I can understand your position. Tragically the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement has been corrupted and hijacked by the Prosperity, health and wealth Word of Faith crowd, and they have put themselves at the forefront of the modern Charismatic movement.
it certainly isn't the Pentecostal movement that I signed up for in 1966. In those days, there wasn't all the nonsense that seems to characterise the popular Charismatic movement, with its gold dust raining from the ceiling, uncontrolled kumalini manifestations, claiming healing when there is no evidence of it, false prophecies that never come to pass, naming and claiming material "wants" instead of trusting God to supply our needs. It seems that holiness has gone out the window, and the real power of the Holy Spirit has been replaced by froth and bubble jerking, falling down, uncontrolled laughter, rolling around the floor, convulsive nodding of the head and shaking.
If we look at the ministry of Jesus which is our example of genuine Christian ministry, we see none of that nonsense. In Bethel church, a group performed pagan incantations right on the stage, fully supported by the leadership of the church. Hillsong's music is designed to put people into hypnotic style trances to hype them up to all sorts of occult-like manifestations. None of this is found in the Book of Acts.
What we see in the ministry of Jesus and the book of Acts, are people being healed of sickness and disease, resulting in multitudes turning to Christ. We see demons cast out, convincing the pagan community that Jesus Christ has more power than the pagan gods they were worshiping, causing them to reject paganism and to turn to Christ.
There are Pentecostal and Charismatic churches that are believing in and allowing the Holy Spirit to work with them to show the unsaved communities around them that Jesus Christ is more than just words in a book, but He is real and alive, and is totally willing to heal the sick and to set people free from demons. But we don't see those groups featured on Youtube. They don't advertise themselves. They just get on with the job of winning souls to Christ and trusting that the Holy Spirit will work with them with signs following, as the 1st Century evangelists did.
If 1st century Christians had followed the antics of Bethel, Hillsong, and the WOF practices of Kenny Copeland and his fellow heretics, the early church would never have got off the ground, and we would all still be speaking Latin under a modern pagan Roman Empire. These churches and false apostles have corrupted and brought the Charismatic movement into disrepute, and have been used of Satan to derail the true ministry of the Holy Spirit and to rob good evangelists of the power that should accompany the preaching of the gospel.
it certainly isn't the Pentecostal movement that I signed up for in 1966. In those days, there wasn't all the nonsense that seems to characterise the popular Charismatic movement, with its gold dust raining from the ceiling, uncontrolled kumalini manifestations, claiming healing when there is no evidence of it, false prophecies that never come to pass, naming and claiming material "wants" instead of trusting God to supply our needs. It seems that holiness has gone out the window, and the real power of the Holy Spirit has been replaced by froth and bubble jerking, falling down, uncontrolled laughter, rolling around the floor, convulsive nodding of the head and shaking.
If we look at the ministry of Jesus which is our example of genuine Christian ministry, we see none of that nonsense. In Bethel church, a group performed pagan incantations right on the stage, fully supported by the leadership of the church. Hillsong's music is designed to put people into hypnotic style trances to hype them up to all sorts of occult-like manifestations. None of this is found in the Book of Acts.
What we see in the ministry of Jesus and the book of Acts, are people being healed of sickness and disease, resulting in multitudes turning to Christ. We see demons cast out, convincing the pagan community that Jesus Christ has more power than the pagan gods they were worshiping, causing them to reject paganism and to turn to Christ.
There are Pentecostal and Charismatic churches that are believing in and allowing the Holy Spirit to work with them to show the unsaved communities around them that Jesus Christ is more than just words in a book, but He is real and alive, and is totally willing to heal the sick and to set people free from demons. But we don't see those groups featured on Youtube. They don't advertise themselves. They just get on with the job of winning souls to Christ and trusting that the Holy Spirit will work with them with signs following, as the 1st Century evangelists did.
If 1st century Christians had followed the antics of Bethel, Hillsong, and the WOF practices of Kenny Copeland and his fellow heretics, the early church would never have got off the ground, and we would all still be speaking Latin under a modern pagan Roman Empire. These churches and false apostles have corrupted and brought the Charismatic movement into disrepute, and have been used of Satan to derail the true ministry of the Holy Spirit and to rob good evangelists of the power that should accompany the preaching of the gospel.
