Contagious Tangible Transferable Impartation And Anointing

I wrote the other day here on the French Prophets’ extraordinary prophecies and the bizarre spiritual manifestations accompanying this group. I said how their dangerous impartation can be traced down through history to today at Lakeland. “Dangerous” because the prophecies and manifestations were proven to be false and demonic, and also could be deadly – causing both spiritual death with great sin, apostasy, disillusion and falling away, and literal death, as in the case of the French monk stabbed to death on “divine instructions” recieved through a convulsing prophet that sparked the ill-fated two year War of the Camisards. There are also the deaths of William Cook and Jonathan Edwards’ Uncle which I shall discuss shortly.

A Wonderful Impartation in the Name of Jesus?

Yet despite its danger, and its demonic nature, this is how this dangerously false impartation was described by those who “got some” of the French Prophet’s spirit imparted to them, either directly from the French Prophets, or others linked to them who carried the “fire”:

‘A gentle and pleasant glow  which gradually becomes more intense and also fills the external body’. There followed either trembling or convulsions, ‘and in the centre of this internal fire  the word of the Lord is born’.  (Blasius Daniel Makinet)

‘The first symptom of the emotions upon my body surprised me in the instant of awaking on the first day of March…those agitations… continued more or less upon me until the 12th day of June. [The various agitations are described - twitches, trembling,  involuntary moving of the tongue, lips, mouth and jaw to form words not of his volition or control]   [All of these agitations] I found attended with a constant elevation of soul to God;  the mind being uncontainably cast into a frame of spiritual joy,  holy contempt of all things in the world, and incessant prayers, far more earnest and intent  than what I have ever found before…..” (John Lacy)

‘When the Spirit of God wants to seize me, I sense a great warmth  in my heart…which is sometimes preceded by a shivering all over my body’. (Elias Marion)

J A Gruber thought the manifestations very odd at first and thought them demonic, but he also felt ‘a secret joy’   so went with it. After getting ’some’ from the French prophets, Gruber convulsed for 36 hours solid before prophesying, one word at a time, then two hours straight. He declared his and his other prophets’ words were of God as: ‘they brought people to godly repentence and atonement’.  (J A Gruber)

In Berlin, a Johann Michael Bolich “got some” from the French Prophets and went into convulsions for four hours and then was led to sing in the spirit. (Johann Michael Bolich)

James Davenport was a very popular, firey and passionately zealous preacher, who prophesied and manifested. It was reported that “never was the word seen to come with such power or people so hungry for it.”  He obtained many conversions and many of the crowd manifested in his meetings during America’s First Great Awakening. He was instrumental in starting a new seminary, The Shepherds Tent, to train Spirit-filled and Spirit-led evangelists and itinerant ministers who spurned wordly possessions and were guided and educated by the direct inspiration of God.  Students reported of spending three weeks solid in ecstasy   “even swallowed up in God”, many much overcome with the powerful love of God   during that time making very passionate prayers and pleadings.  (James Davenport)

For nearly five weeks Sarah Sartell Prentice manifested as she converted. She lay silent and motionless for long periods, in between having to do the duties of a wife, and was so affected by the “power” that her nerves and sinews contracted and her tongue went stiff as she was struck dumb. Then she regained the power of speech and cried ‘Come see the power of God on me!’   At the moment of her conversion she went into an ecstatic  trance crying ‘it’s lovely, it’s lovely!’  Daily for the following few months she drank of “the streams of God’s delight“.   She was described by another as “exceedingly spiritual, heavenly and purified”.  (Sarah Sartell Prentice)

Ann Lee allegedly had many “miraculous” escapes from death. Once she spoke to four clergymen for four hours in seventy-two tongues. She healed the sick by merely touching them. (Ann Lee/The Shakers)

The Shakers focussed a lot on angels, visitations from angels, and trips into the “astral regions”. Their meetings were noisy and could last all night. They prayed in tongues,  manifested bizarely and prophesied. People coming back from a Shaker house could still manifest for days afterwards. There was ecstatic  divine worship, people were so overwhelmed by the might of God they were unable to stand and some heard angels singing. During a 10-year period of revelations, even the children told of visits to the third heaven or astral regions. They were all deeply committed and worked very hard. They even had signs and omens from heaven in the “dark day” and blood and fire in the sky to confirm their prophecies. (The Shakers)

‘They were taken with a mighty trembling, under which they would express the indignation of God against all sin. At other times, they were affected, under the power of God, with a mighty shaking; and were occasionally exercised in singing, shouting, or walking the floor, under the influence of spiritual signs, swiftly passing and re-passing each other, like clouds agitated by a mighty wind.’ (The Shakers)

“[The power of God...] raised me from my chair and under is influence I turned around swiftly for the space of half an hour.” (Daniel Coffin – The Shakers) 

Wow! They manifestations and the intentions sounds absolutely wonderful, don’t they, and are all apparently producing good fruit and are all in the name of Jesus? How could these apparently wonderful things possibly  then be of the devil?

Elias Marion’s Violent Manifestations

Elias Marion was described as almost thrashing himself to death in his “agitations” while prophesying. His speech was so broken and incoherent – accompanied continually by gulps, hiccups or a violent agitation of the head or body - that he or any of the audience could scarcely hear and understand, much less bear in mind, the words spoken by him.  (How similar this is to today to people like Stacy Campbell, whose head violently shakes from side to side while she prophesies, see here for the videos.)

Elias Marion and some other prophet companions were arrested and convicted of blasphemy and “spreading terror among the Queen’s people. One was accused of having published a collection of prophetic warnings in which he predicted the imminent destruction of London likened to Babylon. In 1707, Elias Marion was ‘Convicted for falsy and prophanely pretending himself to be a true Prophet, and printing and uttering many things, as dictated and revealed to him by the Spirit of God, to terrifie the Queen’s People’  and exposed on a scaffold at Charing Cross, and at the Royal Exchange in London on the 1st and 2nd December  with a paper attached to his forehead denoting his offences.  Marion’s companions John d’Audé, and Nicolas Facio, were likewise pilloried, ‘for abetting and favouring Elias Marion, in his Wicked and Counterfeit Prophecies, and causing them to be printed and publish’d, to terrifie the Queen’s People.’  

December 1707 was a bad time for these prophets, who prophesied over one of their own prophets, a Dr Emes, that he would not die of a sickness. He did die only days later, but then the prophets clammered to say Dr Emes would be raised from the dead. Emes ‘instead of being laid out as is usual for a dead corpse was kept hot in bed till he stunk so as there was scarce any enduring it’.   He eventually had to be buried, the prophets insisting he would rise five months later. On the 25th May 1708, the declared day, twenty thousand people turned up in London to watch Dr Eme’s resurrection, so much so the Queens Guard were there to keep order.  Dr Emes, however, stayed where he was in the ground, and the prophetic movement lost its credibility and its large following.

John Lacy’s Renewed Passion for God Quickly Manifested as Disdain For The Old Wineskin

John Lacy for all his “constant elevation of soul to God” and “incessant prayers” was led very far off course into serious deception and sin, being “led by the Spirit” to leave his wife and family for a young actress who preached nude and who was to bear the second Messiah.

Though at first, Lacy’s impartation led him to read scripture more, his and his groups’ prophecies soon superceded and replaced scripture, and soon enough John Lacy swore on oath that the Old & New Testament were “good for nothing”.   [How similar this is to today! Compare the new prophetic-apostlic movement talk of the the old wineskin vs the new wineskin, the stale manna of the Bible vs the superiority of their new revelations, which they claim is continually being unfurled and restored to the church headed by C Peter Wagner and his apostate apostles. Note too Rick Joyner's obvious disdain for scripture, and his and others like Todd Bentley's rebuttal that scripture is an absolute authority. Surely it is the same spirit in them!]

Johann Michael Bolich

Over time Bolich’s manifestations became more and more violent, and his prophetic words more and more odd. He claimed to be Jesus, and that the reign of God was to begin 27 September.  He later was delivered when he realised he had been seized by an evil spirit rather than the Holy Spirit.

Johann Adam Gruber

Johann Adam Gruber declared the prophets’ words were of God as: ‘they brought people to godly repentence and atonement’. Like John Lacy, Gruber did not understand the subtle and seductive nature of deception, and refused to properly discern the spirits, instead thinking he detected false prophets thus – “Whenever a false spirit was present in the assembley, Gruber recieved a warning in the form of ‘an extraordinary shaking of the head and shivering of the mouth’.” [pp Stacey Campbell's head shake and hissing?]

The fruit from his group was many strange manifestations and false prophecies occuring in the group’s midst, and the group became very authoritarian demanding unquestioning obedience to their leaders. Thet demanded a giving up of the personal will and reason (eg letting go of their minds, just like today).  There were schisms and notably many of this group’s prophets fell away from the faith disillusioned, the greatly diminished group of the faithful stumbling on seemingly having lost their direction and focus.

Gruber emigrated to America, and was involved in various German congregations during the First Great Awakening. This was one way the French Prophet’s imparation went transatlantic. There were other vessels too, of course, including Ann Lee and remnants from the Wardley Society.

James Davenport

During America’s “Great Awakening”, laymen worked the crowds as exhorters, encouraging the manifestations in some churches. “With their own groans, cries, screams, and agonies” they worked audiences into a frenzy of excitement until there was a ’spontaneous’ medley of screaming out, praying, leaping, laughing, singing, clapping, prophesying, lying on the floor, walking, talking, slapping one another on the back as they experienced “the pangs of ye new birth”.

Against this backdrop, Rev. James Davenport, an already emotive preacher, began to employ a strange singsong tone of voice and exagerated gestures while preaching [note Todd Bentley's mannerisms]. He encouraged both “noise and outcry… by extending his own voice to the highest pitch, together with the most violent agitations of body”. It was said that his preaching produced a marvellous mixture of good and bad. It was reported that the crowds were encouraged to carry on singing the same songs repetively for too long a period of time – to whip them into a frenzy when the preacher did take the stage. [note Lakeland worship can be two hours long and is highly repetitive]. Davenport focussed too much on inward feelings and “immediate dictations of the spirit” in prophecy.

Davenport helped form the Shepherd’s Tent seminiary, to train Spirit-filled and Spirit-led evangelists and itinerant ministers who spurned wordly possessions and were guided and educated by the direct inspiration of God. However, it was only  the Holy Spirit’s direct revelation and direct guidance in direct inspiration, rather than the Holy Spirit’s guidance through the Bible that was sought. The students were instead led to prophesy and seek the gifts over knowledge of the word, inevitably went further astray, and even burned religious books. The school did not long survive the scandal of this. There was also the inevitable false prophecy.

Davenport was responsible for creating schisms and divisions and promoting uneducated lay people over educated ministers. He lost his health and emotional balance after the Shepherd’s Tent fiasco. As he recovered, he wrote a letter of retraction admitting a lot of what he had been “led” to do was wrong, and he went around many places apologising and trying to undo the bad he now realised he had done in the name of the Lord.

Davenport confessed that the supernatural powers guiding him that he thought were of God were really of Satan disguised as an angel of light. He said of his last visit to the “spirit-filled” Shepherd’s Tent that he was really  ”under the powerful influence of the false spirit almost one whole day together and part of several days… I thought in the time of it, that t’was the spirit of God in an high degree; awful indeed.”

It was said by other ministers during the Great Awakening that Davenport did more towards giving Satan an advantage against the work of God than anyone else.

It was impossible to undo a lot of the damage done though, as Davenport’s “converts” refused to repent, and the manifestations had become part of the church psyche in many places. Zealous but biblically illiterate lay preachers promoted emotional union  with God over the word, and encouraged the people to continue to seek “religious affections” aka manifestations and feelings. It became the norm to preach in the “holy whine” that Davenport had introduced, and tears and outcries in the congregation had become the accepted and expected response. Many people left churches to start others, and said there was no power in a church if there were “no visible great operations” – by that meaning manifestations in their midst.  Sadly, the exact same sort of heresies rose their ugly heads in the new “spirit-guided” congregations and schisms in New England as they had in London.

Sarah Sartell Prentice

For all her apparent piety and manifesting, and the fact she was a wife of a minister, she was very deep into errors. She claimed to have been transformed into perfection so that her body would not see corruption. She followed a prophet called Shardrach Ireland who also claimed perfection and immortality. His followers were celibate until they attained sinlessness (by the prophet’s decree) and then they could unite with divinely chosen (inspired by prophecy) new spouses to produce sinless children and a breed of spiritual elite. Even though still legally living with her minister husband, she slept with Shadrach as his spiritual wife. Shadrach left his wife and six children for yet another woman, and Sarah claimed that for the next twenty years the “Holy Spirit marvellously” led and enabled her not to have sexual relations with her legal long-suffering husband.

The Shakers/Ann Lee

“Mother” Ann Lee was said to be the female incarnation of Christ. Salvation came through her via obedience to this “mother of all the elect” who carried others’ in the group’s sins (which is why she was excused as having to get so drunk with rum under the pressure of it all, her followers said).

Ann Lee was openly against marriage, procreation and sexual intercourse of any kind. All the world’s wrongs: war, disease, slavery, famine, poverty, the inequality of the sexes – all were the result of this “concupiscence.” She claimed that celibacy and confession of sin were the only true road to salvation, and the only way in which the Kingdom of God could be established on the earth – which would be manifest through them first. There was endless enforced confession of the same sins to elders and all were commanded to be celibate including married couple converts.

There was lots of false prophecies – and they spent hours and hours at a time on repetitive ritualic dances. They danced in the nude, and they lied to cover this up. They were cultic and into heavy shepherding, they broke up existing families, even young children were separated from their parents in different single sex houses and rarely saw them, and they worked people to the bone. 

There was little to no prayer, preaching or reading. Instead no resistance to the power of God in the manifestation was preached, whatever action or manifestation that lead to – even sin, as if directed by God in a manifestation or a spiritual leading, it was not deemd to be sin.

People ran through woods hooting and tooting like owls, prophesied and communed with the dead, stripped naked thinking themselves angels or invisible, or were led by the spirit to burst into a house and wake others up. The use of rum was as a means to attaining spiritual experience.

They practised spiritual warfare. As they thought demons were everywhere, The Shakers regularly had to manifest or perform rituals against them. They marched and danced and whirled, screamed, stamped violently, yowled and howled as they fought the devil. They had the “warring gift” which consisted of making a circle in the dirt which they then stamped out while hissing out and crying out about sin. Their enforced celibacy and control of the lusts was also part of the continual warfare.

Valentine Rathbun, a baptist, went to visit a Shaker house to find out about them as many people did in those days. He declared after his visit that the Shakers were the people of God and sang the song of the redeemed 144,000. While Rathbun testified about them, a man in the crowd named William Cook jumped onto a bench and began manifesting. He cried out “Amen! Glory! I know it is the way to God!”   He shouted it over and over while bowing up and down, until his friends took him and laid him out on the grass. He continued in a distraught state for several days then died.

Manifest Sons Doctrine, a Common Fruit of the French Prophets’ Impartation

The French Prophets and their spiritual descendants not only had the very same manifestations, but also the very same fruit as today’s third wave prophets! I have commentated before how ‘Latter Rain’ and ‘Manifest Sons’ they were, years before William Branham and George Warnock – indicating yet again it is the same spirit at work today at Lakeland as was with them.

Common threads, apart from the similarity of the manner of impartation and the surrounding sensations, the same body movements and the obvious false prophecies, included: an immenent end of the world, various spins and forms of Manifest Sons, of dominionism with them being the elite ruling [pp the new apostles], a claim to sinless perfection and immortality [pp Joel's Army/Todd Bentley], elitism [pp Kansas City Prophets New Breed], authoratarianism [pp touch not my anointed and apostolic demand for complete control and unquestioning obedience even when they are wrong], domineering over controlling spiritual abuse from the prophets, sins of the flesh – sexual sin, alcoholism etc [pp Paul Cain, Bob Jones, Ted Haggard etc] OR enforced celibacy even within marriage, disdain for the word of God over the new revelation [pp Rick Joyner], a wrong focus on the manifestations, and most notably, a claim to Christ’s return and manifestation within them corporately or individually. 

Ann Steed had for years been announcing in Quaker meetings that Christ was to appear in England, and now said that Christ’s return was  ‘by Christ’s glorious appearance in and upon the French prophets’.  This is no different at all to Latter Rain Manifest Sons as preached by Todd Bentley and gang.

Sometimes rather than a ‘corporate Christ’ in the body of the church, an individual  claimed unique status as the embodiment of Christ. Between 1708 and 1712 there were six schisms within the French Prophets, all led by women. In at least two of these case, the women claimed special spiritual status – Dinnah Stoddart claimed to be the saviour of womankind, and Dorothy Harling claimed to be the woman clothed by the sun in Revelation 12.  John Lacy said, however, that he and his mistress Elizabeth Grey were to bear the second Messiah.

The Wardley Society [a Quaker/French Prophet offshoot that became the Shakers] a few years later, taught that Christ’s second appearing would be as a woman. Ann Lee became a member of this group and over time became known as ‘Mother’ Ann, “Mother in spiritual things”, and “Ann, the Word”. It was claimed she embodied all the perfections of God in female form and was Christ manifested and bore the sins of her followers.

Johann Michael Bolich claimed to be Jesus, and prophesied that the reign of God was to begin 27 September. 

In the places where the First Great Awakening had affected, some people claimed to be perfect and immortal, and one claimed he was Christ. People in Massachusetts and other areas said in their perfected states they would be in spiritual marriages with someone who was not necessarily their civil spouse.

A Nathaniel Smith in Hopkinton declared he was God and worse a cap with God written on its front.

George Fox of the Quakers declared himself to be Christ.  James Naylor, another Quaker,  declared himself as holy, just and good as God himself. It was reported: ‘Men, women and children would be strangely wrought upon in their bodies, and brought to fall, foam at the mouth, roar, and swell in their bellies, and some of them affirm themselves to be equal to God.’ 

The Swedenborgians (whom Sadhu Sungar Singh emulated, whom Todd Bentley emulates and prophesies about) thought that the Millenium had arrived spiritually within themselves as did some of the Shakers.

Recognising the true Source of the Impartation and Manifestations

Henry Nicholson, a London-based doctor who was also an Anglican, left the French Prophets after he decided they were actually guided by evil spirits. He recieved an elaborate blessing from one of the prophets. “I fell into violent convulsions,” he wrote, “very differing from any I had seen of theirs; inasmuch that I cried out with a shrill voice like one afrighted, and beat my breast and knees after the manner of those who are in the epilepsies.”  For the next six weeks, he ‘could neither see any of the motions of the prophets, or even think on them, without some irregular motions.’ 

Instead of recieving the gift of prophecy, he became obsessed with his own sins. After he ceased working and supporting his family, his friends placed him in a madhouse. Upon his release, his convulsions returned, as violently as before.’  A Robert Wise, a sawyer near London wall, had a similar fate in the asylum after an impartation from the prophets. 

Henry Nicholson wrote:

 ”[The French Prophets' imaginations are led] by an intoxicated fancy, which as we may perceive in several other cases, inflames the animal spirits to an unnatural pitch: and the violent motions of the body serve to heat the agitated blood and afford a constant supply of overheated spirits to the nerves to strenghen and carry on the violent agitations and delusive impressions.” 

Jonathan Edwards’ uncle became so obsessed with sin as a consequence of his manifestations, he cut his own throat. As news of his suicide broke, multitudes seem to have it strongly suggested to them and felt pressed to do the same.

John Wesley wrote that certain manifestations brought Christianity into contempt, and that through them Satan worked on sincere, loving, but unwise folk to wear them out and bring discredit to the work of God.

 “… So many have been awakened, justified, and soon after perfected in love; but even while they are full of love, Satan strives to push many of them to extravagance.  This appears in several instances: … Some of them, perhaps many, scream all together as loud as they possibly can… Several drop down as dead; and are as stiff as a corpse; but in a while they start up, and cry, “Glory! glory!” perhaps twenty times together. Just so do the French Prophets, and very lately the Jumpers in Wales, bring the real work into contempt…. I think there needs no great penetration to understand this. They are honest, upright men, who really fell the love of God in their hearts. But they have little experience, either of the ways of God or the devices of Satan. So he serves himself of their simplicity, in order to wear them out and to bring a discredit on the work of God.”

John Wesley saw a young prophetess linked to the French Prophets, a Mary Plewitt, manifesting. He said of her manifestations “the motion might be either hysterical or artificial.” (That is mass hypnotism/hyped up/ or faked and put on).

Charles Wesley later recognised that many of the manifestations occuring in his brother’s meeting were conciously or subconciously done to get John’s attention, and so he had the manifestees gently removed fron the room and took no more notice of them.

Though recognising some manifestations were only fleshly, Charles Wesley was far more forward and direct with his discernment about the demonic nature of others of the manifestations than his brother. He found himself in a situation where one of these French prophets became his bed-fellow. As they got ready for bed, Charles reports that this prophet “fell into violent agitations and gobbled like a turkey. I was frightened and began exorcising him with, ‘Thou deaf and dumb devil,’ etc. He soon recovered out of his fit of inspiration. I prayed and went to bed, not half-liking my bed-fellow. I did not sleep very sound with Satan so near me.”   Charles Wesley spoke to Count Zinzendorf when he came to London about such ‘motions, visions and dreams’ and was confirmed in his dislike for them.

Howell Harris, a Welsh evangelist wrote in 1744 that he heard “an account of the French prophets and of the devils acting in them and how they design on Mr Wesley”.

In June 1739, the Fetter Lane Society was in great confusion because of a French Prophet Mary Lavington who as well as strangely manifesting etc also prophesied absolute perfection and sinlessness was possible in this life. She also claimed she could have Christ appear to her in any shape she chose, like as a dove or an eagle. However Lavington’s claims to perfection clashed with her “lewd life and conversation” – these same facts which Charles Wesley presented to the society.

John Wesley arriving the next day, concluding that the French prophets were not sent by God and “earnestly exhorted all that followed after holiness to avoid as fire all who do not speak according ‘to the law and the testimony.’”  He urged them to “not believe every spirit but to try the spirits to see if they are of God”.  (1 John 4:1)  He told them not to judge the Spirit on the basis on appearances, common report, or by their own inward feelings. “No, nor by any dreams, visions, or revelations supposed to be made to their souls, anymore than by their tears or any involuntary effects wrought upon their bodies.” Wesley declared the only certain test was “the law and the testimony,” a reference to Isaiah 8:20, which is a description of God’s Word.   The society then disowned Lavington.

John Wesley said the French prophets that they “think to attain the end without the means” and that their revelations contradicted the Law and the Testimony. The test of the prophecy and manifestations being they must conform to the testimony of scripture and of awakened Christians in a new birth – and they did not.

However John Wesley was not against dreams and visions or even heavenly manifestations and feelings. He attempted to distinguish between divine inspiration and “enthusiasm” which he said was false and imaginary. He wrote that weak minds could pervert visions “to an idle use” but he also strongly said “does it follow that visions and dreams in general are bad branches of a bad root? God forbid!”

John Wesley Demonstrates the Need for Early Pruning

Whilst recognising some error for what it was and rebuking it, and doing a good job at dealing with Mary Lavington, sadly John Wesley allowed things to continue that should not have in his meetings that caused great harm in the long term. For example, a George Bell began falsely prophesying and spreading perfectionist doctrines, and although Wesley had privately expressed his concerns re dreams, visions and impressions, he did nothing publically about Bell until it became obvious Bell was mad. [Reminds me of many leaders today sitting on the fence about Lakeland and not speaking out]. Wesley later explained that he believed part of what Bell said was from God, part from a heated imagination, but as Bell did not scream {and one assumes did not manifest violently like Mary Lavington or have such a lewd lifestyle],  and there was nothing dangerously wrong, {or so he thought]   he “did not yet see cause to hinder” the prophet.   But even quieter non manifesting false prophets are dangerous, and sadly George Bell did  cause damage as his perfectionist ideas took more and more grip in areas of Methodism. If only the church had obeyed the apostle Paul’s instructions re publicly testing and weighing the prophecy as soon as it was spoken out, then it would not have gotten into this mess!

As well as prophecy, there was also the problems of other fleshly manifestations that were tolerated, and indeed welcomed and sought by Wesley as a sign of God’s working on the crowds he preached to. While John Wesley rejected much that came from the French Prophets and their successors, he did not reject all  spiritual-fleshly manifestations,  even when he  thought some clearly demonic and the work of Satan, or others just plain fleshly. 

Apart from his laissez-faire attitude re some manifestations, John Wesley allowed certain manifestations to go on in his meetings as he saw them as an inevitable consequence of ’spiritual warfare’ as people were on the brink of being converted. In a meeting near Newcastle, Wesley understood that Satan was trying to tear the people apart as they came to Christ as they felt a great weight on them and were choked, or literally felt torn in pieces. However there was always the understanding that people would eventually be delivered of their fleshly distress, or of Satan’s schemes, as they accepted Christ and found peace. In Wesley’s mind, it was never a case of desiring more of these manifestations for manifestations sake and crying out “More, Lord” as they do at Lakeland.  

John Cennick, a contemporary of Wesley’s, ascribed the manifestations in Wesley’s meetings to the devil, and wrote these manifestations were as a result of “the struggle of the serpent with the Spirit of God for the souls of the awakened”. This fierce combat in the inward parts meant that the weaker part of the man, the flesh was sometimes overcome, and so those cries and convulsions followed.

However, though the revival leaders  may have understood this was what was going on in their meetings, many of the crowds inevitably misunderstood and got carried away seeking these signs and wonders out and revelling in them for themselves. Instead of understanding it was a kind of bodily spiritual warfare going on, and not to be copied or sought out or welcomed – only tolerated if it occured – the people may well have thought these Satanic-wrought fleshly manifestations were to be sought out as a sign of the Spirit of God being on them,  or as a sign or token of God’s divine favour, or even as necessary before true conversion could occur. I have read many testimonies from this time, not just from within methodism, claiming a great deal of fleshly distress was needed over a matter of weeks or months before coming to salvation, which is clearly not the truth. A wrong focus on these manifestations could have led many astray, or at best distracted them greatly. Some witnesses even claimed these wrong ideas gave a gateway to the demonic. An example of this is in the story of three young ladies from Kingwood, Bristol.

Demonisation Because of Revivalist’s Encouragement of Manifestations?

After a revival by Wesley in Kingwood, three young women claimed to be possessed by demons. John Cennick said they could predict who would be possessed/affected next, and one of them though illiterate could answer questions out to her in Greek or Latin. When asked by Wesley how the demon had entered her, a demon through one of the women replied, ‘by thy gospel, they toad!‘  (meaning by his encouraging and looking for manifestations and signs in his meetings -  by the power of suggestion and giving cues such as praying for a “visible manifestation” of some token of God’s favour. When there was no overt phenomona he wrongly considered the Spirit was grieved. Cennick decided Wesley’s preaching encouraged convulsions and demonic possessions. He changed his methods and his preaching and all the fits and crying stopped in his meetings.)  John and Charles Welsey prayed for the affected women and they were delivered after a deliverance sessions lasting a couple of hours.

In London many people got ‘holy laughter’. A Lucretia Smith laughed “until almost strangled” and then began cursing, blaspheming and writhing with incredible strength. When two women questioned whether those afflicted were truly possessed, Wesley wrote “God suffered Satan to teach them better”. For two days they laughed continually “a spectacle to all” until the group prayed over them and they were delivered in a moment.

Conclusion

Though the manifestations and prophetic spirit and impartation that have been handed down from the French Prophets to today in Lakeland can seem and feel extraordinary, and some are not just fleshly and are indeed spiritual and miraculous and supernatural, and they are done in the name of Jesus leading to conversions, healings, increased religious zeal and passion for God that last for many weeks or months, it by no means follows these manifestations are from the Spirit of God. Deception can be far subtler and cleverer than people expect or imagine. At first it looks wonderfully sweet and “undeniably God”..

History, however, proves these spirits and impartations were demonic, as they proved deadly in various manners – their fruit leading to apostasy, sin and death. These impartations all had common denominators and identifying signs present that genuine biblical outpouring does not have. If you see them, run, as the manifestation has nothing good for you in it!

• False Prophecies – scripturally and also timewise
• Prophecies Valued/Heeded More if Accompanied By Manifestations, the more vigorous the better
• A Valuing of the Prophecy Over the Bible
• A growing disdain and disregard of the Bible for the new relevation
• Over time an acceptance and tolerance for false and unscriptural prophecy
• Excuses or new doctrine justifying false prophecy – or better still lies, denials and coverups
• Anything Goes, understanding and mental reason given over to experimental religion without question or thought
• Go with the flow, not the word of God
• A highly emotive religion that feels good
• Lack of Discernment or testing of spirits
• Lack of Public Testing, Weighing and Accountability of the Prophet or Manifestation
• The Prophet in time unable to be refused or rebuked – touch not my anointed
• The prophet becoming as God to the group
• Outright lying and deceit and Coverups to Maintain Appearances
• Hypocritical lifestyles
• Claims to Humility and Servant Leading, but Much Pride and Elevation of the Elite
• Unequal living - a taking of more money/other items by the leaders for personal use as leader is on pedestal
• An elevation of certain elite oracles who begin abusing and controlling the flock 
• Antichrist leaders hindering rather than helping individuals’ direct contact with God
• The flock must go to these oracles to confess their sins, to recieve power and impartation (directly from their laying on of hands, or indirectly by obediently following their commands and looking to them)
• The flock must obey even within the leader is wrong, as obeying God through them
• A preying on the young and illiterate
• The prophet becomes idolised
• The Prophet elevated over all other Ministries, that controls the Body giving guidance over areas that is not theirs to give
• A look for divine guidance and prophecy in many areas of live over common sense
• Obsessions re manifestations and prophecy or other areas of life
• Focus on Bizarre Manifestations and Sacred Theatre and ritual
• If manifestations do not occur, God is not thought to be there in power
• If God is not felt there is a crisis of faith
• Over Focus on Angels
• Value in Ritual Manifestations taking away from Christ’s atonement (eg the Shakers spiritual warfare)
• Spiritual Warfare Ideas that have no place in scripture
• The Manifest Sons Idea Reflected Within a Group or Individual leader
• Milleniast Ideas, almost always thinking their actions are hastening God’s Coming
• Dominionism and Zionist tendancies (whatever their Zion is)
• Predisposal to become violent in manifestations (eg abusing the flock by pulling their hair and stamping on them prophetically – compare with Todd Bentley!)
• Inclination to physically try to enforce the will of God via wars or other dominionist tendancies
• A raising up of a certain geographical location or locations where the group are based as a type of Zion, with very wrong ideas as to the holiness of the location as a ‘portal’ for God’s blessing. Views the location has a special part in God’s plan and is more anointed.
• Spiritual Elitism declaring a New Breed in them or their sinless perfect offspring
• Claims to Sinless Perfection and Immortality
• Another Jesus and gospel promoted – both at the cross, now, and in His return
• Authoratarianism and Heavy Shepherding
• Sexual Sin, often perverted in homosexuality
• Foul Mouths and lives despite claims to perfection
• Alcholism/other addictions, drugs, porn 
• Enforced Celibacy and other doctrines of demons re diet
• The use of physical stimulants after time to get spiritually minded
• The value of trance and hype and other man made methods to get people manifesting
• Fraud and fake attention seeking
• Mental and emotional illness after a while
• Higher levels of divorce and adultery
• Hypocrisy
• Over time there is disillusion and spiritual depression (though usually not admitted) or other crisis of faith and a falling away into sin, apostasy or a secular lifestyle

While many of these things are not immediately apparent (as who would “get some” if they saw what they were really getting?) the bad fruit is nonetheless apparent after time. This can take several months and some even years to manifest. I saw this after Toronto. Almost univerally the honeymoon stage of reception of these impartations feels mighty good - 24/7 passion for God, zealousness, fire, increased commitment, and some true prophecy even – but rapidly this turns into something else leading to another Jesus. The spirit, however, can be tested now.

Test Lakeland, Todd Bentley and his associates and see it is not good spiritually.

Church, learn from history and take heed. History teaches us many “godly” and “spiritual” men and women were taken in by these impartations, just so with today. Todd Bentley’s and his groups colours can be seen for all who wish to look now. Check the list. Everything can be checked off – and it should be noted just one thing is bad enough and reason to run.

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Source for material in this article:

Origins of the Shakers  by Clarke Garrett – an excellent book.

The Falsehood of the New Prophets Manifested’ by Henry Nicholson, published 1708.

‘The wonderful narrative or a faithful account of the French Prophets, their agitations, ecstasies and inspirations. To which are added, several other instances of persons under a like spirit, in various parts of the world, particularly in New England.’   Charles Chauncy, written in Newhaven January 1741, and published 1742

Wesley’s journals