I thought "I've seen that look before but where"? I then remembered watching a program on the Discovery Channel about VooDoo. On that program they showed a video of the process of a woman being possessed by a demon. The girl that had danced by me was channeling a familiar spirit. She wasn't in control of herself and I was in a room full of sincere people who were manifesting under the influence of all manner of familiar spirits in the soulish realm. If the Holy Spirit was in the room, I couldn't find Him.
I earnestly asked God "WHAT IS THIS"!?! And as clear as I've ever heard the Lord speak to me I heard him say two words. Two words that revealed why I couldn’t join in, why I couldn’t sense His Spirit, why it wasn’t real, He said
- MANUFACTURED GLORY-
Discerning of spirits will save your life in these last days! I grabbed up my stuff and almost ran from the room. | | |
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