The Non-Pentecostal Pentecostals

I travel all over the world and have a world view of the Church that few indeed have. This is particularly true of churches that claim a Pentecostal testimony. Their meetings are up-beat and even dynamic music-wise, but the manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit in terms of the congregational gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues and prophecy is nowhere evident. I fear that we have swapped these things for a dynamic platform and music ministry! To be Pentecostal in name only is not good enough and even to have conferences and “get-togethers” about the subject is not good enough. We need the dramatic “breaking in” of the Spirit in our meetings. There is no substitute! After all, scripture says that the verbal gifts of the Spirit are for the edification and up building of God’s people.

How quickly we have abandoned our heritage for second best. Just thirty years ago a new outpouring of the Spirit took place, all over the world that brought the reality of God back into our meetings and churches by the ecstatic gifts of the Spirit. Who can forget books like, “Nine O’clock in The Morning” by Dennis Bennet and others, like Derek Prince and Michael Harper, who wrote of their encounter with the Holy Spirit and the consequences for their lives and that of their churches?

I well remember sitting in meetings and being overwhelmed with joy as we sang sweet melodies in the Spirit without musical accompaniment. How I long for those days. The presence of God would swell and crash down all around us as we sang in other tongues to the glory of God. Prophetic words would follow and tongues and interpretation. It was electrifying and the outsider and those believers unaccustomed to this would affirm, “Truly God is in your presence!”

Now we sit in bland meetings so well orchestrated that God by His Spirit cannot move, even if He wants to! Professional platform ministry is the order of the day but our lives are left dry and thirsting for life, the life of the Spirit. All the while scripture declares that to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. The truth is we are witnessing what Jesus called Nicolaitanism! That is, power over the laity is exercised to the extent that even the ordered manifestation of the Gifts of the Spirit cannot take place. Much of this is the situation in many Pentecostal Churches!

What happened and who cares? I am often told that it is too difficult to control this phenomenon in congregational meetings. This is not true. The early church had multiple thousands in their meetings and yet the Spirit moved in power. Some big churches during the renewal days of the late sixties and early seventies had “word groups” in their meetings that exercised the Gifts of the Spirit. These were proven individuals who had demonstrated a maturity in this area of ministry. Much like the leaders in the Church at Antioch as recorded in Acts 13. The truth is, we are far too scared to abandon our churches to the moving of the Spirit. It’s a control thing!

May God give us thirsting faith and may He, as a consequence, send renewal again into our lives and congregations. This renewal brings the presence of God into our meetings in a way that nothing else does and can and this in no way devalues the central place that preaching must and should hold in our congregational gatherings. I believe that Jesus is preeminently seen in the proclamation of His word and thus all things should be done “decently and in order”.

Yours for the blessing of the Church,

Malcolm Hedding