In August 2017, heard a faith healer on TV. Lost count of all the unscriptural things he said. One example: Though he was speaking to a room full of Christians—who, by definition, would have the Holy Spirit living inside them—he was going to bring the absent Holy Spirit into the room. And fire would be involved.
The man’s spiritual family tree traces to other so-called faith healers, whose miracles include things like a man without feet who had gone to the shoe store, and then whose feet grew back right in front of the surprised shoe salesman. There had been some supposed prophecy about the man’s condition; and so, in faith, he’d gone to the shoe store, though footless.
Now, the Lord can certainly restore feet if he wants to. But even if this event occurred before the age of cell-phone cameras, surely we could be shown some before-and-after photos. Not to mention eyewitnesses to testify “Yes, this is the same man,” a la John 9:18-20. (Other healings performed by the TV healer’s spiritual ancestors include violently punching the patient, a treatment seen in recent times with Todd Bentley.)
The one phrase that especially jumped out in this TV show was when this healer intended to “pray an impartation for [the audience] to be activated.” (That is, everyone would be activated to have his same power.) What Scripture is that?! “Impart” and “activate” sound eerily like the “attunement”/“initiation” wording that occurs in regard to the training of reiki practitioners, etc. Smacks of occult transference.
Well, the man did his “impartation” with the eager audience. There was no fire, but in the excitement no one seemed to notice.
These Christians appeared so desperate for a spiritual experience that they were incapable of discerning the many unscriptural ideas being promoted. But before we label such people as naïve or stupid . . . Think of any new spiritual practice you’ve been introduced to recently. Did you open the Bible to verify what’s being “imparted” to “activate” you?