A Call for Reformation throughout the Charismatic Renewal Movement of Christianity

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A Call for Radical Transformation in the Ways We Represent Christ and the Power of His Holy Spirit

For a printable version of this letter, please CLICK HERE.

May 14, 2008

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

For several decades, the Holy Spirit has brought great awakening and renewal to the Church through the Charismatic Movement. Yet over the past few years, our movement has slipped silently into error. Our original focus on the person of Christ has been muddied in many circles, and multitudes of people are falling victim to doctrines of demons and false teachings. Today we are engaged in an era when the Lord is shaking up the Church to see who will remain standing in Christ. As John the Baptist said, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:12).

In this time of shaking, I believe the Lord is calling those who are “Lovers of the Truth” to come forward with boldness and certainty, exposing the lies, but being careful to discern that which is actually from God. The purpose is not to cause an uproar, but rather to be peacemakers among the Body of Christ. This is a task that requires the steady hand of our Master Surgeon, Jesus Christ, to “divide between soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and the thoughts and intentions of the heart” with the true words from His own mouth. Friends, we need to be willing to distinguish clearly between that which is flesh, that which is God, and that which is of the kingdom of darkness.

In this letter, I write to you in love, praying that God may enlighten the eyes of your heart so that you can know the hope to which you have been called. I believe that God is not done with the Charismatic Movement, but He is indeed calling for a reformation, which will require healthy criticism of our current state and heartfelt repentance on our part as believers. I write to you, brothers and sisters, for the express purpose of seeing the Church move on in maturity and reveal Jesus Christ with far greater clarity in this world.

Who am I and Why do I Write?
I’ve been a Charismatic for several years. I was raised in a Pentecostal family who has always relied very strongly on the Holy Spirit. By no means is this letter meant to slander Charismatics—rather, I believe there needs to be a call to purity in our movement. We need to reset our vision firmly on Christ and repent of the many “winds of doctrine” that have swayed us in our theology over the years (Eph. 4:15).

Furthermore, I don’t claim to have all the answers. This letter is not meant to be the definitive word—rather it is merely meant to open our eyes to a handful of things that I pray will help us view the truth of Christ with even greater clarity.

I bless the Lord for the awesome ways He has advanced His Kingdom through the Charismatic Movement during the past few decades. You, my brothers and sisters, have been faithfully pursuing the Holy Spirit, the love of the Father, and the grace of Jesus Christ for years; and for this I can only praise God. I am not writing to you with claims that the Charismatic Movement is apostate or born of the devil. This could not be farther from the truth. Rather, I come to you with my best attempt at humility in an effort to expose the fruitless deeds of darkness that we have allowed to creep into our churches and ministries (Eph. 5:11).

Wounded Warriors
Some time ago, I met a Charismatic minister who wanted me to participate in his ministry to teens (I was a youth pastor at the time). As I prayed about what to do, the Holy Spirit gave me a vision. I saw a “Purple Heart” medal, like the kind given to United States soldiers who have been wounded in battle. The Lord said, “This man is a wounded warrior, but he has not yet allowed healing into his life. Do not fight alongside him because he is not ready to go into battle—you will be inviting defeat if you do so.”

Over time, I discovered that this is actually very common among those of us in the Charismatic Movement. Many of us have had experiences with God that our pastors and friends didn’t understand, so we gravitated to people who would embrace what happened in our lives. We were wounded by the mistrust of people we loved, but we never really dealt with the pain—rather we ran to people who shared our pain and could relate. It was like a balm that dulled the pain, but the wound still existed.

One of the symptoms of this wound is to blindly accept everything we hear because we don’t want to be like the skeptics who caused us so much pain. Discernment gets thrown out the window, and many of us have fallen victim to the rampant false teachings among our fellowships. This poor response to our unhealed wounds has given rise to:

sharp divisions among the Church (1 Cor. 3:3),
spiritual defilement from bitter roots (Heb. 12:15),
quarrelling about true doctrine rather than apostolic clarity (2 Tim. 2:24),
ear-tingling words that are not from God (Jer. 5:31),
and more…

I believe these realizations give rise to a need for a Charismatic Reformation. In the name of Jesus, I am calling for willful purification among our movement. Without this act of repentance, I believe based on Scripture and the inner witness of the Holy Spirit that God will have to bring it about by sovereign judgment. It is better by far to heed the warning of the Lord than to wait for His judgments. The child who is disciplined by his father is the child who failed to have self-discipline. We must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

The following eight issues are specifically what I feel the Lord would have me address in this hour, but this list is not all-inclusive. You may very well see more than this—I’m simply being faithful to what the Lord has placed on my own heart. Also, please weigh this carefully. Search the Scriptures diligently and see if what I have to say is true. If on any point I have not been true to God’s word, I welcome correction from the Body of Christ. But if this is discerned to be truly the Word of the Lord, then we as a people are responsible to do something with it.

Some of the Errors in the Charismatic Movement:
1) Presumptive Theology. There is a stark difference between faith and presumption. I have faith in my best friend, Robin. If she says she will meet me at a certain place at a certain time, I will go there knowing that she will follow through. I have faith in her because she is faithful. Now, I could believe that she will be somewhere else; but that would be to consider her a liar. That is not faith—it is an indulgence of my flesh by which I try to get what I want.

Presumptive theology states that if we believe something enough, it will happen. Faith, however, says that if we believe God, then it will happen. See the difference?

Faith is a belief based on a trustworthy relationship; presumption is a belief based on what I want to believe. Sometimes we hit the target because what we want to believe is occasionally in line with what God is wanting to do. But there are also many times that we miss the target by wanting to believe something God has not decreed. Thus, we fall short of the example of Jesus Christ who only did what He saw His Father doing (John 5:19).

Take a look at Luke 4 where Jesus fasted and prayed in the desert for forty days. By presumptive theology, Jesus could have jumped off the temple and had the angels bear Him up. This was a Scriptural promise that He could have believed with all His might. But by faith, He chose to counteract those temptations of the devil and believe His Father’s current guidance. God was not in the act, and so it was not to be carried out. The devil had quoted Scripture to Christ in an effort to get Him to believe something that the Father was not initiating. The Scriptures were true, and they were certainly accurate, but they stood in contrast to the Father’s current plan.

Many of us in the Charismatic Movement, however, have fallen victim to this trap of the enemy. We read something in the Bible and believe it for ourselves with no regard for whether or not God is currently speaking such a thing. It sounds holy to “stand on the promises of the Word,” but this should not be done at the expense of a current relationship with God. Remember, faith is based on relationship. To neglect the Lord’s current will and simply act on past revelations is to abandon true relationship with Him. If your marriage is on the rocks, you cannot look back to your wedding day and pretend that everything is okay simply because you made those vows. Rather, you need to address the current situation so that you and your spouse can keep those vows. The promises of the past are important to remember, but they cannot be idolized at the expense of our present-day interaction and relationship.

In this Charismatic Reformation, we need to be a people who know the Word of God and stand on it, but we must first and foremost have a currently active and healthy relationship with God through Jesus Christ and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. This requires that we deal with sin on a regular basis and pray without ceasing.

2) Independence. We see this in all levels of ministry—from leaders to new believers. We rightly teach that everyone has a personal relationship with Christ, that we must personally hear God’s voice, and that we must eagerly desire the gifts of the Holy Spirit; but we do it at the expense of corporate relationship with Christ, hearing His voice as a family, and operating in our gifts within the context of a Body made up of many members.

When we choose to be independent rather than interdependent, we miss out on most of New Testament church-life. We begin to define “church” as a building where we sit in rows week after week and listen to someone teach us something that we’ll probably forget in a few hours. It is an isolationist mentality through which the devil has employed the age-old tactic of “divide and conquer.” Rather than iron sharpening iron, our churches are anemic. Instead of strengthening one another, we tear each other apart with gossip, backbiting, bitterness, slander, distrust, fear, manipulation, and more. It is easier by far to isolate ourselves and subscribe to “Just Jesus and Me” theology than to risk opening ourselves up to such a hostile group of people.

Brothers and sisters, this should not be! Instead, we should be systematically dealing with sin in the church so that it can no longer be seen as such an unhealthy and spiritually harmful place to be. We need to confess our sins one to another that we might be healed (James 5:16). We need to minister to one another, pray for one another, counsel one another, and enjoy the company of one another! The common belief in “Just Jesus and Me” often ignores the fact that fellowship with the Body of Christ IS fellowship with Christ!

Those who subscribe to the Charismatic Reformation need to be a people who forgive others for the wounds caused, whether past or present. We need to choose to risk ourselves in relationships with the Family of God. We need to be an active part of this spiritual Body of believers. We need to show the love of Christ to everyone—especially those in the Church. We need to trust one another even when that trust has been broken—God does this with us, so we should do what we see our Father doing.

If you are walking in close relationship with God, clothed in His armor, then you are not vulnerable in these situations. The Lord is your strong tower and your refuge. Do not think that I’m asking you to put yourself in harm’s way. Rather, I am asking you to realize that if you abide in Christ, no harm will befall you. Keep your eyes fixed on Him!

3) Showboating. So many of our ministry methods are showy, flashy, flamboyant, and out of line with the nature of Christ. I will be so bold as to call it sin because “everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). Remember, faith is a current relationship with God by which we only do what we discern that He is doing. Paul offered an excellent definition of faith when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). But our typical methods are often not in line with the nature of Christ, and are therefore not being performed in faith. That makes them sin.

To be more specific, there are many times that we try to make ourselves appear somehow “more spiritual” than the “average Christian” (most of the time, we don’t even realize we’re doing it). We speak with lofty words, a fancy tone, a loud voice, a trembling voice, fiery eyes, closed eyes, and more. We shout, we jump, we dance, and we spin. We push people over as though it makes our prayer more powerful. We carry on about the accomplishments of the past as if to validate our ministry apart from a current demonstration of the Lord’s glory.

I’ve seen it happen many times. The traveling minister comes to speak and shares all sorts of stories about miracles and demonstrations of God’s power, but then nothing happens in that service except a lot of emotion and expression. They say that they’re trying to build people’s faith, but really they’re just building presumption by getting people to believe based on what’s being said rather than their own relationship with the Holy Spirit. Jesus never went from town to town declaring the miracles He performed in the last town. He simply preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and let His Father do the rest. It’s one thing to testify to the Lord’s faithfulness, but it’s another thing to puff yourself up in an effort to validate your ministry before mere men.

I believe this Charismatic Reformation is going to call for leaders and ministers who are down-to-earth and realistic. I’m not talking about how they dress or how they appear externally—I’m talking about how they conduct themselves and practice the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We need men and women of God who have died with Christ and no longer live, but Christ lives in them. We need humility and sanctified humanity. I’m not talking about trying to appear as though you’re more than human—I’m talking about actually demonstrating God’s original intent when He created humanity. We need to be personable. We need to be relational. We need to be realistic. And we need to let our validation come from the Lord. Testimonies should be shared for the sake of bringing God glory and defeating the enemy, but they should not be shared as a means of convincing people to trust you or your ministry.

4) Carnality. The Apostle Paul addressed the Corinthian church as carnal and worldly, and yet these were the same people who He said did not lack in any spiritual gift (1 Cor. 3:1-3 and 1:7). By means of observation, we can clearly see that the Charismatic Movement at large has become sadly carnal in recent years. We chase after big-name preachers and the next great experience. We long for external touches from the Lord—shaking, jerking, twitching, goose bumps, healing, manifestations, and other such things. We want a physical experience with God.

To be frank, there’s nothing wrong with that. The error comes in when we spend more time seeking an external experience than we do seeking the internal application of God’s Word and Spirit. As long as our focus is on how we might experience God in our flesh or soul, we are carnal. Such experiences do happen, and it is okay to ask for them; but they are nothing but distractions if they are taking our eyes off the Lord’s internal work in our lives.

It is impossible to be fully Christ-like without “walking as Jesus walked.” This includes miracles, demonstrations of the Spirit’s power, and prophetic clarity; but it also requires repentance, confession, carrying our own crosses, and laying down our own lives for His sake. To cater only to one side or the other is to be out of balance.

Therefore, those of us who agree to pursue a Charismatic Reformation must be people who pursue balance. I’m not talking about “calming down” and “bringing everything toward center”—I’m talking about being radical on both extremes! We need to be radical for the external demonstrations of God’s power and love, but we must also be radical for the internal ones! If we do this, it will be harder for us to fall into the error of carnality.

5) Gnosticism. At the other end of the spectrum is Gnosticism, which is to view the material world, including our bodies, as evil and loathsome. The early Christian Gnostics also believed that salvation and spiritual maturity were the result of learning secret spiritual truths that would set us free from the physical realm. Furthermore, their disregard for the value of their bodies led them to indulge themselves physically via gluttony and sexual immorality. The Charismatic Movement has unfortunately become a haven for this sort of theology in one form or another, and it is wrong.

We tell people that they should be experiencing signs, wonders, visions, heavenly encounters, and other such things in order to grow in the Lord. We tell them that the “truly spiritual” people are the ones who have esoteric experiences with angels, demons, and other spiritual entities. Furthermore, those who have these experiences (or claim to have them) often use their stories to elevate themselves into leadership. Sometimes they don’t even have to try elevating themselves because others do it for them. Someone has an experience, and rather than being discerning, we toss them into ministry believing that their encounter validates them. We worship the gift rather than the Giver.

We also need to realize that we consist of a unity of body, soul, and spirit. These three are separate, but just like the Trinity, they should also be one. We should realize that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, our souls (mind, will, and emotions) need to come into conformity with Jesus Christ. We cannot say that the only thing that matters is our spirit. We need to ask the Lord what it is to be truly human. Remember, you cannot “love your neighbor as you love yourself” unless you actually love yourself! God created your body, your soul, and your spirit. To neglect or abuse any of these is to dishonor Him.

This Charismatic Reformation will be experienced by whole people. I’m specifically referring to those who have allowed the healing presence of the Holy Spirit to bring them to a place where they love God above all, and then they love their neighbors and themselves. Our movement should not be devoid of valid spiritual experiences, but these should no longer be a defining factor of one’s maturity. Rather, we need to be sensitive to the gifts that the Holy Spirit has distributed in sovereignty, realizing that no part of the Body is more important than any other part. There will be those who see visions, those who heal, those who work miracles, and more; but none of these gifts will be used to define one’s spiritual maturity or growth. Instead, spiritual growth should be gauged on a church-wide scale, realizing that we are a body that must be growing in unison. Growth in Christ is shared, and we all benefit from the growth of others.

6) Hero Worship. It is a natural human tendency to look to a leader and view them as somehow bigger or better than ourselves. God’s intention with this tendency is that we would be able to look to the man Christ Jesus as the supreme Author and Finisher of our faith, exalting Him above all. Unfortunately, we often misdirect this characteristic of our humanity toward carnal people who happen to have a lot of charisma and stage presence.

We place unreal expectations on our leaders; and this often forces them to be isolated, secretive, and without healthy accountability. By separating ourselves from our leaders through unhealthy exaltation, we make it very difficult for them to receive correction or direction from the people of God who are all around them. We either view them as infallible, or as fallible yet unapproachable. Then when a leader falls, those who are weak in the faith fall right along with them.

Contrast this with Acts 19:30 in which the Apostle Paul wished to go out and address a crowd, but the regular Christian disciples refused to let him. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers need to be integrated into fellowship so that we can all grow steadily. This will require humility and transparency on the part of our leaders and repentance from hero worship on the part of the rest of us.

In addition, we have a tendency to promote this idea of hero worship by making one-man shows out of things where the Body of Christ should be in action together. We tend to relate each new revival to a small handful of names or faces rather than simply attributing them to God. Yes, He usually gets credit, but He has to share the spotlight with mere men in many of our minds. The glory that should be given wholly to God gets diluted and spread around to the men and women He chose to use to do His work. I have said for years and will continue to say that I believe the next “great revival” will be a grassroots movement that cannot be pinned on any one man.

Furthermore, those who have been used by God in such powerful ways are prone to building empires out of their gifting. What follows are Christian conferences where those who give the most money get the best seating. In many cases, you can’t get in without a wristband. And to top it all off, people are regularly told that the Holy Spirit will be imparting something unique at this or that conference. In other words, unless you pay $25-75 for registration, plus the travel costs (and maybe lodging), you will not get to be one of the people who receive this anointing from God. Putting it this way makes it sound so wrong; and yet we pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into such events every year, believing that it’s the only way to experience the next big move of God.

The Charismatic Reformation is going to need to be a “Body Movement.” Sure, there may be some key leaders in the Body of Christ who embrace it and spread these truths around, but no one person or small group will have the market cornered. And where these leaders arise, they will be humble and transparent—willing to share their struggles and hardships with the rest of the family of God. Like the Apostle Paul demonstrated as he submitted to the rest of the believers, no one will be above anyone else. There will be non-exclusive, freely-available ministry. And the people giving the most money will not only get the same seats as everyone else, but they will be humble enough to take the seats of least importance as Christ instructed. Some conferences may continue to cost money for logistics’ sake, but they will not be overpriced, and no one will be turned away because of money.

7) Gullibility. In the beginning of this letter, I wrote about the many “wounded warriors” among us who accept things unreservedly in a subconscious attempt to avoid acting like the skeptics who wounded them. This isn’t always the root, however. Some of us have a lack of sound doctrine; some of us have an outright disregard for authority; and some of us sincerely want to believe what we’re being told. Some of us don’t want to split hairs or cause division. Some of us are too timid to question the teacher. And some of us are just plain gullible. Whatever the cause, we Charismatics often buy into everything we see and hear as though it is all from the Lord.

Such gullibility has given rise to false teachings and misunderstandings about spiritual things. It has also given rise to a sort of pluralism by which we accept an influx of eastern spiritualism and New Age practices. The line between the true and the false is so fine that we find ourselves unsure of which side we’re on. But there is a surefire litmus test by which we can discern what things are of God and what things are not:

Is it in line with Scripture?
Is it in line with the nature of Jesus Christ?
Is Jesus Christ being glorified?
Is there healthy spiritual fruit?
Does it line up with what you see the Father doing?
Does the Holy Spirit bear witness in your heart that it is true?

It is vitally important that we remember discernment does not mean “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” To truly discern involves picking things apart, affirming that which is true and good, but repenting of every area where the defilement of flesh or the enemy has crept in.

I should note that it is good for us to “always trust, always hope, and always persevere,” because these are attributes of genuine love from God (1 Cor. 13:7). However, we must also beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing and realize that such people will inevitably arise even out of our own ranks (Acts 20:28-30). Even the most trusted individuals can fall victim to the devil’s schemes. I believe this is why Paul was willing to warn the believers not to believe him if he should come preaching another Gospel (Gal. 1:8). Every one of us is fragile apart from Christ and could fall at a moment’s notice. Therefore we must remain on our guard and test every spirit, experience, manifestation, or revelation with genuine spiritual discernment and the questions outlined above.

In every reformation, well-meaning men and women have missed the mark of what God was trying to do, and such will likely be the case in this Charismatic Reformation. This is why it is all the more important that we remain accountable to each other in the sight of God and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Eph. 5:21). We need to trust each other, yes; but we must also continue to rely on the Holy Spirit. If we will all be on our guard, studying the Word of God and seeking His current direction, we will be in a far healthier state than ever before. This proposed Reformation will not be without error, but that is why we must continually be discerning and willing to bring correction at any point.

8) Imbalance toward Good Feelings. This is perhaps one of the most sinister of the enemy’s attacks on the Charismatic Movement because it fuels all the others. Our inordinate focus on making sure everyone feels good has led to watered-down preaching, ear-tingling prophecies, flesh-indulging teachings, carnal Christianity, and a distinct lack of preaching about repentance. Where we do mention repentance, we often call it a “change of mind”—this misses the fact that repentance is a gift given by the Lord in response to Christ’s ascension into heaven (Acts 5:31). Yes, repentance involves a change of mind, but it flows out of death to self and life in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. True repentance results in more than a renewed mindset. Repentance is the word that defines our transformation into being new creations in Christ!

Such transformation requires a recognition that we can no longer live in our current state. It takes a harsh realization that our current lives are sinful and utterly separate from God. It takes a revelation of God’s holiness, purity, righteousness, and justice. It takes an acceptance of the reality of heaven and hell, and the fact that we will be eternally, irrevocably sent to one or the other. It involves a healthy fear of the Lord—not merely respect, but actual fear as we realize what He is capable of and how we deserve that judgment. In Philippians 2:12, Paul tells the church to “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling”—no one trembles when they merely respect someone. Like I said, this takes genuine fear.

These things are not at all comfortable to hear. They make our flesh squirm and aggravate any demons that might have influence in our lives. Teaching these things may make people leave our churches or stop giving money to our ministries. They may cause people to speak out against us and say that we have no compassion or tolerance. The truth is that we the Church have plenty of tolerance—it is God who will not tolerate sin except for a time in order to bring a person to repentance (Rom. 2:4). And unless we speak these truths, we will be guilty along with them. As a matter of fact, those of us who have been brought into preaching and teaching roles will be held even more accountable for inaction. We must seek God for repentance!

Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!
The first step in initiating this reformation of the Charismatic Movement is to repent. We the Church must realize that we cannot go on in the way we have been going. We must see that our methods of ministry and our expressions of Christianity have been falling short of God’s glory. As a movement, we have not been doing what we see our Father doing, and we have given room for false teachings and delusions to enter our theology. Not only that, but we have believed these falsehoods wholeheartedly because they have largely come from people we trust.

It is time for us to choose repentance on a corporate level. We must decide in our hearts that our current direction is not in line with God and cry out collectively for His mercy. We need to crucify our sinful natures and ask the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into us as individuals and as the Body of Christ. We need to receive the gift of repentance as a family and utterly change the course of our movement to follow after God. Just as God makes new creations out of each one of us in Christ, let’s cry out in prayer and fasting for the Charismatic Movement as a whole to be transformed into a new creation that more clearly represents Jesus Christ in this world!

As we move forward, we need discernment to know what is truly of God. This requires faith, which is based on an active relationship with Him. This relationship is engaged through humility because “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). Out of this humility will also arise true “Church life” in which we all grow and move together in Christ.

And as we embrace this true church life, we will have friendship, fellowship, and accountability with others who are also seeking God for spiritual truth. This will inevitably lead to personal transformation on a deeper level as we allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and transform us inwardly through the work of Christ. And the more we identify ourselves with Jesus Christ in His death, resurrection, and ascension, the more clearly we will be able to walk in the true gifts of the Holy Spirit, prophesying His true words and demonstrating only those signs and wonders that we see the Father doing.

Friends, it is time to move forward in our faith. It is time to initiate a Charismatic Reformation! Pray about how to apply this reformation to your own life and see how God might use you to spread it. If it involves sending personal letters to your friends and family, please do so. If you want to copy and distribute this letter, you are free to do it. Talk to your pastors. Talk to your congregations. I believe God is calling for something far bigger than a single letter that stirs a handful of people to change—this is a time of reformation!

May God richly bless you as you pursue Him with reckless abandon! Keep on praying for all the saints.

Your brother in Christ,
--Art--