Re: Lakeland Florida Revival?????
 

But what you call differences some would call doctrine.

Re: Lakeland Florida Revival?????
 

Awesome report! We had a goal in April to reach to over 1000 people and have 100 receive the HG. There were only 7 total in the month receive the HG and the same baptized. We were sure that 100 was a stretch, but we had to set a goal somewhere. But the fact is that 7 in April were more than what we had all last year. That might have been because of spiritual fights and other issues, but this church today is a MUCH different church than what it was even a month ago.

Re: Lakeland Florida Revival?????
 

There was a time in the ministry of Jesus when it is said that "the power of the Lord was present to heal" (Luke 5:19). There is another time when it said that Jesus "could do no mighty works there" (Mark 6:5). God moves in different ways in different times. The attitude and expectancy of those present is a large factor. That is why Jesus cleared the room of those with negative attitudes in Mark 5:38-42.

Todd Bentley has had a life changing experience with Jesus. Some of us would call it a salvation experience and some of us would not. Todd Bentley has spent hours and hours in prayer in preparation for ministry. Todd Bentley does not look like a cookie cutter Christian and does not agree with all of our theological points of doctrine (but we don't even agree with one another on some stuff). He is evidently gifted and anointed by the Holy Spirit whether he is licensed by one of our "recognized" organizations or not. After fasting and praying, people converge expecting something to happen. That faith seems to increase as more and more people believe together. Then, something happens and it seems to fuel the faith of those who are there, and something else happens, and on and on.

We need to remember that God does not always work within our preconceived religious borders. John 7:40-44 tells of different attitudes people had back then about Jesus and His ministry. Some missed out because He did not fit their theological mold. Read John 7:47-49 where the leadership asked contempuously, "Is their a single one of us Jewish rulers who believe he is the Messiah?" And then they spoke of the "ignorance" of those who believed in Him because those poor deluded folks didn't know (their personal interpretation) of the doctrine or of the Scriptures.

Re: Lakeland Florida Revival?????
 

So what. Doctrine is great, but if it is divisive then maybe the doctrine is not correct. I am a doctrine guy. I believe doctrine. I follow doctrine. It is the doctrine of God not of man. Look my point is that if doctrine is all that is seperating revival from happening then that is stupid. God cares about doctrine. His doctrine, not mans doctrine. Look the passage says He will pour out His spirit on all flesh. We know that is happening. But why not at such a great scale in our movement? We tend to act like we have a monopoly of the HG, but we don't. IF we are the only true church of God then why is His spirit being poured out in other areas of denominations? It is not so all of them will look our way. They blow us away in power and in demonstration often times. So this 'future' revival in our organization is suppose to be on its way.....but it is stopping at other churches first before it gets to God 'real' church.....not a chance. The church and body of Christ is 1 million times larger than the UPC alone.

Re: Lakeland Florida Revival?????
 

Very very true! It is also different depending on the size of the church... some have more options to do more and unfortunately others do not because some smaller churches just do not have the funding. We have been greatly blessed here at the church we attend.. They have about 20 staff pastors and so there is always outreach continually going on... we do not have a lot of special drives to get people in but fortunately due to them being out there all the time somewhere we have on average 20 or so visitors a service... We do however have our SALT team (student action leadership team which is a group of youth ages 12-29 who are feeling a lead or call to ministry) doing an XTMX in Sept which usually brings in a few hundred kids and then we are having a RAIN conference for our African ministries next weekend... Praying we bring in many African families thru this also!

The youth did a drama backed by many public organizations which brought in on average 500 per night back the end of last year... it added so many youth and others to our church also it was so awesome! The youth group is also growing so tremendously it is so awesome!!!

We were just shooting for at least one per service but God has done more than we could ever imagine! This church just 10 yrs ago ran 50 people!!! Now over 1000 plus daughter works

Re: Lakeland Florida Revival?????
 

Good point, Jeannie.

Re: Lakeland Florida Revival?????
 

Thanks!

Re: Lakeland Florida Revival?????
 

Remember now, I'm old, probably about the oldest one here in AFF. I received the Holy Ghost Baptism over half a century ago.

Back during the nineteen sixties folks in denominational churches (even Roman Catholics) started receiving the Holy Ghost Baptism. They were speaking in tongues, prophesying, praying for the sick, etc. Some of us (including myself) just could not understand it because they did not come to us and receive these things. God seemed to bypass our churches and organizations and just poured out His Spirit on hungry and thirsty souls. He didn't need us to dispense it. We didn't have the exclusive franchise we thought we did.

It took me a while but I finally realized that the House of God is much larger than the little room that I was in.

Re: Lakeland Florida Revival?????
 

This is something I posted before but it seems relevant to the current discussion:
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This is from a booklet called "The Charismatic Movement, Renewal or Confusion?" which I received from Pastor James Lee Beall quite a while ago (in the 1960's or maybe in the early 1970's). He was pastor of Bethesda Missionary Temple in Detroit, MI. This church was considered "Latter Rain," "Oneness Pentecostal," or "Apostolic Pentecostal" depending on your viewpoint. In this portion he describes his attitude toward "Charismatics," and tells of being invited to participate in one of their meetings.
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Religious Superiority

It is relatively simple to sit back and criticize every and all religious groups. If you want something to offend you, it will be easily found.

When the Lord God first began to pour the Holy Spirit upon segments of the organized church --the Catholics, the Baptists, the Episcopalians, etc., I sat back to criticize. Believe me, I found plenty that I did not consider right or proper.

How superior I felt as I sat in my detached ivory tower pointing out the wrongs committed by others! There is no feeling quite like that which comes with religious superiority. It is like the eye saying to the hand, "I have no need of you."

...It is my personal opinion that the charismatic renewal has brought segments of the religious world to needed areas of maturity. For the first time in years and years, men and women of different persuasions are able to sit down and talk without cutting one another to pieces. We have ceased being afraid of one another.

My First Charismatic Conference.

Some years back I was invited to one of the major U.S. cities to take part in a city-wide charismatic conference. This was the first for me and I wasn't sure that I wanted to go.

I gave the matter some thought and prayer. Inwardly I knew it was the right step for me. I accepted the invitations and left for the meetings.

What I saw in the initial services made me a little uneasy. Hundreds of people were in attendance with clergymen of all backgrounds.

During the course of this dinner-meeting,the religious community was invited to stand and identify themselves. To my surprise, the Roman Catholics --priests and nuns-- were in the majority.

I could not believe they were really interested in knowing about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and what God was doing spiritually all over the world. I had come to believe that Roman Catholics and Episcopalians were such dyed-in-the-wool sacramentalists that personal spiritual experiences were of little or no interest to them. In that meeting, I began to get the sneaky hunch that I might have been wrong.

The day after the initial dinner-meeting we conducted our services in one of the local church buildings. My responsibility was to speak morning and evening.

Following my teaching on the baptism in the Holy Spirit that evening I invited those who were interested to stand and express their interest in this way. About half of that audience responded.

The church sanctuary was completely filled so I asked those seated in the right front section to move toward the rear if they were not interested in further instruction and prayer for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Finally, we got everyone settled again.

There in the first rows were Roman Catholic priests and nuns, along with other ministers and workers from various churches. I didn't know exactly what I ought to do.

The reason for my quandry was that I knew the Lord had no intention of filling these people with the Holy Spirit. They belonged to the wrong churches and I was not even sure of their salvation. There was no other step to be taken except that of instruction. This I did with the intention of eventually leading them to prayer.

In my prayer I led these seekers to repeat after me. My prayer would be a request for the forgiveness of sins and the confession that we were fully aware that there was one mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ. I was going to make Protestants out of all these Catholics if I possibly could. After all, this was the only way they could receive something from the Lord.

Mixed Reactions

While I was praying with my eyes closed, my prayer was interrupted. Someone was singing and praising God in another language. In a few minutes, others joined in.

When I opened my eyes to see who it was who was being filled with the Holy Spirit, i was amazed to find the majority of them were obviously Roman Catholics. My reactions were mixed. I was happy for them, while at the same time puzzled. How could this happen? What did it all mean?

The next day the entire scene broke in on me again. All I could say was, "God did it!" I did not lay my hands on them. No one gave them words to say nor did we initiate anything.

God evidently did not care if they were protestants or Catholics and He did not keep the Spirit from them because they wore clerical clothes. The Lord God looked down into the hearts and saw the hunger there. Not a hunger for things, or experiences, or gifts --just a deep and singular hunger and thirst for Him. He mets the hungry and satisfies their mouth with good things. Make no mistake about this.

Re: Lakeland Florida Revival?????
 

Yeah Jim people like you and I see that, but sometimes people can not see the forrest for the trees.