Todd Bentley’s impartation touches UK in the The Dudley Outpouring

Revival has supposedly hit the UK. It is now called the ‘Dudley Outpouring’ at errr… Dudley in the West Midlands.  Meetings at Trevor Baker’s Revival Fires church meeting at the ARC Apostolic Resource Centre are extended into third week, and Jerame Nelson (Todd Bentley’s right hand associate) has been there to help spread the flame.  Some of Revival Fires church’s members went out to Lakeland to get an impartation from the hands of Todd Bentley, so it is hardly surprising that now they are back in England, they are now claiming to be passing ‘it’ onto all the hungry Christians who choose to make the trip to Dudley.

Trevor Baker’s church is very much linked with the new apostolic and prophetic movement. They hold Glory Schools, teaching soaking, angel seeking, and third heaven encounters. They have regular Prophetic Seer conferences and Joel’s Army Conferences – and talk about running with the Joel’s Army visions and other New Apostolic Reformation visions.  One wonders:  do these guys really  know what they are promoting and what they are really  running with? http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/prophey-bob-jones-role-in-toronto-blessing-brownsville-lakeland-what-comes-next-civil-war-in-the-church/   Would Trevor Baker be looking so pleased with himself if he knew the true spirit behind these spiritual manifestations and this revival? I think not. 

Most people caught up in this move are very sincere. But nobody said sincerity meant being automatically protected from spiritual deception. Indeed, aren’t most Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roman Catholics, spiritualists and cult members very sincere too? And so was ‘prophet’ John Lacy http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/a-hungry-man-running-after-god-on-amazing-spiritual-experiences/ who had amazing spiritual experiences, comparable with today’s, just before the First Great Awakening and the revival ministries of John Wesley, George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards. Lacy’s mistake was not lack of passion, not lack of reading the Bible, not lack of fellowship or prayer or soaking, not lack of spiritual experiences. No, rather he lacked spiritual discernment and failed to test the spirits, getting into the same old trap of, how could something look so good and lead Him to so much passion and religious activity and be in Jesus name but at the same time not be of God? It was not possible, he thought. Montanus’s followers thought the same thing, yet the early church sought to exorcise them from demons masking themselves as angels of light – and Montanus’s spiritual manifestations while going into prophetic trances (and the focus on them) are eerily similar to today’s new prophets! 

Assumption is a very dangerous thing. If wolves hide in sheeps clothing as the Bible declares they do, how do you see if the sheep is really a wolf or not underneath? Do you not look under the surface and not just naively accept things at face value? Why would the apostle John urge us to test the spirits if it was as easy and obvious as modern Christians claim to discern between good and bad, and ‘God would not let us be decieved’? He won’t  let us be decieved if we test the spirits as He commands, but if we don’t test the spirits we are potentially ’fair game’ and vulnerable.  God’s protection from deception is through obedience to his word in this sense, coming from knowing the word, and the gifts of wisdom and discernment and distinguishing of spirits.

Trevor Baker at brief glance on a video I watched seems to be a sincere enough chap - by that, I do not think he is a charlatan unlike some I could mention in this ‘revival’. But he lacks spiritual discernment. Apart from being partnered with Creflo Dollar ministries (bling bling – prosperity gospel), Baker hosts lots of modern day false prophets of the Latter Rain. I have already mentioned many of my concerns about Todd Bentley, Jill Austin, Patricia King, Bobby Conner, Bob Jones and the other new prophets and apostles on this site. But for those new to the site, here are some links to the articles:

Todd Bentley posts: http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/category/todd-bentley-fresh-fire/

Bob Jones posts: http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/category/bob-jones-kansas-city-prophets/

Patricia King posts: http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/category/patricia-king-aka-coking-extreme-prophetic/

More associated links can be found on the far right hand side of the page. eg Joel’s Army, Latter rain, Kansas City Prophets, Toronto Blessing etc

I urge UK Christians to stay away from Trevor Baker’s church and the Dudley Outpouring as what they are imparting in this so-called outpouring is poison. It is an antichrist move to promote the new apostles and prophets and ‘another Jesus’. (The Latter Rain one)  There are weird gnostic teachings of demons, and strange fire and anointings that are NOT from God -  this fact can be clearly seen by getting out the Bible and studying it, and sincerely asking God with an open mind for wisdom and discernment.

Looked at the church’s websites there is a lot to be concerned about about Trevor Baker’s church – apart from its visitors – both in the flesh and from  the spirtual realm. Trevor Baker is claiming meetings in ‘the olive grove’  with Smith Wigglesworth, Katherine Kuhlman and even Derek Prince during open visions. Derek Prince, of course would be speaking out against what is promoted in this move, just like he did when alive here http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/navigating-through-the-minefield-of-signs-and-wonders/ and here  http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/signs-wonders-bizarre-spiritual-manifestations/ and so it is a lying spirit that pretends to be Derek Prince promoting their new anointing. Katherine Kuhlman, ecumenical Kuhlman, don’t get me started on her, why she was false.

Here are some more choice quotes, from their own website, by ‘prophet’ Trevor Baker who claims to be a seer; -

 Jesus died for the anointing, for the mantle of anointing to pass from Himself onto His church. 

Really?! Where on earth does it say this in the Bible? I thought Jesus died for the sin of the world, to reconcile men to God – or is ’sin’ too old fashioned a word for modern day seers?

As you forcibly press into God’s presence through prayer and fasting, allowing God to move, a flow begins to take place and He begins to give revelation. There is no other way. You have to press into relationships and the Word of God. We press in forcibly because “the kingdom…suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12 NKJV).

Did Jesus not promise that He and the Father would make their home inside those that love Him? And he also promised ‘Lo, I am with you always… even to the end of the age’.  Does the apostle Paul also not say ‘in Him, we live and breathe and have our being’?   The Bible says we have been ‘brought near’ and are ‘in Christ’ and have been made sons of God because of the blood of Christ and the cross, and the indwelling Spirit of adoption – not because we press in forcibly, not because of our works, prayer or fasting. We can approach the throne of God with boldness at any time (if our conscience does not condemn us). To say you have to forcibly press into a relationship and strive in this sense denies the cross and the blood of Jesus!

Also to claim there is no other way to get revelation, denies the Sovereignty of God. Revelation (or should rather I say, true divine revelation)  is not by the will of the prophets, nor is indeed the call to be a prophet - God calls and the prophet pricks up his ears and listens and speaks it out – if he is obedient, that is. Samuel did not spend lots of time ‘pressing in’ and ’soaking up God’, or chasing prophetic experiences when God started speaking to him.  The old priest then taught Samuel how to listen and it was not in the way the new prophets teach, rather it was: ‘Speak LORD, for your servant  is listening.’  The Lord speaks and His servant listens, remembering always who is in control, and Who ordains the prophet and Who ordains the nature and the type and the amount of the words spoken to him. And when it happens. The prophet never was the one in control in this sense, he was a servant, unlike the new prophets who think they can order and control the Spirit around as kings. Although revelation is released (by that spoken out) by the will of the prophet and is subject to their control in that sense – and we prophesy by faith – we can no more control a vision than we can control the wind. Although we can seek God, we cannot force God to speak. If he is silent on a matter, then we cannot twist his arm. He is boss. We are not. Something the new prophets and apostles often seem to forget. Furthermore not all are prophets – however much some may seek, they may not prophesy on demand.

Of course the new gnostics teach a tangible presense or ‘glory’ to soak in, so they press in by experiences to get ‘more’ of God by soaking Him in but this is unscriptural as well as heretical. They claim guided visualisations by men lead to true prophetic encounters when it is imagination or worse and not divine encounters ordained and inspired by God. They claim anyone can go up to the third heaven daily as a matter of their will, and can seek the counsel of angels.  Even when these angels preach another gospel, none of these prophets agree with the scripture let them be accursed!  They are too much in love with their experiences and visions for their own self absorbed sakes. They never preach discernment. They never preach testing the spirits. Why? Because deep down they know their true source will be revealed?

The Matthew scripture that Trevor Baker quotes has also been corrupted. I argue this because of the Greek words used in the passage, and its always negative connections. I suggest that rather than talking about militant Christians siezing hold of the Kingdom of God, it is rather saying that that Saints will be persecuted by violent men. This also suits the context of the surrounding passage (always important), flows with it, and makes sense, something the other interpretation does not.

Then we have this nonsense below about the seer anointing taken from Baker’s website. There is plenty more where this came from, sadly.

The first Seer we find in scripture is God Himself. Now that is good news! God said “Let there be light …. and He saw that it was good” (Gen 1:3-4). Then He communicates that characteristic to Adam. He brings all the animals to Adam to see what He will call them, and whatever he called them that is what they became known as forever. The word roeh is used there. Why did God bring all the animals to Adam? Because as the animals came to Adam he started to move in that Seer anointing and then he began to speak out declarations and words of decree. What Adam spoke out has stood the test of all time; this is how powerful this anointing is.

What about the building of the tower of Babel? Again operating in the Seer anointing, God says “Let us go down and see what they are doing”. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth”. Why? Because He is a Seer. …..

Spiritual deception, flee from it, don’t run to   it. Stay away from Dudley.