Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

Insights from Modern Church History (A.O. 1830-1980)

were receiving the Spirit as a gift by the imposition of hands. In fact, both methods achieve the same goal, but the LRM approach had scriptural backing (Acts 8:18; 19:6) and should have been considered more care fully and then graciously received. Well-meaning religious groups that believe the Bible, however, may still reject a clear biblical teaching or expe rience simply because it is not part of their religious tradition. One of the biggest problems was the laying on of the hands of the pres bytery to impart and confirm spiritual gifts, ministries and callings. Every denomination has maintained this approach in the ordination to ministry, but eventually the religious presbytery has only empty hands to lay on empty heads. The action is no longer a vehicle for dynamic Holy Spirit activity; the form has replaced the fire. The startling thing about the LRM approach was that this kind of con firmation was bestowed on any member of the Body of Christ seeking a deeper experience of God, not just on licensed or ordained clergy. Also, established clergy can be intimidated to find seemingly unqualified peo ple who are mighty channels for the Holy Spirit, and that He speaks through them. The LRM movement was reactivating Scriptures that had been overlooked (1 Timothy 1:18; 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6; Hebrews 6:2)­ which was glorious to some but strange to others. 2. The requirement offasting before receiving the laying on ofhands can be a formidable challenge. One of the characteristics of revival is that God's people are willing to sacrifice in fasting and prayer. There is a direct relationship between the readiness of a candidate's heart and the sincer ity with which he or she seeks God. When a seeking saint has fasted for several days in preparation to hear from God, a wonderful simplicity and sincerity comes. Broken of human ambition and stripped of vanity and foolishness, the candidate is ready to hear God's direction. Some religious leaders during the LRM, sad to say, came to receive but were rebuffed by the requirement to fast, feeling that position alone should qualify them. The first Beatitude is appropriate here: "God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them" (Matthew 5:3, NLT). 3. The lack of testing of prophecy produces confusion and rejection. Since we will explore the testing or evaluation of prophecy in chapters 20 and 21, I will simply reiterate here the importance of guarding the sanctity of prophetic ministry by judging the things said in an appropriate manner. Pastor Layzell describes the simplicity of the first North Battleford camp: We tried to be in the Spirit and impartial in judging them and we found a true witness with the utterances. The prophecies of the first camp meet ing were not extravagant or unscriptural. They were powerfully uttered, • 296