Healings & Prophecy at Florida Revival Lakeland Outpouring Meetings with Todd Bentley

I watched Todd Bentley speak at the Lakeland Outpouring on Friday 9th May, when the ‘revival’ was meeting at the Lakeland Airfield. I watched the ’show’ for over three hours on God TV when they showed it the next day. Here a few comments on the meeting.

There was a lot of worship. Well over one hour before Todd Bentley began to speak. I have nothing against worship, quite the opposite – obviously - BUT when worship goes on in such contexts over far too long a period, as was this case, it gets the crowd into a hyped, highly receptive and highly suggestable self induced trance state where they are less inclined to  think for themselves, to question or discern things. The worship was repetitive and hypnotic, and theologically light and had a dominionist slant. In fact the worship leader, Roy Fields, said just before Todd Bentley came on that it was about ‘taking domionion, that’s what it’s all about!’ 

John Davenport, a preacher during the First Great Awakening, along with others like him linked to the New Lights (some of whom went way off track while all the time apparently being led by the Holy Spirit), was known for having very repetitive songs in his meetings, sometimes the same song for over forty minutes continuously. Sound familiar? – IHOP are particularly bad for this. It was remarked even at the time that this repetition was done to work the audience up for when Davenport or another preacher did start their actual ‘ministry’ time. The audience were already in a state before the preacher even started talking. Then the way he and others like him spoke - sometimes quiet, sometimes loud, sometimes almost screaming, frequently changing pace, and the way he moved his arms; by his voice and body gestures he conducted and controlled the crowd – though of course they  did not realise this. His voice tone, it is recorded, was odd and unnatural but it further psychologicaly manipulated the crowd. John Davenport’s meetings had the same type of manifestations common to modern day pentecostalism and Todd Bentley – writhes and groans, holy laughter, jumping up and down, lying on the floor, screaming, leaping,  ‘unusual bodily motions all in confusion and in a frenzy of excitement’, dancing in the spirit and so on. Even very young children of five years old ‘prayed perfectly’. Some even had visions (false ones – see the article on the French prophets).

So music can very much manipulate a crowd, especially repetive music, and preachers well know this, as well as know how they can conduct a crowd by their voice intonations, changes in beat and pitch, and their body language and gestures. I have remarked before on this blog how both Todd Bentley and Rodney Howard Browne (and many other such men) start manifesting when they want the crowd to manifest – such as with obviously fake laughs or other cues to get the audience clued up and start manifesting themselves: eg by saying ‘I am feeling the anointing…it is here like a wave, over there…over here….‘  Until Todd said this nobody knew and nobody manifested. But as soon as He says it they manifest on cue, wherever he points to. They want to manifest, and he has given them permission to. Listen, if the Holy Spriit were really there in the way these preachers say He is, the crowd do not need to be told this before they start manifesting. This is manipulation and the power of suggestion at work, that is what this is, and these men know it, and use it to their advantage. I am not saying that the crowd are in any ways aware of this – they are not – most are deeply sincere and are too wrapped up in themselves in their highly altered light trance state, concentrating on their feelings and experiences and staying being in a receptive and non thinking and non critical state to notice what is really  going on.

Anyway, Todd Bentley finally came on stage after all this worship and began talking. In that time he did not once pick up a Bible. In that time he did not once mention scripture even loosely paraphrased (I did not need chapter and verse) – he barely mentioned Jesus and certainly did not preach on Jesus. I never heard the gospel, even done badly.

This is what he spoke on – and it was just like the many Toronto Blessing meetings I had been to where all they  did was speak on the anointing and movement. (Todd, in fact, said that both the Toronto Blessing and Brownsville-Pensacola Revival were revivals – neither were revivals. He also said that he had achieved more in fifteen days than the Azusa Street Revival had done in fifteen years because of all the media. ‘This will never end!’   he said. (My note – ‘Todd, it will’ and in an unexpected way and not in the way you think)) What Todd spoke on was all about the revival, the revival this, the revival that, the media this, the media that, this is where it’s going, need to get more people to come and get some, pass it on, transferable tangible healing anointing, give a seed to God TV, the revival this, the revival that, testimonies and more testimonies of what had happened through Todd, Todd this, Todd that. Todd Todd Todd.

Then Todd said ‘No man brought me to the platform’,  inferring therefore not only is he God-sent and God-ordained, but that what is happening at Lakeland must all be from God. Apart from the fact this is bad theology and not logical – for how can people like the Dalai Lama or David Icke or Peter Popoff or the Rev Moon or the Pope or other such people get their platforms – must they be ‘from God’ too because they are popular and have an audience as well? - I think Todd has also conveniently ‘forgotten’ about all the preparation, self promotion and media hype that has gone on, and the assistance of PR people like Stephen Strader, who not only proclaimed this a ‘revival’ and major event after only a few days, and rapidly created a media cicus, but who are also not adverse to lying to the media and covering things up. See here for example – http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/more-lies-cover-ups-deception-paul-cain-todd-bentley-steve-strader/

Todd Bentley is a false prophet and a false teacher who preaches a false gospel http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/todd-bentley-altar-calls-at-the-lakeland-outpouring-real-evangelism/ and leads people to accept a false second coming of Christ through Latter Rain theology – see here http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/todd-bentley-and-the-shekinah-glory-cloud/.  God  would not send Bentley anywhere to speak for Him, because Todd does not speak for God, in fact he leads many people astray to another Jesus. Todd Bentley is also a liar, a manipulator and a charlatan who uses cheap tricks to get money. See this post where he sells blessings for instance: http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/todd-bentley-buy-what-you-want-from-god/

This is a man manufactured revival, assisted by hype, God TV, Charisma Magazine (owned by the boyhood friend of Stephen Strader of Ignited Church) and also by demons. Has God sent it? Only in the sense that He allows great delusion because people do not love the truth and exchange the truth for a lie, which they are doing by the bucket-load. Great delusion can come with amazing signs and wonders that will decieve even the elect. Not all ‘miracles’ even if genuine, come from God. The Bible clearly underlines this. Apart from the ‘miracles’ that Pharoah’s magicians were able to do in Egypt, in the Book of Revelation the Beast and his false prophet can do amazing things, including calling down fire from heaven. But would you follow the beast? Well, evidently some will and think it to be God. Are you   listening to the beast’s false prophet, for that is what this movement is - exactly - (it is the mouthpiece of the antichrist dominionist beast of the false apostles)?

How do you know if you are not  following evil dressed and disguised as good?  For many of you repeatedly ignore scripture and exchange the truth for the lie - just going by the signs and wonders and how it makes you feel and assumes if it feels good it must be God. Maybe your pastor and friends say it is OK – are they always  right? You must test for yourself. As time goes on, the majority will take the beast’s mark and apostasise, will you  apostasise because everyone else including your pastor does – will you throw away truth to be in the majority?  Do you think you will know the false prophet when you see him (or ‘them’) for what they are – as agents for the evil one - because they will have horns and a forked tail and have bad breath and a cackly laugh?! Really? Do you not know false apostles and devils come disguised as angels of light and smell oh so sweet? Seduction has the best perfume.

Todd talked of a billion soul harvest in the future (classic Latter Rain/Joel’s Army theology) and boasted how many decisions for Christ he has already had over the years. Yet when there was eventually an altar call, there was no preaching of Jesus, there was no preaching of repentence, there was nothing you needed to do but come and ask Jesus into your life and get ‘it’. The same for the anointing or impartation, there was no need for repentence, consecration, dedication, obedience, commitment – there was no real reason why it was given other than to ‘get it’, or what it was to be used for other than passing it on and transferring it til it went global - Todd did not stir the people to works of service (apart from passing the anointing on) it was just come and get ‘it’ and transfer it on.

‘I feel the anointing….. I feel the Holy Spirit here……I feel the power. Can you feel it?’

‘You’ll begin to feel…’ he prompts, and then later ‘how many of you feel…‘   Then later still when recieving testimonies he repeatedly asked each one ‘Did you feel heat or burning?’   It was feel vs faith. Feeling, all sensual experiences. Tangible, feeling. Not truth. Not testing. Not reliable. Note too the power of suggestion ‘you’ll begin to feel xx…’ and suggesting specifically how this may feel via heat or burning.

When the Holy Spirit was given in the Bible, when gifts were given, it was not via a feeling – any feeling that occured was irrelevant – it was the net result, the fruit that was what counted. Jesus when ministering did not ask whether people felt  anything, he asked if they could see or hear properly or asked them to rise up and walk. Although feelings and physical sensory symptoms may well have occured, they were not the focus, they were irrelevant and not what was to be testified to and not what was to be looked for and revelled in, and nor even were they the end result.  The shaking or heat or whatever was not to gloried in or sought or passed on, rather it was GOD that was the focus – and what was produced afterwards, boldness for witnessing, for healing, for prophecy or tongues or whatever. However the Holy Spirit’s real fruit is not being shown in this revival, so what is really being imparted? Hot air? http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/the-anointing-of-the-spirit-and-evangelism/   Rather than fruitful things, it is the opposite with much bad fruit – false teaching, false prophecy, false manifestations, false conversion, charlatanism, lies, cover ups and a severe lack of anything biblical by action or by word. Worse still, there is the elevation of false dominionist prophets and apostles, with the literal doctrines of demons. And no doubt there is a fair amount of fleecing going on too (of the financial kind).

‘I am giving you life and hope’   said Todd. Didn’t he mean Jesus gives this?

Then Todd said some very odd things about Mother’s Day which was then a couple of days away. That coming Mother’s Day would be an anniversary of ten years of him in ministry. He claims every Mother’s Day, for the last nine years, Jesus or the ‘Angel of the Lord’ has appeared to him face to face, to mark that anniversary. (This is bad theology for several different reasons. Apart from being boastful, unlikely, and I believe yet another vain imagination and pretence of his, many theologians think the Angel of the Lord and Jesus are one and the same anyway.) Todd hyped up the coming Sunday, as he said something was bound to happen at his meeting that was particularly special as something extraordinary always has on the previous Mother’s Days.

He then said the revival had come through a woman – we have his mother to thank apparently. (Not God)

He mentioned a previous healing revival in 1998-1999 in Albany that he was involved in. His mother died of some illness on the last day of this revival, he said, at aged just 48 years old. He then claimed that his mother’s death was a ’seed’ for God. ‘Release her to me,’   Todd claims God said to him, so Todd could have great miracles and revival in his ministry. ‘Through her death, she will produce an anointing on your life’ he says God said, and said that God would ‘honour’ the sacrifice Todd made of his mother’s life through miracles and revival. So Todd did this, and his mother died, he says, on the last day of the Albany Revival. What a sacrifice! What a Saint! How altruistic and selfless! What a man!

Wow! This is probably one of the worst things I have heard Todd say and he has said a lot of flaky stuff. I mean, where do you start pointing out how this is wrong for so many reasons (even if it is true, which it is not as he contradicted himself later which I am coming to).  The whole seed faith thing is wrong, and not scriptural. It is bad enough when applied to finances, but to giving up other people’s lives for them?!  Since when did God ever ask anybody to sacrifice their loved one’s literal life for God’s work (Abraham and Isaac does not count, as that story was a type for the Messiah, and it was also not done for anointing or miracles.)   Anointing for miracles and healings comes through the Calling of God and Recieving the Spirit and obedience and faith – none of this mumbo jumbo Todd touts!  The whole ‘anointing’ thing is rubbish too as there is only one true anointing (I John), not multiple anointings.

Apart from the obvious – Todd’s mother’s life was not Todd’s to give, we also have to question Todd’s alleged God’s character who would take a lady’s life for the sake of the anointing on her son - cruel, sadistic, contradictory….  When The Bible’s God’s One and Only Son has already been given and is more than sufficient. Todd’s is far more a Catholic concept that denies the suffiency of Christ and the cross. There is only one that robs life, who seeks to kill and destroy. Is Todd claiming it is this one who is his god?

More can be said on this, but moving on to the contradiction. Some time later (maybe twenty minutes) after he said this, he was ministering to the crowd healing and was saying how you had to have positive thinking/faith. This is not exactly verbatim but is an accurate rendition of what he said:  ‘My mother died because she gave up. I said ‘Mom fight’ and she said ‘no, I want to go to heaven’.…. You have to overcome in your mind’    he said.  But errr… I thought his mum died because she was a seed that God demanded Todd sacrifice for the world! But not apparently now, she died because she gave up – she lacked faith and hope and was not an overcomer. Todd, like a lot of liars, forgot what he said before and glibly contradicted himself.  FIRE! FIRE! Where? Your pants are on fire, Todd Bentley, you liar and deciever! Repent, I say repent, for your destruction is at hand!

Anyway, now we come to the healing testimonies. I did not watch them all as it was getting very late by that time but I watched enough of them (and I had seen others before on another night).

A lot of the reason why people come up on stage is to get prayed personally for by Todd, and/or maybe get their five minutes of fame. You’ll also get hyped up euphoric people, high as a kite on endorphins testifying truly to temporary pain relief and much more joint mobility but who are not truly healed. You’ll also get people feeling heat in their sick area or manifesting, so assuming because they felt this heat, or were slain in the spirit, they were healed. This, of course, is not true as thousands of people at healing rallies who have been slain in the spirit or manifested but were not even slightly healed will testify. You’ll then have the positive confession crowd, conditioned to testify to healing even when they are not. You’ll have psychomatic illnesses healed, there is great power in placebo. You’ll have nutcases and liars and media whores. Perhaps even plants. Most of the public there are not liars or decievers but some  are.  I have previously said that even if you are not healed and feel nothing, you will say you have been healed just to get prayed for, or to get more, if you are desperate enough and believe Todd to be a healer and he is your only chance. The way to get more is by testifying, so say you felt something, falsely testify and maybe you’ll get on and get personal attention from Todd. A normally honest parent with a terminally ill kid will do anything   it takes to this end – and who can blame her? I do not. This reasoning was evidently the case for one gentleman who testified, who even admitted he wanted prayer from Todd again ‘to get the rest of his healing’ (meaning it all  in his case as by his expression and manner he’d not gotten anything the first time around and was falsely testifying).

Many folk came on stage and were evidently still sick and crippled. You could see humps in their backs and obvious pain when walking etc. Yet they testified to being healed and went over in the Spirit again.

One man came on stage and claimed to be healed out of a wheelchair and said he had not been out of it for years. The crowd went wild. Wow. Impressive. The only thing is earlier as the camera panned the crowd, I had seen this same man standing – not realising he’d be one of the testifiers, I remembered him as he had a slightly ‘funny’ face.

One young lady who regularly cut herself claimed that she’d been healed and delivered (I think she said through the TV or internet a few days before). She was there with her dad. She claimed not only had she been instantly delivered of her demon/s (without repentence), but also her scars had miraculously gone. Wow! Quite a testimony. Todd was interviewing her and saying how great, doing his usual head shaking from side to side thing when hearing it. But then I could see clearly four horizonatal cut marks still on her arm. Even on the TV I could see it, so Todd would have seen them too even clearer as he was right there. Yet she  said they had gone. And Todd kept on saying how amazing, how wonderful, even though he knew this was not true and was looking at them! He even turned around to the audience and talked on it for a little while how good it was the scars were gone. Todd often does classic liar’s body language when lying – he opens his arms out wide and some some over the top mannerisms - and so in this case, and his voice even went up at the end of the sentence (like liars’ do). A school psychology class could have a field day spotting him lying. TODD IS A LIAR AND ALLOWED LIES TO BE SPOKEN. He knew it. He allowed it. It is disgraceful. He was caught on camera. And his staff had filtered this girl through and must have seen it too. Oh, the deceit! This man and some of his staff does not fear either God or man.

Then a man came up with Parkinsons disease who claimed to be healed, and his wife said the shaking had stopped and he did a bit of walking and bending - the usual show. Yet the camera clearly showed the man’s arm and hand shaking in the ‘classic’ undeniable Parkinson’s fashion, and you can bet Todd and his staff saw it too, yet still Todd said how awesome, how amazing to be healed of Parkinsons in his over the top fashion – just the same as the girl with the cuts on her arm. Both were not healed – clearly. They are (probably) innocent of lying as they were manipulated but Todd was bearing false testimony.

Later a woman came up and said how Todd had had a vision and it was for her situation. You should have heard Todd hype it up, like wow, aren’t I fantastic to get that detailed vision, aren’t I prophetic, really going on and on about it and drawing attention to himself how wonderful he was for seeing this vision. These are not the actions of a true prophet and healer, they are the actions of a charlatan.

So in summary, false and dangeous teaching, false prophecy, false healings, false anointings, false manifestations, false spirits, false conversions, false testimonies – a real Charlatan ministering. Of the devil in several different ways. Some revival and some outpouring!

Watch out, Watch Out, there’s devils about.

I believe in real healing. I believe in real prophecy. But not through this vile man and his ministry. Lord, deal with him!