Dear Riverside Prayer Friends,
Whether you've been following the Lakeland revival
or not, it is my hope that the 2 following letters
will greatly encourage, inspire and bless you.
They are amazing in themselves and filled with
great love, hope and strong belief in His power.
The power to change and transform the world one heart at a time
through an unlikely person in an often hostile and disbelieving world.
If for no other reason than to appreciate a man standing
up for a friend and another man's great appreciation
for the way God worked in his family through this
event, I hope you'll read them.
Sincerely and with Love,
Gina Higgins
From Bill Johnson Ministries' E-Newsletter July 2008
The Florida OutpouringAn Important Commissioning Service Church history is loaded with successes and failures. For some reason this is especially true with the activity of revival. In time, all revivalists become heroes of the Church. But they are not always valued in their day by their peers. As my grandfather once told me, "Not everyone liked Wigglesworth." We love Wigglesworth today, but mostly because he is dead. We encounter his offensive ways in books, not in the same meeting we're attending. And when the Church becomes exposed to someone who is different, or even ministers differently, the insecure tend to criticize and reject him. Many of us have determined to change this bad habit. Some of the members of the Revival Alliance went to Lakeland, Florida, to commission revivalist Todd Bentley and welcome him into our network of networks. We refuse to leave our friend alone to face the opposition and criticism that has been leveled at him these past few months.
John Arnott, Che Ahn, and I were involved in the commissioning. Peter Wagner helped to spearhead the event. Peter's involvement was significant because he witnessed the difficulties that John Wimber went through when he helped to initiate a great move of God in the early 80's. Peter then watched John Arnott go through the same opposition some years later. He didn't want to see that same course of action affect another great move of God, or another great man of God.
I rarely make my letters and e-mails known publicly. Actually, this is the only time I remember doing so. But because of the effect sharing has had on our church, it was recommended I pass this on to you. I was asked: "How in God's name can you endorse Todd Bentley?"
This is my response:
Have you spent time with Todd? Do you know him? Have you watched him with his wife? Or have you seen how he treats his kids? Have you spent any time with his staff? Have you been to his ministry? Has he been to yours? Have you laid hands on him and prayed? Has he laid hands on you and prayed? Have you grieved over tragedy together? Have you celebrated victory together? Has he sought your counsel? Has he traveled a great distance just to meet with you privately for advice? Have you ever received his counsel? Have you been in the room when God has shown up on him and used him in stunning miracles? Have you seen him operate in the word of knowledge or the prophetic? Have you met with his council of elders? Have you personally benefited from his gift? Has he benefited from your gift and ministry? Has he ever honored you for who you are in God? Has he partnered with you as a friend? Have you sacrificed for his welfare, or that of his family? Have you sought God with him? Have you ever worshipped the Lord with him?
I didn't think so. I have.
And I'll continue to support those who I have walked with in life and ministry. He's my friend. More importantly, God calls him friend. And if you and I were ever friends on that level, and people hated you and turned against you, and started web pages to tear down your ministry, and criticized you to your friends, and wrote against you in Christian magazines, and criticized you on the radio and wrote e-mails to other conference speakers and authors, I'd still be your friend.
By the way - criticism in the form of a question is not a question. But to respond to your statement, "How in God's name can you endorse Todd Bentley?" It's easy. I do it in God's name.
Todd is a good friend, but more importantly, he is a friend of God. I've met very few people in my life who are hungrier for God and will take extended periods of time just to seek Him. God has entrusted him with an extraordinary outpouring for a reason - He can trust him to do whatever He says, regardless of the opinions of others. He is bold - amazingly bold. The miracles are legitimate and increasing. The Church of America has asked for a great revival. God wonderfully placed this move in a package that few would have expected, just to see if we're as hungry as we say we are.
Thanks for your loving support of this ministry!
Much love,
Bill Johnson
A letter from Sonia Roper's brother-in-law's experience at Lakeland:"Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." Luke 7:22-23
Is the revival in Lakeland genuine?
Yes.
It's hard to say what we went there to see, and thus it's easy to say that what we saw, what we experienced, was anticlimactic. None of us were "slain in the Spirit", we saw no astounding creative miracles, we did not have visions of Jesus or of angels, nor did we receive any profound teaching. If we were seeking signs alone, we would have come away greatly disappointed. Nevertheless, the outpouring is real, the Spirit Who gives it is real, and the Jesus we serve is very real indeed. The issue, I begin to understand, is not to focus on the signs and wonders, but on the Giver of the signs and wonders. Just like John the Baptist, whom Jesus testified was the greatest man who ever lived, we can get caught up in doubt if we in our flesh we emphasize what we expect to see rather than what the Lord God wants us to see. If we make that mistake then we will be offended by Him and we will miss His great blessing for us.
So what did we see? Let me say what I saw, for Charlayne, Shannon, and Katie each have their own stories.
- I saw my daughters enter into a level of worship of the Holy God that I had not seen on them before. I saw them abandon themselves in adoration of Jesus, along with hundreds of others crowded up close to the stage. I saw them lead us, the parents, up the front so that we could all press in to the Spirit of the Living God as He came down. We did not have to drag them there to Lakeland; they went willingly to meet their God.
- I saw people overcome by the Holy Spirit, collapsing in tears of repentance or in fits of laughter at the holy joy of God's Presence.
- I saw people delivered from great bondage to sin, addiction, doubt, pain, and much more that held them back from the fullness of life that Jesus wants us all to have.
- I saw total strangers reaching out to lay hands on those in need and to pray for them, and I saw those prayers answered.
- I saw people come with faith to have blind eyes and deaf ears opened, troubled minds restored, crippled bodies made whole, and wasting addictions cancelled. If God did not perform these miracles on the spot, then that does not make Him any less God. He will heal and deliver in the way and time and place He chooses. Our task is only to believe and not doubt.
- I saw hope where there was none before. I saw a commission of the Holy God on His people.
Those of us who came to Lakeland already possessing a measure of wholeness should not expect more; rather we should expect a confirmation of a divine calling. That is what I experienced. Just as Jesus went about doing good, destroying the works of the devil, so must we; so must I. The task is to bring relief of suffering to those who hurt and to acquaint those who do not even know that they hurt with the fact that they are stricken unto death. Without Jesus all - from the most comfortable to the most pained - are only marking time until they enter the tomb. All their endeavors serve only to keep the darkness of the grave out of their attention span until it overtakes them. Unless we who have the True Hope break in with the Power of the Living God, the grave will over take them for all eternity.
That is what I learned at Lakeland. I hope to go back and learn even more, but even if not I know that my prayer has been answered: God did not let me or my family leave there unchanged.
Blessings,
Al
