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First night of healing at Walmart

The first two nights, my friends and I went to Walmart after dinner to heal people. Before we went to Walmart, we ate at a fast food restaurant and here’s Caleb spending time talking to some youth and keeping his covenant to God (as he told me) to pray for everyone he sees that needs healing:

After dinner, we spent about 1 hour in Walmart. Michael and Ashley prayed for someone who had an injured leg. He came to get some medicine for the pain and left without needing any medicine as the pain had left:

At night, he called Michael, telling him that the swell on his face that was also prayed over had decreased significantly in size. JD also had the opportunity to pray for someone using a walking stick also and shared the gospel. For me, I approached 3 people but they didn’t really want to be prayed for.

When we reached the hotel at night, the five of us spent some time just worshiping God and soaking. They also prophesied over each other and over me. When they asked me if they could pray for me in any way, I mentioned my eyesight - I’m short-sighted. The four of them spent about 20-30 minutes just commanding the eyes to be healed in Jesus’ name. They didn’t just pray/command once, but continued for some time and took it upon themselves to see my eyes healed, though it didn’t heal. This may sound stupid and most of us probably wouldn’t think God would heal something like this, but we’re all convinced that if God can heal other diseases and other things, He can heal something like myopia. (More on this and contending for, and persevering in, healing in future posts). We ended the night by watching a video of Todd White, someone we all looked up to because of his ministry combining power (healing), love and the prophetic.

That night was the first time I’ve ever done this (praying in the streets or in shops for total strangers) with friends. It was definitely an experience for me and I learned to be more bold in approaching people!

Second night of healing at Walmart

On the second night at Walmart, we were joined by about 4 other young people, two of whom  (one was Nick) spent the previous night healing people in other parts of the city. We spent about 1.5 hours there in total and saw many healings - especially at the Shoes section:

In the afternoon, Michael had already grown a person’s leg during one of the training session breaks:

In Walmart, we approached a Hispanic lady on a wheelchair. We talked a lot to the Hispanic family and saw a few legs growing out, pain leaving from people’s bodies and lives being touched as we listened to them and told them about Jesus.

I spent time talking to my friends, seeing them in action and walking around Walmart looking for people to heal. I dunno if there’s an impartation of anointing, but what I definitely know is that when you hang around people who are experienced in this area and just talk to them, see them in action and join along with them - when you do that, you learn and grow bolder. There’s definitely growth by association.

Healing in a home on the morning of the third day

The first Hispanic lady we met at Walmart last night invited us to her house after just a few minutes of talking to us. So on the third day morning, we spent about 1 hour + at her place. We talked to the lady and her husband (they spoke mainly Spanish so two of us were doing most of the talking - one of the two was a Chinese Singaporean!). We prayed for both of them and pain in her shoulders and back left, her legs were strengthened enough for her to walk around without her walking stick and pain in his foot left. She started to shake her side in happiness and disbelief that pain had left her back and also cried. It’s such a sight to behold when you see people healed and they are so surprised yet full of joy! That’s Jesus touching their lives! Her daughter came and later we prayed for her and two people prophesied over her.

Overall, the three days going out with other young people (probably all in their twenties) and healing the sick was just totally awesome! I’ve seen all this in Youtube and read so much about how even ordinary people (like you and me) went to the streets and the public to heal people and demonstrate God’s love and power, but living it out together with others was just a crazy experience! These experiences alone were well worth the cost and time of the whole trip! I had even more experiences later on in my trip which I’ll write about in future posts.

After attending Bethel Church (Redding), I spent nearly two weeks in Colorado. I’ll share more about that next time but fresh on my memory now is my time in Arkansas for Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) training from 8th to 10th July.

I’ll start by saying that my three days in Arkansas for this training contained times that were easily some of the best of my trip - and perhaps in my life - and yet also some of the worst of my trip.

A great bunch of friends

The night before the training, I took a flight from Colorado Springs to Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) in Arkansas and arrived about 11pm. Visiting a small city in America without a car sucks. My cab ride to the hotel cost me a good US$40! I prayed that I wouldn’t have to take a cab each day to and from the meeting place as the trip would probably cost about US$30-US$40 each way! Arkansas isn’t exactly a place to go for tourists - the most famous thing about Arkansas is Bill Clinton, who was a former Governor of Arkansas. There’s pretty much nothing to do in that part of Arkansas (except that the headquarters of Walmart is located here) and there isn’t much public transportation. I was hesitant to arrange a trip to come to this training - I knew it’d be very costly (not just air ticket but also hotel and transportation), but I guess I really wanted to come because of the impact Curry has had on my thinking. And I’m definitely glad I came.

On the morning of the first day, I got up early and waited at the hotel reception. I knew that more than 20 people staying at the hotel were going to the training so I was going to ask for a ride. Eventually, I got a ride with a group of four fantastic people (Michael, Ashley, JD and Caleb) - a truly awesome bunch, without whom my time in Arkansas would have been so much less meaningful. They were in their twenties and were from various parts of America - one completed an internship at Mike Bickle’s International House of Prayer (IHOP), another spent the previous month at Bethel Church in Redding and a couple leads a house church in Kansas City. Here they are with Curry:

Throughout our time there, we went everywhere together. We chatted extensively throughout this time about healing and all. We talked about Curry Blake’s teachings and on healing how it compared to Bill Johnson’s - I really enjoyed this part because I had been thinking a lot about all this (like in my previous post) and our conversations helped refine my thinking. They were people who prayed for people on the streets - some with more success and some with less. When Michael, the driver of the car, first heard that I wanted a lift, he asked me if I had uneven legs (legs of uneven length) because he doesn’t allow people with uneven legs to ride in his car. I knew what he meant - if I had uneven legs, he would pray that God would grow and even the length of my legs. He had grown the leg of the receptionist the night before when he first came into the hotel. I was really excited when I heard all this as this was what I wanted: to be around people who do the stuff so that I can be challenged by them and do it together with them. I wanted to do that during the Bethel Conference though there wasn’t much time in between sessions and sessions ended too late. And I really wanted to do it during this Curry Blake training too. I didn’t just want to just learn and not go out to the streets to heal people. God answered my prayer by giving me a great bunch of friends to be with the whole there days.

Conversations about healing and the prophetic

We had great conversations. Conversations I dream of having with friends, but I don’t have many Christian friends into healing and the few into healing are not familiar with Curry Blake or what he teaches. We had very constructive and thought-provoking discussions after the sessions. We analyzed Curry’s teaching (agreed and disagreed here and there), honestly wondered why some of us had so little success, wondered how we could grow in this area, etc. One guy talked about how when he was at Bethel, some students used the power of God to stick coins on the wall! I think this is probably some stuff students do and not endorsed by the leadership and I think it’s probably an immature way to use the power of God, if it’s indeed the power of God - see this video by a bunch of guys I met and stayed with after my time at Arkansas and before I returned to Singapore.

I talked with them about my struggles in moving in the prophetic and one of them shared about how a friend of his made him move out in faith by telling someone that he was gifted in the prophetic - which pressured him to step out and listen to God to give that person a word on the spot. He learned through being pushed to take risks and he suggested that I give him a word there and then. I turned the tables and asked him to give me a word (ya, I wasn’t willing to take risks in this area - I need to learn to do that!). He gave me a word and it was a pretty accurate word of knowledge. Another guy also told me about a picture he saw of me and that was pretty accurate too.

Pastor Joseph Prince in America

Every city I visited in the States, I was pleasantly surprised to meet people who love Pastor Joseph Prince’s preaching (they watch it on TV).  The same was the case at Curry’s training. I’ve probably encountered about 15 people in total throughout my trip in five different cities (Redding, Denver, Colorado Springs, Bella Vista in Arkansas and San Jose). When they know I’m from Singapore, the first thing they ask is if I know Pastor Joseph Prince! One lady told me she wakes up 4:30am every morning just to listen to him. Another tells me of how she and a relative of hers have been healed through listening and applying the message (of confessing our righteousness of God in Christ). Another spoke of how he was liberated from condemnation and guilt. And another that both Curry Blake and Joseph Prince were his favourite preachers. By the way, I heard that Curry Blake is trying to hook up with Joseph Prince / New Creation Church and I think Andrew Wommack also. If this does materialize that would be super awesome! I’m hoping that both Curry Blake and Andrew Wommack would come to Singapore one day!

Success rates in healing

I don’t want to be a person big on numbers, but numbers are important. I don’t want to overemphasize numbers, yet on the other hand I don’t want to understate the importance of numbers. While I don’t like it when a Church keeps on focusing on numbers, I think it’s equally wrong to totally neglect numbers. To me, seeing the fruit is in a sense seeing the numbers.

Before I attended Curry Blake’s training, I read people saying that he had 85% success rate in healing, which was supposedly one of the highest around. During the training, one of my friends asked Curry what his percentage of healing was. My friend was uncomfortable with Curry preaching such an absolute message of healing without any compromise or toning down of how we have the power in Christ to heal all the sick and raise the dead, etc. So he asked Curry what his success rate was - believing it has to be 100% if he’s to preach such an uncompromising message of healing. Curry’s response was that he has between 94% to 96% success rate.

I’m not going to put down Bethel because I’ve learned so much from them and Bill Johnson and gang first got me into all of this. And I’ll continue to learn from them but I also want to learn from others and finally evaluate what I’ve learned by going to the Bible. What I heard through talking to some people is that Bethel’s Healing Rooms sees only about 5% success rate. While this is through some pretty good sources, feel free to take this with a bit of healthy skepticism (I do) - after all, in a sense this is hearsay. I’d also do the same with Curry’s supposed success rate. I wouldn’t want to compare Curry’s success rate with that of Bethel’s because besides not being 100% sure of the exact figures, I also think context is important. Furthermore, I didn’t see a great deal of healing during Curry’s conference - something I’ll write about later in this series of posts.

However, I’ve talked to at least four people in the States who got started in this healing business having been influenced by Bill Johnson and Bethel. But the moment they latched onto Curry’s teachings, they saw a dramatic increase in the success rate of their healings, which they attribute to understanding healing in the way Curry teaches - as opposed to the way Bethel and others teach.

Like I said above, I don’t want to be putting Bethel down and it’s not my intention to create division and pit Curry Blake against Bill Johnson. However, as I’ve suspected since I heard Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) mp3s online, there are definite differences in teachings. And Curry’s teachings have not only caused my faith to increase and inspired me to start stepping out more and more, but it’s also dramatically transformed the thinking and rate of success of others.

Dogmatic Curry

Curry is definitely dogmatic about what he believes in. I’ve listened to a few of his DHTs where you’ll hear him disagreeing with a lot of other ministers and popular teachings on healing - he’s not afraid to be outspoken and dogmatic about it. Being dogmatic isn’t necessarily bad. I’m generally not attracted to people who are too dogmatic, but I think Blake makes a lot of good sense and his message needs to be heard. A person being dogmatic wouldn’t make me not hear his message. Prophets were/are dogmatic and they were not nice people. During my trip, I heard two leaders who were prophetic in the sense of speaking forth an important but unpopular message that the church needs to hear. One was Curry and the other was David Watson, which I’ll write about in future. Like prophets of old, they have strong convictions (often politically incorrect) and tend to either piss people off or draw strong followers to their messages.

As Curry mentioned, one of the most powerful and faith-filled ministers, Smith Wigglesworth, was not a nice person and he didn’t have many visitors or friends. After all, these people aren’t out to win friends and be likable, but to speak the truth. Speaking the truth often means going against accepted wisdom of the day and being politically incorrect. Curry would probably acknowledge that he’s not a super friendly and sociable guy. He may come across quite arrogant to some and put a lot of people off with what he says and his teachings, but I’ve heard many have accepted his teachings after strongly disagreeing with them initially (because they went against a lot of things they believed in) and struggling with it for some time. I’ll definitely be writing more about Curry’s unique teachings on healing on this blog, some of which I’ve already touched upon in my previous post on two ways to minister.

An important theme on my mind going into the Bethel Church Kingdom Culture Conference (since encountering Curry Blake’s teachings) has been the issue of ministering (e.g. healing) to people through:

1) Praying for more of God (experiencing more of Him, His touch, His anointing, His leading) in order to be more effective to do His Kingdom work

versus

2) Knowing what you already have in Christ by faith (His anointing, His presence, etc.) and thus going out to do the work of the Kingdom.

As I’ll write more in future, I see Curry Blake, Andrew Wommack and Joseph Prince as emphasizing more of the latter (view number 2). Bill Johnson and Bethel seem to focus more than the above three on the former (view number 1), while not neglecting the latter (view number 2), as you’ll see below. I wrote a bit about this tension (though in the context more of sanctification than empowerment for ministry) here and also something similar related to healing (being led by the Spirit vs. going by faith and in the authority of the Scriptures) here. Three messages I heard during the conference made me reflect more about these two different ways of doing ministry or being empowered for ministry - or whatever you wanna call it.

Kris Vallotton on Desperation for God

In Kris Vallotton’s first message on Wednesday night (23th June), he touched a bit on this theme. This wasn’t the main point of his message - his message was on believing in people. But he mentioned about how Graham Cooke (a prophet) said out loud during a meal with many people (including Kris),

I don’t wanna be desperate for God.

Kris was struck by that statement and wondered what Cooke meant. I dunno if it was Cooke or Kris who gave the explanation, but it was this:

Being desperate means you have a dysfunctional relationship with God.

Kris mentioned that “The reason we have visitations (of God) rather than habitations (of God) is because we don’t think God can tolerate us.” He also mentioned that he couldn’t sing “I’m desperate for you” anymore - I think he was referring to this Vineyard song “Breathe” which I mentioned here.

Anyway, I think the whole point of it all (at least what I took from it) is that we need to recognize that God is always with us - that is, view number 2 above. His presence is always with us whether we feel it. And sometimes being too desperate for God (His presence, His anointing, etc.) can be reflective of the fact that we somehow don’t recognize that in Christ and by faith we’re already anointed, already have all authority and already have God’s presence in and with us always. God is already with us - it’s not as though we’re trying to get Him to come to us. He already inhabits us.

I’ve heard Bill Johnson say in a few of his past sermons something like in our private prayer with God, we can act desperate or hungry for more of Him and more breakthroughs. In public when ministering, we don’t show this form of desperation. Now, I’m paraphrasing him and I may be missing his point slightly but I think what he’s trying to say is that in public we thank God for His presence and we go by faith healing the sick - i.e. view number 2 above. Perhaps we shouldn’t always show that desperate side. In private times, we wrestle with God and cry out to Him for more victories and power - i.e. view number 1 above.

Bill Johnson on Rending the Heavens

Bill Johnson spoke on Thursday morning (24th June) and he said a lot of stuff related to the above theme. By the way, Bill Johnson’s sermons are fantastic. Sometimes you hear people speak about books in which every sentence contains so many insights that one has to read slowly and chew on each sentence. Bill Johnson’s sermons are kind of like that. A lot of sentences he says contain so much insight. His style is very different from Kris. Kris is more of a preacher and Bill I think is more of a teacher. Both complement each other well.

Anyway, Bill said stuff like:

The renewing of our mind in Romans 12 is to get our minds consistent with what we already have.

We need to learn to access what’s already been accomplished - it was done 2,000 years ago.

This reminds me of what some other speakers I’ve heard recently said. I believe it was Rob Hotchkin, who ministers with Patricia King of Extreme Prophetic, who said in Covenant Vision on 6th June that:

Fasting is to get things out of the way that is preventing me from knowing I already have everything.

And during the recent Asia Conference organized by City Harvest Church, I believe it was Reinhard Bonnke who said that we shouldn’t ask for Elijah’s anointing or double portion because in the New Covenant we have Jesus’ anointing. He also mentioned that according to Matthew 28, God’s with us always and so why pray for God’s presence to come when He’s always with us? Even if he (Bonnke) doesn’t feel anything, he still appropriates God’s presence by faith and thanks God for His presence. David Yonggi Cho mentioned that our attitude in our prayers shouldn’t be that of begging God for something we don’t have, but of proclaiming (the things we already have).

The above quotes from Bill, Hotchkin, Cho and Bonnke all emphasize view number 2 above. We’re not trying to get something we don’t already have as we already have it all in Christ. If only we knew what we already have in Christ, we would be able to do miraculous things. And I absolutely love the above way of looking at fasting. It isn’t to get more power or change God’s mind. It’s really more for our own heart and to position ourselves better to receive more from God. It doesn’t earn God’s favor or power - it merely gets rid of things that are preventing us from knowing and experiencing how much power we already have in Christ. Or as Curry Blake said:

Fasting doesn’t get you power. Fasting gets you out of the way so power can flow easier.

The power isn’t something you need to get but it’s already inside you - you already have it. Fasting merely gets you out of the way and allows the power from within to flow out more easily.

Bill also mentioned how it’s not totally accurate to ask God to “rend the heavens” because

…we already live under an open heaven.

The phrase “rend the heavens” comes from Isaiah 64:1,  “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down”. But that was in the Old Testament and before Jesus came. Jesus rended the heavens and tore the veil separating us from God on the cross! Understanding Biblical Theology (which I explain a bit more here) would help us to see the fulfillment of that passage in Christ and that we shouldn’t be singing or praying that verse as New Covenant Christians.

I mentioned singing because there are songs - e.g. Misty Edwards’ “Rend” and “Oh How We Want You To Come!” - that seem to use the “rend the heavens” motif to refer to either Jesus’ second coming and/or the Spirit coming down powerfully in revival. Now, I don’t know if such interpretation is good theology, but at least Bill did seem to think that in at least an important sense that the heavens have already been rendered in Christ’s first coming and that therefore it’s probably not appropriate to ask God for an open heavens when Christ already rended the heavens.

Again, he’s trying to emphasize point 2 above. It’s sort of like that quote:

I don’t pray/wait for revival. I am revival.

Or as William Booth said:

I am not waiting for a move of God, I am a move of God.

That may sound arrogant, but it conveys an important truth. In Christ, we have the authority and power to bring revival and a move of God everywhere we go. God’s asking us to go out and heal the sick and raise the dead, etc.,  and not to pray for revival to happen. When we step out in faith, we create revival around us. God has already rended the heavens and come down in the form of Jesus Christ and He lives in us through His Spirit. So we don’t need to pray that God will rend the heavens. Rather, we need to recognize that He already has done so and that we can be revival to this dying world.

Interestingly, Kim Walker (probably my favorite worship leader at the moment) sang Misty Edwards’ “Oh How We Want You To Come!” on Jesus Culture’s Everything album. Early on in the song, she said these phrases:

We invite Your presence in this place tonight, O God.

We’re desperate for you tonight, Lord.

This represents view number 1 above.

Bill Johnson on Operating out of the Presence vs out of Principle (of faith)

Bill Johnson spoke the last message on Friday night (25th June). Interestingly, here he seemed to be talking about the importance of the presence of God (by this I believe he means something close to the tangible presence and thus something close to view number 1) as he contrasted operating out of the presence vs. operating out of principle (of faith).

I have to listen to this message again, but I believe he’s giving priority to operating out of the presence (view number 1). At least, he thinks this should be normal. We operate out of principle (view number 2) only when we can’t operate out of the presence. That is, it should be normal for us to perhaps feel God’s presence or leading to pray for healing. But if we don’t, we go by faith and still pray and believe for the person’s healing.

Preliminary conclusion

I don’t think both ways of ministering are mutually exclusive, although I think Blake tends to see it as such - or at least he emphasizes view number 2 so much that it gives people the impression that he thinks only view number 2 is valid. However, it’s helpful to understand the distinction and to reflect where one is upon this continuum. In my own journey, I’ve moved from view number 1 towards view number 2. From the very beginning of my Christian life, I thought that only specially anointed leaders could do healing. And thus if I wanted to heal the sick, I had to really seek God a lot for such an anointing. That made me ignore seeking to do this stuff - better just leave it to the experts because they’re gifted in all this. When I read Bill Johnson, it moved me along towards view number 2. He’s trained so many ordinary Christians to heal the sick and there’s no reason why an ordinary Christian like me couldn’t heal the sick.  With Curry Blake’s teachings (and re-reflecting upon Andrew Wommack’s and Joseph Prince’s), something changed in me and I moved even further along the continuum towards view number 2 - as well as increased in confidence that I could heal the sick.

Perhaps my view is like this. Bill Johnson would say that operating out of the presence (view number 1) is normal but if there isn’t that sense of the presence, we should still operate out of the principle of faith (view number 2). However, at this point of my journey I would tend to see that operating out of the principle of faith (view number 2) as normal and if we happen to operate out of the presence and direct leading of the Spirit (view number 1), that would be wonderful, but it isn’t necessary.

Now I love Bill Johnson and I’m not sure if I’m representing him and his church correctly. But my experience is that those from the “prophetic” and “glory” camps (which Bill is partly in - at least he doesn’t disassociate himself from them) tend to prize some tangible anointing and leading of the Spirit in ministering above the authority that comes from the Word of God. My feeling is that while he tends to do this less than those in these camps he hangs around with, he does emphasize the importance of view number 1 more than say Blake, Prince and Wommack.

The danger of emphasizing view number 1 (or at least prioritizing view number 1 over view number 2) is that people don’t pray for healing unless led clearly by the Spirit to do so. Or at least (and here’s the important thing I think) they don’t feel that their prayers for healing would work unless they have some kind of clear leading from the Spirit. And so they don’t pray or they pray without faith and thus don’t see results. And I’ve seen a lot of this in my experience.

So at this moment of time, I see the dominant ministry model as operating out of faith and authority through knowing who we are in Christ and what Christ has already done for us (rended the heavens, given us authority, anointed us, etc.) - and not merely ministering healing (or whatever) only when we feel some “leading of the Spirit”.

Curry Blake once went to meet up with a man who later became his mentor, Lester Sumrall (who himself was mentored by Smith Wigglesworth). He had two questions on his mind that he wanted to ask Sumrall. One was “how to know the will of God” and the other was “how to be led by the Spirit”. Curry knocked on Sumrall’s office door, went in and even before he had the chance to ask his questions, Sumrall suddenly said:

To know the will of God, read the Bible. To be led by the Spirit, do the Bible.

To be led by the Spirit is thus to do what the Bible says. And if we believe the Bible says we’re to heal the sick (Matt. 10:8, Mark 16:18), then that’s good enough a warrant for us to go out and pray for every sick person and expect healing - not just those we’re specifically led by the Spirit to do.

Curry Blake says that:

The greatest faith is to be able to apply a general command to a specific situation in your life.

By this he means that (in the context of healing) faith is to apply the general command of healing the sick to every sick person we come across. This is what we should be doing and not waiting for a specific leading for God has already led us in the Scriptures to pray for every sick person we come across.

I’ll end with this seemingly blasphemous quote from Smith Wigglesworth which speaks of the importance of ministering to people (healing and other things) even when we don’t have a direct leading of the Spirit:

If the Spirit doesn’t move me, I’ll move Him.

This is not the end of my journey and therefore I’m still learning. Comments are always glady accepted.

PS: The above was written before I attended Curry Blake’s training. I’m in the midst of his three day Divine Healing Technician (DHT) training now in Arkansas and have talked about the above issue with many people - which they’ve been thinking about and grappling with too. I’ve also been with some friends to Walmart and we’ve seen healings and lives touched by God! How amazing is that!!! More thoughts in future posts :)

(Some of the above quotes and description of what was said by various people are all paraphrases from my notes because I don’t have the actual recording. Though they may not be the exact words, the concept should be more or less spot on, although do take into account my fallibility and that I’m writing from my own perspective and lenses.)

Getting around Redding

Redding is a small city as expected - which means no good public transportation. My 15 minutes taxi cab from the airport to my cheap motel (situated at the heart of the red-light district) cost me US$30. I knew I was going to struggle to get around because because most people had cars and I didn’t. I managed to move around (using public buses) fine during the first day which was quite free, but I knew nights were going to be a problem because the meetings would end around 10pm and the last buses were around 7pm or so.

Anyway, on the first night, it seemed like everyone had transport to go back at night. Either they would have their own car (or go in a friend’s car) or if they were visiting for the conference they probably would have rented a car. I didn’t make plans to rent a car and so was kind of stuck. I didn’t want to call a cab - a ten minutes ride back to my place would set me back a good US$15-$20 - and so I made a decision to walk all the way back if nobody offered me a ride. I do lots of long-distance walking (praying along the way) in Singapore so this wasn’t such a big deal. I had my directions ready and all - planned from the morning! It would have taken me at least 1 hour of walking pretty much in the dark (not every street is lighted like in Singapore). Of course I would have preferred someone fetching me back and I did pray that a good soul would see this poor fella walking back from church and offer me a lift :) And so I walked back and soon a lift I got - not just for that night, but for the next few mornings and nights too. Thank you Sharna, Sierra and Melissa!

Worship

Worship was awesome. I’m not one who speaks about the strong presence of God or whatever. All I’ll say is that the musicians and worship leaders were great, I loved the songs and the flow, and I enjoyed worship a lot. I’m still not sure if we should be focusing on whether worship was good or not, whether the presence of God was strong or not or whether we enjoyed worship or not, etc., but nevertheless it was great as expected. Kim Walker of Jesus Culture wasn’t there, but Chris Quilala was playing drums most of the time. And I was especially captured by a new song - Deeper Waters - by a Bethel worship leader William Matthews.

Books galore!

Bethel had a great bookstore! I spent quite a bit of time there browsing and talking to other book lovers. I bought about 12 books in the end - only those that I knew I probably couldn’t get so easily in Singapore. Almost all of them had to do directly with healing or the prophetic. One of them was These Signs Shall Follow by Aaron McMahon. This book is interesting because Aaron isn’t a big time author or minister. He was a normal “Sunday Christian” before he spent three years at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) which transformed his life. And so he wrote a book about his experience and how every Christian can move in the miraculous. I like what he wrote in the introduction:

I am not the pastor of a church. I’m not the leader of an internationally-renowned ministry. I’m not the son of a famous minister. And I’m not (yet) a prolific author. It is for these reasons that I feel eminently qualified to write this book. I am you, the reader.

I love reading and learning from people like that. Sometimes you read from great Christian leaders and what they write is just too far above where you are at the moment. So I thought this would be a good book and one I can learn a bit from.

Another book I bought was Can You Hear Me? by Brad Jersak, which looks like a real solid book on hearing God and listening prayer. I also got Doing Healing by Alexander Venter, which is a book I had been wanting to get. It’s a Vineyard book which, according to the bookstore lady, is one Randy Clark thinks is the best on healing. Vineyard’s view on healing has actually been the one that has influenced my thinking in the past 10+ years but I’m starting to differ a bit from it after encountering Andrew Wommack’s and Curry Blake’s teachings.

I got books one to four of the biographical Supernatural: The Life of William Branham by Owen Jorgensen. I had been wanting to get this series as I’ve heard good things about it. William Branham is a highly controversial figure because he’s taught some weird stuff. But even his critics have said this of him:

To this day his gifts of supernatural knowledge of those to whom he ministered remains unparalleled, even among modern healing evangelists (D.R. McConnell).

There can be little doubt that he was endued with power to a degree that has rarely been seen since the days of the apostles (Andrew Strom).

I do plan to read as many of John G. Lake’s and Smith Wigglesworth’s books as I can over the next few years (let’s see if I have time!!). William Branham’s teachings probably aren’t as solid as theirs, but the miraculous power seen in his ministry seems unparalleled so I think there’s something one can learn from his life. Bethel doesn’t carry book five ( or later) of this biographical series because that book touches on Branham’s questionable teachings. Anyway, the four books are on the year two reading list for the BSSM students.

The last book I’ll mention here is the Bethel Church Healing Rooms’ book of over 500 testimonies recorded by the Healing Rooms prayer teams in 2008. The 2009 book is yet to be released but I’m going to read through these testimonies from 2008, be encouraged and pray that God would do the same things (and even greater) through my life.

Pre-service prayer meeting

There were pre-service prayers before the service for about an hour. I went to two of them. I expected it to be some intercessory prayer time but it was totally unlike your typical intercessory prayer meeting. It’s really more like a time of soaking in God’s presence!

The first night I went to the prayer, I saw people moving in circles around the room with background music. Some people were already drunk in the Spirit. I was wondering when the real prayer was gonna start. However, soon I realized that this was the pre-service prayer! Background music was being played and people just walked around in circles worshiping and praying. Gradually, more and more people started to be filled with the Spirit and got drunk in the Spirit. This was your typical pre-service prayer meeting, so they told me! Interesting! Anyway, during this time, people who felt led would prayer for others and even prophesy over others. And I received a pretty accurate and encouraging word from one person.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what intercessory prayer is (I hope to write more about this one day) and this just makes me reflect even more on the area of prayer and intercession in the light of the New Covenant!

Healing

This conference wasn’t technically a conference on healing. Bethel has conferences specifically on healing (i.e. learning to minister healing) and I wished this was one of them but it wasn’t. But anyway, there were a few times during the sessions when the speaker called for the sick to stand up and asked those around them to pray for healing. There were also times after the sessions were over when the ministry teams were called to the front and those needing healing went forward to be prayed for. There were healing testimonies. I wouldn’t say a huge number as I expected from a church like Bethel, but definitely more than you’ll see in other churches. There were a number of creative miracles - one person testified to metal inserted into her body no longer being there after prayer. When people stood up for healing, a group would surround them to pray for their healing and I think I was in a group twice and both times there wasn’t any healing. I was interested to learn of how people trained in Bethel prayed for healing and how similar or not it was to the way Curry Blake and Andrew Wommack teaches.

Healing Rooms

I had to leave for my next conference early in the morning on Saturday (26th June). Bethel Church Healing Rooms take place on Saturday mornings and so I wasn’t able to stay for it. I wish I had been able to do so! I’ll definitely visit them the next time! Anyway, I also heard there was a prophetic booth that people could go to during this time too.

Impartation

On the last night, Bill spoke on healing. After he spoke, there was a fire tunnel where Bill laid hands on everyone before they walked through a tunnel where ministry leaders prayed for them. A lot of drunkenness in the Spirit. Bill mentioned that the impartation through laying on of hands was one of the main reasons people should be coming to this conference for. Bill and the other leaders lay hands on people to impart all they’ve got and learned. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about the issue of impartation - the importance, the excesses, etc.

Drunkenness in the Spirit

I’m referring here to a person just being overcome by the Spirit of God and acting drunk - perhaps just like in Acts 2. I first encountered this phenomena in 1995 when the Toronto Blessing came to Singapore. People acted drunk and did stuff that they wouldn’t normally do, they laughed uncontrollably and they fell under the power of God. Very similar things happened in this conference during the pre-service prayer time and on the last night during the prayer tunnel. I’m not averse to all this because I saw tons of all this in 1995 during many of Rodney Howard-Brown meetings in Singapore.

I haven’t personally experienced all this. I’ve asked many people, myself and God why this is so! I’m not crazy over experiencing such manifestations - because these are just manifestations of the Spirit’s work in a person. The more important thing is the work of the Spirit. It’s about the fruit that results, not the physical manifestation that takes place. However, I am desperate in a sense for all that God has for me - more of the Spirit’s work in my life please! If manifestations occur, then I’d welcome that even if it’ll make me feel stupid! People have told me that God still needs people to “stand” in the presence and not be too affected! So I do think about this issue and do ask God for more of Him while not being condemned or thinking there’s something wrong with me because other people experience something I don’t.

One thing I like about Bethel is that while you have all these manifestations and signs and wonders (e.g. “gold” dust) going on, I feel they don’t make it a big issue. The focus is very much blessing the community and the world through what we’ve experienced and I think that’s the right focus.

Boldness to pray for healing

Throughout the conference, I was able to sit either on the 3rd or 4th row from the front. The lady in charge of the event allowed me to go in early (while everyone was still lining up) as she saw from my name-tag that I was from Singapore (I believe I was the only Singaporean there). They do try to give preferential treatment to people who have come from faraway places! So I had a good view throughout and shook Bill Johnson’s hand on one occasion.

On the last day, I sat with a nice lady named Sonja. She shared how she has prayed for people (outside of church during her everyday life) and they were healed. She’s not a leader or anything - just a very simple lady who’s learned to be bold enough to pray for people. This is what I’m so impressed about - Bethel creating a culture among their members of doing kingdom work wherever they are. By the way, she works at the best Chinese restaurant in Redding - Peter Chu’s skyroom - which is located at the Redding Airport. I treated her to a Chinese dinner one day and I told her she can give me a treat the next time I return - and I do intend to return to Redding again! So if you’re going to Redding to visit Bethel and arrive at the Redding airport, do drop by and have a meal at the Chinese restaurant there and look for Sonja. She’s very friendly and I’m sure would help you in any way.

Anyway, in my life I’m becoming more bold in praying for people’s healing. I can’t say I’ve seen results yet, but I’m not giving up. A month ago in Malaysia I was bold enough to ask a hearing impaired person who was going around selling stuff (he tried to sell to me) if he would allow me to pray for his healing. He didn’t want me to do so. In Redding the night before I left, I asked the motel manager if he’s sick in any way and if I could pray for him. He mentioned that another guy from Bethel prayed for him before (I was encouraged to hear that truly these people are taking active steps to pray for people). I told him I’d still like to pray for him but somehow his boss called and he had to do something urgently so I didn’t push it. And a few days ago, before a new friend I made during the conference (another one, not the Kingdom Culture one) departed, I spoke a quick and simple prayer for healing - or technically, spoke to her body and allergies. I dunno what the result was. But anyway, results or not, I’m still gonna press in, learn more and build up my faith to heal people.

Throughout this conference, I tasted a form of charismatic Christianity quite different from the kind in New Creation Church. In fact, Vineyard and many charismatics would differ from New Creation on things like physical healing, inner healing, prophecy and deliverance. Not a huge difference because New Creation is still a charismatic church, but a big enough difference for people to note that New Creation does do things quite differently.

I think it’s what Pastor Prince and others (maybe pastor Henry?) have experienced early on in their charismatic Christian lives that have shaped their thinking and practice today. And I’ve heard enough through Pastor Prince’s sermons to know that they are wary of what they feel are extreme charismatic practices - he often makes fun of and disagrees with some common charismatic beliefs and practices related to prophecy, demonization and healing. I appreciate the discernment they’ve tried to show as there needs to be a lot of discernment in the charismatic movement! I do agree with some of the criticisms Pastor Prince has put forward and am challenged to think more about others which I may not agree with. Sometimes, however, I do feel that he’s tended to over-react in the opposite direction, but I’ll not be dogmatic about my disagreements because I’ve still much to learn and am open to learn from him and others.

So while I’m certainly no expert in all of this, in this post and the next one I’ll write down some thoughts (and questions) that have been on my mind:

I think one of the major differences I see between New Creation Church on the one hand and say Vineyard churches and churches like Bethel Church in Redding (pastored by Bill Johnson) on the other is in terms of equipping. John Wimber, a founder of the Vineyard, believed that “everyone gets to play” - i.e. lay people get to do the stuff like healing and deliverance and not just pastors or leaders. John Wimber and Vineyard thus believe in equipping and teaching the whole body of Christ to move in the gifts of the Spirit. They don’t believe we need to go to some anointed leader for ministry because God can use everyone and each of us (not just leaders or pastors) should seek to be equipped so that we can bless others. In the same way, Bethel Church is famous for equipping people to move in the Spirit - not just within the church walls, but especially so outside the church walls as in these testimonies of healing happening in a grocery store and at Disneyland. This equipping emphasis is the same for Curry Blake’s ministry.

New Creation Church is probably the best in the world for the preaching of the message of grace, but it’s very much focused on one person and the teaching/preaching gift of one person. To me, this has resulted in the neglect of equipping the lay people to move in the various spiritual gifts. To be sure, New Creation doesn’t believe that only Pastor Prince or the pastors are anointed to heal, but that every member can heal. But they definitely don’t equip them in this area or provide opportunities for members to practice the various miraculous spiritual gifts.

Through speaking to many New Creation members (past and present) and through my own experience in different cell groups, leaders and the members aren’t encouraged to move in the spiritual gifts, nor is time made available for it - the main focus of the cells is the teaching. Pastor Prince and other top leaders seem to be able to move in the various gifts, but it seems to stop there and not go down to the cell leaders or even more importantly the cell members.

Pastor Prince has mentioned before (something like) that there’s no need to teach or learn about hearing God’s voice because we all do hear God’s voice if we’re Christians. In a sense, that’s totally true. I believe we all do hear God’s voice. But that’s not really the issue. When Christians say they don’t hear God’s voice, the problem is that they find it difficult to distinguish between their thoughts, the devil’s voice and God’s voice and many Christians (like myself) desire to grow in this area and move in the prophetic gift (following 1 Cor. 14:1). There is a need and a place for teaching on this subject and encouraging Christians to practice hearing (discerning) God’s voice for it’s not something that happens automatically. So I disagree when the need to be taught about hearing (discerning) God’s voice (and the need for practice) is dismissed so easily and Christians are not equipped to move in this area.

The same for prophecy. I think it can definitely be unhealthy if everyone goes to seek out another person who is gifted in prophecy for a word for their lives, but the solution isn’t to neglect prophesying (1 Cor. 14:1). The potential abuse of a gift should not result in the neglect of it, but rather the proper and biblical use of it.

My idea of a local church isn’t that of a group of people centering around the gifts of one person, or even the gifts of the leaders. Every member should be equipped - they should be taught to pursue them and they should be given opportunities to develop and practice them and move in their various gifts in ministry to the rest of the members. I mentioned before what happened in a service at Church of Our Saviour (COOS). I think it’s wonderful when the youth were used by God through Words of Knowledge and Gifts of Healings to heal the sick. That’s the body of Christ functioning - each playing a part. No one is a spectator when everyone is equipped to move in the gifts God has given them. But first they have to be intentionally equipped.

The many practical things I’ve learned since the conference have all been due to the leaders I’ve encountered understanding the importance of equipping the body of Christ. The leaders I’ve met have all acknowledged that we can all do the same things that they do. They’ve acknowledged that we all have different gifts which we can use to serve each other.

To be sure, understanding the Word is important for a Christian’s growth, but there’s more to doing church and blessing others than understanding the Word of God.

In the next post, I’ll share a bit of my thoughts on common charismatic practices like generational curses, conditions for healing, inner healing, intercessory prayer and the desperate attitude (for God’s presence and just more of Him) common in many charismatic churches - as it relates to New Creation view of things.

Where you go I go
What you say I say
What you pray I pray

Jesus only did what he saw you do
He would only say what he heard you speak
He would only move when he felt you lead
Following your heart following your spirit

How could I expect to walk without you
When every move that Jesus made was in surrender

The above lyrics are taken from the song Where You Go I’ll Go which was co-written by Brian Johnson, Bill Johnson’s son. I like the song, I recommended it here and many people who love Bill Johnson’s Bethel Church and what they’re doing love it.

The song is inspired by John 5:19:

He (Jesus) can do only what He sees His Father doing.

I think the point of the song and the verse is about Jesus’ surrender / submission / obedience to the will of God. It also speaks of His dependence upon God. Indeed, as the song says, if Jesus only did what the Father did (i.e. He followed His Father’s will), we should do the same too.

The verse is often taken to mean, or at least applied in such a way, that we should only do what the Father shows us through the Spirit. Some people call this being led by the Spirit and say such leading could involve a vision or the voice of God.

This all sounds good and spiritual. Who could argue against being led by the Spirit? Who could argue against following the Father’s will?

How does all this relate to healing? I’ve asked a few people into healing and the prophetic this question:

When we Christians see a person who needs healing on the streets (or wherever), should we just do it (i.e. just pray for healing) or should we only do so if we’re led by the Spirit to do so? In Other words, do we need a so-called rhema word before we pray for the healing of the person?

I’ve got so much more to write but I’m going to stop here and ask my readers how they’d answer the above question. Please feel free to comment!

Criticism of inconsistent (and sinful?) continuationism

I mentioned in a previous post that I think it’s wrong for a church to be continuationist (i.e. holding to the theological position that the miraculous spiritual gifts like tongues, healing, prophecy continue today and have not ceased with the death of the apostles or the closing of the New Testament canon) and yet not encourage, practice and promote such gifts in the church. To me, this “open but cautious” position is as good as holding to the cessationist (i.e. the view that the miraculous gifts have ceased) position.

As I get more in touch with the charismatic in me the past year or so, I feel more and more that the Christianity we see today is so different from the radical and powerful Christianity in the early church. Where’s the power? Where are the signs and wonders? Where’s the healing of the sick and the casting out of demons that’s promised us who believe? There’s something definitely missing.

If a church believes that the miraculous spiritual gifts have ceased then you can’t blame them for having church services without the practice of these gifts. You can’t blame them for thinking that merely preaching without accompanying signs and wonders is normal. They are merely being consistent with their beliefs. However, if a church believes that such gifts continue today and yet don’t teach much on them or encourage the pursuit and use of them, such a church is being at best thoroughly inconsistent and at worst sinful, as Sam Storms (a Reformed Charismatic or Charismatic Calvinist) puts it:

In the above video, he’s asked by someone from another church whether it’s

woefully inconsistent for a church like ours that has a leadership… that’s continuationist, not cessationist… Are we inconsistent that it stops there and there’s really no overt pursuit or maybe even interest in practicing the gifts?

Storms response is that for a church that is continuationist in belief, for it

not to actively pursue and pray for and facilitate their (the miraculous spiritual gifts’) expression constitute sin for I believe that 1 Corinthians 14:1, “Earnestly desire spiritual gifts especially that you may prophesy” is not optional. It’s a command...If you’re not earnestly desiring spiritual gifts especially that you may prophesy, you’re sinning. Don’t get mad at me - I didn’t write the verse! Paul did.

So I would simply say: If you really sincerely embrace continuationist theology, you need to go before the Lord, you need begin to pray, you need to begin to ask yourself, “What are we doing to hinder the expression of spiritual gifts. What are we afraid of?”

John Piper used this incredible imagery. He said it frustrates him that preachers would get up and preach about the legitimacy of gifts for today and then follow it up with what he called this “verbalized institutionalization of caution“. In other words, “Oh yes, spiritual gifts are for today. There’s no evidence that they ceased in the first century. Ohhh… but BEWARE!” and then go into long homiletical tirades about fanaticism and extremism. Granted, fanaticism and extremism exist and you ought to avoid it but you do it in such a way that you terrify people. And you put chains on their hearts and their minds and their spirits and you make them fearful that if they should ever explore, if they should ever step up in faith, if they ever pay attention to what they might sense is the voice of God, that if they should ever want to pray for the sick - that they’re somehow going to be rebuked by leadership or marginalized in the church.

It’s interesting what Storms said of Piper regarding him being critical of continuationists who are too cautious for their own good. In a previous post, I wrote that

But I wouldn’t wanna attend a church like his (i.e. Piper’s) because I don’t think (I may be wrong) he encourages the charismatic manifestations of the Spirit.

I believe Storms should know Piper quite well. Both are Reformed, adore Jonathan Edwards and have pretty much the same focus in their ministries - Christian hedonism and the glory of God. John Piper is such a huge hero among Reformed Christians that I’m surprised by what Storms said of Piper. The reason is because Piper moves so much within cessationist and theoretical continuationist (those who believe in continuationism in theory, but don’t practice the gifts) Reformed circles and I haven’t heard much (or anything) about him challenging them on their views or practice. If his church truly practices the miraculous gifts and practicing them means something to him and his church (as Storms seem to be implying through his quote of Piper), then I would think a lot of Reformed Christians would be pretty concerned about him. After all, most Reformed Christians don’t take to charismatics or the practice of miraculous gifts too nicely.

Anyway, I mentioned I may be wrong on Piper. But it would be awesome if Piper and his church actually practice these gifts because I think they would do so in a moderate way (maybe still too cautious for many charismatics because after all some things of the Spirit require lots of risk I think, but it’s still better than being totally conservative in this area and being a theoretical continuationist or cessationist) that would be free of excesses - something many churches could learn from and model after.

And I think having a good model is important because as I wrote before,

there aren’t many great models of good Word and Spirit balance in the Church. And I think that’s one reason why you still have such a huge charismatic/non-charismatic divide in the body of Christ. If there were many churches with that good balance, you’ll have many more churches learning from them and having that balance. But I think it’s because you see so much abuse in the charismatic circles that non-charismatics throw the baby out with the bathwater and refuse to touch anything too charismatic. That’s why you get many churches that profess to be open to charismatic gifts, but refuse to promote them corporately. They are fearful that abuses will occur.

Without good models of non-excessive practical continuationism, throwing the baby out with the bathwater often results yet that shouldn’t be an option as Storms put it nicely in the above video:

I don’t take vows. I don’t believe in making vows because I always break them. But I have made one vow to God that by His grace till this day I have never broke… I was sitting at home and I was watching television. It was one of the religious stations… He was praying for the sick and prophesying and I wanted to deck him! It was horrible. It was offensive. It was manipulative. It was abusive. It was irreverent toward God. It was unfair to people… I felt myself recoiling. It was like I was saying, “If that’s what it means to walk in the power of the Spirit, I don’t want anything to do with it.” Then I stopped. I said, “Wait a minute. Why would you allow the error, immaturity and abuses of a man like that or even many men like that to dictate whether or not you want to obey the Bible?” And I realized that most evangelicals are diligent to observe the eleventh commandment: Thou shalt not do at all what others do poorly… So I said, “Lord, with your help and your grace I commit to You this day, I will never again justify my disobedience to your word by appealing to the abuse of others.”

Defense of inconsistent (and sinful?) continuationism

Now on to the defense of theoretical continuationism. In the above, Ray Orlund Jr. states his belief in continuationism as opposed to cessationism. Yet he also humbly acknowledges that he’s not a practising continuationist:

Pastorally, I’ve a lot of questions…What do I do with this, how do I understand this, how do I live this out. But I think probably the reality is I have not been pressured by circumstances to address those issues in my life. I’ve just been facing other things in my time. I have a long to-do list and I’ll get around to it. I mean honestly, it’s not that it isn’t important. It’s just I can’t do everything at once.

I really like what he said and how he said it. Firstly, he wasn’t defensive. He recognizes that he and his church ought to be practising the miraculous gifts if they are to be consistent with the Bible. I think that requires a lot of humility to acknowledge that and there’s no shame in admitting that one may be wrong - if you recognize that God’s acceptance of you is not dependent on how good a Christian or pastor you are! Secondly, I’m quite sympathetic to what he said regarding having too many things to focus on and not being able to do everything at once. I think pastors have huge responsiblities and I’ve always had utmost respect for pastors and missionaries.

I would never want to be a pastor (but who knows what God has in plan) because you’ll have to take a lot of crap from lots of people - your own members, people outside overly-critical of your theology and practices, etc. Actually, for me, perhaps the biggest fear is not living up to my own expectations of how a pastor or church ought to be like. I would never live up to the kind of standard that I believe I should live up to. And I’m aware of this even as I write my posts. I’m still very much learning and not up there yet - and will never be. While I recognize this failure in myself and others, I do believe there’s a place for constructive criticism, focusing on beliefs and practices - not people - and without being malicious or judgmental. I hope this is how this blog is viewed - for the purpose of discussion, learning and building up.

Let me end by saying that while I admire Ray’s humility in acknowledging his failure in this area (if I may put it that way - no shame in failing, we all do and I myself have got so much to learn in this area), I do hope he eventually gets down to seeing the importance of pursuing the miraculous spiritual gifts and getting his church to practice them. Yes, in this modern world there are many pressing priorities for all of us, yet the way I see it, I think the Reformed community is utterly lopsided in their focus on the Word at the expense of moving in the Spirit. Ray says the miraculous spiritual gifts are important. But it’s really about how important he thinks they are. If everything is important, then in reality nothing is important. Personally, the way I see how Jesus and the apostles ministered, I think moving in the miraculous spiritual gifts is of utmost importance. I may be wrong, but that’s the way I see it right now.

On to the conference and things after: The day before the conference started, I ended up bringing the three speakers to New Creation’s healing service by Pastor Henry (24th February). My friend who organized the event mentioned that they had heard about New Creation and wanted to attend the healing service. After all, the whole conference they were doing was all about healing (inner, physical) and this was the area that they were into. The leader of the group didn’t really know about Pastor Prince but wanted to check out New Creation because one of his close friends highly recommended Pastor Prince’s ministry, mentioning him as the “Apostle of grace”. Since no one was actually going to bring them to New Creation, I gladly gathered some friends to show them some Singaporean hospitality :) Of course, I was also greedy - greedy to learn :) I wouldn’t have passed up the chance of getting to know these people from whom I could learn much in the things of the Spirit. After all, I would never be able to get to know the leaders from my own 20,000+ member church and learn much from them personally. And New Creation did things quite differently from the typical charismatic church. The leaders of the cell groups I’ve been to were never taught to move in the Spirit in the kind of way I’d be learning in the conference - more on this in the next post.

So anyway, having got to know the speakers for just a few minutes and lining up for tickets to get into the main auditorium at around 5pm+, Ron (the leader of the three and the one with healing gifts) asks there and then in the queue if he could pray for a friend who was clearly in pain in her foot. He prayed a short prayer for healing, asked if my friend got better (there was a bit of improvement) and then asked if she would be willing to spend about 5-10 more minutes so he could pray for her complete healing. I was quite impressed. This is what we Christians should be doing, isn’t it? Praying for the sick and believing God will heal as we pray. We don’t need to wait to get into a healing meeting to receive our healing. And we could pray for healing anywhere. And Ron prayed really believing that God could heal my friend there and then. And even if it didn’t happen the first time he prayed, he believed that the healing would come as he continued to minister to her and pray for her in the next 5-10 minutes.

More on the pain in the foot and healing later, but during dinner in the food court at the basement, the speakers started ministering inner healing and deliverance to my friend. The food court was getting crowded and this was getting exciting. Exciting because I was already beginning to be in the midst of people “doing the stuff”, as John Wimber of Vineyard would say - i.e. doing the stuff Jesus did like healing and deliverance, etc. I wanted to learn and I was already learning even before the conference started. And this was a beautiful start to the rest of the week when I had ample opportunities to learn - observe, ask questions and practice.

It’s not that I had never encountered all this before. I had been a charismatic Christian for 15 years and had been to many charismatic services and attended a few charismatic churches. I had been to teaching sessions and knew a bit about all this stuff. But I never really practiced all this. Partly because even in the charismatic churches I attended all this was never a huge part of what a Christian ought to know and practice. Maybe the leaders knew and practiced all the stuff, but the laypeople were never equipped to move in this area.

And I learned a lot also because the group was really small. The average number of people who attended the 9 sessions over the three days was probably around 10-12 per session. This allowed me lots of time between and after sessions and even after the conference ended to get to know the speakers personally and to learn from them. Not only was I able to pick their brains and ask them hard questions, but Ron was like a mentor to me during this short time. He didn’t just do the stuff and pray for people. He got me to practice what I was learning. He got me to pray for the sick and taught me along the way. He even had little debrief sessions after ministering to people and explained what happened and why he did things the way he did. It was altogether an awesome learning experience that a layperson like me would never have been able to get if the conference was attended by 50 or 100 or thousands of people.

One of the highlights of the conference for me was on the first day when Ron started to pray for people. There was some time left after the teaching session and he decided to call people up to pray for them to show us how he ministered and prayed for people. I was the third person called up and he prayed for me and spoke words over my life that resonated deeply with my heart and were quite accurate. I didn’t feel anything great and there wasn’t any great manifestation. But I was touched by the words he said and felt it was God affirming my gifts. It wasn’t just some general words that could apply to everyone, but the words were quite specific and I knew he couldn’t have known them apart from really tapping into what God was saying. I’ve never had anyone speak over me like that. Maybe I’ve had some general words of encouragement which I don’t remember and which didn’t impact me that much, but nothing that touched my heart like this.

I also had other words spoken to me during the conference. Some are accurate, some not so and some I don’t know. But I’ve recorded in my prayer journal all the words spoken over me and will continue to pray through them and am open to see how God speaks to me through them.

The day after the conference, which was a Sunday, two of the Speakers wanted to visit Church Of Our Saviour (COOS). Unsurprising since COOS is definitely a church to visit with regards to healing - they have been greatly influenced by Bill Johnson and his church - Bethel Church. That Sunday, the focus of the service was on youth and youth ministry. Before the sermon, about 20 youth or so gathered in front of the church and gave Words of Knowledge regarding what God wanted to minister to. Many people went to the front and were touched by God as the youth prayed for them. The senior pastor, Derek Hong, also had this prophetic vision of someone nearly drowning years ago and God wanting to heal the person of that experience. This was of course a very specific vision and someone came forward to him to be prayed for. It was a great experience to see God using young people. I dunno if they allow the gifts to flow like this every meeting, but I think it’s wonderful to see lay people encouraged to practice these gifts and God using them to touch lives.

During the conference, I got to know a young guy who’s hoping to go to Bethel’s School of Supernatural Ministry this year. (I’m very envious of him - if I were much younger, I would probably go and who knows, God may make a way for me to go one day!) He’s a young prophet who’s being mentored by Rusty Russell. After the conference, I met up with him and talked a lot to him about the prophetic. He introduced me to a cell group he got to know and has been attending recently. The leader of this group is also a student of Rusty and was a cell leader at New Creation many years ago. His cell broke up when he left the church but recently many of them got back together and have been meeting at least once a month. It’s not your typical cell as the focus is just seeking God, receiving from Him and prophesying - and encouraging everyone to move out in the gifts and minister to each other. I’ve been there about twice and had some words spoken over me. I’ve also spoken a lot to the people there about the prophetic and healing. I’m quite excited to continue to attend and learn to move in the Spirit there.

Since the conference, I’ve been mostly attending New Life Vineyard (where the conference was held in) in the mornings and New Creation in the afternoons. New Life Vineyard is a really small church of about 10-15 people. I’ve been experiencing first hand how Vineyard does things and I quite like it. It’s nice to have a small community too, something I’ve been looking for for a while. I’m still not sure if I’ll attend this church but will see how God leads. I also don’t know if I’ll continue to attend New Creation because it can get quite tiring to attend two churches. If I’ve learned anything the past two months, it’s that I need to spend less time outside and more time with God alone if I’m to know more more intimately, hear His voice and move in the Spirit. Even if I don’t go to NCC so often, I’ll still continue to buy Prince’s sermon CDs. Anyway, the past two months or so I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a few Vineyard pastors (from here, Australia and Thailand) and have been asking lots of questions, discussing and learning a lot - and doing a bit of practical stuff too.

A bit about the Vineyard church association and tradition. Not that this conference was a Vineyard conference, but since the model of charismatic Christianity promoted during the conference I think is very Vineyard-like (and though two of the three speakers are not from Vineyard, they do have relationships with Vineyard churches) and it was held in a Vineyard Church, I thought I’d write a bit about it. I mentioned here that I thought John Wimber, one of the founders of Vineyard, would probably be remembered as the most balanced, respected and loved charismatic Christian of modern Christianity. I followed Vineyard from the earliest years of my Christian life until Wimber died in 1997. Vineyard’s worship at that time was awesome and like what Hillsong is today. But what was really so wonderful about Vineyard is that it brought together the best of the charismatic and non-charismatic Christian worlds by introducing a more biblically balanced form of charismatic Christianity to the Christian world. And this is what I’ve always admired of the Vineyard. It was probably them that stirred my desire for many years to become a Bible College lecturer specializing in bringing together the best of both the charismatic and non-charismatic worlds. But I have to acknowledge that from after Wimber’s death in 1997 until the conference, I hadn’t really kept in touch with what had been happening in the Vineyard. After 1997, I moved more into Reformed theology, then social justice issues and emerging church Christianity, then missions, then New Creation’s grace teachings - though all the while never forsaking my interest in charismatic Christianity. I’m pleasantly surprised that Vineyard has been going strong all these years and that one of their distinctives besides “doing the stuff” is their passion for social justice. There also seems to be some Vineyard leaders/churches quite progressive in their theology and into the emerging church movement - which I’m a bit surprised (pleasantly, I guess) because this means there’s a bit of diversity in the Vineyard. I wonder how the Vineyards which appreciate the emerging church tradition combine that with “doing the stuff”.

One thing I really appreciate about the Vineyard besides their balanced charismatic practices is that they are very strong on grace. In fact, my first encounter of teachings on the Father’s love came from Vineyard. The Toronto Blessing (closely related to the Vineyard because the church associated with it was once a Vineyard) I think was really an emotional/inner healing revival. Unlike many other revivals based on a strong conviction of sin, repentance and weeping, the Toronto Blessing’s characteristics were the focus on the Father’s love and laughter. Lives were transformed through encountering the love of the Father healing the wounds of people. And so the Vineyard form of charismatic Christianity is very grace-based and I was very happy when Ron (though not a Vineyard pastor) preached during the conference that Christians have even their future sins forgiven - good stuff! Of course, Ron just said that that’s no big deal as that’s mere classical Christianity - and the guy has a PhD from Oxford in Historical Theology so I think he should know! But still many Christians still don’t live with assurance that their future sins are also forgiven.

Yes, Ron moves in the Spirit and has a PhD from Oxford in theology - I really, really like that combination! We need more of such people strong in the Word and Spirit. I’m going to stop this post here because it’s getting long. If anyone is still following, my next and probably final post in this series would kind of bring together all my experiences regarding healing and the prophetic and offer some thoughts and questions - especially regarding the differences in charismatic beliefs and practices between New Creation and Vineyard (which I’ll take to represent many other charismatic churches).

It’s been nearly 2 months since I attended the Moving To The Spirit conference. I told myself that I’d post something about it and I think I better do so now before I procrastinate further and end up not gathering my thoughts and writing about the event and things related. This was meant to be just one post but my introduction (the necessary context for my experiences and thoughts on the conference and things after) became so long that it warrants a post on its own. So in this post, I’ll just write some thoughts on my pursuit of the things of the Spirit in general.

While I’ve had experience in both charismatic Christianity with its emphasis on the things of the Spirit and non-Charismatic evangelical (mainly Reformed) Christianity with its emphasis on good teaching of Scriptures, I know that my strength has been more on the Word and less on the Spirit side of things. As a left brain Christian, I love to read good theological books. I reflect a lot on what the Bible says and on Christianity in general and don’t accept what pastors say so easily without checking it with the Word and doing my own research. (That’s the reason I’m so eclectic in my beliefs). I appreciate good teachings because I’ve seen the abuses and excesses in charismatic churches and I’ve seen how so many Christians are easily influenced by these excesses because they refuse to use their minds to evaluate things. I also do know that the mind is important and it’s not there for nothing, as if spirituality is all about offending the mind and being in touch with the spiritual side of things. But I’m also aware of the areas I need to improve in. While I can always be stronger in my understanding of the Word of God (who can’t?), I know that this isn’t exactly the area I should be focusing on. (I don’t want to be seen to be seeing a dichotomy between Word and Spirit, but there’s a certain truth to that, if you know what I mean). I don’t want to be strong in one area, and so weak in the other. I would surely be missing out on something. It would surely be less than ideal.

I respect people like John Piper. He’s strong in the Word and he’s not anti-charismatic. There’s so much the church can learn from a person like him. But I wouldn’t wanna attend a church like his because I don’t think (I may be wrong) he encourages the charismatic manifestations of the Spirit. His focus is clearly on the Word side of things. There are a lot of churches like that - one that I can think of off-hand is Covenant Evangelical Free Church. Such churches aren’t anti-charismatic like fundamentalist Christians (e.g. the Bible-Presbyterians in Singapore) but they also won’t be promoting things like healing, prophecy and the like. They are so-called “open but cautious”. They’re not against these gifts if Christians practice them privately, but they wouldn’t encourage or promote such things during corporate worship times. This is of course much better than thinking of tongues as demonic, etc., but in my opinion it’s still not good enough. If you don’t teach, encourage and practice these gifts in a corporate manner, what’s the point? It’s as good as believing that these gifts are not important and therefore not needed. It’s a seemingly safe way to do church but I think it’s inspired more by fear and not having experienced genuine charismatic Christianity - which is understandable since there’s a lot of flaky stuff out there and I think very few good models that are strong in BOTH Word and Spirit. But I think this shouldn’t result in us keeping quiet about these things during corporate worship. We should seek the good and throw out the bad, rather than just remain silent about these things. After all, a safe and intellectual Christianity seems so far from the kind of Christianity I see in the early church and in the gospels. That doesn’t mean the extreme charismatics have got it right, with their disdain for anything intellectual. But there has to be a middle-ground somewhere.

For some time, I’ve been wanting to get out of my comfort zone of this kind of “open but cautious” Christianity - therefore, my many posts on hearing God’s voice. This desire has been gradually getting stronger and stronger - especially since the conference. Although New Creation church is definitely charismatic in a sense, because (perhaps like many other “charismatic” churches) it doesn’t promote a lot of the prophetic in corporate worship or cell groups, it’s not a lot different from a lot of “open but cautious” churches.

In a sense, I would say I’m very comfortable in the middle-class intellectual Christianity of Singapore. Actually, that’s not totally true. Give me a mix of not too charismatic intellectual evangelical Christianity with a dose of the emerging church passion for social justice (loving the poor, marginalized and oppressed) and I’ll be pretty satisfied and comfortable. Yet not totally because there will always be this sneaking suspicion that something’s missing and not right. But heck, I can live without that something and I won’t die. After all, so many Christians do live without that something else…

But then I won’t be truly satisfied. So I have no choice but to get out of my comfort zone. But getting out of it is not easy. It can be scary. It’s going into the unknown - into a place you’re not so familiar with, where you feel you’ve got so much to learn.

In recent years, I’ve talked to many prophetic people - especially recently during and after the conference. I’m very open to learning from them. But it can be difficult when I see a lot of them not particularly strong in the Word. You sometimes get the feeling that for them the ideal Christian worship service is one prophetic and glorious/glory experience after another. The preaching probably isn’t a particularly important part of the service for them and they would be satisfied with preaching that really… isn’t preaching at all - no depth, no great insight and just very superficial. I know the power and importance of strong  preaching and teaching and how that can transform lives - I’ve seen that in conservative non-charismatic churches with strong preaching and teaching of the Word. And of course I’ve seen that so beautifully in New Creation too. Yet for these prophetic people, you sometimes get the impression that they are just so far up there and just too “spiritual”. They don’t need good teaching or understanding of the Word - they just need a good experience.

I really wanna learn from these kinds of people and it’ll be so much more easier if they were to be strong in both Word and Spirit - and not only the Spirit - or at least recognize their lack in the Word area and that they have much to learn in that area - and thus are open to be corrected and recognize that they have so much to learn from other Christian traditions very different from theirs, rather than having mere disdain for Christian traditions different from theirs. Those who are so-called so in tune to the Spirit can often think they are totally correct and don’t have much to learn from non-charismatics because they’ve experienced something and such experience is valued over everything else - they can be just as dogmatic and judgmental as non-charismatic fundamentalists who firmly believe in their interpretation of the Bible. It’s hard to accept everything from such people because I’m not prepared to accept that charismatics have got it all correct, just as I’m not prepared to accept that the non-charismatics have it all right. It’s always easier to learn from people who recognize that both the Word and the Spirit are important and from those who have spent a decent amount of time in both areas and appreciate both sides of Christianity. One church I instantly think of with ministers and a tradition that is strong in both the Word and Spirit is the Westminster Chapel in London. And one family of churches is Newfrontiers. (Years ago, I would have included Sovereign Grace Ministries as a good model of Word - Reformed theology, in particular - and Spirit. However, I feel that they’re leaning more towards the Reformed/Word side than the Spirit side, which I think is quite sad. They affiliate themselves strongly with many anti-charismatic or “open but cautious” Christian leaders of the Reformed persuasion, but somehow don’t seem to work with ministries from the other side.)

So there aren’t many great models of good Word and Spirit balance in the Church. And I think that’s one reason why you still have such a huge charismatic/non-charismatic divide in the body of Christ. If there were many churches with that good balance, you’ll have many more churches learning from them and having that balance. But I think it’s because you see so much abuse in the charismatic circles that non-charismatics throw the baby out with the bathwater and refuse to touch anything too charismatic. That’s why you get many churches that profess to be open to charismatic gifts, but refuse to promote them corporately. They are fearful that abuses will occur. And the converse is true too: so many charismatic churches don’t care much for good teaching (other than teaching on the gifts) because they’ve thrown the baby out with the bathwater too and refuse to touch anything too non-charismatic.

Anyway, I was recently reading Rodney Howard-Browne’s The Touch of God. I bought this book at the end of 1995 when he came to Singapore at the height of The Toronto Blessing. Rodney Howard-Browne’s meetings are full of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit - especially laughter. Not a whole lot of solid teaching/preaching in his meetings. Anyway, the book is about the anointing and I hadn’t actually read it yet but recently decided to read it. An interesting thought struck me when I was reading one of the chapters of the fivefold ministry. He wrote that Jesus stood in every one of the fivefold ministries - He was an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher all in one. Then he wrote:

You and I do not individually have the ministry of Jesus because He never gave His ministry to one individual. He divided His ministry to the Body… I want you to notice that everyone who stands in a fivefold office collectively makes up the ministry of Jesus on earth today… You and I have the Spirit by measure, but corporately, we have the Spirit without measure. That’s why this last day revival will not come through one single group or denomination. (p. 14-16)

One ministry will emphasize healing, another preaching or teaching, another salvation, another the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is because of this diversity that we need to recognize the whole Body of Christ and to understand that we need each other. (p. 40)

Here’s what struck me. I’ve always thought that churches should strive for balance and be perhaps like how we envision Jesus to be like - strong in the Word and Spirit and good in all areas. So if New Creation is strong in grace, that’s great. But if they combine that with also being strong in social justice and missions and the prophetic, that would be even better and more biblically balanced. I’d think that Benny Hinn is anointed with healing gifts, but his meetings wouldn’t be a good representative of how local church services ought to be like because while you may get healed, you probably won’t grow so much in other areas as a Christian. Or that Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (from where cameth the Toronto Blessing) would be great for renewal and revival, but not an ideal church. These are all specialized ministries, but shouldn’t we strive to see a local church have it all like Jesus, and not just focused in one or some areas?

Reading the above, it dawned upon me that maybe (I need to reflect on this more) we can’t really expect each local church to have it all - like I’ve been writing about above (”Where are the churches good in the Word and Spirit??”). Only the whole body of Christ is perfect in all areas. Maybe it’s OK that different churches specialize in different areas and are strong in different areas. Maybe that perfect balance and strength in all areas is only realized when looked from the perspective of the whole body of Christ? So maybe what we’ve been looking for and seeking in a local church is only fully realized and reflected in the body of Christ? I dunno…

Of course, I don’t think that gives any church an excuse just focus on one or two areas - and neglect others - and not seek to be as holistic as a church ought to be. But I’ve come to realize one thing. If I’m to learn more about the charismatic and Spirit side of things, I’ll probably need to go to people who so-called “specialize” in such stuff. And yes, they may be a bit extreme and not that balanced, but these are probably the people that you’ll learn the most from in this area. Trying to be balanced in all areas most likely means you’ll compromise in some areas. Ministers and churches are almost always stronger in one or some areas than others.

What that means simply is that I have to humble myself and learn from people that I may not think are very balanced. I can learn from their strengths, without giving up on the other side. I can take the good that I see and discard the rest. And sometimes even take in stuff which I may think is bad, because what do I know anyway? If I totally knew everything and totally knew what’s good and bad and all, I probably wouldn’t be in this state of lack or weakness in regards to this aspect of Christianity. So to learn, I have to be willing to be very open to things that I may not understand or even think it’s completely wrong. That’s not to say I need to throw out my mind completely. If erring on the side of caution prevents me from stepping out and learning more, then maybe erring on the other side may be the way to go sometimes!

So there’s where I am now…

There’s this old joke about a man who, wanting directions from God from Scriptures, opened his Bible randomly to see what God wanted to tell him. First, he read that Judas “hanged himself” (Matt. 27:5). Another random opening led him to “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37) and finally “What you do, do quickly” (John 13:27). The moral of the story is about the importance of reading Bible verses in context. That is, we need to know what the original author’s intention was in writing those words and can’t expect God to speak to us through such a manner of just randomly flipping open the Bible.

Related to the above, I came across a chapter in Bill Johnson’s Secrets To Imitating God (formerly entitled Dreaming With God) entitled “Celebrating the Living Word” (Chapter 8). As some readers would already know, I love Bill Johnson’s ministry. I’ve read almost all of his books and in the same way I’ve gained so many insights into Scripture through Pastor Joseph Prince’s teaching/preaching ministry, I’ve experienced the same through Bill Johnson’s books.

I’m quite cautious of flaky charismatic ministers. I know there are so many flaky charismatic leaders out there. However, I want to be careful not to be too critical of them - that’s why I have defended Todd Bentley (to a certain extent) in this blog in the past. I think flaky charismatics tend to be very anointed in many ways, though also open to deception. We ought to be wary of deception, yet recognize the anointing and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. I think Benny Hinn, for example, is greatly anointed in healing. However, I probably wouldn’t agree with a lot of his other stuff (like some of his theology, his lifestyle or even the style of his meetings).

Through Pastor Joseph Prince’s sharing through the years, one can tell that he too is very cautious of flaky charismatics and charismania - in my opinion, to the point of over-reacting sometimes. A sad result of flakiness is that charismatism has gotten such a bad name and non-charismatics (and even some charismatics) throw the baby (authentic charismatism) out with the bathwater (flaky charismatism).

And all this is why I appreciate Bill Johnson’s ministry so much. I think John Wimber would probably be remembered as the most respected and balanced charismatic who has ever lived. Wimber’s with Jesus now. Perhaps the most respected and balanced charismatic alive today is Bill Johnson.

I don’t think Bill Johnson is a great theologian. And that’s perhaps a plus point. Great theologians are somehow seldom good at the practical charismatic stuff. You have people like John Piper and Wayne Grudem who are great theologians and both very open to charismatic stuff, but I don’t think they are good at the practical charismatic stuff. And you have people like Benny Hinn who is greatly anointed in healing, yet you wouldn’t want to trust a lot of his theology. It’s hard to find someone who is both well grounded theologically and yet greatly anointed in doing the charismatic stuff. I think Bill Johnson is probably the closest to that - though perhaps leaning more to the practical stuff.

The fruit of Bill Johnson’s ministry is simply undeniable. You just have to respect the guy. And while the fruit of his ministry doesn’t validate every single thing he says or teaches, here’s a guy that I know I have so much to learn from. Yes, I’m uncomfortable with some stuff he says. But for a left-brain Christian like me who loves good theology and lacks in the areas Johnson is gifted in, that probably isn’t such a bad thing.

And with that long introduction, I quote a portion from his book for your consideration:

Often I would come to the Bible with a need and God would address it clearly from His Word, again and again. There were times when He spoke so clearly from a verse, yet I knew that what was ministering to me wasn’t what the writer originally intended. But it was a living word, a sword, ministering to the very need of my heart.

…The God who speaks through circumstances and unusual coincidences wants to talk to us again through the pages of His Word, even when it appears to be taken out of context or is not exactly in line with what appears to be the author’s original intent.

…In studying the Old Testament prophecies quoted in the New Testament, it doesn’t take long to realize that Jesus and other writers of Scripture took many Old Testament passages out of context to prove their point. The common thought today is that the Holy Spirit worked that way for the Scriptures to be written, but it is unacceptable to do this today because the canon is complete. How could it be wrong to use the same principles used to write the Scriptures to interpret the Scriptures? That rule is designed to keep us from creating doctrine by experience and contradicting orthodox Christianity. While the reason is noble, the rule is not biblical

…How is it possible to set a rule of Bible interpretation that the Holy Spirit Himself did not follow in inspiring the Bible? And to say that it is no longer allowed because the canon is complete has little merit as the Holy Spirit is with us, and He knows what He meant when He wrote it. This is potentially dangerous because of the bent of some toward creating unholy and/or inaccurate doctrine, but it does not justify removing a necessary tool of the Spirit that He uses to speak to His people. There is danger, but there is also great treasure. This is the necessary tension. (p. 141,143, 145-146)

What struck me first about what Johnson wrote was his belief that God could speak to people through Scriptures even though what spoke to them may not have been what the biblical writer originally intended. He appeals to the fact that even the NT writers took many OT passages out of context to prove their point. I thought this was very interesting. I’m no NT scholar (and I may be getting a bit out of my depth here) and I hadn’t heard of this line of thinking before but I recently read that what seemed out-rightly ridiculous (i.e. the fact that NT writers took many OT passages out of context to prove their point) was actually something of a debate in academic circles. While Graeme Goldsworthy wrote that “contrary to what is sometimes suggested, the New Testament writers were not in the habit of quoting texts without reference to their context”  (Gospel and Kingdom, p. 19), other scholars, however, would probably agree with Johnson. An example would be Richard N. Longenecker who wrote that “It is my contention that… Christians today are committed to the apostolic faith and doctrine of the New Testament, but not necessarily to the apostolic exegetical practices as detailed for us in the Next Testament” (see G. K. Beale’s The Right Doctrine from the Wrong Texts?). Maybe here too is a defense of the charismatic distinction between a Logos and Rhema word? Just a spontaneous thought that needs to be developed further…

Moving on, in that same chapter, Bill Johnson acknowledged how in one occasion his church and him heard wrongly about a healing/resurrection - “…we didn’t actually hear from God and missed it with all our prophetic pronouncements” (p. 149). I greatly value his honesty here. Being in charismatic circles for over a decade, I’ve heard too many prophecies which have missed it and very few charismatics are humble enough to acknowledge they could be wrong and apologize when they are wrong. Charismatics need to adopt more humility when it comes to the prophetic. Yet the existence of lots of situations of hearing God wrongly doesn’t invalidate the fact that God speaks and it shouldn’t prevent us from seeking to hear correctly. One thing I’ve read over and over again is that we have to be prepared to fail if we want to succeed. If we’re too afraid to fail, we won’t try. If we don’t try, we won’t learn. People constantly refer to this when talking about entrepreneurship - an entrepreneur always takes risks and a successful entrepreneur is one who has failed many times. And the same for succeeding in healing (i.e. when praying for someone) and hearing God’s voice. As Bill Johnson wrote:

It is obvious and easy to assert that those who try to hear God from the pages of Scripture will not always hear clearly. Some of us will make huge mistakes and claim to have heard from God when it wasn’t Him at all. Yet, to succeed, one must be willing to fail. (p. 148)