The anointing for ministry comes from the Holy Spirit.
Anything anyone contracts or inherits from a dead person is not Him.
I don’t think there’s any comparison between Elijah or Elisha and those high profile charasmatic leaders of today who don’t have half the integrity of those OT prophets.
I’m with pbr on this one. I believe in the baptism of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. I also believe that a lot of error and deception has crept into the Pentecostal movement with it’s emphasis on the gifts, flashy, showy, name it and claim it theology.
People are too busy seeking the Spirit, the power, the healing, tongues, whatever manifestation du jour they hear about and not seeking Christ alone, the author and finisher of our faith.
The Holy Spirit’s job is to point to Christ and lift Him up. People are no longer looking to Jesus but the Spirit.
When I was in church Sunday, the pastor was praying that the Holy Spirit would come and be with us, that He was *invited* etc. No mention of Jesus, who said, where two of three are gathered together, there I am in the midst.
The gifts and manifestations can be faked or counterfeited.
The fruit of the Spirit and Christlikeness can’t.
Too true.
Nevertheless, the enemy would love us to throw out the baby with the bath water.
“People are too busy seeking the Spirit, the power, the healing, tongues, whatever manifestation du jour they hear about and not seeking Christ alone, the author and finisher of our faith.”
Yes, some folks are just like Simon Magus, except they don’t even have the courtesy of offering a bribe.
I’m really a Southern Baptist at heart, but my kids and I have been attending an Assembly since our move to CA a few years ago. The pastor is exceptional, and the doctrine is sound, so I tolerate the occasional lapse into tongues. They pray for the military every week, and speak out strongly against sin.
My Dad quotes his favorite, Dr. J. Vernon McGee as saying that the only thing propping up the tongues movement is women, and I tend to agree, to a great extent. Men NEVER speak in tongues at this church. Some of it isn’t even translated, which is completely unScriptural and when it is translated, it’s garbage. I refuse to believe that God would speak through someone to say “I love you” over and over and nothing else. :)