David Noakes’s own visit to Toronto in 1994.

David Noakes continues his personal account of witnessing the Toronto ‘experience’.

This week’s re-printed excerpt includes a NEW additional note from the author on the practice of laying on hands.

My Toronto Experience

The phenomenon of Kansas City did recede, although it left behind a lot of confusion and unresolved issues, and I thought little about the beach picture (outlined last week) again for some years.

Then, in the early months of 1994, we began to hear of the amazing things which were being reported from Toronto. As the reports continued to flow in, I was being urged by many people to visit and experience what was happening there. Having no great desire to go and with a busy schedule, I resisted the idea for several months, but finally I was convinced that the Lord was requiring me to make the trip and I went to Toronto for a week's visit.

I arrived in Toronto on Friday 14 October, 1994 and attended meetings in the concluding days of the large 'Catch the Fire' conference which had been taking place during that week. These meetings took place in a large auditorium of a local hotel, which was capable of containing, I would guess, some two to three thousand people.

During the times of worship, I felt as if I were in a rock concert. The level of noise was deafening to the point of being physically painful and oppressive, and brought an increasing sense of unreality. This, together with the insistent rhythmic beat of the drums and of the bass guitar tends to induce a state bordering on hypnosis in susceptible people and creates a spiritual atmosphere in which I would say without hesitation that the demonic can thrive.

During these times of worship, many people began to exhibit jerking bodily movements which were unnatural. Some of these people appeared to be in a state of trance. From a number of years' experience of deliverance ministry, I would identify a good deal of what I saw as proceeding from demonic spirits associated with occult practices, particularly voodoo.

I was urged by many people to visit Toronto and resisted the idea for several months, but finally I was convinced that the Lord was requiring me to make the trip.

There were some women near to where I was standing whose bodily movements were unmistakably those of increasing sexual excitement, reaching a point at which they fell to the floor. All of this was perhaps hardly surprising in an atmosphere which was really not unlike that of a pop concert in which the fans get worked up to an increasing height of frenzy. What disturbed me most was not that satan was active - of course he always is - but the failure of leadership to distinguish between the spirits which were operating.

Particular Line of Teaching

The teaching which I encountered in Toronto was to the effect that because God is doing a work amongst his people, therefore everything which takes place is by definition an activity of the Holy Spirit and it is assumed that satan is inactive.

I have never encountered any form of teaching which is more dangerous or which could open the door so widely to deception and the undetected activity of a demonic spirit. To make such an assumption was a total abdication of one of the principal responsibilities of Christian leadership. The warnings in Scripture about deception were being completely ignored and such teaching flies in the face of scriptural commands that when any form of spiritual activity is seen to be taking place, it is to be weighed and tested and an assessment is to be made as to whether its origin is truly from God.

The teaching from Toronto, however, set aside the spiritual gift of distinguishing between spirits (1 Cor 12:10) and ignored the clear teaching of other scriptures. In 1 Corinthians 14:29 we are told that where prophecy is being spoken in the assembly of the church, we are to “weigh carefully what is said”. The words underlined are a translation of a Greek word which comes from exactly the same root as the word used in 1 Corinthians 12:10 for the discerning of, or distinguishing between, spirits.

The instruction of 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, again in the context of spiritual manifestations, is that we should “test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil”. Here the Greek word translated 'test' has the meaning of examining a thing, putting it to the test to determine whether or not it is genuine; and the identical word is found in 1 John 4:1: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (emphasis mine).

The word of God warns us consistently never to accept spiritual manifestations as being from the Holy Spirit unless their source has been put to the test by the body of believers and discerned to be genuine.

The word of God warns us consistently never to accept spiritual manifestations as being from the Holy Spirit unless their source has been put to the test by the body of believers and discerned to be genuine.

It is the height of folly and irresponsibility to ignore such scriptures in days when not only the activity of God but also the activity of satan is becoming greater and more widespread. If we are to accept that in some particular situation such as this, it is in order for discernment to be discarded, where will such a teaching end? How are we to know where, if at all, we should draw the line?

The warnings of Scripture in, for example, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 and Revelation 13:13-14, are now coming all too close for comfort, and a Church which had not learned to distinguish between good and evil (Heb 5:14) will be a target for any kind of deception which begins to take place. I am concerned about the demonic activity which I saw taking place in some people in Toronto, but I am far more alarmed at the potential results of this particular line of teaching.

Laying On of Hands (see also NEW Author’s Note, base of article)

On a number of occasions since my visit to Toronto, believers have requested prayer at the conclusion of a meeting at which I have spoken. They have done so because they had previously submitted to laying on of hands in order to receive the 'Toronto Blessing', and had since felt unaccountably troubled in spirit in a way which had previously been foreign to them.

Every such person to whom I have ministered has shown evidence of being under demonic oppression and has received specific deliverance in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is not of course to suggest that all those who have had contact with the Toronto Blessing have come into spiritual bondage; to jump to such a conclusion would be entirely unwarranted. What has seemed to me to be of considerable significance, however, is the repeated combination of two factors.

In every one of these cases, the person for whom I have been asked to pray had first received a spiritual impartation by means of the laying on of hands by another person who had themselves already received it; and secondly, had subsequently become disturbed in spirit in a way which they had not experienced before.

I believe these facts should draw our attention to an issue which is of greater importance than perhaps we have previously realised. A few days before I went to Toronto, I was waiting upon the Lord and was given a short word of encouragement and instruction. I wrote it down, and now quote a passage whose relevance has become increasingly apparent:

Do not accept the laying on of hands from anyone except those whom you know from experience to be trustworthy and to have my Spirit within them. To submit voluntarily to the laying on of hands is to submit to the spiritual power that is within a man. When this power is that of the Holy Spirit, then you will receive blessing through that which is good; but where it is not, evil can be transferred.

More recently my attention has been drawn to the lesson contained in Haggai 2:10-14. In it, two questions are posed. The first is whether if consecrated meat comes in contact with other food, the consecration is thereby transferred to the un-consecrated food; and the answer is that it is not. The second question is whether if a person who is ceremonially defiled through contact with a dead body touches food, that defilement is transferred to the food so that it also becomes defiled; the answer this time is affirmative.

It is the height of folly and irresponsibility to ignore such scriptures in days when not only the activity of God but also the activity of satan is becoming greater and more widespread.

The message is plain: spiritual consecration cannot be transferred by physical contact, as in the laying on of hands. If a man has received spiritual blessing, he cannot pass it on to another in this way (if he is spiritually undefiled and lays hands on another, the Holy Spirit may move directly upon that other person but where that is the case, there is no spiritual transference taking place between the persons themselves).

Spiritual defilement however, can be transferred from one to another through physical contact. It is well established, for example, that such a transference of spirits can take place through illicit sexual activity. If one man has come under the influence of an evil spirit, the influence can be transferred to another who submits voluntarily to the laying on of his hands.

We need to beware of careless practices and to exercise godly vigilance and caution. Paul warns: “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure” (1 Tim 5:22). It is imperative for our safety that we take heed to the instructions of Scripture; they are given for the protection and wellbeing of the whole Body.

Misuse of the Word of God

While I was at Toronto, and even more in the months which followed, I had an increasing concern - to the point of considerable alarm - at the ways in which the word of God was now being mishandled by many leaders in the charismatic churches.

The misuse and distortion of Scripture in order to try to justify bizarre spiritual manifestations with some sort of theological explanation has been appalling; it has been as if attempts were being made to underpin a collapsing building with any piece of rubble which comes to hand.

The difficulty has been that the 'building' in question does not have any foundation in Scripture, however desperate the attempts to find one. At the Airport Vineyard Fellowship in Toronto, I heard the Pastor give a message in which he declared that Isaiah 25:6 was a description of what God was currently doing - God was in 'feasting mode'. Yet that Scripture had no possible relevance to any present situation; it is lifted straight out of the context of an apocalyptic passage relating to the events of the Day of the Lord and what will happen at the Second Coming of Christ.

Again, in the course of the same message, he made reference to the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32, and declared that it teaches that God loves any opportunity to hold a party. Yet its emphasis is nothing of the sort, but rather the greatness of God's fatherly forgiveness and restoration of a repentant sinner.

The misuse and distortion of Scripture in order to try to justify bizarre spiritual manifestations with some sort of theological explanation has been appalling.

A further example of such extraordinary misuse of Scripture came when a prominent Anglican leader visited a church where I have a friend in leadership. His message consisted of encouragement to welcome unusual spiritual manifestations, including the making of animal noises, and it was based on one sentence taken out of Isaiah 28:21: “to do his work, his strange work”. These few words, again lifted out of context, were declared to justify the idea that the bizarre activities were a 'strange work' which God is doing in these days, and that they should therefore be accepted without further question.

But in the context, what is actually being described is a work of judgment and destruction by God against his own covenant people of Israel, and it is to him a 'strange work' and an 'alien task', because it is foreign and abhorrent to God's normal desire to bless his people and to act in mercy rather than in judgment. Theologically, therefore, the previous sort of teaching has no validity.

Drunk in the Spirit

The strange and un-coordinated behaviour of many who have been touched by the Toronto experience has frequently been described as being due to people being 'drunk in the Spirit'. I have myself for many years been familiar with the phenomenon of people who are receiving ministry from the Holy Spirit experiencing loss of bodily strength so as to be temporarily too weak to rise from their chair or from the floor; indeed, I also have had the same experience. Never before, however, have I seen the spectacle of people staggering about, slurring their speech and showing other characteristic signs normally associated with alcoholic intoxication.

The concept that a person can be 'drunk in the Spirit' is one of which Scripture knows nothing. Two passages have been used frequently to try to justify the idea, but they entirely fail to do so when subjected to proper interpretation.

In Acts 2:1-13, what is being described is the phenomenon, historically unprecedented and utterly amazing, of about 120 people suddenly beginning to declare the wonders of God in a host of different foreign languages. It was only those who mocked what was happening who suggested drunkenness as the cause, but the majority of the onlookers were simply described, understandably enough, as “amazed and perplexed”. There is no suggestion whatever of any behaviour which justified the description of physical drunkenness, and to try to read it into the text is to abuse the word of God. Is Peter's sermon that of a drunken man?

The second Scripture used in this context is Ephesians 5:18, but it says nothing whatever about being drunk in the Spirit. Indeed, coming at the end of a lengthy passage urging the believer to avoid ungodly behaviour, it would be astonishing if it did! The verse forbids being drunk (literally 'soaked') with wine, the evidence of which is debauched (literally 'unsaved') behaviour (v18). Instead, believers are to be filled with the Spirit.

Everywhere in Scripture, drunkenness is condemned as ungodly. How can we therefore accept that the Spirit of God would deliberately bring about in a believer the evidence of drunken behaviour?

The Greek verb used is pleroo, which had nothing to do with drunkenness, and the evidence of being in that condition is that they will produce psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (v19), thanksgiving to God (v20) and submission to one another out of reverence for Christ (v21), not slurred speech and drunken behaviour!

Everywhere in Scripture, drunkenness is condemned as ungodly. How can we therefore accept that the Spirit of God would deliberately bring about in a believer the evidence of drunken behaviour as if he were intoxicated with alcohol? The thing is utterly unthinkable, unless one discards the consistent teaching of the Word of God as irrelevant. Sadly, and most frightening of all, this is what some charismatic leaders are now beginning to do.

Extra-Biblical Experience

Animal noises, convulsions, bodily jerkings, loss of speech control and the like, are being described as 'extra-biblical' phenomena - which they certainly are. This feature of the activities should, however, put an immediate question mark over their authenticity; normally, unbiblical experience is found to emanate, not from the Holy Spirit, but from the realm of the demonic.

But among many leaders, no such questioning has taken place; but rather the reverse. It has even been suggested that the spiritual experiences and the manifestations of the Holy Spirit recorded in the pages of the New Testament were the experience of the Church in its infancy in those early days; but that now in our day the Church is being brought into maturity and we must therefore expect experiences from God which were unknown to the early Church and therefore not to be found in the Bible. We are consequently in uncharted waters, being led solely by the Spirit. This opens the Church to precisely the danger which Paul defines in Ephesians 4:14.

This sort of teaching, if pursued to its logical conclusion, is the height of dangerous folly. It is like saying that our maps are no longer of use to us because we have gone beyond their boundaries. We can no longer check our course, but must trust that any wind which happens to blow will take us in the right direction. We have discarded, however, all means of knowing either where the wind is coming from or the direction in which we are heading. In fact, we are drifting helplessly at the mercy of any force which may influence us.

A teaching which discards the Bible as the final authority for the validity of Christian experience is a teaching which emanates straight from the master of deception himself. It tears down the boundary walls which God has erected for the safety of his people, and it opens the door wide for the charismatic Church to join in an unwitting embrace with the New Age movement and all its occult activities.

A teaching which discards the Bible as the final authority for the validity of Christian experience is a teaching which emanates straight from the master of deception himself.

In the mid-90s, I even had reported to me instances of levitation occurring at Toronto-type meetings at a church in the north of England. Where will the line be drawn? On the basis of this sort of thinking and teaching, why should not telepathy or astral travel or any other occult practices be embraced under the deception that they are God's latest blessings to his maturing Church?

Unless there is repentance and a return to an acknowledgment of the supreme and ultimate authority of the word of God, the Church is being led into a place of great spiritual peril.

Next week: David concludes his chapter, looking at the need for repentance and discernment.

**NEW**

[Editor: Following some feedback that Blessing the Church? seems to advocate against the practice of laying on hands, we felt clarification was necessary and approached David for further comment. His response is below.]

Author’s Note

The issue which I was seeking to tackle [in Blessing the Church?] was the very important one of transference of spirits from one human being to another. 20 years ago this was a subject which hardly ever received any attention by bible teachers; but to those of us who had been brought into experience of deliverance ministry, it was realised to be an important factor in some cases where folk were being demonically troubled. Our brothers Edmund Heddle and John Fieldsend in particular highlighted its importance to me.

This significant issue was underlined in my own experience following my visit to Toronto in 1994; following that visit, I found myself being asked to pray after almost every meeting for believers who had sought to receive the ‘Toronto Blessing’ - and had subsequently found themselves in unexpected spiritual difficulties. In each such case, when I ministered to such people, they received specific deliverance from certain powerful demonic spirits which had not been troubling them previously.

It was a matter of some perplexity for a time, however, that I was also being told by some who had been to similar ‘Toronto’-type meetings that they had received a genuine fresh experience of the Holy Spirit. This perplexity was finally resolved when I began to find that those people had been seeking the Lord for himself - and in his faithfulness, he had met with them by the Holy Spirit.

Those who were troubled, however, had attended with a different motive - not to seek the Lord for who he is, but wanting to receive the ‘Toronto Blessing’ because it was new, exciting and carried with it spectacular manifestations. The former group had met with the Lord, with good results; while the latter had received what they had gone for, which was actually demonic and brought harm to their spiritual lives, and also to many churches.

What I also found was that without exception, in my experience, those who had been affected by ungodly spirits had received an impartation of the ‘Blessing’ through the laying on of hands by another person who had already received it.

This drew my attention to the vital matter of what can occur through the laying on of hands - impartation of spirits from one to another. The Holy Spirit is not imparted from one human being to another, but is given to individuals by the sovereign act of God (e.g. Num 11:17, 25). In John 19:22, Jesus breathed on the disciples and said "Receive Holy Spirit". In Acts 8:17 and 19:6, we are told of the apostles laying hands on new believers, and the Holy Spirit came upon them - but there is no suggestion that the Holy Spirit was transferred from them to the believers; He came upon them in response to the action of the apostles, which is very different, being a sovereign work of God.

These verses attest to the transfer of the Holy Spirit to a person in response to a believer's obedience in laying on of hands. However, experience in ministry has shown over and over again that other spirits can transfer through physical contact to a person who is open to receive them. Illicit sexual intercourse is one outstanding example; but voluntary submitting to the laying on of hands is another easy means of physical transference of demonic spirits (it is important to emphasise that the person has to be willing and receptive. It cannot just happen simply by being in the company of someone who is demonised; we must be willing to receive from them).

When we allow a person to lay hands on us, we open ourselves to receive from them. There is danger in this if we don’t know the person. They may be harbouring one or more unclean spirits, and when we allow them to lay hands on us, these can and often do transfer to us if we are open and unguarded. For this reason, we should certainly not allow unknown people to minister directly to us. Scripture urges us to "guard our hearts with all diligence" (Prov 4:23).

I do hope this brief attempt to explain will prove to be of some help.

David Noakes, 12 April 2018

Series Information

This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’, an analysis of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ and a wider critique of the charismatic movement in the late 20^th Century. Click here for previous instalments and to read the editorial background to the series.

Monica Hill concludes her series with a final article on the spiritual ‘manifestations’ of 1 Corinthians 12.

This article is part of a series. Click here to access the archive.

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12)

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good…to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers” (1 Corinthians 12:9-10)

We are coming to the close of these thumbnail studies of each of the manifestations of the Spirit, which fit, in a special way, into the whole series of spiritual gifts that Paul lists as being available to us. We want to stress that discussions on, and insights gained from, these issues are all on-going – these studies are not the final word on the matter!

Furthermore, just knowing about the gifts is not sufficient – they need to be part of the whole raison d’etre of the faith, for each one of us. All of the gifts operate for the common good, to build up the Body of Christ. They operate only in the unity of the Spirit from whom they come. Before we consider the final three manifestations listed in 1 Corinthians 12, therefore, we will dwell for a moment on this theme.

Many Gifts, One Spirit

1 Corinthians 12 stresses the importance of the unity of the Holy Spirit. That unity is emphasised in Paul’s presentation –

• “no-one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’, except by the Holy Spirit”;
  
• “there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them”;
  
• “there are different kinds of service, but the same Lord”;
  
• “there are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work” (vv3-6).
  

1 Corinthians 12:8-10 stresses that all the manifestations are given either through the Spirit or by means of the same Spirit. Verse 11 draws it together: “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines”.

This stress on the unity of the one Spirit from whom they all come surely must have some connection with the mistakes that were being made in the Corinthian church. Today, we are tempted, just as they were, to focus on the gifts or ‘manifestations’ rather than the source of the gifts. We often omit to give thanks where they are due and we fail to give God all the glory.

We should not take and use these gifts as a right, thus making ourselves important. Also we should not compare our own gift with that of others and feel that what we have is somehow of lesser value. This could lead to neglecting the gift that is given to us for the sake of false humility.

Paul emphasised the Holy Spirit as the one source of all these gifts – the Corinthian church were obviously tempted to focus more on the gifts than on the source.

A careful reading of 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 where Paul speaks about unity and diversity in the Body shows the value of all the spiritual gifts for the Church today. It also stresses that none are, or should be, of greater significance than the others.

I always read the last few verses (from verse 29) as a challenge to be aware of the uniqueness of each person’s gift and to agree with Paul that the answer to each of the questions is a resounding ‘no’. But we also need to agree that we should desire the greater gifts of “faith, hope and love”, while recognising that “the greatest of these is love” as declared in the beautiful love poem of 1 Corinthians 13.

Faith is for All

When we come to study the final three manifestations we can see how much they depend on each other – but we can also become rather confused as to the status of ‘faith’, being included as a manifestation which comes and goes as the Spirit wills and is not given to all!

Surely faith is believing and trusting in God and acting on this belief? “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6). Surely faith is the cornerstone of being a Christian? We all need to have the ‘living faith’ that saves us and links us firmly and securely to our Father God. So what does Paul mean by including faith as a spiritual manifestation?

Faith as a Manifestation

Although it is presumed that we all have a measure of faith, there is also a special gift of faith which is exercised in persistent prayer and intercession. This involves is a strong confidence in, and dependence upon, God, in the context of a conviction of what God will accomplish through us. This comes when you know you have received a word from the Lord so that you can pray with absolute confidence that what you’re asking is within his will.

The ‘faith’ spoken of in this context is a special kind of faith that Jesus spoke about when questioned over the withered fig tree: “Jesus answered ‘I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him’” (Mark 11:22).

The disciples were rebuked when they failed to heal a boy with a demon spirit, with the reason given as: “Because you have little faith. I tell you the truth if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you’” (see also Luke 17:6).

All believers must have a measure of faith, but there is also a special gift of faith which involves a strong conviction of what God will accomplish through us, that comes through persistent prayer.

Paul refers to this again in 1 Corinthians 13:2 as believing in God’s promises and having God’s faith in us - that is the “faith that can move mountains”, and this kind of faith is inextricably linked with the manifestations of ‘healing’ and ‘miraculous powers’.

No manifestation can operate without faith, but these two in particular cannot operate separately without this special kind of faith. James also spoke of this kind of faith in connection with healing: “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up” and also mentioned the faith that Elijah needed to pray for both drought and rain (James 5:13-18). Paul prayed that the Ephesians will know God more intimately and experience “his incomparably great power for us who believe. The power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (Eph 1:18-19).

This special kind of faith enables us to do all that the Father wills - as long as we remember that it is a gift from God, and not a human skill. It is always the Holy Spirit who gives to God’s people the power to pray in faith and it is always God’s will for which they are given the faith to pray.

Hebrews 11 is a wonderful chapter giving examples of those throughout history who had this visionary kind of faith and who put their complete dependence on God.

Gifts of Healing

Note that ‘gifts of healing’ is in the plural in the Greek (χαρίσματα ἰαμάτων) [carismata himatone] and can mean different kinds of healing (Matt 10:1). This may not just mean physical healing but can also mean healing of relationships, or of psychological, emotional or spiritual needs. This is a ‘manifestation’ and not an appointment to a regular ministry of healing (1 Cor 12:30). Those who receive it should not be counted as official or regular workers of miracles. Even Peter, Paul and Philip in Samaria, whose healings are recorded in Acts, were not known as divine healers.

There are also those who receive training as doctors and nurses to care and heal in a worldly sense, but this manifestation is not that natural, human skill. Of course, the gifts of the Holy Spirit can be used alongside these human skills, so there can be continuing development of the entire field of Christian healing. God can bless them both as they are needed – and the manifestations can be spectacular when human help is no longer available.

‘Gifts of healing’ are plural – they do not just include physical healing but can also mean healing of relationships, or of psychological, emotional or spiritual needs.

Gifts of healing should be spontaneous among believers as and when the Spirit leads and wills, and these gifts do not depend only on the faith of those receiving the manifestation – Jesus often rejoiced that “Your faith has made you whole” (Luke 17:19; Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Mark 10:52). It is faith in Christ that cures people as Jesus reminded the onlookers following the healing of the crippled beggar: “It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see” (Acts 3:16).

James 5:13-16 gives specific instructions on praying and the use of oil. The ‘sick’ here means literally those ‘without strength’, needing the restoration of full health. The role of the elders was to build up the Body, healing all those needing support that they might be enabled to fulfil their ministry as fellow heirs with Christ (Rom 8:11-17).

Miraculous Powers

Gifts of healing can often be seen as miracles in themselves and Acts often uses the term ‘miracles’ (dynameis) to denote bodily healing and the casting out of evil spirits (Acts 8:6 -7 and 19:11-12). Healings were described as “signs and great miracles” (Acts 8:13) and “extraordinary miracles” (Acts 19:11).

But the working of miracles (literally the energising of powers – i.e. God’s powers) also refers to works of special and extraordinary power of God’s almightiness, such as those of Jesus when he turned the water into wine, walked on water or raised Lazarus from the dead. Those manifesting miraculous powers were promised that they would receive the power to “pick up snakes with their hands and when they drink deadly poison it will not hurt them at all” (Mark 16:19).

This is a very special manifestation given as and when the Spirit wills – and not one we can claim or manipulate. It is listed as one of the marks of an apostle in 2 Corinthians 12:12 but the whole story of Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:9-24), his conversion and baptism followed by his desire to purchase special privileges, is a salutary lesson.

A ‘Final’ Word

When we look at developing the spiritual gifts - whether natural gifts, ministries or these ‘manifestations’ - to allow us to become the kind of people that God wants us to be, we see that it is all for a purpose: so that we can be both his witnesses and his ambassadors to others around us.

We should always remember that the gifts are given to enable us to serve others and not for self-aggrandisement! It is good for us to remember this when we recognise how gracious our Father is to send his Holy Spirit to help us, advise us and guide us into all truth, as well as to fill us with his grace.

Building the Sozo vision.

Last week we introduced Marion Daniels and the fledgling healing ministry God gave her, now known as Sozo Ministries International. The story continues…

God never wants his ministries to stand still or stagnate, and at Sozo Ministries International there was to be a dramatic transformation that would set it on a new path to a bigger future. For nearly 30 years they had ministered healing, deliverance and wholeness through Jesus Messiah.

During that time the Lord had given them a sincere love and respect for the Jewish Scriptures. For instance, teaching the benefits of the food laws in Leviticus and keeping a Sabbath had featured highly in their programme of instruction. But the overall impact of the Jewish roots of Christianity was missing until one highly significant day in 2006, when a Jewish lady sought Marion Daniel’s help.

Deliverance from Replacement Theology

During the prayer ministry it was revealed to Marion that what this lady was struggling with personally had a strong connection to her Jewishness, including to what the Jewish race as a whole has suffered from Gentiles over the centuries. Marion began to minister under the Holy Spirit from Romans 11 but as she did so she realised how much this was all new to her. God was using this ministry opportunity to minister to Marion also!

God began to open Marion’s eyes to what his ancient people had suffered in the past from many sections of the Christian Church and how a new freedom was needed here. She also realised how ignorant she was of the Hebraic roots of Christianity. Here was a real shock. How had the Church missed this?

God began to open Marion’s eyes to what his ancient people had suffered from many sections of the Christian Church.

Clearly a reassessment was needed, and so Marion began to explore this further through books and conferences, especially material by Derek Prince. She began to realise that her own ministry and that of Sozo had to take this seriously. The deliverers needed deliverance! The only way to renounce the effects of centuries of Replacement Theology was through full repentance. This also came about in a remarkable way.

Jewish Roots Ministry

The initial contact with the Jewish lady had opened their hearts to tentatively minister to others with a Jewish background and the first Jewish Roots Ministry Conference was planned. As their website testifies:

On that day, not only did the Lord minster to Jews but he also began to deliver the rest of us Gentiles from our anti-Semitic past. A deep conviction came upon us and we began to seriously investigate the Hebraic roots of our Christian faith. We discovered how the Church had deliberately severed these roots in the 3rd and 4th centuries and came face to face with the shameful history of Christian anti-Semitism and Britain’s own betrayal of the Jewish people during our administration of Palestine between the First and Second World Wars.

With repentance came the slow process of deliverance from Replacement Theology, which teaches the error that the church has replaced the Jews as God’s chosen people. As we grow the scriptures are coming alive in a new way as we lay aside our Greek mindset and allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds to once more think biblically like Hebrews. The transformation has not always been easy. But it has been worth it. It has been a joyous homecoming to once again embrace our Jewish Messiah, to take our place as grafted-in members of the commonwealth of Israel, and to celebrate the Moedim, God’s appointed times, the Feasts of The Lord as kept by the Jews.¹

Here would be a new foundation for their existing ministry, one which would make the ministry stronger and enable Jewish people to come for healing and deliverance. The whole ministry team was taught about the errors of Replacement Theology, and came to repentance and a new understanding. With the leadership now in agreement, this was then shared with the whole congregation (available on CD from Sozo).

Provision for a New Building

Alongside this spiritual transformation and enlargement came the need for something more in the physical realm – a new and bigger building. To understand this part of the story it is necessary to go back in time.

From the outset, the ministry team had realised that it was important to always be debt-free. Whatever they required had to be affordable and paid for from the start. Trusting God for money and provision was the key to this.

As the ministry grew and developed during the 1980s the need for their own property became apparent. It was not enough just to hire the school at Romsey for bigger meetings. At first the solution was mobile homes and then a small rented office, all the while saving up for whatever the next opportunity would be. This turned out to be the chance around 1999 to buy part of an old pub, just one third of it, but enough to call their own. The school was still used for bigger meetings, but Sozo House was born!

From the outset, the ministry team had realised that it was important to always be debt-free.

Eventually this proved too small for their needs and once the opportunity arose to buy the rest of the pub they again sought God and the funds came in right on time. But the vision was still for more.

In 2013 the chance arose to buy Dunwood Manor Golf Club for the bargain price of £225,000. This not only offered just what was needed at the time in terms of offices and small meeting rooms but also had potential for further development in the future. As the money was already there, they bought it immediately and applied for change of use. Then a problem was discovered.

Also on the site were two residential bungalows, the owners of which could object to the application and block the necessary change of use. The only solution was to buy these also, but at normal residential sale prices, money which they simply did not have. But suddenly and unexpectedly, they received a legacy from someone who had been a supporter in the past but, due to advanced years, had not been in contact recently. However, she had not forgotten them, and nor had God! With the bungalows now part of the property everything could go ahead as planned and Dunwood Oaks became the new centre for Sozo Ministries International.

New Venue Now Open!

However, this was by no means the end. The original purchase of Dunwood Manor Golf Club site included a separate locker room with showers, something of great importance to golfers but no use to Sozo! But here was the further potential that the site offered: the chance to turn this into a large main meeting place and conference centre, making it no longer necessary to hire the school in Romsey. In fact, the best option financially and practically ended up being not to restore it as a separate building but to demolish, build new and join it on to the existing two buildings as an annexe.

Dunwood Oaks is now a major centre for healing and deliverance, and for Hebraic renewal.

The initial quote for this new build left enough money over from the legacy - even after the purchase of the two bungalows - that they could begin to finance this, starting with the dry shell. Faith and prayers would provide the rest. Inevitably, final costs exceeded the original quote but when a further £100,000 was needed this was raised in 8 weeks. Then continued generous giving after this came in to enable the final building to be upgraded and improved. The building was completed on time and opened early in January 2017.

As well as being the new venue for the Sunday meetings, up to 300 people can gather for conferences and to celebrate the feasts. Dunwood Oaks is now a major teaching and resource centre not just for healing and deliverance, but also for Hebraic renewal and the teaching of Jewish roots.

And to think it all started with a car accident!

References

1 Hebraic Renewal. Sozo Ministries International.

N.B. Marion Daniel and Sozo Ministries International are in no way affiliated to Bethel Sozo or the International Bethel Sozo Organization.

Paul Luckraft interviews author Marion Daniel, whose books have been reviewed recently on Prophecy Today.

Marion has written two books to date but this was not the main reason for requesting an interview with her - for she is more than an author. In fact, that is a relatively small part of how God has led her and impacted her life.

She is better known as the founder and leader of a significant ministry, Sozo Ministries International, on which God clearly has his hand, and which will be featured next week on Prophecy Today. But Marion’s personal story is the best place to start.

From Harm to Healing

Marion describes her early background as nominal Anglican. She went to Sunday School and would say she had a moral upbringing, but that at most she was a God-fearer rather than a true Christian believer. However, in the early 1970s she came to salvation and was also baptised in the Spirit, a real life-changing experience.

Later that decade, a car accident impacted her life in a totally different way. Strangely, at first there was no immediate effect from it - no real pain or physical consequences. But ten years later, she began to suffer symptoms in her shoulders and spine that required further investigation. Eventually it was traced back to the accident, and when X-rays revealed that she had spondylosis (a form of spinal degeneration) it was clear that something serious and traumatic had occurred at the time. The diagnosis was stark – she wouldn’t get better.

At this point in her life Marion was attending church regularly, but her main church did not have a focus on divine healing, so she was given no hope there either. However, Marion herself refused to accept that God can’t heal today. With the help of a local Gospel Church, which was more Spirit-led, she began to explore what the Bible had to say on the matter of healing. It was soon obvious – if Jesus is alive, he can still heal! The Cross makes this possible today, and it should be part of Christian reality for all true believers.

If Jesus is alive, he can still heal!

Now that she had been properly instructed on such matters, her faith level was raised and the truth made clear. She was ready to receive personal healing - it was just a matter of when and how. The opportunity came at a meeting in Brighton, led by a visiting preacher from New Zealand called Steve Ryder. After prayer Marion experienced a clear spiritual transformation - something internal, which meant that although healing was not instantaneous, her body soon followed down this path of regeneration to wholeness.

Seeds of a Ministry

Marion now realised that not only could God heal, but that he did! And this was something she wanted to share. Her boss at work was not only sympathetic but encouraging, and became a significant part of what would follow. Not only did she become a prayer partner but once healings started to happen at work she realised that Marion had a larger ministry in this respect, and remarkably agreed to keep her on the payroll while allowing her to give up her usual work in order to pursue her new calling.

Now released for a wider ministry, the 1980s was a time of growth as fresh opportunities arose, slowly at first but with increasing momentum. Marion recalls her time ministering healing in Devon at a holiday village there each spring and autumn. Looking back, she now realises that this was an important training period.

Also during this time, she held monthly healing meetings with perhaps a dozen or so people attending. But this was also a season of charismatic renewal within the wider Church and things were soon to take off.

Marion realised that not only could God heal, but that he did! This was something she wanted to share.

Establishing Sozo Ministries

During her next phase of ministry, Marion began hiring places in order to reach more people, but it was soon clear this was to become even bigger - and before long, Sozo Ministries was established. Aided by her parents, her sister and family and her younger brother Alan, Sozo Ministries was set up in 1983 and became a registered charity later that decade.

A school in Romsey was hired for the big healing and deliverance meetings held every three weeks. Another building in Romsey was bought and renamed Sozo House in order to provide offices and smaller meeting rooms.

As part of the overall ministry, Sozo offered conferences and other teaching meetings. Marion’s two books, written in 2008 and 2010, were based on topics taught at these conferences. Turning such material into book form was a new challenge but New Wine Press agreed to publish both and these two slim volumes are now part of the many resources that Sozo provides through its bookstore.

New Vision…

By now the ministry was well-established, but further big changes were to come, both physically and spiritually. In 2013 Sozo moved from Sozo House to a new site, Dunwood Oaks, in Awbridge. This opened up fresh possibilities - not least of which was the chance to develop and extend the building for larger meetings, and to eventually move away from hiring the school in Romsey.

But equally significant was a new vision which would emerge from an unusual and extraordinary deliverance session, that was to change Marion and the rest of her team as much as it did the person being ministered to.

To be continued next week…

Read our reviews of Marion's books here and here.

N.B. Marion Daniel and Sozo Ministries International are in no way affiliated to Bethel Sozo or the International Bethel Sozo Organization.

There is a new well-being fad taking the Western world by storm. Though it has been part of mainstream psychological practice since the late 1970s, it has recently enjoyed a remarkable surge of popularity, sweeping into boardrooms, prisons, hospitals and schools all around the UK, the US and Europe. Yet, it remains poorly understood by most people. The trend is mindfulness.

The mindfulness tide

Mindfulness is a meditation practice which, instead of focusing on emptying the mind, encourages people to focus on ‘the present moment’.¹ It is being extolled as a scientifically provable pathway² to health and well-being, acting to soothe stress and restore peace to busy lives.

Unlike many alternative well-being practices, mindfulness is not merely the domain of specialist health shops. Since being exported to the USA in the 1960s and 1970s through the immigration of Buddhist monks, proponents like Jon Kabat-Zinn have helped to mainstream mindfulness in medical and academic spheres.³ From here it has been promoted to a mass audience and popularised across a variety of sectors, with the help of the internet as well as top-down endorsement from business executives, celebrities and government officials.

In the USA, a pro-mindfulness business culture is spreading thanks to its promotion by giants like Apple and Google, with immense pressure on employees to participate.⁴ This year at Davos, the six mindfulness seminars laid on for global economic leaders were “packed to capacity”.⁵

Nearer home, mindfulness is being promoted everywhere from Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council⁶, to the NHS⁷ and HM prisons⁸. It is being embraced by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Home Office and Transport for London,⁹ whilst the University of Oxford has its own Mindfulness Centre. Enthusiastic independent schools (e.g. Tonbridge, Hampton, Charterhouse) are installing mindfulness programmes and there is currently a campaign for its adoption into the national curriculum.¹⁰

Celebrities are endorsing it (e.g. Ruby Wax, Goldie Hawn, Oprah Winfrey), investigative journalists are raving about it¹¹, mindfulness mobile apps have gone viral, and courses, retreats and themed holidays are widely available. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find an untouched sector or region in the UK.

Finally, an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on mindfulness launched in May 2014 and is currently investigating the possibilities of rolling mindfulness out across “a range of policy areas”¹², with a report on its legislative efficacy due out in June 2015¹³.

Despite all this recent popularity, and freely available information, few ordinary people are really aware of what it is, or where it comes from.

Being mindful: the realities behind the practice

To the unwary, mindfulness seems harmless and uncontroversial. The very name connotes care and thoughtfulness, and it is often couched in descriptive terms like 'clarity', 'awareness', 'acceptance' and 'compassion'. Beneath these comforting descriptions, mindfulness is a deeply spiritual activity: it is actually a Buddhist practice of trying to attain nirvana, or spiritual enlightenment and liberation.

"Beneath these comforting descriptions, mindfulness is a deeply spiritual activity: it is actually a Buddhist practice of trying to attain nirvana, or spiritual enlightenment and liberation."

Despite claims of the easy removal of its religious strings, most mindfulness practitioners openly acknowledge its Buddhist core and its built-in sense of spiritual progression. Mindfulness is often intertwined with practices such as yoga, Tai-chi and Zen, and the more involved you become in mindfulness circles, the more overtly religious it becomes.

However, mindfulness is being carefully dressed and presented in secular clothing to appease Western mind-sets. This is not the hippie-driven New Age of the 1970s and 1980s, but a more subtle, palatable, postmodern update, appearing as one option among many to satisfy 21st century self-help consumers. The result, according to Melanie McDonagh of The Spectator, is a “wildly popular pseudo-religion; a religion tailor-made for the secular West”, encouraging self-centred navel-gazing and introspection.¹⁴ In her view, mindfulness is potentially dangerous because it encourages people to face the darkness of their own souls, without offering any hope of redemption.

The practical, political reality of mindfulness is that it is not a solution to the endemic problems facing UK society; it seems to be more of a narcissistic sticking plaster which appeals to a stressed-out, self-absorbed i-culture. It has nothing to say about injustice or the root causes of mental health problems.

"The message of mindfulness is that the remedy for suffering and evil lies inside yourself, not in the goodness and intervention of God. It erases the need for the Cross."

The message of mindfulness is that the remedy for suffering and evil lies inside yourself, not in the goodness and intervention of God. It erases the need for redemption from the brokenness and sinfulness of human nature (and therefore erases the need for the Cross) and encourages people to look inward, not upward.

Mindfulness should not, therefore, be an option for Bible-believing Christians, despite all that you’ll hear about courses and resources with no Buddhist elements. Whilst the Bible encourages meditation on the rich truths of God's word and character under the leading of the Holy Spirit, this should never be mixed with meditation practices derived from, and rooted in, Eastern religion. God has always made it very clear that he views such mixture as spiritual idolatry, deeply hurtful to him and dangerous for us.

If you are unconvinced about the spiritual dangers of practices like mindfulness, look at some more in-depth coverage of 'alternative' therapies from a Biblical perspective, such as The Dangers of Alternative Ways to Healing by David Cross and John Berry.¹⁵ As living temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19), we should be jealously protecting the spiritual purity of his chosen and beloved dwelling-places, not grieving him by engaging in a spiritual pic-n-mix.

Looking up and out, not in

It should be a cause for deep concern amongst Christians that in an era of global uncertainty, so many are seeking peace, self-control and direction from Buddhist meditation. In business, it represents an earnest search for release from the frenzy of modern Western culture. In the NHS, it represents a subtle recognition that our best medical professionals cannot address endemic problems of depression, anxiety and fear. In Parliament, it is an acknowledgement that our uppermost echelons of leadership lack peace and direction.

Driving the popularity of mindfulness practices are spiritual cries for salvation and freedom: this should be a heart-breaking wake-up call for the Church! Christians should be pointing people to the Solution for whom they are searching: Jesus Christ, who sets the captives free (Luke 4:18) and promises to lovingly shepherd us (John 10:11) and guard us with his divine peace (Phil 4:7), if only we accept him as Lord and Saviour.

Sadly, the mindfulness phenomenon simply highlights that the majority of people in Britain are searching elsewhere to have their psychological and spiritual needs met. This is a terrible indictment of the Church's ineffectualness in offering solutions to modern pressures and problems (if the Church leaves a vacuum, something else will always move to fill it). Christianity is no longer considered even a viable option for personal healing, wholeness and freedom, let alone the only way.

"The mindfulness phenomenon simply highlights that the majority of people in Britain are searching elsewhere to have their psychological and spiritual needs met. Christianity is no longer considered even a viable option."

The Church should also beware the stealth and speed with which mindfulness practices are spreading across the nation. It could easily mean the further incursion of Eastern religious practices into church territory, as groups ask to meet on church premises. We need to equip and support Christian professionals to refuse to participate in company mindfulness sessions, as well as Christian schools that refuse to force children and teachers into daily meditations.

Perhaps the Christian response to mindfulness, therefore, should be watchfulness: instead of focusing inward, we should be looking outward to discern the signs of the times. “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes” (Luke 12:37).

References

1 Kabat-Zinn, J, 2006. Mindfulness for Beginners, Sounds True Inc, CO.

2 Eg see here and here.

3 Wilson, J, 2014. Mindful America: The Mutual Transformation of Buddhist Meditation and American Culture, OUP.

4 Scharmer, O. Davos: Mindfulness, Hostpots and Sleepwalkers, Huffington Post Online, 26 January 2014.

5 Gelles, D. Amid the Chattering of a Global Elite, a Silent Interlude, NY Times, 21 January 2015.

6 Eg http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/libraryservices/newsandevents/healthevents.aspx

7 Eg http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/wellbeing/10694775/Why-does-the-Government-want-to-teach-mindfulness-in-schools.html

8 Eg http://www.prisonmindfulness.org/projects/network-directory/wpbdm-category/u-k/

9 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/wellbeing/10694775/Why-does-the-Government-want-to-teach-mindfulness-in-schools.html

10 http://www.mindfulnessfoundation.org.uk/

11 Eg http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11161367/Mindfulness-does-it-really-live-up-to-the-hype.html

12 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/register/mindfulness.htm

13 See http://www.themindfulnessinitiative.org.uk/ for an interim report published in January 2015.

14 McDonagh, M, 2014. Mindfulness is something worse than just a smug middle class trend, Spectator Online, 1 November.

15 Sovereign World Ltd, 2010.