but a problem I see in some churches who are so skeptical of the powers of the Holy Spirit is they stay in their mind and never take that leap of faith into their heart. I am not just talking about salvation as if you don’t step out of your head and believe in your heart that Jesus died for your sins then you are not saved but I am also talking about the gifts God has offered to be a testament and a proof of the Gospel. If you can’t ever step out in faith to accept this then the Holy Spirit generally will not force it on you. And this is a problem I see in the church i attend some of whom I respect their theology and am friends with. I think they are saved by their Faith thus they step out in Faith in believing Jesus died for their sins and of course this step of Faith is far more important than any other step they may take but they refuse to step out in Faith on many other things promised in the Bible.

What do you call thousands of people gathered to worship God (and from what I’ve observed we are talking the true God)? or thousands of people praying for a sick child?
Is everyone at the revival a true Christian? of course not I am sure there are those there that claim to be Christians even working on the staff but are not true Christians. However, that is going on in every church building in the world.

I am not going to judge the revival as I don’t know a whole lot about Todd Bentley other than what I saw him preach while observing the revival and I don’t see heresy there. he was accused of not preach repentance and turning to Jesus and I saw him preach repentance and turning to Jesus.

I love following your church and your experiences through your blog from over here in the UK. Thanks for the time and effort you put in to help others learn from your successes and mistakes through your honesty in so many things.

I do wish, however, that you had finished this post though at the end of para 2 when you had said you wouldn’t comment because you hadn’t been to the church yet. I have to say that the rest of the post would make me think twice over your ability to judge what’s happening objectively. I particularly thought it was harsh to bring up past failures when a church may be trying it’s best to move past them.

Please don’t think I’m trying to judge you - that’s not my heart (please read my first para again to see where I’m coming from) and I’m certainly not in your city or had experience with this church. I’m sorry if I’ve got this wrong, I just think that you started this post so well…

Matt

As to it’s “validity” - I think I’m going to have to leave this one to God to deal with if it’s not being done in His name. I’ll stick to praying for those who are involved at every level that they are clearly being led by the Holy Spirit.

Thanks for the sober posting. My wife is currently at the meeting. She does not think it should qualify as a revival but she said it certainly seems to be an outpouring of healing gifts. As a person who spends a great deal of time with the so-called hyper-charismatics, my take is to just wait and let the thing bear fruit.

I would recommend that you consider going to one of the daytime meetings at the sponsoring church. My wife was very impressed with his take and presentation of what is happening. She felt he was very genuine and humble and very sober-minded. He referred to another similar event from I think ‘93 and was commenting that they learned some from the mistakes made in those days.

My wife also commented that last night the attendance was markedly lower and she says it is lower still tonight. This perhaps will prove to be a big flash without an ongoing tide. Still she says the healings are remarkable and many are very credible…she also allows that the usual impressionable types are prominent and less credible.

I advise you to bless what you can and keep your integrity on that which you cannot bless.

Peace

In all seriousness, I have had the opportunity to speak with a few SE friends who have had the opportunity to attend some of the meetings, I’ve enjoyed listening to the varying commentaries, which, as you can imagine vary greatly amongst the few that I’ve talked to.

Given the fact that you know a lot more than do (and probably ever will for that matter) I respect your observation about the AG and SE. While I can’t speak for the AG, I can tell you that at the time I departed from my employment there they began treading water very, very safely, as the whole “trailer park” incident left folks around the country with a VERY bad taste in their mouth for the college, and I’m sure you’re aware of what damages a bad taste can cause. Plus if you’ve noticed the news lately it seems as if, at least local media, has had a hard time attributing SE to anything positive, but has no problem putting all the negative stuff out there about them. I would suffice to say that this is probably a situation where they’ve determined that silence is golden.

I certainly hope that your attendance allows you to shed some light and wisdom on the whole thing for the CP folks.

Hope you are well man.

I think this is worth a follow up post. Please keep us informed.

*sigh*

To quote Boston …. Faith is much “more than a feeling”.

-Jud Epting