Manipulating the Spirit

I posted the other day this article on a social networking site about Benny Hinn, the infamous televangelist. Apart from his extremely suspect theology (seriously, research him one day) he is also widely known for his healing conferences and for people being 'slain in the spirit' (which basically means falling over under the overwhelming presence of the spirit) when they are around him.

When I posted this article I got a very interesting response. Someone said to me that we shouldn't, as Christians, be putting down other Christians if their ministry is working and healing people.

Well, I tell you, this set off some MAJOR warning bells in my head for several reasons.

1) Do Not Judge.

It is a common thing in this postmodern (pomo) Western world that we live in that we are told that all people's views are of equal value and we should never judge anyone. As there are phrases like 'Do not judge, lest you be judged' in the Bible, the church has adopted this policy hook, line and sinker. But the church as a people that claim the truth are, by their very nature, laying down a line that claims that on one side is the truth and on the other is not. Throughout the history of the church that line has had to be argued, researched, and reclaimed as new beliefs and practices came to the fore and challenged the way the church worked. Sometimes these challenges changed the church (for example when the Protestant church formed out of the Catholic church in the Reformation). At other times the challenges have been rejected by the church as anti-gospel and labelled a heresy.

IT IS OUR JOB TO JUDGE TRUTH CLAIMS.

It is our job as people of the Truth that we judge other claims to truth. It is essential that we are analysing and holding to account the people who claim Jesus name as their motivating factor for their ministry. It is vital for the faith that we discuss what we see happening in other churches, that we research it, and that we weigh it up against Scripture.

If we don't do this, if we fail to hold each other to account, to judge ministries by Scriptural truth, then the Truth of the Gospel gets distorted, cults form, and we have no backing to say that Mormonism, to take one example, is not Christian.

I am not going to go into the theology of Benny Hinn here, but if you hear people you know saying that such and such a preacher is dodgy, then do your homework, engage in debate, and don't shy away from saying "But what they say here is totally against the Bible..." when you know that the Truth is being distorted.

2) When 'the spirit' is not The Spirit.

Benny Hinn, as I said before, is widely known as a faith healer and a man who works in the ecstasy of the Spirit. What this means is that at his meetings there will always be prayer times where people fall over, convulse, and in other ways appear to be under the control of some other power. I knew a young woman who was healed at a Benny Hinn conference. She was my flatmate for a year and was healed 2 years before I meet her from a brain tumour. Unfortunately in the year I knew her the cancer came back and she died at the age of 22. I know her story was genuine. I also know that she was a Bible believing Christian. I don't doubt her faith or that God healed her.

But here is the crucial difference. God healed her. Benny didn't. As someone who has also experienced a dramatic healing, I can testify that God can, and will, work even in experiences where people weren't praying for healing (as in mine). If God is gonna heal, it is gonna happen.

But back to the point.

The Bible says in Matt 7:21-23:

 21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Jesus doesn't say that they won't be able to do miracles, these people who didn't know him. Moses in Egypt faced sorcerers who could do many of the things that God told him to do. When Jesus talks about the end days (also in Matthew) he says that many false teahers will come in his name performing signs and wonders and yet will not be from him. 

What we can see here is that there are people who will be able to do stuff like healings and deliverance ministry in the name of Jesus and yet still not be ok in their ministry.

So how do we know the difference between them? How can we spot the preachers who do miracles for God and those that do them for themselves?

That brings me to my next point.

3) Misunderstanding the Spirit.

Something I notice about Christians in NZ is that a lot of us have no understanding of who the Spirit is. We don't think of the Spirit as a person on equal footing with Jesus and the Father. We don't really talk about the Spirit well, making it sound like it is something we 'plug' into when we pray for the 'Jesus hit'. And it is this misunderstanding of the role of the Spirit that I believe has lead us to be afraid of speaking out when someone is manipulating it because we don't know when that is happening. (Let me just qualify that I don't think someone can actually manipulate the Holy Spirit, but rather they manipulate our understanding of it.)

The Holy Spirit is as much God as Jesus and the Father are. It is not some strange force that floats around us and we have to say the right words or go to the right church to 'feel' it as it moves among us. It isn't manifested through the right words or the right musical chord or anything else. 

Rather, it is the Spirit of the living Christ that dwells within us! It is what gives us faith, and peace, in our walk with Christ. It is what connects us with the risen Christ and makes us holy in the eyes of the Father. We don't 'recharge' on the Spirit, we live in it. Being in Christ and Christ in us is all about the Spirit and it's work within us. Sometimes this can be shown through moments of ecstasy and prophecy and healings and the like. But it isn't hovering waiting for us to plug in before those things happen, it is with us all the time and sometimes decides to move through us in strange and mysterious ways.

I am tired at the misunderstanding of the Spirit being used by churches and preachers to convince people that what is being done is from God and not humans. 

We can know whether or not it is the Spirit moving by the fruit that is produced by the people 'working' in it. Is that person, like Mother Theresa, self-sacrificial, loving of all people, have a heart for the broken, giving all they have, recognised for their love? Are they humble and always pointing to God rather than to themselves? Or is that person, like Benny Hinn, preaching that God will give you all you want, money, possessions, etc? Are they living in a humble manner or are they taking the glory?

We can know the difference between people who are working for God and those who are working for themselves. We can tell in the way the preach, and whether it stacks up with what it Bible actually says. Miracles may still happen, but Jesus told us to watch out, to be smart, and to know our Bibles well enough (with the help of those who have gone before and our communities) so we can recognise and speak out against this stuff.

Don't be suckers, be on guard.

What's the Big Deal?

Over the last few years I have been studying theology. It has been an interesting journey with many changes in thinking and faith that has at times messed with me, and at others inspired me.

Recently I have been contemplating the idea of tradition in the church. I don't understand the big deal around communion, meditation, liturgy, fasting and even at baptism!! Is this stuff really necessary? What is the big deal?

Perhaps it is because I am a child of my post modern generation that I don't understand this stuff. I understand the symbolism and things but are they traditions that are needed to keep the church alive and flourishing? If all we need is Jesus then why do we need all this other stuff as well?

So today I started an experiment. I decided that I would meditate and fast (only for lunch mind mind you at this stage haha) and see what happens. 

I have just finished meditating to the sound of Gregorian chanting. Now call me crazy but I had no idea how to meditate! I had to look up on the internet different forms of Christian meditation. It made me feel a little silly, but how else does one learn to do these things?

The first thing I noticed straight away is how impossibly hard it is to actually focus your mind. I was breathing slowly, thinking about Jesus, listening to the chanting (which is awesome btw, totes check it out!!) and then bam! I am thinking about what to make for dinner. This happened over and over again to my frustration. Apparently this gets easier to avoid as you meditate more but at this stage I feel like I have failed at simply thinking about God. I haven't, but I feel it.

Another thing I noticed is how relaxing it is just to sit for a long period of time (15 mins haha) without doing anything and just thinking about Jesus. It feels like a complete waste of time! I have so much stuff to be doing that I felt like I was wasting time instead of doing something productive. And yet I felt at peace, like deep calm, for the first time in I don't know how long.

I also realised that it does help focus you on God because you are doing it intentionally and that means I was actually wanting to think about my life, God's love, my sin etc. It really made me feel like I was connecting with God. I felt God's pleasure at the fact that I was just spending time trying to hear what might be said to me. Don't know if that makes sense but I really did experience something.

So phase one was difficult but ultimately successful. I intend to meditate daily for at least a few weeks to see what continues to happen so watch this space.

The fasting thing kinda sucks because I am hungry (!!) and I keep thinking about lunch and then remembering I am not going to eat any. This makes me sad. But apparently the feeling of hunger is there to remind you of God's presence and to motivate you to pray. There are stories of great things happening when people fast and real answers to prayer, so who knows what will happen. 

I think I will fast over lunch for a few days and see what happens again. 

The reason I am doing this stuff is not because I am simply trying to test it. I don't really like the idea of testing God so much. What I have learnt over the years is that tradition helps ground us in the story of which we are a part.

The church is not just about people today who worship God. It is about the last 2000 years of people who have sought to see God's face. What they have learnt is important. If someone started doing something 2000 years ago (and Jesus did fast!!) and that has continued then who am I to say that it is not good enough for believers today?

Tradition reminds me of the people who have gone before. There is a great cloud of witnesses who have walked our road in different places and who have learnt things that I may never learn if I don't listen to them. Just because I don't understand is not a reason to reject something. I don't understand how Jesus' death and resurrection really worked but I don't deny it because of that! There is faith that people know what they are talking about, that people are smarter and wiser than me that have figured stuff out long before I was even thought of.

Traditions help continue stories. Just like cultural traditions ground people in the story of their country and ethnicity, so church traditions ground us in the story of the Bride of Christ, the church. They tell us who we are and why we are and where we are going. They give us an identity and meaning.

There are traditions that I don't agree with however. As I am not Catholic, venerating Mary is something I find very hard to reconcile with Biblical text. I am not saying accept every tradition ever as gospel truth. They need to be thought out before being worked out. I have spent 5 years working through this stuff in theological training. It took me that long to decide to try any of them. 

Baptism, mediation, fasting, and communion all have Scriptural references, are all performed by Christ (and many others) and all focus on God as our provider, creator and sustainer. These things I am happy to accept, live out, and teach to others. But it took me a while to get to that place.

So I am not going to 'test' the traditions, or throw them out, but rather embrace them as something I can learn from, something that will give me greater insight into how the church works and the people that are in it. 

I will do these things because the church isn't about me. It is about a faithful people who walk together, learn of each other, and pass on their knowledge to future generations.

Want to join me?