WHAT About FALLING DOWN??

WHAT About FALLING DOWN??
-by Andrew Strom.

After reading what we have published regarding the dangers of
Kundalini, etc, a lot of people may be wondering what is "OK" -
what is really from the Holy Spirit?

Does the Holy Spirit sometimes cause people to "fall down" under
the power of God? Yes - sometimes He does. But He does not
need to make some big "show" about it. And neither does He
need men to "push" people over, either. There are counterfeits for
everything.

What about the gifts of the Holy Spirit - like tongues, prophecy,
healings, discernment and the casting out of demons, etc? Yes -
I believe very strongly in ALL the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are
right the way through the New Testament. But the key is this
word "Holy." The real gifts of God have a holiness and purity
about them. You can sense this. Counterfeits tends to have
a "weirdness" or ugliness about them.

Let me give you an example. I received the following account from
a preacher in England several years ago: "There were about 20
fellow ministers all gathered together in one large room at a local
minister's house. We were introduced to the special guest... The
next 3 hours were the weirdest three hours I have ever had to
endure. We started listening to [her] testimony which seemed
very powerful, next she spoke of the times that she meets with
the Angel Gabriel and other spiritual beings, next we moved on
to portals between this world and the next and then finally to
how she was going to open up a portal to Heaven in the room
that we were all in. Now things started to happen, really crazy
things and strange noises... As [she] moved around the room
ministering to individual people they were crashing to the ground,
bouncing up and down, running around as if on fire and making
all sorts of sounds. When she came to me she had no prophetic
words for me and nothing happened to me so she just moved on.
My Vineyard friend was the first to crash to the floor. Since that
day his church has taken on a different guise, it is not the same
church any more."

Please notice that the PREACHING was different from true Biblical
preaching - and the SPIRIT that the lady was ministering in did not
seem like the pure Holy Spirit. Can you tell the difference?

We need to watch out for preachers who bring unbiblical or "New
Age"-sounding terms into their preaching - or who talk about
"angels" all the time. Can people have true encounters with real
angels? Yes - but always these beings that come from the
presence of a Holy God carry His "holiness" with them. Angels
in the Bible always carried this weighty presence of a Holy God.
There is too much weirdness, ugliness and silliness in a lot of
Christian meetings today. And I believe a lot of these encounters
are not real angels at all.

So should we go forward with prayer needs for healing, etc?
Absolutely! -If the preaching is sound and biblical and they are
not putting on some big "show." As long as the preacher has not
gotten some weird "impartation" from one of these strange "revival"
meetings then they are probably fine. In fact, I am all for the real
power of God being demonstrated in the earth! I wish we were
seeing a lot MORE true healings and deliverances and miracles -
not less! Jesus said, "These things will you do - and greater things
than these"! (Jn 14:12).

Just think about the Book of Acts for a moment. Not only are there
healings and miracles and demons being cast out right through
the whole book, but there are also occasionally angels appearing
with instructions from the Lord, and an abundance of dreams,
visions and prophecies, etc. So we see that God is definitely a
SUPERNATURAL GOD. He does do "unusual" things. Angelic
visitations DO HAPPEN. Prophetic signs DO OCCUR. But please
notice that all of these things have a certain holy "character" about
them. And that is the key right there. They have a holy character,
because they come from a holy God.

I believe in a true Revival that has the piercing "word" of a John
the Baptist or a Jonathan Edwards or a Charles Finney - accompanied
by the most powerful MIRACLES that anyone has ever seen.
I believe in a Revival like that - the "word and Spirit joined." True,
piercing 'holiness' preaching with real signs and miracles following.
There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it is what the Book of
Acts shows us again and again. Bring it on, Lord!

So please be discerning - but don't be afraid of the real super-
natural power of God. Without it, we simply cannot reach this
lost and dying world in the way that God has called us to. The
devil wants us to be so afraid of the "counterfeit" that we run right
over to the other extreme - where we don't want God's power or
anything "unusual" at all. This is just as big a trap as the
"Charismania" excesses on the other side. The devil loves to
push us to extremes - either hyper-Charismania or dead orthodoxy.
I believe in a powerful balance right in the middle - the "word and
the Spirit" joined. That is where real Revival is to be found. Don't
let the devil rob you by pushing you to either extreme, my friends.

God bless you all!

Andrew Strom.