Lakeland

Here’s a bit from an article written by Todd Bentley of Lakeland Revival fame:

By now you may be wondering what angels really look like. Well, I’ve had angels come as shimmering pillars of light with such brightness about their person that I couldn’t make out the details. I had another angel come to me looking like he was about 6′ 4″ tall with 24″ biceps. He was cut with rippling muscles and wore a golden sash about his waist. He had blond, shoulder-length hair and blue eyes-the hunk of hunks. We are talking better than Fabio, OK. Another time I had a similar-looking angel come to me-he was young and in his early twenties. I said, “God is that like me in the spirit?” He said, “No Son, it’s an angel” . . .

I once had an angelic visitation, I believe, in a Mac’s convenience store. I had told these guys in the store about Jesus once before-they were laughing, mocking, scoffing, drug addicts. One guy was an atheist. One of them, an atheist, standing with his buddies, began to scoff at me saying, “Look, it’s the guy who came in here last week telling me about Jesus. What do you guys think about Jesus?” They were all drunk, stoned or smoking cigarettes, wearing AC/DC or Motley Crew T-shirts: “We don’t believe in angels and God and all that crazy stuff and blah blah blah.” Nothing would have convinced these hardened skeptics besides the power of God.

Suddenly, I fell under the power in the convenience store and, on all fours, roared like a lion. Then the shop clerk ran with fear and dived behind the counter with the two dope heads right behind him. By now, the entire atmosphere had changed. Then the atheist gets up, points his finger at me, and says, “Is that your God?” At that moment, this dirty bum comes walking into the store with two bags of bottles or something, puts them up on the counter and says, “You guys, listen to what these guys are telling you. Everything these guys are telling you is true.” He gets his money and walks out of the store.

The first thing I thought when I looked at my friend was, “That was an angel.” He was thinking the same thing. My wife and her girlfriend were waiting in the car and watching what was going on in the store. When we got into the vehicle my wife said nobody went in the store and nobody came out. This particular angel, I’m convinced, came looking like a bum.

Bum? I wonder if he meant “Bam!” Anyway, it gets more interesting:

Now let me talk about an angelic experience with Emma. Twice Bob Jones asked me about this angel that was in Kansas City in 1980: “Todd, have you ever seen the angel by the name of Emma?” He asked me as if he expected that this angel was appearing to me. Surprised, I said, “Bob, who is Emma?” He told me that Emma was the angel that helped birth and start the whole prophetic movement in Kansas City in the 1980s. She was a mothering-type angel that helped nurture the prophetic as it broke out. Within a few weeks of Bob asking me about Emma, I was in a service in Beulah, North Dakota. In the middle of the service I was in conversation with Ivan and another person when in walks Emma. As I stared at the angel with open eyes, the Lord said, “Here’s Emma.” I’m not kidding. She floated a couple of inches off the floor. It was almost like Kathryn Khulman in those old videos when she wore a white dress and looked like she was gliding across the platform. Emma appeared beautiful and young-about 22 years old-but she was old at the same time. She seemed to carry the wisdom, virtue and grace of Proverbs 31 on her life.

She glided into the room, emitting brilliant light and colors. Emma carried these bags and began pulling gold out of them. Then, as she walked up and down the aisles of the church, she began putting gold dust on people. “God, what is happening?” I asked. The Lord answered: “She is releasing the gold, which is both the revelation and the financial breakthrough that I am bringing into this church. I want you to prophecy that Emma showed up in this service-the same angel that appeared in Kansas city-as a sign that I am endorsing and releasing a prophetic spirit in the church.” See, when angels come, they always come for a reason; we need to actually ask God what the purpose is. Within three weeks of that visitation, the church had given me the biggest offering I had ever received to that point in my ministry. Thousands of dollars! Thousands! Even though the entire community consisted of only three thousand people, weeks after I left the church the pastor testified that the church offerings had either doubled or tripled.

During this visitation the pastor’s wife (it was an AOG church) got totally whacked by the Holy Ghost – she began running around barking like a dog or squawking like a chicken as a powerful prophetic spirit came on her. Also, as this prophetic anointing came on her, she started getting phone numbers of complete strangers and calling them up on the telephone and prophesying over them. She would tell them that God gave her their telephone number and then would give them words of knowledge. Complete strangers. Then angels started showing up in the church.

I believe Emma released a financial and prophetic anointing in that place. That was the first angel that I have ever seen in the form of a woman. Some angels I’ve seen seemed like they were neither male nor female. However, Emma appeared as a woman who was like a Deborah, like a mother in Zion. When she came, she began to mentor, nurture and opened up a prophetic well. The people in the church began having trances and visions and the pastor began getting words of knowledge and moving in healing. That congregation also saw more financial breakthrough than they had ever seen before.

Now, do I believe in angels? Sure. Do I believe what Todd Bentley and Bob Jones say about them? Do you?

If so, you must claim an absolutely unprecedented move by the Holy Spirit and a marked change in the disposition of His work in the world, since you will be hard-pressed to find any such barking, squawking, or other bestial manifestations attributed to moves of God in Scripture. Nebuchadnezzar’s descent into madness (as a sign of God’s judgment on him) is the only thing that springs to mind.

If we should not believe these angel stories, how much credence should we put in Bentley’s Lakeland Revival, characterized as it is by a similar preoccupation with angels? If these guys aren’t to be believed when they claim the above things as spiritual realities from their positions of (ostensible) spiritual authority, how in the world would God expect us to believe the prophecies and alleged healings at the Lakeland Revival? How are the weak expected to wade through the junk to find the truth?

The videos showing alleged healings and healing testimonies are altogether unimpressive (perhaps even depressive), although I suppose God has been known to use other jackasses to get through to folks (and should we not strive to make such extraordinary measures unnecessary?).

The issue of prophecies that fail or “words” that are not really from God can’t just be chalked up to, “Well, sometimes we miss – God can handle it when we misspeak in His name.” Does accuracy when speaking on God’s behalf no longer matter to Him, such that He will just use any yahoo to become the heralds and representatives of what He wants to do in the world? The Lakeland deal’s pretty big: would it matter to God if the people through whom He’s leading such a high-profile revival are – well, crackpots? In short, has God’s opinion reversed itself so far from what we see in Deuteronomy 18:20-22?

But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.” You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

Now, a lot of people enthused over charismatic revivals of almost any kind will spit back some junk about “Touch not the Lord’s anointed,” or “Don’t blaspheme the Holy Spirit,” when faced with questions of the kind I’ve posed here. Don’t give me those kinds of statements, true as they might be. Instead, if you disagree with me, please respond with answers to the questions I have posed.

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