Many pastors have a heartfelt desire for a takeover by the Spirit of God. It is much needed and has been long in coming. This passionate desire for “freshness” within our fellowship is both an asset and a liability. I don’t want to miss God, but neither do I want to settle for a facsimile. Like you, I want the reality that is sourced in and flows from God! I mean that! I believe in and desire the power that is uniquely God’s and I refuse to settle for anything less!! I am reminded that cessationists were not responsible for bringing an end to what was labeled the Charismatic Renewal. No! The demise of that revival was an inside job—the abuse of spiritual gifts, ridiculous teachings and other foolishness. That is not meant as an offhanded way of calling those who disagree with me foolish!!! Rather, it is an issue that I find personally sobering and one that demands everything be examined in the bright light of Scripture and accountable relationships! Accountability is one of the reasons I’m expressing my ideas on this public forum and at tables with friends.
I’m concerned that we unwittingly remove Martin Luther’s 95 Theses from the door of the castle church in Wittenberg when we reestablish a apostolic or prophetic hierarchy through whom God channels his blessings to us. Entire organizations are being fabricated around an exaggerated and exalted view of prophets and apostles, with the promise that they will impart their anointing or spiritual gifts to followers. All too often their impartations reek of nepotism and the love of money. While I believe God imparts the gifts or healing to people as we obediently lay hands on them and pray for them, I do not believe we are the ones who impart the healing or the Spirit!! If I remember my Pentecostal Church history correctly, Charles Fox Parham had not been baptized in the Spirit when he laid hands on Agnes Ozman. Agnes was the first to receive the Baptism in the Spirit with the initial physical evidence of speaking in tongues. If we make man the fountain, we deny the Fountainhead and Source of all blessings, power and giftings! It is sad, but legitimate hunger for the manifestations of the Spirit when mixed with impatience causes us to become vulnerable to and accepting of facsimiles.
This holds true for prophetic utterances. Prophecy comes by the unction and revelation of the Spirit! (See Acts 2:4, 1Cor 14:29-32.) To say “thus saith the Lord” when He didn’t is to take the name of the Lord in vain and that is no light thing. The NT prophet gives voice to the revelation given by the Spirit, not something contrived, worked up or conjured up by his imagination or good intentions. Suffice it to say that the valves on this spiritual-spigot are not controlled by the church or her servants/ministers, but by God himself (1Cor 12:11). It is my concern that by settling for a pleasing facsimile we deny ourselves and our children the privilege of experiencing the fire that comes from heaven.
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