What Do I make of the Lakeland outpouring?
The events unfolding in Lakeland Florida are gaining visibility in the Christian world and increasingly in the secular press. So it seems appropriate to pass on a few thoughts of my own on it as most people will have an opinion.
I was preaching on Romans 11 today where Paul grapples with some of the great themes of election and human responsibility. At the end his cry is ‘O the depth of the wisdom and riches of God’, He also says ‘how unsearchable his paths’. Paul found that theology (study of God) leads to Doxology (Worship of God).
I believe in Word and Spirit. I believe we need theology if we are to handle the moving of the Spirit in a sustainable way that will build the church and keep the fruit of movement of God.
Doxology without theology leads to a wandering from the path of orthodoxy. People may get excited but when asked why they are excited they have no idea!
I have watched some of the meetings from Lakeland and observe a few things from what I have seen and read and heard.
1- I do believe what we are seeing is the power of God in the meetings
2- The people that are getting healed seem to me to be very ordinary people who have been invaded by the wonderful healing power of Jesus Christ. They are almost shocked and surprised they at not ‘crazy people’
3- The platform party do seem to have a genuine love for Jesus and for people
4- The theology of those on the platform seems to me to be very questionable.
5- There does not seem to be any Bible present anywhere on the platform or any reference to Scripture
6- There is a lot of reference of Angles, Open heaven, prophecy and other terms that are quoted without any reference to exposition of the word
7- I believe this might prove to be something that transmits across many nations as we saw with the Toronto outpouring
8- Just because the power of God is being poured out does not mean the theology or message being preached is right. God blesses with power as a gift. We are responsible for what we say publically.
9- My concern is that people will see the power and assume it has come because of the message. This in my view would be a big error
10- We must be open in our churches to the anointing that is breaking out especially in healing
11- We must be even more diligent in our churches to teach accurately the word of God so the outpouring of the Spirit is rightly handled
12- If folk can go or catch from this power of course do so. But do not throw your Brain away or your Bible.
13- If something is not built on the word of God it will end in disaster even if it is God pouring out his Spirit.
14- Paul spent much of his time in his letter correcting error as he saw that if left unattended it would ultimately do a lot of damage
15- We must pray for the outpouring to be brought onto good solid lines of scripture and teach people to be discerning over what they see and hear.
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3 comments:
Superb Mike, I applaud you your wisdom. To some this may seem 'stating the obvious', but unless it is stated, how are we to learn? We would just pick up whatever explanations we could piece together, a dangerous path. To others (myself included) this poses a real challenge and a real help in making decisions about what goes on within church. And I wholeheartedly agree, word and spirit are so so important, in fact they are pretty much all the tools we have on Earth to follow Christ! Expository preaching, true to God's revelation, under His authority, in His power, the One Truth. Keep at it Mike. Thank you.
Mike, many thanks for this, I have found it most helpful. As usual you bring a Spirit and Word 'balanced' approach which, encourages us to reach out in faith for the things that Father may be doing in these days and, to keep ourselves firmly in the Word. As John de Jong says "spread your branches to catch the wind of the Spirit, and have your roots firmly in the Word".
Hi Mike,
I agree with the principles you articulate, though I've yet to see any of the videos, so can't apply them to the Lakeland phonomenon as such.
Thanks for the post. Good one!
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