This is copy, edited just a little to answer what you ask, from yesterday in the "Charismatic pro and con thread". See my website
My name is Ken Behrens for a full history. I may be unique, to have become Pentecostal, thrown out of churches because of it, ministered as a Pentecostal for a lifetime without a denomination.
There have been so many new Charismatic/ Pentecostal threads in the last few days, I'm wondering if there is an underlying cause.
I'll give you a little history. I was raised Catholic, and I grew up believing in miracles, because of all the saints. I got into this by discovering I had "gifts", and there was no training and the only acceptance was in the occult. In late 1966, a group of Catholic college students found "baptism in the Spirit" in the Bible, and went to a denominational Pentecostal church to ask for it. They felt different after, and took several months talking about the experience among themselves. Soon, they were sharing with whoever would listen. Not 10 years earlier, the pope had prayed for a "new move of the Holy Spirit", and lot of people felt this was it. The people who had the experience felt so joyful, they started expressing it, especially at the new "guitar masses" the liturgical renewal had brought in. This was too much for the others, who did not have the experience, so the new group started holding prayer meetings, where they could sing as loud as they wanted, read the Bible to each other, etc. It wasn't long before they realized that the Pentecostal churches expected tongues, prophecy, healing, etc., so they tried. Here's a key point: no one ever wanted anything except God's will. No one knew for sure if the gifts were authentic, they just tried what they thought they saw in the Bible. After months of reading and asking questions, I joined the movement, and got "saved" and "baptized in the Spirit" in 1972.
There was a problem: the Pope had prayed, the liturgical renewal opened the door, but the leadership of RC was still cessationist. A period of about 6 years followed when the rank and file catholics had to convince the leadership they were doing something authentic. This is a second key point: The RC may be wrong on theology, but they have some of the best formally-educated theologians and pastors of any denomination. The rank and file convinced the leadership. The lay leadership founded a Christian community (like in Acts) at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and published for the world. So the theology was published, and we all read it. That means, I have seen pretty much all the Scriptures, church Fathers, current events, etc., simply because this is what
had to be if the renewal was to survive. And survive it did. The old law, dating from before 1000AD, that "all tongues are to be assumed demonic" was replaced by the new law that Catholics could pray the new way if they so chose.
In 1975, a theological think-tank issued an opinion that if the (liturgical) renewal was to continue, Catholics would have to start living by sacrificial love. The rank and file rejected the challenge, and began throwing out every lay leader and priest and nun who was charismatic, as they were the ones with the joyful music that was inspiring people to risk going farther with God in love. By 1981, the leaders had taken the prayer meetings and formed a new brand of protestantism, the non-denom charismatic church. I was one of these forced to leave, but I remained catholic until 1983 (my wife and I were both told by God never to belong to a denomination again ca. 1986).
The renewal structure split into 4 groups: 1. Many prayer meetings continued, but lost almost all the gifts. Today, several RC churches have "charismatic prayer groups", but they are a bare shadow, with only the most "milk" prophecy and teachings". 2. Many prayer meetings remained in the CC, but became apostate, following a Mary apparition in Medugorje, Yugoslavia. 3. There are many non-denom churches and prayer meetings that are serious (almost all non-Catholic now), though some lately are becoming non-charismatic to attract more people, as group 4 causes problems. Of course, Catholic as a viable source of anything Christian, has pretty much failed now, and pastors who have never been Catholic open such churches and groups regularly since about 1990. 4. To attract people, several of these pastors in #3 have started "worldwide" ministries in their churches (as internet now allows), and this is the source of the videos we saw in the other thread. When they follow God, fine, but many of them do not.
My wife and I were both of group 3, and I remember many times we consciously decided to reject attending groups in parts 1,2 and 4. When God opened up our ministry in 1987, we both were catapulted into a level of revival pretty much unmatched in the western world, since the great awakenings, and it was clearly charismatic, as the remaining Catholics worked with the new Protestants. This is why you can't shake my certainty that what we are doing is correct, and also why I am so open. We (you, me and everyone reading this) are the Body of Christ; nothing will happen until we perceive ourselves as one, and accept whatever authentic gifts God has given each of us, whether they are in I Cor. 12-14 or not. I mean also to include gifts of Scriptural insight, music, administration, evangelization, even ideas for chat-websites. I don't care what you think of the gifts, mine are here for you and anyone else. You are responsible not to me, but to God, if you refuse something He is offering, but I will respect your choice either way. I will answer any question I can, so we can better share. After all, you may be called to another part of the Body altogether than am I, so you will see different Scriptures as more important. We cannot "fill the earth" if we are all standing in the same place.
Again, let me state that everything I have come through was tested in the fire of Scripture, church fathers, church history, church administration, and experience, by people who wanted nothing other than to do what God wanted for them. It has stood the test of time for 45 years, and is still working as far as I can tell. 700 prophets of Baal do not invalidate one Elijah, and a million counterfeits on you-tube do not invalidate a faithful remnant.
