QUESTION ABOUT THE FLORIDA REVIVAL AND STROM ARTICLE

Pam, hope you are well....still enjoying your teachings and sharing the prophetic. I was wondering what your take is on this? I think I read Bob Jones prophesied it,etc. I would appreciate your thinking....

Andrew Strom wrote this:

A FALSE HEALING REVIVAL?? -Florida
-Andrew Strom.

Many of you will have already heard about the "Healing Revival" that has purportedly broken out in Lakeland, Florida. Today Charisma Magazine put out a piece on it entitled 'A Holy Ghost Outbreak in Florida' - "...Charismatics are flocking to the sleepy town of Lakeland, Fla. to attend evangelist Todd Bentley's unconventional revival services." Is Charisma preparing to hype this one to the skies like they did with Toronto and Rodney Howard-Browne? It seems perhaps they are.

But why am I opposed to this 'Healing Revival' so soon after it has been announced? -It is because I already know Todd Bentley's ministry all too well, and this whole thing centers around him.

Todd Bentley actually has deep roots in the Prophetic movement, and he is one of the very few ministers that I have ever felt I had to publicly warn people about by name. -His ministry is that bad. False "angel" encounters of the weirdest kind, gold dust, guided visualizations of the "Third Heaven" that are straight out of the New Age, etc. And yet there is a "power" with it that makes it all the more dangerous.

Here is how Charisma describes his Florida meetings- "His methods are far from polished. When he prayed for people in Lakeland, he usually began by laying his hand on their heads and then yelling, "Bam!" Often the people fell backward to the floor. After one elderly woman fell, Bentley told the audience: "She doesn't know why she fell down." The woman then laughed and said to him in the microphone: "Because you pushed me!" He prayed for her three more times that night, and she said she could hear better...

During the past three weeks people have testified of being healed from heart conditions, skin rashes and back problems, and many said scars disappeared...

Many charismatics are wondering if the protracted meetings will become a phenomenon similar to what happened in Rodney Howard-Browne's meetings in Lakeland in 1993, at the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church in Canada in 1994 and at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola in 1995..." [END QUOTE]

Sadly, the Charismatic movement is in such a sick state today that it would not surprise me at all if this happens. (-I say this as a strong Spirit-filled, tongues-speaking believer myself. I am by no means opposed to genuine miracles). Have we completely forgotten the warnings of "Lying signs and wonders" in the Last Days?

Below is a testimony by Lynn Clark who is a Moderator at our website 'RevivalSchool.com'. This is what she wrote about her involvement with Todd Bentley's ministry:

"I decided to check out Patricia King and Todd Bentley and, ignorant of their 'third heaven' guided visualizations, attended a five day conference of Patricia King and then two of Todd Bentley's conferences and began to imagine third heaven visitations - guided visualization - still not realizing that these are actually spirits of darkness - the New Age calls them spirit guides - demons is what they are. And so I bought Todd Bentley's teaching on third heaven visitations and brought it home to listen to. "I was in my living room laying on the floor listening to the teaching on how to visualize the third heaven and what to say and was getting caught up into his teaching and all of a sudden I began to shake uncontrollably and jerk and groan, and no sooner had this taken place I became frozen stiff - I could not move any part of my body and I knew this was a demon trying to take hold of me, and so with all the effort I could muster I cried out, "God save me - Jesus help me" - and as soon as I cried out to the Lord my body went limp. God spared me that night and I will be forever grateful. "I spent much of the night in tears asking God to forgive me - and renouncing all the hands layed on me and all the awful deception I had opened myself up to..." [END QUOTE]

ANDREW AGAIN: I myself have heard the tapes of Todd Bentley's "Third Heaven Visualization" teachings, and I want to tell you - they are straight out of the New Age handbook. -Terrible stuff. And yet so widely accepted by thousands of Christians today.

Do these kinds of practices (above) produce a genuine 'Healing Revival'? -These are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking Charisma Magazine. I leave it for you to decide.

URGENT - PLEASE FORWARD This EMAIL TO OTHERS.

God bless you all.

Andrew Strom.

REPLY FROM PAM:

You know as they say when eating fish - you eat the meat and spit out the bones.

Jesus is a Healer. I guess the devil could be too if he took sickness off of people but how do we discern?

Jesus said to look at the fruit.

The Bible says in Acts 10:38 - "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." (NKJ)

So this is how I discern. The lady on the floor here could have been getting a deliverance, not needing one for all I know! I don't know!

When it comes to the supernatural, it's what you can handle, what you can live with or not live with. But we have to discern the source as best we can and the fruit. There is power behind both worlds and I have seen evil. I am not too quick to say people are not healed when they say they are. To me that is a good work, and is something Jesus did and said testified that it was of Him.

God uses human vessels and let me tell you, of all the ministers I have met, including myself, and those whom others call "great" - believe me they are human. Even sweet little Andrew is human. And it doesn't bother me if a work is challenged (without intentional harm, please understand), because that will prove what is of God.

Have you been to the music store lately and seen what sells? ALL KINDS of music - like jazz and bluegrass and rock and easy listening and on and on! So if God wants to express Himself with a different song than my taste, what is that to me? Is He healing people who need to be healed? I have known Todd's ministry to help others in a number of ways. He has done a lot of missions works.

Some ministry styles are definitely not my favorite but if they bear good fruit, then I bless them. Do they give God the glory for the healings and miracles or themselves? You have to remember that many "society" people did not like Jesus, to the point that they even killed Him. You have to remember these things.

What does God want? If you ask me, since I know He set things up from the Beginning, I believe He wants a decent world where people are provided for, enjoy their work and fellowship, live healthy, and discover the good challenges of life. If you believe the way the Bible teaches, God called everything "good" and then we had opportunity to partake of "the knowledge of good and evil."

I guess you could say that mankind - who was all in Adam - and whose existence was called good - chose "discernment." He did not have the knowledge of evil at first, only good. He had to pay a high price to learn it. Sure God could have stopped it but it was the test of fellowship - knowing who God is (only good) and who He is not.

We were created in the image of God and that apparently carries with it some decision ability. Love was tested.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If someone sees or finds God in what Todd or anyone else does, I am glad for that. God is blessed. If they don't, then tell me please where do they find Him? Then I ask myself, (if they are more than just critics), what is best for me - in order to live a Godly life? I am free to enjoy and partake of it all.

God is pleased by faith. And even in the supernatural there is counterfeit. What you must ask, again, according to Scriptures, is what direction is it taking the person? Are they going into Godless and immoral living? Then that is definitely the counterfeit and anti-Christ. If they are just living life differently, then what is that to me? My dislike is no cause to do harm or evil.

If we see evil, then we are told to pray and stand up for Godliness BY EXAMPLE. As I have said so many times: You can't fight a spiritual war without spiritual weapons. Our hands must be trained for war if we are called to be in the Army of God. And yes, God has had and still has armies for His Causes. If there is a counterfeit, then there is a truth that's better!

No one is a total pro in this Army. Only God. The best leaders were great because of their ability to hear God and who were obedient to do what He said even when it was strange to others. And even Moses and Joshua and David and Apostle Paul and the other apostles with Jesus had their contenders for their work in their ministries.

We know that all the disciples who became apostles had different temperaments and characters. Until it was revealed, no one knew who Judas really was, they thought he was one of them, including all the apostles who lived with him everyday and worked with him in the ministry.

So since we really can't figure all this out all the way, we can do what Jesus said and that is to discern the fruit. If people are getting saved, healed and happy and are living moral and productive lives, then I say God bless them. If I see some error, I say God help them. If I see bad fruit, I pray deliver us from evil, as Jesus taught us to pray.

God is a Person, and we know Him as the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It's all One God but separate manifestations in unity. He has a Personality. We can know Him. Some know about Him, and some know Him personally, but in different ways.

The fruit of His Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control. Those are His Attributes. But He, as Father, will judge in righteousness and make war. He is known in Scriptures as "the Lord of Sabaoth /or Hosts" or the God of Heaven's Armies. He is to be respected.

If I don't understand it, I look for how it affects me. Then I try to respond in a way that is pleasing to God. I do know that not all of life is about parties and games. There is work that is needed that is intended for good. We will be judged first by our hearts with faith in God, and then by our works. Our works back up our hearts or our lip service is meaningless. We have been given talents and abilities for use.

So some people may be playing games but some people really may be getting delivered, healed and helped. Ultimately we can only ask ourselves if what we are doing is pleasing God, because He can handle the others, and will through our prayers. How do we pray?

If you want to understand, you can and will. If you don't, you won't! People who are hungry for God will flock to where they think He is. I honestly hope they find Him!

Blessings to you and thanks for asking,

Pam Clark