Adventures in Charismania: Fuego!
A Vineyard church I attended (and for a brief period of time was assistant pastor at) used to sublet our building on Sunday evenings to another church. We were in dire financial straits and the extra income was helping us make our rent. This other church belonged to a charismatic movement called "The New Wine" which was manifested by--among other things--people stumbling around like drunks, slurring their speach ala Foster Brooks and giggling uncontrollably.
Sometimes I would stick around on Sunday evenings for the other church's service; in part to watch the spectacle but mainly to keep an eye on our sound system. The Sunday evening church would often have guest speakers--usually billed as prophets--who always had some unique gimmick that accompanied their ministry; such as dental fillings turning to gold or holy oil appearing in hands or gold dust falling from people's hair. These "miracles" were always preceded by accounts of huge revivals and amazing signs & wonders that had happened elsewhere due to the prophet's ministry. The prophetic words spoken almost always boiled down to a pronouncement that God was about to likewise do something really big in this town using this church.
One evening the guest speaker was a short middle-aged woman from Latin America (I don't remember specifically which country). She was supposedly very famous throughout South and Central America and had been used by God to bring about massive revivals where vast multitudes had come to Christ and experienced miraculous things. And now here she was on a Sunday evening at this little church in this little town!
The woman spoke little English and so had an interpreter with her. She liked to use the word fuego (fire) a lot. "Fuego!" she would shout, distorting the microphone and pushing her hand against the forehead of the next person in line to receive her ministry. Some people would fall backwards and be gently eased to the ground by waiting catchers.
The Senior Pastor of our church was there that night. She called him forward and quoted to him from 2 Kings 13, where the prophet tells the king to take some arrows and strike the ground with them. The king strikes the ground three times but the prophet rebukes him and says "You should have struck them five or six times." "As a result," the prophet tells the king, "your military campaign won't be as successful as it could have been." The woman then told our Senior Pastor, through her interpreter, that God was going to ask him to do something, and that he must do it with all his heart. If he would do this thing God was asking with all of his heart, God would bring tremendous growth and outpouring of the Holy Spirit to his church.
The thing God wanted him to do was ... dance.
Here.
Now.
And so he danced ..., a clumsy, quirky soft-shoe that made him look like a marionette, while the little prophetess stood in front of him clapping her hands and shouting "Fuego! Mas fuego!"
(Postscript: Within a few months our church disbanded due to dwindling attendance and financial troubles. The "New Wine" church moved to another building and continues to meet.)
Sometimes I would stick around on Sunday evenings for the other church's service; in part to watch the spectacle but mainly to keep an eye on our sound system. The Sunday evening church would often have guest speakers--usually billed as prophets--who always had some unique gimmick that accompanied their ministry; such as dental fillings turning to gold or holy oil appearing in hands or gold dust falling from people's hair. These "miracles" were always preceded by accounts of huge revivals and amazing signs & wonders that had happened elsewhere due to the prophet's ministry. The prophetic words spoken almost always boiled down to a pronouncement that God was about to likewise do something really big in this town using this church.
One evening the guest speaker was a short middle-aged woman from Latin America (I don't remember specifically which country). She was supposedly very famous throughout South and Central America and had been used by God to bring about massive revivals where vast multitudes had come to Christ and experienced miraculous things. And now here she was on a Sunday evening at this little church in this little town!
The woman spoke little English and so had an interpreter with her. She liked to use the word fuego (fire) a lot. "Fuego!" she would shout, distorting the microphone and pushing her hand against the forehead of the next person in line to receive her ministry. Some people would fall backwards and be gently eased to the ground by waiting catchers.
The Senior Pastor of our church was there that night. She called him forward and quoted to him from 2 Kings 13, where the prophet tells the king to take some arrows and strike the ground with them. The king strikes the ground three times but the prophet rebukes him and says "You should have struck them five or six times." "As a result," the prophet tells the king, "your military campaign won't be as successful as it could have been." The woman then told our Senior Pastor, through her interpreter, that God was going to ask him to do something, and that he must do it with all his heart. If he would do this thing God was asking with all of his heart, God would bring tremendous growth and outpouring of the Holy Spirit to his church.
The thing God wanted him to do was ... dance.
Here.
Now.
And so he danced ..., a clumsy, quirky soft-shoe that made him look like a marionette, while the little prophetess stood in front of him clapping her hands and shouting "Fuego! Mas fuego!"
(Postscript: Within a few months our church disbanded due to dwindling attendance and financial troubles. The "New Wine" church moved to another building and continues to meet.)
1 Comments:
Si! El Fuego Nuevo es exactamente lo que necesitamos!
(roughly translates to "Yes! New Fires is exactly what we need!)
Anyhow, as a bona fide sanctified Profitess, I am truly moved by this testimony. Yea, but in one thing this church fell short.
They did not put seed action behind the faith behind the fire for the manifestation of their expectation of the "Overwhelming Divine in 2009!"
Come on over to ProfiticWord.Blogspot.com today and be blessed with a fresh anointing that will release you of your monetary and intellectual burdens.
Lift Your Hands and Tell Him Thank Ya,
The Profitess
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