Regarding the 'it's all about me' personality (or the Jezebel spirit) Joanna M. Ashmun, in writing about Narcissistic Personality Disorder, writes in part about Christian narcissism:
Narcissists I've known also have odd religious ideas, in particular believing that they are God's special favorites somehow; God loves them, so they are exempted from ordinary rules and obligations: God loves them and wants them to be the way they are, so they can do anything they feel like -- though, note, the narcissist's God has much harsher rules for everyone else, including you... "Modern American Christianity is filled with the spirit of narcissism. We are in love with ourselves and evaluate churches, ministers and truth-claims based upon how they make us feel about ourselves. If the church makes me feel wanted, it is a good church. If the minister makes me feel good about myself, he is a terrific guy. If the proffered truth supports my self-esteem, it is, thereby, verified." (Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) : Traits discussed)
The bolded part (bolded on her article) really summarizes one of the main foundational reasons (if not the very cornerstone of the foundation) that charismatic movements and ministries like IHOP (etc.) cannot produce or thrive in anything that is really of God: as 'self' is the very opposite of God and strives against (hates) the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit in return hates it, it is a reasonable conclusion to say that any Christian gathering in which the above bolded is fact cannot exhibit any real fruits of the Holy Spirit and cannot produce anything that comes from God. I could prefer that Donald Trump, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet would turn over their wealth to me just by posting a youtube video asking for them, but preference isn't reality. While many Christians prefer that God will visit and bless their unBiblical activities in settings like IHOP, it will never happen. While natural laws (like physics) can be manipulated for our benefit (we can 'prefer them/shape them into what we want/prefer'), God's laws never have been and never can be. To get revival, the proper steps must be followed: God's glory won't be drawn in on an oxcart, and prophets crying out for God to 'come' and who dance about pleading like the prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel for fire to fall will, in the same way, get no fire. If we cannot arrive at answers using the Bible, God has made it so we can arrive at them through reason, sense, and visible evidence.
Narcissists I've known also have odd religious ideas, in particular believing that they are God's special favorites somehow; God loves them, so they are exempted from ordinary rules and obligations: God loves them and wants them to be the way they are, so they can do anything they feel like -- though, note, the narcissist's God has much harsher rules for everyone else, including you... "Modern American Christianity is filled with the spirit of narcissism. We are in love with ourselves and evaluate churches, ministers and truth-claims based upon how they make us feel about ourselves. If the church makes me feel wanted, it is a good church. If the minister makes me feel good about myself, he is a terrific guy. If the proffered truth supports my self-esteem, it is, thereby, verified." (Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) : Traits discussed)
The bolded part (bolded on her article) really summarizes one of the main foundational reasons (if not the very cornerstone of the foundation) that charismatic movements and ministries like IHOP (etc.) cannot produce or thrive in anything that is really of God: as 'self' is the very opposite of God and strives against (hates) the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit in return hates it, it is a reasonable conclusion to say that any Christian gathering in which the above bolded is fact cannot exhibit any real fruits of the Holy Spirit and cannot produce anything that comes from God. I could prefer that Donald Trump, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet would turn over their wealth to me just by posting a youtube video asking for them, but preference isn't reality. While many Christians prefer that God will visit and bless their unBiblical activities in settings like IHOP, it will never happen. While natural laws (like physics) can be manipulated for our benefit (we can 'prefer them/shape them into what we want/prefer'), God's laws never have been and never can be. To get revival, the proper steps must be followed: God's glory won't be drawn in on an oxcart, and prophets crying out for God to 'come' and who dance about pleading like the prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel for fire to fall will, in the same way, get no fire. If we cannot arrive at answers using the Bible, God has made it so we can arrive at them through reason, sense, and visible evidence.