Falling Under the Power of the Spirit

John Arnott at the Toronto Airport Christian outpouring (circa 2002)

The phenomenon of falling under the power of the Spirit occurred in the revivals of Jonathan Edwards. His assessment was that a person may “fail bodily strength” due to fear of hell and the conviction by the Holy Spirit or due to a “foretaste of heaven.”[1] John Wesley recognized falling to the ground as a manifestation from God, and records many such instances in his ministry. In fact, George Whitefield criticized Wesley for permitting the phenomena until it began happening in his own meetings.[2] The Kentucky revivals of 1800-1801, which involved Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians, was replete with similar demonstrations.[3] In the early 1800s, the revivals led by Methodist circuit riding preacher Peter Cartwright (who was converted in the Kentucky revivals) were often accompanied by people falling under God’s power, including some Baptists.[4] Finney’s ministry also frequently manifested fainting or swooning, what he called “falling under the power of God.”[5] The Welsh revival of 1859 was accompanied by swooning as “waves of power often overwhelmed” people.[6] In the 1860s, Andrew Murray’s church started to speak out against people who began to shout and cry and swoon in a revival in his church, until a visitor from America told him about similar manifestations in American revivals.[7] Decades before holiness evangelist Maria Woodworth-Etter’s involvement in the Pentecostal revival, many people in her meetings fell under the power of the Spirit, including Carrie Judd (Montgomery), an early leader in the C&MA.[8] Moody’s associate R.A. Torrey testified of people falling under the power of God due to conviction of sin.[9] Torrey himself fell under power of the Spirit when baptized with the Holy Spirit.[10] Presbyterian missionary Jonathan Goforth makes reference in his book By My Spirit to the phenomenon occurring in his revivals.[11]

Instances of falling under the power of the Spirit also occurred periodically at C&MA meetings for two decades before Azusa Street. In 1885 A.B. Simpson, the founder of the C&MA, received what we would call today a “word of knowledge” that someone was resisting the Lord. A woman responded, saying it was her. She came forward, and as Simpson anointed her for healing, she was overcome, falling under the power of the Spirit seemingly unconscious for about half an hour, and she received a healing.[12] In 1897 at a joint C&MA/Mennonite camp meeting in Allentown, Pennsylvania, C&MA General Field Supt. Dean Peck preached six services in three days and described: “At service after service . . . I saw people fall as dead under the power of God.” He said it was a genuine revival from God and talked about such things happening among the Methodists 50-60 years ago, but are not frequent now because many revivals are of human manufacture.[13] Manifestations of falling also occurred during the 1907 revival at Simpson’s Gospel Tabernacle, apparently with his approval.[14] Presbyterian Greek professor T. J. McCrossan, who joined C&MA in 1923, while serving as interim president of Simpson Bible Institute, wrote in his book Bodily Healing and the Atonement: “Hundreds are healed, who do not fall under this power, because they simply trust God’s promises; and it is the prayer of faith that heals. Going under this power seems, however, to bring an extra spiritual blessing. . . . This power is not hypnotism. . . . This is not devil power.^”[15] McCrossan spoke out of the experience of his own life, for not only did he frequently assist Charles Price in laying hands on the sick with people falling, but he himself fell under God’s power and was enraptured with visions when he was baptized in the Spirit in 1921 through Price’s ministry.[16]

These Things

Matthew 6:31-33 says, “So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.”

Why then, if we are not suppose to seek after ‘these things,’ are we encouraged to do exactly that from many pulpits? This type of error in teaching serves only to create disillusionment in the hearts of the people of God. Instead of being happy with what God has blessed us with ‘from day to day’, we sit in discontentment blaming God for not fulfilling His so called promises. (These teaching state that it is God’s will for us to all to drive a Lexus or something comparable and to wear the best of clothes, etc.) We feel like failures for not having ‘enough faith’ to even be able to buy the same kind of suit that the ‘Man of God’ is wearing — though he has thousands of people throwing money in his bucket at every service and we hold a nine to five job.

Let’s look at what the apostle Paul taught Timothy. Timothy had the responsibility of rearing the young church in Ephesus and was instructed to teach these things as ‘foundations for a godly life’ because false teachers had come into the young church who saw religion as a way to get rich (vs. 2b-5)

1 Timothy 6:6-11 Yet true religion with contentment is great wealth. After all, we didn’t bring anything with us when we came into the world, and we certainly cannot carry anything with us when we die. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. But you, Timothy, belong to God; so run from all these evil things and follow what is right and good. Pursue a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

So what are we to pursue? According to this scripture, we are to pursue a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. According to Matthew 6, this is summarized as the kingdom of God. It is clear that we are taught by both the apostle Paul and by our Lord Jesus to be content.

The very mention of holiness can conjure up images of dower saints dressed in black garb, expressionless countenances, and a total lack of joy or fun. Think American Gothic without the pitchfork. The Holy River of God points to a picture of Christian holiness that is living, vibrant, engaged, and filled with joyous expectation. In the opening sentences, the holiness stream of Christian faith is described as “wide and deep,” “full of life and inspires life wherever it goes” (page 3). The book is a collection of chapters written by authors representing a wide variety of Christian denominations. The entire work is edited by Barry Callen faculty member of Anderson University, editor of the Wesleyan Theological Journal, and an editor at Aldersgate Press.

The vision of holiness that is characteristic of those who participate in the river is a work of the Spirit carried out as a “steady stream of purifying love” (page 6). It is “God’s holiness proceeding from love,” which “brings life wherever it goes in the world.” Wherever this holiness stream flows, those who choose to immerse themselves in it are transformed. They become the “reflection of God, … compelled by love, … to the end that lives are restored, systems are redeemed, and all of creation is being made new” (page 6).

The roots for this vision of holiness are found in the theology of John Wesley. However, Wesleyan holiness is by no means monolithic. How Wesleyan holiness is understood and implemented is widely diverse. This diversity is not viewed as an impediment, but is an asset. It deepens the movement to provide a “fuller vision of God’s holiness and love” (page 8).

The biblical basis of this holiness focus is based in God’s command for his people to be holy (1 Peter 1:14-16). “The entire biblical narrative is about holiness granted, lost, and recovered” (page 15). Throughout the Church’s history this holiness tradition has been manifested in Catholicism, both Roman and Orthodox, in the Radical Reformation, especially in Great Britain in the ministries of John and Charles Wesley, in the US in the 19^th century, and in the 20^th century with the rise of Pentecostalism. Each expression was a “fresh search for a credible Christian holiness that truly transforms lives and advances the kingdom of God on earth” (page 18).

After a few short chapters on the prominent characteristics of Wesleyan Holiness and the development of Wesley’s teachings in the US and internationally, the book goes on to describe the formation of the Wesleyan Holiness Connection and those denominations that are part. The Wesleyan Holiness Connection, or WHC, was principally founded by Kevin Mannoia. He describes the connection as an idea that formed over a long period of time through conversations, meetings, and study groups (page 143). The first of those conversations occurred in 2002 at a breakfast attended by Mannoia and a few friends. They realized that churches that possessed a holiness heritage lacked a means of sharing the common mission to spread scriptural holiness across the land (page 145). With the help of additional scholars, Mannoia formed the Wesleyan Holiness Study Project. The Project consisted of about 40 scholars from 13 different historical Wesleyan-Holiness denominations. Their objective was to “commit to a fresh articulation of holiness in the 21^st century” (page 145). The Project produced two significant documents: The Holiness Manifesto, and Fresh Eyes on Holiness: Living Out the Holiness Manifesto. In September of 2006, at the end of the Project, those who participated met to work out their next steps. They agreed that there was a future for the infant movement, and the Wesleyan Holiness Connection was born. The Connection has since grown to consist of several regional networks throughout the US, Brazil, Kenya, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom as well as a collection of associated ministries and a publishing house, Aldersgate Press.

Missionary-scholar Jim Harries discusses the difference between the biblical categories of clean and unclean, holy and common. He argues that neither Africa or the West have a correct understanding of these concepts.

A story about man whose neighbours describe as a good Christian. The man was a passenger on a bus. He went to talk to the driver. Something upset him. He struck out at the driver. As a result, the bus crashed and everyone in it was killed. His neighbours argue, did the man go to heaven or hell?

Abstract

Many African people, as the Rekabites praised by God in Jeremiah 35, keep strictly to ancestral requirements. In parts of Africa, this is done to avoid death. Biblically we find two levels of holiness. Akathartos (unclean) contrasts to katharos (clean), but also bebelos (common) as distinct from hagios (holy). The latter (hagios) presupposes the existence of katharos, whereas something may be katharos without being hagios. These categories are largely forgotten in the West. African languages do not distinguish them clearly. Jesus’ emphasis was on achievement of hagios. This important and very positive orientation can easily be lost in contemporary theological education.

Introduction

The two categories – cleanliness and Godliness – have strong parallels. The distinction between them is often unclear. This article suggests that confusion in distinguishing these categories is exaggerated by Western people’s tendency to presuppose themselves to be hagios (holy instead of being common), while African people’s tendency is to seek to be katharos (clean) while remaining akathartos (unclean) and failing to perceive hagios.

Greek terms are used to represent biblical standards so as to avoid confusion with misunderstanding of translations of those terms on the part of Africa and of the West. The categories of ‘Africa’ and ‘Western’ are used loosely with the understanding that they are generalisations and that there are in both cases exceptions to what is herein stated.

Clean and unclean in African Churches

A group of KIST students [Kima International School of Theology in Maseno, Kenya] joined me a few years ago on a visit to an indigenous (African founded and African led) church near Yala. Many things struck them as interesting. One was to find that even while the service was going on and although the church was not full, some members sat listening to the service sitting outside the church building. When the students asked the pastor later, he told them that those people sitting outside were ‘unclean’. There were various reasons for them to have been unclean; some ladies were having their period, other people had been to funerals and handled a dead body, and so on. According to this church, such unclean people should not be in the holy place, i.e. the church building. I have in recent months asked a number of congregations in Luoland about a particular traditional law, and their take on its importance. Luo tradition states that a son should build his house in front of and below the parental house, with the door at right angles to the door of the main house, facing into the middle of the homestead. If you travel around Luo areas in Kenya, you will find that this pattern is almost invariably followed. On visiting church congregations, I have asked them whether they would be ready to contravene this ‘law’ and allow their sons to build their houses behind the parental house, if paid to compensate them for doing so. I have asked, would they be ready to allow their son to build behind their house, if given KSh100,000 [about $1,000]? Everyone in the church congregation expressed clear refusal. Then I asked if they would be ready to allow their son to build behind their house if offered KSh1,000,000 [almost $10,000]? Still everyone has refused. On a few occasions someone has taken the trouble to explain the justification for their refusal; having their son build behind the parental house would very likely result in his death, and no way would these people take any amount of money that would result in the death of their children.

A special summary of the book Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the body of Christ to come to its senses and spell out the biblical bands which define it, the Spirit of God impels us to arise in the same confidence as our ancestors who unwaveringly proclaimed “the present truth” for their day and time and declare the causes which compel this Manifesto.

We hold these truths to be biblically-evident, that all people have fallen short of the glory of God, that they are endowed by their Creator with a Savior, who is Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, our risen, rising, and reigning Lord. He is the heat in our heart, the marrow of our mind, and the art of our life.

Alas, much of the contemporary church has short-changed Jesus. It has replaced Christ with methods, strategies, concepts, principles, doctrines, programs, fads, gimmicks, etc., and has lost Him who is the Center and Circumference of our faith.

To demonstrate this, we submit the following to a candid world:

Jesus Christ is the subject, goal, and motivation of our faith and devotion.

Jesus Christ came to show us how to be a new kind of human, a Jesus kind of human. He came to do what Adam failed to do. He is the firstborn of a new humanity.

Jesus Christ is the “e” that turns the human into the humane – Emmanuel – God with us.

Jesus Christ is alive. He lives. He lives His resurrection life in and through us – members of His beloved bride – the body of Christ on earth.

Jesus is the Way. What is Christianity? It is Christ.

Jesus is the Life. What is the gospel? It is Christ.

Jesus is the Truth. What is truth? It is Christ. Truth is personified in a person. That person is Christ. Truth is not an ideology. Truth is not a philosophy. Truth is not an ethics. Truth is Christ. When the gospel truth becomes something other than Christ, the church suffers from JDD: Jesus Deficit Disorder.

The gospel is the “good news” that Beauty, Truth and Goodness are found in Love, the Love of God in Christ. The mystery of life has a name: LOVE. God is love, and there is no God outside of Jesus Christ. Hence there is no authentic love outside of Jesus. The Greatest Lover that this universe has ever known says to each and every one of us, “Follow me.”

Not “follow my preachings” or “follow my teachings” or “follow my practices” But “Follow me.” Not “follow me” to become more “like me.” That is too low an ambition for a Christian.

Not “follow me” to “mimic me.” But “follow me” to “manifest me.”

Not “follow me” to “imitate me.” But “follow me” to let my Spirit be implanted in you and to you.

Not “follow me” to become more “like me.” But “follow me” to “become part of me.”

“I am in you and you are in me, as the Father is in you and you are in Him. You are my sister and you are my brother.” This is not a metaphor. … Our greatest dream is to write with our lives a Jesus autobiography.

“Man sees your actions, but God your motives.” —Thomas a Kempis

“Holiness is goodness on fire.” —Walter Rauschenbusch

“We know religion, but we don’t understand holiness.” —John Tisdale

“We are taught in an especial manner to pray that God would give his Holy Spirit unto us, that through his aid and assistance we may live unto God in that holy obedience which he requires at our hands.” —John Owen (1664)

“We like to talk about syndromes instead of sin. It’s not the same thing. So I think you just have to talk about human weakness, human failure, human transgressions, and there’s a word for that, and it’s the word ‘sin.'” —Jean Bethke Elshtain (quoted in Homiletics, Jul/Aug 2003, page 10)

We must reclaim the spiritual fire we’ve lost. We must also be willing to bury what has become stale and outdated.

Pentecostals from around the world converged on Los Angeles this week to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the revival that launched their movement. About 3,000 people began the party on Saturday by marching through a downtown area carrying flags and banners. They ended their procession in the Little Tokyo neighborhood where Pentecostal pioneer William “Daddy” Seymour held his famous Azusa Street Revival a century ago.

As of yesterday a crowd of 23,000 had gathered at the Los Angeles Convention Center for special revival services. Other Azusa events were scheduled at Fred Price’s Faith Dome, Bishop Charles Blake’s West Angeles Cathedral and at Angelus Temple—the nation’s oldest Pentecostal megachurch.

Azusa is truly a miracle worth celebrating

Seymour’s unscripted, racially mixed prayer meetings, housed in a dilapidated building that was once a livery stable, attracted curious Christians from around the world between 1906 and 1909. Many of those who visited testified of receiving a life-changing “baptism of the Holy Spirit” that was contagious. Pentecostal fervor spread quickly, giving birth to countless new denominations.

What began in that tiny building on Azusa Street (furnished with crude plank benches and a pulpit made of shoeboxes) has grown to be a movement of 500 million Christians who believe that the miracles performed in the book of Acts still happen.

What started in a poor neighborhood has moved uptown. What was once derided as religious fanaticism has become mainstream. We’ve gone from rural clapboard chapels to sophisticated, glass-and-steel megachurches; from sawdust floors to plush carpets; from plank benches to cushioned seats; from tent revivals to climate-controlled television studios. And our pulpits today are made of clear plastic.

I hope this is progress.

As thousands more Pentecostals descend on Los Angeles this weekend, we need more than a festival. We must re-evaluate. What core values from Azusa Street must we reclaim? I can think of a few:

Racial equality. Azusa was an interracial experience. White pastors from Tennessee and North Carolina knelt at the altars in 1906—in an age of racial segregation—and allowed black men and women to lay hands on them and pray. In many of our churches today, the “color line” that Azusa historian Frank Bartleman said was “washed away” at Azusa Street has returned as an ugly stain.

Women’s empowerment.The Pentecostal fervor at Azusa Street dismantled gender prejudice. Some of the 20th century’s greatest women preachers trace their roots to that humble stable, where men and women shared the makeshift pulpit. Today, with all our technological advances, we tend to slam the door on women rather than give them the microphone.

Holiness and humility. Azusa was certainly not a celebrity event. Seymour and the others who frequented the Azusa mission were simple folks who lived in Los Angeles years before Hollywood’s big film studios were built. Today many Pentecostal and charismatic ministries look and smell more like Hollywood than anything holy.

“Progress in holiness can best be measured not by the length of time we spend in prayer, not by the number of times we go to church, not by the amount of money we contribute to God’s work, not by the range and depth of our knowledge of the Bible, but rather by the quality of our personal relationships.”

—Stephen F. Winward

“When we major in minors and blow insignificant trifles out of proportion, we imitate the Pharisees. When we make dancing and movies the test of spirituality, we are guilty of substituting a cheap morality for a genuine one. We do these things to obscure the deeper issues of righteousness. Anyone can avoid dancing or going to movies. These require no great effort or moral courage. What is difficult is to control the tongue, to act with integrity, to show forth the fruit of the Spirit.”

—R. C. Sproul

“Our moral compass is not broken. The needle continues to point in the same direction. But ‘south’ has been mislabeled as ‘north.’ And for a generation, these reversed compasses have been handed to kids by parents, teachers, government officials, various advocacy groups and —yes —even some clergy. ‘Broken moral compass’ is a convenient but inaccurate description of the problem. Our moral compass has been altered, inverted and in fact sabotaged by those who are unwilling or unable to follow a legitimate compass, but who conceal their accountability by inducing the rest of us to go along with them. There is still time to repair our moral compass. All that’s needed is to compare our compass with a genuine one and re-label the directions. The real difficulty comes in following the corrected compass. The genuine path isn’t always easy. Often it leads uphill and over difficult terrain. But it is always straight, and eventually it will get us home again.”

—David C. Stolinsky

“Hypocrisy is the respect that vice pays to virtue.”

—La Rochefoucauld

“We felt frustrated toward the end of our journey because there are several villages that we were not allowed to enter because they are controlled by the rebels. However, we do not want to give up the area. We will continue to ask God to open the doors of these villages for us so that we can freely bring in the gospel of salvation to the people there and even to the rebels.”

—A Filipino missionary [from Christian Aid Mission]