Spread the Fire - January 2008 - (Page 21)

he talking about?” Lindsay replied somberly, “He is talking about Branham. He has gotten off track and thinks he is Elijah.” About two years later, in December of 1965, Lindsay received a call from Branham’s family in another state asking him to come and pray for Branham as he was hospitalized and in intensive care after a head-on auto collision. Lindsay seriously considered the request but decided to commit the situation into God’s hands and not go. About two weeks later, he received word that Branham had died. Branham’s story is not unique in the annals of revival history. Again and again individuals and movements have become inflated with pride because of God’s hand of blessing on their lives. Their pride, however, opened the door to Satan and led to tragic endings. Their examples are reminders that we must lie low at the feet of Jesus. with the revival and with the unusual manifestations that occurred. In 1739 Whitfield wrote a letter to Wesley expressing his concern that they not over-emphasize the manifestations because, he said, “I think it will take people away from the written word, and make them depend on visions, convulsions, more than on the promises and precepts of the gospel.” In 2 Tim. 2:15, Paul exhorts his readers to rightly divide the word of truth. One area where we have been guilty of mishandling the word of God is in our attempts to make the unusual the norm. For example, when my father was baptized in the Holy Spirit during a time of revival in 1942, he was so overwhelmed with God’s presence that he could not speak in English for some time. Even after leaving the meeting, he would speak to my mother and it would come out in tongues. In my Dad’s later years, I asked him if he ever had that sort of experience again. He replied, “No, that was the only time.” Even though my Dad’s experience was genuine, it would have been wrong for him to try and make that experience the norm for himself and others. “The only solid foundation for faith and doctrine is the Word of God.” Martin Luther said, “We ought to see that every article of faith of which we boast is certain, pure and based on clear passages of Scripture.” This is especially true during times of revival when it is easy to make our experiences the basis of our faith. The only solid foundation for faith and doctrine is the Word of God. In fact, the most enduring revivals of church history have begun in a milieu of serious Bible study. For example, before the Methodist revival erupted in England, John and Charles Wesley and others began meeting together for three hours each evening to study the New Testament, not in English, but in Greek. Out of their diligent pursuit of truth emerged a revival that transformed the British Isles and, through George Whitfield, fanned the flames of the Great Awakening in America. Their commitment to Biblical thinking also enabled them to deal wisely When unusual manifestations occur we should be open without being naïve. We should ask, “Are there clear examples of this in Scripture.” If there are clear examples in Scripture, we should then inquire whether such manifestations were isolated or were they the norm. In the early Pentecostal revival writing in tongues became quite widespread. Some of the more perceptive leaders realized that such a manifestation, although exciting, had no precedence in Scripture. They did not oppose it but stopped encouraging and advertising it, and it eventually disappeared. A contemporary example of this misguided approach encourages believers that they can visit the third heaven, based on Paul’s third heaven experience that he relates in 2 Cor. 12:2. Paul, however, only mentions such an experience once and, at the time of mention, it had happened S TF - 2 1

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Spread the Fire - January 2008

Spread the Fire - January 2008 Contents In the River Thriving Between Times of Revival How the River Changed Our Church Taking Our Revival Temperature Therefore, Go... International Itinerary Resource Center Catalogue Upcoming Events Visitor Information

Spread the Fire - January 2008

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