I Felt I Should Drop in and Explain Why I Left

Hello everyone,

I know it has been a long time. I have left the message board because my views on theology have changed drastically. I am now a member of the prayer and worship movement started by IHOPKC and Mike Bickle. I am currently attending a new church in Orlando that is a house of prayer, having left Baptist churches behind for now.

I have an amazing testimony of how I was plucked by God out of my classical cessationist theology and planted in the theology of the the international house of prayer Kansas City in a matter of weeks. I may end up sharing it later on this thread.

I don't really consider myself a non-Baptist though. That is because I still hold to the Baptist distinctives, for now. Although, I would probably only feel at home in a "Baptacostal" church at this point.

The main thing that convinced me to leave for the house of prayers was actually getting powerful spiritual gifts. I now speak in tongues, interpret tongues, perform miracles, have words of wisdom, prophetically intercede, prophetically sing, have prophetic dreams, have visions, have prophetic impressions, hear an audible prophetic voice, get the words of the Holy Spirit put into my mouth sometimes, and prophetically write theology, bible teachings, and foreign policy. All by His grace. I kid you not, I now do all of that in the last few months.

I have every confirmation I will ever need to prove the Charismatic movement is genuinely of God. Yet, I must warn that there are charlatans, false prophets, false teachers, and even false apostles that we must be wary of. A love of reading and researching the bible and an absolute fidelity to the bible are what I have found is needed to venture into this world and not be deceived. A testing spirit, not a critical spirit, but a spirit of testing everyone and everything is also needed.

I thank this board for nurturing me in the faith. However, I must point out that it seems we argue here for the sake of argument than really make any breakthrough on understanding truth. I learn far more going to church, studying the bible, praying, and using my spiritual gifts than coming on the board.

I do want to mention that I have given up my extreme judgmental-ism of those in the Church. I am trying to stop any desire to be divisive or schismatic. I even admit Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox are in fact Christians. I may disagree with a ton of their theology, but I see the presence of their salvation.

Thanks everyone,
Steven

 

The good news is that my mental health practitioners think I am doing great. My therapist, whose attitude is one of skepticism towards supernatural spiritual gifts, believes that as long as I'm doing just fine in all other areas of my life, my church life doesn't matter. My psychiatrist believes that I no longer need any adjustments to my medication due to my stability, and the State of Florida has me in vocational rehabilitation to get back to work and off disability.

I kid you not, this is a true story. You could argue I am deceived by the devil, which would make little sense given the devil loves dividing his own kingdom if my gifts are of him. However, it is a stretch to say I am deceived by my mental illness on gifts I openly use in church and am told are very powerful by other Christians.

 

That may be snark, but yeah, my week is mainly just keep up with my new gifts while studying the bible, praying, watching the news, doing the daily basics to keep the house going, having some downtime, and doing research on how to use such gifts written by experienced ministers. This feels like a honeymoon though.

I know I need to get a job and use my gifts in the spare time. I also am sure I am a person meant to be married and do not have the gift of singleness, so with income will come romantic relationships. This will mean that the amazing rate of progress I have in acquiring gifts and using them will slow down. Thank God I have a month or two in vocational rehab before I am working again. This time just feels so nice and productive.

I will add that I will be "interning" at my new church in the Fall. This means I will be taken under the wing of the church staff and elder to be taught how to do ministry with my gifts.

 

I have two books in the works.

I have the equivalent of an MTS from a seminary and a B.A. in international relations. That is why I can keep up with this stuff at all.

Book number one is at 100,000 words. It is the explanation of my absolutely crazy life to date. It is an autobiography that covers the pain of mental illness, this recent series of developments, coming to Christianity form atheism, coming to heartfelt faith in Jesus two years ago, and so much more. I need to pare it back to 70,000 words. So at this point its all editing. It is unbelievable and also sad that my first draft came out so long as a 33 year old.

Book number two is all the writing I have done lately on prophetic theology and bible teaching, words of wisdom, and the prophetic foreign policy stuff. How this works is that I have gotten powerful observations that have aided my spiritual walk amazingly for two years. I made sure to write them down since I figured they seemed more from God than me, but I did not fully understand what that meant. I thought they were just bible teaching and Christian apologetics that suddenly occurred to me and changed me, but after reading up on the word of wisdom in the lives of other Christians, I now see what they are.

I also get visions, impressions, and other prophecy to lead me to a theological or bible study topic that is then carefully researched. I then write with impressions and other prophecy guiding me at key points. I have perhaps 30,000 words written in that book of a 50,000 word goal, given the topics I have been so far led to. Its pretty wild because they are not the topics I thought were important. I have been led to attack the scientific worldview, call for revival in the American Church through a study of Revelation 2-3, and much more. The foreign policy stuff is very simple and straightforward and could be agreed upon by most conservative evangelicals as just good sense.

I hope to have two rough drafts for two books by the fall.

 

I must add that of course all prophecy must be tested by the Church and I plan to submit my second book to my leadership team in my fall internship, in order to be weighed.

 

There are three types I have performed:

Ruach or breath - a miracle I am told is kind of "common." I can pray and then have an involuntary gust of breath come out of me. I do not mean breathing hard or even a cough. Although, if I could pray and it cause coughing that is a miracle. Ruach or breath sounds like a very odd cough, but is quite comfortable to do. I have even recorded the sound, as it carries and is very unique. Usually, I get the ruach or breath naturally at the end of some prayers, especially very powerful ones. As far as I remember, it signifies a close presence of the Holy Spirit.

Impartation of a feeling/touched by the Holy Spirit - I have a gift to pray over someone and give them a feeling that is unexplained. This one works in two ways. I can pray that someone is touched by the Holy Spirit and it produces one of two feelings. Either it produces conviction of some sin that person's life. And I mean a strong visceral conviction. Or it can produce an unexplained feeling that shocks the person. I can work it on myself and the feeling can even change as commanded. For instance, I can say form the top of your head to the soles of your feet you will feel a feeling, and it happens. Or I can say from the tips of your fingers to the tips of your fingers you will feel it, and it happens.

Weather Manipulation - This one scares me and my faith is shown to be weaker than I think by it. I have stopped using it as it scares me so much and is a huge challenge to a faith that has a long way to go. I will love to learn this one in the presence of my church as an intern though. I have prayed for clouds to separate into two clouds, it happens over the course of 15 minutes about 50% of the time. I have prayed that rain lesson, it does about 25% of the time to the point you can wander back to your car and not get soaked. I have prayed for justice to fall upon some group, and a natural disaster hits them within a year of praying. Of course, I pray for salvation and repentance and earthly blessing for those I pray for justice against too! I have even once stepped out in faith and motioned for three lightning bolts to come down and it happened within seconds like clockwork. Although, that one shook me to the core and stopped me from trying to manipulate the weather miraculously for a season I am still in.