TODAYS MAN. Evangelists Conference – RT Kendall.

TODAYS MAN. Evangelists Conference – RT Kendall Session 2.

1 Samuel 16 ¹ The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” ² But Samuel said, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me.”
The LORD said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ ³ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”  ⁴ Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?”  ⁵ Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

⁶ When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.”  ⁷ But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

⁸ Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.” ⁹ Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the LORD chosen this one.” ¹⁰ Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The LORD has not chosen these.” ¹¹ So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”

“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered, “but he is tending the sheep.” Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down ^[a] until he arrives.” ¹² So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.
Then the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him; he is the one.”  ¹³ So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.

In this first verse we see three classes of persons – Saul (yesterdays man). Today we look at Samuel – a type of today’s man – Samuel – and he anoints tomorrows man.

To get to the place where its easy (the anointing) there is a cost. To be today’s man or woman you have to go outside your comfort zone. God wants to see how much he loves you, so he takes you to a place where you could be embarrassed or misunderstood.

The place that’s outside your comfort zone then becomes your new comfort zone. Then he calls you on again, and we wish it wasn’t that way, we think we paid our dues – but he always calls us on.

Samuel had been the man who none of his words fell to the ground, but God tells him to go and anoint the next king while the existing one is alive and well. Danger is required to have the anointing.  The willingness to bear the stigma.

Comes from a pure greek word – that Paul used, I bear in my body the stigmata – a tattoo burned into the body with a hot iron- on slaves, who’d run away, for stealing. Embrace the stigma – count it such an honour that you get to do it. You used to avoid it.

Cf when God said to Jonah – go to Ninevah. Jonah said, NO, and God said, “Really?” Then in the belly of the fish, Jonah prays that he may get to do what God wanted him to do!

The flesh always wants to destigmatise (that everyone will like it) the gospel.

1)   Do you know for sure, if you were to die today – you’d go to heaven?

2)   And if God were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven, what would you say?’ Why would I ask those questions of a bunch of evangelists? He knew a woman who onteh 4^th class teaching Evangelism Explosion, became a Christian.

Suppose those questions were asked – what would you say?

What would you say, for Question 2?

If we looked through the lists – would we say?

I have tried to live a good, godly life. – LOST

I was brought up in a Christian home – you had a head start – LOST

Baptised? LOST.

I’ve kept the ten commandments – LIAR.

I’ve kept the beatitudes. You’re a bigger liar.

What would you write? The more words you wrote, the worst.

All that’s needed? JESUS DIED.

That’s your gospel. If you don’t preach it, you haven’t grasped it. If it comes out of you, it’s in you – out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

What was wrong with Lakeland? How many times did Todd Bentley preach the gospel? Not once.

Two vital words – EXPIATION & PROPITIATION.

Expiation = what the blood does for us.

Propitiation = what the blood does for God. Turns his wrath away from us.

The world is excited about words of knowledge etc., but we get to heaven by nothing else – our words may not help, they could hurt. It’s offensive to say its all about the cross and ONLY about the cross.

1801 – The Cane Ridge revival in Kentucky. The power of God fell, when a Methodist lay preacher stood on a tree stump. 15,000 gathered. He spoke on 2 Cor 5:10.

When he finished, 500 were on the floor as though dead. But six or seven hours later they came up shouting and hundreds of others fell.  Out of that came a certain way of preaching, breathless sounds, but 15 years after the preachers were putting it on, it wasn’t real any more.

We may like the liturgy, the worship style – it’s a comfort zone. We have to be willing to keep moving on. Even though we may not like it. We cann think the familiar, the nostalgic, is God.

When he was at Westminster Chapel – hundreds covenanted agreed to pray for the manifest Holy Spirit, and an openness in us to receive him, however he chooses to come.

Just after that was printed, he was talking with Lyndon Bowring and Charlie Colchester, who started to talk about, “This Toronto thing.” What?

‘They lay hands on people and they fall over, laughing!’

RT didn’t want it to be of God. Found the idea offensive. But he couldn’t stop thinking about it. A few days later Ken Costa invited him, ‘Come and speak with me about what the Bible says on about testing the Spirits’

RT came to warn, but when they talked, he was smitten- this is of God! And it means trouble.

Years before – he’d stepped out and nearly lost his job when he had Arthur Blessit speak. He thought, “I have paid my dues – Never again!” and God said, “Really?”

So he stood before his congregation and said, “This is of God, what’s happening at HTB.” And it was then a huge offense, now it’s fairly comfortable!

When Samuel entered the town the elders trembled. And Samuel’s probably trembling too. We should be trembling when we’re preaching!

We can get used to something that’s not right with us. We want it to stay like it is. Like when he lost a filling, but it didn’t hurt – and after a few days he loved sticking his tongue in the cavity.

The leaning tower of Pisa – they got architects in, and gave instructions – ‘Don’t correct the tilt, but keep it from falling.’

People don’t want their problems solved, they want them understood.

When Wesley saw George Whitefield going to preach in the fields, he was at first offended. Later he went to the field.

Later people barked like dogs and fell down. Wesley said, “A lot of that is not God. Stamp it out.”

Whitefield replied, “When you stamp out the false, you stamp out what is real too.”

Part of the stigma! We’d like revival to come in a tidy package, but it’s EMBARRASSING – yet you have to go with it and let them say what they will.

Samuel said, “Consecrate yourselves.”

Verse 6.

To be todays man – You have to be willing to change your mind.

When he saw Eliab, it was obvious –logical, the first born. But God said, No.

‘Do I have to admit I’m wrong – in front of all these people?’

There are people who have changed their position but they put something in print, so they won’t retract it.

The greatest freedom is having nothing to prove! Samuel said, “I got it wrong.”

Is it Abinadab? No

Is it Shammah? – Samuel’s feeling more embarrassed now! All seven gone! He must think his prophetic gift’s gone now.

But the last person anyone would have thought, was the one in God’s mind!

The one who wasn’t even invited to the great occasion. Not even told about it.

Ever missed church and everyone says, “You missed it!” (Thanks God!) You can feel left out, but God knows where you are and he will find you. God is never too late, or too early – he’s always just on time.

David had no preparation time, but he’s the one. The new King!

You may feel the most unlikely person. But that’s the way God works.

When RT met Rodney Howard Browne for the first time. Breakfast meeting. At the time he was persona non-grata at the time. But RT sensed something in him he’d never felt before, and asked, “I’d like you to come and pray in my pulpit, and pray for my wife (she’d had a cough for three years, nothing Drs could do, she couldn’t sleep! She was also seriously depressed.). She would not have gone to one of his meetings, but he came to pray for her in the morning. 5 minutes, mostly in tongues. And then – she was instantly healed of the cough! Later she went to one of his meetings, and the depression was gone.

He will put you in awkward situations. To take hou to where his anointing is.

Samuel had to break with the regime of which he was the central figure. He’d warned them they shouldn’t have a king, but they rejected his advice (God said, ‘It’s me they rejected – don’t take it personally). After God said that, he set off as if it was his idea in the first place.

But then he chose Saul, and when he fell – Samuel GRIEVED. He didn’t gloat! He didn’t say, “I told you so.” He was the only one who knew the truth about Saul.

On Ronald Reagan’s desk. “There is no limit to the person who doesn’t care who gets the credit.”

Being Tomorrow’s man involves loneliness.

RT had an experience when he was a young preacher. His grandmother had bought him a lovely car. He had a Damascus road experience. The glory of the Lord filled the car, and 2 verses came to mind, “Casting all your cares on me, because he cares on you.” And “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

And then Jesus is there, praying for him. Interceding for RT. And there was conversation he couldn’t hear. An hour later, he heard Jesus say, “He wants it!” The Father said, “He can have it”

And his body was flooded with warmth as the person of Jesus was then more real than any human.

Thinking everyone would be excited, but his father said, “You have broken with God!” and his grandmother took the car back.

He said to his Dad, “I’ll have an international ministry.” When? “One year from now!” In fact, for five years then he was door to door vacuum cleaner salesman.

You may feel that you’re tomorrows man. Waiting.

22 years later, he heard his dad say, “Son, I am proud of you – you were right and I was wrong.”

Nameless and Faceless

At some of the most high-profile events this summer, Elton John’s White Tie and Tiara Ball, Wimbledon, Henley Regatta and the Harrods sale, some mysterious nameless, faceless figures have appeared in the crowds.

On Henman Hill

Is it performance art as some speculated? Some celebrities in masks, trying to avoid the paparazzi? Actually no – it’s most likely an attempt at viral marketing by Lotus cars as you can find if you click here.

Better than Cliff singing?

As I saw this I was reminded of a number of prophetic words given in churches and conferences over the years about a ‘nameless and faceless’ group of people who would rise up and do amazing things for God, in fact they’d appear in some of the great stadiums of the cities of the world (I’m not sure exactly who first coined it, I heard a man called Jack Deere teach on it once).

How would it feel to be one of those nameless and faceless people? How would you qualify?

Ecclesiastes 9:14 says There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man….

Here’s my question as I read that – would I be happy if God used me to save a whole city, or to do some amazing miracles, even if nobody knew…? To be honest, it’d be a struggle for someone like me to be nameless and faceless.

While I remain convinced that the outpouring of healing at Lakeland is genuinely a work of God – albeit as always, through imperfect people, I’m sometimes concerned by the elevation of particular people. There’s nothing good about the naming of names like e.g. Benny Hinn & Kathryn Kulhman etc. some involved can fall into in a bid to seek to authenticate or bolster credibility (actually it’s a dangerous way to do it, as whoever you mention, someone will have a problem with them!). There’s also a great deal we Brits are unhappy about when it starts to look like promotion of people rather than God, and that’s a hostage to fortune.

Look at a few blogs and it’s obvious that some people are very certain (because of their presuppositions) that any reported healings etc., must be bogus, and others that Bentley & co are just in it as a money making scam. Perhaps I’d point them to the message on the Lotus site … true character will emerge.

Well, not everyone’s healed for sure – but if the miracles claimed are real they’ll speak for themselves for anyone listening – by the way, my daughter’s back is still healed by a sovereign touch – not from Todd Bentley but from the Holy Spirit apart from human agency in the worship at Lakeland. Jesus said, “Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

We’re not to worship the signs anyway, but the Lord the signs point to. If I was travelling to a city and saw a sign pointing to it, I wouldn’t get out and hug the sign! But if the sign points me along the right path (look at Proverbs 4 for that) then I’ll be sure to embrace the one the sign is directing me toward.

We have to resist any temptation to name drop – you can’t drop human names while lifting up the name of Jesus.

GODISNOWHERE

Yesterday morning, as part of our “40 Days of Community,” our L1FEgroup (what we call our midweek groups) went out around the village, picking up litter. The parish council here provide the bags and the grabbers, and the faithful few from the village who usually do it were, I think, encouraged to have the extra hands. So much so they gave gloves to put on those hands.

I ended up outside Cranmore, my designated patch being a lay-by just set off Epsom Rd to clear up. I’d passed a few places on the way that were fabulously litter free already, so I was looking forward to having little to do but feeling good about civic duty done. But when I arrived, this spot really was a mess.

I was with Zoë and our friend Clare, they had their yellow jackets on and my ‘grabber’ didn’t work so I stood there watching for a bit – in supervisory capacity – until they realised passersby may have thought the ladies were on day release from nearby HMP Send, and sent me off for one that worked. When I came back they were off up the road a little. Then I saw it – tucked into a bush, the wire bin provided by the council was, old, broken, and completely overflowing. Somebody really should do something about this!

Well there’d be no point leaving it and just in picking up the bits around it, as soon as I left and the wind blew all this stuff would go everywhere – so I set about transferring the contents into bin bags.

It wasn’t long before I found that some dog loving person had decided that although this was not a dog-poo bin, it was on their route, so they’d been throwing the mess in there. Lovely. They had a big dog (sorry).

Not a pleasant job, and I started thinking, ‘I could be at home now, I’m preaching tomorrow and hadn’t had the time I’d like to be able to prepare the talk.’ I took a break for a minute and got my little Bible out of my pocket. I ended up mainly preaching on Matthew 3 and I had a look at that. But my other reading, Isaiah 6, kept drawing me – as I picked up old McDonalds wrappers, fag packets and bags of dog poo.

My last post looked at this passage is some detail (When God Comes to Church), but one phrase kept on coming as I looked at the bin in the bush.

Literally, the angel’s song goes, HOLY HOLY HOLY is the Lord God of Angel armies…

The whole Earth is FULL FULL FULL of his GLORIOUS GLORY.

Now it’s the second line of what the seraphs called to each other that grabbed me- The whole earth is full of his glory. God is nowhere? God is now – HERE! John N Oswalt in his commentary writes on this section; “This statement indicates that God’s presence (his glory) is not restricted to a temple.”

There’s no doubt Horsley is a nice part of the world. Lovely actually. But this layby was a mess, and this bush was the worst of it, spoilt by lazy drivers and dirty dog walkers. Yet as I just got to work on the mess, tidying it up, I became aware of God – right there. Like Moses at a burning bush one day – because there was nothing special about the bush, just the glory of the God who inhabited it. The whole earth is full of His glory.

It may have been that what we were doing really was kingdom of God thing, clearing away the rubbish and beautifying the earth in a simple way, I don’t know. But as I stood there, bin bag in one hand and grabber in the other, I suddenly became as aware of the love and presence and power of God in that place, every bit as much as any worship meeting I’ve ever been in. I felt myself starting to shake a little, close to being overwhelmed by the love of Jesus. Some people came up and I had to kind of hold myself together – instead of shaking more or speaking in tongues or generally going mad for Jesus (next time I might not repress it)!

Anyone who thinks this unusual or strange needs to read Brother Lawrence’s classic, The Practice of the Presence of God. This soldier turned Carmelite monk wrote in the C17th: “I make it my business to rest in His holy presence, which I keep myself in by a habitual, silent, and secret conversation with God. This often causes in me joys and raptures inwardly, and sometimes also outwardly, so great that I am forced to use means to moderate them, and prevent their appearance to others.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we don’t need church. William Haig said a few years ago he didn’t need church – he could go for a walk instead. But people who withdraw from church end up too often self centred rather than God focused, we only learn to love God and others in real (messy) relationships, anyway scripture is clear as to whether Christians need to belong in church or not.

I love St Mary’s Church that’s a short walk from that lay-by, and for 1000 years people have worshipped him here; it’s a prayer soaked place. But God’s glory isn’t contained in any building. God “does not live in temples built by human hands.” The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it! Isaiah saw the train of the robe of God (some scholars think he was actually referring to the hem), filling the temple, because God can’t be contained in what we make – whether Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral, a baseball stadium in Florida, or our imaginations. But we get to touch the hem of his garment, and his glory flows to us and through us. I have said elsewhere that this recent meeting with God in Lakeland felt like liquid fire and lighting and lava flowing through me. Weird? Wonderful!

It can happen anywhere! Maybe that’s why healings and impartations are being reported from Lakeland by people all over the world watching on TV or the internet? God’s with you now! He is not contained by geography. Jesus sometimes said to people, “I don’t have to go to the house to heal the sick, go home and you’ll find it’s been done.” Maybe our God can’t be contained? Maybe the only limitation we can put on him is our lack of faith!

Steve Turner wrote in Being There : “We imagine a sacred part of our lives which involves praying, attending church, singing hymns, and reading the Bible, and a secular part involving eating, drinking, reading the newspaper, and painting the house. Is that the way God sees it? Does he wish we’d hurry through the mundane but necessary activities of sleeping, child rearing, and earning our keep until we get down to the real business of Bible study? Would a really ‘spiritual’ life consist of a seven day week full of church-centred activities, or was the Dutch art historian Hans Rookmaaker right when he said that Christ didn’t die in order that we might go to more prayer meetings but in order that we might be more fully human?”

When God comes to church

When we were in Lakeland they kept talking about how you could ask for and receive a burning coal, to take back with you to where you’re from. Of course that’s coming from Isaiah 6. It was the year King Uzziah died. That king had a long and (mostly) distinguished rule of 52 years. He became king at the age of 16 following his father’s assassination. He started out really well and was faithful to the LORD for a long time – that is the measure of a governmental success in scripture – and during that time he and his nation prospered.

Unfortunately one day he made a terrible mistake, when he entered the temple to burn incense, a duty reserved by the LORD for the priests only. Pride comes before a fall. It says, But when he was strong his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. (2 Chronicles 26:16)

He was confronted about his sin, got angry instead of repentant – and ended up a leper, living out his last days in tragic isolation, while his son Jotham ruled in his stead until he finally died.

Lesson? Don’t try to light your own fire! Don’t step outside your anointing! How often do leaders try to light something or set something going themselves when God hasn’t commanded or empowered them? Uncommanded labour is just tiring and leaves you empty, disillusioned, powerless and lonely (been there, done that, got the t-shirt).

So when Isaiah went into the temple, he was probably at a very low ebb. A wise and good king who’d started well but finished terribly had died. The nation’s in mourning.

But then, unexpectedly, GOD WAS THERE! Imagine, finding God actually in church! It’s amazing where he might turn up you know 🙂

What happened when God came? He saw the Lord on his throne of glory, High and lifted up – and his train filled the temple! He saw strange visions of angels, the seraphim heard them calling and declaring the praises of God in worship. That whole huge building quaked and shook!

Surely if that was available under the old covenant, we should not be surprised as believers in a greater covenant that when God manifests his presence it’s with similar and even greater glory? If the ministry that brought death…came with glory… will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? (2 Cor 3:7 & 8). Why would you be surprised that he who shook the temple causes people to shake? Why would you doubt that the angels who are ministering spirits sent to serve us who inherit salvation still come – and that people of faith still see them and hear them as did believers and sinners and even a donkey?!

Does not the Lord still inhabit the praises of his people? (Ps 22:3 NKJ). And is Jesus the same, yesterday, today and forever; mighty to save – a healing, miracle working God?

When God came to Isaiah he came with conviction, with cleansing, and then with a call. My friend Mark Stibbe has been emailing me about his time in Lakeland as he’s there right now. I will leave him to publish his own assessment but yesterday he reminded me, “the Holy Spirit is the limitless and unlimited presence and power of Almighty God. And he is uncontainable…”

Isaiah found that whatever the nation looked like, the real King was still on the throne that day! The length of a king’s robe signifies his majesty. Our KIng’s robe filled the temple!

The angels cried out, “Holy, Holy Holy!” Why? Some scholars say it’s because in Hebrew one way to express a superlative is by repetition. For example, we say, ‘good, better and best.’ But in Hebrew you could just repeat the word to express a superlative, similar to ‘Vanity of Vanities’ or ‘King of Kings.’ Other say it’s just a chant, Holy, Holy, Holy – because He is! So if anyone complains that the worship chorus is too simple, tell them you’re just trying to do it like the angels.

That recognition in the worship of who God really is brings conviction. “Away from me Lord, I’m sinful!”

Spurgeon said, “God will never do anything with us till he has first of all undone us.” Isaiah became undone before he could do anything,

That was certainly something I felt in the very simple worship at Lakeland. No great band, showy flashing lights, or technological paraphernalia (all great stuff, but if I want that I’ll go to see Oasis). All there was when the presence of God was most powerful and tangible for me was a lady singing, a keyboard and drums. Sins committed recalled, but not to condemn – to cleanse and restore.

Oh, and angels ascending and descending. That evening when Hannah was healed, in the worship, I had a vision of angels dropping down gift after gift on me, I thought ‘that’s wonderful’ – but I knew it wasn’t it. There was even a bicycle among the gifts, and that’s one of my favourite things!

Then I saw them bring a golden word from God, a page from the Bible, I thought, ‘That’s fantastic!’ – what more could a preacher want? But then I knew it wasn’t it either.

Then the Lord gave me his heart.

That’s it! Those who hunger and thirst WILL be satisfied.

A burning coal ( a ‘live’ coal) comes from the altar. What Uzziah could not do, God does. He brings the fire we cannot and should not try to self generate. He convicts, He cleanses, and then the call. “Who will go?

After conviction comes cleansing, and after that comes a call. I said, “Me Lord! I want a coal! I want to burn for you! I’ll volunteer! (That’s one of the reasons I’ve got my hands up!). Send me! I don’t just want to go, I need to be sent by you. Commissioned to fulfil the call.”

He said, GO!

Last night, we held a meeting at the place where we meet for L1FE, which ran well over three hours, and it was so – well, easy. When the Spirit is there, there is liberty. No hype, just God coming to church. Hannah gave her testimony, I preached because this has to be founded in scripture, and then the Lord took over. The coals are starting to ignite in the UK.

An email I recieved this morning says, this:

Along with I hope many others, may I share with you what happened to me last night? During the worship I several times felt a gentle tingling all over me and a need to try to sing in tongues. I asked for prayer from Emma … and during that time I felt her hand really warm on my shoulder. I couldn’t actually hear what she said because the singing was too loud, but it didn’t matter. When I got back to my seat I started shaking all over for several minutes, and in the next worship time I did sing in tongues…wonderful release ! I have not felt the Spirit like this before….

THE WRONG QUESTION

Well there’s been interesting responses to yesterday’s post – to say the least. First off, the traffic to the blog has taken off exponentially, with hundreds of new readers and subscribers (if that’s you – welcome, if you’d like to, click over there on the right!). I suppose it’s not my skilful prose but the subject matter that’s drawing attention from all over the world, it’s the question I posed yesterday which still stands about Lakeland – is it revival?

Some people say yes. They look at people being healed, recognise that were there’s a lot of Spirit there’s also going to be a lot of ‘flesh’ and can come to terms with that – no, rejoice in it. It’s been wonderful that there have been so many people who have known about Hannah’s back problems, and are rejoicing with those who rejoice over its healing, and thanking God (by the way the girls went to pray for people at the Leatherhead theatre last night and I’m told it was amazing time!).

I’ve also had one or two e-mails via the blog which I ended up spamming because they were from sources I didn’t recognise, and when I looked at the content of the sites they linked to, they seemed to have already made their minds up that this is not of God but has to be of the devil. A tattooed bloke who shakes and shouts? People crying and laughing and carrying on? All too weird – certainly not from God. They have never been, they’ve never seen, they’ve never sensed the presence and power of God there, but they know it’s wrong; illegitimate – of the devil.

This morning I was reading with my men’s group out of John 9. You know what comes before that? The end of John 8. Read it and you’ll see that some ascribed to Jesus and his miracles both illegitimacy and evil origin. (Verse 48 is particularly nice!).

In John 9 Jesus comes across the man born blind. His disciples spend time theologising about his suffering and its origin. They debate the human condition, bewail the sins that cause it. Their question? “Who sinned?” All they don’t do, is anything that helps.

I like how the Message puts Jesus’ reply. “You’re asking the wrong question.”

I’m not saying we shouldn’t weigh the source, but if you’re asking, who sinned – the answer is… EVERYONE. Todd Bentley, Paul Cain, me, you. If you look online you’ll find some evidence and lots of accusation about anyone and everyone involved (by the way, still reading that biography of Whitefield, a fantastic preacher and a wonderful godly man now so often hailed and lauded. Boy did he take some stick!).

I’m not so naive to imagine some of the accusations against Bentley et al. are correct. But Jesus was pretty clear it’s not just people who live in glass houses who shouldn’t throw stones (in fact, if you lived in a glass house, where would you shower?). I for one wouldn’t want all my sins paraded on-line, and people spending their lives looking for things wrong with me would find plenty of material, but I thought the devil was the accuser?

(PS I just got the following comment, which I’m not approving, to show the love that abounds here from a brother or sister…) You vile deceiving heretics and enemies of the gospel when will you repent and face reality and the true gospel of Christ and His sound doctrines the HOLY BIBLE. You filthy enemies of God you will pay dearly for supporting your fellow tools of Satan who lead others into doctrines of devils so they may blaspheme God and end up in hell along with you if you don’t repent. You filthy vile deceivers you dare call yourself Christian. Sick filthy heretic.

If the wrong question is ‘Who sinned?” Maybe the better question is, “Who saves?”

Jesus went on to do something, well, pretty weird. It’s almost too embarrassing to think of the Son of God making spit-mud pies! Then he does something degrading! He smears it on the blind man’s eyes – where’s the respect for dignity or decorum there? He even puts some of the responsibility for whether he’s healed or not on the man, by getting him to do something that looks like faith (he has to walk round the place and wash off the mud himself, Jesus didn’t lead him by the hand.).

Jesus didn’t have to do any of that. He could have just said, “Be healed!” (even ‘Bam!’ as Mr Bentley does?) as on other occasions. He could have just done ‘Drive By Healings’ if he wanted and not even engaged with the man. People baulk at the idea of ‘touch your TV screen and get the healing…” but didn’t Jesus sometimes say to the effect of, “Go on home, I’m not coming to lay hands on anyone, I don’t have to be there physically to heal spiritually.”

And to compound it all, having done it in the wrong way, he does it on the wrong day! That’s what really got the religious riled. (See my blog entry ‘What Day is it?)

I discussed with the guys this morning whether we thought Jesus did that on purpose. It’s been said, “He offends the mind to reveal the heart.” Was he provoking a reaction to see whether they were more concerned to protect things being done ‘properly’ (even if nothing was done?).

It’s entirely possible to have the form of godliness but denying the power thereof – go to a church near you this Sunday to confirm that; or look at the dire stats and predictions published yesterday, much being the consequence of just such a travesty – a church with pomp but no power and presence. Moses said to God, “We’re not going anywhere with out you!” But too often we’re not going anywhere because we’re without Him. The glory days are consigned to a golden age, with people worshipping a (Deist?) God who used to be powerful (he even wrote a good book!), but now has kind of lost His divine stuff.

Actually, Jesus didn’t waste a lot of time with people who’d already made their minds up not to believe (verse 22 tells us they’d ‘agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was the Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue’). ‘There’s none so blind…’

They saw a man born blind saying he’d been healed. They said:

• He wasn’t a man; we’ll ask his parents instead!
• He wasn’t born blind; he must be a liar!
• He wasn’t the same man; because that man was blind!
• He wasn’t a good man; probably a confederate, and who includes the testimony of crazies who say they’ve been healed?

Anyway, everyone knew his sickness was his own fault, or a judgement from God, his cross to bear – to perfect him through suffering…

The ex blind man’s answers to their questions? Track them…

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t know if he’s a sinner or not.”

“Why won’t you listen?”

“Do you want to follow him too?”

“One thing I know – I was blind, now I see.”

I don’t know whether Lakeland’s a revival. I do know from visiting I’ve got my first love for Jesus back and I’m and full of the Holy Spirit to overflow more than I have been for years (obviously a work of the devil?).

I don’t know whether some (or all) of the people who get to minister on the platform are ‘sinners.’ I do know many sinners were repentant and trusting Jesus for the first time.

I don’t know why not everyone was healed. I do know on the nights I was there God healed so many people the queues were full both sides of the stage, and I know my own daughter joined that line! (“Ask her, she is of age!”)

So before you send me a link to your website explaining why the devil’s behind it all, deceiving and deluding – let me ask whether your God still does that kind of thing, today.

If not, I’ll stick with mine, thanks.