I’ve received further e-mails asking for more of my thoughts on discerning what is truly of God when signs and wonders and revivals break out. This comes on the heels of two posts I wrote last week (here and here) discussing events at the Lakeland “revival” down in Florida.
At a time when discernment appears lost on vast portions of Evangelicalism and the charismatic movement, basic, biblical principles are needed to discern truth from error. While I believe that the spiritual gift of discerning of spirits cannot be condensed into a set of tips, I also believe that basic rules for discernment CAN be derived from the biblical text and from plain, old common sense. God gave us a brain smart enough to avoid eating obvious poison, and so we should use the brains He gave us to make wise choices about truth and falsehood.
What follows below frames my own set of rules for discernment. You may disagree or have better rules. And to those friends of mine who will most certainly be hurt by what I say here, I can only ask that you consider these things and take them before the Lord.
Always begin with healthy skepticism.
I always come to the miraculous with a healthy dose of skepticism. This is not the same as faithlessness because I wholeheartedly believe that God can do miraculous works. I also realize that the Enemy can mimic those works. God will not deny blessings to people who test the spirits to see if they are of Him. It’s a little like having a spam filter up all the time. The good stuff will get through and the rotten stuff won’t. And even if a piece of good stuff gets caught, God is not so weak that He won’t continue to do a good work in us. If that means He has to reattempt what got trapped in the filter, He most certainly will because He loves us enough to do so. He never punishes people who remain vigilant because they love Him and His pure works. On the other hand, people who open themselves up to everything wind up filled with garbage, a mess that can take a lifetime to undo.
God has a way of proving Himself true in time, but the Enemy never does.
By their fruit we will know them. Their fruit will remain, too. A little water under the bridge is a good thing because it allows us to test what is happening against Scripture, just as the Bereans did in Acts. One of the rotten fruits of phony miracles and revivals is that they open people up for even more error. A pinch of yeast leavens the whole lump of dough. Lies breed confusion, and “miracles” that come from the Enemy or from the hand of tricksters will only bring confusion in the long run.
Consider the past fruits of anyone or any group working the miraculous in the name of Christ.
Look at their theology closely. Also realize that words matter, and that some people confuse terms on purpose or twist them so that they look right even though they aren’t. Oneness Pentecostals may not seem antitrinitarian on the surface, but attempting a 1:1 analysis of their terminology with orthodox Christian doctrine ultimately reveals their error. We must also realize that a group with odd theology may continue to spawn odd theology even if they attempt to distance themselves from the past error. In charismatic circles, far too much deviant doctrine and practice has come out of the Kansas City Prophets of the late 1980s and early 1990s. One can trace all manner of craziness since 1990 directly back to that group, including the recent Lakeland “revival.” Anything “birthed” out of that movement should have an automatic red flag attached to it, as should any former leaders connected to it. This includes organizations and ministries such as IHOP, The Elijah List, MorningStar Ministries, Passion & Fire, and a whole host of others that looked favorably upon Mike Bickle, Bob Jones, John Paul Jackson, Rick Joyner, Paul Cain, and anyone else who came out of the Kansas City Prophets movement. In fact, since the entirety of the modern prophetic movement in charismatic circles is inextricably linked in a tangle to those groups and individuals, it may be best (and I say this with a heavy heart) to avoid the prophetic movement altogther as a national entity until God purges the corrupted seed.
Real miraculous works from God are often imitated by the Enemy.
Moses threw down his staff and it transformed into a snake. Pharaoh’s two magicians threw down their staffs and they turned into snakes, too. We must never forget this. Just because a miracle occurs doesn’t mean it came from God. The difference is that God’s miracles prevail and the Enemy’s never do. We must also consider the character of those who are present at the miracle. We know Moses was God’s man. But who owned Jannes and Jambres? We must apply that same thinking to discerning the source of miracles.
Any appeal to spiritual beings apart from the members of the Trinity is dangerous.
God created the heavenly hosts, including His messengers, the angels. A third of the angels fell and became demons. These spiritual beings are real. The error of Evangelicalism is that it tends to ignore them. The error of charismatics is that they tend to fixate on them. God commands the angels, we don’t. He has, though, given us authority over demons by benefit of the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit living in us. However, we dabble with spiritual beings at our peril. The demonic comes as an angel of light remember. When I hear people appealing to angels or talking about them the way they are discussed by Todd Bentley of the Lakeland “revival,” I’m instantly alarmed. You can’t go to the Scriptures and find the apostles talking about angelic beings the way some charismatics do. That kind of talk is not there in the Bible, our source of truth. When we pray, we can ask God to send His angels to minister to us, but we should always test spiritual entities and go to the Lord to request them, not ask them directly. We may attract the wrong kind of spiritual entity if we bypass the Lord and His will concerning the sending of angels for assistance.
The whole counsel of Scripture matters, not just a verse here and there.
I am increasingly convinced that chapter and verse markers are one of the worst things to happen to the Bible. Because we added them, too many people pick and choose verses to contruct their theology rather than considering the whole counsel of Scripture. Charismatics do this more than anyone, creating elaborate fictions out of disjointed strings of verses. The old joke about the man who randomly opens his Bible to “Judas hanged himself” and then to another verse that said “Go and do likewise” applies here. I can guarantee that the vast, vast majority of Christians dashed on the rocks of phony revival and fake miracles wind up there because they don’t understand the whole counsel of Scripture. Sadly, our atrocious understanding, especially in those circles hellbent on mountaintop experiences at the expense of study, leads to error and heartbreak. The Bible cautions that God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, and that knowledge comes from His word. Get wisdom; understand what the Bible says from cover to cover!
God’s revivals and miracles are not chintzy.
Real revival takes the worst people possible and transforms them into God’s people. Real miracles take the most desperate situations and conditions and alleviates them. God never settles for cheap. Read the miracles and revivals in the Bible; the miracles force entire cities to stand up and take note, while the revivals have thousands coming to Christ. While it might seem like a great thing that the tennis pro had his tennis elbow cured by the laying on of hands, if that’s the extent of the miraculous, something’s wrong. God does much bigger (and much more documentable) works. If we come back from a revival with a healthy glow, but a couple weeks later we’re just as ornery as we were before we went, that wasn’t real revival.
Novelty is not of God.
Yes, the Bible says that God does new things, but He only does them from a basis of what is old and established. God is not into tricks. He does not use flash to enhance His workings. He doesn’t have His servants dance jigs around someone they’re praying for, doesn’t have His people wave their arms and act like bad magicians. There’s no “Alakazam!” and no need for it. God isn’t into show. Preachers, prophets, and revivalists who make a big deal of novelty are supplementing. And God needs no one to supplement His power.
If a movement, revival, or series of miracles “feels off,” the Holy Spirit may be trying to warn us.
The Holy Spirit confirms truth, and all true believers have the Holy Spirit in some measure. If we’re around a miraculous event and we feel wrong about it, there’s a good reason to believe that’s the Holy Spirit talking. We better listen. Unfortunately, too many people who supposedly have the Holy Spirit living in them have turned a deaf ear to the Spirit’s warnings. Also, too many people have no ability to discern the voice of the Spirit in the midst of the background noise of life. That’s a terrible loss because the Bible explicitly states that we’re to be guided by the Holy Spirit. If we fail to listen to Him in situations that call for discernment, how will we be able to discern those difficult situations that normal Christians encounter? For instance, Paul and Silas were followed by the slave girl who announced that the two were from God and were proclaiming the way of salvation. On the surface, how many Christians would love to have such an ardent helper? But Paul, by the Spirit, saw the demon controlling their “assistant” and cast it out. That kind of discernment only comes by the Spirit of God.
We Christians are to seek Jesus, not signs and wonders.
We must remember this passage of Scripture:
For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”
—Romans 15:18-21
The entirety of Paul’s context above is evangelizing the lost. Do we understand this? Signs and wonders are largely for the lost as a confirmation of God’s power. As Christians, we already know about signs and wonders; they should not shock us. We know Christ, and isn’t He greater than signs and wonders? He is our sufficiency, not signs and wonders. He is the source, and the source is always greater. Yet look how many people flock to so-called revivals just to see signs and wonders. This is a mockery, frankly. It detracts from Jesus, and the Holy Spirit always points to Jesus, not to signs and wonders. This is not to say that Christians cannot come to Jesus for healing or for a miracle, but that these are by far secondary to Christ alone. If anything, we Christians should not be surprised at miracles, but by the lack of them! They should be second nature to us, not to the point of us being blasé about them, but that we understand them as the inherent outworkings of the normal Christian life.
Real revival breaks out only among the humble.
Revival breaks out where God moves, not where some Christian celebrity moves. Any Christian preacher or revivalist who claims that revival follows him or her is operating out of spiritual pride. Genuine revival breaks out among people who have no names to make for themselves, around ministries that are local and less well known, and in backwater places with no marketing arm to promote them. It breaks out through the long-travailing prayers of humble servants, not the boasts of fly-by-night Christian celebrities who line their pockets with sales of cheap Christian trinkets or “pray for pay.” Remember, the Enemy loves to boast and loves the limelight. The people God uses to bring genuine revival are often the very people who were once scorned for their piety, humility, and singleminded devotion to Christ.
Christ Himself warned that genuine faith would become a rarity.
I am continually shocked that so many in the charismatic movement keep believing for some massive revival right before Christ returns. In many branches of the charismatic movement lurks an almost post-millennial frenzy that finds people believing we Christians will hand over a perfected world to the Lord at His second coming. Yet the Lord Jesus Himself asked whether He would find faith on earth at His return. Mark 13:20 says that if it were not for a cutting off of the chaotic days of tribulation, no one would be saved. We are heading into dark, dark times where even the elect might come close to falling away. So whenever I hear calls of worldwide revival, I’m leery. Revival to whom and by whom? Is this what the Bible teaches? If so, I’ve been unable to find it in the pages of Scripture. This is not to say that genuine revival will not come to this place and that dotted across the globe, only it probably won’t look like the kind of revival that some modern revivalists are trumpeting.
For more thoughts on this, please see the following previous posts:
Thanks for writing this, Dan.
Bill,
You’re welcome. I’m glad you have found my remarks edifying.
BTW, are you saying anything to charismatics you know about these issues?
Check out this blog post of mine, Dan. Part of conversation that included the Tall Skinny Kiwi.
Bill, good stuff!
Dear Dan,
Thank you so much. Jonathan Edwards had much to day on genuine revival which your readers would appreciate.
Justin Peters (www.justinpeters.org) does a good job exposing the roots of the Word of Faith movement and you can watch a brief overview of his seminar if you click “demo” on his site… In a nutshell, its New Age…
God bless you and thank you for your work here!
I was thinking on the issue of judging fruit the other day. I was always taught that we can judge the fruit, not the person. I am living in Guatemala where fruit abounds. Good fruit, looks good and has a pleasant fragrance. Bad fruit on the other hand, can look good at first, but you can definitely know when it starts to decay, it stinks. When it stinks, it is repulsive as well. The thought hit me, fruit judges itself. Plain and simple, we shall know people and ministries by their fruit, and that fruit will judge itself. However saying this, we do need to learn discernment, this shows us that the fruit is bad when the fruit is indeed bad and not just looking good.
Revival should also change cities. So far, I haven’t seen Toronto, Pensacola or London changed. In fact, all of these cities became worse during and after their 3rd wave revivals. Will Lakeland change? I doubt it.
Diane,
Agreed!
I’m of a Pentecostal background (PAOC) and I have stuggled as a pastor to remind people of the exact principles you talk about here. We can’t throw out the baby with the bath water so to speak, but it we also should blindly accept “revival” claims or the like.
God gave us all a brain for a reason, we need to use it. Love you post and your blog. Thank you for your wisdom here.
Geoff,
What gets me is how willing people are to suspend disbelief the second something unusual occurs. I always wondered how the antichrist could pull off a worldwide deception, but now I am seeing how easily it might be done! 🙁
Thank you for the kind remarks.
I live 60 feet from a church that was impacted by the Toronto Blessing, in Toronto. The pastor still barks on certain Sunday mornings. The church may not survive this year.
Your point is well taken, Diane.
Bill,
How sad.
Wilkerson’s article at the LDM website and this post of yours nailed it. I liked seeing both of you exalting the Savior in your writing your posts.
Thank you. As far as I have understood your post, I think the succinct summary would be “When the point of people’s lives, of the miracles, and of the gerneral results of the revival drive people to understand the gospel on their knees at the foot of the cross and acknowledge Jesus as Lord, then it is a genuine work of the Holy Spirit.” I’m commenting to give you that chance to correct me in case I’ve misunderstood. The other things you have said were great food for thought as well, but for me this is what I take away from it: the Holy Spirit would never crowd out the message of the gospel.
Dan,
Your discernment is appreciated.
Blessings,
Tom
A person I know keeps up with the happenings in Lakeland since he is of the Charismatic persuasion. He told me this morning that they had an actual ‘raising of the dead’ experience over there this weekend. ‘A person actually sat up in his coffin’ is what he told me. I was speechless. What do I say to this person? He totally buys into this sort of ‘snake oil’ theology. And this is a person who went to a Christian college and has extensive knowledge of the Scriptures! Dead people raised? Not that it is not possible, God can do whatever He wants, but if this was real, wouldn’t the media be all over the place trying to get the scoop? Good grief this is getting outta hand. Sensationalism at its finest. I believe that God’s greatest miracle is a changed life. Where’s that at in Lakeland?
Your first point on healthy skepticism is probably my #1 pet peeve with my pentecostal upbringing. Or I should say the “lack thereof” is. Every time one of these winds would blow through, there was a distinct impression given that if you didn’t jump in from the get-go with both feet, you were “quenching the Holy Spirit” or “bound up in fear and doubt”, “lacked faith” or whatever. To even question or wait for more fruit to show itself was considered not being open to the move of the Spirit and being a danger to the effectiveness of what the Spirit was doing. Verses like “and He could do no miracles there because of their lack of faith” would get tossed about.
Whatever happened to being “wise as serpents?”
Dan,
I usually lurk, but I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your representation of a sane charismatic voice. I do fear that these types of things keep many many Christians closed off to the continuing work of the Spirit, and I know the dangers of the above even in some of the best churches. Bottom line if it is really God, Jesus will be glorified and we will be led to be repentant, to be humble, and to be servants.
One question that I do have is whether there are any good charismatic leaders/teachers that you would recommend? Instead of just pointing out the flaws in many of the most notorious, I think it would be good to also direct others to those who represent the best One couple that I have been very impressed by for their humility and example is Francis and Judith MacNutt. Any thoughts regarding them or anyone else?
Hey Gary, though I’m not Dan, I would suggest:
C.J. Mahaney, Joshua Harris, Terry Virgo, R.T. Kendall, Michael Fletcher, Zeb Bradford Long, Adrian Warnock, Greg Haslam, Rich Nathan, Wayne Grudem, & Sam Storms – for starters. Doctrinally solid, and Spiritually open. Maybe even John Piper would fit the bill, too!
Cary,
I’ve been encouraged by Andrew Wommack’s ministry. Check him out at awmi.net
Gerald McDermott’s book “Seeing God: Jonathan Edwards on Spiritual Discernment” could be helpful here. It’s a re-working of Edwards’ classic work on spiritual discernment (“Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections”) written by Edwards in the wake of the Great Awakening as he pondered how to distinguish real revival from the many counterfeits that sprang up at the same time and even among the same congregations.
http://www.amazon.com/Seeing-God-Jonathan-Spiritual-Discernment/dp/1573831921
Thank you so much for your insight on this subject. I live in Lakeland, and am growing more concerned by the day regarding this “revival”. When I originally found out about the meetings, my husband and I considered attending (several friends were very excited about it). But I decided to do a little research beforehand, and I’m really glad I did.
Once we discovered a little about Bentley’s ministry, we decided to stay away. This decision had nothing to to with Bentley’s appearance, his checkered past, or simply on what other people said he said. We watched videos of Todd speaking, and read several of his writings directly from his website.
After what I have seen of Todd’s ministry, I am very concerned at the number of people who seem to be entranced by this man. They are willing to accept absolutely anything that comes out of his mouth without question. I even heard him from the pulpit a couple days ago warn the audience that if they took the time to figure out “what spirit this it”, that Jesus could pass them by. And as I posted on another of your threads, last night I heard him say that the Jesus that showed up last night was not the Jesus that is there every night! HUH???
How can Christians continue to ignore this? It flies in the face of everything we know to be true as spoken by our Lord and Savior, pointed to by the Holy Spirit, and written in His Word.
So thanks again for your prayerful work. It truly is a blessing.
What troubles me most in these so-called “revivals” is that the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word are dishonored, disrespected and treated shamefully by those who ought to know better. He is holy, He is the Creator and Sustainer of all that is and was and ever will be, the whole universe speaks of His majesty and eternal power and glory and we are supposed to walk by faith, not by sight – to trust in Him and His Word – not in some outlandish and unbiblical display of lying signs and wonders that teach people to trust in supposedly supernatural experiences over what the Lord has revealed to us in His Word as that which comes from Him through His Holy Spirit.
May the Lord have mercy on us all! May He give us ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart that understands. As the psalmist says, “Thy Word I have hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.”
The whole idea of even questioning an authority structure like the Church is counter to so much of the tradition of the Church — particularly for Roman Catholics. But even for Protestants it is pretty clear that most are raised not with a strong desire to read and learn the Scriptures and learn about God through a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ, but to adhere to a particular religious tradition (i.e. denominational loyalty). In other words, were socialized as Pentecostals or Lutherans, we don’t come to decisions to become either one of these, unless it’s later in life.
In light of the whole Protestant project, it seems a bit backward — perhaps? — when leaders like in Lakeland are claiming to speak for a particular facet of the Church (church? — Protestant) that, like Alistair McGrath points out in his recent book, is hallmarked by our commitment to individual interpretation. I guess within Protestantism this is a deep tension — individual interpretation and belief in man-made authority structures.
It seems very important to know your leaders and be able to trust them and most importantly to know Scripture so that you can discern whether even TO trust particular leaders.
It just seems like the following logics to support/not consider questioning various Christian causes, which can be rather destructive: the Church/church was established by God. As a result, the Church is the will of God. If you question the Church, then you question the will of God. Who are you to question the will of God? Therefore, you shouldn’t question the Church/church.
Anyway, bottom line: KNOW, KNOW, KNOW your Scriptures and don’t be duped by someone who isn’t preaching something that is timeless and eternal — the finished work of Jesus and our continual pursuit of becoming followers of Him by imitating the things he modeled while here on earth.
Dan,
Excellent post. And as Cary mentions above, I appreciate your take on Charismatics.
I often find myself skeptical when someone claims a miracle. It’s not because I doubt God, but more because I don’t know the person. That’s why it’s so important to build relationships with people. Those relationships give credability to what we say.
I was in Lakeland about 10-11 times. Was buying into the whole thing. I purchased Todd’s soaking in the presence CD and found that I believe rather than feeling the presence of God another spirit materialized. It scared me pretty bad. I then began asking God to not let me be decieved and also for discernement. I should have investigated but a mature spirit filled Christian woman at my church was entralled with the Revival and we decided to go. We were seeking Jesus as much of the crowd was. As this is my first Penticostal church I am in, I wasn’t sure what Revival really was.
Thank you for your comments. It really helps to know I am not the only one who is now seeing this differently. The others at church are talking about this all the time. What are true manisfistations of the Holy Spirit? I know I sound naive but now I am questioning alot.
A solid conversation is going on over here as well among creative leaders about these dynamics: http://www.danwilt.com/index.php/a-thought-on-lakeland-florida-and-todd-bentley/
A very wise posting. I have a video of Todd posted on my blog, where he talk about the need to believe the “angel”. He states very clearly that Jesus told him the people already believe in Him, but now they need to believe the “angel.” This angel he refers to is the same “angel” that appeared to William Branham in 1948. Branham was a spiritualist and mystic operating under the guise of Christianity. There are two contemporary heresies rooted in him: Latter Rain Theology, and the Word Faith Movement.
This Lakeland “Revival” is fracturing the church much the same as the Toronto Blessing did in ’94. I know countless individuals that have been destroyed by this whole thing. Churches split, friends lost. Is this the mark of revival?
Also, when I have commented on pro Bentley blogs, the viciousness of the responses I get is amazing. That does not surprise me considering the man leading this “revival” has a penchant for violence in ministry – punching people and slamming them into the ground in Jesus’ Name.
Michael,
The angel thing is a huge red flag and I cannot believe that more Christians are not practicing even the most basic level of discernment concerning it.
Sadly that is the one gift sorely lacking.
Thanks for this blog. There are some good insights here. I’d like to add some thoughts that aren’t new but may help understand why there is a lack of discernment today.
Each Christian still has a lower nature to deal with (Jesus said take up your cross daily). As amazing as it sounds, that lower nature sometimes WANTS to be deceived.
To condense something Oswald Chambers once observed: when we are emotionally and spiritually unhealthy, we want emotional and spiritual thrills and will pay a high price to get them.
Over the centuries and in many disparate cultures, Christians have sometimes become bored with focusing on and serving Jesus – unsatisfied with being faithful to Him in the little, everyday things. In addition our culture’s “results” orientation finds it hard to leave the results of our obedience up to Him. Instead we want to prescribe the results and see them manifested as gloriously and as quickly as possible.
In our desire to see glorious, spiritual results in our walk with Christ, preachers who offer “big spiritual thrills” which promise instant holiness become attractive and we set aside discernment. The thrills seem to be key to bringing friends and family to Jesus, seeing a big revival materialize or to even “helping” Jesus to return sooner. Some ask: how can those desires be wrong?
In my case, it’s not just “them” who are tempted to go for a thrill to get to the result envisioned. I’m just as tempted and just as in need of cleansing from my own ambitions. As Hebrews 3:12 & 13 says:
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Motives are laid bare as the Word of God examines us and cleanses our sickness. But Christians can also use the Word of God to justify sin. If so, discernment takes a back seat. How do I know this? Experience.
Blessings on all who struggle daily to take up our cross and follow Him who loves us.
We must be careful not to set the format inwhich God can or cannot move for His own glory; as well as suggest whom He may or may not use. I believe that the revival is a genuine move of God with all its mixed bag of apples: flesh and the spirit, divine and the human, wheat and tares, light and darkness. It’s clear that God will look beyond our petty doctrines which only cause divisions and do what He does best:- show humanity how much He loves them and how much He cares. What is so sad about it all, is the calvalier antics and circus like atmosphere that is sometimes displayed along with some very unwise interjections (like allowing personal prophecies to be spoken or read during the telecast). Alas, we all have so much to learn. I would not however, label the entire movement as false. If satan has stepped into this movement, and I believe he has, then he is working equally on the side of those who so narrow mindedly criticize and justify their views with out-of-context scriptures and doctrinal bias. In the face of it all, Jesus’ preistly prayer that “they might be one” shall prevail.. For a great read check out “A Step Into Deliverance” by T. Pugh. It is a riveting autobiography about one pastor’s journey into the deliverance ministry. A real page-turner!
Paul said, Let all things be done DECENTLY and in order. I believe in Holy Spirit manifestations like healing, prophecy, tongues, etc. But what’s decent about howling like a dog or getting slam-dunked onto the floor by a tattooed charlatan who guides people on spirit trips to heaven (astral projects)? That is opening the door for wicked spirits to enter. Such antics as we read about and witness today give the true Gospel of Christ a bad name and make Christians a laughingstock to an unbelieving world.
Patricia,
I absolutely agree. And it’s amazing to me how that agreement sets some charismatics’ mouths a-foaming.
See my site for update on Bentley and Lakeland
Reading all these comments, makes me not confused but makes me wonder the lack of unity. I have not spoken against the movement and I wont I am reading all the comments.
I am from Northern Ireland and the revival came here from lakeland when a Pastor went over there. He went at the start of this revival to lakeland. I went to some of those meetings and there was freedom and miracles happened and I genuinely mean God was doing a good work. There was no hitting people or anything.
I don’t know what happened with Lakeland but discernment in this day and age is needed!! We need to step up and really seek God in everything because God doesn’t confuse!!!
I have always been weary of anything coming out of America because there has always been some sort of confusion. But i went to a church that was started by a group from texas. They were Spirit-filled but so grounded and I have grown so much as a christian.
Bottom line we need to step up our walk seek God for discernment this is not a natural war!!!!The enemy is sneakier crafiter than us but not God we need to know from God what is the Holy Spirit nad what is counterfieit!!!!
Surrender the outcome of your actions, is an interesting phrase as it means to not be attached to your actions, allowing the outcome to be what it will and trust in divinity that that will be so. Interpreting other persons attempts to know God is tantamount to judging the outcome of their efforts. It is by the effort that truth comes not be the judging of that effort.
randy