I know I, along with many, were interested to see what Terry Virgo would have to say on the Lakeland Outpouring. He posted two blogs - "The Cautious Negatives" and "The Positives" here. But I was interested and encouraged to see that the full, un-edited message to the Prayer and Fasting gathering is available off his website free here.
It is worth listening to the whole message because there are some things that add to his whole opinion that are perhaps missed off the blog posts. I must confess to being slightly disappointed with a few comments he made which I don't quite agree with and are the fruit of just some perhaps passing observation. For example, I just heard Terry comment that he agreed with Ram Babu that they haven't heard the Name "Jesus" enough - more about angels. Well ... I have watched many hours of the footage on God TV now and would feel slightly differently. Yes Todd Bentley and others do make mention of angels - but I certainly feel the Name of Jesus Christ is very central to everything going on.I still feel that Rob Rufus's comments are the most helpful I have heard yet. There's nothing gained by 100% embracing everything we see (particularly the altar in the Upper Room in Jerusalem!) - but on the other hand we most CERTAINLY AVOID discounting that there is anything of God there simply because of the excesses of some men and women. And that second mistake would have been my past experience - to see anything we don't like or that fits our theological outlies and boxes. I don't want to do that again!
I was grateful for one thing Terry said in the message;
"Respect God's anointing - His anointing comes from His choice and I don't want to be out of step with God and not like someone He likes very much. If I ignore that anointing then I am missing God to some degree. I don't want to be out of step with the Spirit. But we must understand that the giving of gifts is not the giving of rewards. We think they are rewards for good doctrine and sound church life ... gifts are free!
It is upto God where He gives His gifts ... power is a gift and it came on Samson who didn't seem to be the most reliable. God chose to give him a gift. He was a man of faith and he got into Hebrews 11. Be careful about the way we categorise and reach our conclusions - the way we think may not be the way God thinks. I don't want to miss if God is pouring out His Spirit! God is free to do what He likes and doesn't always pour out His Spirit when everyone is theologically correct".
It presents a wonderful challenge - we don't have the luxury of ignoring or being passive towards God's anointing because we may miss something. But on the other hand we also shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that God's distributing of His anointing and His gifts means rewards for perfect theology. God sees Todd Bentley's heart and has given him extraordinary faith and power! As Terry said - let's not get offended over little things.
2 comments:
I don't want to comment specifically on Lakeland or Todd Bentley so much but what I do want to say is the season is coming where God will raise up unlikely people. The nice Pastors and the Bible-schooled academics do not know the heartbeat of the Father.
God will use whoever will walk with Him.
Moses killed an Egyptian. David was the least in his family of brothers. He messed up. Simon Peter betrayed Him and brought a curse on himself. Paul held the coats of those who stoned Stephen.
The modern church would not have touched any of them with a barge pole but my God looks at things very differently.
Eutychus, full of anticipation
Absolutely fair point Eutychus - couldn't have agreed more. That was what I was trying to argue in my post on how each great Christian man in the Bible had imperfections! God does ineed have different views on who He chooses - and thank God for it!
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