is this a move of God?
There are all kinds of reports floating around about “moves of God.” How do we tell if anything is a move of God? I’m not going to try to answer that question for you regarding any specific situation. But God has given me a burden to gently warn the body of Christ – be careful not to fall into deception or follow false teaching, because not everything that bears the name of Jesus Christ is authentic. Jesus Himself warned us in Matthew 24:11 – 13 that at the end of the age, “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”. I believe that we are living in those times.
I think there’s a great temptation especially among those of us on the charismatic end of the Christian continuum to accept everything that claims to be from God, because we don’t want to miss the latest wave of the Spirit. It is wonderful to be hungry for God and to seek Him. I greatly enjoy coming together with other believers for this purpose – in Atlanta I met regularly for many years with other believers to seek the Lord together, and here in Nizhny it is a joy to meet with the soaking group on Friday nights to do that. It is a huge blessing to be among brothers and sisters in Christ who are hungry for God and seeking His face. It’s a high point in my life each week! God is faithful to meet us every time we seek Him! I want to experience God’s fullness and blessing and presence and participate with whatever He is doing. But it’s clear that the body of Christ needs much greater discernment in prayerfully examining any claimed moves of God.
A move of God is often referred to as a “revival.” E. M. Bounds, a Methodist pastor who lived 150 years ago and who wrote many books on prayer, wrote that revivals are among the charter rights of the church. They are the evidences of its divinity, the tokens of God’s presence, the witness of his power. But there are also counterfeit revivals that are designed to deceive the most wary. These are deceptive and superficial, with many pleasant, entertaining, delusive features, entirely lacking in the offensive features which accompany the genuine ones. The pain of repentance, the shame of guilt, the sorrow and humiliation of sin, the fear of hell—these marks of genuine revivals are lacking in the counterfeit. Shallow revivals do more harm than good, like a surface thaw in midwinter which only increases the hardness and roughness of tomorrow’s freeze. All genuine revivals are simply God coming with great grace to his Church.
J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine, published an article this week entitled, “Lord, Give Us Hot Coals from Your Altar!” – here’s an excerpt:
“I find myself longing for an authentic move of God. I am so weary of the fake and the fabricated. In this day of media manipulation, it seems we can use smoke and mirrors to create “revivals” that have neither conviction of sin nor conversions. Oh, we think we have the power. We boast about the size of the crowds. We brag about miracles. We are ready to declare a revival if Christians fall on the floor or give big offerings. But when the music stops, the TV cameras are turned off and the money is counted, what do we have? Nothing but a cheap imitation. Where is the God of Elijah? Where is the God of Evan Roberts? Where is the true power of God that can sweep over a city and bring backslidden Christians to repentance and hardened sinners to experience the greatest miracle of all—the miracle of new birth? I invite you to stoke the fire of the Spirit in your life. Let the hot coals of heaven purge any known sin from your heart. Repent of all compromise. Be ruthless with any idols. Let the love of God boil inside you until your heart is overflowing with love for sinners. Let’s believe that it is possible for the Holy Spirit to draw our wayward nation back to God.“
There have been some very disturbing and widespread false teachings and false teachers exposed in recent years, some of which have been highly publicized. It’s sad to say that a large number of deceptive teachings have emerged from the United States, but they can come from anywhere. When deception occurs, many very well-meaning and sincere people become wounded, and some become disillusioned. We must be careful how we live, and what we choose to believe, both for our own sakes, and also for the sake of those over whom we exert influence.
Ephesians 4:14 tells us that it is possible to be “blown here and there by every wind of teaching”. Paul exhorts Timothy to “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” How can we watch our life and doctrine closely and not be blown around? Over the next several weeks, I want to share some warning signs that we might be getting off track, and also some key characteristics of genuine moves of God.
