After nearly three weeks of meetings the ‘Great Awakening Healing Revival’ continues to gain momentum in Tongaat, KwaZulu-Natal and evangelist Todd Bentley has extended his meetings indefinitely, reports GOD TV.
The international Christian television network has been airing the Revival live each day since April 12 and viewers from all over the world are flying to South Africa to attend. In addition to the many testimonies of healing, including some that have been medically verified, people from different religions are committing their lives to Christ, says GOD TV Global Communications Officer, Al Gibson. Thousands of first-time commitments to Jesus have been made at the meetings.
GOD TV has received more than 10 000 prayer requests and thousands of prayer cloths have been prayed over by GOD TV founders Rory and Wendy Alec and Todd Bentley. Church congregations in South Africa and overseas are watching on large screens and GOD TV has about 1 300 registered living rooms where groups of people are tuning in to watch together in homes. One of the living rooms is in Japan — a first for GOD TV.
“We have had about 19 meetings, and no meeting has been the same,” said Todd Bentley. “Each day there is an anointing for something different. We’re experiencing God’s goodness and moving into a season of divine favour. We’re staying on in Durban indefinitely and encourage people to come and join us.”
“Revival is all about Jesus,” said Wendy Alec, who is hosting GOD TV’s LIVE broadcasts along with her husband Rory and other members of the GOD TV team. “Revival is about the compassion of Jesus for the suffering. It is not just about renewal, it’s because Jesus cares!”
Information about how to tune into GOD TV, find out the broadcast times for the revival meetings or how to get to Tongaat, KwaZulu-Natal are available on www.god.tv
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NOTE: Seeing God-TV have decided to promote another Todd
Bentley “revival”, I thought it might be good to once again discuss
the topic of ‘discernment’ in these last days. God-TV have
obviously not learned their lesson from the Lakeland fiasco a few
years ago where Todd Bentley showed his true colours for all the
world to see. Many Charismatic leaders are still wearing egg all
over their face for their total lack of discernment during that fiasco.
And yet here they are repeating all the same mistakes. I would
be interested in your comments on the article below, my friends-
THE 5 KEYS to DISCERNMENT
by Andrew Strom
Practical tips for the End-time church.
Some people say that knowing Scripture is the only real key to
discernment that we need. And yes – Scripture is very important –
especially in exposing false doctrine. But it is not only doctrines
or teachings that are the greatest danger today. It is just as likely
to be false `anointings´ or spirits – perhaps even “lying signs and
wonders”. And we may need more than just a good understanding
of Scripture to spot these things. Remember, a lot of the people
caught up in today’s “manifestations mania” actually know their
Bible quite well. And yet they could still be deceived. So what
are the things that can help us avoid deception in similar situations?
Some of the most basic keys to discernment that God has shown
me are as follows:
(1) Know your HOLY GOD intimately. (-When you have seen His
glory, His holiness and His love – by drawing close to Him in prayer –
then you can usually see through any “counterfeits” because you
know the ‘real thing’ so well).
(2) Know your Bible. It is very important to be able to spot teachings
that are either extra-biblical or directly opposed to what the Scriptures
teach. However, it is important to remember that the Scribes and
Pharisees were extremely learned in the Scriptures and yet they
missed the very Messiah that was prophesied! So knowing the
Bible is important – especially for doctrinal issues – but we need
to be able to “discern the spirits” also.
(3) Be a “lover of truth”. This is very crucial. Are you someone who
will actually stand up for TRUTH – even against the crowd? Or do
you remain silent even when you feel something is very wrong?
(4) Purity of heart and Humility. Many deceptions only appeal to
us because there is something inside us that “wants” to believe
them. They are seductive because of darkness and wrong motives
in our own lives. We must search our hearts and root these out.
(5) The ‘inner witness’ of the Holy Spirit. We must learn to NEVER
over-ride this “still small voice”, as it will save us from deception
again and again. (-More on this below).
Did you know that even an unbeliever can often spot a ‘con-man’
or a snake-oil salesman? They get a kind-of “gut feeling” about
such things. And they are often right! In fact, they are often less
gullible than the Christians! (-Because we are told in the church-
“Do not judge”, ‘Touch not the Lord’s anointed’, “You have a critical
spirit if you do not join in”, etc, etc. This is the very reason why
Christians are often the most gullible and easily deceived). We
need to realize that the Bible says to “Test the spirits” and warns
very strongly that the Last Days will be a time of “seducing spirits”
and great deception. So how can we become more alert to these things?
I believe that God has placed within every human being at least a
measure of an inner “warning system” to protect us from being
easily deceived – just as He has given us all a conscience. It is
something that He has built into every one of us, in His mercy. (I
guess a lot of it is simply `common sense´). However, Christians
should have an even greater advantage in this area, because we
have the “inner witness” of the Holy Spirit, and the `still small
voice´ of the Lord speaking to us every day.
But what I have found again and again with people who give
themselves over to some form of deception is that they often
“override” these alarm bells. They go against their ‘better
judgement’. They ignore the little voice deep inside them that is
telling them that there is something wrong. Christians do this all
the time. That is how they get themselves involved in such foolish
deceptions.
This may all sound very obvious, but I am telling you, this one
basic area alone could wipe out half the deception in the church
right now. If only people would listen to these internal ‘alarm bells’
and act with common sense, half of it would be gone overnight.
The Bible is very clear that the Last Days are a time of such
widespread deception that it would “deceive if possible the very
elect”. It also shows that much of this deception will arise from
WITHIN the church – luring believers with “itching ears”. Do we see
evidence of this kind of thing taking place today? Certainly! In fact,
some of it is at a level that is truly shocking. And yet it is all
accepted as perfectly “normal” by many Christians.
One of the problems, of course, is that those who bring in these
deceptions are ‘trusted’ by the congregation. They have a reputation
and they put across some very convincing-sounding arguments
and surround the whole thing with Biblical terminology. And thus
the deception is harder to spot. (After all, if it were not “deceptive”
then it would not be called ‘deception’!) People see spiritual power
operating and assume that it “must be God”. But this is a very
dangerous assumption to make in these days.
As I said in a previous article, there is also a lot of “peer pressure”
involved as well. For if everyone in the church is getting into
something, then shouldn’t you just ignore those little ‘alarm bells’
and jump right in? This is what is happening all the time in the
church right now. And some preachers are very good at making
people feel that they are ‘hindering the Spirit’ if they do not get involved.
So how do you avoid being deceived in this way?
Very simply, you do not go along to these meetings in a “gullible”
frame of mind. And you do not allow yourself to be carried along
with the crowd. You listen carefully to the preaching and make
sure that it truly is Biblical. Then you watch the ministry happening
down the front of the meeting and discern whether it really is of
God or not. You do not “override” any feelings of unease or any
‘alarm bells’ going off inside you. And you do not allow yourself to
be swayed by ‘peer pressure’. Even if the whole church is getting
into something, it does not mean that you have to. If you do not
feel quite “right” about it then DO NOT GET INVOLVED. If you
need to, make some excuse and get out of there! You do not have
to get involved in things that do not feel spiritually “right” to you.
A lot of people today will go down the front to get something
“imparted” to them by almost every visiting speaker – almost as a
matter of course. I tell you, in today’s climate this can be a very
dangerous thing to do. In fact, some of this ‘impartation’ business
has very flimsy backing in Scripture. Who knows what on earth
these preachers are imparting? And who knows where they picked
it up? I tell you, deceiving spirits are commonplace today, and
I believe they are being imparted to Christians on a large scale.
Let me give you an example. I received the following account from
a preacher in England recently:
“There were about 20 fellow ministers all gathered together in one
large room at a local minister’s house. We were introduced to the
special guest… The next 3 hours were the weirdest three hours I
have ever had to endure, we started listening to [her] testimony
which seemed very powerful, next she spoke of the times that she
meets with the Angel Gabriel and other spiritual beings, next we
moved on to portals between this world and the next and then finally
to how she was going to open up a portal to Heaven in the room that
we were all in. Now things started to happen, really crazy things
and strange noises… As [she] moved around the room ministering
to individual people they were crashing to the ground, bouncing up
and down, running around as if on fire and making all sorts of sounds.
When she came to me she had no prophetic words for me and nothing
happened to me so she just moved on. My Vineyard friend was the
first to crash to the floor. Since that day his church has taken on a
different guise, it is not the same church any more.”
Now, you should know that this ‘guest speaker’ was one of the very
people I mentioned in my “Naming Names” article. I believe that
this is a true account, because it is very similar to what I myself
observed happening under the same ministry. In fact, what I saw
was people making involuntary “bat”-like movements all over the
building and an eery ‘wailing’ noise filling the air. It was truly awful.
Now, it should not surprise us that there are strong deceptions or
“powerful delusions” around today, for this is exactly what the
Scriptures predict will happen. All the way through the New
Testament we are warned of these days – over and over again.
However, one of the problems we have is that God actually does
‘strange and unusual’ things Himself. (-Think of the Book of Acts,
for instance). So we cannot simply throw out everything “unusual”.
Angelic visitations DO HAPPEN. Strange prophetic signs DO
OCCUR. And being a strong Charismatic Christian myself, I expect
to see believers speaking in tongues and moving in the gifts of the
Holy Spirit as well. Now, there is no doubt that many of these
things could be termed ‘unusual’ phenomena. So how do we tell
the difference?
Well, God never goes against His own holy character. Or against
Scripture. And as I often say, we may see Him do ‘unusual’ things
but I believe we need to draw the line at “weird” or ‘ugly’. Some of
the deception that is around right now has a ‘touchy-feely’ New Age
sense about it. Remember that the New Age movement majors on
“inner healing” and unusual spiritual experiences. I do not believe
in ‘guided visualisation’ or anything of that kind. And neither am I
very fond of the writings of Catholic mystics or the like.
However, I have personally found it very helpful to immerse myself
in the writings of past Revivalists and the accounts of great moves
of God. A lot of the men and women involved in these Revivals lived
very close to God and knew Him intimately. They knew His holiness,
they knew His glory, and they knew His love. And it is enormously
helpful to one’s discernment to immerse oneself in these writings,
I have found. I would recommend this to all Christians everywhere.
If you have been touched or involved in any way with manifestations
or experiences that you think may not have been from God, then
I urge you to utterly RENOUNCE (with your mouth, but also from
the depths of your heart and soul) any links or involvement with
that experience or ‘anointing’. Please do not put this off, my friends.
Some of this stuff is extremely dangerous. RENOUNCE IT today.
PLEASE COMMENT on this topic at the following website-
http://www.revivalschool.com/
Blessings from – Andrew Strom ( prophetic@revivalschool.com ).
Hi Andrew,
very interesting article you wrote. please can you be very specific about what you have seen THIS time that worries you about Todd Bentley. So far I have not heard any false teaching, seen all glory being given to God. Yes he messed up last time, which he admits, has apologised for publicly on God TV, and spent two and half years being mentored by two respected Ministers. My God is a God of second chances.
Hi Andrew I sat through this revival service yesterday and I must say I felt nothing. I was shocked to see how these people behaved. They danced in a trans like state and moved strangely. Shockingly my 9 year old daughter who loves church so much asked me when is this SHOW gonna be over. out of the mouth of babes, even my 9 year old saw through this. she did not consider this church. Normally I love dancing and worshipping and praising God, but this felt not normal. we just sat there motionless throughout the service. Something truly felt strange. I hav never seen people behave so strangely. Anyway thats my encounter and thoughts and opinion.
shame. keep on sitting in your comfortable little dead church .let jesus pass you by.
Hi Andrew. God can use anyone anytime. You like me are not without mistakes. I sinned today and I bet you, you did too. So did Todd Bentley. But our God is a God of grace and will and can use someone like Todd if only to bring shame to those individuals in His Body that likes to throw stones. Hindus and Muslims are giving their lives to God. Is that not what the gospel is all about? Don’t look at Todd Bentley. Look to see if their is fruit coming from this first.
Dear Andrew, I am sorry that you wrote this comment. I recommend that you get yourself the book “Revival in Indonesia” By Kurt Koch. It happened in the early 60’s. Get the book. “Like a Mighty Wind” by Mel Tary. I was wondering whether revivals across the world were of God or some other manefisation and when I ask the Holy Spirit to show me, He led me to this Scripture: Mat 12:24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
Mat 12:25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:
Mat 12:26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?
Mat 12:27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.
Mat 12:28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.
Mat 12:29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
Mat 12:30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
Mat 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
Mat 12:32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
In these God is busy shaking the world, and not only the world but the Church also. There is a great dividing coming and already happening. For everything genuine there is a counterfeit. When Jesus is truly ‘all in all’ to believers, they know the genuine from the false and have fulness of life!
Andrew Murray (who experienced one of the greatest revivals in SA) called believers to live in personal revival every day: revival which focusses in the main on abiding spiritual fruit, character and transformation, and the fulfilment of the Great Commission. And by saying this, I am discerning truth and events as the NT calls us to do. I am not grieving the Spirit by doing this! ‘Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth’ (Jesus in Jn. 17:17)
God recently promoted me to be His chief sheriff. Before that I was His deputy sheriff, and my calling was to sort out the church. Gifted with an incredible discernment, it was easy for me to see any church leader’s heresy and sin. Having condemned all leaders and their churches as apostate, I completed my work with distinction and now I alone am left. As God’s sheriff, my new assignment is to sort the accuracy of the Bible, and those who wrote it. Psalms and Song Of Solomon was easy. David was an adulterer and a murderer, so I tore his contributions out of the good book. Solomon finished up badly with his concubines and evil wives, so I tore Proverbs out as well. 1 & 2 Peter was also easy because Paul had already exposed him as the hypocrite he was. Unfortunately, I had to tear all of Paul’s writings out as well, because either he was wrong about women not being allowed to cut their hair and having to wear hats in church, or all of us are in serious trouble. Revelation did not take much discernment, as it’s now become clear that the barcode is not the mark of the beast, and nor was Pope John II the anti-Christ. It’s stupid to continue to accuse every new technology and every world leader that comes along, so I figured that Revelation was the problem. After having torn out and disposed of most of the Bible because it’s errors and/or sinful writers, I thought I would only be left with the four Gospels. But to my horror, I noticed that they all had conflicting versions of the same events. Now I am only left with the maps. I’ll be checking them out for accuracy shortly, and will let you all know if we can trust them or not. PS….as sheriff, I have not yet commissioned any deputies. So please disregard any impersonators posing as my deputy.
Thank you Jesus that you love us all with the same measure! I pray that CS will experience your love and presence on a deep level. I put my faith out that you will get him Holy Spirit and be yourself inside of him. That like Paul he will be turned around for your kingdom and be on fire for you! Amen. Bless you dude! :)
Thanks for your patience. I finally figured out who is causing all these problems in God’s Kingdom….it’s the Holy Spirit. He keeps choosing these weird unqualified people to do things. I’m not sure if I have the authority to kick the Holy Spirit out of the Godhead, will check it out and come back to you. Chief Sheriff.
I pray Father God that what’s happening in Tongaat will spread to Pretoria and the rest of South Africa. To the rest of Africa! To the rest of world! Hover and be yourself Holy Spirit. Enjoy yourself, be free Spirit of God! Show us Jesus! Show us the Father’s face! Use me too Lord in this revival! I’m in! :) Love you Lord!
David was an adulterer yet the Lord chose to continue to use him mightily. In fact the Bible continues to say that “David was a man after God’s own heart”, a man of many failures and weaknesses.
Dear Brother who are we to judge if God continues to use a man whom HE has restored, anointed and appointed. Ttod Bentley with all his weaknesses and failures LIKE ALL OF US decided to get up, make himself available again and allow the Lord to use him. One thing I noted about the Lord is HE ain’t into using perfect people, HE DOES NOT CALL THE EQUIPPED, THE ONES THAT HAS IT ALL TOGETHER OR SEEMS TO HAVE IT ALL TOGETHER, BUT HE EQUIPS THE CALLED, oftentimes uses the rejected, the cast offs, the ones who JUST DON’T FIT the “profile”.
God is doing a mighty work through this man of God, let’s not judge him, let us pray for him instead and ask that God will continue to use him in an even greater way. Let us extend the same GRACE and MERCY that God has extended to us undeservedly so. If people have taken him off their lists, God bless them, it’s their prerogative, but one thing is for sure, God has not taken him off God’s list, so he is still pretty OK because that is what ultimately matters .
God bless!
Lee-Anne
Satan and demons cannot counterfeit the annointing of the Annointed One. That is false teaching. If you don’t know what the annointing of Jesus feels like, than you do not know Jesus. “As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit–just as it has taught you, remain in him.” 1 John 2:27 Todd is not perfect and doesn’t claim to be. I have listened to him preach and he’s prayed for me before. When he did, I felt the annointing of Jesus, the Holy Ghost and no counterfeit. The fruit was there. Jesus said you’ll know them by their fruit. Mr. Strom has attacked many revivals that he deems unworthy, including the brownsville revival. Some will attack a move of God until the bitter end. Anyone who is seriously giving any validity to Mr. Stroms assessments here should read “Let No One Deceive You: Answering the Critics of Revival” by Dr. Michael Brown first.