Quote:
Originally Posted by n david
That...
is not this
What you're describing is straight out Thomas Keating's guide:
The Guidelines
1. Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.
2. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word
as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.
3. When engaged with your thoughts,* return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.
4. At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.
*thoughts include body sensations, feelings, images, and reflections
That is no different than what the Desert Fathers did, no different than what Hindu or Zen Buddhists do.
Contemplative, centering, lectio divina - all cut from the same mystic and occultic cloth.
Let me be very blunt: you are promoting false doctrine and occultism. #StopIt
|
My point is... it is relatively the same. Keating didn't discover anything that Pentecostals haven't been doing for generations without all the trappings of Catholicism. Keating is only using systematic terminology that we don't use. We Pentecostals are well ahead of Keating and the charismatics. You mean to tell me that you've never entered into a contemplative state of prayer focused on the name of Jesus, His work on the cross, baptism, Spirit infilling, a specific teaching, or word in Scripture? You've never received visions, insight, or direction based on your reflections in prayer? You've never been in this state of prayer and experienced bodily sensations or deep spiritual impressions? If you have... you've done this too.
Remember, well before Pentecostals became "popular", the main stream denominations were calling us witches, claiming that speaking in tongues was occult or of the devil, and even charging us for seeking "mystical experiences" outside of the purely intellectual framework of Biblical doctrines.
I challenge you with this. I think you've drifted from the more spiritual path that embraces spiritual experiences, visions, and practices to embrace an unbalanced position of rationalism and skepticism. You'd condemn the Apostolic seers, healers, visionaries, and prophets among us because they don't measure up to your dusty old, spiritually dead, pseudo-intellectualism that denounces any spiritual experience or seeking that might challenge your rationalistic interpretation of Scripture.
As I studied soaking prayer and contemplative prayer I found myself thinking... "This guy has no new insight. He's only discussing the spiritual benefits of what we've done and experienced all these years. He's just trying to inject elements of Catholicism into it." There is a growing hunger among those outside of Pentecost for what we've always had and experienced.
Threaded Mode
