Lakeland Outpouring

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the Lakeland Outpouring recently, and watching a good bit of it on God TV. There is a lot of controversy about this ‘outpouring’, most of it centring on whether or not it is an outpouring at all, or something else. The character at the front of it is Todd Bentley, a Canadian evangelist whose tattooed appearance and robust presentational style have won him both friends and enemies. On the one hand there are those who believe that Todd Bentley is being greatly used by God as a vehicle for healing and spiritual renewal. On the other, there are those who think that he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, raising false hopes in people and having little to show by way of proof and verification.

How ought we to respond to apparent moves of the Holy Spirit, especially when Christian friends and even whole sections of the contemporary Christian church seem wholeheartedly to embrace something that we feel hesitant about? I want to suggest a few things that we might want to bear in mind when we find ourselves thinking about an apparent movement of God’s Spirit, including the present Lakeland Outpouring.

1. We should not immediately believe or disbelieve a report of revival or renewal, but instead we ought to learn as much as we can about it and thereby build up a body of evidence on which to construct an informed opinion (Proverbs 14.15). At the end of the day we may be wrong, or we may be right. It is important, though, that we will have prayerfully used our God-given intelligence to weigh matters up. The human brain is one of God’s greatest gifts and blessings and we neglect it at our peril. Where we are wrong in our eventual conclusions, God is merciful to forgive.
2. Related to that, we should have an open and generous frame of mind that longs to welcome anything genuine that God might be doing, yet is not so naive that we uncritically swallow everything that is offered us in the name of Christian spirituality. We may swallow something very distasteful indeed if we are not careful. This goes as much for events such as the Lakeland Outpouring as for other apparent spiritual phenomenon common in some branches of the church, such as signs and wonders, words of knowledge, prophecies, all of which are features of the current outpouring. If we have closed minds and inflexible, pre-conceived notions, we may well miss much of what God is doing in the world and in the church. We may miss out on great blessing and spiritual advance. On the other hand, an open mind should not be like an undefended gateway providing entrance into our lives for much that is untrue, unhelpful, misleading and ultimately destructive.
3. We should also be as biblically literate and scripturally aware as we can possibly be, knowing the scriptures well, so that we can measure what we are seeing and being asked to believe in the church and in the world against what we know of God and his ways as we find them in the Bible. Everything that claims to be true and good in the church can be found in the Bible, either because it actually happened there and is recorded in its pages, or because it can be shown to be an extension of some principle in the Bible. The Bible is our unfailing test because the Bible is our infallible book. (2 Peter 3.16; 2 Timothy 3.16).
4. It is important not to deny the validity of something simply because it is packaged in cultural wrapping that we find uncomfortable or believe to be disrespectful. Some of the criticism of Lakeland has come from people who have been put off by Todd Bentley’s tattoos or by the worship music, which they have thought to be too loud and to have been played for too long. An Orthodox Church service or a service taking place in an African Church might well go on for a number of hours and thereby put us off! It’s just culture! We are all comfortable with our own culture and feel like fish out of water when in the culture of others. This in itself is not ground upon which to dismiss the authenticity of an apparent move of God, and we should guard against that sort of knee-jerk response. We are only interested in the contents, not in the packaging.
5. Related to that, don’t dismiss something entirely just because it contains some elements that you believe to be manifestly wrong. It is not difficult to sit and point out faults, but the presence of a few faults, or perhaps even a good number, does not make the whole thing worthy of dismissal. After all, most Protestants would agree that certain elements of Roman Catholic spirituality are wrong, even greatly wrong, yet not all that that church and its members say and do are wrong, by a long shot. There is genuine spirituality and belief in that church, as well as in mine, in spite of our mutual failures and errors.
6. Importantly, allow yourself to be challenged by the Lakeland outpouring and by other apparent movements of the Spirit, even if you believe it to be wholly erroneous at the end of the day, which I think it is. They make us think more about our view of God and about the place that the supernatural ought to have in our spirituality. They normally focus on greater holiness and passion, as well as spirituality reality, and make us wonder about our own holiness and, it has to be said, lack of passion, so very often.
7. The sheer number of those who step forward for healing, for everything from cancer to pornography addition, alerts us to the massive human need all round us, a need that most of us are unaware of in our normal church lives. This is really one for pastors, as well as for other church leaders and elders, in particular. People do come to us with their problems, and ask for prayer, but in my experience, not with the frequency with which I thought they might when I first started out in ministry. We need to offer believing prayer more readily and should be more willing to pray for God to intervene with power to transform and change, always recognising that He can give or withhold in answer to prayer. One of the most telling comments I have read about Lakeland spoke of the number of wheelchair worshippers who left the outpouring in exactly the same physical condition in which they arrived. God is sovereign, and to ‘decree’ a thing in prayer and with our speech cannot make it happen! We cannot order God to act just as we want Him to. He is the Lord and His wisdom is greater than ours. Nevertheless, Lakeland challenges us to more serious prayer.
8. Having said all of this, we must be extremely cautious and vigilant, and not be taken in by everything new that comes along. The devil is very real and he masquerades as an angel of light, deluding some Christians and leaders, and pretending to offer real spiritual experience when his intent is to mislead and to destroy (2 Corinthians 11.14). Believers are often vulnerable simply because they have tremendous spiritual hunger and thirst. They want more of God, and often our needs are very great. Combine all of that with a background of shallow biblical teaching in many cases, and it is clear to see how God’s people can be fooled by those who are unscrupulous. Vigilance! A thing is not spiritually true and authentic just because we think we have seen it with our own eyes. Nor is it true simply because a man spoke loudly with what appeared to be authority. Loudness and confidence are not signs of power (see 1 Corinthians 2.3 for the Apostle Paul’s experience). The Bible is the measuring stick against which we measure the truthfulness and authenticity of a man or a movement of God. There is great danger in forgetting this most important spiritual truth.
9. If anything, Lakeland ought to prompt us to some serious soul-searching. Thousands of people are gathering in spiritual hunger. They want more of God. They want to experience new holiness and healing. Their needs are great and they long to be of greater usefulness to God. All of this should cause us to examine our own hearts. Do we desire revival as they do, and are the reformation and renewal of the church the deepest longings of our own hearts? If the answer is no, in all honesty, then there is probably as much wrong with us as we are inclined to think there is wrong with Lakeland and other similar ‘outpourings’.

I could only think of 9 points here. Couldn’t quite get to 10! Bear these thoughts in mind, and ask God to guide your thinking in accordance with His revealed word, the Bible, so that you are able to steer clear of all that is harmful whilst not missing out on all that is good.

Sola Dei Gloria!