I have questions what purpose did this action serve and who did it serve how did it benefit the body of Yeshua?
Also tell me at what point did Yeshua and the diciples do this?
Can any 1 person scriptually back this behavior up I challenge you
The scripture I have read about slain refers to death
Think about it "One Lord one faith, one baptism(Ephesians 4:5) As far as movement in these episodes; This bodily exercise profitheth little:but godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is to come( I Tim 4:8)
These actions of worship did not profit the body of Yeshua just the one's acting it out.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts; CONSIDER YOUR WAYS. (HAGGAI 1:7)
We are to consider how we act and conduct our self in service to G-d.
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AND WE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE.(JOHN 8:32)
Well stated EJ. A deep personal study of God's Word relying on the Holy Spirit to teach us His truth (1 John 2: 27) will shine His light on those teachings from our adversary; hidden with enough truth to seduce those living on weak foundations.
Being that I'm a newbie and I have been spending time perusing the posts this one really has caught my attention. I watched the videos and was greatly grieved at what I was witnessing. I can't help but believe that these men are literally out of their minds. I have read the comments as to who do we think we are for judging such things to not be of the Spirit. Well, any good Berean christian will search the scriptures to "test the spirits" (1John 4:1) and see if it is of God for many false prophets will go out into the world. While these men may profess that Jesus did come in the flesh and is from God their actions don't reflect Christ's character. Jesus did say that we will know them by their fruit (Lk. 6:43). So I got to thinking about the word "fruit". What is Christ's fruit? Is it not in Gal. 5:22?: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control. As I watched the people laughing almost maniacally and convulsing if you will, I can't help but wonder where is the fruit of self-control? If we are not in self-control how then can we "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."? (1Pet. 5:8) Now would the Holy Spirit fill a person where they appear drunk, out of control or behave in a way that appears fleshly? If He did then wouldn't He be contradictory to God's character and commands to not be drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit? (Gal. 5:18) Didn't God command Israel to be a holy people, separate from the pagan nations? Didn't God command that the priests to not drink wine while in service so as make a distinction between the holy and the profane? (Lev. 10:9-10) Does God now call us His holy priesthood? (1Pet. 2:9) If we are His holy priesthood shouldn't we behave differently from the "pagans"? As I contemplate the human condition without Christ I see so many who hurt deeply through their own sin and sin committed against them. So in effort to avoid the pain addictions come in slyly at first with the lie of "Just this once to escape and you can control it". Next thing any addict knows is that he is enslaved, it controls him. The flesh controls and the deeds of the flesh are evident....immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outburts of anger, disputes, dissensions,factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these....Gal.5:19-21. What I saw on those videos was behavior so closely identified with drunkeness, a deed of the flesh then I can't help but wonder if these "leaders" are being used by satan to entice the flesh in the name of the Lord under the guise of Holy laughter, Holy drunkeness. How does that behavior appear any different than the world? If there is no clear distinction of what a non-believer is doing and this "holy laughter, drunkeness" there would be no need to turn to Christ. If we rely on our eyes to gauge what is spiritual then we will fail to walk by faith and not by sight. (2Cor. 5:7) It becomes all too easily to start being men-pleasers instead of God-pleasers. We NEED to compare all things by the standard, His Word, in all things and at all times so as not to be deceived. If we allow our emotions to rule instead of His Truth we will become so confused, easily lead astrayed and double-minded, unstable in all our ways. (James 1:8) We need to seek His wisdom as precious treasure and believe He will give His wisdom generously. God bless you all as you live to be a "Berean" christian.
The most memorable thing about the experience I recounted was the fact that it WAS all done in order ... there was no confusion ... the meeting went on for about three or four hours and everything just manifested one at a time over that time period. Confusion = bad order and experience = good As a church pianist, I too have had some disturbing discussions with pastors of different churches ... several have told me "start with something lively to wake 'em up ... get 'em excited ... then something slower to slow 'em down and then something slow and 'worshipful' to bring 'em into the Spirit." Hmmmph! God does it or it doesn't get done in the services in which I handle music.
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"I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to His holy people." Jude 3 Joyce
WEll can say that I have been involved in many Assembly of God functions and have had the opportunity to be in meetings with some of the "big wigs" of the AG and have been party to conversations where Pastors were told to work up some kind of activity to show the people the Holy Spirit so that the church did'nt get too lukewarm concerning the gifts of the spirit. I have actually ask the question to the head of he AG in Illinois one time and he said that though that shouldn't happen, he understands why they would say that because you have to keep the church actively alive in the spirit. I took that to mean "the ends justified the means." I have also had people who have been slain in the spirit tell em confidentially that they faked it because they were trying to convince their wife to believe so she could also get slain in the spirit and receive the gifts. It is from a different stand point with me being involved in the church heiarchy than from just seeing it from the pews. I was so saddened by all the falscification going on in the church world. I agree that the Lord can and has done some very strange things including having a donkey talk, etc., but I also know that the Lord is not the author of confusion an after spending over 25 years in the AG, I witnessed so much confusion in the services that it could not have been from God. Just my 4 cents worth. (inflation upped it 2 cents)
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A preacher in those days, when he felt God called him to preach, didn't hunt up a college or seminary, he hunted up a good horse, took off across the country and began crying "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world"!
This is nothing like what I experienced in a beautiful service one time. Let me tell you a story of my personal experience. Family was attending a rather reserved A/G church in N. Carolina when the Holy Spirit came in power one night. There were several messages in tongues and interpretations from second parties, there were many words of knowledge for people in need ... there were two prophecies concerning the church, one of which said, "If you will hear my voice and obey my commands, if you will forget the cultural barriers to obedience, if you will hear me tonight, I will bless you abundantly throughout the coming years. But if you turn yourself from me, the blessings you receive from men will be your reward." I, personally, was slain in the spirit (no one touched me, it felt as if I were being lain gently on the floor and I never lost consciousness of the people and things around me but I was caught up and being touched in my deepest soul by the Spirit of the Lord). It is the only time in 33 years of pentecostal experience that such a thing happened to me. It was a marvelous experience ... there were a couple of people who laughed but the laughter was a clear and open experience ... some cried ... some shouted ... but it was all done in an orderly fashion and was certainly not being directed from the platform. In fact, within the week of that marvelous meeting, the Senior Pastor of the church issued an announcement that from now on ALL prophecies, words of knowledge, messages in tongues and interpretations must come from the platform. Within six months that church of more than 600 people had dwindled to 200 and those who stayed were the "moneyed" and "old families" who approved of the pastor's ultimatum. It was partly because of that experience that I "wandered" into the Word of Faith camp. I was in search of life, joy, experience and I found a very good counterfeit of it in WoF. How sad when those from standard pentecostal (and other branches of belief) can only find any semblance of joy in a fake! Perhaps we all need to repent of our pride and allow the Holy Spirit to use us however He wishes ... including being obedient to the Holy Spirit even if it means "troubling the comfortable"!
-- Edited by wordworker at 19:51, 2008-02-17
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"I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to His holy people." Jude 3 Joyce
On one hand, it is true that the Apostels were accused of being drunk when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. On the other, does God really immitate a sinful practice? I'm up in the air on this one. Though I lean towards the belief that this probably not a godly manifestation, I leave room for God to work how He wants and it's hard for me to picture what actually was going on on Pentecost. The Apostles must have seemed drunk for men to accuse them of such a thing. I don't know. I can say that I've been to these types of meetings (Rodney Howard Browne) and I felt that the whole thing was entirely fake. They even tried to push me over so I could be "slain in the Spirit." So, I guess since it cannot be known if it's true or not, I'd rather not judge them, but I'll stay away, thank you.
A preacher in those days, when he felt God called him to preach, didn't hunt up a college or seminary, he hunted up a good horse, took off across the country and began crying "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world"!
