In present-day church as it was in the Old Testament. There's the offering of strange fire that we have to
avoid during worship so that's what we'll be discussing today and
So next week we'll talk about restoring the tabernacle of David. So if you go to Leviticus 10 1 Leviticus 10 1
You see this idea of strange fire because it says in Leviticus 10 1 now Nedab and Abihu
the sons of Aaron took their respective fire pans and after putting fire in them placed incense on it and
offered strange fire before the Lord which he had not commanded them and
Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord. I
Mean that is how
Severely strange fire that is offered during times of worship
Was seen
From the heavens and yet today
When we look at worship across the globe, you'll find such such
forms of
Offerings that are being placed before God that have really nothing to do with the word and come from sometimes places that they shouldn't come from
and we place it all under this
Place it all under this
One scripture called and the Holy Spirit fell upon all flesh and so anything goes and we keep offering strange fire to God in worship
and so
Many times things are happening in churches and particularly
Death and witchcraft is entering into churches through the strange fire that is offered to God during times of worship
Two spirits that are prevalent two or three spirits that are prevalent in churches because of strange fire offered during worship
Are the spirit of death the spirit of divination and of false prophet or the or the false prophet a false prophecy
And is here. So
These are spirits that have entered the church and are caught wreaking havoc in the church wreaking havoc in the church
So that's one of the things we need to deal with. Hey, Anne. Oh, no, not at all
really I
Guess the number of students is increasing. What can you do? No parking outside?
Yeah
where
First the life of God is squeezed out of a church and then in the process physical life is being affected too
Because of what has entered the church through
false fire being offered I mean here
Neither have been a bee who are actually struck dead
But I'm not even talking about God striking people dead as in
Some kind of punishment or something because we know Jesus took all the punishment on the cross
But three spirits that have entered the church because of the strange fire being offered to God during
Worship in churches across the globe, but it's a global phenomenon. It can't be limited to North America. It's all across the globe is that
the God life
in a church is being sponsored
In a church is being squeezed out
Physical life is being affected
the spirit of divination has entered and with that comes deception and
Then the false prophet as in words that are coming forth that come from a place of falsehood
That do not come from the heart of God
These things are washing over the church nowadays. So when we look at strange fire, there are different
Aspects to strange fire. The first one is whenever carnal means whenever carnal means
Are we okay to vain
Should I start again or we're good carnal whenever carnal means are used to kindle devotion
Or praise
Whenever carnal means are used to kindle devotion or praise
Where you mix fire from the altar with fire from the world?
Then you have something called strange fire
And so it's I mean
We've got to be so careful about this say because God is holy in the Old Testament used to
Prescribe the kind of incense that needed that should have been offered to him
He'd say a portion of this and a portion of this mixed with a portion of this in these quantities and then you offer it
He would prescribe there was protocol today. There is no
prescription because we've continuously brought back worship to the
Something that's being expressed from our hearts and that it has to do with spirit and truth so you can't
Prescribe heart worship, but what is happening is because we don't necessarily
Understand the concept of heart worship and worshiping in spirit and truth
What we do is we try to drum up worship and in the process of drumming up worship
we use carnal means to kindle devotion and praise and we use fire from the altar as in as
God has told us to do and then fire from the world and we mix it together to create a smoke and light
Spectacle that can grab people and take them to the throne room and is the spirit of God who does that?
It's not that we should not do things that
Are beautiful like we talked about expressions of worship. We said that when Moses constructed the tabernacle. Yes. He made it beautiful
Yes, there is something to art. Yes. There is something to space as in when you make space look a certain way
Yes, there is something to it. But but that is secondary compared to
Being able to correspond to God with my heart first where I should be in a in a in a
Pit full of dung or in a palace full of
Angel carvings and harps and my worship should still be the same
As in it does not need the aid of props
That's not how this works
When God told Moses to build things he said those people that he put his spirit upon them and gave them the power to do things.
Yeah, so even that was an expression that was prompted or spawned by the spirit of God
And so what happens is very often we use carnal means what are carnal means carnal means are those means that don't come from the spirit of God
That are not prompted that don't find their root in that don't find their origin
In the spirit of God anything that doesn't find its origin in the spirit of God
Is a self-generated self-sustained baked bread means of doing things
This is why what may be successful last Sunday cannot be used this Sunday to generate the same feeling
And so I
Mean this is pretty severely because we indulge in this very often
But this is where we want to eliminate all finds of all all kinds of strange fire
So carnal means are used to kindle devotion and praise
Don't want to do that
Fire from the altar and fire from the world where certain things that work in world concerts world
Music scenes world
Scenes world mass hysteria movements cannot now be taken and mixed with what God wants to create an explosion
You can't
I
Love what Ron Kenoli did once I was at one of his concerts and there was lights and colors and all and then at one point
He said could you just switch off all the lights?
I said we don't need the lights just put on the lights in the house
We don't need the lights just put on the lights in the house and so it was like
The normal lights just let's do worship now
He didn't want this
Thing he didn't want anything that would add or aid
Decided not to have it
Remember Rebecca St. James once where she was leading worship and at one point she realized that people were worshiping
So while everybody was worshiping she went off
She stopped and went off the stage people didn't realize it
So everybody's worshiping and now it comes to that moment where you clap for the one leading you in worship because she's a star
And she's missing. I
thought that was brilliant and
I remember getting a letter from the guys who used to organize that Jesus Northwest Festival saying
We've had a highly successful Jesus Northwest, we've been doing it for 10 years hundreds have been saved
Speakers have been phenomenal
but
after spending time in prayer, we've realized that we've idolized these
Christian musicians, so we want you to know that we've been deeply convicted by the Spirit to completely cancel Jesus Northwest and
they canceled the whole event and
They rarely had it since it was one of the
most successful most vibrant soul-saving
Events that used to be held in the Northwest in and in a fabulous
arena near Vancouver Portland
like phenomenal place and
What a show it used to be and at the height of the show when they're doing really well
When they're making money and saving souls they cancel the whole thing I thought I said wow
No, but they knew that the focus had shifted
I think everything has to originate from the Holy Spirit anything that is successful that does not originate from the Spirit the success is moot
Therefore if prayer meetings on Mondays are a great thing and prayers are being answered
But the Spirit of God says you don't need to meet every Monday you meet when I tell you to then that's what you do
Nothing successful is a reason to continue
Because if that was the reason to continue Jesus should have stayed on in some towns because he was doing phenomenally well there
And he shouldn't have gone to certain areas because he didn't do well there. He was chased out of those places
How do we do revivals now we see where they
Are most successful and how do we count success by the number of people who?
Come for these revivals and yet
To know where things originate and when things end
They wanted to make him king and he said I know the heart of men and I have other towns to visit and they kept moving on
And he said I know the heart of men and I have other towns to visit and they kept moving on
So when it comes to corporate worship or even individual worship or the whole
Aspect of worship as we have looked at it the carnal means that are used to kindle devotion and praise
Need to be destroyed so that we don't use any of it
This is why sometimes when the musicians don't turn up at acts 29
I am so okay with it because I remember the days when all you would have is a guitar and
That's how worship was done. We don't need any of these instruments
We don't need any of these instruments on some days. You don't even need the guitar
Yeah, you like the instruments, but it has nothing to do with needing the props yeah, because worship is not even a musical term
So
fire from the altar mixed with the fire of the world is when you take aspects that
Are very successful to draw people in the world and without God having necessarily said
Use this and this and this you take from that and you take from this and mix it together
To create an explosive mixture if God says okay Jacob use this business model great because every idea
Comes from him every creative constructive productive idea that has integrity at its heart comes from him
Satan can only counterfeit things so when we say an idea from the world
We are talking about an idea that was given by God that perhaps is being used to gather mammon
But initially came from God and was creative
But we without permission when we take something that is successful in the world and try to combine it to create an explosion in the church
It goes back to that
This is a very high standard we are setting that's okay
Because there's a higher standard than this called the Holy Spirit
It applies to
programs from other famous churches and peoples to
We we have to know what God wants for acts 29 and use that
Otherwise again, we are taking that which is highly successful in a certain area and adding it to ours without
Necessarily asking God whether it works for us
Same applies to song same applies to more modes of worship same applies to I mean there was a time when suddenly
churches started using Gregorian chants or
revitalized hymns or
reflective
Meditative worship it caught on fire you go everywhere
I remember being in a place where I was folding paper and the sound of rustling was disturbing people because they were into a
meditative reflective thing
Have to make sure it is from the Spirit of God for us
And that is a hard work. Okay. This is the easy work. That's why this is preferred over figuring out what the Spirit of God wants
So in your individual time of worship to you have to get up tomorrow and say okay father
How how do you want me to go about it today?
Show me this is what I've been doing all this time. Do I just continue or do you have any other new?
Adventure for me even in my expression of worship and connection to you today
Secondly this will take more than one hour
Secondly worship that is strange fire
Disregards the word
disregards the word
Disregards the word and in doing so it either ends up being
Central or it ends up being intellectual
When when when what the word of God says about who God is how God is to be approached
What is honor? What is not honor? What is modest? What is not modest?
What is prescribed? What is not prescribed?
When the word of God is disregarded
How should how should one worship in tongues and how should one not worship in tongues?
What is order in a church and what is not order in a church?
How many can speak at one time and how many cannot when the word of God is set aside for denominational preferences or
Charismatic preferences or because the leader thinks that this is his
Niche
What happens then is either worship gets intellectual or it gets central and by central I mean it either appeases the soul
Or it appeases the mind
The word of God has a special meaning
The word of God has the ability to appease the spirit
Then the soul and the mind and then the body but when we disregard the word it goes one or the other
Or both perhaps and it doesn't touch the spirit
And when the word is disregarded guys in worship and this is happening in many churches where
There are churches that are emerging every year
across the world that are a reaction to the
conservative traditional
Mainstream church and when churches are formed out of a reaction what they try to do is they try to
Remove all constraints
Just so they can be free but in the process
We don't understand that the world sees freedom as a removal of all constraints while Christians see freedom as the
embracing of
Constraints because of who God is our freedom comes through learning to live
Within the boundaries of God's Word and God's love the world sees freedom as learning to live outside the boundaries of
God's Word and God's love
That's what they see as freedom when churches began begin to react to what
Was what happens is they often disregard the word they often disregard
Spirit and truth they regard disregard the truth and when they disregard the truth
Sensuality and intellectualism enters the church
You will find in churches like that that worship is highly expressive
There's great freedom in whatever you can do in worship, but you will find that sexual standards are lowered
Not immediately but over a period of four or five months you'll find sexual standards are lowered
That people are infected with itching ear syndrome
That fleshly pleasing doctrines start getting promoted
That the church thrives on prosperity promises
That there are a lot of pipe dream prophecies that come from people
That even the way people dress begins to change
Where there's an immodesty that begins to start coming over the church
and
All begins with the disregard for the word. How can a man keep his way pure by cherishing the word?
When you lose sight of a holy God
Then worship becomes something that is
Self-indulgent and self-satisfying and not God indulgent and God satisfying
Huge statement I made there when you lose perspective of a holy God
Then worship becomes self-indulgent and
Self-satisfying as in the worshiper is the center of worship
The the expression of worship and this and the crying of the heart and the rolling down of the tears and the
nice feeling of the flesh and the
Satisfaction of the soulish realm become more important
The worshiper is a center of worship when when we lose sight of a holy God
Surely Isaiah was a man of God
But because God was the center of his worship. He cries out saying whoa, I am undone
I'm a man of unclean lips. When do you hear that in modern-day worship?
Very rarely
I remember once lying in a church because
The Spirit of God would not allow me to get up and as I'm lying there. I'm weeping because
all I can do is God would show me a
characteristic of his and then he would show me the same characteristic in me and I would see the gap between
God and me and I just weep. What was I doing there for two hours?
I wish that
This happens more often where God has to say often during times of worship the three
Most fearful and reassuring words fear not or two most reassuring words fear not Jacob
Because you're so undone in the presence of a holy God
But that is an aspect we've lost in worship
Because most of our worship unfortunately is self-indulgent and self-satisfying it's oh I
Worshipped well today great
That's part of it. But that is secondary compared to the primary aspect of God indulgent God satisfying worship
And the central part is so true because sexual intercourse is so important
And the central part is so true because sexual standards are lowered modesty is replaced by immodesty
When when the word is disregarded
In numbers 25 and it doesn't matter whether you're charismatic or apostolic
I've gone to apostolic conferences where the worship was all about revelation and
very
little
about the Revelator
That song we sing
We're a chosen
Generation a royal holy came out of an apostolic conference great song
But every song was so much about
Who we are that the lamb and the lion were hardly in the picture
And it is in response to that conference that I wrote the song
Response to that conference that I wrote the song the lion and the lamb song of the lion and the lamb
I was reading one of the things you had written recently about one and a half or two years ago about the lion and the lamb
I just read it yesterday
song of the lion and the lamb
Was in response to that because I came back thinking father revelation and revelate
Let revelatory songs, but where is the lion and where is the lamb? He he was missing
So it can happen where one gets so intellectual and by intellectual I don't mean
Professorial intellectual I'm talking about being intellectual about the very revelations of God. That's all revelation revelation
In numbers 26 we find that
this Israelite man
Called Zimri who was actually a prince
from the tribe of simian
brings a Midianite woman
right before the eyes of Moses into the midst of the Israelite camp and what is
Suggested there is or the words there suggests that he while Moses is there and he's just
Talked about God and God is about to make a judgment
In comes Zimri who was a prince from the tribe of simian and he brings his woman and there's a sense of
Caressing or a central aspect to the words there in
front of Israel in front of the front of God and that's when Phinehas takes a javelin and
Spears both Zimri and the woman Cosby
Who was a Midianite woman and when you read the first verse of numbers 25
We realized that the Midianite women had approached the Israelite men so that they could seduce them and cause them to sin
So that sexually they would be in a place where God would have to
Deal with the man God is judging them when Zimri has the audacity to do this the point being
When the word is disregarded you will find that in a church
The spirit of Jezebel will bring in
stuff like the lowering of sexual standards sensuality in worship
immodesty and
idolatry
One might say didn't David dance before the Lord in a in his
Loin cloth or in very dressed
in very little so wasn't that immodest guys
While our focus has always been on oh David
Strip down and worship God
That is how we present David but what David was doing there was far beyond that
He refused to worship God as King
He takes off his kingly garments because you can never worship God as a king
You can worship God as a priest or you can worship God as a son and a servant
But you can never go in kingly robes and
Worship God in his tripping off his worship his kingly garments. There was more there than just
stripping down to his
Stripping down to his
basic
Effort yeah, and he takes everything off and
What he's trying to do there is an exposure of who he is before God. It was not meant to be immodest
Yeah, and even that he takes off
No
Okay
When we take a break just
Let's go examine that because that even makes even more sense. I thought he even took that off. So
Remember guys that when the word is with disregarded
immodesty sexuality sensuality creeps into a church and you will see
Any questions on that before we go on?
Yeah
Yeah, yeah
Yeah
Often one has a discerned by the spirit because on one hand there will be scriptures that you read in the Bible where David is
Writing to God and it seems to come from a place of tremendous love
Yeah, and yet there are other times. Yeah, there are other times when songs are written that are so emotionally charged that
Sometimes there is no spirit and truth in it
And that becomes a problem then where there is no spirit and truth in it
Guys it might seem like we are nitpicking
But really we are not because at the end of the day
We've got to come back to the simple thing of spirit and truth spirit and truth
That's where we begin after that the mind and the soul the mind and the soul and after that the body
That's the process and every the whole of my this is why we sing my whole being
Worships you Lord. So my whole being is supposed to be involved, but there's an order and
God has said this order many times
He I used to say God will bless your body soul and spirit and when you read the scripture it says God will bless your spirit
Soul and body that's the order he travels in
Other forms of strange fire guys sometimes we replace the spontaneous with that which is choreographed
I'm not saying that every time something is choreographed. It's strange fire. I'm saying sometimes there's a tendency nowadays
especially as
churches grow larger and there's a demand for excellence or
high quality stuff that
Spontaneous spontaneous. How do you say that one?
Spontaneity is replaced with choreographed performances and that doesn't necessarily mean that it is strange fire
But when it becomes a habit
where
There's a because there is a place for humanly planned
humanly
executed
choreographed
expressions of worship, but then there is also
Song and dance and expressions of worship that should be spontaneous that are a beautiful manifestation of the spirit and
Pastors and elders have to discern and work together so that they can cull
performers from the platform and
cull performances from the platform
Platform
Something you stand on or the front podium anything you stand on the front stage
Embezzling God's praise by diverting his worship to ourselves is a serious spiritual crime
Embezzling God's praise
By diverting worship to ourselves is a serious spiritual crime
Embezzling God's praise
By diverting worship to ourselves, and how do we do that by sometimes lifting up?
Which is why I like what Rebecca St. James did which is why I like what Jesus Northwest did in canceling the thing
Because yes people were worshiping yes people were getting saved
But what was happening was at the end of the day the attention and the focus of the thousands of young people
Who would gather there was directed
Towards the ones who were the agents of worship and they perhaps didn't have that intent, but that's where it was going
Yeah
What a way to do it
Then there is strange fire that is kindled by spirits that have been given room because people don't believe in the truth
strange fire kindled by
demonic spirits
That have been given room in a church or in people's lives because they did not believe the truth
As in truth has been presented to them
But when truth is presented and you keep resisting it or take time to embrace it
Delusion follows because if you look at second Thessalonians 2 9 to 12 second Thessalonians 2
9 to 12 marvelous was there a second Thessalonians 2
9 to 12
I
Don't know if I can call it a marvelous verse, but it's quite a striking worse second Thessalonians 2 9 to 12
And here's what it says
The coming of the lawless one
Is
According to the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders and
With all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth
That they might be saved and for this reason God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie
That they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth
But had pleasure in unrighteousness
The coming of the lawless one is according to the waking working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders and with all
Unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this reason
God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth
But had pleasure in unrighteousness. So let me draw a principle out of that scripture. This principle is simple guys
When I do not have a love for the truth, even though it's being presented to me again and again
When I've fallen into the habit of itching ears where I want things that will appease my soul
When I have pleasure in unrighteousness
What will happen is a strong delusion will begin to enter the church where now it is easy for spirits to kindle
Fire that is completely strange and it really messes up churches and is doing that regularly nowadays
Guys one of the things we are supposed to do as priests go to Malachi chapter 2 Malachi chapter 2
We have a common priesthood in God look at Malachi 2 and you'll see one of the things that we are supposed to know
Malachi 2 verse 7
Malachi 2
Verse 7
Starting at verse 6 true instruction was in his mouth
Talking about Levi and no wrong was found on his lips
He mocked with me in peace and uprightness and he turned many from iniquity for the lips of a priest should guard knowledge
People should seek instruction from his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts
But you have turned aside from your way you have caused many to stumble by instruction
you've corrupted the covenant of Levi says a lot of force and
Then he goes on to tell them what will happen because of that guys
We are supposed to be people who can discern between what is good and what is evil
Who have the ability to do that and that can only come as we know the truth more and more but when a people
Fail to love the truth what is what happens first is you're unable to distinguish between what is true and what is false
When a whole church becomes like that now spirits come in to start kindling strange fire and you offer it
And your scriptural basis for it because here's the problem guys God can do anything
He wants to he can make an iron accent float he can hide a coin in a fish's mouth. He can speak through a
Bush he can speak through a donkey he can set fire to a bush and it doesn't burn
He can cause a pillar of fire in the wilderness. He can cause a cloud to cover a mountain
He can do anything he want he can cause angels
physical angels to appear in this room and because he can do anything he wants what happens now is
lot of experiences that happen are sometimes coming from spirits that are not the Holy Spirit and
People are believing it
So whenever experiences happen and we'll talk about the experiences when they occur
They may be valid and they should not be summarily
Cast out or discredited because God can do a more amazing things
I mean John was on the island of Patmos and he turns around because he first hears a trumpet and he turns around and he sees
The Son of God. I mean I I had a lady
I
Met some months ago and she asked me are you hearing the trumpets and first I thought
She was talking about at the airport. So I said no she said no
I've been hearing trumpets in the middle of the day. I'll hear a trumpet because
It gets very
Flaky man
It gets so flaky and yet there might be people who may be woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of a
trumpet I
Mean a god kind of thing. No one else may hear it. They may hear it, but we got to stop this flakiness
So experiences when they occur may be valid and should not be thrown out
But you must discern the spirit behind a manifestation
You must discern the spirit behind a manifestation
Is this the spirit of God or is this not that is vital that we figure it out because
There's so much of it around guys so much of it around
So, let's look at some of these prevalent manifestations and go through a list of them then we'll take a break and end
No, take a break and then end so the first one guys is
Feathers and dust and dust
I'm just calling them manifestations that are common in present-day church around the globe and
We got to discern
Where's this coming from?
I'm going over ones that are common in church. I'm just going over the list. I'm
May make a judgment call on some of them. I may not but feathers and dust so feathers appearing
but
Maybe what we need to do before that is just give us ourselves some criteria to judge these things
So let's go to the list last. Let's let's deal with criteria first. So
Let's not look at that first. So
Why is it important to judge these manifestations one because it's vital that we discern whether something is from the spirit of God
Because this is the community of the spirit is the place where God dwells
spirits
Want to try and create another Christ for us create another voice for us create
Something that is not from God for us because if we begin to follow that then we will be led astray
Instead of going straight and how do spirits do this?
They usually start by bringing in a little error and
Then the error grows larger and larger and larger because to bring a massive error into the church
You catch it and you resist it but bring in little error and over a period of two years
The ship can be completely deviated from its actual course because all you need to do is shift it a degree and over two years
It's completely off course
So that's how this works. So we have to start with the spirit
We have to discern what is behind two
Manifestations have become the measure of God's presence or absence
Which is really bad theology because God's presence in us is
complete in the
person of his Holy Spirit
When we use a
manifestation to measure the presence or absence of
the Spirit of God in a meeting that is kind of sad where
I remember someone who left Acts 29
because
His daughter's finger wouldn't vibrate as often during times of worship every time his daughter's finger would begin to
Vibrate he would say today the Spirit of God was here because my daughter's little pinky
Vibrates only when
Worship is intense and the Spirit of God is here. So he said you guys are good, but
Not always the Spirit of God is not always present the way he used to be present in that other church
I was glad that that's how they decided to move to another church
So when you reduce the creator of the universe to a twitch of a finger or a muscle or
Gold dust or a cloud or a feeling
That's terrible. So that's another reason why we need to discern. Where is this coming from?
Who is behind this with spirit the Holy Spirit?
Or is it some other spirit the other thing guys is
Unfortunately
Here's an odd distinction a
Spirit
When it comes to manifestations
One of the things you will see about Holy Spirit manifestations are that in the New Testament
They are
Not transferable
While with other spirits these manifestations are
transferable
As in when the Holy Spirit does something in a church
He doesn't
overtake the will of the people and what he is doing in my life and Anne's life and Chantal's life doesn't necessarily have to transfer to
Joan and Diana's life automatically Joan and Diana's life is
automatically Joan and Diana can judge that aha the Spirit of God is here present to heal and they can
enter into what the Spirit of God is doing or
Wayne and Lynn can discern that aha. There's a
There's a presence of the Spirit of God to begin to
Prophesy and so right now we can either receive what the Spirit of God wants to reveal or perhaps even
Move into what the Spirit of God wants to say and begin to speak it
But it is not as if the Spirit of God will suddenly come and overtake everyone's will and
Cause everyone to behave a certain way
Not everyone will start dancing on the piano
That's not how this works
But you will find when things are coming from other spirits that are not the Holy Spirit that they are
Transferable where suddenly it will begin to sweep and people get caught up in it
Why because the effect is on the soul and the flesh
But the Spirit of God first works upon my spirit
And he gives me the free will to choose to enter into what he's doing or stay out of what he's doing
Why because his residence is now in me in the Old Testament it was different
In the Old Testament the Spirit of God never dwelt in people therefore
Saul is walking and he meets a group of prophets who are prophesying and
Saul gets caught up in it. His trip since I'm naked and he starts prophesying too
It used to happen there
Moses called his 72 and God said put some of the spirit that is on you upon these
But with us it's different the Spirit of God is resident in each one of us
We can yield our will to him or choose not to
And so it's not some kind of transferable thing that
catches you in its wave or surge and
Takes you for a ride. It doesn't work like that. You enter into the wave
You're not carried by the wave
The spirits of prophets are subject to the prophet as in
When the Spirit of God is doing something I can choose to enter into it or I can choose to stay out of it
He does not take away my will
But if I yield my will to him then it is possible for me to be taken on that way
And then I might do things that are not
necessarily my
Normal way of behaving because I have yielded myself to him
This is important because many things that are from the other realm are transferable
So if we do not discern
Where the manifestation is coming from and it is coming from the demonic
They know that sometimes the church can be caught up in it and it transfers from one person to the other
So much may be transferred through times of corporate worship
Why because during corporate worship times we sit there giving
permission and being receptive to what is happening and
That is why it's important to know what is from the Holy Spirit and what is not women in particular have to be aware of this
Even in the Bible where would men who are deceptive and who were preachers who would they target first they would target women
So
The other thing is guys manifestations are coming out of churches and names that are very famous
Which is why they are called the church of the Holy Spirit
And they are very famous because they are very famous because they are very famous because they are very famous because they are very famous
And they are very famous
Which really means nothing so very famous people and very famous churches are where these manifestations are happening. So there's a greater
Tenancy amongst us normal Christians say it's happening in this church
So it must be God why because the church is big and famous and doing marvelous other things
So you think it has to be God?
In
Deuteronomy 13 3
It says you must I mean it's fascinating Deuteronomy 13 3
I've read it before but when I was reading it, I thought I was a shucks God really
Deuteronomy 13 3
Let's start at verse 1
Here's what it says if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and
gives you a sign or a wonder and
The sign or the wonder that he tells you comes to pass and if he says let us go after other gods
Which you have not known and let us serve them
You shall not listen to the words of the prophet or the dreamer of dreams for the Lord of God. Look look why?
For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
Sometimes
How shall I say this sometimes
When Satan seeks permission to deceive a church
God will use that intent to deceive as a reason to show the devil that this church has reached a place
Where it loves the truth enough to stand by it and worship the true living God instead of falling for the deception
And if the church is not ready or if the persons
Involved in the church are foolish then sometimes they go for the deception instead of standing for the
Truth
Many famous churches and famous preachers have succumbed to the
luster of
Power
Presence signs miracles monies that are happening and so they welcome these guys
Into their churches because their desire is that their church grow big they know the truth
But instead of standing for the truth and aligning with the one who they know is true
They align with all the other things that come with this one thing and they invite them into the church and deception starts
Doesn't matter whether it's Hillsong's or Bill Johnson in Reading or Benny Hinn or Joel Austin it does not matter
At the end of the day if any of these guys come knocking here and say we want to come and have this and we think
Acts 29 is the one to host it
I would still have to stand and say if you make sure that you don't do this this and this we will consider it
Otherwise, sorry we can't and yet that one meeting could change the destiny of Acts 29 in terms of its smallness
Tessa spirits because
It says here so clearly for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
Tessa spirits test
I mean there the person who
Would who had Ministered
No one knows what he mad it was all Him
I think he was exposed to the true started crying by the crowd
a person who had ministered at acts 20 and before and the person came and said,
I noticed a person would have people speak in tongues by asking the person to repeat things that he was saying.
And so that's the way you speak in tongues. So he would just make them repeat what he's saying and he would say,
now you speak in tongues. And it seems to be quite a method that is being used around the world.
And this is a person I respect highly, think of highly, have benefited from highly.
And I remember the next time the person came, I said, see, it's with great trepidation that I'm saying this to you
because I think of you very highly. But this is not a method that I agree with or that acts, I would like to promote at acts 20.
And so in future, if when it comes to this, you will have to choose not to.
So that was one. And then the person went to a place where some of these manifestations were rife.
And the person traveled a long distance to go to the place to get what was happening there.
And then the next time the person called me and wanted to come to acts 20, and I told the person that before that,
I'd have to talk to you about why you went there. What was your reason for going there?
What did you get from there? And what have you done with it?
Because you have seen what has happened to that place and to the person you went to get it from.
So now what have you done with that? And it was with much fear, not afraid fear,
but with the fear of not wanting to dishonor or damage my relationship with this person that I had to ask.
Why? Because at stake are all our lives.
And guys, these manifestations are sort of ramping up.
So it'll start with maybe a little dust here or a feather there and gets you.
And then it gets ramped up because there's this insatiable desire.
When a generation starts seeking after signs and wonders to establish the presence of God in a place, there's a desire.
And so it's given in bits. And then it starts ramping up.
And spirits play along with this insatiable desire because they know they can feed this desire now.
So what are some ways we can evaluate or discern if these manifestations are from the spirit?
Let's talk about that before we talk about the manifestations.
So we'll do this and then take a break and then talk about the manifestations after that.
So what are some of the ways to evaluate or discern?
One, check the teaching that lies behind. Check the teaching that lies behind.
Check the teaching that lies behind or accompanies these manifestations or accompanies these manifestations.
Check the teaching that lies behind or accompanies these manifestations.
What is it that sponsors these manifestations? How are they explained?
Check and see. Be like the Berians.
Find out the biblical basis that is being used to explain these manifestations.
See how it settles in your heart. See how it settles with the nature and the character of God.
See how it settles with the purpose of God.
The purpose of God is already explained in the Bible. See how it settles with that.
Second, 1 John 4.1, test the spirits. Test the spirits. Test the spirits.
Discern whether they are from God.
In 1 John 4.1 it says, test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Or many false Christs have gone out into the world.
Test the spirits. As in, aha, I see feathers falling or I see gold dust falling or I see people falling or I see this manifestation.
How do we test something like this? Examine the scriptures as the Berians did like we said.
What is the biblical precedent?
Sometimes there might be things that God may do that may not exactly have happened in the Bible.
So how does it configure with the nature of God?
Where does the Bible back this up? What is the intent? What is the purpose?
We can't use that one scripture saying, the Spirit of God shall fall upon all flesh and now say it's fleshly reaction.
That's not what that scripture means.
That is such a simple misinterpretation of the scripture that anyone should know it.
Secondly, check where, here are some other questions. Is this a deception from man?
Is this a deception from man?
Meaning sometimes some manifestations are caused not necessarily by demonic spirits,
but they are just caused because of the charismatic, dramatic, theatrical production or ways of man.
I was at a conference once where everybody was told to hold hands together and the music gets really soft and quiet.
And then this preacher comes and shouts loudly and a few people start falling.
But because everyone is holding hands, everyone falls.
In the end, there were only three people in my section that were standing and those were the two that I went with and me.
It was highly embarrassing because everybody else is lying down.
And I'm thinking to myself, they'll think of us as highly resistant, unspiritual people.
But there it was not necessarily the, it was not necessarily demonic spirits, it was just the orchestration of man, deception of man.
Then there are people who are planting things that happen at certain times to help people get excited about God.
They think they're doing a good thing.
Because I've never had a one-on-one first-hand knowledge of it and it's only what I've read, that's why I'm not going into it.
But sometimes there are deceptions that are created simply to get people excited, any means to achieve an end.
Then know that some people are not going to be able to do it.
They need to achieve an end.
Then know that some, is it demonic?
Because we know what happened with Pharaoh and Moses, Pharaoh's magicians and Moses.
Is it demonic? Pharaoh's magicians and Moses.
So know that, as it said in 2 Thessalonians 2.9, that the lawless one, Satan, can perform signs and lying wonders, deceptions.
Exodus 7.22 talks about it.
And the fish in the Nile died and the Nile stank so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile.
There was blood throughout the land of Egypt. This was done by God.
But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts.
So the magicians had their secret arts and they used their secret arts to reproduce the same results that God had done.
Which made it even worse.
But lying wonders.
And so Pharaoh's heart was hardened.
So know that some of it is demonic.
So what is our approach then?
That when I see a manifestation, I won't necessarily come to the conclusion that this is God.
I will ask the Spirit of God, Spirit of God, where is this coming from?
I want to know. Could you show me?
I'll go through the word.
Because worship is spirit and truth.
Spirit and the word, spirit and the word, spirit and the word.
And the Father's purpose.
Father's nature.
The Father's nature.
Then guys, sometimes we have to wonder whether some things are golden calf idolatry that happens during times of worship and strange fire.
What do I mean by that?
Sometimes guys, we are so in need of display and some tangible object to help us realize God that both our souls and the demonic realm can provide us displays.
This is what Korah did when Moses was up the mountain.
He was seeing God face to face and yet it was not a man.
God didn't appear as a man.
It was still God as spirit in some more visible form than just spirit.
He was meeting Moses there and what were they doing here?
They were saying, let us build God for you that will take you to the promised land but allow us to create something for you.
And the people agreed.
It's not been a month since they saw Mount Sinai lit up by Yahweh who just had them cross through the Red Sea on dry ground.
And now they want something tangible and visible, a display of God because that will take them to the promised land, not take them back to Egypt.
And this is such a hunger in our hearts as gullible, foolish, illiterate, biblically unsound Christians who do not worship a God with spirit and truth.
And so we become susceptible to it.
And guys, our minds will then begin to seek this and the demonic realm will want to satisfy it and some charlatans will deceive us.
And remember, the moment we start looking for stuff like this that is tangible, we become like who we worship.
And you begin to worship an idol, you become like the worship.
Your mind gets dull.
You lose your ability to discern.
I'll tell you something guys, people who are going from one experience to the other, who are looking for experiences.
So you'll go to one worship conference and there's an experience there.
Then you go to another worship conference and an experience there.
What happens in the bargain is the experience becomes your golden calf.
And once it becomes your golden calf, you become dull to the ability to discern which experience is from the spirit of God and which experience is from your spirit or the demonic spirit.
You lose your ability because you become dull.
Sad thing is happening all across the globe.
It dulls worshipers to the truth of the cross and it substitutes it with an experience.
It substitutes it with an experience.
The other couple of methods that you can use is test the character of the ones and test the fruit.
So when I say test the character, what I mean is sometimes there are people who come and manifestations happen in their ministry.
If you are at all able, this can only happen through relationship.
Test the character of these people because the Bible says that when it comes to prophets, you shall know a prophet by the fruit of his life.
So that's one way you test it.
Jesus said, you shall know a tree by its fruit.
So one way to figure out is by looking at the person's life and seeing what kind of life is this.
So that's one way.
The second way is to test the fruit by checking how are the people under his ministry doing.
And both need time and we don't have time for that so we don't care for these things.
How are the people under his ministry doing?
How are they growing?
Are their lives changing?
Have they become more godlike or have they become deceptive, flaky?
What's happening to them?
You will know.
So test the character and the fruit of both the person who in his life these manifestations are happening through his life.
Man, sometimes that's very effective.
I remember a person who would go to Toronto blessing and go here and go there and come to the church and say,
Jacob, I want to minister. Let me minister. I've just come from Toronto.
I have that anointing on me.
But I knew the fruit of his life, man.
I knew it firsthand.
And I remember telling him once that you will not.
And yet he went and started ministering.
And I came and took the mic away from him and I said,
If anybody wants ministry here, you will go to these elders or me.
You're not to go to him.
And so then he went and approached one of the women at Acts 29 and said,
I'll come and minister to you at your home.
And that woman, unfortunately, allowed him to and had other problems coming because they won't know how to stand in order because this is how it happens.
So you know them by the fruit.
But then there are some whose whose lives exemplify good fruit,
but who have been deceived when it comes to truth by allowing deception to come into their churches, even though their lives are marvelous.
That is sad.
That's because unfortunately, even though their lives hold great fruit,
when it comes to their churches, they've allowed deception to creep in.
And the churches are being ruined and they don't know it.
And they're being ruined how demonic spirits are entering and doing stuff.
And when we talk about different manifestations that today reigns in many charismatic churches,
we use these criteria.
You can use these criteria to judge.
Is this really you, Spirit of God, or is this a deception?
Is this really the emotional condition of the person that is being expressed?
Or is this really you, Holy Spirit?
And if it is the emotional condition of the person, we can stay with that Holy Spirit.
It's OK.
This is the way the person reacts.
And that's fine.
So that's one.
Or is this demonic?
And if it's demonic Spirit of God, I know that this is transferable.
And as the pastor of this church, I have to immediately take a stance
because I can't allow wolf in sheep's clothing because it is transferable and I cannot allow it.
Check. Yeah.
So guys, as we look at these different manifestations,
understand that they can be emotional conditioned reflexes
where you have habituated yourself.
Am I OK to go, Wayne?
OK.
Where you, that's the only problem with coke and stuff like that.
So let's just say, Chris, stop that, Chris.
So, OK.
So what happens is, guys, our response to certain aspects of worship or happenings during worship
has become so conditioned now that every time worship happens,
there's this emotional conditioned reflex which has now become normative for you
and has become a habit.
You need freedom from it.
Until you sometimes reach this place in worship, you think you aren't really worshiping.
And so people immediately enter into a certain way of behaving.
It's a sad day.
It's a soulish flesh response that you've gotten trapped in.
So that's one.
Second.
It also looks pious.
Looks what?
Pious.
Looks pious or looks crazy.
Second one is mass movement where you get caught up in a mass movement.
Whatever is happening around you is what you get caught up in.
So sometimes during times of worship, you suddenly find people,
a whole group of people responding a certain way because suddenly in the world,
they call it mass hysteria.
Every time the Beatles would deplane, girls would go crazy.
And so it was mass hysteria.
So this is where there's a mass movement that one gets caught up in.
Unfortunately, the Spirit of God is not John Lennon.
He's not trying to create some kind of a mass hysteria thing.
Even saying that makes me want to throw up because that's not what he does.
He knows each of us differently, each individual differently,
each of us wired emotionally differently, each of us wired in our minds differently,
each of us treated personally.
Our father and my father, each one made uniquely.
And uniformity is not something that God is looking for.
Breaks my heart when that happens.
Third, sometimes there's an involuntary affliction of the neurological or muscular system
where in worship, we've gotten so used to it that people start having spasms
or the hands start shaking or something like that happens.
And it happened once during worship and one should have let it go.
Perhaps it was a kind of a spiritual event,
but it was a spiritual event that happened in the world.
And it happened once during worship and one should have let it go.
Perhaps it was a reaction of the body.
But now every time during worship something shakes or something quakes.
And as soon as worship starts, I'm talking about corporate worship in a church,
you just go into it where it's become an involuntary affliction.
I'm not saying that it's necessarily caused by spirits, but it is literally induced.
Like some people, when they get nervous, there's a physical symptom induced by nervousness.
Or when they have to go and stand on stage and speak, there's a physical symptom induced.
What happens is now worship has induced an involuntary affliction and it's got nothing to do with God.
All these things take away from worship, eh?
And yet we see them as our marks of worship, as our badge of worship, not mark, badge.
Then there is spirit induced, as in demonic spirit induced, demonically induced responses.
And much of it is borrowed from Eastern religions,
where some of these things that are happening in churches are actually very common in Eastern religions
and sometimes occultism.
And much has been talked about in terms of a word called Kundalini,
which is a serpent force that's supposed to dwell inside man that is released during times of ecstatic worship,
which we won't go into right now because it's not necessary to talk about it.
Sorry, I'll move so that if you want to write it, you can write it.
We'll go over them.
I won't tell you which one is which, I'm just going to list them all.
And I'm saying they all can fall under any of these categories,
because what may be an involuntary affliction for one may be a demonically induced something for someone else,
depending on how the situations they've been caught up in.
One has to discern.
That's why one of the gifts that's least aspired for and that is perhaps needed most in churches today
is the spirit of the gift of discernment.
Then there is just desire that people have for an experience,
which can lead to an experience that may not necessarily have been God-induced,
but just fulfills a desire.
Some people have a desire for an experience.
There was a woman who used to come to this church who had such a desire for experience, such a deep desire.
And so she'd be disappointed when there was no experience.
So she would go to places, she would go to different churches, different conferences for an experience.
And when she would have that experience, she would come back here and she would talk about it.
And she left Acts 29 because she felt that there was not enough tangible experience of God here.
That's why she left.
And then the last one is the spirit of God.
During worship, things happen because it's the spirit of God behind it.
So these are the different reasons.
Any questions on that before we go on?
These are basically the categories that you can place these different manifestations under.
That's what this is.
Spirit of God is behind it.
The others take away from worship.
Okay, so let's look at some that are common in churches today.
And these are manifestations that often happen during worship, corporate worship in a church.
And now we're talking about corporate worship where people are gathered.
There's singing and tongues and all this stuff happening.
Not all this stuff, all that wonderful God things happening.
And then suddenly these manifestations happen.
So the first one is feathers.
What has been happening often is feathers that come in the middle of worship.
And so people immediately connect the presence of those feathers to the presence of angels.
And one needs to now begin to question, is this how God sends a message?
I mean, if he wants me to know that angels are around, is this how he does it?
Where in the Bible has he let people know that there's an angel by leaving a feather?
So when Joseph was visited by an angel, how did Joseph know?
Was there a feather on his pillow?
Where did the feather come from?
At night if you see a feather, check your pillow first.
So claims that angels are dropping feathers.
Such an absurd, absurd, ridiculous way of looking at things.
I mean, the angels of the Lord encamp around those that trust and fear him.
Start there.
And then God can continuously have angels present around you,
either through them being very normal, where you don't even realize till they're gone.
Many have entertained angels without knowing them.
Or they can make themselves manifest in ways that you will hit the floor and say,
God will have to say, do not fear, instead of sending a feather to let you know that there's an angel.
It could well be a dove that was flying in their afters.
And so when very famous preachers connect angels with these feathers,
it's terrible because now you have a large congregation believing the same thing.
And so you begin to judge the presence of God by feathers there.
And then what happens is angels, where people during worship services see and have angels visit
and they begin to hear these angels and the angels then slowly begin to replace the Spirit of God.
Where they get directions from the angels, they have names for these angels.
These angels bring healing.
These angels then begin to tell you what God wants to convey.
And yes, angels have been used by God to convey messages.
But after the Holy Spirit came, usually God does not use an angel to convey a message.
He uses an angel to wake you up to something and then he speaks to you.
As in the angel set Peter free from prison.
But then after that the angel can give him instructions.
But the Spirit of God is the one who worked in Peter's life.
But you have people like Todd Bentley and others who began to have angelic visitations
where there was an angel called Edith and then there was another angel.
And these angels began to give direction as to what you should do.
Are the angel of healing is here? Are the angel of this is here? The angel of that is here?
Just because we have that legend of an angel that used to stir up the pool,
which I would suggest to you was a legend and not from the nature of God.
Now we have angels of healing and angels of this and angels of that.
And Paul very clearly said, even if an angel came to you and gave you another gospel,
make sure that you do not accept it.
Because Satan masquerades around like an angel of light.
And so do his servants.
Servants.
The research department will find it for you.
Second, third or whatever number, gold dust.
Gold dust where plenty of people are finding themselves either having gold on their hands or their palms
or sometimes gold on their face or sometimes gold on the floor or sometimes gold on the Bible
or sometimes gold in their tooth and stuff like that.
And I've met people who have had this happen.
But here's the odd thing.
Whenever that gold has been tested, it has been found to be not gold.
So either God is using a cheap substitute because heaven's running out of it.
Yeah.
It doesn't make sense, eh?
I mean, one, is there a biblical precedent for it? No.
But let's assume God still does certain things that were not necessarily done in the Bible yet
because the Bible can't contain everything that God did.
So let's assume.
So one has to again use the criteria we used before to figure out, Father, how does this fit in?
Show me something from the word where this fits in.
What is the intent of gold covering my hands?
Why are you letting me know your presence by gold covering my hands?
Is this really gold or is this, what is it?
In a church down the coast, there was a cloud of smoke in the middle of worship.
And in the cloud of smoke, there was glitter and confetti.
And everybody got really excited.
So the worship team is singing and everybody else has taken out their cameras
and they're shooting away at this cloud that you can see dust.
How do you know it's cloud?
In the streams of light from the headlights or the floodlights on,
you can see streams and confetti and glitter.
And that was assumed to be the presence of God.
So the question is, okay, Father, what are you trying to say through this?
Is this from your nature?
And so now people are flooding to that church.
Why? Because they want to experience the presence of God in a cloud that has glitter and confetti in it.
Is this who the Father has ended up being?
Somehow it doesn't sit with the nature of God as we see it.
He seems like a magician who wants to appease through displays.
And so then where is this coming from?
These are reputable churches and men of God who are highly reputable,
whose works I have read and have gained from.
So where is this coming from?
And if this deception enters and these are famous churches and famous people,
it spreads like wildfire.
And the odd thing is it then repeats itself in different places throughout the world
where gold dust starts coming in different places.
Why? Because people go to these places to get it, to get the same anointing.
The question is where is this smearing or anointing coming from?
What have you been smeared with?
Because the word anointing is to smear.
What is the smearing you are bringing back to your people?
Because it's transferable and it's breaking out in different parts of the world.
Babbling, where it's not to be mistaken with tongues,
babbling where you start making whimpering or infant-like noises.
It's beginning to happen.
Barking, sounds of animals where you begin to bark or howl.
When one famous man was asked about it, he said,
no, you shouldn't look at it as imitating of animals,
it's just noises that are being produced because of the presence of the spirit.
Sound of animal noises.
So the person's not trying to imitate animals, but barking comes out.
Barking and howling.
As I say this, how can we be so gullible during a worship service to have this all happen?
This started in the Toronto blessing time or even before that perhaps,
but don't think that it's over, it's still present.
Birthing, where someone sits themselves down on the ground in a position like a woman does
when giving birth and starts groaning and writhing as if they're giving birth.
Because the intent is over here birthing something in the Lord.
Dissociate yourself if you're involved with stuff like this,
move away because it will be transferred to you.
Spasms, where you go into all kinds of crunches like this.
You cannot stand, your muscles start twitching and you go into spasms, uncontrollable spasms.
It's almost like you go this way and I've seen really famous people go into this
and do such magnificent work, such amazing work that I can't hold a candle to.
The ministries they have started are affecting so many deprived children, orphans.
The work they're doing and the love that is poured out in the ministries is amazing.
But in this one area, deception has entered and so with all the good works they are doing,
enters a degree of deception.
And I don't know which one is better, good work with deceptions
or work that is not as good as theirs without deception.
I don't know which one is better.
Yeah, because good, good.
Because once deception enters good works, it's only a matter of time.
You can build the best house you can ever build.
That is a shelter to many with one deceptive pillar.
One day it will collapse.
The reference for the first one was Galatians 1.8.
Galatians 1.8.
Any other questions? Just forward it to our research department.
Next, uncontrollable crying or weeping.
Where there is a crying that happens during worship that is natural
and then there is uncontrollable crying where the person cannot stop
and this kind of lamentation starts that is uncontrollable.
Whenever anything during times of corporate worship is uncontrollable,
you immediately have to question its validity
because nothing that is prompted by the spirit is uncontrollable.
Then it falls into one of these categories.
Yeah, we'll come to that. We'll come to the following part of it.
Pardon?
Oh, 15 minutes.
That's uncontrollable too. You have no control over that.
Yeah, we'll talk about that.
Drunk in the spirit where you look and act and feel like a drunk,
staggering, slurring speech, uncoordinated.
Nowadays they have something called sloshfests.
There's one particular guy called John Crowder
who conducts massive meetings called sloshfests
where people are invited to come and get drunk in the spirit.
They come and say all kinds of nonsense like oink, oink, oink.
I'm not kidding you.
They enter into trances and mysticism and all kinds of stuff.
Thousands of young people gather in churches that are of great, pristine reputation,
which makes me then question how do you allow them to do this?
They're pretty famous. They're called sloshfests.
Dervish kind of dancing where you lose control of the dancing
and you are literally bouncing off walls where it's not controlled.
It's called ecstatic dancing where you don't have any.
Yeah.
But even in a mosh pit it's drug induced or it's mass hysteria.
But this is supposedly the spirit of God where there's no control.
Hopping where you bounce around as if you're on a pogo stick.
You go up and down and your body goes into contortions which are humanly impossible
where you either become like a fetus and you start moving like a pendulum at amazing speed
or you start hopping up and down as if you were on a pogo stick.
And it's humanly, our bodies cannot twist into those positions.
And I've seen it. I've seen it happen to some of the most well known pastors in Vancouver
and I've seen, I also know of their present situation.
No one.
Because once it starts and once someone famous endorses it or a famous church endorses it,
that is true enough.
There's no need to check.
See, this is why the Berians were particularly remarkable.
Because Paul had a reputation.
You don't question a Paul.
And so Paul was a very famous person.
And so he was a very famous person.
And so that's why the Berians stood out.
They would go home and they would read.
Paul was unlike any other man on the face of the earth.
And the Berians still went and checked the things he was saying.
That takes a degree of guts, man.
And Luke actually writes it down because they must have gone and checked
and then come back in the next day to ask questions.
And so they would go home and they would read.
And then come back in the next day to ask questions.
Sometimes when there are things that I can't do that I can do because of a certain power on me,
I sometimes question whether it's demonic.
When I saw a famous Vancouver pastor, very well known even today,
going into a fetus and beginning to turn like a ball like this,
I knew that it was not the Spirit of God.
I knew it was not him too.
And I knew it was demonically induced.
But it was okay, the Spirit of God.
Yeah, so that's when you have to discern.
Is this the Spirit of God?
And I knew it was not the Spirit of God.
I knew that it was demonic.
Because one, what is, here are the questions.
Let's assume someone does that.
Here are the questions.
What is God doing?
What is he trying to teach?
What is he achieving?
Is this part of his nature?
Where is it in the Bible?
Why is this happening?
What do you discern in your spirit?
When you don't have answers to these seven questions asked,
you need to question it.
Seven questions you've asked and none of them seem to fit.
Nothing that the Bible talks about fits in with this.
The nature of God doesn't fit in with it.
The New Testament theology of control doesn't fit in with it.
Not overtaking control doesn't fit with it.
And so you need to question what is happening here.
And I was in a line waiting for prayer and I saw that happening.
I saw a couple of things happening and I turned and left the line and went home.
Because I knew that if I now partook in it after what I had seen,
I would receive from these people things that were not of the Spirit of God,
but that were demonic and that I didn't want.
Guys, holy laughter.
I've seen holy laughter that is completely of the Spirit of God
and I've seen holy laughter that is not from the Spirit of God.
Where people are so filled with the joy of the Lord that they start laughing.
And their laughing is almost like dancing before the Lord.
And then I've seen holy laughter where it completely takes away from everything the Spirit of God is doing.
It's contagious.
And again it begins to spread.
People are under the pews and there's worship going on.
There's testimony being given.
I remember this church, this girl giving a testimony to what the Lord had done
and no one was paying attention because everybody was laughing.
It's almost towards God.
It is poured in by God and it's towards God.
See this is where discernment comes in guys.
Because I know holy laughter exists.
I've seen it.
I've seen it like water coming off ice clad Mount Hermon.
And I've seen the other type too where it's just water being stirred up in your bathtub.
And both are very different.
One is stirring up of that which is stagnant within you.
And one is a pouring in and a pouring out of that which is from God.
Both are different.
So Jacob isn't this very subjective?
Yeah it is.
But that's where you need discernment.
Yeah.
And you have to find out where does this fall in here.
These are the categories that it usually falls in.
And the only thing I should go for is perhaps this and occasionally this.
These two are at least kind of kosher.
Not kind of kosher.
This is obviously kosher.
This is kind of kosher.
Well sometimes the mass movement too if God moves people are converted.
Like the 3000th energy for example.
Yeah but it was individual conversion.
It wasn't mass conversion.
3000 was saved but each one was saved in response to the message.
Each one was saved in response to the message.
Yeah.
But there's nothing to save the cat because we have to navigate.
It happens at crusades but it happens because I am responding to the work of the spirit.
It's not because it's suddenly a wave that gets caught in.
Yeah.
I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth.
Not we all decided we'll all believe.
It's not all of us jumping into a lake.
It's I believe that I need to jump into this lake.
And I'm not holding hands as I jump into the lake.
Each one's jumping in individually.
Yeah.
So yeah.
So these two are perhaps have some semblance to being OK.
But the rest you've got to be careful of.
So when I say shaking I include in it quaking and rolling and all that stuff.
Spinning.
And then sometimes there's this.
Yeah.
There are the things which we won't go into.
Sometimes guys tingling where the body begins to tingle where it feels like the extremities of the body.
It's like when you lose circulation it begins to tingle.
Now occasionally that may happen.
But when it becomes something that is an involuntary affliction now you begin to measure worship by the tingling.
That is when it goes into that area of not being healthy.
So let's talk about falling.
So when it comes to people falling under the power of the Spirit of God how does that fit in?
Because even there isn't there a loss of control where you no longer have control.
So yeah.
So how does that work then?
Before just remember that point and we'll come back to it.
Before that guys there are three ways that people fall under the power of the Spirit of God.
One the Spirit of God begins.
Let's assume you're a person who gives in to the power of the Spirit of God that may tangibly be present.
And so therefore a person falls.
And so there are many who have the work of the Spirit happening in them without falling.
So that's one.
Two there's mass hysteria where a lot of people are falling and you also fall.
I gave you an example of that when I was at this.
Let me tell you who it was.
It was at a Benny Hinn meeting here in Vancouver.
And I went for a Benny Hinn meeting in Bern, Switzerland.
And both were exactly the same.
I saw the same thing happening.
And in both cases there were very few left standing and one of them was me.
And in both cases there was this holding of hands and like dominoes everybody wanting to be included in this thing.
Many of them would get up immediately.
Many of them wouldn't.
That was up to them.
And then there are people who are falling not under the power of the Spirit of God but under the power of the demonic.
I know you've heard this story but I'm repeating it only for the sake of the teaching.
There was a man who I was praying for and as I was praying for he fell.
As I'm walking away the Spirit of God clearly says I did not make that happen.
And so I went back and they lifted him up on his feet and as I went to pray for him again he fell again.
And I knew then that this was not the work of the Spirit of God.
But we just assume that everyone who falls is falling under the power of the Spirit of God.
And again this requires discernment.
I walked away because I didn't have discernment but the Spirit of God said so.
And so this time I told the elders to hold him up and I told him that he did not need to fall.
And then as I began praying for him his jaw locked and he would not speak.
Because what had been happening for years is many famous preachers go through that church
and whenever they would come to pray for this man this man had come out of a Hindu background
and was still dabbling in idols and with Jesus.
And so he was under demonic control.
So anytime any preacher of famous man of God comes to pray for him to prevent him from being delivered
the Spirit of God before God can do something these demonic spirits would knock him out.
So much greater men than me would go and pray and he would fall and they would think that this is God working on him
so they would move on and that man was in bondage for years.
And finally here was a situation where his jaw locked so he could not speak.
And then he had to be prayed for and delivered from demons to be set free.
And then I've had people come up to me asking for prayer and I ask them what they want and they say I want to fall.
Could you pray for me so that I get slain in the Spirit?
So then those are people that are seeking an experience of falling because they've never fallen.
So they're coming up to fall.
So I've just given you four different instances of falling.
And then there are those that know the presence of the Spirit and can either stand and receive what the Spirit of God is saying
or can yield and sometimes fall.
I would suggest to you and I'm hesitant to suggest this because I cannot necessarily back it up scripturally.
I would suggest to you that if God can trust you to minister to somebody,
God would rather have you minister to them absolutely conscious, one on one, face to face.
And that I would now take another step and go further and say this with much fear and trembling
that often God has people under the power of the Spirit lying down.
If he's ministering to them, he's ministering to them because sometimes it is easier for him to do it straight
than to use the minister that is supposed to minister to him.
Yeah, I would suggest to you that if God can trust you with ministry,
he would rather have you minister to someone face to face one on one as Jesus did,
where you give the word of God straight to the person and the word of God sets the person free or whatever God gives to you.
Sometimes when that is not possible either because of the thousands around or because one on one is not possible
or because God cannot trust you to minister, God may sometimes have people who are willing to acknowledge his presence
and are yielding, sometimes they are slain for the lack of a better word and God's Spirit may initiate surgery in their hearts.
But let me assure you that they still need the help of individuals in the church to become who they need to become.
Being slain never makes anyone perfect. Being slain never removes the habit.
That is done by the work of the Spirit of God, sometimes over a period of time with the cooperation of the person.
I have seen people who have come under the power of the Spirit and have been set free from addictions.
So deliverance does happen, but deliverance can happen standing too. You don't have to fall to be delivered.
So go ahead, Ma'am.
Go ahead, Ma'am.
My observation is that if you are a preacher and you get people falling on every meeting,
why are you trying to prove that you are powerful or something?
It shouldn't be something that is just regular.
I've seen a meeting where the man was getting annoyed with people, he was pushing them on the floor and they were not going down.
I just hooked away because he was actually getting angry.
Yeah.
And all he was trying to do was against power.
Guys, I'm telling you, even this falling thing is, you've got to have discernment.
I was in Taiwan in a church with people and the ones who were ministering there,
I know were not necessarily ministering out of the Spirit of God as I found out later that some of it perhaps was demonically induced.
And a strange thing began to happen as I went to start praying for people.
As I would go to lay hands on them, they would get thrown.
They would fall and they would go, there was a violent, it wasn't gentle.
I'd go and pray for them and they would be thrown back.
And initially I began to thrill at the power that was present through my approaching them to minister.
For a second I got caught up in that and then suddenly dawned on me that this is not how the Spirit of God works.
And I've never gone back into that place to minister nor have I associated with that particular pastor again
because I found out shortly after about the deception and the demonic that was involved.
And so I didn't.
And so even the way it happens sometimes, I'm telling you, man, because we don't necessarily discern things, we take it for granted.
But to see it happening, it can give you a power rush, man.
I remember another time where I knew that this person who was coming up for prayer had the demonic
and I knew that if I went and prayed for the person, the person would manifest and fall.
And it was in an environment where not everybody recognized who I was.
And so I deliberately went and prayed for the person so that the person would fall and the demons would manifest.
And my intent was not to set the person free.
My intent was to establish my reputation as one who has the power of God working through his life in front of people.
And I remember after the meeting, shame faced at what I had done,
where I was embezzling what belonged to God just to establish my own reputation.
The games that we play are sometimes shameful.
There are times when I've been pushed forcibly over and over again until I had to compromise and I looked for a chair
because I didn't want to give the person the pleasure of me falling because I was not resisting the Spirit of God.
I was just resisting the person continuously pushing me.
So I looked for the closest available chair and I went and sat down on it because my thing was,
okay, I'll give you that much, but you ain't getting me on the floor.
And the person went away happy and then told my sister later that your brother was resisting the Spirit of God,
but finally the Spirit of God got him.
And it wasn't the Spirit of God who got me.
Jacob compromised by saying, okay, I respect you, but I don't respect what you're doing, but I'll meet you half way.
Let me go sit.
So may we minister without touching anybody.
And when we touch them, may it be to bless them.
And should they yield to the Spirit of God, and should the Spirit of God want to have them be ministered directly by Him,
so let Him do it.
But I would suggest to you that more and more God is looking for people who He can trust to minister one-on-one with words,
because the agency of the Spirit of God on earth is man, just as the agency of God on earth is the Spirit of God.
And so this is why I said each manifestation has to be discerned as is this from the Spirit of God or not.
So even in falling down, being slain, you've got to figure it out, man.
I am not even sure, guys, if when people have fallen down, how many of them are actually being ministered to by the Spirit of God and how many are not.
Because if the Spirit of God is causing you to faint, then question whether it is the Spirit of God or not.
Because there's no point in having someone faint or lose consciousness.
One needs to question whether is this the Holy Spirit?
Because why is the Holy Spirit knocking me out?
What good is it if I'm unconscious?
Because remember, God wants, God affects our spirit, and then we need to process it in our thinking as a man thinketh so he is, because our spirits are perfect.
So one of the things that one needs to ask is, okay, so you fell under the Spirit of God, was that your flesh responding to the presence of the power of God?
And if so, what transpired after that?
If it was only your flesh, so get up and move on.
Take what was said and work with that and do not enthrall yourself in the experience.
But in other cases that I know, oh, the Spirit of God began to show, began to change, began to do surgery, and the person got up from there, and there was a newness saying, I will change these things in my life.
Or the person got up and he never went back into his addictions.
That is when I know, my God, this was really something wrought by the Spirit.
Otherwise, it's perhaps an involuntary response of the body to the power and the presence of the Spirit of God.
Get up and move on.
That is not where I should focus on.
I suggest if there's not a change in a person's life, any ministry is trying to respect that.
Yeah, yeah.
And sometimes there is no change because a person resists.
Yeah.
Guys, really, I'm telling you, we can stop.
With this sentence, we can stop.
Guys, at the end of the day, it is up to me whether I want to fall or I don't want to fall when someone is laying hands on me and pushing me back.
Some want to fall and so a slight push and they fall.
So I love it when nobody touches and the Spirit of God does his work and maybe real work.
Because sometimes the way we are, we just succumb to sometimes the presence of the power of God.
How is it that some of us weep more easily than others during worship?
I'm an easy crier when it comes to worship.
Other men may not cry as easily because that's my makeup.
Does that mean that I am more worshipy than a guy who doesn't cry?
No, it just means that that's Jacob's makeup.
Jacob easily connects and cries when he worships.
But then after it's done, Jacob needs to move on.
Just because Wayne didn't cry doesn't mean Jacob had a greater worship experience or that Wayne wasn't interested.
It's that that's Jacob's makeup.
So one has to consider our makeup too.
Each of us is made differently.
David was different from the rest of his brothers, as was Jacob and Jonathan and so on.
So we'll do the restoring of the tabernacle and then that's it.
We're done with worship.
So guys, wherever you see stuff like this, just let me know.
Just...