The following thoughts come from my journal entries concerning what seems to me to be an obsession with manifestations among those who would call themselves “charismatic” or “prophetic”.

I can’t help but notice that there are certain things that are going on that are greatly emphasized in prophetic circles which are entirely absent from the Word of God!

Manifestations such as feeling fire in our hands, or smelling fragrances, or falling on the ground and shaking uncontrollably, or feeling like electricity is going through us, or people getting thrown about as if a lightning bolt hit them, or people struck with spasmodic involuntary twitching, or people paralyzed and glued to the carpet and not able to get back up, or people laughing hysterically and staggering around as if drunk, or masses of people falling to the ground with a wave of a hand… all of these sorts of things are glaringly absent from the Word of God!

You don’t see Paul or Peter or James or John or anyone talking about them in the New Testament, and yet they are common occurrences in the charismatic and prophetic movements. Not only are they routinely happening, but they’re widely promoted. People come to meetings to see preachers who do these kind of things hoping that they will happen to them!

I don’t deny that various manifestations and experiences are valid. I had a hand pass through my back when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, and I felt like I was in the Third Heaven after it happened. I don’t deny that often my hands burn and I believe it is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. But what is absolutely apparent to me is that the Word of God doesn’t talk about these sorts of things. There is no emphasis placed on seeking them out, nor is there any glorying in them if such a thing should happen.

Instead, God’s Word puts the emphasis on things like love, joy, peace, gentleness, holiness, obedience, righteousness and surrender of our lives to God.

In his letters to the churches, Paul goes to great lengths talking about the love of God, his desire for people to know the joy of the Lord, and having the peace of God- but he says absolutely nothing about them needing to experience various manifestations. It simply is not part of the teaching of the New Testament. None of the Apostles traveled around the churches imparting these kind of experiences!

I have to wonder why the subject of manifestations has become such a central theme of the prophetic movement and charismatic churches today when it is absolutely absent from the Word of God?

Why do many focus on strange things like “orbs of light” or “electrical tingling” or being glued to the floor and not being able to get up? Why is so much emphasis put on being “slain in the Spirit”? Why do preachers come and whip up the crowd telling us that God is going to come down and do crazy things in the meeting? I challenge you to find a single instance in the scripture where the Apostle Paul showed up somewhere and preached manifestations and experiences!

We’ve become experts at creating exaggerated atmospheres and putting the label of the Holy Spirit on it.

Even if every manifestation in a meeting was proven to be 100% from God, is there any reason why there should be such an obsessive focus on these things?

Drunk in the Spirit

One of the most misused verses of the New Testament has got to be the following passages from the Book of Acts.

Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them… And when this sound rang out, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking his own language… Astounded and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocked them and said, “They are drunk on new wine!” –Acts 2:2,6,12

This passage has been used to support the craziest behavior imaginable!

How in the world did we ever get to the place where people would use this passage from Acts to think that God is putting His stamp of approval on our fleshy carnality?

Do you actually think that the disciples in the Upper Room were barking like dogs? Uncontrollably jerking? Laughing like hyenas? Do you think they were stumbling around like they were drunk?

Not in a million years!!!

It says that the crowd was mocking those in the Upper Room. I think it would be helpful to look up the definition of what it means to mock somebody.

Mock: To tease or laugh at in a scornful or contemptuous manner.

In other words the crowd was not accusing the disciples of being drunk! They were also not accusing the disciples of wild crazy behavior. There were some onlookers who were simply speaking with derision and contempt. In other words, they were making fun of them!

Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” -Acts 2:13

It’s not that they actually thought they were drunk, they were just speaking with derision.

There was an extremely loud sound that came from heaven which sounded like a super strong wind. There were people speaking in all kinds of different languages, all at the same time, who were DECLARING GOD’S AWESOMENESS.

“We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” -Acts 2:11

There was great praise going up to God! It was a celebratory atmosphere with believers shouting the glory of God in all kinds of different languages. When you have a bunch of people all praising God at the same time in different languages it’s no doubt going to be something that attracts a crowd. When you step into that it’s also going to be somewhat bewildering and confusing. You might approach it with a mixture of excitement and apprehension. There’s no doubt that some loved it while other’s hated it. It’s not really surprising it brought out the haters!

This has nothing to do with those in the Upper Room acting like they’d lost their minds or being out of control! It has nothing to do with what some might call being “drunk in the Spirit”. This was not a rowdy free-for-all “anything goes” atmosphere. These were people who were in worship and praise of God declaring His wonders.

You cannot use this passage to justify charismatic craziness! 

We have created such a distorted view of the work of the Holy Spirit that we are now claiming that He is the author of every crazy thing that happens in our meetings!

The Upper Room in the book of Acts was not a drunken free for all! They were declaring the wonders of God and filled with joy.

Why then the obvious disparity between God’s Word and what’s practiced in many of our churches today?

Slain in the Spirit

And why the obsession with being slain in the Spirit as if it represents the ultimate proof that God has touched us? Why do people flock to certain ministries hoping that they’ll get struck down to the ground?

If this was the sign of the anointing and power of God then why don’t we see it in the ministry of Paul or Peter or Philip or Stephen? Why don’t we see swaths of people being knocked down everywhere they go?

I’m not saying that people do not sometimes legitimately fall under the power of the Holy Spirit, but it certainly was not a normative thing going on in the early church. Even in a church known for its excesses, such as the church in Corinth, there is no record of people being slain in the Spirit at their meetings, not to mention half the other stuff that goes on in our churches.

We make far too much out of being slain in the Spirit.

It’s actually embarrassing when people wrestle the scriptures out of context to make passages like the one in the Book of Revelation where John falls down as dead before Jesus to be the equivalence of what we call being “slain in the Spirit”. This man had an actual encounter with the risen Lord Jesus Christ and the weight of it was so terrifying that it caused him to faint as though dead. What we typically call being slain in the Spirit has nothing to do with this at all!

Again, I’m not saying that these things are not possible or even legitimate. I’ve prayed for people and had them unexpectedly fall down. One of these occasions even took place in a shopping mall while I was witnessing and the person that it happened to was not a believer. I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen. It certainly does. And I’m not saying that God can’t be in it. He often is. But when I was in that mall I wasn’t there to preach an experience! I was there telling the person about Jesus.

As believers our lives are not supposed to be focused on signs, wonders, and miracles. Our obsession is supposed to be Jesus, not experiences!

Signs, wonders, and miracles

Now Stephen, who was full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. -Acts 6:8

It’s interesting when you look at the life of Stephen regarding the great wonders and signs that were accomplished through him by the power of God. We get an excellent idea of what Stephen’s life and ministry was like as recorded in the Book of Acts. What you find there is a man who was totally wrapped up in the scriptures! He is a man filled with the Holy Spirit, yes, gloriously so, but the entire 7th chapter of the Book of Acts is dedicated to Stephen using the scriptures to give testimony before he was martyred. It’s by far the longest recorded episode of preaching in the Book of Acts and it’s made up almost entirely of Old Testament Scripture. This man knew the Word of God inside and out!

We may be tempted to look at the signs and wonders that Stephen did, but I want to point out that he was totally rooted and grounded in the Word of God. This guy was not out running after experiences. He was obsessed with Jesus and experiences were following him!

And they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked through them, confirming His word by the signs that accompanied it. -Mark 16:20

It’s my contention that we need to get things back in order. We’ve been putting the cart in front of the horse!

The “experience-driven” emphasis in the church today is not in accord with the Word of God. We need to be running after Jesus, not running after experiences.

I want God to separate the wheat from the chaff, the authentic from the counterfeit. I want God to show me what the Word of God says about this subject in comparison to what we’re teaching and practicing today.

When it comes to “manifestations” and mystical experiences I have to say that the Word of God is very absent of them as I look at the New Testament. Yes, I find angels showing up in the New Testament, but I don’t find people in the Word of God having daily angelic visits and becoming friends with angels as some claim today!

Taking trips to heaven!

Did the Apostle Paul have an experience where he seemed to be out of the body? He tells us he did! Let’s look at it!

I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to Paradise. The things he heard were too sacred for words, things that man is not permitted to tell. -2 Corinthians 12:1

There’s a few things we can take from this.

• He says it happened 14 years ago. It’s not like he was taking heavenly trips all the time!
• He says he was caught up to the third heaven. This was not something he was trying to do or something he initiated.
• He’s not claiming that he actually left his body and went to heaven. He’s open to the possibility that he may have, and it felt like to him that he probably did, but he’s also open to it possibly being a vision or some kind of revelation from the Lord other than leaving his body. He tells us that only God knows if he actually left his body or not, because he wasn’t sure. Paul was obviously not concerned with hyping or exaggerating his experience.
• He says that what he heard was too sacred for words, that they were in fact things that man is not even permitted to tell.

Did you catch that?

He said that man, in other words, human beings, are not permitted to talk about these sacred things. He didn’t just say that he wasn’t permitted to talk about them, he said human beings are not permitted to talk about them!

In other words, these kind of experiences are sacred. There are things that God may show us that human beings are not allowed to speak about to other human beings. Do you see the seriousness of that and the sacredness of it?

Now contrast that with the stories you hear of people who are taking trips to heaven today. Some claim to be up in the heavenly realms constantly meeting with angels and Jesus. They give you the impression that it’s the most normal thing in the world! They’re on YouTube talking all about their heavenly trips in vivid detail. Some of them tell of the most fantastic nonsense you’ve ever heard in your life. There are even people who claim to be able to teach you how to take trips to heaven too!

Now I want you to go and search the New Testament. Let me know when you find the place where they teach you how to take trips to heaven in the Bible! Obviously it’s not there. And so I ask you again, why is the church so obsessed with running after experiences that you cannot find in the Bible?

Perhaps your interest in this kind of stuff has just been innocent. You heard somebody talk about it and it sounded like something you would like to do! I want to warn you, as somebody who was in The New Age Movement, that self initiated trips into spiritual realms is actually called “astral projection”. It’s an occult practice, and it’s not something that Christians should be attempting to do!

Before I was a Christian I practiced astral projection. I’m not going to go into details in this post, but I can tell you that I’ve had some terrifying experiences. I learned the hard way before I even became a christian that this kind of stuff brings you into contact with demonic entities! If God wants to give you some kind of out-of-body experience where He brings you to the third heaven, that’s up to Him, but you should not be attempting this kind of thing on your own.

The Spirit of discernment, and the Word of Truth

As I bring this post to a close I have a final, but important question.

How much do you value discernment?

How much weight do you give passages in the Bible that command us to “test everything”? Do you take this command seriously?

In my opinion, one of the greatest failures of the prophetic movement is that we have disregarded the clear warnings in scripture to test everything. We’re told to be open, and not to worry, and that God won’t let us be deceived. Churches have been so concerned with creating an atmosphere of faith that they’ve forgotten that God is the one who commands us to test everything!

The method that God has given us as His children to keep us free from deception is by listening to the Holy Spirit’s warning and testing everything by the Word of God.

If we fail to test everything as God commands then we should not be surprised if we fall into deception!

The Word of God tells us to test everything, and in my 40 year experience, the arm of the church which calls itself Charismatic, Word of Faith, Prophetic and Apostolic, rarely tests anything! We seem to have an aversion to asking questions!

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard prophetic words given that were totally off base but eaten up like candy!

We need to stop being so naive and gullible and start testing everything as God has told us to do. Prophetic gifts should not be practiced if people are unwilling to test them.

Wild, fanciful, supernatural things are being claimed by people that have no correlation with the Word of God. Why aren’t we questioning these things?

Are we so eager for experiences that we’re willing to just close our eyes and blindly run after something that the Bible says nothing about?

I read in the Old Testament of Ezekiel being taken up by the Spirit and seeing the glory of God as he was brought out on a plain. I do not at all deny these fantastic experiences with God exist. Once again, I have experienced some of them myself, and yet, I do not see in the scriptures that these are ordinary everyday occurrences that are happening constantly. Nor do I see people in the Bible who have these experiences seeking after these kind of things. When I read of these things in the Bible, God is the initiator, not us.

There are those who say “Well, there’s trances in the Bible!” Yes there are. But the people they happened to did not meditate themselves into one. They did not use their imagination to focus on Jesus as a way of jump starting a spiritual experience. They had a visitation from God- God’s the one that came to them, not the other way around!

Christians need to understand that there’s a big difference between being a child of God and a New Ager. When I was in the New Age I was always seeking after spiritual experiences, when I became a Christian I became a seeker of Jesus.

I do not deny supernatural experiences. I actually love the experiential side of being a child of God. As I told a friend recently, “I’m never going to apologize for loving the presence of God!” Trust me, nobody’s going to call me a cessationist. I believe a Biblical faith is an experiential faith, after all, we serve a Living God. He’s not a block of wood or a stone idol. He’s not mute. He’s perfectly capable of expressing Himself, and He does! He created us to love Him, and to know Him deeply; to worship Him with our entire being. I don’t know how you do that without engaging every part of who you are. Obviously God intends that our relationship with Him would be experiential. Have you ever had a real relationship with anyone that’s not?

It’s very plain to me what God is after, and it’s not esoteric experiences.

I must say that the Word of God puts the emphasis squarely on the love of God, the joy of the Lord, the peace of the Holy Spirit, and of course, things like holiness, purity, cleaness of heart and life. This is the great thrust of the New Testament writers! If we’re not coming into these things I don’t know that it really matters what other things we experience at all!

It would seem that we need a great alteration in what we consider valuable in our relationship with God.

Have you experienced the love of God, the joy of the Lord, the peace of God that’s in Christ Jesus? Do you know what it is to be clothed with His righteousness, wrapped in His holiness, and walking in His truth? These are the things the scripture points to as the excellency of a spiritual life that is truly connected with Jesus, and these are the things that we should be aiming for.