Revivals in Lakeland

Lately I have been hearing a lot about the revival that is going on in Lakeland, Florida at the moment. For many non-christians 'a revival' might sound weird. It's complicated to explain everything but for some reason I found out about this christian revival through friends and christian media. Although many people mentioned it, I never really checked it out. I don’t know why but I never really gotten into it...

Last week I met up with a friend who asked me if I heard about this revival. I told her that I did but that I’ve never watched it. I told her that the things that I heard from other people kind of alerted me to not watch it. Then she said that she watched it for an entire week with her husband on God.tv She said that every evening after they watched it, they both felt not peaceful about it and ended up in a big discussion. She then explained what she saw on television and explained how she felt seeing it. In the end of the week she called up a friend’s mother and talked about the revival. This friends’ mother asked her how she felt about the revival in Lakeland. My friend replied that she was confused about it and the friends’mother then asked do you see any of the fruits of the Spirit in this revival.

Galations 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

My friend then replied that she didn’t see most of the fruits of the spirit in this revival. There’s no love, there’s no peace, there’s no longsuffering or gentleness. After they talked for a while about it my friend hung up but she was still very confused. She then told me that there are probably still a few good things about this revival but that we must be aware of all the wrong things and test it to the Bible. The Bible states that many many false prophets will come so we have to be aware!

Matthew 7:15-23
"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

and

"At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. . . . For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect –- if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time" (Matthew 24:10-13;24).

Later she came across this prophecy and felt that this prophecy was very occurring to what’s happening right now. http://bibleprophecyrevealed.us/wp/?p=33

I thought this was very interesting.

All I know is that I’m still not interested to watch it or feel like I should watch it. This ministry gives me a really weird feeling...but I thought I might just post it here and see what you guys think. Have you watched it and how did you feel about it?

Update:
I hesitated to post the message above because I wasn’t sure of the reactions but then I got these two articles through e-mail. One in Dutch and one in English:
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/FaithMatters/Story?id=5338963&page=1 (English)
http://www.manna-vandaag.nl/?post=3567 (Dutch)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i connected to your blog through a friend of a friend of a friend. long connection. :) i've heard a lot about this church to and really do not believe it is of God. there is a catch in my spirit that i believe is from the Holy Spirit as a warning to not pay attention to it. in agreement on the whole false prophets thing.

-an anonymous sister in Christ