Glory flakes gold dust appears at Revival Fire’s Dudley Outpouring

I have written before about how the Todd Bentley manufactured ’revival’ in Lakeland has hit Trevor Baker’s Revival Fire’s church in the UK, and it is now being called ‘The Dudley Outpouring’. http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/todd-bentleys-impartation-touches-uk-in-the-the-dudley-outpouring/    

Trevor and Sharon Baker’s church has been associated for some time with the new prophets and apostles – other videos are on You Tube of meetings when Todd Bentley appeared there last autumn – what a sight that is! As well as regularly hosting a realm of dodgy characters (false prophets), ’seer’ Trevor Baker has some very dodgy false prophecies of his own on his website. He is obviously infatuated by the third wave counterfeit signs and wonders and is falling over himself in this craze. ‘Enthusiastic’ is an understatement about him at the moment. Watch him gush in this video!

 

I cannot knock the guy’s enthusiasm! But Trevor Baker, however (apparently) nice, amiable, good, sincere, committed, sacrificing and enthusiastic, seriously lacks wisdom and spiritual discernment, and has exchanged the truth for a lie. (’Enthusiasm’ in Greek originally meant inspiration or possession by a spirit or a god – any god. For many centuries the word was used referring to spirit possession and intense religious fervour or emotion through man made controlled activities to connect with ‘god’. In the 4th century a religious sect was even called ‘Enthusiasts’. The word was most usually associated with misled fanatics and heretics such as the French Prophets and some of the people who went way over the top in the Great Awakening and splintered into wayward sects and cults. Charles Chauncy wrote books on both movements, with a foreword warning of this behaviour penned by an ‘anti-enthusiasticus’. Some of this warning is here – http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/on-false-prophets-strange-fire-wolves-in-sheeps-clothing/   Charles Chauncy and I both do not dispute these people’s zeal and fire for God. Shame it was ’strange fire’ they embraced though.)

Trevor Baker is now even imitating some of Todd Bentley’s manifestations like the shaking of the head side to side when hearing testimonies of ‘healings’ – imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that – the difference being is that I believe Todd Bentley’s mannerisms are often conciously faked whereas Trevor Baker’s seem subconciously genuine – albeit still not from the Holy Spirit. See here for the manifestation:

This subconcious imitation of someone you admire reminds me of the story of some pioneer missionaries who planted a church in a completely unreached area – this is a genuine true story told me by missionaries I worked with. When another missionary visited the pioneer base some years later, they noticed the new Christians there were imitating the first lot of missionaries’ mannerisms (eg like a little cough before starting to publically read from the bible or scratching the nose or something really silly like that, I cannot remember quite what it was exactly, but it was something that we would know was not Christian but was just fleshly behaviour). It was thus learned behaviour, but the oddest thing was that the new Christians – as well as the pastor – were completely unaware of it until the new missionary pointed it out. It was compeltely subconcious – not spiritual but explained by the flesh alone and normal human psychology. Added onto this, I have heard other accounts from missionaries where the new Christians in the church plant do realise what they are doing, but think these odd fleshly things to be spiritual and Christian, and some faithful church members will swear they are being led by the Holy Spirit to act in such a silly non spiritual way. (I heard these things long before Lakeland, I hasten to add – and these stories were not linked to Toronto style stuff, but it is the same psychology of religious experience nonetheless).

I could talk more about psychology to possibly explain this, how when you are in love, or even when you greatly esteem a person, your body language subconciously ‘mirrors’ your greatly esteemed one. Con men and salesmen use this knowledge to their own ends to instil flattery and trust by deliberately manipulating a mirror pose. Or in some cases we could even refer to Pavlov’s dog and his learned behaviour. I have no doubt the dog was deeply sincere. Then we could take hypnotism and trance states into the equation too, as well as peer pressure and the power of suggestion. I could also talk about the power of placebo. I could  talk too about physiological changes caused by adrenaline rushes which can be incredibly powerful – I know I had a large rush of adrenaline after I got a jab (which has adrenaline in it) at the dentists recently and I started shaking from the base of my spine, and my emotions were strongly affected. Adrenaline is a natural reaction and can come during religious experiences but it is a purely physiological reaction based on the body’s chemicals and not the Holy Spirit causing it – it is not demonic kundalini either, but perhaps this is where the idea comes from).  And who can forget the highs and lows caused by normal human emotions, and the physiological reactions of feelings and experiences like love or fear – cold, clammy and shaking, or hot, sweaty, jittery and palpitating etc?

Take these thoughts further into other behaviour in churches, with a spiritual and pentecostal spin on it, and it can be seen that a lot of religious experiences and spiritual manifestations and signs and wonders are learned behaviour and induced by the flesh alone – although the people genuinely do not realise this.

Note I do not say all religious experiences are not genuinely spiritual and inspired by the Holy Spirit and only Him – not be any means. I believe in the genuine gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit and the genuine continuous filling of the Spirit. I do not deny God’s power. Not by any means is my faith weak in this sense. To call out the false is not by virtue to deny the true. I believe in the power of God but I also believe in fleshly behaviour, the undiscerning, in counterfeits (either of the flesh or of demons) and in charlatans. One would not be facing facts if one denies that fleshly behaviour goes on under spiritual guises in churches – and worse than that, demonic behaviour at times too- albeit dressed up and packaged as angels of light and true signs and wonders.

It is a weak or foolish Christian who will not admit that there is the false or mere flesh passing as godly and of the Holy Spirit in today’s church because he does not want to deny God’s power, or somehow by admitting there is the false, it weakens his faith in God and in spiritual power. The Christian and church leader not facing up to this fact and not admitting it, rather proves his faith is weak in the real thing, if by denying the false he gets nervous. What does he have to fear if the genuine is there? Perhaps he realises deep down ‘the Emperor has no Clothes’ see here: http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/the-emperor-has-no-clothes-on/     or as Paula W put it, ‘The hand has no spots’ : http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/todd-bentley-and-william-branham-share-the-same-healing-mantle/  , and take the false and fleshly away and he has nothing. (But even then, though shocking, and though he may feel foolish and embarassed, what a great place to be in to call out to God for the true! Surely a recognition of one’s emptiness and dependence – realising one’s true need – is the start of the pathway to getting true power as it pushes one to unrelenting prayer! There is nothing to be afraid of from truth. The church should audit itself regularly to this end.)

I have already written on the questionable signs and wonders associated with angel feathers and gold dust and gemstones (all proven to be faked by charlatans recently) http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/pentecostal-caught-faking-word-of-knowledge-prophecy-healing/ Now we have gold dust ‘glory flakes’ appearing at Dudley.