Peter SmytheIntelligent Holy Ghost Christianity

When I was a teenager, I visited a small Assembly of God church and had one of those dramatic experiences that you read about in the olden days. After that experience, a twenty-something guy in the church took me under his wing to teach me some things about the Word and the Spirit. Both of us were pretty broke at the time, so on Fridays we headed to Denny’s to eat and talk.

It wasn’t uncommon for us to find ourselves totally drunk in the Spirit after a couple of hours. Sometimes we’d have to wait an hour or so for it to wear off so that we could drive home.

The pastor of that little church found out about this and allowed us to pray for the sick in some of the Sunday services. Again, it wasn’t too uncommon for us to feel the tangible presence of God during those times. In fact, we grew accustomed to the “electricity,” as it were.

A few years later, I was going to school at Oral Roberts University when a dorm-mate asked me if I wanted to see Kenneth Hagin that night. I had read after Brother Hagin for some years, but never knew where in the world Broken Arrow, Oklahoma actually was and couldn’t believe that he was just right down the road. We went that night and the tangible presence of God was just as present as it was during those Denny times. I instantly knew that I’d be attending Rhema the next year.

I was fortunate to go to Rhema during its “glory years.” We had our usual Bibles classes in the mornings where we learned the Word through regular teaching/preaching, but it seemed as if the Lord wanted us to see it all in demonstration in the occasional night meetings.  Well before the Toronto Blessing, we had meetings where Acts 2 was relived again and again. Manifestations of the Spirit were pretty much the rule of the day and lines would form four hours before the meetings.

While Kenneth Hagin is mostly known for his exposition of the Word regarding faith and prayer, he was first and foremost (at least in my mind) an exemplar of being led by the Spirit. Frankly, his understanding of the ways of the Spirit sometimes seemed downright uncanny. Unfortunately, our present set of Word preachers hasn’t seemed to have caught on to this aspect of Hagin’s ministry.

My wife and I found this tape, When the Spirit Gets to Movin’, at a church bookstore this past summer. We played it over and over again and just this weekend and it went kablooey. I thought it was no longer available, but my wife found that Rhema still sells it in their bookstore in DVD form. We quickly ordered two.

If you have never been in a service where there has been a tangible anointing present or if you have never seen folks “filled” or “drunk” in the Spirit, go to Rhema’s site (it’s under Kenneth Hagin as author) and buy this DVD before you finish reading this post. This is a DVD of a Winter Bible Seminar meeting (they were always the best meetings when I attended Rhema) where the Spirit manifests Himself like he did in Acts 2.13, 14. It is a great DVD of what Full Gospel preaching/teaching and demonstration is supposed to be. I love it.

[This particular DVD is from a 1993 Winter Bible Seminar meeting. Many of the meetings in the late ’80s when I attended Rhema were a lot like this.]

And here are a few observations about the DVD:

And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” (Acts 2.13, 14, ESV)

There is an experience in the Spirit where one is so filled with the Spirit that he acts like he is drunk. As said, I’ve been there and it is a genuine Holy Ghost experience. These days you can go to YouTube and see this  kind of experience is not limited to American churches or heavily advertised revivals.

So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. (Acts 19.12, KJV)

As demonstrated in this verse, the anointing of God is tangible. John Lake, in his sermons, preaches about the tangibility of the anointing and relates many experiences where the anointing was transferred from him to someone else through the laying on of hands. In the DVD, Hagin lays his hands on several people and you can see the transference of the Spirit’s anointing. Hagin also points to groups of people and the anointing is transferred. Lake spoke about this kind of experience also.

When my wife and I first played the tape, that tangible presence filled our living room (how cool is that?).

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; (1 Tim. 2.8, ESV)

Hagin reported that he received a visitation from the Lord in 1987 concerning praise and worship and that ever-present applause in Full Gospel churches. From that date, Hagin taught that scriptural worship contemplates the raising of our hands and that applause is not praise. In the DVD, you will see how most (where do all these clappers come from?) of the congregation follows the “lifting holy hands” teaching and how that reverence elevates the praise during the service.

You will also notice that while Rhema had a professional band and lead singers, they did not sing to please the crowd, but rather to lift the crowd into a higher realm of praise. Too often our church praise and worship is more like a mini-concert where the singers and band take center stage rather than the Lord.

While I delve into the Greek and what-not on this site and consider myself to be a Word guy through-and-through, I will never, ever lose the idea that we need the tangible presence of the Lord in the church. We need to get back to having services like this one.