Part III  –  Application to Pentecostal Theology

Subpart D  –  The Positive Confession Movement

 Article 8  –  The Violent, Taking by Force

Section (a)  –  The Heresy of Demanding from God

By Daniel Irving

i.    The True Gospel Means of Procuring the Rightly-Oriented Hope

ii.   The Principle of Receiving Spirit from God

iii.  Asking for the Gift of the Holy Spirit

iv.   We Do Not Demand the Spirit God Gives

v.    The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are Given & Operated According to God’s Will

vi.   The False Testimony of Man as Presumption in the Place of Faith

vii.   Demanding the Anointing; The Rise of Rodney Howard-Browne

viii.  Spiritual Violence as a Fruit of Non-Repentance

Section (a)  –  THE HERESY OF DEMANDING FROM GOD

i.  The True Gospel Means of Procuring the Rightly-Oriented Hope

The previous article (Article 7) related to the principles of Faith and Patience that constitute a proper Biblical orientation toward God and a proper orientation toward the scriptures.  As related in that article, the theology of Positive Confession formulated by E.W. Kenyon in the early twentieth-century and which was effectively advanced by many empowered charismatic ministries of the latter twentieth-century, worked to distort the proper premises of Biblical Faith and Patience.  Leaders of the Faith movement, taught their followers to assume a rather assertive and resolute posture in terms of receiving things from heaven, wherein the principle of Trusting in God began to resemble obstinacy and the principle of petitioning God began to resemble the making of demands.  The Faith movement’s unique and aggressive manner of approaching God was fostered by an orientation which viewed the teachings of Christ and His apostles as kingdom “principles,” the asserting  of which requiring God’s favorable response.

This article will undertake an explanation of the heresy which seems to have been particularly introduced through the signs and wonders ministry of Rodney Howard-Browne.  A functional assessment of this ministry and explanation of its heresy will require the laying of a clear foundation in regards to the proper means of receiving things from heaven.  Therefore, the first half of this article will be for the laying of that foundation.

The Lord gave us a very clear commandment on how we are to procure from the hand of God those things necessary to serve His purposes in the obedience and sanctification of men.  We are to persistently ask.  Recall the Lord’s directive on obtaining bread for others (an allusion to the procurement of sanctifying truth:)

Yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.  And I say to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.  For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.”        Luke 11:8-10

The Lord does not qualify this commandment or set any prerequisite upon receiving.  What about obedience?  What about holiness?  Are these not prerequisites?  We might understand why the Lord did not place any prerequisite upon the asking when we consider it is precisely these things we are our asking for!  We are to “seek His kingdom and His righteousness.”  Therefore it does not follow that righteousness and sanctification would stand prerequisite to asking for righteousness and sanctification.  If we are asking for those things God commands us to ask for (ie. His kingdom and His righteousness) this contemplates some measure of faith in itself. Therefore the Lord can assure us that “everyone who asks receives.”  Persistence in asking itself demonstrates Faith.  And what is being sought from heaven?  Those things of the kingdom of God; those things alluded to by Paul when he writes:

But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:              I Cor. 1:30

To obtain Christ is to obtain these precious things of eternity.  To rightly perceive the Lord’s teachings on receiving from heaven, involves some perception of the true object of our petition.  If our desire is set upon eternal things, God will satisfy that desire with His own holy nature, which is Christ.  But conversely, if our desire is set on earthly things, there is every reason to believe God will satisfy that desire as well.

And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.                                                                                      Ps. 106:15

This should be a warning to us, lest our desires be wrongly directed toward things other than knowing God through the Person of Jesus Christ.  The rightly-oriented hope is set upon those things of God’s kingdom as Paul expresses:

But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:             I Cor. 1:30

If our hope is rightly-oriented in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, then we are rightly-oriented to receive of God’s Spirit.

ii.  The Principle of Receiving Spirit from God

The prophecy of Isaiah expresses this principle of receiving Spirit from our Creator and Lord:

Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people on it, and spirit to them that walk therein:   I the Lord have called thee in righteousness . . .   Is. 42:5 

God expresses what is His purpose in given men life and giving men spirit.  The purpose is righteousness.  Not moral conduct, but that righteousness expressed by Paul when he wrote:

But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:                 I Cor. 1:30

The righteousness brought as God feeds us with His own eternal being; the Spirit of His Son, slain for sinners is the righteousness of which Isaiah speaks.  This is the kingdom brought by God.

On the other hand, God gives life to all humanity.  Isaiah’s prophecy state that God, “giveth breath unto the people on it.”  Indeed, God gives spirit even to all things, as we learn from the 104^th Psalm:

O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom have You made them all:   the earth is full of Thy riches.  So is this great & wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small & great beasts.   There go the ships: There is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.   These wait all upon You; that You may give them their food in due season.    What You give them they gather:  You open your hand, they are filled with good.   You hide Your face, they are troubled: You take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.  You send forth Your spirit, they are created: and you renew the face of the earth.                     Ps. 104:24-30

Whether the creature understands or does not understand, he is continually in need of the liberality of God for anything good.  The very spirit of the creature comes from God.  And when God withholds His Spirit from the creature, life itself is withheld.  God gives them of Himself in order that they have consciousness and vibrancy.  And man is no exception.  God gives “drink to very beast of the field” so that even “the wild asses quench their thirst.”  His liberality goes out to men of every stripe.  Jesus did not say without a basis in spiritual things, that our Father in heaven “sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”[1]

Therefore, the creature has every reason to hope in the liberality of God to bring them the things to prosper in this life.  For we read of God’s provision for men, that He brings:

. . .  wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart.                            Ps. 104:15

Man’s needs might be a bit more complex than the “beast of the field.”  For man is made to worship God and to offer up spiritual sacrifices in righteousness.[2]  This truth is no-less true even if men be ignorant of it.  Man rejoices in such things as; music, literature, drama, relationships, food, nature, only because God gives him life and the spirit to give these things vibrancy.  When God withdraws His Spirit, these things cease from meaning.  They become hollow shells, without substance, without the life which the Creator gave.  This is why Paul warned those he preached to lest they forget the God who gave them the essential joy of natural life itself:

  Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.   Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.              Acts 14:16-17

Something truly miraculous and wonderful was occurring. God was intervening in the natural creation in order to bear a witness to the brutish things of this world that they must stop, and consider the declaration that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”   In their brutish-condition as creatures they had been blessed by God in the form of “rain from heaven & fruitful seasons, filling our hears with food & gladness”.  But now God had a higher calling for men.  They were being called into the righteousness of Jesus Christ; invited to share in God’s eternal nature; that they would not have to perish as part of the cycle of temporal life lived by the brute, wherein their Creator will:

. . . take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.  You send forth Your spirit, they are created: and you renew the face of the earth.                    Ps. 104:29

There is a new Spirit that God will give men that will allow men to offer up the sacrifices of righteousness that come from His own eternal being.  These are the sacrifices of walking in the love demonstrated by Jesus Christ.  Paul writes:

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.            Eph. 5:2

This is God’s eternal purpose in humanity, although much of humanity will reject His purposes.  But there is a “wine” and an “oil” that God will bring as testament of His love; a truth revealed in the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. The true life is God, and the true revelation of God is Christ.  Therefore what does man do with the “wine” and the “oil” that God provides? Does he offer up sacrifices in thanksgiving and righteousness?  Or does he rather spend God’s resources on idols?  The wine and the oil may persist for a time as testament to God’s love, but ultimately, His truth must be purchased.[3]

Isaiah’s prophecy reads that God . . .

. . .  giveth breath unto the people on it, and spirit to them that walk therein:                                                                                      Is. 42:5

If we would walk in the Spirit of Christ, we should know that this does not occur by opting to walk in ways contrary to His commandments and the pattern established in His own life in the flesh:

He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.        I John 2:6

As our Creator, God gives His Spirit to all things:

He sends the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.  They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst.        Ps. 104:10-11

Not only that, but according to prophecy, He provides his creatures with the spirit in which they are inclined to walk.   If they are inclined to walk in the spirit of this world, He will give to them liberally.  If they be of a legal inclination and are inclined to rely upon the Law for their justification, they shall drink of that spirit.  But if they walk in the truth of Christ, He will give them of His own Holy Spirit.  For Jesus Christ was “Holy”, and God’s Spirit was the Spirit in which Christ did walk.  When we sanctify Him as our Lord and walk in His commandments, the Spirit which carries us in that way can be no other than the Holy Spirit of God.

There is a peculiar passage in the 104^th Psalm which reads:

You hide Your face, they are troubled: You take away their breath, they die,                                                                                       Ps. 104:29

When God “hides His face,” the effect is to “trouble” the spirits of His creatures.  We find that He sometimes does this in His redemptive work with men.  Psalm 30 relates:

Now in my prosperity I said, “I shall never be moved.”  Lord, by your favor You have made my mountain stand strong;   You hid Your face, and I was troubled.    Ps 30:6-7

What does this verse communicate concerning God’s purpose in hiding His face?  David confesses that it was in his “prosperity” that he said “I shall never be moved.”   Is he referring to his worldly prosperity or to his spiritual prosperity?  Obviously, he is referring to the latter, for his next statement is “Lord, by your favor You have made my mountain stand strong.”  David is speaking of his thriving under the anointing of Christ wherein the righteousness of Christ is being established as a “strong mountain” within his own nature.  However, given the effects of the flesh, presumption creeps in to defile God’s work.  Therefore David tells the Lord, “You hid Your face, and I was troubled.”  When God hides his face, our spirits are “troubled,” for our very life comes from Him.  Why then, was it necessary that David be “troubled” by the Lord hiding His face for a time?  The answer is, For the same reason why Paul was troubled in his own spirit:

  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead:                               II Cor. 1:9

This is the answer; “. . .that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God.”  In our prosperity, we are apt to presume and carry with us a misimpression upon whose life we carry.  If we carry the life of Christ, it is not our own, but is ministered to us by the Spirit of God vicariously.  The danger is presuming upon this life.  Therefore God, in His mercy, grants to us “the sentence of death in ourselves” that we may keep looking to Christ and to keep our hope steadfast upon Him.

Why was Paul divested of strength in this world?  Why was he constantly being exposed to the sentence of death?  As an earthly creature, he was being exposed to the death-sentence that resides upon all creation, a sentence that is inclusive of the saints of God, albeit hidden by a veil to the rest of the world.  Paul had chosen to walk in the gospel that he preached.  He was bound in covenant to the Son of God.  As such, the Spirit of Christ, was the Spirit that Paul was in covenant to “walk.”   Christ had come into the earth and was put to death in the flesh.  In so doing, He put to death, Death itself.  Christ was given the authority over Death itself:

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same;  that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.                        Heb. 2:14

Therefore the power to walk in the Spirit of Christ, is power that derives from Christ’s resurrection!!  Fellowship in the death of Christ is to also fellowship in His resurrection.  But the true efficacy of the latter witness requires a comprehension of the former.  To know His death is to truly know His resurrection.

 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection;  and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;         Phil. 3:10

Just as belief in His death is prerequisite life in the Spirit, so conformity with His death is prerequisite to conformity to His resurrection-life.  As the prophecy of Isaiah declares, God gives “spirit to those who walk in it.”

For the believer in Christ, this means only one thing.  And this is great encouragement!  Do we desire to “walk in the Spirit”?  It may take baby steps.  Therefore Paul told the Corinthians:

Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.                 I Cor. 11:1

The Greek word translated “followers” actually means “imitators.”[4]  Paul certainly was one who walked in the Spirit, and yet he simply says; “I am an imitator of Christ!”  Nothing magical.  And he tells them; “Therefore imitate me also!”  He is saying; “Christ was gentle.  Therefore be gentle.  Christ was loving. Therefore be loving.”  As we walk this way, God will give the true Spirit.  This is what it means to truly walk in the Word of Faith.  But when we place any emphasis upon the material things of this world, we tragically opt for less.  We receive an abundance of that spirit which must come under the authority of Death.

iii.  Asking for the Gift of the Holy Spirit

But did not the Lord not say, “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it?”  He did.  But this promise came within a context of relationship.  For the statement that follows this promise is:

If ye love me, keep my commandments.                       John 14:15

Jesus said that by keeping His commandments, we demonstrate that we love Him.

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me:  and he that loveth Me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.                               John 14:21

The manifestation of Christ, is the manifestation of God’s image.  The purpose of receiving anything from heaven is that ultimately, Christ, as the image of God, manifest Himself, that we might be established and grow in that knowledge of what we have seen.  A shorter term for this principle is sanctification.  But if we do not keep His commandments, there is no such promise that He manifest Himself to us.

John makes it very clear that keeping the Lord’s commandments is prerequisite to the generalized promise of obtaining all of our petitions from heaven:

And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.                        I John 3:22

Therefore, we perceive two forms of petitioning God: The first form relates to the plea of the needy for the things that would bring us sanctification, and the second form, comes from the place of sanctification itself; the abiding in the knowledge of God received.

Having these two principles of receiving from heaven, which principle might apply to petitioning God for the gift of the Holy Spirit?  The answer is clearly the former. This is so upon the direct authority of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself:

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children:  how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?                   Luke 11:13

God places no prerequisite to asking for the Holy Ghost.  The reason for this is self-evident.  The Holy Ghost is the very agency of our sanctification, as the apostles clearly teach:

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:      I Peter 1:2

After Paul warns the Thessalonians that God had called them to be “holy,” he writes:

He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.                                        I Thess. 4:8

There is no sanctification without the agency of the Holy Spirit, therefore Paul writes:

That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God,  that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.                            Rom. 15:16  

Therefore the gift of the Holy Spirit is not predicated upon any attainment in spiritual things.  The gift of the Holy Spirit is available for the asking.  In this way, it is God’s agency through which spiritual things are attained. The Holy Spirit is the vital agent of the Church’s sanctification and redemption.  And clearly, the only prerequisite to receiving the Holy Spirit is to have sufficient faith to ask.  When the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit on the basis of simply hearing with faith, Peter observed:

And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness,  giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;   And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.                     Acts 15:9

The prophecy of Zechariah exhorts us to “ask rain from the Lord at the time of the spring rain.”[5]  Rain is a clear allusion to the outpouring of God’s Spirit.  But does this imply that we are not to ask for His Spirit at other times?  The answer is clearly, No.  We understand there are times and seasons of God’s particular choosing, e.g.

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.                                                                                      Is. 55:6

However, these times and seasons are known unto God.  Therefore the rule for men, is the Lord’s commandment, in which He tells us to “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”[6]  The kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.”[7]  Therefore, obedience to the Lord’s commandments, includes the obedience to His commandment that we petition God for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

He that observes the wind shall not sow; and he that regards the clouds shall not reap.                       Eccl. 11:4

We must always regard today as the acceptable day:

For he says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.”     behold, now is the ‘acceptable time’; behold, now is the ‘day of salvation’.       II Cor. 6:2

We may receive the Spirit of God within a time of rain, or we may receive the Spirit of God outside a time of rain.  Jesus said, “Your heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him”.[8]  He did not say to wait for a time when you think God to be willing.  He simply commanded us to “Ask.”  The very fact that one has the desire to call upon the Lord is sufficient indication that it is, in fact, God’s time to give His Holy Spirit to us.  As to the precise moment, that is also the prerogative of God.  Therefore we do not demand, but we rather ask; and that, with the confidence that God will give.

 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children:   how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?                                                                                       Luke 11:13

By our asking God for His Spirit, we commence upon a way of trusting in God to hear, to answer, and to deliver.  We acknowledge God’s ways as best. We affirm that it is God Who brings His kingdom in His time.  We affirm the work of sanctification as His to perform, in His way,  in His time.  Within this rule, the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ is the more certainly laid.  And when the day of trouble comes, our responses to God will demonstrate that same trust with which we asked Him for His Holy Spirit.  We will trust in God and He will deliver us in His time, in His way.

Those who do not trust that God is true to His promises, cannot be sufficiently motivated to petition God for those promises.  They sleep through the day God would have granted them entry into eternal things.  We are continuously warned against this sad prospect:

How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?  Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:  So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.           Prov. 6:9-11

  Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.                                          Prov. 19:15

Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.              Prov. 20:13

The “sluggard” is simply one that is without faith in the promises of God.  These do not expend the time and effort to receive eternal things.

The soul of the sluggard desires, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.                   Prov. 13:4 

Having demonstrated sufficient faith to petition God for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and having trusted God to baptize us into the body of Christ us in His time, God will baptize us into Christ.  He will baptize us unto a day in which He will reveal His salvation in a mighty way upon our soul, so that one day we may say with David:

Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; He will hear him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.    Ps. 20:6

Those anointed in Christ are peculiar objects of God’s salvation.  These have been marked for deliverance according to God’s timing and purposes.  Therefore it is important they understand this principle of waiting upon God in obedience.  The Gospel principle of prayerful petition serves the broader purpose of God’s plan for our redemption.

iv.  We Do Not Demand the Spirit God Gives

If we desire the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are directed to Ask of God.  We are told to ask persistently.  Persistence in the petition comes with the promise that we will certainly receive.  But in regard to procuring heavenly things, there is no basis in God’s word to cross the line into making demands upon God.  We do not procure anything from God in this manner.  Our Lord Himself did not demand, but asked of His Father.  Prophecy relates of Christ:

  Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.                                                                                       Ps. 2:8

Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.        Ps. 21:2

Likewise, prophecy directs us to “ask” for restoration and guidance into His kingdom:

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.                                     Jer. 6:16

Consider that when the Holy Spirit was first given to the Church, it was not on the basis of any Divine imperative, nor was it based upon a claim of right.  Rather, it was based upon the prayer of Jesus Christ made to His Father:

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;                                           John 14:16 

Jesus made it very clear how it is we are to obtain the things of God:

Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:                                                          Matt. 7:7 

. . . how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?                                        Matt. 7:11 

Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.                                                                                      Matt. 18:19 

  And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.               Matt. 21:22

  And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.                     John 14:13 

And so did the Lord’s apostles teach prayer and petition as the means of receiving from God:

. . .  but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving  let your requests be made known unto God.             Phil. 4:6

I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.                                                   I Tim. 2:8

 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally . . .                                                                                      James 1:5

. . . yet ye have not, because ye ask not.   James 4:2

And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask,  we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.     I John 5:15 

This model of prayer and petition is no different in regard to receiving the Holy Spirit.  Prophecy directs God’s people to “ask” God for His Holy Spirit:

Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.                                                                                     Zech. 10:1

Jesus told us to ask for the Holy Spirit:

how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?              Luke 11:13

We do not demand anything from God.  To demand demonstrates a distrust of God’s will, His ways, and His timing pertaining to the things of His own eternal kingdom.

v.  The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are Given & Operated According to God’s Will

We are warned in many places in Scripture of the Divine wrath which abides upon men who do not truly repent despite having been witness to signs and wonders.  For instance, consider the apostle Paul’s warning to those skeptics at Pisidion-Antioch that by unbelief in the wake of the Spirit’s witness, something would come upon them of which the prophets had spoken:

Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you; “Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you.”                    Acts 13:40-41

Those events in the region of Lycaonia were marked by miraculous signs as Paul and Barnabas traveled through the cities of Derbe, Iconium, Lystra, and Pisidion-Antioch.  These were similar to the miraculous events in Capernaum under the ministry of Christ.  Recall that the Lord particularly denounced those cities in which His greatest miracles were performed:

And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell:  For if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom,  it would have remained until this day.  But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.         Matt 11:23-24 

Something truly miraculous had occurred, as God was intervening in the natural creation in order to bear a witness to the brutish things of this world that they must stop, and consider the declaration that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  For it is the rejection of this revelation that constitutes antichrist and the “gates of hell.”  For there is a sin greater than all the sins of the flesh combined.  What sin is that?  Defaulting upon one’s day of grace.

Therefore signs and wonders play a critical role in God bearing witness of Himself.  Signs and wonders operate through the gifts and ministries of the Church. God gives these gifts and ministries according to His own purposes in testifying of Himself through signs and wonders.  We know well from apostolic teaching that the Divine gifts are placed into human hands at the will of God, that men may preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bear a witness of God’s effectual agency toward them.  For instance, after the writer to the Hebrews warns against “neglecting so great salvation,” he then writes:

God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles,  and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?                                                                                      Heb. 2:4

By this we know that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are given according to God’s will, not as a consequence of the will of men.  While God wants that men should desire the gifts of the Spirit,[9] and He would have them be in a posture to receive,[10] there is no place for commanding the gifts or offices of God.[11]  And this principle holds true in terms of their operation.  We do not command the demonstration of a supernatural gift.  Rather, we look to God to extend to us faith for its operation.  Thereby, the gift is operated by God, although by an earthly messenger.  Therefore Paul writes:

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;             Rom. 12:6

We do not prophecy according to our own desire and whim.  We prophecy at such time the faith is present and bearing witness through the Holy Spirit’s unction that we do so.

vi.  The False Testimony of Man as Presumption in the Place of Faith

Within the context of the testimony of John the Baptist, Jesus said:

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.                    Matt 11:12

Jesus confirmed the testimony of John the Baptist as a true testimony.[12]

Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.           John 5:33 

John’s testimony was to “prepare the way of the Lord.”[13]  John’s testimony became the prototype for that to be borne by the Church; a testimony having purpose in preparing men to rightly receive the witness of Christ when that witness comes.

In the latter half of the twentieth century, the testimony of man concerning Jesus Christ was severely corrupted within the Charismatic movement, and particularly within the popular sect known as the Word of Faith movement, and its offspring, The Prosperity Message.  Building upon Positive Confession theology as formulated by E.W. Kenyon were such innovators as Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland, who developed a system of teaching on how man is to procure from heaven, which treated the kingdom of God as a set of principles and rules which God was bound to follow.  As stated earlier, they taught their followers to assume an assertive and resolute posture in terms of receiving things from heaven, wherein Trusting in God assumed the character of obstinacy, and where the issue of what was God’s will for the man, became a matter of what the individual decided was God’s will for the man.  They taught their followers that once the rules of God’s kingdom were learned, they could be acted upon so as to compel God upon His own word.  Common verses asserted were:

If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.             John 14:14

Faith was taught as a principle which could be invoked through the spoken word and by standing steadfast in that thing spoken.  Certainly there is some support for this in Scripture.  Jesus said:

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.  Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.                    Mark 11:23-24

So what is the problem?  Is it no so, that Christ taught His followers the power of believing, and the power implicit within a word spoken in faith?  As for the Faith movement, the problem resided within a myopic emphasis upon portions of God’s word while neglecting the full counsel of God.  Jeremiah prophesied of such false teaching in the Church:

But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words,   then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.                Jer. 23:22 

The Faith movement was ready to take hold upon the fantastic aspects of the Gospel, but its teachings did not exhibit a readiness to take hold upon God’s full counsel.  For although Jesus said, “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it,” what is His very next statement, but:

If ye love me, keep my commandments.                          John 14:15

The Lord gave us commandments which bring us into self-effacement, the deferring of our interests to the needs and desires of others; whereby God may sanctifying every deed, word, and thought in His knowledge.  In this way, God may minister to us His own Holiness and His own Holy Spirit.  Therefore the Lord’s next statement is:

And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,  that he may abide with you for ever.                            John 14:16

God’s love is ministered to us through the agency of His Holy Spirit through a reciprocating operation of our keeping Jesus’ commandments and returning the fruit of His sacrifice.  In this way, there is continuity of fellowship in Him, and communion is maintained.  The keeping of His commandments becomes the sacrifices of a pure heart.  The full counsel of God includes these principles of sanctification.  But these were neglected in Positive Confession teaching.

In Mark’s Gospel, in the place the Lord expresses the power of Faith to move the hand of God, this is how the Lord continues the statement:

And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.  But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.                Mark 11:25-26 

Therefore, if we presume to move the hand of God using the prayer of faith while we operate with “ought against any,” what shall be the fruit of that prayer?  If our spirit is not chastened to the ways of Christ, and if we pursue our own aspirations at the expense of righteousness, do we really want God’s hand to move according to “what things soever we desire?”  Woe unto us, should we force the hand of God to give us our evil desires through an aggressive assertion of His Word!  The wiser prayer would be a call for God’s mercy in our rebuke, our discomfiting, and our chastening.  That way, God may determine the timing and terms of His blessing.  And then, truly, we can say . . .

The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.                                                                                      Prov. 10:22

And what of Luke’s account in the place the Lord expresses the power of Faith to move the hand of God?  This is how the Lord continues the statement in the Gospel of Luke:

“But which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say unto him when he has come in from the field, “Come immediately and sit down to eat?” But will he not say to him, “Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself And serve me until I have eaten and drunk; and afterward you will eat and drink?”  He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?   So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, “We are unprofitable slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.”                        Luke 17:7-10

The Lord compares the exercise of dynamic faith to eating and drinking.  His disciples had just made the request of Him, “Increase our faith.”[14]  Did the Lord grant them this desire?  No.  He told them there was an order of things which they must observe.

Firstly, there is an issue of having proper attire for the presence of God; an allusion to sanctification.  There is an issue of having one’s service completed in His sight; an allusion to obedience.  One does not walk into God’s presence as a servant would do from the field and begin to presume upon any autonomy of action.  Therefore, the proper attitude is to consider ourselves “unprofitable slaves.”  And even so, this contemplates we are walking in obedience to the Lord’s commandments. But this was not at all the teaching formulated by E.W. Kenyon, advanced abroad by F.F. Bosworth and the Voice of Healing stable, and which was turned into a theology of self-fulfillment through the corrupt teachings of such men as Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland.  From the heresies of Kenyon arose a movement so popular it nearly became the Charismatic orthodoxy; the teaching that  the exercise of  God’s power was subject to man’s control and use for his own earthly interests.

vii.  Demanding the Anointing; The Rise of Rodney Howard-Browne

There have arisen, in this day, many charismatic ministries which bear the indicia of rejecting the yoke of Christ.  The most fertile soil for such ministries has been, for sure, that provided in Positive Confession theology through its emphasis upon the spoken word as the means of wielding God’s power.  The new thing, however, in which charismatic circles are awash is spiritual brashness and insolence even as a matter of doctrine.  That men are to make demand upon God for the things of heaven, rather than to make request of God through prayer and supplication was substantially introduced through the testimony and ministry of Rodney Howard-Brown.

Within Kenneth Hagin’s Rhema organization during the 1990’s, there arose a truly phenomenal ministry of signs and wonders.  The ministry Rodney Howard-Browne was unlike any other in recorded history.  Characterized by overt supernatural phenomenon, the Howard-Browne ministry added the sign of uncontrolled laughter to those traditionally charismatic signs of shaking and falling under the power.  As well, Rodney Howard-Browne’s account of how he received this anointing must be considered one of the most peculiar testimonies of all time.  The event occurred in 1979 in his native South Africa just after he turned eighteen years of age.  The young Rodney was crying out to God to manifest Himself.  He writes that upon God telling him he must first hunger and thirst, his response to God was that God should “just give it to him” as he “deserved it.”  He further relates:

As I prayed that day, I told the Lord, “Either You come down here and touch me, or I am going to come up there and touch You.”  I was desperate.  I must have called out to God for about twenty minutes that day.  Suddenly the fire of God fell on me.  It started on my head and went right down to my feet.  His power burned in my body and stayed like that for three whole days.  I thought I was going to die.  I thought He was going to kill me.  I thought, “He has heard my prayer, ‘Either You come down here and touch me or I will come up there and touch You,’ and now He has come down here and touched me and He is going to kill me and take me home.”  I was really praying, “Lord, I am too young to die.”  In the fourth day I am not praying, “O Lord, send your glory,” I am praying, “Please lift it off me so that I can bear it.”  I was plugged into heaven’s electric light supply and since then my desire has been to go and plug other people in.[15]

In 1980, Howard-Browne went into fulltime ministry, traveling throughout South Africa with a young group who ministered in music and teaching.  He soon learned that he held a dramatic gift when a young woman (a member of his ministry team) approached him in the vestibule of a Methodist church they were visiting and requested prayer for back pain.  He writes that as he went to lay his hands on her . . .

I got my hand halfway to her head, almost like a gunslinger would draw a gun out of a holster and point it at his opponent.  Suddenly, unexpectedly, it felt like my finger tips came off.  I felt a full volume of the anointing flow out of my hand.  The only way I can explain it is to liken it to a fireman holding a fire hose with a full volume of water flowing out of it.  The anointing went right into her.  It looked like someone had hit her in the head with an invisible baseball bat and she fell to the floor.[16]

As Howard-Browne prayed for the rest of the team, they all fell under the power of God.  While preaching, the Lord told him, “Call all those who want a blessing.”  He was told to simply lay a finger on each one:

I walked over to the first person and said, “In the name of Je . . .” I did not even have time to say, “sus,” when the power of God threw that person to the floor.  I went down the line and everyone went out under the power.  They hit the floor just like someone had slammed them in the head with a Louisville Slugger.[17]

The gift seemed to withdraw after a couple of weeks, and Howard Browne sought God for a full manifestation.  He writes that God told him, “Son, this anointing is all Me and has nothing to do with you,” and that it was “as He wills, not as I will.”  Howard-Browne writes:

The Lord then said to me, “You are just a vessel through which I am flowing.  You cannot earn this anointing; it’s given as I will.  If I gave you a key and you could get this anointing at anytime, you would begin to think it’s all you and not Me.  Because you know it is Me that is doing this, you will have to give Me all the glory.”[18]

The manner in which Howard-Browne received his anointing seems to have carried into his teaching, which encouraged men to “place a demand upon the anointing.”[19]  Certainly, to a certain extent he was primed for a theology of demanding power from God given his Positive Confession/Word of Faith roots in Kenneth Hagin’s Rhema organization.

Rodney Howard-Browne pastored the Rhema church in Johannesburg, South Africa for two years before immigrating to the United States in 1987 and entering upon an itinerant ministry across America.  The well known laughing manifestation first erupted while Howard-Browne was preaching in Albany, New York in April of 1989.  After feeling a sensation like “a heavy blanket” come over him, people began falling from their seats; some laughing, some crying.  Howard Browne states they resembled “drunken people.”[20] Several months later in Pittsburg, another scene occurred wherein people were lying prostrate on the floor.  Howard-Browne writes:

The presence of God came in like a cloud and people were filled with joy.  It was bubbling out of their bellies.  People were totally drunk in the Holy Ghost.  The anointing of God was on them and they were in a place of total Holy Ghost ecstasy, total joy.  They were beside themselves.  The Lord spoke to me and said, “You are tasting the powers of the world to come.  This is a little bit of heaven, a glimpse of glory.”[21]

In 1993, Howard-Browne was invited by Pastor Karl Strader to bring his anointing to Strader’s Carpenters Home Church in Lakeland, Florida; an Assemblies of God mega-church.  Originally scheduled for a single week, the publicity of the meetings being broadcasted by radio brought so many people to the services that Howard-Brown held several weeks of meetings wherein three to four thousand persons attended each night.  These meetings are known as the first Lakeland revival; the so-called second Lakeland revival occurring in 2008 under Todd Bentley.                                                                                                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpjB6OvyLuI

Videotape of some of these services may be seen on the internet, and presents a bizarre picture of persons falling, shaking, moaning, screaming, prostrated on the floor, and staggering almost comically about as if intoxicated. Meanwhile, Howard-Browne mills amongst the congregation saying such things as, “Have another drink,” and quoting the apostle Peter’s words, “These are not drunk as you suppose.”  Throughout the meeting the audience continues to howl with the laughter characteristic of early Howard-Browne meetings.  When he asks for a raise of hands of those who want to be prayed for, a majority of hands seem to go up.  The name of Jesus Christ is scarcely mentioned at all.

Howard-Browne’s anointing would soon enter into the Vineyard organization after Vineyard pastor, Randy Clark, traveled to Tulsa in order to have Mr. Howard-Browne lay hands on him.[22]  Clark immediately introduced the anointing to the Toronto Airport Vineyard, and this resulted in the dramatic events of January 1994, and the movement which became known as the Toronto Blessing, or referred to by its critics as the Laughing Revival.  In fact, Howard-Browne’s ministry seems to have been the catalyst sparking a series of spiritual movements, and which appears to be the most significant common denominator of most of the outwardly supernatural phenomenon in the Church over the past twenty years.  The phenomenon often referred to as “Holy Laughter” was occurring well before the 1994 events in Toronto.  While the Toronto Blessing has a clear link to the ministry of Rodney Howard-Browne, the phenomenon of hysterical laughter was occurring in Howard-Browne’s services several years prior to its coming to that city.  From Toronto, the phenomenon spread throughout the world, causing its best-known Australian critic, Andrew Strom, to write:

Virtually every Charismatic or Pentecostal pastor in New Zealand was into this movement.  Even many from the Assemblies of God – and other so-called “conservative” Pentecostals!  And even some Baptists!  It was a nightmare.  Entire meetings would be spent, week after week, in seeking strange “experiences.”  Whole churches would be convulsed with hyena-like laughter, “drunken” antics, jerking, barking, roaring, and animal-like convulsions.  It was like a lunatic asylum – it really was.  Everybody was “soaking” in this new anointing.  Everybody was doing ‘carpet time.’  It got to the point where you didn’t dare let anyone lay on hands and pray for you anymore.[23]

Rodney Howard-Browne is widely recognized as the source and chief apostle of a movement that has profoundly changed the essential character of charismatic Christianity in the world today.  Few charismatically-oriented religious organizations have been left untouched.  The effect of Howard-Browne’s ministry among those organizations embracing the phenomenon has been to virtually discard Biblically-mandated discernment and standards of practice.  As well, there has resulted a proliferation of movements and organizations which seem peculiarly focused upon supernatural phenomenon, novel pet doctrines, and angel sightings.  A great many other organizations have hardened themselves to the prospect of ever embracing the miraculous in their own assemblies on the basis of the abuses they see in the present.

As is typical for many teachers of error, Rodney Howard-Browne is himself resistant to applying Bible to the phenomenon seen in his services (His mantra, “These are not drunk as you suppose,” excepted.)  In fact, in watching a typical Howard-Browne meeting, one can point out dozens of ways in which the teachings of the apostle Paul are violated in terms of order in the assembly and decency in the operation of spiritual gifts, leading one to ask, What will this state of affairs mean should a move of the Holy Spirit occur?  And, How many more will be led astray by Rodney Howard-Browne’s teaching that to receive from God, one must put a “demand” upon the anointing?

Many false teachers are now engaged in promoting Rodney Howard-Browne’s unfortunate contribution to charismatic doctrine.[24] One of the first from the stall was the heavily entrenched and anointed Rhema stalwart, Ed Dufresne.[25] He published his book, Faith That Makes a Demand on the Anointing, in 1996, shortly after the doctrine was asserted by Rodney Howard Browne.  This new era of brashness before God is widely promoted by many self-proclaimed “prophets” and “prophetesses,” who speak of one’s personal fulfillment in the world as simply requiring one places enough “demand” upon God, e.g.:

Why hasn’t it manifested yet?  A major part of faith is to put a demand on the anointing in faith believing.[26]

These teachers go so far as to identify God’s people as the “violent” who must use force with God, as Aduke Obey writes:

There cannot be a supply except there is a demand!  This economic law also applies to spiritual matters.  You cannot get anything from God unless you are desperate for God!  The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and only the violent can take it by force![27]

But those who will come to know their Creator through the Holy Spirit’s work in revealing Jesus Christ will not be those who found their place by forcing their way.  These will come into the knowledge of God through the means God has appointed, including persistence in asking:

Yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.  And I say to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.  For everyone who asks, receives;  and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.”         Luke 11:8-10

But a day is coming when, in the awareness of our sins, every demand in the world will be insufficient basis for God to hear.  In that day, we must hope in the sufficiency of Someone other than ourself to justify.

viii.  Spiritual Violence as a Fruit of Non-Repentance

But there is another question raised by this injury done to Gospel: What is the end of the present error?  How far will this apostasy go?  And, Will God, in His mercy, draw men back from the brink of destruction?  Thus far, there is every indication that false teachers are continuing to drive many over the cliffs, taking advantage of the present inebriated condition of Christianity to build upon the error of E.W. Kenyon and to build upon the error of the many teachers who integrated his teachings into their own ministries.  But still, we stand by the apostle Paul against even angelic beings preaching a “Gospel” inconsistent with the apostolic Gospel:

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.     Gal 1:8

Recall again the Lord’s words:

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.       Matt 11:12

The “kingdom of heaven” is brought to men.  But it is ruled by One man; the Lord Jesus Christ.  As coming from heaven, the kingdom of God is ruled by the One Who came down from heaven.  Jesus told us Whose will is concerned when it comes to the kingdom of God:

For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.                                   John 6:38

And as Christ did the will of His Father, we perform God’s will through Christ, Who said:

As my Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.       John 20:21

Jesus, by performing God’s will upon the earth under the duress of men violently opposed to the ways and purposes of God, was established King of God’s eternal kingdom in which God’s will is is performed.  This is a kingdom that belongs rightfully to only One.  He who resists the true King Who came down from heaven to rule, is (prophetically speaking) spiritually violent.  If the elect perform God’s will in the days of violent men, antagonistic to the Creator, to His Christ, and to His elect, then they will certainly perform God’s will in the day when the violent have perished and the elect inherit “new heavens and a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness.”[28]

We live in a time when signs and wonders are undoubtedly occurring within the context of the name of Jesus Christ, or at least under those who presumably minister in the Lord’s name.  We know that the purpose of signs and wonders is to convince sinful and carnally-inclined human beings to repent.  Again, it was in the midst of the signs and wonders occurring under his own preaching, that Paul declared the words of the prophet Habakkuk:

Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you; “Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish;                  Acts 13:40

If there is a purpose in signs and wonders, it is to bring humanity to repentance.  And what if repentance does not come?  Consider the seventh Psalm:

If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready.  He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons; He makes His arrows fiery shafts.                         Ps. 7:12-13 (NASV)

While the wicked are received into God’s presence by the virtue and sacrifice offered by Christ, the object of this mercy is to effectuate a repentance that leads to the good fruit of the Spirit.  What happens if this repentance does not occur?  God “will sharpen His sword.”  What is the “sword of the Spirit”, but the “word of God?”[29]  The “witness of the Spirit” distills into the “witness of the Word,” a witness characterized by judgment upon the ungodly.  Therefore, having resisted repentance, the sinner is not left unchanged, but begins to “travail in wickedness,” and to dig His own grave, spiritually-speaking:

Behold he travaileth with iniquity, and he hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.  He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.                                                                                      Ps. 7:14-15 (KJV)

If we believe that the righteous man has a travail, then so does the wicked.  So long as they remain hostile to God, they travail in His presence.  If they continue to dwell under the law while confronted by the presence of the Spirit of Grace, their carnality will continually gain the upper hand on them and gain strength.  By refusing repentance they pull the lid of their covering (which is the Law) harder down upon themselves, along with its curses.  Since they must continually deny truth in order to self-justify, those nearer to the Lord become their target of accusation.  The “pit” they dig is their own resort to the spiritual principle of Law through self-justification.   This manifests in hostility and accusation against others.  But in their self-justifying, they reject the justification that is ministered unto them by faith, and which affords them place within the body of Christ.  Therefore they “dig a pit” intended for others which only serves to ensnare themselves.  But . . .

His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.   Ps. 7:16 (KJV)

We see now that this “violence” is ultimately intended to come back around to destroy the violent!  Notice that Jesus followed His statement concerning “violent men” with the statement, “for all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John.”  What did the law and the prophets testify to?  Judgment upon the ungodly and sinner!  The Law and the prophets were put in place due to transgression[30] and testified against the ungodly.[31]  In other words, ungodliness in man was held at bay by the Law and prophets which testified against them, much as the whip renders the lion submissive.

We might therefore gain a sense of the relationship between miraculous signs and the objective in repentance.  And this relationship may not be as dependent upon the issue of the integrity of the messenger as we might suppose.  As to the motivational integrity of the minister, recall Paul’s words:

What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.             Phil. 1:18

As to doctrinal integrity, consider the words of Jesus Christ, after he was told of a man performing miracles in His name, but who did not follow (presumably) His teaching:

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to hinder him because he was not following us.”  But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who shall perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.  For he who is not against us is for us.”      Mark 9:38-40

Here we have an account of a miracle-ministry that was walking errantly.  The minister was not following the teachings of Christ, and yet his ministry was confirmed with signs and wonders.  In actuality, what was being confirmed was not his doctrine, but the power in the name of Jesus Christ.[32]  But how could the power of the name of Jesus be held in the hand of someone that walked errantly from Christ’s teachings and authority?

Recall Peter’s words when the first miracle was performed by the church in the healing of the lame man in the temple.  After the lame man leaped about praising God:

and while he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?”           Acts 3:11-12 

Peter was very quick to discern that the name of Jesus must be held forth as the source of the miracle.  Other ministries we have known in our own generation have not been so faithful as Peter and John in giving the glory to God.  Nevertheless, Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who shall perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.”  Not a high standard of truth for sure!  But this demonstrates that the vital principle is the honoring of Jesus’ name, that when men fall under condemnation, they may lay hope in that one name given men by God.