The Heart Of The Matter

"Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. 24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, 25 and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man."
John 2:23-25

I have been trying to avoid talking (typing) about something that I see taking place "out there" in the church at large, but I have been confronted with it several times this week, and oddly enough, several times it has come up in the conversations I have been having, brought up by others and not myself. It is the "revival" that has been happening in Lakeland, Florida. Living in Florida myself, I am actually surprised that I have not heard more about it, nor have I been swept up in the ever-increasing flood of "talk" about it that seems to be circulating. But in the last week, the Lakeland "happening" has been brought to the forefront so many times that I cannot ignore speaking about it any longer. For the sake of this discussion, I will refer to what is happening in Lakeland as a revival, but will elaborate further in this article.

First of all, let me say that up until this point, I had not heard much about or from Todd Bentley, the man who seems to be "leading" the "revival." I have watched some YouTube footage of him, and at first glance, he seems to come across as almost every other "faith healer" I have seen out there. He goes down the line, as people have come up to the "healing line," and he has a brief discussion with them about what he prophesies to be their particular ailment or situation, and then places his hand on their forehead, and pushes them back as they are "slain" in the Spirit. I did notice that the ones who were not "slain" right away, he returned to, to ensure their "slain" status I guess, as he gave them an extra "dose" of the good old Holy Ghost. Now, I write this, not to poke fun or be sacrilegious, but to point out some things that I have noticed, or have been brought to my attention. I come from the theological perspective where I believe that the Holy Spirit still works today, giving gifts of healing, and tongues and all the rest, so I am not a legalist on a vendetta here. But what I want to bring to our attention is the concern of a couple of things....people flocking to this "happening" because of the signs, and the accuracy of the "prophecy" of Mr. Bentley himself.

In this passage that we are looking at today, from John 2, Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Passover, during the feast, and He was performing signs, miracles, and people were beginning to flock to Him. But Jesus refused to "commit Himself to them" because He knew what was in their hearts. They weren't there because of who HE was. They were there because of the signs that He performed, the miracles, the healings. Jesus Himself said, in Matthew 24:24, "For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect." What concerns me most about "the happening" in Lakeland, and other events like it, is that people are drawn there because of the so-called "signs" and not check out what is happening experientially against God's Word to see if it checks out. The apostle Paul told the people of Berea to check out even what he was saying to be sure that it lines up with what God says. One of the reasons we have false revivals is that we as the Body of Christ, the Church, have fallen away from reading and studying our Bibles. We are in error because we don't know the Scriptures. We don't read them, we don't study them, we don't apply them. But that is for another discussion. Regardless, we must seek wise counsel from our pastor or others whom we trust before following the latest celebrity preacher around like sheep.

If you watch Mr. Bentley closely, and listen to him "prophesy" over people as he goes through the "healing line," you will notice that a large amount of the time he is wrong as he speaks out over their life. In Deuteronomy 13:1-3 it says, "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,2 "and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods'; which you have not known; 'and let us serve them,'3 "you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul." So let me ask you this question: Are we running after Mr. Bentley and others like him because we think we need a sign, and he is providing one, or have we checked him and his works against the Bible, God's Word, and found all to be true and to line up? Beware, beloved, because in the last days there will come wolves dressed in sheep's clothing among us, to devour us. Let us beware. In the June 28/July 5, 2008 issue of World magazine, there is an article on Todd Bentley, called "Same old scam?" by Rusty Leonard and Warren Cole Smith (p. 81). In the article, it points out that the collection of the offering at these meetings can take "as long as 30 minutes." In the insert in the article, "Smelling A Scam," there are four points about telling whether or not it is a scam. Number 2 on the list is, "Is there an emphasis on money?" I have been in a lot of churches, and have never seen it take 30 minutes to take an offering. Even in large stadium events where the crowd is twice that as Mr. Bentley's. It has never take 30 minutes to pass a bucket from one end of a row to another and have several men collect them at the other end. So what am I saying? I am concerned that if this article is true, and I have no reason to doubt that it isn't, then there seems to be some emphasis on money here in Lakeland. Get the article. Read it for yourself.

I will not be attending "the happening" in Lakeland, nor watching Mr. Bentley on television (God TV or any other). I guess my critics will have a good time with that, and that's okay. I don't have to jump off a building to know that sudden stop at the bottom is painful. And I don't need to go to Lakeland to know what a false prophet looks and sounds like. Jesus didn't commit Himself to some of those who came after Him, because He knew what was in their heart, that they weren't commited to Him but just followed the signs. Beloved, it is truly a heart issue here. Don't be misled. Check out what goes on out there in the church against what is in the Scriptures. If it doesn't line up, then cast it off. We need to be more discerning about things like this. Shalom.