Yes, I do enjoy many of the things Rainy posts and I miss her when she is away. I hope she continues as well, but I guess you can see the problem that arises when she does. Not a pretty sight, when you have people who have experienced the Holy Spirit in a different way than people that have not. There is really no use trying to convince them because it's their lack of faith in God doing such things anymore. To be honest Tansybelle, I too would be just like them if it was not for my own personal experiences and I'm not even pentecostal. So I look at them as they look at trapper and just dust off my shoes from even bothering to share such things to move them to understanding.
Now that being said, there is much crookedness in many areas such as this, because anyone can say they saw this or experienced that. Plus people tend to put too much interest in seeking such things instead of seeking God. So I fear that the devil has had his hand in much of it. We even have pentecostals coming out of their churches and coming to my type of church because they don't know what to do about it. They don't want all the craziness that is going on in some of those churches. They are some of the most bible based people I know. So things are changing very quickly and people don't know what to do to stop what is happening, other than run from it.
Outsiders that don't believe this way, see the bad only...and yes, what bad is out there is scary...but like many things going on in the world right now, there are many lies added to the mix because there is a movement against pentecostals in general, just like there is one against the jews that we keep hearing about. Are there problems within both groups? Yes and so in a sense the bashers have some truth...just not the whole truth of the matter.
Some of this too stems from beliefs in end times understanding as well. As you may know that there is scripture talking about the antichrist doing miracles before the people. Well, in what areas have we heard of any miracles taking place? Mostly two places. The pentecostals and the catholic church. Depending on how people understand this, may very well color their way of seeing who or what the antichrist may be due to this fact.
Scripture does tell us that after the Holy Spirit fell on the people who believed in Acts 2...
No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 “‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.
So you can see this is something that continues to this day and until the day of the coming of the Lord. It was not just for the time of Jesus and His Disciples.
I was not raised to believe in such stuff, even though it's right there in the bible for all to see. I was taught it was of the devil, just like Vekky is believing.
How I got past that fear that what I was taught was of the devil, really was just believing/hoping that there was a God in heaven who had control of everything that was going wrong in my life. I cried out to Him to let me know He was real because I didn't want to believe that I'm all alone in this big world of suffering and fear. Nothing happened right after I prayed, but it did later that same night. So God does hear our prayers and He saw my mustard seed size amount of faith and yes, it moved a mountain...the mountain of God to reveal Himself to me in such a loving and personal way. I don't know what I was expecting from praying, but I can guarantee that what happened was not what I was expecting.
Once you have something like that happen to you, there is no way you will put blinders on and say that God is not interested in the day to day events of our lives and not just show up supernaturally. He is interested in each and every one of us...but it's all about His timing because He knows what we need and when we need it before we even ask. He gives His children good gifts not evil ones.
Now on the NAR situation. That's a whole different thing. I don't like what I see going on with that. My focus is more on what the catholics were doing than the pentecostals. The catholics believe they are the only one true church...not so with most protestants. However it does look like some of the pentecostals are seeing this as a move of God and trust that the catholic church is not trying to move them into becoming Roman catholic and are just talking about being part of the invisible church...the universal body of Christ. If I thought that they were talking about the invisible church...I could get on board with all christians in that movement...but I waiting to see what it's all about with great interest. I will be honest, I have seen the videos of Tony Palmer and I don't trust it at all. This was his own words, not a trumped up video made by anti-catholic/pentecostal people. At this point after hearing how Palmer worded things, I am extremely concerned.