
Deceived by Toronto Spirits
by Yvette H.
A gripping testimony from somebody who knows!!
This letter appeared in "Discernment", the newsletter of Jewel Van Der Merwe, and was
recently posted to her website.
It graphically portrays
the dangers of toying with the deceiving spirits of the "toronto-blessing",
now also being passed on under other names, and in use at Brownsville,
Pensacola.
The Toronto phenomenon
is NOT NEW. It has been known throughout all centuries, and has been encountered
before in many forms and under many different guises. It manifests itself
as a "christian" experience where the worshippers are predominantly
westernised and christianised. However, no real, genuine, Bible-loving
and Spirit-filled, born-again believer is deceived for long by something
that mimics Jesus. As you will see...
A Letter from a Reader in South Africa
Dear Friend:
I write to you, as a concerned child of God and ex-member of ____ Christian
Church. Since leaving this church, God has revealed the true Gospel of
Jesus Christ our Saviour to me. Among other things, He has exposed the
true source of the so-called "anointing" or "outpouring
of the holy spirit" which is being experienced in many
Charismatic churches. Although it seems to have its origins in the spiritual
realm, I can assure you that is most definitely not the Spirit of the
Lord (2 Cor. 11:13-15).
If, at this stage you are tempted to simply shred this letter, I implore
you to at least read it through, before doing so. If however, thereafter
you still feel inclined to do so, then be my guest. After all, it is not
for me to convince or convict you in any way. That is the work of the
Spirit of God. It is however, up to you to decide what you are going to
do about that conviction. You can either choose to act upon it. or you
can choose to simply ignore it.
In July 1995, after re-committing my life to the Lord, I experienced
Gods Miraculous Healing Power twice within a single week. In the
first instance, God totally delivered me from a sexually immoral lifestyle
and six days later He supernaturally healed me from smoking. As you could
well imagine, these experiences had a dramatic influence on my life. Within
a period of six days, God turned my whole life upside down.
I had heard that God touched the lives of people in similar ways in ____
Christian Church. But, I must admit at the time I wasnt really convinced
that these manifestations were from God. I just couldnt
believe that God would heal people in such strange ways. Then, to my utter
amazement, I experienced not one, but two supernatural healings in the
privacy of my home. I must admit, I began to think that which was being
experienced in the _____ Christian Church must be from God.
I began attending the Churchs services on a regular basis, but
to my dismay, I didnt experience the anointing of the
Holy Spirit. Furthermore, I became extremely agitated when these manifestations
of the spirit were displayed during the services. Needless to say,
I became somewhat concerned. When I spoke to my fellow members about this
problem, I was told that is was an attack from the devil to prevent me
from experiencing the presence of the Lord and that I should seriously
pray about the situation.
Thus began a period of serious spiritual warfare against this attack
from Satan, but alas, still no manifestations. I could not understand
it. Why was God withholding His Spirit from me? What was I doing wrong?
I prayed and prayed to God to Fill me with His Spirit - but in vain. I
continually pressed in, but nothing happened. At one stage I actually
began to doubt my salvation due to the fact that I wasnt experiencing
any manifestations.
I became so totally obsessed with the manifestations that I found myself
concentrating solely on trying to induce a manifestation whenever I prayed
or worshipped. It was only then that I finally managed to successfully
induce a manifestation. To my utter disgust, this so-called anointing was a far cry from the wonderful life-changing experience which I had
previously experienced when God had delivered me from an immoral lifestyle
and smoking.
I noticed that for some strange reason praying and reading my Bible suddenly
became virtually impossible. Furthermore, I became aware of the fact that
I often felt tempted to fall back into sin in the areas where God had
delivered me. I asked myself, "why is this happening?" I was
confused. Then I blamed Satan for the fact that I was unable to effectively
pray and read the Bible. As for falling back into past sins, I promptly
found Scriptures with which to justify why God was supposedly allowing
these things to happen, but in fact I used these merely to lull my own
conscience.
In the eyes of my Charismatic friend, I had made it! God was actively
working in my life. I most definitely couldnt allow anyone to know
that which I had experienced as the "manifest presence of the Lord"
wasnt everything it was made out to be. I couldnt risk being
heard speaking out against the Holy Spirit - after all according to Matthew
12:32 and Mark 3:29, 30 - this is an unforgivable sin. I certainly wasnt
prepared to be guilty of that. And so, the masquerade began. I pretended
to enjoy these experiences when in actual fact, every single time I allowed
myself to experience the anointing, something deep inside
my inner being would be pleading with me to put an end to the charade.
I was bewildered by this predicament that I found myself in:. .Was I
the only person who felt this way?. . Were there others who had the same
problems? . . or. . Was Satan yet again attempting to stop me from receiving
Gods blessing? Yes, that had to be it. Satan had to be responsible
for these doubts, as well as for the discomfort I was experiencing. Of
course, the only way I knew how to counter Satans attacks was to
engage in Spiritual Warfare.
Once again I launched not a serious battle against Satan. I earnestly
prayed to God to: Remove anything and everything in my life that wasnt
from Him, as far away from me, as the North is from the South and the
East is from the West. If it wasnt from Him, I didnt want
to have anything to do with it. I thought He would take away the doubts
and the discomfort.
Instead, when I prayed to God in this way, the most horrific thing happened.
God took this strange spirit away from me. Yet, amazingly
for the first time in many months, I was able to read my Bible without
having to force myself to concentrate on what I was reading. Suddenly
Gods Word once again became a reality to me, as it had done when
I gave my life to the Lord; I could once again actually understand what
I was reading. Whats more, I noticed that my prayer life dramatically
improved and that the temptations which hounded me before had disappeared.
But, alas as far as the Charismatics are concerned, it is only when we
experience what they define as the "presence" of the Lord (or
the anointing or the outpouring of the spirit as they call
it) in our lives that we truly grow spiritually. In fact, according to
their teachings, a so-called personal touch from God" is considered
to be far more important than the Word preached from the pulpit. What
was I to do? I sincerely desired to become spiritually mature. So, I yet
again sought the so-called anointing and before long I found myself caught
up in an action reply of the previously described scenario, but with one
small difference. As I had had previous experiences, I was now able to
achieve the manifestations much easier than I had the first time round,
but as I did, the battles against Satan re-commenced. Surely something
was wrong - But I was reassured by my friends that these incessant attacks
were a sign that I was doing something right because Satan only attacks
those who are making progress in Gods kingdom.
At first I fell for this explanation, I even thanked God for the attacks,
but after a while I began to doubt whether it was true. I simply could
not believe that what I was experiencing was Gods will for His children.
I simply had to find the answers. Thus with much difficulty at first,
I endeavored to seek answers to these and other questions I had in Gods
Word. (The Bible).
The first subject I tackled was that of the Scriptures used to justify
these so-called manifestations of the Spirit. It wasnt too long
before I realized how totally misquoted, twisted and misinterpreted these
were. Should you doubt this fact, read the following Scriptures - in context:
Acts 2:15, 16 and Eph 5:18 (being drunk in the "spirit"); Amos
3:8 (prophets - roaring like lions); 1 Pet. 1:8 (uncontrollable laughter)
and Acts 9:6 (shaking in the Spirit).
Dont just skim over them because you believe you know them. Read
them carefully. Sincerely pray that God will reveal the content through
His Holy Spirit. Should you still believe that they do justify the so-called
manifestations, and that these are of God, then read the following Scriptures
carefully: I Cor. 12:7-11 (Manifestations of the Spirit); Gal. 5:22-24
(Fruit of the Spirit); Romans 12:6-8 (Gifts of the Spirit). In fact, perhaps
you should also study Luke 4:33 and Luke 9:42 (Demon spirits).
I also had believed that what I was taught was Biblical and it took some
time for my to fully comprehend the truth. The reason for this is described
clearly in Isaiah 5:9 and Matthew 13:13. Christians hear these Scriptures
quoted so often, they actually no longer hear their true contents. They
only hear what they are taught to hear. Even when reading these Scriptures
they do not see what they are reading.
God has shown me that what is happening in many churches is that the
truth is being traded for a Lie. The danger lies in the fact that when
a lie is believed for long enough it becomes the truth to those being
exposed to it. God helped me to see that what I perceived as being the
Holy Spirit was actually a Deceiving Spirit. And what I perceived as being
a Deceiving Spirit was in actual fact the Holy Spirit.
Your friend in Christ,
Yvette H------ (Pretoria, South Africa)
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