Praying...Seeking...Praising...

I promised I would save my thoughts about the Outpouring for another blog post. Here it is. I'm going to attempt to put my thoughts in a rational, well spoken post.

I've been watching the revival that has been taking place down in Florida since mid-April when GodTv first started airing it. I took it at face value. People were being healed, saved, delivered, and drawing closer to God. It stirred something in me. Something that had fallen asleep, and something that I had given up long ago. Experiencing God's love. I've posted about it before. My experiences do not define who I am as a follower of Christ. I love Him, but not because of experiential bliss. I love Him, because He first loved me. There, now I've gotten that out there I can freely talk about what I really intended to blog about.

After watching the outpouring for a few weeks I decided to see if I could find anything by anybody that had been there. I wanted to see if there is abiding fruit coming out of all that excitement. As I started to search I did find a few testimonies from people who had been there, and been touched, but what I found more of was people bashing what has been going on. Things like: It's demons, not God healing all those people, Jesus isn't being preached, people aren't getting saved, people lives aren't truly being changed, it's witch craft that makes people act or feel the way they've been feeling. To all that I wanna say "GIVE ME A BREAK!"

Since when do people that have spent 2 hours worshiping and praising Jesus, praying to Him and in His name and asking His presence and Spirit to touch them receive a demon instead? Since when does someone laying hands on you and praying for you "IN the name of Jesus" operate with witch craft and demonic power? Tell me how if you are asking something from the Father, In the Name of Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit, tell me how they are receiving lying signs and wonders or demons? What ever happened to this passage of scripture?
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matt. 7:7-11

When people are flocking to the front every night to accept Christ as their own personal Saviour, how then can the observation be made that people are not coming to Christ? What's more, how do you explain away a 15 year drug addict that is instantly set free from addiction with no cravings and no withdrawals? All the glory belongs to God.

Come on people! What's going on may not be in the package you like, but does it make it not from God. John the Baptist was radical, clothes in animals skins and crying out "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." He wasn't a package that people of his time would like, but does that mean he was not God's messenger? Todd Bentley is not perfect. There is a lot of imperfection in him. (He's only 32 years old.) Those of you without sin, and that have reached perfection, go ahead, cast the first stone.

There may be a lot of emotionalism and excitement going on. All those that claimed to be healed may not actually have been, and there may be people there with their eyes on the vessel (those in ministry) rather than the One who flows through the vessel, but let us not be taken in by those that say this is not of God. Keep your eyes on Jesus, keep pressing in to Him, seeking and asking and knocking. Let's not seek the signs, the wonders, the miracles, the goosebumps or other manifestations. Let's seek the giver of those things.
For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matt. 7:8