A quick look at what the critics are saying about what is happening in Florida. Just as a guidline, the two extremes in new move of God is to 1) accept it uncritically 2) to reject it unecessarily.
“A FALSE HEALING REVIVAL?? -FloridaBy Andrew Strom

Many of you will have already heard about the “Healing Revival”
that has purportedly broken out in Lakeland, Florida. Today Charisma Magazine put out a piece on it entitled ‘A Holy Ghost Outbreak in Florida’ - “…Charismatics are flocking to the sleepy town of Lakeland, Fla. to attend evangelist Todd Bentley’s unconventional revival services.” Is Charisma preparing to hype this one to the skies like they did with Toronto and Rodney Howard- Browne? It seems perhaps they are.But why am I opposed to this ‘Healing Revival’ so soon after it has been announced? -It is because I already know Todd Bentley’s ministry all too well, and this whole thing centers around him.

Todd Bentley actually has deep roots in the Prophetic movement, and he is one of the very few ministers that I have ever felt I had to publicly warn people about by name. -His ministry is that bad.
False “angel” encounters of the weirdest kind, gold dust, guided visualizations of the “Third Heaven” that are straight out of the New Age, etc. And yet there is a “power” with it that makes it all the more dangerous.

Here is how Charisma describes his Florida meetings- “His methods are far from polished. When he prayed for people in Lakeland, he usually began by laying his hand on their heads and then yelling, “Bam!”
Often the people fell backward to the floor. After one elderly woman fell, Bentley told the audience: “She doesn’t know why she fell down.” The woman then laughed and said to him in the microphone:
“Because you pushed me!” He prayed for her three more times that night, and she said she could hear better…
During the past three weeks people have testified of being healed from heart conditions, skin rashes and back problems, and many said scars disappeared…
Many charismatics are wondering if the protracted meetings will become a phenomenon similar to what happened in Rodney Howard-Browne’s meetings in Lakeland in 1993, at the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church in Canada in 1994 and at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola in 1995…” [END QUOTE]

Sadly, the Charismatic movement is in such a sick state today that it would not surprise me at all if this happens. (-I say this as a strong Spirit-filled, tongues-speaking believer myself. I am by no means opposed to genuine miracles). Have we completely forgotten the warnings of “Lying signs and wonders” in the Last Days?

Below is a testimony by Lynn Clark who is a Moderator at our website ‘RevivalSchool.com’. This is what she wrote about her involvement with Todd Bentley’s ministry:

“I decided to check out Patricia King and Todd Bentley and, ignorant of their ‘third heaven’ guided visualizations, attended a five day conference of Patricia King and then two of Todd Bentley’s conferences and began to imagine third heaven visitations - guided visualization - still not realizing that these are actually spirits of darkness - the New Age calls them spirit guides - demons is what they are. And so I bought Todd Bentley’s teaching on third heaven visitations and brought it home to listen to.
“I was in my living room laying on the floor listening to the teaching on how to visualize the third heaven and what to say and was getting caught up into his teaching and all of a sudden I began to shake uncontrollably and jerk and groan, and no sooner had this taken place I became frozen stiff - I could not move any part of my body and I knew this was a demon trying to take hold of me, and so with all the effort I could muster I cried out, “God save me - Jesus help me” - and as soon as I cried out to the Lord my body went limp. God spared me that night and I will be forever grateful.

“I spent much of the night in tears asking God to forgive me - and renouncing all the hands layed on me and all the awful deception I had opened myself up to…” [END QUOTE]

ANDREW AGAIN: I myself have heard the tapes of Todd Bentley’s “Third Heaven Visualization” teachings, and I want to tell you - they are straight out of the New Age handbook. -Terrible stuff. And yet so widely accepted by thousands of Christians today.

Do these kinds of practices (above) produce a genuine ‘Healing Revival’? -These are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking Charisma Magazine. I leave it for you to decide.”

A more ‘positive’ blog which critically interacts with the former article can be found here.
“…Charisma Magazine’s perspective on the revival appears to be rather positive. It even had quotes from John Arnott and John Kilpatrick from Toronto, Canada, and Pensecola, Florida respectively. These men were instrumental in big “outpouring” events of their own–and they too were highly criticized and scrutinized for their meetings and the strange things taking place.
As it turns out, there was a well-documented prophecy given to Todd Bentley before the Lakeland events at a meeting in Australia. A pastor from New Zealand, Rob DeLuca, foretold the “healing revival” that would break out in Florida and spread around the globe (the picture to the right was taken while this prophecy was being given). Whether or not this prophecy was actually from God has yet to be seen; but as you’ll see in a moment, there is a healthy way we should respond until it is either fulfilled or proven false.
I’ve also found people, like Andrew Strom, who are sharply against what is happening–although this does not surprise me because Andrew Strom has been pointing out fallacies and heresies in the prophetic movement for some time (many of them valid, admittedly, but some of them overblown). Strom asked in a recent e-mail regarding this movement in Florida, “Have we completely forgotten the warnings of ‘Lying signs and wonders’ in the Last Days?” I believe this is a fair warning, and we would be wise to stay on our guard about such matters, but we have yet to see if this is actually the case in Lakeland.
Strom has a lot of criticisms about Todd Bentley’s ministry, but I do not believe this necesarily means God has not been using Todd to perform genuine miracles (see my article titled Spiritual Power and the Nature of Christ). As much as Andrew Strom is doing well to keep our eyes focused on Christ and free from false teachings, he also has issues in his life that could be criticized (though I do not believe it is my place to share these things in a public forum like this without addressing him personally first). The point I’m making is that no one is perfect, and we need to be discerning of what God may or may not be doing rather than judgmental of the individual(s) He might be using to carry out the work….” Read full article here

I am undecided at this point as to wether or not this is a deception or an authentic working of God. If anyone has any thoughts/info on Todd or the Revival, please leave a comment.
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