you in the Holy Ghost?That's what someone asked me, in all seriousness. It was a question that took me off guard, because I had gone through eight years of Christian schools that fully taught the role of the Holy Spirit in today's world -- a Christian school that fully believes in all the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the necessity for all the Fruits, especially love; including twenty years of church knowledge and experience -- and I had read the Bible in the neighborhood of three times, and select books of the Bible more than twenty times -- and I had never heard of someone baptizing someone in the Holy Ghost. I mean, really, it takes another person to put something on you, do something to you, make mystical signs over you and speak mysterious, unknown words over you, to pass on this mystical power, so that I in turn can go and baptize other people?In my Bible readings I had never come across anything like that -- people accepted the Gospel, accepted Jesus, and then the Holy Spirit descended upon them, usually with visible tongues of flame over the "baptized" person's head and the sounds of rushing winds filled the entire house (as far as I know, NO church experiences these very real signs of God's presence today, not one, though they claim they are experiencing the same phenomenon, just without the physical manifestation, but why not? they DO the part that can be DONE, but they don't HAVE the part that only God CAN DO, why is that? simple, theirs is new and improved, just like baptism, why go through all that early-Christian church nonsense of getting dunked in the water, when you can just have someone make mystical signs over you, pray over you, isn't this better? the Bible is ole time stuff, we gotz the new stuff!).Biblically speaking, THAT was (and IS) the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and in some cases it included people speaking in unlearned languages, tongues, and other miracles -- when this occurred, strangers (unbelievers) heard the people of God speaking their very own language. So a miracle occurred, part of the miracle on the part of the believer, who spoke a language at the Holy Spirit's prompting, and part of the miracle occurred with the unbeliever, who heard the message of God in their own language (though the Bible never calls it a gift of "ears," it is tongues, because the Holy Spirit works THROUGH a believer, as a sign, for the unbeliever; thus it is a sign for unbelievers). This is what it means when the Bible says that tongues are a sign for unbelievers, not for believers. To miraculously reach an unbeliever.I mean, the Holy Spirit can certainly BAPTIZE someone, and someone can certainly CHOOSE to accept Biblical baptism, i.e., descending into the waters, in full immersion, as a symbol of Jesus dying and going into the grave, and then rising from the waters, symbolizing the resurrection of Jesus, cleansing us of our sins -- a beautiful way to share the new believer's wonderful experience with the Body of Christ. Baptism is a necessary part of the salvation story, a means of celebrating the death and resurrection of the Savior, the Son of God, the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. You go down into the grave, symbolically, sinful, and come up washed clean, leaving your sins behind, so that even though they were as red a scarlet, the new believer arises washed as clean as new-fallen snow. You come up a new creation, a new believer, a full member of the family of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak the Gospel with boldness!The "teaching" that it takes another person, an "anointed" person, a mystical, magical person that is a god in their own right; it is not a Christian teaching. People who seriously follow Christ cannot believe such "baptized witchcraft." It is more than a hint that someone, an "anointed one," has power of their own. That God has given this "anointed one" power, an independent power, including an independent authority.But who had ever heard of someone "baptizing you in the Holy Ghost?" What were they going to do, fill a tank with Holy Ghost and then dunk me in it? Does that sound facetious? I don't mean to be. But I had been away from God for about ten years, and church and church people had been one of the chief reasons for my absence. Was I not understanding the question properly? Just to make certain, I asked the person to repeat themselves and YES, I had heard them correctly. I shook my head and said that: "No, no one has ever baptized me in the Holy Ghost." From my understanding of the Bible, no one COULD -- only the Holy Spirit can do that. Like the forgiveness of sin, as I understood the Bible, only God can forgive sins, not any priest, not any penance or human absolution or collective vote or magical power or psychiatrist or counselor or anointed one. Jesus forgave sin, and now "anointed" ones are on the verge of claiming the same power, the same authority. Only the Anointed One can forgive my sins. There is only ONE Anointed One, His name is Jesus, or in Hebrew it is Yahshua, in Aramaic it is Yeshua, in transliterated English it is Joshua. So if someone asked me: "Has anyone ever forgiven your sins?" My answer would be: "Of course not!" (Only One has that authority to do so, to forgive my sins and set me free, no human being can do that, only God can do that.)But God HAS forgiven my sins, and the Holy Spirit HAS baptized me. There was no intermediary involved. God allows us to cut out any middleman (there HAS been a Middleman, Who stood between men and God, He was fully a human, and He was fully God, He was God come in the flesh, our Middleman) -- in fact, there has NEVER been a middleman, save for when believers were required to perform the shadow ceremony of enacting God's plan for salvation through the Ceremonial Law, sacrificing animals which symbolized God's Own Son dying for our sake (but even then, I stress, no one was EVER saved through animal sacrifice, or through keeping the law, or through calisthenics or aerobics or deep-knee bends -- everyone who has ever been saved, from Adam to us living in these last days, has been saved through the Blood of Jesus, His sacrifice for our very lives, for eternity). The Ceremonial Law, as well as the whole Law of God, is a shadow of the perfect world to come in Jesus. Jesus IS the reality. Living in Him is fulfilling the whole law, and His Holy Spirit living in us fulfills the whole spirit of the law. The law still exists, as Jesus swore it would, until ALL has been fulfilled. When the Bible says FULFILLS it means kept fully, kept perfectly, enacted and empowered -- Jesus DID that, He kept the law fully, perfectly, like no other human EVER has done, before OR after Jesus, to this day, we are all flawed, creepy, sickened and sickening human beings, imperfect, not god, fully human, that's us, period."Well, I'm going to tell Bob and Chuck, and they'll baptize you!"I didn't even ask HOW they were going to baptize me. I was game. I was coming back to God after ten years of long, depressed absence, and it all seemed mysterious. Maybe this was how it was supposed to be! I had grown up in a fourth-generation Bible-studying church that believes in getting truth from the Bible, acquainted daily with the Bible, reading the Bible, studying the Bible, and going to God for answers, and I had left "all that," but this time I would let God lead me, every inch of the way, every second of the day. When I came back to Him I promised: "You tell me where to go, and I'll go, You tell me what to do, and I'll do it!" I meant it. If God told me to stand on my head I would start clearing a place on the carpet to do just that. God made it very clear to me, He was accepting me fully, to Himself, not to any group, not to any club, not to any collection, but to Himself.Lone Ranger Christian? That's what a lot of ole-boy denominations say, to keep you in THEIR fold, but the fact is, before you join any "Christian" club, before you sign on their dotted line, you better have a relationship with God. I mean with God Himself. No, not that, but a one-on-One relationship with God, through Jesus the Christ. Otherwise, what you are experiencing? It is all smoke and mirrors, memorized man-made traditions and foolish mythical practices more related to your pagan cousins than to an actual follower of Christ. If you do not know Jesus, you can babble in tongues all day, and you will draw absolutely no nearer to God. Do YOU know Jesus? I mean did you come to him, all by your lonesome? Or was it through group think? Mind control? A whole lot of emotional corporate cheerleading -- did someone psyche you UP?Run, fast. Run to God. Throw yourself at His mercy. Cry out: "Save me! I AM YOURS!" Tell Him you want to know the truth, all the TRUTH, and nothing but the TRUTH! Even if you don't like it, even if it makes you uncomfortable, ask God for this good thing, HIM and a relationship with Him apart from any other person or thing or place or creed or club or nightmare mishmash of nonsensical malarky.I know, and have always known, that we don't always understand God and His ways. Always? Sheesh, I mean, hardly EVER do we understand, just as the disciples were constantly in a state of "head-scratch mode" at the teachings of their Master, in His very presence (sometimes even as He explain EXACTLY what He was talking about and WHAT He meant), with Him explaining everything along the way, they hardly knew what He was talking about.And here I was attending a nondenominational small-group "Bible Study," with several "leaders" who were all "just so anointed." The concept of "anointed" wasn't familiar to me, other than the Biblical anointing, whereby God chose a king and then had that person anointed with oil, and also God's "gifting" someone with supernatural powers, to be anointed by God -- which as I understood the Bible was very similar to being baptized with the Holy Spirit, it was something only God can do, it's not something man can just grab, or take, or that men can just give. A new believer, fully accepting God into his heart, is GIFTED with supernatural gifts, so that he might participate in God's kingdom. I've fully believed and fully believe today that EVERY true believer receives gifts from the Holy Spirit, fully supernatural gifts that equip us to do things we plain ole naturally would not be able to accomplish on our lonesome. The Bible DOES NOT teach that these gifts, some of them or all of them, would one day go away -- they WILL go away, one day, on that moment when we see Him face to face, and we become like Him, when we leave behind this body of death and put on His incorruption, when death loses its sting, when the law is finally not required because we will not sin, ever again (think about it, the only reason the law has ever been required is because people were breaking it, are breaking it, if there is no sin, there is no law, and if there is no law, there is no sin).But then again, just go with the flow. There was a reason God wanted me sitting here in this group, and Carolena (not even my fiancee, as yet) thought the group was very nice -- a little weird, a little fanatic, she assured me, but nice -- and as I had done in the past, I was stepping into the role of White Knight for a beloved damsel (I should have learned by now that a man cannot save a woman, on the field of romance, and vice versa a woman cannot save a man -- this is a matter more for the coliseum of counseling than for the forum of embrace) (the thing I didn't have much experience in was spiritual battles fought for someone else, the notion of "stepping into the gap" had never really occurred to me on these issues) -- from years of playing the White Knight role I had a lot of dented armor as payment, and too, too many dark days of depression stored up in every cell of my body, plus a whole lot of dragon bites that cannot be confused with love bites, or sound bytes.I sensed something wrong, very wrong, when I started meeting the "anointed ones" of the group. The first guy I met happened to be the leader of the group, a balding, heavyset man with sad, Basset Hound eyes and expensive clothing. When I shook hands with him, something sparked, as if I sensed there was something he was hiding. Soon I met another of this "special group" -- an anemic, worn-out little man who could barely stay awake, who semi-collapsed in a leather recliner and barely managed to lift a Bible -- I learned this was the second in command, someone chosen by the leader, and he was "so very anointed." The third in command was a woman of enormous proportions (five feet of height and three hundred and seventy-five pounds of girth) who seemed to be the nicest and friendliest of the group, but from the absolute first second I met her she made herself known as an absolute and constant gossip, she adored finding out secrets and sharing them as "special revelation." And a few oddball types that clearly weren't respected or favored like the first three, the misfits who stumbled and stuttered and glanced furtively about the room, timid and suppressed. There was also a giant grinning man (probably three or four inches beyond my 6'2") who kept staring at me until I glanced his way and each time he'd snap his gaze the other direction, he was handsome in a Gomer Pyle kind of way, and he made me nervous because he was blatantly staring at me (until I glanced his way) every chance he got.The odd thing that was happening, with all the "anointeds," was that they wouldn't look me in the eye. Now, this was something I was used to when I was angry, or during a heated debate, but generally, in my "everyday joe" mode, I'm considered affable, and friendly, if not a little shy. An introvert, through and through, people generally have to pry me open like an oyster to see if I harbor any pearls in my gullet. Grandmothers almost always adore me, ever since I was a boy and adored by my own Grandma. Children never have a problem with me, and instantly trust me. So do dogs. (In recent years I have begun to suspect that this attraction from grandmas and kids and dogs is more due to my extensive radiation of body heat, than to any wonderful character overflowing from my charismatic soul!)But these people, from the first handshake to later covert glances, would not look me in the eye. A few would meet my gaze for half a second, and then look at my shoulder, even if we were talking for two minutes or more. Some never even met my eyes for the very first glance, but would look five inches above my head, or stare at my unseen belly button. I learned later that one of these people who seemingly was meeting my gaze in a kind of detached sort of way, was actually staring between my eyebrows so that she would not appear rude by looking away from me (she confessed this to another person)!I was thinking thoughts like: "Hmm, I wonder why these people don't like me?" Followed by: "They're all acting like they're afraid of me!" Followed by: "Maybe they think I'm filled with demons!" Because, even from the get-go, these guys and gals loved to talk about demons, how the enemy had oppressed them that week, how the adversary was persecuting them at work, how the "spirit of calories" was causing them to gain weight, how a demon had hid their important papers, another tricky spirit had hidden some keys which some "prayer language" had solved lickety-split. How they had bound the spirit of depression from someone. How they had delivered another someone after "praying over them." The enemy here, the adversary there, the devil over here and Satan, Satan, Satan, endlessly the devil or a demon or a spirit of you supply the name. I thought this was all some odd, inside humor, some alien form of "church speak" -- they couldn't mean what they were saying, not literally, that would be awful, like some dark cartoon escaped into the world; but I would learn pretty quickly that no, these people meant everything they were saying, literally. They were not joking. They meant this . . . um, STUFF.Seriously.What follows is a compilation of several "Bible Studies" with two separate groups of these "Christians." I went to about three "Bible Studies" headed by the sallow, hang-dog leader, and these were something I almost found familiar; and about five "Bible Studies" with the second in command, which had next-to-nothing to do with the Bible, or studying -- these second species were often referred to as "Holy Ghost Parties." (I place "Bible Studies" in quotations because the Bible was rarely cracked open, everyone carried them, their Bibles, like holy artifacts, magical items of power, but they did not open them, or read them, and I would soon find out that not even the "anointed ones" had ever even READ their Bibles.)When I first became acquainted with this "group" (both groups intermingled, but with two quite separate cells, and practices were identical, but the group led by the leader attempted to maintain some semblance of order, whereas the second group was much more creative, and liberal, and frightening) everything was low-key, in both groups. It became apparent that I was making all of them uncomfortable (the first time I met with the "group," there were perhaps 25 people present), because they didn't know yet if I was "in" or not, or just sitting on the very pinnacle of the fence, and they didn't know which way I was going to fall -- or if maybe I would dash screaming from the room at the first gibber of "prayer language," they kept me at a distance. A few attempted to be friendly, but for the most part they acted as if I were a mean-faced cop visiting in a grinning commune of bong-toking hippies.What follows is an honest attempt to document the spirit of these small-group "Bible studies," without exaggeration. I'm not going to attempt to make these people appear stupid, ignorant, or evil -- I will not demonize them, but sadly in many cases that is the only conclusion that seems even remotely feasible. For the most part, I think most of these people are good people, people lost and afraid, looking for magical Christianity, a way to fix all their problems, a raining of God's blessings in the form of easy money (moe moneh, moe moneh, moe moneh!), and more than anything, these people desire POWER. Real power, the power of magic in order to control people, to heal scrapes in the place of bandaids, to find lost articles instantly, as opposed to exhaustive searches of the eyes while crawling on the hands and knees and exploring toy boxes and closets. These people listen to their audio tapes and CDs that tell them "You gotz de powah! I gotz de powah! You IS anointed! I IS anointed!" and they convince themselves, they hypnotize themselves -- it would be years and years later that I would first hear Creflo Dollar verbalize: "You gotta talk yourself into believin' it, just like you do with everything, you gotta make yourself believe. You gotta keep repeatin' it until you believe it!"Funny, but that is pretty much the dictionary definition of MAKE-BELIEVE. I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid, I don't wanna do my homework, I wanna stare out the window and imagine things. Don't we all love make-believe? Isn't that what Hollywood is all about, make-believe? And now there is a whole religious movement devoted exclusively to make-believe, making yourself believe nonsense that your reason, your understanding, your IQ, your intelligence, your knowledge can never, ever begin to believe -- but can you talk yourself into believing utter nonsense, complete lies? And WHY would you want to? To feel special about yourself? That you are better than the unwashed? The unbeliever?Let me state here, emphatically, I fully believe in the power of God. In miracles. They happen. I've experienced them. The Holy Spirit is alive and well, and He is God, and He is available to EVERYONE, from the sleazeball pimp to the President of the United States-- He desperately wants to commune with you, with me, with that sleazeball pimp, and with the angry second-cousin of Saddam Hussein. And I just as fully believe in the devil as a very real, very active entity, and that he has legions (perhaps in the billions) of fallen angels in his employ, and these hidden beings are everywhere, all around us, every moment of the day, working for our destruction, and that there is absolutely nothing laughable about them whatsoever -- they are smarter than us, more sensitive, and for the most part people, even Christians, do not believe in their existance.Another thing these poor people desire, more than anything, is to FEEL God. They want to touch God, physically, and be touched by Him. Hey, I can dig it. Who wouldn't like to see God, face to face? Wouldn't it be incredible to have a more physical relationship with God -- if you could interact with God the same way you do with your best friend, that give-and-take of thought and affection and hope and dream and sharing of advice? Wouldn't that be great?A direct quote from one of the "anointed ones" is: "The Holy Ghost is an incredible fashion consultant," when she explained how the "Ghost" helped her select clothes off the rack. The quote rocks me -- to me, it is the equivalent of going skinny-dipping in the baptismal tank, or having a food fight with the communion bread, or having a bikini contest in the main sanctuary of the church! The person who made this statement about the Holy Spirit being a fashion consultant was very sincere, I believe, and intends good with her trivialization of God.Proverbial cliché: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.This isn't hearsay. This is what I experienced. Granted, it is a personal experience, viewed through the filter of my upbringing, my opinions, my fears, my propensity to overthink everything, my own prejudices and learning and study -- and it is not my intention to suggest that all nondenominational small-group "Bible Studies" are like this, believe this, teach this, or say things like this. I fully believe there are very good groups, right now, all over the world.Also note, up to this moment, I had never heard of Rod Parsley, Creflo Dollar, Clarence McClendon, Kenneth Copeland, Mike Murdock (God is telling me that there are a thousand of you right now who need to pick up the phone and commit $1,000, and remember, if you don't give what ya got, God just might take the little bit you got, then you won't got nuthin' so you better pick up that phone right now, y'all comprendo?), Jesse Duplantis -- I had seen TBN and PTL, had heard Oral Robert's blasphemous claims about money demands to bribe God into sparing his life and Jimmy Swaggart preaching hellfire and brimstone all the while paying prostitutes -- I thought that no one in their right mind could consider all THAT to be Christianity, not even when I was furthest away from God; I had seen the jumping women in the bad, outrageous wigs, but honestly, I could not tell Jim and Tammy Fay Bakker apart from Paul and Jan Crouch (I even thought they were some kind of inside joke, like funny cartoon cut-out dolls -- exchange their wigs and Rolex watches and shiny pants and gaudy dresses, and send us a donation while you're at it, and it is all hilarious, and fun!). I seriously thought "Holy Roller" was something from the 1700s, a time when religious fanaticism and superstition mixed together like oil and vinegar.I had no idea there were actual religions that called themselves Christian and shouted in gibberish and called it tongues -- even apart from God I knew that "tongues," what used to be practiced in ridiculous old-time hell-fire and brimstone Gospel shows in circus tents, that it could be manufactured, by literally anyone, for just about ANY reason, and usually the reason wasn't a good one, and had something to do with taking money away from widows, idiots and completely desperate people -- that this fake gibberish had nothing to do with the Biblical tongues, which very well may be employed by God, even today, to reach unbelievers through their own language.(Back then, the literal horrors of blasphemies that I would one day hear spitting from the "anointed lips" of Andrew Wommack, I could never begin to imagine, it it STILL difficult to believe.)Man, was I in for a lot of something -- a spiritual rollercoaster ride that is in no way amusing. It might be about entertainment, but the stakes of the game are forever, and deadly serious.I asked my soon-to-be relative (the one who promised two men would baptize me in the Holy Ghost) why these people couldn't meet my eyes. Did they think I was evil?"Oh no! If they thought you were evil they would immediately bind the evil and cast the demon out of you! And the demon would have to wander in dry places!"Twice these "anointed ones" would attempt to baptize me in the Holy Ghost. And I agreed to it -- no one forced me to do this, to stand before them, as they yelled in tongues, chanting and repeating key phrases over and over and over and over again and again and again (just goes to prove the old adage: fools bravely go where angels fear to tread). And I fervently wanted (and WANT) everything that God has to offer me, I did not nor do not wish to reject anything from Him. Before they began their act, I prayed to God, silently: "Please Lord, protect me, and open me up. Whatever You have for me Lord, even if I don't understand it, I want it. If You want me to pray in tongues, I'll pray in tongues. You lead, Heavenly Father, and I'll follow." I try to keep this open pathway between me and God, at all times -- daily I ask Him to reveal to me any mistake I'm making, any foolish tradition I'm holding too that is not Biblical, and daily I ask Him to BLESS ME INDEED! (Even if I don't understand the blessing!)Right then, as I stood before these two anointed ones and they began to rant and rave, their anger and aggression rising -- I felt a cool chill upon my back; gooseflesh rose up in what felt like a hand print upon my back. I had the exciting impression that an angel was placing a hand upon my back, right in the middle between my shoulder blades, to comfort me, and reassure me, and protect me, and keep me from falling backward. I had never witnessed "slain in the spirit" before this night, had heard neither positive nor negative about it -- I certainly had read nothing about it in the Bible (because it appears nowhere in the Bible). But just five minutes before "my turn" I watched as another soon-to-be relative fell backward after "power prayer." I stared into his eyes as he lay upon the floor and I was curious. Was there something wrong with him? Or did this have something to do with God? At this point, I had absolutely no opinion, be it positive or negative.Later, after much prayer and study of scripture, I would learn that I was sticking my hand into a pit full of poisonous snakes (and thank God, His prophecies are good, for I was not killed by their poison, though I would be bitten many times over the years).I was informed that this "slain in the spirit" was one of the most wonderful gifts from God, and only His most special children were blessed by it. That the actual touch of God would push me over, and I would lie in His embrace, kissed by His electric presence, rocked in His power. Hey, it sounds good, don't it? Ain't it a kick?At this point, nothing of this made sense. Why would God push people over backward to bless them? Why would anointed ones need to yell and shriek in what was obviously gibberish in order to "baptize someone in the Holy Ghost?" Why in the world would someone need to "pray in tongues" so that the devil couldn't understand them? From my understanding of the Bible, only God could read my mind, so why not just pray in my mind if I didn't want the devil listening in? And when I asked them, these people could NEVER show me a single verse that backed up their extravagant claims. And as I came back to God, He impressed me, time and again, follow My Word. Don't go by man-made traditions and ideas, follow My Word. Because these things, I would find, were some of the new inventions for having fun with God while proving to oneself that one is special, that one is god (as opposed to the Biblical "God is One").Needless to say (I think), I didn't fall over, and I didn't erupt into nonsense babble. I found the experience disgusting, on one hand -- but still, that ethereal touch in the middle of my back, to feel an angel sent by God standing protectively behind me, now THAT WAS WORTH THE ORDEAL. (Note: I do not hint or suggest or hope that anyone attempts this, because of what I have written here. I fully believe God protected me from this evil because at the time I was an innocent babe who only wanted His will in my life -- I was NOT pursuing exciting diversions, signs and wonders, anointed gurus or special revelation. Take the advice of Jesus, if someone comes in His name and claims to be "anointed" -- DO NOT GO AND SEE THEM, for they are false christs, false anointeds, Jesus warns us about them, repetitiously, redundantly, because He does not want us to "fall" under their delusion; we must love the truth to be safe.) The two anointed ones, however, apparently didn't come away from the experience with any positive vibes. Number Two (the second head honcho as far as special anointing goes) slumped back in his leather recliner chair and collapsed in a half doze. From that moment on he was done with me, and would begin to work against me, doing everything in his feeble power to separate me from the woman who would soon become my wife. He would soon openly declare himself as my enemy.Perhaps the oddest factor in this experience was during their "gibberish assault." I stood before them, peacefully, accepting and open to whatever God had ready for me, completely closed off to anything God did not want me to experience, and I kept my eyes closed lightly, relaxed, but when the yelling got to its worst pitch I peeked at the anointed guys -- they were red faced and swaying, each of them in a gibber pattern, going over the same nonsense phrases again and again, things like "yo shi no ti si badoo, yo shi no ti si badoo, yo shi no ti si badoo!" and "rah rah, mah ta oh mah rah rah, ma ta oh mah!" But even worse was what they were doing with their hands: miming a peculiar snatch-and-grab, then an almost humorous fling at me. They were throwing something at me. I couldn't believe it. Apparently they were snatching off chunks of the Holy Ghost and throwing "it" on me. It was profane, sacrilegious and obviously pathetic. I had never heard the expression, but I could easily imagine them calling this a "holy stoning." My distinct impression was that they perceived the Holy Spirit as this huge, holy, invisible "power cloud," that they as anointed ones had access. What a strange concept of God, that with physical hands you may seize spirit and manipulate it to your own end. This was the first time in my religious experience that I had ever been exposed to a group of people that view God as an impersonal "it" as opposed to a personal Savior, a higher Being with a personality, that the "Spirit of Truth" was in all actuality a "holy unction" or "celestial salad dressing" that you could shake upon human salads.Later, I woud often witness all the "anointeds" doing the snatch and fling at each other, like a spiritual food fight.This was God depersonalized. This was God as a slave -- worse, God as a spectral tool. A holy hammer, or more likely a holy rivet gun or posthole digger. There is absolutely nothing holy to do with the concept.I only had to bump up against these sensual "doctrines" a few times to discern that they were not from God, that they made absolutely no theological sense. That ideas like "praying in cycling babble" tricked the devil -- I understood the devil to be a much higher order of being, a fallen angel, once the covering cherub that stood before the Ancient of Days, Adonai Yahweh El Shaddai! The devil is a heavenly being perhaps billions of years old with an intellect eons greater than the wisest human who ever lived. Could you REALLY deceive a master deceiver by reeling off laughable syllables, especially when they cycled through the same tiny two- or three-letter utterances? Wouldn't the father of lies be able to decipher a repetition of one and two-syllable words strung together? Even stoner military jarheads are able to decipher some of the most intricate and ingenious codes for military intelligence (ain't "military intelligence" a contradiction in terms?). The first time someone explained "praying in tongues so the devil cain't understand ya" I actually burst into laughter, certain my leg was getting the proverbial pull.Obviously, the people who accepted these "doctrines" had never sat down and thought about them. And why? I only had to visit with these groups once or twice to "learn" exactly WHY......don't think, FEEL.Don't think, FEEL. Don't THINK, feel.DON'T THINK FEEL.Okay, this calls to mind images of Jim Jones, David Koresh, Heaven's Gate, Jimmy Swaggart, Robert Tilton and Oral Roberts. Don't think, FEEL. It sounds like blatant brainwash, and not even devious brainwash, but open, arrogant, bald-faced control of another person's will. For, you see, your mind, it can be tricked . . . but your SPIRIT, ah, your "spirit man" cannot be tricked, because it is from God Almighty!So don't think with your brain, your mind . . . FEEL with your spirit!I was to hear this mantra over and over, repeated with wondrous smiles at every "Bible study." Don't think, feel. Imagine someone telling you that, please don't THINK, no no no, that will just get you into trouble. FEEL your solution.Granted, I tend to overthink everything, if that is possible. But for someone to tell me not to think, to feel -- they might as well ask me for my credit card numbers, the keys to my car, and a special date with my wife. Warning bells should begin to clang, whistles to shriek, klaxons to . . . klax?And yet, in these groups, in these "churches," the warning bells do not do their duty. The ropes have been cut. The sensors disabled. The logic (I use the word very lightly, here) runs something like this:"God anointed me. He baptized me. I have revelation. So you can trust me. What I tell you may not make sense to you, but that's okay. Because you don't need to understand it with your brain, your noodle, your mind. What I'm telling you is truth, and I'm baptizing you as well, so everything I tell you will be evident as truth, and if anyone tells you something different?"This is the best part, you will be safe against their deception, because you will get a CHECK in your spirit. If they tell you something different than what I -- an anointed one -- have told you, you will feel funny inside. This funny feeling is your spirit man assuring you that whatever else you're being told IS A LIE."Get away from this person, they are LOST, possessed by devils, and they want to tear you away from ME, the anointed one, and thus tear you away from Jesus! And if you allow them to succeed in lying to you, and you believe their lie, oh brother, then you are lost, you will be lost and think that you are saved, and we the true believers shall cry where art thou!"This kind of circular used-lemon salesmanship worked great for Vernon Howell, aka David Koresh. It works wonderfully well on very smart, educated people......how? Simple, when a smart, sensitive, educated person willingly turns in the keys to the ignition of their THINKING, they become a puppet, a spiritual Pinnocchio moved by the strings of the anointed Gippeddo. It's a free-will choice you can easily make, to hand in your powers of reasoning, to TRUST someone -- in many ways it's what we all want to do. We all want to trust someone smarter than us, a spiritual version of E.F. Hutton, or our Holy Ask Jeeves, our Bible Answerman.German officers, soldiers, civilians -- in World War II they did this thing, handing over their thinking, trusting in their FEEL-don't-THINK. Hey, we were only following orders! It wasn't personal!Out of this deception, to trust in the chain of command to keep us innocent, to hand in our thinking mind at the door -- this is where true madness may begin. True, unbelievable insane things.If someone tells you: "The Lord told me I need to come up with a billion bucks, or He's gonna kill me! And you Brotha, you need to hand over some of your hard-earned moolah to keep me above that proverbial six feet o'clay, the Lord has told me, and you can trust me, Brotha, cuz I is anointed by Him! So send me that money order today, Brotha, and keep me this side of that great spiritual dee-vide between the livin' an the DAID!"Hey, be kindly to this lost soul, be pleasant and loving and patient -- but don't fall under their spell. This word: "SPELL," I'm not using it lightly, nor flippantly. In my experience with the Charismatic Movement I would find the true connotation of "spell" over and over again -- it would rear its diabolical head from behind too, too many "doctrines." It's real, this New Age Movement calling itself Christianity, and it is one of the most deadly concoctions invented by the enemy of mankind, the enemy of Yahweh Most High -- because people think they are serving God, while all the while serving the enemy of Him. Many a Nazi fully believed they were serving God while performing ghastly, truly demonic deeds.When you were a kid, did you ever think it would be fun to SAY something, and it would be done? Not like a rich kid, not that kind of power, a Little Lord Fauntleroy or Richie Rich waving of the Ben Franklins . . . no, I mean true power. You tell the cute girl in your seventh grade class to take out her pen and a piece of paper and write me a love note -- from across the room, you speak these words, and there is no possible way she can hear you, but your words have power, and your words CREATE truth even as you speak them, and the cutest girl in your seventh grade class removes the pen from behind her cute little ear, and she rips off a shred of paper and scribbles passionately for a few minutes, then she carefully, lovingly folds the paper and passes it to her friend, and you watch the love note move from pudgy hand to sweaty palm, coming closer and closer and closer until your friend Bobby plunks it down on your desk! Oh sweet mystery of life I've finally found you! Praise God!Is that power? Is it attractive? What if some group told you that this is not a ridiculous scenario, that it is entirely possible, and that YOU, yes you my friend, that YOU can have access to this wonder-working POWER, that you can OWN this power, and use it for good -- and that as you use this very real power, you yourself will gain in riches, friends, possessions, you yourself will be the envy of all? The life of the party, the envy of mankind -- no beefy bully will ever kick sand in your face again, and every pimple will disappear from your complexion, and you can add inches to your, uh, wallet?Imagine that you have an IQ of 85 . . . can you imagine it? Well, even if you can't imagine it, pretend that you can -- would this ad in the back of the National Enquirer be appealing to you? Imagine that someone can give you this power, to speak and create (hey, just like God), wouldn't you be tempted to sign on the dotted line? And for the measly love gift of $29.95? Come on it's just a seed, ain't it, and if you get a WHOLE HARVEST outta that seed, heck, why not dig deep and hand over the credit card numbers?And the only thing you need to check at the door is your THINKING (and what's so bad about THAT? Come on, thinking is overrated, isn't it? It gives ya headaches!) and this isn't such a very much to ask, is it? Because the person telling you these things, making these promises HAS SPECIAL THINKING POWER FROM GOD, this person is ANOINTED, he told you so, and the other people in the group nod their heads, grinning, and they whisper back and forth: "Anointed? No, no way, that is the understatement of the millennium! No, this righteous dude is just SO anointed, and how!"Once you hand over your thinking and invest trust in an anointed one, soon you can and will believe in fairies, in Superman, in special snatchings away, money coming, your elite status, messages from your dearly departed grandmother who is basking in the heavenly spirit realm, pink elephants that fly with jet-powered trunks! The universe will open before you, beckoning you to your full potential: hey, a great career awaits, you can be certified as the pastor of your own church, you can open a business from your own home and make $20K a month -- better than that, you can SPEAK and whatever you say, be it positive or negative, will come into being (hey, it's BETTER than the StarTrek teleporter).One New Age "pastor" grins and aw-shucks: "Hey, don't talk to God. Talk to the tumor!" Another deceiver stands on TV, in his three-piece suit, and shouts into the camera: "I CURSE that tumor! Someone has just been cured of cancer!"It's become so blatant, "Christians" are even now preaching that you don't NEED to pray to God about your problems, you yourself have the authority to deal directly, either positively or negatively, with all your problems. God has given you POWER. He has given you AUTHORITY. And you can speak LIFE with your words, you can CREATE, just like God!And if, say, that you are a Christian, and you read the Bible, and time and again you are told things that disagree with what the Bible says? THAT'S OKAY! Because we the anointed receive special knowledge from the Most High, and it is CURRENT info, so much more pertinent than what the Bible had to say for all them cave people dancing barefoot in the shadow of Caesar. Plus, you are special, we will tell you this, over and over and over again, until you begin to believe us, and God makes EXCEPTIONS for special people...This is a creative religion about winging it as you go along -- there are no dry, old regulations and rules to go by. The Ten Commandments? Antiquated, God has learned so much more since them thar days. This is called being "spirit led," allowing the Holy Ghost to choose your clothes, decide if something is right or wrong, you're being led by the Spirit, not by the letter. Freedom in Christ, freedom to do everything and anything, anywhere and anyhow.Of course, this is all perfectly pagan. "Freedom in Christ" has absolutely nothing to do with writing your own rules, doing whatever you want -- freedom in Christ has more to do with a liberation of the mind, where we can dimly begin to perceive that God's way IS the best way, we are FREE of the influences of the world and what it tells us is most important. See the paradigm fluctuation? See the flux? Truth is truth, but it can be bent and twisted back to mean the opposite of its intention, see, nothing up my sleeves, keep your eyes on the bouncing ball......but back to POWER. You can have true power, your own power, on your own authority, once you have been baptized by an anointed one (and I use the term "baptise" very lightly here, because they don't mean the Biblical version of descending into the waters in a symbolic gesture of rebirth, they mean some guy will stand over you making wild hand gestures and erupting into coo-coo repetitious prayer). You will have true power inside of you, power that you must begin to train with, much the way a soldier must begin to train with his new rifle, you must train in using the Holy Ghost.So the anointed ones will tell you.There are many ways, many fun and creative ways you can learn to manipulate the Holy Ghost. One of the coolest ways is Holy Ghost Hide and Seek. Apparently God loves to play games with His children. The group that I met employed this tactic to teach new inductees how exciting it is to "grow in the Holy Ghost," and it was a powerful way to allow the more powerful anointed ones to shine in the levels of power they have attained.Here's how it works: the second in command, the leader of this cell, would go to a far-away hiding place (in this case, the "Healthy Habits" restaurant) and each inductee or "Bible study" student would receive a sealed envelope with the hidden location revealed. Each person with an envelope would "pray over" the paper, and meditate on the Holy Ghost, and the answer, in the form of a "Word" of power would slowly begin to seep into their mind.My wife (not even my fiancee at the time) described it this way: "It's not like you actually hear a voice in your head, or even words, really, but you just begin to KNOW, and that's the Holy Ghost giving you knowledge." Carolena actually got a few of the details as to where the anointed one was hiding. She even got a street name, half of the coordinates! Eventually, however, all the inductees had to rip open their envelopes to discover where their leader was located, and they joined him there, with many a laugh, chuckle and proud pat on the head. Carolena had received the most clues from the Holy Ghost, certifying that she was a special child of God.But that is how you learn to manipulate the Ghost and His wonder working powers. That is what Carolena was taught. That you USE the Holy Ghost, and you "get better at it every time you use it."The third anointed one, the rotund woman, was the only person to arrive at "Healthy Habits" with her envelope intact. And everyone was suitably amazed. Not only is the Holy Ghost a fashion consultant, but a fun gamester that acts like a spiritual compass leading you to your hiding guru.Now, of course, stage magicians employ this entire spectrum to "Wow" and awe their audience. The "audience" cannot do the trick, but the magician's helper magically arrives at the destination with the envelope intact. Quite impressive, and for the low cost of a monthly payment of $29.95 you too can find your family no matter what restaurant they may park at, be the life of the party! Of course, I don't know that these two "anointed ones" were employing this trick of misdirection. In fact, I believe true powers were at work, only nothing holy had anything to do with this game of "Holy Spirit Hide and Seek." God is not the only power in the world, and whenever you are using your own powers, the hidden truth may very well be that you are tapping into these other, very old powers (and these powers have absolutely no love nor whimsical delight in your tiny, petty life; these powers will string you along for a while and then begin to punish you for your impertinence in even existing).From the get-go this seemed an obscene game to me. It didn't seem holy, or laughable. It struck me as some kind of séance. While I was yet new to all these things I asked a real pastor about this particular game to get his opinion -- an opinion based on theology, years of pastoring many churches and writing several books on the Holy Spirit -- what did he think about this game? His face went bright red and he passionately exclaimed: "That's the most satanic thing I've ever heard! You don't play games with God -- the Holy Spirit is not something you can use. When you are empowered by the Holy Spirit it is He that uses you!"Of course, I would begin to learn that THIS is exactly the nature of the beast, the wild monster that is running amuck through Christian churches: "Hey, you are a child of the King, don't you DESERVE the best?" It's attractive. I accept Christ, I become a child of God, and the King of the Universe, the Creator of everything, the Almighty God with his hand upon the storehouses of all universes, He wants me to be happy, He wants me to have a 100 houses, because I am special, ain't I?And one of the best ways to achieve my deserved rewards as a child of the King, is by using the Holy Ghost! Much later I would hear New Age teacher Andrew Wommack explain it this way: "When you speak a puff of power releases from God, and you believe it to be, and the puff of power brings it into being." I had thought I couldn't be shocked any more, but the shocking revelations just keep a-comin'. I would come to find that these small groups -- groups which reflect a much, much larger group -- view the Holy "Ghost" as a giant power cloud (or, again, in Wommack's words: a "puff o'power"), a mighty force afloat through the ethereal plain, a vast reserve, resource of power that we can tap into, with faith. Now, of course, no Charismatic or Pentacostal worth his salt will ever admit to it, will ever describe it in these terms: that the Holy Ghost is a power cloud. But if you watch a few Benny Hinn shows, a few Rod Parsley nightmares, your eyes will begin to open.Ask God about these things? If you are struggling with them, and you realize that they are not from the Bible, don't take my word for it -- go to the source (and no, I don't mean your favorite guru or anointed one) -- go to Yahshua Messiah, Jesus Christ, ask Him to lead you into all truth, ask Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit and lead you out of darkness. Tell Him you want what He has to offer, and if it is different from what you have been taught, that's okay, you prefer God's way to ingrained habit or false teaching, even if those ingrained habits and false teachings are more fun than a barrel of drunk monkeys.That the Holy Spirit is a "thing?" This is one of the most dangerous ideas. That you can grab a chunk of the "Holy Ghost" and throw "it" on someone is even deadlier. It is a deadly trail that leads a person onward, even one with pure intent, someone that loves Jesus with all their heart, soul, mind and spirit and strength, can fall prey to this idea that "god" is a vast spectral entity that is in everything, that coalesces at certain times, in certain places, that you can run to a particular location to receive "an anointing," that a particular person is "so anointed," and that this "anointed one" can grab a hunk of "Holy Ghost" and baptize you is probably the most profane idea to be hatched by the enemy to date, in millennia of practicing to deceive the whole world.Here is a list of whispered "secret revelations" that I was exposed to by attending just a few of these "small group" blasphemies:1. SPEAK REALITY! That because we are created in God's image, we have all His abilities and powers, that everyone from the most corrupt child abuser in prison to the guy in the white suit and swirled gray hair knocking people over for the Lord, literally every person on the face of the earth "creates by speaking," that our words create our reality. So if I "confess" that I will be a millionaire very soon, and I believe it with every fiber of my being, that yes, indeed, soon I will be a millionaire (without meeting any financial specifics, such as business training, hard work, luck, cut-throat politics and tax evasion), or, on the contrary, if I say I'm a loser, I bring ruination upon my own head by creating with my mouth, confessing negativity as opposed to wealth, health, and gorgeous babes.Right out of the ether, I will create reality!Right out of the air, I will change reality!I can change lead into gold!Holy Ghost Magic!If I make a "negative confession," speaking my fears aloud, then, sadly, I will create my own worst nightmare. False teachers whisper that this is exactly what happened to Job, that the poor man sinned by fearing the worst, and that is exactly what came upon him -- of course, if you happen to READ the book of Job (please do so, and soon, it is a fascinating book, and you will find things you never knew were there, and other things you have been told are there will most certainly NOT be there at all!), you will find out the exact opposite, that Job did NOT sin, that Yahweh declared Job innocent and free of sin. Later I would learn that other "Word-Faith TEACHERS" taught that God did not speak the animals into life, but that Adam did -- making Adam, in short, GOD. Anyone who reads the Bible will find that this "revelation" is a gross deception, a lie, just like the serpent who said "thou shalt not surely die," in other words saying "you don't have to obey God."Granted, there are some very real principles at work here. The New Age Movement pushes this big time, but not as wildly or ridiculously as false Christian teachers. That if you say, after spilling milk: "Golly, I'm an idiot, I'm so stupid, I do these things all the time!" That you are creating neurons in your brain, and these "thought patterns" lead to habits, and so if you destroy your own self esteem by labeling yourself as an accident-prone idiot, you very well may be establishing a self-fulfilling prophecy about your future life (except there is nothing magical about it, or mystical, it's just the plain reality of thinking first and doing second, if you think you're not going to get that job, most likely you won't, then again, the reality is, you still MIGHT get that job!); however, the New Age "Christian" gurus take it a step further, claiming you are a "little god" (and you will always hear them specify: you are a god with a "little g") and that you will create with the power of your voice (and mute people are really disabled in their inability to voice their own reality, poor things, they had best hire a speaking-little-g-god to create their reality for them).2. FEEL, DON'T THINK. Even being apart from God for many years, when I heard this blatant cultic brain-washing technique, all BS detectors flashed brilliantly red. Warning, deception alert, warning! Danger Will Robinson! The cultic teachers promise their gullible followers that a new Christian receives a "spirit," a cute and cuddly squirrel-like entity that lives somewhere between the chest and the naval -- they term this version of "spirit" as the Biblical "spirit man," "spiritual creature," "inner man," "new creation," and that this "spirit" can communicate directly with God, knows more than any brain can know, and channels this knowledge through our "feelings." Mind you, the Bible does not teach anything near this, the Bible specifies that a human spirit knows nothing, that it is only concerned with human stuff, it knows nothing of God, it is only human, in nature, bent toward the carnal, even after conversion -- the Holy Spirit, God Himself, makes all the difference then -- humans never become magical creatures with innate powers; anyone who tells you different? They will soon be hitting you up for "seeds of love" (and that ain't a good thang).So, they say, FEEL, DON'T THINK. Your mind, they teach, can be deceived, but your "spirit" cannot. So if an "anointed one" tells you something that you KNOW to be incorrect, this is okay, because your mind is obviously deceived, but if you try hard enough, you'll get the "feeling" that what they are teaching you is A-okay and peachy-keano.Tripe, balderdash, hogwash, and nincompoopishness.In other words, check your brains at the door. David Koresh employed this technique admirably upon his followers, as do all Charismatic leaders -- accept what they teach and soon it will feel all right, and soon you may accept anything they tell you, and it will feel just fine, even if it makes absolutely no sense to the mind, such as David Koresh demanding complete chastity from his male followers, denying them the right to sleep with their own wives, but that it was perfectly okay for Koresh to sleep with their wives, because he was the "evil messiah," god reborn in a man's body that would know sin this time around so that god could understand man better than did Jesus, Who never sinned. And the true kick to this teaching is summed up in the very next "unique doctrine" of the damned:3. Getting a Check in the Spirit. If someone hits you with some logic, and you KNOW that what they are telling you is TRUTH, you "get a check in your spirit." (This "check" is ever in the mail, as the old lie goes.) In other words, what you are hearing makes you feel bad, because it goes against what the "anointed one" has taught you. So FEEL, DON'T THINK is edified by the negative feeling you get when you hear the opposite to what you've been taught, so what you have been taught feels good, and what you are hearing, no matter how much sense it makes, feels bad. Get it? If someone teaches you that dogs sprout wings and fly at night to other planets, and this feels right, it feels like a wonderful revelation -- if someone, probably someone from your family, or a long-time friend that previously has been completely trustable, tells you that this is not true, that dogs do not sprout wings and fly to other planets at night, then you receive a check in your spirit (it doesn't feel right, despite the brain nodding vigorously in agreement) and you know the person who is feeding you this "truth" is not a Christian, is not spirit-filled, does not have "revelation," which brings us to the next "unique doctrine" of the damned:4. They do not have Revelation. When someone tells you something different than what you have been taught and you get a "check in the spirit," you realize that the person "does not have revelation" -- which is God granting special knowledge that "reveals" a Bible truth, so even though, for example, Jesus tells us to pray for God's will to be done, the false teacher who has "revelation" can then teach that NO, it is NOT good to pray for God's will to be done, because they have special revelation that this is showing a lack of faith, and God hates it when you show lack of faith, and will not in any positive fashion answer any of your prayers. The grotesquely false teachers say that Jesus prayed a "wimpy prayer," and if we say: "Lord, I want to marry this woman, it feels like she is so very right for me, and if it be Your will, Lord, please open the way for us to marry" -- they say this is showing lack of faith, because you must "create by speaking," and asking for God's will to be done is admitting that you do not fully believe what you are speaking?Are you beginning to perceive the sick cycle of "logic" here, how ever false doctrines links together with every other false doctrine of demon. In and of themselves, apart from everything else, these doctrines aren't really all THAT bad, are they? I mean, these anointed ones aren't telling us to gun down children in the street for the glory of Satan, are they? No, but when you begin to extend this chain, link by link, you'll find that you are being weighed down, taken in the opposite direction from heaven, and the "spirit of heaviness" upon you cannot be broken by human hands.More often than not these "special revelations" that the "anointed ones" receive disagree with the Bible completely. But this is okay, to their way of theology, in that the "revelation" that they have received is much more recent than any Bible writing, thus their "revelation" is more pertinent, more up to date, and thus much more important than God's Word in Scripture. Often these special revelations are called WORDs.5. Getting WORDs. At these Bible studies the group would "come into prayer," a silent time, and sometimes not a very silent time as many people chanted in tongues without interpretation, until one or more people received a WORD for a person in the group. These WORDs can be very specific, or highly generic. Sometimes they "come" after silent prayer, sometimes they "come" only after someone has "prayed in tongues."In my experience the groups would work this way: someone would announce that their briefcase had been misplaced, and they desperately needed to know where it was. Prayer would be called for, and then someone would announce that they had a WORD. When you get home tonight, look in the hall closet, the Holy Ghost feels that it is there.In a more mesmerizing example, my first visit with a few of the members of one of the groups, one of the more "anointed" laymen announced, just after meeting me, that he had a WORD for me, and then asked if I wanted to hear it. Today, I would instantly announce that I was in no way interested in hearing their WORD, because I know more today, and recognize from what "spirit" these people are getting their WORDs, but as a new child in Christ I replied: "Sure.""The Lord showed me a vision of a rugged Jeep climbing a mountain, bouncing and jarring over huge boulders. The Lord is showing me that you are a rugged and brave man, that you are climbing upward, closer and closer to God, and this is where He wants you to be, that you are a righteous man, and you are nearing the peak, and when you get there, which will be very soon, you will receive so many blessings. He has chosen you because of your unique ideas, and your intelligence, and that you are just naturally closer to God than other people. I have a feeling you will not have to do any more climbing, but you will instantly soar into the sky, empowered by the Lord. Yes, not a Jeep any longer, but a jet plane, the Concorde, shooting through the sky, leaving a rainbow in its wake!"Okay, this isn't exactly what was told to me, but it's pretty much in the same spirit, and I received several similar WORDs to this one, some not as poetic or rich in imagery, depending on the "anointing" of the layman or "anointed leader," but they were always positive, always promising of soon-to-come reward (generally in "six months to a year"), always declaring "how special" I am, how much God loves me, and how I am on a "special mission" for God, how much closer to God I am than other believers, how much BETTER I am than others (okay, so most of these are true -- psyche!). For all the visits I received these happy, vain-glorious and ego-building WORDs, sometimes from two or three people per visit -- that is, until I started pulling back from these people, until I started comparing what they were telling me to what the Bible actually said about these things (as soon as I began to pull back, then they began to receive red flashing warning signs and warn each other about the fact that I was not the man I pretended to be! that possibly I had somehow tricked them -- and God, apparently -- into doling out all these magical, mystical, positive-confession WORDs from the Lord).It's a form a generic astrology type ego boosting, and it's fun, and it's from GOD! Who wouldn't like to have this kind of fun? It's exciting! I know people who grew so excited by the WORDs they received, they jumped up and down and screamed in delight (and these were adults).In reading the Bible, I do not find many examples of Jesus or any of the apostles going around boosting peoples' egos, or telling them how wonderful and strong and good-looking they were. In fact, I find just the opposite, a humbling process wherein the person finds out just how lowly they are and just how undeserving they are of God's grace, and even after their rebirth they need constant humbling, building up in Christ, that each person is "special in Christ," but not that they have any special wonder-working, authority-laden glamour of their own. That we will always have Christ's righteousness, and never our own righteousness, because that would be self-righteousness, and the Bible is always more than tough on that kind of goodness. That being "built up in Christ" is generally just the opposite from being successful in the terms of the world.But these groups have a very different "revelation" of what a Christian is supposed to be.Let me tell you, it was attractive. Coming to a place and having someone tell me wonderful things about myself. Some really true things about me that they couldn't possibly know upon first meeting me. Wow, I thought, is this what religion should really be about? Kind of a spiritized self-help positive affirmation that constantly tells me, over and over again: "You are special. You are really not all that bad. You are good, and people like you, and I like you." I admit, I was tempted to go with these groups, even though my current in-depth Bible study was warning me away, warning me with shooting fireworks and constant sirens. Because come on, these were good people, some of them I knew, and isn't that what God really wants, for us to be part of a "family" that mentions Jesus once in a while, and promises every member financial prosperity, health, happy relationships, and to top it all off, if you ever misplace your briefcase, they can help you find it -- kind of like a spiritual "clapper" -- you lose something, clap your hands and it claps back at you! What a deal! A Holy Ghost Clapper. Or better yet, why not a board with the alphabet laid out upon it, and you could put your fingers on a dove-shaped tripod, and you could ask the Holy Ghost a question, and He would move the tripod about underneath your fingers, moving from one letter to another, wouldn't that be helpful to Christians? (Don't you believe it, and don't buy into ANYthing remotely close to this, run from the guru or false teacher, false friend!)6. Bible Study. This concept is used very lightly in these groups. Granted, one of the groups actually did a small Bible study, perhaps ten minutes of actually reading the Bible and comparing the scriptures to other, clarifying scriptures, allowing the Bible to interpret itself. But the other group never even cracked a Bible in a few of their meetings. In the "main group," the agenda ran something like this: opening prayer, a little homily lasting five minutes, a praise song or two, reading a scripture, then consulting a study guide and the leader would elaborate on the verse, perhaps for ten minutes, and two more Bible verses to supplement the original scripture, then moving into "prayer time," where the group would break into smaller groups of twos and threes and WORDs exchanged (and these WORDs were ever positive, ever about a great raise coming to the salary, a new and bigger house on the horizon, a cure for disease in someone's family), and then finally the leader would have special prayer for needy followers, generally one at a time, in the "hot seat," a chair in the middle of the group, and the leader and several other "anointed ones" would "pray over" the person, usually in tongues, and finally they would have the person stand up to receive their "slaying" (slain in the spirit) -- sometimes the leader would push the person over, and sometimes they would will themselves over backward by a true independent force (which I hear really does happen, knocked over by a real force of power -- but in any case the practice is grossly and entirely unBiblical). That's the "Bible study" employed by the main group.The secondary "anointed one" would hold his Bible studies or "Holy Ghost parties" more along these lines: everyone would come together and eat snacks, chips, sodas, then the leader would read about ten minutes out of a book about one of the great Charismatics such as Smith Wigglesworth or Katherine Kuhlman, and discuss the awesome signs and wonders the greats experienced, and then perhaps a scripture would be read but not always, followed almost immediately by the "power prayer" sessions, doing a round-robin to get as many of the followers into the "hot seat" as possible. Everyone would be encouraged to pray for whomever was sitting in the "hot seat." I witnessed as many as six people praying simultaneously in tongues over the "hot seat" honoree, and generally there would only be one interpretation of the "prayer language." Sometimes not even one interpretation would follow the six entirely different versions of "prayer language."Here is an example of an interpretation, after three minutes of non-stop tongues the interpretation would be "you are worried about something, daughter, but I tell you, do not fear, do not fret." Good advice, in most situations, but apparently the tongues of angels are much more long-winded than English as three minutes of tongues translates into ten seconds of good ole American joe.Since these far-gone (in more ways than one) Charismatic days I have experienced wonderful two-hour long Bible studies, where actual study of the scriptures is the primary focus, with in-depth delving of Biblical concept, checking out everything the Bible has to say on a subject, chaining scripture to scripture to scripture, utilizing the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, without the practice of snipping a fragment of a verse and building a "faith theory" upon it, and then going about attempting to "prove" that "faith theory" by linking other scriptures in order to fashion a bizarre doctrine and then claim it is Biblical. I'm talking two hours of struggling with real Bible verses, reading them right out of the Bible, discussing interpretations, searching for corresponding verses, praying for knowledge and wisdom, and coming up with V-8 head-bopping epiphanies, where suddenly the scripture would become clear, and we'd see something there we'd never noticed before, and it was startlingly refreshing, edifying, and often many people would break into tears upon the clarity of God's revelation.UNDERSTANDING. God would bring it, understanding, and that's what "praying in the Spirit" is all about, understanding God better, understanding Him more, coming closer to Him in our understanding, breaking through the chaos, eliminating doubt and mystery, not creating more. Pray in the Spirit and in understanding, they are ONE, not two forms of prayer. You don't "pray in the Spirit" and then later "pray in understanding" -- when you pray in the Spirit you have better understanding than you ever have before. God makes better sense than he ever has before, that's praying in the Spirit. The Bible says that the Spirit knows nothing about the things of man (raises, new cars and houses, fashion, pretty chicks and hide and seek) and that man knows nothing of God, but that when we pray in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit leads us into understanding, He leads us into all truth. If we pray and don't understand what we are praying, then our understanding is not profitable, and that's what it is all about, the Spirit leading us into Understanding, a profitable experience with God -- the Spirit of Truth opening our mind, giving us the knowledge of God, His truth.When the Holy Spirit guides your mind, when He steps in and steers the direction of your communication with God, you will find yourself praying words you never thought you knew, asking for things you had no idea you needed, praying for people you didn't even know were in trouble, you will find solutions to problems you thought could not be solved. When you ask for God's wisdom, for the right reason, He will give it to you. The Holy Spirit WILL fill you, when you are open to Him; it is nothing to be feared, being filled with the Holy Spirit, receiving His baptism. It does not turn you into an idiot, or make you say stupid things, or believe ridiculous concepts. The baptism of the Holy Spirit brings you peace, and a new way to reach out to other people, to lost people, to Christians, to communicate with others that brings them peace, that unravels their knots.Ask God. Don't rely on me. Ask God, directly, for His blessing. Tell Him you are open to whatever He has for you, even if you do not understand it. Tell Jesus, directly, that you want what He has for you, even if you do not know how to ask for it. Ask Him for spiritual gifts, ask Him for the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Tell Him you want to bear much fruit. Tell Him you want His protection and guidance in a world that is becoming more and more confused with bogus religions, look-alike spiritualities that are nothing more than funhouse corridors lined with distorting funhouse mirrors. Tell the Lord that you do not want to offend Him in anything, in any thought, in any action or practice, and that you want His deliverance from falsehood, from the bondage of deceit. Ask for the Light -- He is the Light, the Light of the World, the Father of Lights, tell Him you want nothing more to do with darkness, and that you want His true revelation even if it brings pain, because it is hard to give up some of the dark things that we love so much, but with His help we can leave the darkness, and we can enter His light, and become true children of Light.When I separated myself from these groups and their deceptive glamour, they went into an uproar, nearly tearing my new family apart with lies, accusations and gossip. Some of my relatives stopped going to church, others turned to even more ridiculously false deceptions, sinking into pits that they will never rise from unless it is from a miraculous act of God (which I fully believe is possible, that with God, all things are possible, and with Christ we can accomplish things that seem hideously impossible).People say: "He is saved!" or "That guy is lost!" or "Oh, those people aren't saved." When people say this they do not realize that they are judging others, not petty things or opinions such as hairstyles or music types, but they are judging the salvation of others, declaring this one saved and this one unsaved. It's wrong, and they make this gross error because they have not read the scriptures. You do not know if Joe is saved or not. The only person you can have ANY confidence about is yourself, and that is not based on anything YOU do, or think, feel, practice or accomplish, it is based on what God has declared, that you can trust HIM, and His promises. And it's true, you very well might be deceiving yourself, if you have fallen prey to wolves dressed up in woolly coats and dresses, if you have invested your trust in worldly systems or "Christian" shoulders to stand upon -- stop it right now, and turn to God. Tell Him you trust Him, and His promises, that you accept His free gift of salvation, His grace, and then have confidence that He has provided what He has promised to provide.Don't buy into the "once saved, always saved" deception. God provides free will to all His creatures, and that free choice of will does not stop just because you accepted Jesus. God will not force you to come to Him, nor will He force you to stay with Him. Accept Him, and then as Jesus said, "abide in Me." Stay with Him. You don't marry someone and then move away from them, confidently stating that you are married. A true marriage is a relationship, you have to hang in there, and there very well might be some tough times. Stick with it, because He who promises eternal love, can be trusted.Thank God, He protected me from false doctrines and New Age teaching. He delivered me and saved others through my deliverance. And He is great enough, powerful enough, and loving enough, to pull you out of any pit that you have fallen into, or any deep cavern you willfully threw yourself into. There is ALWAYS hope. NEVER give up.NEVER GIVE UP. Or as Winston Churchill said, who survived a merciless pounding from the Nazi villains, leading Britain to victory against almost overwhelming odds: "Never, never, never, never, never, never, never give up!"Turn to Him, today. Ask Him for advice. Ask Him to reveal His will to you. There's nothing wimpy about wanting God's way, despite what false teachers say. Ask Him for wisdom and protection, and trust that He loves you and will help you out of your jam, even if you have covered yourself in a ton of strawberry preserves, and it doesn't seem possible to escape from your sticky situation. The Creator of the universe will take your hand, and hold you in His saving Hand!Tell Him you want the TRUTH, the whole TRUTH, even if you don't like it, even if it doesn't make sense to you, even if it goes against everything you've ever believed! Admit to Him that you have a thick head, that you are easily deceived, but NOW you want HIM, and only Him, that you want to be set free with His Truth!
