CHARISMATICS: I see, since we fail at Spiritual War let's have Civil War!

Can We Avoid a Charismatic Civil War? - Fire In My Bones | J. Lee Grady - Charisma Magazine

Some leaders say the controversial Lakeland Revival is forcing us to choose sides. But I don’t believe God wants to split our movement.

Not too long ago I posted on a Charismatics meeting in Florida ... at the time I smelled a rat in the grain silo. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I was clearly waiting for the other shoe to fall.

Charisma's Grady not only drops the other white buck but raises the curtain on the slain bearded lady, fills our teeth with genuine pyrite, stops the spin on Pentecostal unity, and pricks Elmer's bubble while he's at it.

Speaking of his personal experiences and convictions concerning false teachers and prophets (my terms), Grady reveals all is not well with the white patent leather crowd.

I was jolted into reality in May after I wrote an online column [CRIB link] in which I raised honest questions about some of Bentley’s teachings and techniques. Even though I celebrated his passion and zeal, and praised God for the healings that were reported in Lakeland, I was immediately branded a revival critic and banished to the [enemy] camp.

I became the bad guy because, by asking questions, I was “relying on my intellect.”

I think many of us have been in that frying pan ... yet Christ's experiences with truth-telling exceed ours by an infinite measure.

Surely, I imagined, my Christian brothers and sisters do not really think it is wrong for a Spirit-filled believer to test the spirits (which we are instructed to do in 1 John 4:1), discern truth (see 2 Pet. 3:17) or evaluate prophecies and angelic encounters (see 1 Cor. 14:29, Gal. 1:6-8).

But now I realize that some people really want a war.

Grady recommends both sides consider three alternatives to a war ...

1. Let’s accept one another. “so that there may be no division in the body” (1 Cor. 12:25, NASB).
2. Let’s admonish one another. Anything I say, even if it is corrective, must be said in love (see Eph. 4:15).
3. Let’s pray for one another (see James 5:16).

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma Magazine

This is admirable but falls horribly short of God's glory. Words like rebuke, repudiation, curse come to mind ... but then I'm a fallen man, just like them, who am I to point fingers.

Apart from a direct intervention of God, this can't end well.

Charismatics, Christianity,
Pentecostals, Religion