Charismatic Christianity and the New Age

Dalit

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So i checked out their website and got a good L0L.


"Learn how to cooperate with the Holy spirit.

We equip believers to advance the Kingdom of God
through Holy spirit empowered ministry."



They are actually saying that they got the knowhow of how to cooperate with the Holy spirit.

That is absolutely ridiculous.
Hey, be kind. They're good people. I don't agree with them on everything since I'm not a 5 point Calvinist or even a Calvinist, but I've learned a lot from them and the founder is the real deal.
 

Dalit

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What struck me over this issue is how the Flesh and the Spirit are in conflict with each other, both within us and as a Christian body.

I grew up seeing people healed and with my family receiving amazing answers to prayer before I had stopped believing in Santa! It was all part of normal life.

When I came across Christians who didn't seem to think that God was still "on the move" I found them rather eccentric! Later, I came across ministries who seemed to have a different emphasis, "signs and wonders" seemed to be the name of the show, and the holiness and the presence of true joy and peace in the meetings seemed to give way to a desire to see something "powerful" happen.

I think this battle happens whenever God has something good in store for his Children. It's rather like the Hegelian dialectic as applied to Christianity.

Problem: NAR pastor goes weird!
Reaction: Horror!
Solution: Go somewhere else and stay away from the Charismatic stuff.

I must admit that despite seeing all that I have, offense taken over some peoples excesses and folly have made me far more like the person who backs away from Charismatic manifestations.

I'm just asking myself, like Josh Peck in the OP, why should I be like that?
Yeah, I relate to Josh a lot.
 

Dalit

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I finished the video. Very good!! I’m fairly amazed that his experienced with Pentecostal type believers has been so positive. I’ve never been slain in the spirit or spoken in tongues or fallen down or anything like that.

I had a marked baptism of the Spirit that resulted in a “knowing” and a sense of His filling. I had dreams that revealed truth to me and I “knew” what was going on in certain situations. I “knew” about Benghazi while it was happening, not specifics, but a desperate need to prayer and the knowledge that something very big was going on in our government and I needed to pray. I prayed constantly over that.

I felt warned about a situation a friend was dealing with with her daughter. I prayed so much. I sensed a need to warn her and she was furious with me. That was about 8 years ago. It turned out that I was right and the repercussions and pain for that family have been ongoing. I still wonder even now if I should ever have said a word and just stuck to prayer.

I had a mentor/prayer partner who seemed true and good. As time went on she used crystals and the chakra and other new age practices in her prayer life. I separated from her but it really put a warning over all of it for me, combined with the train wrecks I was seeing by others involved in IHOP and the NAR.

Then came the blessings of being in a church that lived out the Bible simply and taught truth with no heavy emphasis on all of the experiences. I’ve seen Jesus’ hands and feet in action more in this atmosphere than in all of the Spirit-filled craziness I’ve seen in other situations. I think it is because the focus is Christ and not self. I still know that there is a balance and it has everything to do with the focus being on knowing Christ and bringing Him glory above all.

Reading a book on Rees Howells was very compelling to me on this topic as well. This is another long one. :D
Hey, Teresa! I've been there with confronting those without ears to hear it and remaining silent. That discernment gift was especially strong as a kid, yet it was more about whether people were evil or had bad motives. Now I'm thankful it's become more about discerning the good, seeing Jesus in others. It's not that I don't see their junk, but I no longer feel like a Negative Nancy. :)

That's cool that He gave you insight into praying regarding Benghazi. It's always for prayer whether you tell others or not.

Sorry to be all over the place a bit.

I regretted when I was 15 not telling a friend that something wasn't right about her boyfriend. Everyone was talking about how cute he was, but I just got an off putting feeling from him and he had beady, dark eyes. She became pregnant at 16 and he apparently was physically abusive to her and left her, taking no responsibility for the baby. I wondered for a long time whether or not I should've told her that he seemed like bad news, but I felt like God let me know that she would never have listened to me and would've been offended.

And, some of you will love this, when I was in the NAR, I was at an IHOP (International House of Prayer) location in February 2016 and felt like God told me Trump would win. I scoffed and laughed and said "If he wins, I'll pray for him every day." I've not prayed for him every day, but should, since I said I would. I thought he was a long shot, just like everyone else did.

Discernment is highly needed today. Everyone needs prayer for it and needs it. Sometimes just discerning between what is good, better and best is hard enough.
 

TokiEl

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Hey, be kind. They're good people. I don't agree with them on everything since I'm not a 5 point Calvinist or even a Calvinist, but I've learned a lot from them and the founder is the real deal.
I am kind. And i have no patience for doctrinal errors.

The Holy spirit is not something someone can learn from others.

And when they on the front page offer knowhow of how to cooperate with the Holy spirit... now i don't know if they charge for that course but this is not right. The Holy spirit is either moving or not.
 

Dalit

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I am kind. And i have no patience for doctrinal errors.

The Holy spirit is not something someone can learn from others.

And when they on the front page offer knowhow of how to cooperate with the Holy spirit... now i don't know if they charge for that course but this is not right. The Holy spirit is either moving or not.
I totally understand what you're saying, I think, yet they are ministering mainly to mainline Protestant denominations like Presbyterians to show them that the gifts and the Holy Spirit are nothing to be afraid of. Honestly, if the pentecostals or charismatics need a theology, which a reformed theology nerd once told me they did, PRMI is pretty good. They focus on gifts and fruit and the Word. It's not about chasing experiences, but chasing Jesus, as Josh and Steven in the video talk about. Even though I have a problem with 5 point Calvinism, the TULIP, since I strongly disagree with the L for Limited Atonement, getting a friend out of NAR and into them was the best thing I could do. That friend is getting more Word than she ever got and the fruit of the leadership there is good fruit. She has been a Christian for 30 years yet needs discipleship, the Word, and growth. With what's coming in the near future, baby believers need to grow up and start eating meat.

They aren't trying to teach a method of the Holy Spirit. These are people who love Jesus, pressing in, seeking Him, and the Holy Spirit is moving there. I've found them to be very transparent and genuine. They're still growing, too, as we all are.

By the way, they charge nothing. All of their training is free of charge.
 

Dalit

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I researched dominionism a few years ago and still only know a small amount. There are different camps in that realm, I think, some being in the NAR and some more in the reformed view. A lot of it seems to be built on teachings from Rushdoony. I have friends who are very dominionist in view but very far from the charismatic C Peter Wagner camp. I think Wagner is one of the leaders of the train wreck that is NAR. Anyway, my friends read and quote Rushdoony a lot. When I’ve read about him, I always have a check in my spirit but have not dove in beyond the surface. I used to read some things that came from C Peter Wagner before I knew that he was really off!!
Hey, Teresa! (and all reading this)

I saw this and thought of you. Dominionism, if taken all the way to its end goal, sounds to me like radicalism and not for the good. Plus, Psalm 2 "ask of Me and I will give you the nations" is God talking to Jesus, right? I see it as one of the many prophesies about Jesus. The context of the psalm is the nations coming against God. Anyway, thought this was pretty good.

 
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I researched dominionism a few years ago and still only know a small amount. There are different camps in that realm, I think, some being in the NAR and some more in the reformed view. A lot of it seems to be built on teachings from Rushdoony. I have friends who are very dominionist in view but very far from the charismatic C Peter Wagner camp. I think Wagner is one of the leaders of the train wreck that is NAR. Anyway, my friends read and quote Rushdoony a lot. When I’ve read about him, I always have a check in my spirit but have not dove in beyond the surface. I used to read some things that came from C Peter Wagner before I knew that he was really off!!
If anybody quotes Rushdoony without following up with “ and as you can see this guy was a crazy, dangerous psychopath” get as far away from them as possible.
 
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Hey, Teresa! (and all reading this)

I saw this and thought of you. Dominionism, if taken all the way to its end goal, sounds to me like radicalism and not for the good. Plus, Psalm 2 "ask of Me and I will give you the nations" is God talking to Jesus, right? I see it as one of the many prophesies about Jesus. The context of the psalm is the nations coming against God. Anyway, thought this was pretty good.

Dominionism is radicalism, it really is the equivalent of Sharia Law in Islam. Inherently theocratic.
 

Dalit

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Dominionism is radicalism, it really is the equivalent of Sharia Law in Islam. Inherently theocratic.
It's also trying to bring about the Mashiach (Messiah) by human effort, by the will of man (as in mankind, men and women). I think that, bringing about a messiah by our own efforts, would most likely lead to the Antichrist. At the very least, it's idolatry.

Reminded me of this. Derek Webb's Savior on Capitol Hill. I think you'll like him.
 
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