Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
foreign welcome the students this morning fire and Grace School of Ministry of course some of you may be watching this in the evening but uh depending on where you are in the world and what time you're doing your studies this morning but we want to welcome you we are in our first semester we're getting close to the end of the first semester here we are in our block number three church history and function class and we are in class number 13 week number 13. are we 16 weeks this time or 15 we're 16 16. I added one that's right so we're 13 weeks of 16 this semester so we're getting toward the end today we're going to talk about I've entitled this counterfeit Revival and really most of this information is in my book The polluted Church from Rome to Kansas City that I wrote In 2011 and published in 2012. uh but I've just entitled underneath this the invasion of Buddhist Roman Catholic contemplative mysticism in the church we're going to talk about counterfeit Revival counterfeit signs and wonders but first we want to define the real thing and we'll get to that in just a second we'll see what the great evangelist Charles Finney said about all of this um but let's go to Second Timothy 3 first we're going to read um oh we're going to read probably down through most of the chapter here again I have I have focused on this a lot in the last few years I just can't seem to get away from this chapter but I want you to see I want to bring out that there's two things that you're going to see in this chapter and you don't want to fall into either trap or either side so let's let's read second Timothy chapter three uh this snow also that in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves Covetous boastus boasters rather proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful Unholy without natural affection truce Breakers false accusers incontinent Fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God here's the verse I want to focus in on having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away the word power there in the Greek is dunamis means the miraculous Supernatural power of the Holy Spirit the power of God that is manifested in through Jesus name and what Jesus did on the cross and the stripes he took on his back and all of that his resurrection and the fact that he still heals and the
gifts of the Holy Spirit are part of that as well but he says that the these last days there would be people would have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof from such turn away for of this sort are they which creep into houses and Lead captive silly women Laden with sins LED away with divers lust ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth now verse 8 now as Janice and jambres withstood or fought against or resisted Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt Minds reprobate concerning the faith but they shall proceed no further for their Folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was now before we read any further I want to say this about these two things we see two things here because what most people just read over verse 8 about Jane is and jambres and how they withstood Moses well who are they well we know that when you do a little research you find out that those were the magician Egyptian the Egyptian magicians sorcerers that basically mimicked uh the miracle or the sign and wonder that God gave Moses remember God gave Moses the sign throw your rod down it's going to turn into a serpent well these two Egyptian magicians Janice and jambres are the ones who threw their rods down and they turned into a serpent too and this is what convinced pharaoh to harden his heart so what I'm saying is The Faults Are The Satanic the Demonic Supernatural is there to fight against the true Supernatural of God and the men of God and the women of God that are God calls to stand up so this is something I want you to get a hold of this because we're going to be talking about this you can fall into the Trap of being the Christian who says you know there's no more gifts of the holy spirit anymore there's no more signs and wonders There's No more healing the gift of tongues is not necessary somebody put on my Facebook the other day the gift of tongues is obsolete really wow you're a genius um you know you you you hear stuff like this all the time and so these are people who want to deny the power the miraculous power the gifts of the holy spirit healing Miracles things of that nature they want to just throw all that out and say God doesn't do that anymore and then uh there are people that are within the church and we're going to talk about this they're within the church some of them are enemies in the camp and they're disguising themselves as Christians some of them are just ignorant Christians you've gotten into occult practices and we're going to cover that but there is the false Supernatural but remember when Moses was
in the court of pharaoh that was the power of God his Rod turning into a serpent and you had the power of Satan the Demonic power of the Egyptian magicians Supernatural confronting one another all right now of course Moses rod devoured the Egyptian magicians wrong all right the power of God is always greater than the power of Satan but that doesn't mean there's not going to be this conflict going on when God is doing something okay now we're here to talk about Revival and particularly I'm going to talk about counterfeit Revival but just remember this every time there is a move of God a Revival God starts doing something there is always a counter Revival there is you know in fact during the Reformation we're going to talk about that today too uh the when the Reformation began shortly thereafter the Roman Catholic Church formed the Counter Reformation this is when Ignatius Loyola formed the Jesuit order to fight the revival going on of people pulling away from the Roman Catholic church and getting uh back into true biblical Christianity so let's go back to this verse and let's read some stuff I want to I want to read a little bit what Paul said because he said you're going to have these people who deny the power claim to have godliness the form of godliness they have an outward appearance of Christianity but they reject the power of the Holy Spirit he said and then you have these people that are going to be confronting or trying to hinder the work of God by bringing in the satanic power and demonic power to oppose the true men and women of God and so you see that but what Paul said here verse 9 he goes on to say but they shall proceed no further for their folly or their foolishness shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was so basically what that means is God's going to reveal the difference between the two and as time goes on in the story with Moses and the Egyptian magicians remember they even mimic some of the plagues which I thought was funny because God was bringing plagues upon Egypt to punish them for their wickedness and Rebellion and evil and the Egyptian magicians would mimic some of the plagues they brought some they made it worse they brought upon themselves but again it convinced Pharaoh well Moses is you know Moses God is no different than our God so Pharaoh continued to harden his heart but then of course there reached a point where the Egyptian magicians if you go read this in Exodus finally they couldn't mimic anymore all right um and there's things that the devil
just can't do all right and he won't do there's a limit to his Supernatural false miracle deceptions but let's keep going this is what Paul said Paul was telling Timothy one of the things that you need to pay attention to how how do we distinguish especially within the church we got wolves in sheep's clothing how do we distinguish when okay if you've got a wolf in sheep's clothing how do you distinguish and and then you have a true Prophet or a true Pastor or a true you know evangelist or Apostle or whatever you have them doing Miracles and then you have over here one claiming to be that dressed up like a sheep doing Miracles how do you determine well one of the ways and one of the main things you're going to have to look at Paul wrote here in verse 10 he says but thou has fully known my Doctrine okay you need to know what someone teaches okay and that's what we're going to look at today some of the some of the people that have been in Revival movements prophetic movements in the Pentecostal charismatic realm over the last hundred years or so yes we must examine their Doctrine do what do they teach do they teach biblical sound Doctrine do they have a Biblical sound understanding of Salvation repentance faith uh demonology do they have sound Doctrine or not or are or have they gotten over and mixed in Eastern religions okay this is very important Hinduism Buddhism has that infiltrated their Doctrine and their beliefs then he says this he says you have fully know my Doctrine and then he says manner of life this is very important as we're going to see if you find out that you've got a minister over here who's praying for the sick and they're getting healed and you got another one over here is praying for the sick and they're getting healed but one of them's manner of life is to practice yoga or visualization or repetitive Mantra chanting prayer or he worships Mary then what you're finding out is is Doctrine in his manner of life is not matching up to what the Bible says so if it's Doctrine and manner of life is not matching up to what the Bible says then I can tell you that the Miracles or the apparent gifts or signs or wonders that he's doing uh probably not from God they're probably not miracles from the Lord Jesus okay and this is what Jesus warned us of this in Matthew 24 he said there's going to rise false Christ and false prophets and they're going to show great
signs and wonders but remember their Doctrine and their manner of life will expose them okay if they if they're saying well all religions lead to God or it doesn't matter you know what you who you call God then we have a problem right we look at their Doctrine and their manner of life we also look at who taught them who taught them are they into these things are they into occult practices is there compromise is there mixture all right this is how we determine whether a minister or Ministry or church is operating in true holy ghost power and Revival and the true Gospel of Jesus Christ versus the counterfeit the deceivers the wolves in sheep's clothing we've got to pay attention to Doctrine and the manner of life and that means are they mixing in false Doctrine are they mixing in a cult Pagan practices and so if if we look at these things it's real simple it really is most of the time the reason we don't know where somebody is that maybe maybe we hear about a minister and there's oh there's a Revival happen there's Miracles happening well when I hear that my first response is well let's see what they believe let's see what they teach let's see who their mentors and teachers let's see what let's see what their Doctrine is and what their manner of life is if they're sitting around meditating visualizing chanting uh worshiping Mary loving up and kissing up on the Pope we have a problem we have a big problem all right Paul goes on to say and let's we'll just read verse 10 read verse 11 here just read a little bit he says but thou is fully known my Doctrine manner of life I love this purpose really my motives why I'm doing what I'm doing uh Faith again true Faith that's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ long-suffering charity patience and listen persecution uh remember most of the time false prophets are loved and followed by lots and lots and lots and lots of people and they don't get persecuted but anyway he said Paul said you've known my persecutions afflictions which came to me at Antioch and Iconium and Lister and what persecutions I endured but out of them all the Lord delivered me yea and all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution but evil men and seducers shall act
worse and worse deceiving and being deceived and he gives another hint here that we are going to deal with some of the deceivers we're going to deal with meaning they are going to pretend or appear to be Christian some of the deceivers we're going to deal with uh he calls them seducers the word there in the Greek is goace and it means one who mutters spells a wizard right an imposter so he tells us we're going to be dealing with people like that who are into witchcraft Supernatural aspects of pagan religions such as Hinduism Buddhism and uh they disguise them and listen they've disguised a lot of these things and put Christian or different terms on them that Christians have accepted and uh you're going to see that today all right but anyway he tells Timothy here but can you continue and the things which you have learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou Hast learned them and that from a child thou has known the holy scriptures which are able to make the wise into salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be perfect that is mature thoroughly furnished unto all good works so plainly he says here he always he points Timothy back you know who you've learned these things from from me from your mom from your grandmother he had talked about them before and you know to stay with the Holy scriptures that's what we base everything on all right so I wanted you to see that before we delve into this any further now let's well we'll look at one more verse let's go to um one more passage that I didn't put in here let's go to Second Corinthians chapter 11 just read this real quick and go down to verse 13. Paul talks about false Apostles deceitful workers we're going to read second Corinthians 11 this is 13-15 just so you see Paul told us we we would have false Apostles now one of the things that signifies an apostle remember Paul said the signs of an apostle follow me he also one of the things that that denotes an apostle is a church planter or starter so he said some of these will be people who start plant churches right so he's saying here and let's read this he said for such are false apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ and no Marvel or don't be surprised for
Satan himself is transformed into an angel of Light therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as or likened to or or look like the Ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works so he's saying it's going to get interesting there's going to be these false prophets these wolves and sheeps bowing there's going to be false Apostles don't be surprised Satan can transform himself and appear to be an angel of Light but how do you know you pay attention you pay attention to what they teach their Doctrine their manner of Life what is the end of their Works their teaching their preaching what might be mixed in there and then you watch the fruit of it are people's lives Shipwrecked or are they getting free and closer to Jesus which one is it and when you start watching over a period of time you know you may not be able to tell immediately sometimes the Lord gives us again just spiritual discernment and sometimes he he doesn't because he wants us to pay attention he wants us to judge according to uh the scriptures and pay close attention so now let's get to uh we'll get to the PowerPoint this morning so we're talking about counterfeit Revival counterfeit signs and wonders let's let's just look at the real for a second here let's define some of this let's go to the next slide first of all as we get into this and I've shared this before I worked for a bank uh many years ago with probably what was it probably the 1991 time period I worked for a bank I was a teller we had to go through uh training to detect counterfeit bills now what's interesting is is they did show us at the end of the training a counterfeit bill but their idea of training us was to make us so familiar with the real money how it feels the details to look for that actually it was pretty amazing that when you touched and and look I took so much money back then in fact on Mondays my job was to count the weekend deposit that came in on Monday from Walmart all the Walmarts in there I'm not joking you I sat in the Vault on Mondays with another bank employee and sometimes would count half a million dollars in cash so I have handled a lot of money and it's funny when you handle real money a lot and you look at it a lot the moment a counterfeit comes into your hands it actually feels different feels a little different and you definitely go when you feel that
then you start looking at the details but let me just say this and I've made this point many times just because there are really really really really good counterfeits does not mean there's not a real and this is what's so disturbing with what some even some people are doing right now is that even though there's so many there are there are many counterfeits out there many counterfeit churches counterfeit ministers counterfeit profits counterfeit Apostles there's many many many many right now and Jesus said in the last days there will be many but don't just because there's so many you can't say well because of that there's no real Ministers of the Gospel who have the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit and that it's real and just because listen just because something is simple you know just because there's healing you know in say Asian acupuncture well we we got to throw it out Jesus doesn't heal well no what is real what is demonic we need to know but uh Satan makes a counterfeit but a counterfeit if there's a counterfeit there's a real so let's look at real Revival real quick I just wrote down some characteristics and I actually left one out so there's really six I want to look at here but if you look at the characteristics of a genuine Revival or a genuine move of the Holy Spirit a move of God and and just keep in your mind if you've read the gospels when Jesus came on the scene Jesus brought Revival okay he brought Revival to a dead religion um if you look at John the Baptist he did the same thing if you look at uh the day of Pentecost you see the same thing if you look at Philip going to Samaria you see the same thing you look at Paul going to different places and when the Holy Spirit would move so you're going to see similar things but this is this is just some things that I wrote down yesterday that I feel like are characteristics of a genuine Revival move of the Holy Spirit number one there's always going to be God called leaders who step forth or step forward with a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit on their preaching teaching or prophetic Ministry signs and wonders and miracles can be part of this as it was with Jesus's Ministry and from Pentecost forward but if you remember John the Baptist didn't do any Miracles yet the anointing of the Holy Spirit was so powerful upon him and the message was so strong and fresh that it it caused people to gather to come here his preaching and his prophesying and his preparing the way for the Lord and his message of repentance and many people confess their sins and repented even Roman soldiers what do we do I mean they were there I mean you were talking about there must have been some holy ghost
power and conviction on John the Baptist preaching of course I believe that John the Baptist preaching was the beginning of the Revival that Jesus Took deeper when he came on the scene he he took it deeper and that's when the deliverance from demons and the healings and the Miracles and you got more more depth of Revelation and teaching from Jesus than you got from John the Baptist so I kind of look at John the Baptist in Jesus ministry as two waves of the same Revival um but anyway that's that's number one number two I put hearing characteristics of a genuine Revival that these leaders step forward also not just with a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit on their preaching teaching or Ministry but with fresh Revelation from the word of God of either hidden or neglected truth that is needed to combat sin lukewarmness or some prevailing error we've seen this recently with the I believe is a Revival and an Awakening due to the revelation of biblical cosmology AKA Flat Earth Revelation and the truth of scripture and now that this can be proved we've seen a great Revival uh due to this truth so there's there's times when there's Revelation from the word you know um back the Pentecostal Revival was a fresh Revelation about the gifts of the holy spirit being for us and for today and that we should seek those and desire those and covet those gifts just like the Bible says we should neglect them you know when John the Baptist stepped on the scene it was you know much different than the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees who were sitting in the temple in their fancy clothes looking down on others going we're glad we're not like other men John the Baptist came out in the wilderness away from the temple away from the religion looking like a wild man and preaching repent and then when these same religious leaders came to John the Baptist he said how will you escape the damnation of hell you serpents you Vipers I mean he was not he was completely separate from the religion the accepted lukewarm backslidden dead Fallen away from God religion so uh it just depends I mean and sometimes it's all of the above here sometimes it's a fresh Revelation from the word that come that that combats sin lukewarmness and prevailing errors and it's just all of the above there number three the message will always include doesn't mean it won't have other things we emphasize but it will always emphasize and include the Lord Jesus Christ and the Redemption
only found by faith in his shed blood as the Lamb of God the sacrifice to take away our sins and his bodily Resurrection from the dead so a true Revival will always Focus back on Jesus well always take whatever truth or whatever Miracles happening or whatever whatever prophetic Revelation may be happening and they will always Point people to Salvation is in Jesus Christ in his shed blood and his resurrection alone no other way there were four repentance from sin is another characteristic and a turning away from false Doctrine uh Faults Are Dead religion will always be part this this repentance from sin and turning away from false Doctrine false or dead religion will always be part of the messages slash preaching in a true Revival that's one of the things people uh recently people been attacking the Azusa Street Revival but one of the leaders of the Azusa Street Revival who was more in the background Frank bartleman who wrote the book the eyewitness account of the Azusa Street Revival talks about how that they fully understood and one of the things that the leader said over and over and over again was that the depth of the Revival will only be um how did they put it the depth of the Revival would be according to the depth of the repentance of the people and both Christians and the lost so repentance is from sin and false Doctrine and dead religion and traditions of men is always part of a true genuine Revival number five Mini backsliders or prodigals will repent and come back to their first love of our Lord Jesus Christ and the loss will be converted on a much bigger scale than usual okay now true Christianity as we plug along if you're preaching the gospel if you're living the gospel you're we're going to see people get saved and we're going to see prodigals come back it should be a natural thing but when a Revival hits it's just a massive increase of prodigals and backsliders and the lost being converted and coming back repenting and coming back to the Lord and number six I forgot to put in here on this slide number six is a true Revival or a true move of the Holy Spirit and God really pours out his Spirit into place whether it be in a home in a church in a nation when God really pours out his Spirit you can count on a true Revival has been preceded by um by a serious season of prayer and intercession four
got to move and to save the Lost and to restore the church in power and Glory as it should be so these are all just some things that came to my mind and then I was reminded of what Charles Finney said in his book Revival lectures and for those of you who should already know who Charles Finney is the leader of the Second Great Awakening in America he wasn't just a REV an evangelist or if I believe he was an apostle he was a church planter he was a prophet at times his main gift was evangelist but he pastored churches for a season he really did all of the above he was a great teacher he became president of Oberlin College I mean he uh he fought against the Injustice of slavery when it was not popular because based on his understanding the God's word and Truth in fact a lot of people don't know that Charles Finney when he became president of Oberlin College after many years of of revivals and evangelism uh that he was the first College president to allow a black woman to enter his college and get a degree and let me tell you he suffered great persecution uh because of that but he in the in the Years even preceding that taking over Oberlin College he would preach all over the country he would just Thunder against the evil of slavery and Prejudice and racism and a lot of people don't know again that it was really Christianity and the preachers that broke the back of slavery in America okay it was it was it was their preaching it would not have happened um had not some white preachers stood against it and proclaimed it to be evil and proved it from the Bible okay but let's look at Charles Finney this is in Revival lectures when he says what a Revival is here all right I want to I want to read this because it's so good but uh what a Revival is he says a Revival basically presupposes that the church is sunk down in a backslidden state and a Revival consists in the return of the church from her backslidings and in the conversion of sinners a Revival always includes conviction of sin on the part of the church backslidden professors and this was his way of saying backslidden people who say they love God but just talking with their mouth but their hearts far from him cannot wake up and begin right away in the service of God without deep searchings of heart The Fountains of sin need to be broken
up in a true Revival Christians are always brought under such conviction they see their sins in such a light that often they find it impossible to maintain their hope of acceptance with God now let me ask you this can you get that kind of conviction preaching once you're saved you're always saved no matter how you live no that that false Doctrine is so contrary to Revival and to what the Holy Spirit wants to do especially in the life of backslidden lukewarm Christians and the loss it's just it's just a terrible terrible demonic heresy but let's keep going he said that Christians in a true Revival see their sins in such a light that they often find it impossible to maintain a hope of their acceptance with God it does not always go to that extent but there are always in a genuine Revival deep convictions of sin and often cases of abandoning all hope number two here he says backslidden Christians will be brought to repentance and I love this quote this is probably one of the most quoted phrases from Charles Finney a Revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God just as in the case of a converted sinner the first step is a deep repentance a breaking down of heart a getting down into the dust before God with deep humility and a forsaking of sin so he's defining this revival by conviction heavy conviction and a deep repentance a breaking down of the heart of breaking down of humility and a forsaking of sin on part of Christians so let me just say this if you don't see this taking place in a Revival in a so-called Revival it's not a Revival that's how I knew I remember when I first started watching and we're going to talk about the Lakeland Revival that started in 2008. this is how I knew I began watching it you know and I didn't know I didn't know the guy leading it I didn't know Todd Bentley I didn't know any of the people I thought well what is this but I watched for a while and I listened to the preaching and the doctrine they just weren't preaching the gospel they weren't preaching repentance there was no deep conviction very different from what I experienced when I went to the Brownsville Revival in 1996 seven eight I knew something is wrong here and I knew this I knew Charles Finney I knew what Evan Roberts of the Welsh Revival wrote about I knew about the Hebrides revival I knew about the real revivals and I'm watching this and I go this is not a real robot I knew it immediately now I kept watching because there were some odd things happening I'm saying well maybe this is it is a healing service maybe this is just a healing service that people are mistaking for a Revival but then we find out that that's not
even the case really okay um we'll talk more about that in a minute but let's keep going Charles Finney goes on to say that in a true Revival Christians will have their faith renewed while they're in a backslidden state they are blind to the state of Sinners their hearts or heart is marble the truths of the Bible appear like a dream they admit it all to be true their conscience and their judgment are sent to it but their faith does not see it standing out in bold relief and all the burning realities of Eternity but when they enter into a Revival they no longer see Menace trees walking but they see things in that strong light which will renew the love of God in their hearts this will lead them to labor zealously to bring others to him they will feel grieve that others do not love God when they love him so much and they will set themselves feelingly to persuade their neighbors to give him their hearts so their love to men will be renewed they will be filled with a tender and burning love for Souls they will have a longing desire for the Salvation of the whole world they will be in an Agony for individuals whom they want to have saved their friends relations enemies they will not only be urging them to give their hearts to God but they will carry them to God In the Arms of Faith with strong crying and tears they seeks God to have mercy on them and save their souls from endless burning now let me tell you this could not be truer if you are truly revived renewed by an outpouring an infilling of the Holy Spirit if it is a genuine Revival it is going to stir people to long for the lost to be saved and there's going to be the strong reality set in about heaven and hell and people's Eternal destiny and preaching the preaching and the overall messages of a Revival should include this it should be heard and that's one of the things in the Brownsville Revival I was there night after night after night and I watched Steve Hill who was a true Apostle and a true evangelist I watched him long for that wheat for that all of his messages were geared not just to bless Christians they were geared to convict Sinners to save the Lost and that was his heart's desire to see the law saved and so people can talk bad about him and they can talk bad about the Brownsville Revival but I knew him I met him I watched him preach night after night sometimes I sat in the front row I was there night after night after night that's why I know Brownsville was a true Revival I heard the preaching I watched the doctrine the manner of life and I watched the fruit over five
years I watched the fruit and there was deep conviction of sin there was repentance was emphasized Jesus and the gospel was emphasized and yes the supernatural happened but that wasn't their focus a lot of people think because they saw some of the supernatural stuff and some of the manifestations they thought that that was the focus that was never the focus in fact I was there one night when a guy got out of order manifesting and they took him out of the service so that he would not interrupt the sermon so nobody can tell me that it was false I was there and it followed this pattern now let's finish what Finney what else Finney had to say he says number four here a Revival or a genuine Revival breaks the power of the world and of sin over Christians it brings them to such a vantage ground that they get a fresh impulse towards heaven they have a new foretaste of Heaven and new desires after Union with God thus the charm of the world is broken and the power of sin overcome number five he said when churches are thus awakened and reformed the reformation and salvation of Sinners will follow their hearts will be broken down and changed very often the most abandoned profligates are among the subjects harlots and drunkards and infidels and all sorts of abandoned characters are awakened and converted the worst of human beings or softened and reclaimed and made to appear as lovely specimens of the beauty of holy so he said the results of Revival and the result of Christians being revived their faith being renewed their come returning from their backslidings getting back to their first love will result in the conversion of Sinners and some of the worst of the worst Sinners Like drug dealers and drug addicts and you know like in Brownsville when the Playboy came down to do a shoot in the Playboy bunnies went to church and got saved that evening I mean you see what I'm saying you you just start seeing people get saved that you would just think wow that's amazing I want to read just this part too he says the agencies that are employed and this is something before we get into some of this harder stuff I want to emphasize this truth here he says ordinarily there are employed in the work of conversion three agents and one instrument everybody hear that three agents one instrument all right the agents are God so that's one agent some person who brings the truth to bear on the mind is the second agent and The Sinner himself the instrument is the truth truth of God's word there are always two agents God in the center employed and active in every case of genuine conversion but this is
important to realize God and just remember this God uses people in every Revival in every move of the spirit in every Church in every place God works through people and guess what the people he works through are not always perfect people they're not always perfect in everything they say they're not always perfect in everything they do and this is something to remember some people look at at revivals and look at Revival leaders or look at churches or church leaders as if they're somehow going to live a sinless perfect life and never make a mistake never say anything wrong and to me that that that standard right there that they've set they can't live that standard but they expect everybody else to and if anybody falls short in that then then all of a sudden they throw out the whole thing because look were there problems did problems Arise at the Brownsville Revival yes did problems arise in Azusa Street did some bad people get involved at times did some bad people show up did some bad people get into leadership sometimes and do some things say some things yes but we don't throw out everything that's just dishonest that's dishonest and um really really not fair when you look at it now when you again when you start looking at somebody claims something is a Revival these are the things we have to look at what are they teaching right do they emphasize the Gospel of Jesus Christ repentance is their conviction of sin is there is there a revelation is there a a sense of Heaven and Hell and the urgency for the Lost and then if there are signs and wonders and Gifts apparent gifts happening um are these people into the Bible are they into something else are they into some kind of pagan counterfeit all right so let's let's keep going here now we're going to get into this now as I began to research this because here I am listen I was Pentecostal charismatic from day one before I knew those terms see this is this is another thing that gripes me a bit here all right we love slapping labels on people okay y'all can come back to me for that because I'm gonna talk about this we love slapping labels on people as a certain individual is doing right now and somehow Pentecostals are just all Pentecostals are deceived preaching a false gospel blah blah blah blah blah okay but again they they they refuse to understand that it's not
Pentacle being Pentecostal in the sense we're saying you're Pentecostal or being Pentecostal has nothing to do with the denomination or a certain group there are certain groups that call themselves Pentecostals I would never ever set foot in their Church or their denomination because I know that they're in serious error deception but when we use the term Pentecostal or charismatic we're talking about simply that means in a very general sense that you are someone who believes what the Bible teaches about the gifts and power and demonstrations and manifestations of the Holy Spirit how God has worked both in the Old Testament and the New Testament supernaturally through and among his people what has he done right and you believe that he hasn't changed and that he still does it all today it's still all there that's real simple um you can sit around and you can you folks out there some of those these people mock they want to mock Pentecostals because of someone who may be off base and call themselves a Pentecostal but you know I know there's Baptist preachers who have been pedophiles so does that mean that all Baptists are bad and all Baptists are pedophiles no so let's just stop this nonsense okay just stop because if we go by that there's many people call themselves Christians but they're not we can look at their lives we can look at their actions we can say okay they're not a Christian but if that's what somebody pulls up as their example and see all Christians are bad because this one's bad no that is dishonest it is actually just evil it's deception to do that I mean it's just and that's why I get ill with people that do that with the Jews well we got these evil Jews over here so all the Jews are bad you know there's not one real Jew in Israel yes there is shut your stupid mouth you know just stupidity but they're truthers right they know everything let's keep going here when I began to look at this I'm like what what's going on why why is there so much counterfeit because I begin to as being in and among Pentecostals and charismatics from day one for me you know 1987 and on and then really before that because I grew up with my great-grandmother and my two great aunts being Assembly of God which is a major Pentecostal denomination I remember going to Pentecostal church when I was five six years old I remember hearing tongues and interpretation in church services um so I was exposed to it early on but I didn't even know what you called it you know I didn't know it's called Pentecostal or charismatic or I didn't know any of that I just you know when I came back to the Lord 1987 guess what I did I didn't get to go to church for a
year so I just read my Bible I had no church indoctrination for one year imagine that it was the best thing that ever happened to me because I just read the Bible so my conclusions about the gifts of the holy spirit about the baptism of the holy spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues about healing about casting out demon even about Christians having demons all of that came from reading the Bible leading someone to Jesus and praying for them that's that isn't that amazing and that was a foundation for everything that I believe today it's not because I was taught it in a Pentecostal church it's because I read my Bible and I found out that tongues interpretation of tongues healing Supernatural gift of Prophecy word of knowledge Word of Wisdom God revealing the secrets of man's heart that these things were for us that we could have them operate in them flow in them and that was normal that was normal Christianity that was that's biblical Christianity but then I also knew as I kept reading there would be counterfeit that Satan would have wolves in sheep's clothing false Apostles deceitful workers imposters who would also operate in the Supernatural but it would not be the holy spirit of God it would not be the power of Jesus Christ and guess what I knew that when I was 19 years old and yet we got home Christians have been Christians for decades and they can't seem to grasp this but anyway I began to look at this and I'm beginning to find out some things so let's look at this because we're going to go back all the way back into Christianity when did the counterfeit really begin to take hold now it's not really going to be chronological but we're going to get there because remember Christianity came in you know Jesus 30 32 33 A.D Jesus is crucified rises from the dead Church begins and then it really started shortly thereafter but Simon magus what a name Simon maggot sound like a maggot right but Simon the Sorcerer uh the gnostics were there very early on but before we get to them before we get
into all that let's look now I began to find out that that there was something that happened in Christianity now this guy uh Richard J Foster many of you are not going to know these people but you need to because these people had great impact on Christianity this book came out in 1978 was a bestseller um I believe this guy is a Jesuit plant personally I can't prove that but I can tell you that he he practices and he teaches what Ignatius Loyola created in the 1500s as part of The Counter Reformation to infiltrate and destroy the Protestant church and this book was part of it now whether he did it knowingly or he was just deceived I mean you can flip a coin I guess but I know what I believe but anyway we go to this and this book was written in 1978 in in the in the height of right after the Jesus movement uh which was a move of God but a lot of new age hippie crap got you know infiltrated in and then you move into the 70s and you had the charismatic uh Revival that's where many people again begin to in churches Christians begin to see there's more and baptism the Holy Spirit and all that really took off uh so the devil always remember move of God counter move so the devil's counter move was this basically to revive the spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola and the desert Fathers as we'll get into the Egyptian desert fathers but this guy was one of the main guys they used so on February 8 2008 Christianity Today published an article entitled the future lies in the past it stated that many evangelicals and that includes Pentecostals and charismatics are trying to recover the spirituality of the desert fathers and the early Roman Catholic Church just remember that the desert fathers and the early Roman Catholic Church the spirituality okay the article called these people Ancient Future evangelicals or the emerging Church movement it traced the beginning of the movement back to two men the movement seems to have exploded in a 24-month period in 1977 and 1978 which saw the publication of Richard Foster's best-selling celebration of discipline the path to spiritual growth and Robert Weber's common Roots a call to Evangelical maturity this article stated that Richard Foster was still guiding the movement so this guy is still around he's old dude now let's keep going here
and uh again this is from most of this is from my book The polluted church that was page 77. here I said so what what does Richard Foster teach about prayer and meditation now this is important remember we're going to examine their Doctrine their manner of life and remember this guy right here was embraced by many charismatic leaders like John Wimber who founded the vineyard and then your churches The Vineyard music and he was embraced he's been embraced by many like Bill hybels of Willow Creek Community the largest church one of the largest churches in the country so what does Richard Foster teach about prayer and meditation well from his books celebration of discipline and prayer finding the heart's true home it is evident that he Advocates centering down by focusing on your breaths and then using your imagination to visualize different things he this is a quote he says Christians have developed two fundamental expressions of unceasing prayer the first is usually called aspiratory prayer or breath prayer the most famous is the Jesus prayer this is a short repetitive prayer of Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox where they just repeat the same prayer over and over and over and over again which is something we'll find out Jesus said don't do this in other words he said you can discover your own Mantra or word or short phrase to repeat over and over while focusing on your breath concerning visualization he wrote the inner world of meditation is most easily entered through the door of the imagination we fail today to appreciate its tremendous power the imagination is stronger than conceptual thought and stronger than the will so the imagination what you can conjure the pictures and images and things you you conjure up in your own mind you create it in your own mind that's what visualization is so let's keep going Foster then encourages his readers to use their imaginations listen to this use their imaginations to experience biblical stories now why is this important because I'm going to show you in a minute this is exactly what Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Jesuits who wanted to Stamp Out Christianity Protestant Christianity one of his plans were he created spiritual exercises the training for all of the Jesuits was this right here visualization and repetitive prayer why because he knew that's going to open them up to Demons they're going to be more easily controlled and then we're going to infiltrate this into the Protestant church and we're going to undermine it we're going to introduce them into this so let's keep going let's read this here
he says Foster encourages his readers to use their imagination to experience Bible stories quote this is what he said as you enter the story not as a passive Observer but is an active participant remember that since Jesus lives in the Eternal now and he is not bound by time this event in the past is a living present tense experience for him hence you can actually encounter the living Christ in the event be addressed by his voice be touched by his healing power it can be more than an exercise of the imagination it can be a genuine confrontation Jesus Christ will actually come to you so what he's teaching people is if you will start visualizing and place yourself in those biblical stories and if you can get your mind visualizing it enough you can actually experience it for real you can create it when you want to create it this is what Richard Foster teeth and interesting this is exactly what Ignatius Loyola taught in the 1500s so did you catch that Foster teaching that a person can encounter the living Christ anytime they want through an exercise of their imagination he is teaching that a person can conjure up Jesus whenever they so desire this is beyond dangerous it is clearly an occult practice and any spirit that begins to interact with you through a self-induced vision in your imagination is a demon Spirit masquerading as Jesus unfortunately this is what many Christians have done they have created an image of Jesus through visualization all right and what's interesting is God talked about this in Ezekiel chapter eight he talked about the leaders and the Ancients uh the Elders of Israel doing this he called in the chambers of their imagery meaning they were learning this way way back they were worshiping the sun toward the East which is what yoga is but let's keep going further proof is given that Richard Foster is deep into occult practices is when he goes into on to give a guided visualization to his readers it teaches them how to astral project he says quote in your imagination allow your spiritual body shining with light to rise out of your physical body now can you believe this is accepted as a Christian book and was a bestseller among Christians you wonder why we're so messed up the Christian world's so messed up right now from the 1970s best-selling book it's humbly and this book is still popular in fact in fact one of the largest churches in this town I met with their pastor and he was passing this out in church Baptist pastor yeah but anyway he says
uh Richard Foster says in his book um in your imagination allow your spiritual body shining with light to rise out of your physical body look back so that you can see yourself lying in the grass and reassure your body that you will return momentarily imagine your spiritual self alive and vibrant rising up through the clouds into the stratosphere go deeper and deeper into outer space that doesn't exist until there is nothing except a warm presence of the Eternal creator rest in his presence listen quietly anticipating the unanticipated what anticipating the on well I tell you what now people go oh that's so deep well you're so yeah no carefully any instruction given with time and experience you will be able to distinguish readily between mere human thought that may bubble up to the conscious mind and the true Spirit which inwardly moves upon the heart so here he's teaching guided visualization to train people how to use their imagination to astral project out of their body into outer space that doesn't exist that's another proof it's just people's imagination now I talked about this some of you going to see this next semester in your spiritual warfare but you need to understand that witches satanists and new agers will tell you the way that you create a demonic link between your soul and spirit and learn how to astral project out of your body have out of body experiences and travel into different places is that it's through meditation demonic meditation so there's a demon this is an illustration a demon forming a link between Soul and Spirit through the act of satanic passive meditation or Mantra meditation basically Easter meditation is twofold it's usually some type of repetitive noise breath sound word that are repeated over and over and over coupled with sometimes they just use that to blank out the mind but then it's coupled with it can be coupled with creating your own visions through visualization a mantra usually is a name of a Hindu or a Hindu god or some false god that's chanted again and again again a lot of people don't even know that there some of them are chanting the names of Hindu gods um when they are repeating some of this stuff the new agers and the people that get into Buddhism and Hinduism but let's keep going here so the link the Demonic link creates the ability to astral project or astral travel is how it's done now we just read from Richard Foster his book best-selling book celebrate discipline
about how to do this now this is Shirley McLean the actor Shirley MacLaine right and a very very Avid new Ager I believe probably just a witch but she wrote a book back in the 80s called out on a limb and she describes within this book how she went about learning how to ask or project and leave her body okay so let's let's look at this she says I was silent I wanted to think I wanted not to think I wanted above all to rest I breathed deeply kind of bile Rose to my throat I guess that was the demon coming up to the surface I start I stared at the flickering candle so she used the candle as a focal point she says my head felt light I physically felt a kind of Tunnel open in my mind it grew like a cavern of clear space that was open and free of jumble I didn't it didn't feel like thought it felt actually physical the flame of the candle slowly melted into the space in my mind once again I felt myself become the flame I became the flame be one with the flame weirdness I had no arms no legs no body no physical form I became the space in my mind I felt myself flow into the space fill it and Float off rising out of my body until I began to soar I was aware that my body remained in the water I looked down and saw it David stood next to it my spirit or mind or Soul or whatever it was climbed higher into space isn't that interesting let's go to space yeah right through the ceiling of the pool house upward over the Twilight River I literally felt I was flying no flying wasn't the right word it was more gentle than that wafting seemed to describe it best wafting higher and higher until I could see the mountains and the landscape below me and I recognized what I had seen during the day and attached to my spirit was a thin thin silver cord that remained stretched though attached to my body in the pool of water go on he said it wasn't a dream no I was conscious of everything it seemed I was even conscious that I didn't want to soar too high I was conscious that I didn't want to soar too far away from my body I definitely felt connected what was certain to me was that I felt two forms my body formed Below in my spirit formed that soared I was in two places at once and I accepted it completely I was aware as I sawed a vibrational energy around me yeah demons I couldn't see it but I felt a new sense of sensing it it felt like a new dimension of perception somehow that had nothing to do with hearing or seeing or smelling or tasting or touching I couldn't describe it to myself I knew it was there physically yet I knew my body was below was this
what all those people interviewed by Elizabeth Cooper Ross had experience had my spiritual energy separated itself from the physical form was I floating as my soul I was consciously aware of my questions as I soared freely above the earth I was so conscious of what I felt that in those moments I understood how irrelevant my physical body was I was experiencing the separation I guess experiencing the two entities and very much more I watched the silver cord attached to my body I read about the Civil Court in metaphysical literature well guess what the Book of Ecclesiastes talks about the silver Court says that if ever it's severed you're you're dead you die listen to this as it was I could see the curvature of the Earth yeah we're good we're gonna believe you right see and that's one thing when you open the door to these demons they can bring any deception into your mind they want and the Darkness on the other side of the globe the space surrounding my spirit was soothing and gentle and pure I began to perceive waves of energy connections and undulating thought energy patterns the silver cord wasn't taught or stretched it was only floated gently I directed myself downward back to my body slowly I descended slowly down down gently through the space I wafted back to Earth the energy vibration subsided the rolling sensation of the undulating thought waves disappeared above me and the soft Fusion of contact that I felt like a puff I melded back into my body so this is Shirley MacLaine a new ager a witch not a Christian talking about how she learned to astral project meditation visualization the same thing being taught to Christians by Richard Foster now let's keep going so here this is a great book Spellbound the Paranormal seduction of today's kids by uh I guess that's is that Marcia or Marsha how do you say that is it Marsha Marcia Montenegro uh anyway she's a former professional astrologer who sought out the Supernatural and was involved in paranormal New Age practices until she made Jesus Christ Lord of her life she's now an author and speaker she testifies this is a quote from her listen to this when I took psychic development classes before I was a Christian we were taught specific techniques to grow our abilities we practice seeing things in our minds in order to develop psychic sensitivity visualization using your imagination to create images to what develop psychic sensitivity she writes occult magic attempts to bring into reality that which is on a
non-material plane this is done through rituals in which visualization is prominent you hear that witchcraft uses visualization it is a prominent feature in witchcraft the underlying premise of magical ritual is that you represent a circumstance or act out an event in your mind and it will come to pass in the world she continues before explaining visualization being used by the occultists before a ritual the magician May visualize a white light infusing the area where he or she will cast a protective Circle so here she says it's in your mind you visualization is how witchcraft works y'all see that what does the Bible say about us imagination let me just give you this verse I'll just tell you I just quote it to you okay second Corinthians 10 he says for the weapons of our Warfare not carnal But Mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations not creating them not Conjuring them up not building them in your mind casting them down and bringing every thought captive and make it obey Jesus but but we're imagining Jesus hanging on there well let me tell you he's not hanging on the cross and he's not talking to you while he's hanging on the cross you weren't there you hear that this is what these people are doing this is what Ignatius Loyola taught this is what Richard Foster repeated and this has infiltrated Christianity to the point that we have Christians basically doing the exact same things as Satanist which is and new agers which is why they've opened the door to the evil spirits the counterfeit the Kundalini we're going to talk about let's let's keep going here as I wrote here in in depleted church I have also seen Richard Foster Jim Gaul Jason Upton who's a famous Christian recording artist musician well-known Tony compelo well-known Baptist preacher Rick Warren the leaders of the International House of Prayer Mike Bickel and his whole staff Morningstar that's Rick Joyner I mean this is this is this whole thing permeates this entire Pentecostal charismatic which is interesting because now you see them all really going back to Rome really going back to the Roman Catholic fully right well let's look at this it says for instance uh let's say Rick Warren Lee's uh make references back to these Hermits these uh the Egyptian desert fathers and contemplative prayer for instance Tony Jones one of the leading theologians of the emerging Church
movement and big proponent of using vain repetitions and visualization States in his book The Sacred way spiritual practices for everyday life quote like the Jesus prayer centering prayer grew out of the reflections and writings of the desert fathers John Cassian 360 to 430 came from the West made a pilgrimage to the desert to learn the ways of contemplative prayer so he talks about this stuff came from the desert let's keep going this is the desert fathers and basically this just gives you a definition of who they were the desert fathers were men and later some women that decided to go into the deserts around Egypt and be Hermits in order to pursue varied strange versions of Christianity and this was about 250 BC time period all right this is pre-roman Catholic Church time period they lived in caves Enchanted portions of scripture over and over and used very short prayer repetitively in order to empty their minds and reach and inner Stillness this practice that they called interior silence or continual prayer came to be known as uh hesicism I guess I don't even know how to say that anymore and was said to induce feelings of Peace experiences with uncreated light and even ecstasies these desert fathers and the people that join them uh to the deserts of Egypt became the first Christian monks and nuns okay this is where all this began because there's no such things as monks and nuns in the Bible you know that right now what does the bible ever tell us actually to go be a Hermit and separate ourselves from the world and live alone how do we make disciples that way how do we go into all the world and preach the gospel Every Creature it's completely opposite to what Jesus commanded us to do but yet these people did it and they isolating themselves basically they were creating their own versions of Christianity which why there was so much weirdness that came out of these people now let's let's keep going here now Paul of thieves was considered one of the first Christian Hermits he went in the desert around 250 A.D where he lived in isolation for the rest of his life the most famous Christian hermit was Anthony the great who went into the deserts of Egypt around 285 A.D Anthony was followed over the years by many others however there was another group of monks Hermits already in the Egyptian deserts long before Paul of Thieves or Saint Anthony this is very important this will be on your test there was a group there before these deluded deceived Christians in name only pretty much went out there they were called the therapeutic and they were a pagan group and they were described by the first century Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria in a book he wrote in 10 A.D I think I'm in 10 A.D
right before what right before Jesus right before the bird Jesus was alive but right before the birth I mean right before the birth of Christianity right before all of this anyway called DaVita contemplative or on the contemplative life follow their claim that to have been acquainted with them and was unsure of their origin he did say that they exist in many places in the inhabited world and that they professed an art of healing Superior to that practice in the cities so I wrote here so if they were not Jewish prophets with the supernatural power from the true God um and they were not Christians as this was before Jesus who are these people well let's find out it's believed by archaeologists and historians that the therapeutic were the remnants of Buddhist missionaries sent out by the Emperor ashkota or Ashoka or shoko I don't know how you say Ashoka Maybe the murian dynasty during his Reign from 269 to 231 BC according to edicts of Ashoka he sent Messengers to many kings including Ptolemy II philadelphus the king of Egypt the missionaries were sent to convert them to Dharma which was and is the fundamental teachings of ancient Buddhism and Hinduism also known as the path to Enlightenment ashoka's edicts also claimed that many people were converted to these beliefs so fast forward 200 years and we see that these groups in the Egyptian desert deserts that Loosely resembled Buddhist monastic life so we got through that now again all this is in the polluted Church they have found these Buddhist Wheels archaeologists have found this and so I just want to point out we see the philosophies of Buddhism in the deserts of Egypt long before the desert fathers and then we see the desert fathers emerge with a mixture of some Christian beliefs with Buddhist practices chanting and meditation celibacy extreme ascetism so what are we what are we seeing we're seeing this is what got morphed and pushed into the Catholic Church Catholic Church absorbed this when it started in 313 A.D and begin to take these people into as Saints because they had they they called themselves Christian but they were really Buddhist and their prayers and the way they meditated was from ancient Buddhism it was not a Christian practice okay the rosary beads Buddhism prayer beads Buddhism 1500 years before Roman Catholicism they just Incorporated this stuff all right so this is another big hint
that this contemplative philosophy came from other religions before Christianity in the New Testament was established which is why what we have Jesus saying don't pray with vain repetitions as the Heathen do this was already established this was already well known keep going here let's look here's here's Jim Gaul I mean this this guy was at the Lakeland Revival on the stage speaking prophesying at a healing Revival his wife dies of cancer shortly thereafter all right and I'm not picking on this guy this guy May mean well he may be a well-meaning fellow right he has a ministry that's all focused on prayer but all this is mixed in now think about this this is in 2004 article remember we just read an article a minute ago talking about this Christianity Today 2008 that's more for the Baptist Methodist Evangelical side of things so they're infiltrating that side here you got Charisma magazine the most widespread well-known charismatic Pentecostal Magazine with this guy in 2004 talking about contemplative prayer and he tells you where it comes from let's read it the charismatic prophet and Author Jim Gaul put this put it this way in an article that he wrote in Charisma magazine 2004 quote contemplative prayer often has been relegated to ancient church history but God is restoring it as a means to develop intimacy with him no he's not restoring Buddhist prayer methods to develop intimacy with him if you're doing this see this is why so many have fallen into the counterfeit oh I just anyway let's keep reading he goes on to say I have found that the most direct road to Greater intimacy with God has come through the practice or discipline of an almost lost art in the fast-paced Church of today something called contemplative prayer more than a decade ago this type of prayer came to my attention through some experiences God ordained and since that time it has become one of the central features of my walk with God he then goes on to quote and he quotes in the article Richard Foster uh Roman Catholic Mystics like Saint Bernard of clairvaux who was into this meditation visualization and repetitive prayer also madame guillon who wrote the famous book in the ninth in the 1600s called experiencing the depths of Jesus Christ he also makes reference to the Egyptian desert fathers and the interior Castle which is a concept from Teresa of Avila and I just say here notice that once
again we see the connection and strong influence of Rome I believe it is safe to say that Jim Gaul can be placed firmly among those who Advocate repetitive prayer visualization let's keep going so then you have this guy yeah this guy I don't like this guy at all more um a Universalist but he he was famous he's a famous Baptist pastor but he wrote an article and again the the reference is in the end of my book The polluted Church but in the article entitled mystical encounters for Christians now everybody see this mystical encounters for Christians a Baptist minister so we we you know we can't just say it's Roman Catholic we can't just say it's charismatic or Pentecostal but Baptist Methodist Rick Warren I mean you see what I'm saying mega church Christianity but he says there he says in an article entitled mystical encounters for Christians well-known Baptist author and Minister Tony campalo wrote quote well listen to this nonsense believing the gospel was never a problem for me but during times of reflection I sense that believing in Jesus and living out his teachings just wasn't enough uh what red flags should fly right up because look if we follow Jesus and his teachings what did Jesus teach he'll preach the gospel be filled with the Holy Spirit heal the sick cast out demons right I don't know I've been doing all following Jesus teachings for 32 years and I love it it's good it's enough I want more of that but see these Christians like these Baptists that won't have anything to do with the true Holy Spirit and Gifts of the Holy Spirit end up finding the faults because they just they know something's missing but they go to the wrong place to find it he says there was a yearning for something more and I found that I was increasingly spiritually gratified as I adopted older ways of praying ways that have largely been ignored by those of us in the Protestant tradition I wonder why Counter Reformation Saints like Ignatius of Loyola have become important Source sources of help as I have begun to learn from them modes of contemplative prayer and then he defines what it is I practice what is known as centering prayer in which a sacred word is repeated
as a way to be in God's presence and Christians are eating this up Baptist methodists non-denominational the non-denominational denomination and the charismatics in the Pentecostals they're eating this up let's keep going now notice he mentions Ignatius loyal so I've mentioned him several times in this very important but anyway Ignatius of Loyola let's just look at the Wikipedia intro to him and it'll give you a little bit but he says uh he lived from 1491 to 1556 he was a Spanish whatever that is Basque Catholic priest and theologian who co-founded the religious religious order called The Society of Jesus or the Jesuits and became its first Superior General at Paris in 1541 the peak of the Reformation period there because the Reformation really started with Martin Luther 1517 so here we're well into it the Catholic church is losing people by the droves to protestantism they've got to stop it so the pope reluctantly signs off on this new order that was formed actually without his approval to begin with but they pledged the loyal to the pope and the Church of Rome and the doctrines of Rome and to be his secret agents to do whatever is necessary the Stamp Out the reformation and Protestant Christianity so the Jesuit order served the pope as missionaries they were Bound by a vow of special obedience to The Sovereign pontiff in regard to the missions they therefore emerged as an important force during the time of The Counter Reformation Ignatius is remembered as a talented spiritual director yeah because he he started giving people their guided he was directing their guided visualizations he recorded his method in a celebrated treaties called the spiritual exercises a simple set of meditations prayers and other mental exercises first published in 1548. so let's go to the next one here so now this is a pro Ignatius Loyola website I found this interesting but at least they admit so introduction the spiritual exercises is certainly the most important famous and influential writing of The Counter Reformation not the Reformation not the Protestant Reformation The Counter Reformation you understand what was this spiritual exercise is all about he says here but it's not a reading book it's a training manual for a four week
Retreat outlining the meditation exercises to be undergone for spiritual growth and strengthening the participants submission to God's will not to God's will to Rome's will to the pontiff's will so the Pope's will now think about this Satan was working through all this the counter-reformation was satanically inspired it was Satan fighting against a Revival a move of God the Reformation one of his key tactics because persecution wasn't working persecution always makes the church grow so persecution doesn't work so what do you have to do if you're the devil and persecution doesn't work you have to infiltrate spread false doctrines or false spirituality false practices Pagan practices that are spiritual that open up the Protestants to Demons and so we can deceive them lure them back into the fold or destroy them Mason so let's keep going just want you to see that this is from a pro site now now visualization or imaginative prayer this this is an article from I can't remember now it's in my book but anyway he the Jesuit priest Anthony Demello calls this visualization or imaginative prayer fantasy prayer I mean the Jesuit admit it's fantasy prayer you wonder why we're in fantasy land and says that many of the Catholic saints practice it well he's at least he's telling the truth said Hana away to God this is in this in that book Francis of Assisi imagined taking Jesus down from the cross Anthony of Padua imagine holding the baby Jesus in his arms and talking with him Teresa of Avila imagined herself with Jesus in his Agony in the garden and Teresa vavila got so into repetitive prayer visualization that she would levitate off the floor oh yeah she talked about having um basically sexual intimacy with a spiritual Jesus too there's some really creepy stuff with it you go back and look at this at the Roman Catholic saints like Theresa vavila you will go what the heck is going on in these monasteries and these nunnaries and yeah but that's what happens when you open the door through these things now this type of thing is an integral part of the spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola the practitioner is instructed to walk into biblical and extra Biblical history historical scenes through the imagination and bring the scene to Life by applying all five senses seeing the events hearing what people are saying smelling things touching things all within the realm of Pure Imagination
uh he is even to put himself in the scene talking to the people and serving them okay Ignatius encourages practitioners for example to imagine themselves present at Jesus birth and crucifixion and now all of this sounds spiritual but again nowhere does the bible tell us that this is what we're supposed to do with our imagination okay we're supposed to read and memorize and think on the word of God and learn what it says in the book not create pictures and images and all this other stuff now once you start creating images pictures and people in your mind and then you start talking to them yeah it's called idolatry but here's some of the things Ignatius had in his spiritual exercises there's a little what it looked like back then imagine he says first week you imagine Christ Our Lord present before you upon the cross and begin to speak with him but first imagine don't just go pray you gotta first imagine it here's another one quote here here it will be to see in imagination the length breadth and depth of Hell to see an imagination of ass fires and the souls enclosed and to hear the Wailing with the sense of smell to perceive the smoke to taste the bitterness to touch the flames uh he goes on the second week I I will see and consider the three Divine persons Seated on the Royal diocese or Throne of the Divine Majesty I will see our lady and the angel saluting her I mean again imagining creating these stories and things that are actually he talks about I will contemplate them so this was the teaching the spiritual exercises of Ignatius oil now let's keep going now we got a lot to I got a lot to do here all right now let's go back to this we know the Catholics have the Jesus prayer where they repeat over and over and over our our fathers they repeat over and over and over the Hail Marys they repeat over and over and over in fact I found out there's many prayers that they do that are repetitious over and over and over and over Buddhism we know they do that Hinduism we know they do that actually they do that in Sufism which is the spiritual side of the Muslims they do it in the Kabbalah all the same thing chanting repetitive phrases names they think are names of God sometimes but over and over and over and over and over okay here's what Jesus said let's just get this down all right that's why I pulled up three Bible versions just so there's no confusion right even the the terrible NIV yet gets it right all right this brings me to the issue of prayer how we should pray God made it very clear in his word how we are to pray and
the things that should be avoided in prayer one command that seems to be getting neglected and blatantly disobeyed by many Christians these days is this one Matthew 6 7 King James version but when you pray use not vain repetitions as the Heathen do for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking don't do it it's real simple and if God says don't use repetitive phrase over and over and over and over and over and over and over again at some way to quiet meld your mind down to nothing until you have some kind of spiritual experience if Jesus don't do this you don't do it so if you disobey him and you do it what do you think you're gonna get the Holy Spirit or a demon spirit if you're disobeyed yeah the Amplified Bible when you pray do not Heap up phrases multiply words repeating the same ones over and over as the Gentiles do for they think they will be heard for their much speaking the NIV When you pray do not keep on babbling like pagans okay so you know for they think that will be heard because of their many words all right let's keep going here so the Greek word here in Matthew 6 7 for Heathen is ethnicos which of course ethnic means foreign Gentile or Pagan in other words do not pray like pagans who use repetitious words or phrases in their attempts to connect with God this is a clear command could not be any clearer yet we see many Christian leaders both in the Evangelical and charismatic Pentecostal churches teaching Christians to meditate and Pray by getting still quiet and then repeating a word or phrase until they have a spiritual experience this is why so many are messed up in Bethel Morning Star IHOP this is why there's so much demonic nonsense going on and then he says here as I pointed out with Richard Foster some are even coupling the use of repetitious words with using one's own imagination imagination to visualize Jesus light healings none of this is biblical Doctrine it is not the manner of life we are to live it's not the way we are to pray now you think about this how important to a Christian's life is prayer and praying in faith and praying according to the word of God Satan knows I've got it somehow weasel my way into this
and mess this up if I mess up their prayer life they got nothing consequently we see that all these Pagan religions focus on their breathing or repetitious words or phrases in their prayers slash meditation they state that the purpose of using this these techniques is to connect with the Divine energy or until they feel the divine presence all of these false religions from Buddhism to Islam testify of experiencing Bliss peace heat or even having visions or healings through these meditation techniques but these manifestations are not from the one true God and Creator Jesus Christ they are demonic angels of Life sent to further deceive the person engaging in these things we can be sure that anyone using Pagan techniques that Jesus said not to use has entered the realm of satanic deception is open the door for demons to get a stronghold in there now let me say this I want to make this absolutely clear just because the people who get into this Pagan prayer will experience Bliss or peace or heat or have visions and even have healings does not mean that every one of that is evil because God's holy spirit can manifest the same way and give you peace give you a feeling of ecstasy of power give you a vision or a healing just because Satan has count has his counterfeit does not mean God doesn't have his real how do we know which one's which we look at the person their manner of Doctrine their manner of life so if it's Jim Gaul or Mike Bickel or the false prophet Bob Jones back in the day if it's these people that are doing this stuff like Todd Bentley or Tony compelo or the pastor across town at the big Baptist Church over here whoever is doing if we look and we find they're promoting this kind of prayer that Jesus said not to do this type of meditation or visualization then if there are things Supernatural things happening we can deduce correctly that they are false counterfeits okay but if a pastor or minister or church stands against those things won't do those things they're not operating in those things then you can deduce if they're praying in the name of Jesus and miracles are happening and the gifts are happening then you can deduce that it's the Holy Spirit it's not hard it's not hard you watch them long enough like for instance okay Todd Bentley all right this is not hard to figure out
Todd Bentley is conducting and leading and everybody's saying oh Lakeland 2008 it's a Revival and I mean tens of thousands of people showed up right now the worship was great the worship music was great the worship leader was great he didn't really know who he was getting hooked up with which is another problem they they get true Christians in and get enough true Christians deceived with the the counterfeit the ones that are filled with the counterfeit and then you have a whole big fat mess and that was Lakeland my brother went down to Florida to the Lakeland robot I went to a meeting they did in Atlanta just to see it was terrible I knew sitting there within five minutes the holy spirit is nowhere near this place it was packed out arena in Atlanta okay now Bentley wasn't there was another guy that's one of his uh associate but here's the thing we watch I started looking into Todd Bentley well what I found out about Todd Midland I found out that Todd Bentley's into this repetitive prayer visualization oh and then shortly thereafter he's on stage and guess who shows up Rick Joyner Bob Jones Bill Johnson all these contemplative Ignatius Loyola spiritual exercise pushing Christians show up on the stage and guess what they're laying hands on on Todd Bentley and prophesying over him this is the next Great Awakening this is the next great Apostle of Revival in America and not one of those so-called Prophets that was their Shay on I could go down the list of everybody known just about in the big well-known folks in the charismatic Pentecostal world prophesying over Todd Bentley and at that moment he's cheating on his wife with an intern and within a month it is exposed and then he divorces his wife marries The Intern and it showed that not one of them had the true Holy Ghost discernment or gifts of the holy spirit or prophecy on them because they have all opened the door through these Pagan techniques that they've accepted these occult techniques that they've accepted and this is what once I saw all this happen that's why the Lord made me right the polluted Church book because there
had to be a Pentecostal charismatic Minister who believes in the real Biblical gifts of the Holy Spirit and power of God to say this is why this is not it this is why and this is where these people are deceived and this is a Common Thread I can point to you anybody who is into this stuff visualization repetitive prayer yoga they're going to be operating in the counterfeit Supernatural the Demonic the satanic but if a Christian is not has not opened the door to those things by practicing them or to those people then they're operating in the real thing all right it's real simple and it really is not as complicated as we have made it I mean like for instance the false prophet that came along Edgar Casey could could put himself in a trance quickly he could prophesy things that were going to come to pass and things would come to pass he could tell people their entire history without ever knowing them but then the guy began to teach what they're always lead to God all religions lead to God [Music] not the holy spirit because the Holy Spirit if somebody has the Holy Spirit and the Supernatural is flowing through them the holy spirit's also going to be leading them into all truth biblical truth all right let's keep going now this is Mike Bickel this is a leader of one of the biggest youth movements in America the International House of Prayer 24 hours a day seven days a week prayer intercession praying for Revival talking about Jesus loving Jesus really I have so many I had to have two chapters on Mikey here ah I'm beginning to wonder if Mikey wasn't an agent from the get-go because as a teenager he admits he was trained by a Catholic priest you know you got to wonder what what was involved in that training but let me tell you something if you train with a Catholic priest and you start teaching the doctrines and the practices of Ignatius Loyola and Roman Catholicism and then we find you as in my first picture cozied up with Pope Francis a Jesuit we may have a problem just saying but from his own books I have his book passion for Jesus if somebody gave it to me years ago and you know what I never read it until
I started research I said oh wait a minute somebody gave me his book I direct quotes from his book from his website from his sermons I took nothing I didn't make up anything I didn't embellish anything the guy teaches repetitive prayer and visualization and now he's doing full-blown conferences uniting with the Roman Catholic church and this is where he's leading everyone this was a second sermon excerpt that I quoted in the book in my book he shares how as far back as 1996 he was doing this kind of stuff let's look at this is a quote directly from Mike Bickel International House of Prayer leader uh you know Kansas City profits part of the whole prophetic movement charismatic movement I mean this is one of the the biggest leaders he says just after midnight on November 30th 1996 I was Touched By God's presence in an all-night prayer meeting as I continue to speak one statement from Midnight from about midnight until 5 a.m I said Jesus you are so beautiful every time I said it I felt the surge of his presence on me I said Body of Christ open your gates to the beautiful God the prayer meeting was over at 5am I went back to the church at 9 00 a.m that day and said you are you are the beautiful God for another two hours again every time I said it I felt a surge of his presence on me I was struck by how clearly the spirit was bearing witness with his presence to me about declaring Jesus Beauty no you're using repetitive prayer now let's look at it what he said here he spoke one statement in prayer for five hours I said I had my wife time me for 30 seconds saying Jesus you are so beautiful over and over we counted that I was able to say the phrase 17 times in 30 seconds 17 times in 30 seconds so considering that Mike Bickel may have done it slower I reduced it to 12 times in 30 seconds that means that Mike Bickel repeated the same statement in prayer around 7 200 times then he went back to the church and repeated another statement over and over for two more hours that means he repeated this mantra for another 2880 times he talks about how he felt the surge of his presence every time he repeated the phrase however we have to ask why would Jesus and His holy spirit reward someone with the touch of his genuine manifest presence when they are clearly disobeying a direct command of Jesus in the Bible no he has the counterfeit you see this this practice I'm gonna go get to this the Hindu the practice of repeating words of phrases or sounds has been used in prayers and worship of every Pagan religion in the world the term Mantra is the universally recognized name to describe a word phrase or sound repeated over and over in meditation slash prayer this practice can be traced back to The Vedic period
in the second and first millennium BC continuing up to the 6th Century BC some of the earliest written records of this Mantra meditation date to 1500 BC in Hindu vedantism around 500 to 600 BC taoists in China and Buddhist and India began to develop these same meditative practices so when Jesus was referring to using these vain repetitions and not praying like the Heathen do his disciples completely understood what he was talking about all right let's keep going now this if we're gonna if we're gonna accuse a Christian of operating in a Kundalini spirit this is a spirit that comes directly from being involved in Eastern religions and techniques okay and I talk about this a lot but this this is from my book this this activation is the same thing that a Hindu Guru Swami or yoga does when he helps an individual have a Kundalini the word Kundalini in Sanskrit it means coil or the English rendering of the word serpent power the Wikipedia article on Kundalini says yoga and Tantra propose that this energy can be awakened by a guru teacher someone in Hinduism Buddhism or in those type of practices but the body and spirit must be prepared by yoga austerity such as uh pranyama or breath control physical exercises visualization chanting the Kundalini can also awaken as a result of doing Hatha Yoga and other forms of spiritual practice sometimes it can be awakened spontaneously for no reason obvious reason Kundalini can be awakened through the grace of us a sitha guru who awakens the Kundalini Shakti of his disciples through shaktipot or blessing the siddha guru is a spiritual teacher a master whose identification with the Supreme self is uninterrupted so basically saying is this this serpent power this energy which we know is demonic demon comes from you get it from either practicing that type of visualization chanting mantras visualization or you get it from transference by someone into that that's it it's kind of like saying you want to open the door to a spirit of lust and whoredoms then you do things adultery fornication pornography you do things that open the door to those spirits and that's what you get it's real simple that's why Satan has used the Roman Catholic Church the desert fathers some stupid Christians and some infiltrators that like the Jesuits to infiltrate this into the church
because he knew we need we need the supernatural the Demonic Supernatural to deceive many people they knew that and we need patsies to carry it out for us so there's a lot of patsies we're almost done now this is uh an article Kundalini Awakening um this is an article in the yoga journal talking about symptoms of uh Awakening the Kundalini involuntary jerks tremors are shaking but does that mean if the holy spirit's upon you you might jerk or shake or whatever does that mean it's cuddly no again where do we look we look where's the source of this who's this coming from right what is the person experiencing these things are they into this are they not um but anyway some of the things involuntary jerks tremors are shaking intense heat especially as energy experience passing through the chakras or up from the bottom of the spine spontaneous breathing issues Visions or sounds at times associated with a particular chakra intense feelings of pleasure Bliss peace or ecstasies emotional purging in which particular emotions become dominant for short periods this woman it's interesting there's a modern account the Kundalini waking this woman that's into Hindu meditation claims to be a life coach I went to her website she says as most of you already know I went to a spiritual Retreat a little less than a month ago and had a Kundalini energy Awakening this Awakening was not anything I was looking for or even thought was possible for me every time I read of Kundalini energy Awakening I've always pictured a very zen-like person who has been meditating for years and perhaps even a monk in a monastery little did I know it would happen to me I mean I've only been meditating for a few months so I was extremely surprised at the experience now I just want to focus on that real quick here she didn't have to be she didn't have to be you know this long time Guru or long time practitioner just opening the doorway through some meditation visualization chanting repetitive prayer boom she opened herself up Christians are doing this a lot out of ignorance okay she just describes it all now I want to say this her experience remember how it talks about you'll know by their their Works basically the end result whether it's counterfeit it's demonic it's Kundalini even this woman who is a practitioner of these things it got very bad for her I mean she's the the because you know what demons are like little gremlins they're like they're little imps they cannot behave they will behave for a while to deceive
you and then they start tormenting you then they start manipulating you then they start hurting you and bringing destructive things into your life that's the fruit let me let me tell you I've got in the book in the polluted Church several testimonies from people who went to Bethel to Bill Johnson's Church to some of these other meetings and they talk about the long-term spiritual results of how it destroyed their lives their spiritual lives their prayer lives their relationship with the Lord LED them into sexual sin and immorality just disasters right um and and I watched it happen myself I watched it happen to people I remember I started a church in 96. a lot of young people were on fire in the beginning of that church the pastor started taking them to Morningstar to Rick joyner's Ministry up in South Carolina uh that false prophet Bob Jones is there and other people and they started laying hands on these kids and I watched their lives fall apart after that quickly their lives went downhill um so I want to say this I've watched this I've seen this with my own eyes for many years um and I want nothing to do with the counterfeit counterfeit Revival counterfeit manifestations counterfeit Supernatural counterfeit gifts they do exist but so does the real okay and this is something that you know church history and function you're going to have to keep you ever have a church you ever have any kind of ministry you have any kind of move of God outpouring of the Holy Spirit any kind you're going to have to keep these people out you can't ever let them in your pulpit you can't open the door to them you can't compromise with them you can't start any of these practices or you're going to destroy yourself and you're going to destroy those that are under you under your spiritual leadership and care so this is vitally vitally important to get down and understand that we see the origin of this we go all the way back to the desert fathers in the you know 200 BC we know where they got it we see how it got incorporated into the Roman Catholic church we see how that spread into other churches we see how Ignatius Loyola took it and spread it further to counter the reformation and we see how there's been agents to push this in our society some of them are Jesuit agents pretending to be Christian
some of them are just stupid ignorant Christians who are disobeying God's word and opening the door through deception and demons and counterfeits so I hope you understand I know um when I did the message a few weeks ago demonstrations of holy spirit Power I mentioned how all you got to do is look at the person you want to know if the Miracles are of God remember Jesus made a statement he said no man can do that can do a miracle of my name can lightly speak evil of me what was Jesus saying look you know if somebody's doing miracles in my name you can pretty well count on there probably from me but here's how you know look at their Doctrine look at their manner of life look at the fruit of it where does it end up what does it do to the people long term and then you know look I didn't know about some of these people at first boy did I learn quick and it is amazing that that it really comes down to too stick in with the Bible that one verse Matthew 6 7 1 verse don't when you pray don't use vain repetitions as the Heathen do or the other verse casting down imaginations or we don't bow before the sun and worship the sun toward the East with our yoga with yoga poses we don't do the things of the pagans we don't do things like the pagans we seek God in Jesus name and if we seek Him in faith and honestly and stick to the Bible and obey the scriptures then the true power of the Holy Spirit comes and works through us all right simple so is there counterfeit Revival absolutely I've seen it we used to call them Pentecostal pep rallies charismania all kind of names for him foolishness but you know the Lord I tell you all this the Lord spoke to me think about this I was starting my first church in in 1995 it was the summer of 1995. and I was praying diligently fasting seeking God and you know it's scary when you're 20 something years old starting a church real scary and I was really seeking God but I remember the Lord speaking to me then and I didn't even fully understand what he was saying until many years later but he told me then and I preached it like it was like my second sermon of starting the church was the charismatic movement is over and you know it was a movie about in the beginning but it was fully infiltrated
by Jesuits and by deceived stupid Christians that that opened the door for all these things and I got to see it in fact one of the pastors that I knew back in the day that was a he um you guys know what I'm talking about he openly showed where in the late 60s he worked for the Jesuit priest and he was a charismatic Pentecostal and they were going to unite the church and that guy can operate in all the gifts the counterfeit gifts super now I've seen him do it he's he's the one I exposed and was shot at the next day because he is a Jesuit Satanist infiltrator of the church foreign but they're all over the place they're all over the place so just examine what they teach just examine you know I'll say this I'll close I know we've been going two hours here at least we'll say this you see how a minister a pastor or some Christian leader how they look at the Roman Catholic Church where they stand on that that's really a lot of times all you need to know if they're if they're okay with Rome they're okay with the Vatican they're okay with the Pope run away if they practice any of these practices have yoga in the church run away it's not hard to figure out let's pray Lord we thank you for your word we thank you Lord for the truth Lord the truth of your word first and foremost Lord you have given us what we need to know the real from the false you want us to have your real power your real presence your real Miracles your real Revival Your Glory the outpouring of your Holy Spirit you want us to have that and we want that Lord we know there are many many evil deceivers that have crept in among us we know that are many even brothers and sisters who have been deceived by the deceivers and we have a mess on our hands we have a polluted Church Lord we have so many doorways opened but Lord we know that you are still moving and that your gifts the gifts of your Holy Spirit are for today and yet you want to pour out and move in genuine Revival and Lord we want to be part of that and so we separate ourselves from these
people these deceivers and the deceived from the Pagan practices of Buddhism and Hinduism the contemplative prayer the contemplative mysticism the Roman Catholic mysticism that's just all of it Lord we just we rebuke it we won't know part of it but we do know that it's out there Lord and so Lord I just ask you to help your people your especially the younger ones these Sons and Daughters Lord these these younger people coming in to follow you and to become the pastors and the elders and the deacons and the evangelists and the apostles and Prophets and teachers and Lord these that are you're going to raise up that they would be able to to have the real and keep out the counterfeit and we pray this today I pray this for our students and I pray this for all those who may see this glass in Jesus name amen all right we're out God bless you guys