From the believers that brought us Pentecostalism, the Charismatics, riders of the Third Wave, the Word & Spirit Movement, the Toronto Blessing, among others, comes, Charismata VI – Humanity’s Flaws.
As we trace the re-emergence of the Holy Spirit’s ministry since the beginning of the twentieth century, different seasons and movements can be detected. Here’s some of my personal observations, thoughts, and reflections.
Less than a decade after the Welsh Revival of 1904-06, Pentecostalism was birthed, and one of its UK leaders was a teenage convert of that revival. However, it’s roots were not limited to one location, in different nations people started to encounter God, falling to the ground under His presence, and most noticeably, speaking in tongues. So those early pioneers linked these manifestations to the event in Acts 2, and hence the name Pentecostal was adopted. An exegetical flaw? I think so. In Acts 2, God blessed the early church with the ability to speak in other known languages, to bring understanding to the many foreign visitors in Jerusalem. The tongues experienced by Pentecostals were more akin to the unintelligible celestial languages that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Where he explains this spiritual phenomenon, and in particular their value, personally and corporately - when an interpretation is given.
By the 1950s, and increasingly into the 1960s, there was a (logical) move of emphasis away from Acts 2 toward 1 Corinthians 12 and its list of ‘gifts’, this was the second wave of the Spirit in the twentieth century heralding in the Charismatic Movement – named after one of the words Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 12.
Let’s do some definitions, and in doing so, we’ll probably find a further flaw. Charismata is a Greek word meaning a token of God’s grace, which can be understood as an undeserved gift. It’s the word used by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 when explaining the gifts of the Holy Spirt. Nerdy note, the phrase ‘gifts of the Spirit’ is not actually found in our New Testaments. In chapter 12, we have two words, charismata (gifts of grace), and pneumatikos (of the Spirit). So, our English translations push these words together to form the concept of spiritual gifts – and there in lies a possible flaw. In English, a gift implies something given for the receiver to keep. In the 1970s (and even today), Charismatics talked of having gifts, ‘my gift is…’, ‘God’s given me tongues and healing’, etc. The emphasis in this language is on possession – not such a helpful term within Christianity. The emphasis of charismata is the concept of grace. Grace is a key characteristic of God (thankfully!), an ever-present attribute – a lifestyle value. Therefore, God is not some Father Christmas giving out spiritual gifts, He’s the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of all things, inviting us, by His Spirit, to call Him, Abba Father, and allowing us access (gracious access) to His spiritual resources, including, prophecy, healing, miracles, discernment, celestial languages, and their interpretation. These are powerful resources freely available for our use in ministry and mission. These are community Kingdom-advancing resources, rather than just personal gifts. Though, as someone steps out in faith and exercises these gifts, they will undoubtedly (hopefully!) grow in confidence and understanding of these spiritual resources. Thus, a specific focus might develop around their ministry, in healing, prophecy, discernment, etc. In Ephesians 4:11, Paul records a list of Christ’s gifts (distinct in purpose) given to the church, for our maturity. In this context, specific equipping ministries ought to emerge among some individuals. This is a big subject, and I’m trying to write a blog not a book – so for more on this read my book, RESET.
This second wave (or emphasis) on the Holy Spirit, often led, sadly, to the splitting of churches. These events birthed the New Church Movement or House Church Movement, linked to the poor exegesis that, new wine demanded new wineskins – another flaw! In the ancient world, recycling was paramount for a healthy economy. Old wineskins weren’t discarded but refurbished to receive the next new wine. Their dry crusty texture was renewed by gently massaging into the ageing skin a mix of water and olive oil. Water and oil? – I’ll let you make the spiritual connections. Though in reality, sixty or fifty years ago, most historical denominational churches had no desire to change or receive the ‘massaging’ of God’s Spirit into their structures and traditions. New churches were inevitable, and not necessarily wrong. Though within 25 years, these ‘radical start-ups’ would also become institutionalised and annoyingly set in their ways.
It’s the summer of 1976, I’m aged thirteen, and have no church background or any family-based faith, nevertheless, I met Jesus in a dream. The supernatural aspect of my conversion narrative was probably my first encounter with the charismata of God – His gracious intervention, gifted me with salvation. In the autumn of 1977, I found myself in a midweek meeting at a local Baptist church. The visiting speaker was a very stereotypical sounding North American, Bible-belt Pentecostal, with an extreme Southern drawl. He insisted on the necessity of speaking in tongues as a sign of being truly filled with the Holy Spirit. As he gave his ‘alter call’, I felt impelled to go forward for prayer – did I speak in tongues that night? God knows. I say all this to underline, that I, if anyone, has a great excuse to walk away from everything Charismatic and bury myself in safe evangelical conservatism. Though within weeks, in the quiet of my own bedroom, I spoke in tongues.
Normally, I move swiftly on from making that point. Though in reality, it is a significant and transferable breakthrough. I had just turned fifteen and in the quiet of my own bedroom I invited the Holy Spirit to fill me. I didn’t know the theology, and barely new any Scriptures. Like some of the original North American Pentecostals from the Deep South, who had celebrated as a positive their illiteracy and lack of education, believing it helped them, without some intellectual hinderance, to receive so easily the baptism of the Holy Spirit; I too was proof that intelligence and understanding wasn’t needed to encounter God – it’s called grace! Though at this stage, I wasn’t even familiar with that word! Later it would be served up to me as a doctrine, wrapped up (perhaps on purpose) in the judicial language of justification, perhaps in order to keep my puny mind humble and grateful.
Let me tell you something, I don’t know how my television works, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying it! Understanding is not required for experience. Praise God! Don’t let the church Pharisees tell you differently.
I was never diagnosed dyslexic. Probably because I’m not. Though I may well suffer from a form of auditory agnosia – the inability to process sounds into language. Unless I can see, new or unfamiliar words written down, I find it close to impossible to process them, to spell them or even speak them. From my first week at primary school, I knew I was behind in my ability to recognise spoken words. Still am, when processing new vocabulary. And now that I find myself living in a Spanish-speaking country – well, what can I say? The original sense of adventure soon wears off when you’re pretty much struggling with a physical neurological disability when trying to learn a new language.
The upside? Speaking in tongues! Hallelujah! My cognitive brain is not required to interpret the personal and edifying use of unintelligible words. Thank you, apostle Paul, for 1 Corinthians 14. Also, the fact that I’ve always had a vivid imagination maybe of some compensation, allowing me to lose myself in imagery without the need for words. The prophetic, when it started to emerge in me during these early Christian years, wasn’t accompanied with the normal doubts and fears others often have when perceiving a ‘picture’. Pictures were already my everyday language. I can’t read words, whether it be fiction or non-fiction, without pictures appearing in my mind. If you find that strange, as I know some people do, then you need to know, I can’t imagine not having images attached to sentences.
Being charismatic undoubtedly aided my discipleship. Read that sentence again!
As a teenager, with no church or Bible background, I entered into an almost obsessively Bible-orientated church. This emphasis on reading and understanding the Bible was never going to be an easy journey for me. It was decades before I got introduced to the value of Bible meditation – a far superior way of devotionally engaging with the Scriptures. As Evangelicals, we have created church in the image of our schools. And in recent decades, dissatisfied with the plainness of our Bible texts, publishers have created a plethora of Study Bibles, adding an index (like all serious text books should have), plus Bible book introductory pages, highlighting key content and historical context, then the random information boxes scattered around the main text, with additional statistics or mini biographies of the key characters. If a regular Bible study didn’t already remind me of my schooldays, then the latest printed Bibles did!
My learning-style deficiencies made the weekly youth group Bible study a living nightmare. “Let’s read round, a couple of verses at a time,” said the youth worker. Don’t they know how fearful that is for people like me!? At least, on my own, I could engage with God at a personal level, through using short memory verses, the language of modern worship songs, speaking in tongues, and allowing God the space to paint pictures in my imagination. Much of this I come to with hindsight, but as they say, or someone might have said, “a life without reflection is a life wasted.”
So, I conclude, I loved the charismata (not knowing what it was) because it suited my learning style; just like the peace of God, which transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:7).
>>> “Yeah, thanks for sharing, Simon, but what has this to do with Charismata 6 – what’s this blog actually about?”
Patience. Please, patience.
As I picked myself up from the floor of St Andrews Church, Chorleywood, in December 1984, I had just had my first experience of being slain in the Spirit. I say that, though I do remember times years earlier on my bed, when asking for the Holy Spirit’s infilling, slowing sliding down from an upright position to a horizontal one – never really thought anything of it. Back to December 1984! Having gone forward for prayer, God’s tangible presence, made my knees give way, and I fell to the ground. I was still conscious. To be honest, I was embarrassed. But I lay their, willingly, perhaps (again with hindsight) as an act of surrender. I’ve been slain many (many) times since. Does it hurt? It can if you hit your head. Are you rendered paralysed? That’s harder to answer, at times it’s been like that, and I’ve known some people who have had to be carried from rooms. Again, I think it’s linked to spiritual hunger and personal surrender. I know the mind to be a powerful tool, quite able to disengage aspects of our physical bodies from functioning. So, the God who knitted us together in our mother’s womb, is more than capable of overriding some of those systems to get our attention for His ongoing healing.
I digress, back again to December 1984, as I got to my feet, I was still a little ‘drunk’, and the uncontrollable laughter I was experiencing would continue late into that evening. Within twenty-four hours another phenomenon would manifest, one which still resides within me to this day. But that’s for next time.
To be continued.
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