Rick Joyner : Lee Grady : Todd Bentley Divorce : Charisma Article

[The recent reaction by Rick Joyner to a Charisma Magazine article by Lee Grady follows this post.]

It has begun.  The great shaking of the church has begun, and we are in the very earliest of stages.  Much more is coming.

Let me start by saying, I highly value biblical integrity, due process, humility, boldness and love.  I know there will be a great falling away, and we must beware of deception.  It’s appropriate to prophetically warn a generation of heresy.  However, what we’re experiencing too often these days isn’t prophetic warning, but rather prideful presumption.  We must simply know that God will warn, and God will judge, but it’s wrapped in extreme love and tenderness.

I’m currently ministering in Detroit, and this particular trip has been extremely unique.  I sensed very strongly that a prophetic anointing, a spirit of boldness, power and authority unlike anything any human currently alive has ever experienced, must arise extremely quickly.  God’s people, God’s church and God’s plans for a earth-shocking revival are under attack.

There is an accusing, suspicious and mocking spirit that’s unrestrained and mostly not confronted in the church world right now.  The self-labeled “Bereans”, who are often operating in a mean-spirited disposition of suspicion and accusation, are unapologetically mocking men and women of God all over the internet.  Blog posts, podcasts and YouTube videos targeting ministers, making fun of them, blatantly calling them false prophets, heretics, deceivers and other names are rampant.  It’s heart wrenching.

Where is the fear of the Lord?  Where is the love of mankind?  Where is the intercession for these people?  It’s all too often been replaced by mocking and a smirk.  My God, we must be humble and we must beware.

Remember, the Berean’s were not counted ‘more noble’ because they were suspicious and doubt-driven as they searched feverishly in the scripture for something they could use to defame people.  They were counted more noble because they eagerly received the news of a fresh move of God!  They couldn’t wait to dive into scripture!  “Look, yes!  This is it!  Look there and there and there!  God is moving in our day!”

Acts 17:11 (NIV) Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

Do we understand that the coming revival is going to bring a great and divisive disturbance in the church?  In a day where in a growing number of places the gifts of the Spirit are being minimized, and prophecy is despised and the Holy Spirit is quenched as an intentional method of attracting more seekers into our churches, the extreme manifest presence of God is going to serve as a wedge and an offense.

We know scripturally that we will be blessed if we are not offended.  We have to be wise, sober, humble and expectant of a reforming, culture-invading move of God that’s personally uncomfortable and socially disruptive.  Will there be reports similar to those that resulted from one of the greatest and most strategic revivals in human history?  Check out the spirit of accusation that was so arrogantly levied against the Azusa Street revival:

Christians from many traditions were critical, saying the movement was hyper-emotional, misused Scripture and lost focus on Christ by overemphasizing the Holy Spirit.^[9] Within a short time ministers were warning their congregations to stay away from the Azusa Street Mission. Some called the police and tried to get the building shut down.^[10] Scholarly preachers spoke harshly of the revival meetings; such as R. A. Torrey who declared that this new Pentecostal movement was “emphatically not of God, and founded by a Sodomite.” G. Campbell Morgan called it, “the last vomit of Satan.” Harry Ironside said it was “disgusting … delusions and insanities.” Clarence Larkin and many others were also openly critical. By the time the revival ended, it was thought by some that it was the result of Spiritualism. This was thought due to the fact that many occultists and spiritists attended the meetings and were comfortable in their midst.^[15]

Do we even know what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is?  Do we realize that it’s fully possible that many who have embraced a mocking, unforgiving, graceless attitude, and who report moves of God to be the activity of demons are actually in danger of hell?  The fear of God must be on all of us!

Mark 3:29-30 (ESV) ²⁹ but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— ³⁰ for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Now, let’s talk about Todd Bentley.  I’m an angered at the number of people who called the Lakeland Outpouring “Godless” and “demonized.”  A fire is erupting in my inner man.  How dare people (Christian people?) shout to the world that a mighty move of our holy God was actually a mighty move of unholy demons!  Does it sound at all like the critical and horrific accusations that were brought against Azusa?

Did Todd Bentley fail?  Without any question.  Todd nor Rick Joyner would ever say otherwise.  Am I concerned for Todd regarding his restoration process?  Sure.  Do ministers rush back to minister too quickly after failure at times?  Yes.  Is there a move of holiness and is God’s judgment landing on the church in great measure today?  Absolutely.

I was in the tenth row at Jimmy Swaggart’s confession.  I ministered with Ted Haggard.  My wife and I were receiving prayer by Todd Bentley on stage at Lakeland just a few weeks prior to the revelation of his failure.

All of these men operated in EXTREME anointing, and were massive targets of possibly millions of demons who had no other assignment night and day but to assault them with unrelenting violence.  These men are without any exemption to live a righteous life.  In fact, their judgment is more severe than the general body would experience.  However, they were tragically hurt by demons, by fellow Christians and, yes, by their own avoidable and terrible mistakes.  Yet, we cannot pretend we know the situation that only Todd Bentley and his overseers and restoration team could possibly know.

Someone very wisely just mentioned in a conversation on Facebook:

…AND if anyone does actually feel like they have 1. personal relationship with Todd 2. Intimate acquaintance with the details of his personal life and family leading to this situation and still has a problem – they should follow the Biblical mandate of confronting Him as a brother in the Lord (if they know him so well) instead of entertaining speculation on Facebook or blogs, biblically termed as either slander (if it’s false) or gossip (if it’s true).

Wow!  Slander or gossip!

Let’s grab God’s bullet points of what He really hates:

Proverbs 6:16-19 (ESV) ¹⁶ There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: ¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, ¹⁹ a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

How many of the seven are the finger pointers guilty of?  Maybe all of them?  The point is, we don’t want to be involved with anything God hates, even if we think it will help advance or protect the church.

Lakeland was extreme, bizarre at times, emotional and a magnet for criticism.  Not only were demons attacking Todd Bentley, but a huge segment of the Christian church was defaming, mocking and accusing him!  People twisted his words, ripped him to shreds on simple points of miscommunication or on non-absolutes of scripture.

I believe there must be an extreme prophetic anointing arise that will push back this mocking spirit of elitism and unbelief.  I applaud Rick Joyner for his response to Lee Grady.  We best be careful how we handle such situations.  God is in control of Todd Bentley.  If he returns too quickly, God will take care of business.  It’s actually fairly simple.

Times aren’t going to get more ‘normal’ and marginal.  God is about to arrive in power, and it will rock us to our core.  Here’s Rick Joyner’s response to Lee Grady:

Rick Joyner’s Response to Lee Grady’s Column, “The Tragic Scandal of Greasy Grace”

(Rev. Rick Joyner of Morningstar Ministries sent this response on March 12, 2009)

Lee, I think what you call “the Lakeland disaster” would be disputed by multitudes of people who got healed or touched there. If you are such judge of this what gives you the credentials? What moves of God have you led? What have you built? Paul the apostle claimed to have authority for building and for tearing down, but what gives you authority to tear down the work of others is having built something yourself.

I, Todd, Bill and Jack all know this is a very serious matter, and are treating it as such. I am deeply offended that you would call our work “a travesty.” The Lord had far more grace for sinners than for the self-righteous, who He had no grace for at all. I am personally far more concerned for you than for Todd.

Lee, I love some of the things you write, but I also feel that some are straight from the mouth of the accuser. I do think you have done at least as much damage to the church as Todd’s fall has by your unrighteous and unfair judgments. I don’t think you have earned the credentials for it, and you’re putting yourself in far more jeopardy by trying to be such a self-appointed judge.

I’m quite sure you will misunderstand what I’m saying, and I’m definitely not implying that we want to cover anything up, or promote cheap grace. We have just started the process and its being judged negatively. Give us some time, and some grace. Grace is, by the way, something we are supposed to be giving to each other.

If you care to follow this, Todd and I will be doing Video Special Bulleting each week that will be posted on our website, U-Tube, and carried by many others. These will be short, like the first, only about 10 minutes, but we want to cover the mistakes Todd has made, and as much as we can in the time we have, how he fell into some of the traps he did, strictly for helping others to not have to go through what Todd has. He will no doubt be doing a lot of public apologizing during this time because the public deserves these apologies.

I think you owe Todd, myself, Bill, and Jack apologies for your presumptuous judgments. I think they should be as public as this letter was. If not, I feel that I will have to address this publicly, and I don’t think that is in your best interest.

I also think you need to come down and spend some time with Todd and me. If you have problems with someone we have Matt.18 as a guide to how we should deal with them. Read the first part of that chapter. This was given to help protect people from becoming stumbling blocks, which the Lord made quite clear was something we do not want to be. If you think being a journalist exempts you from complying with Scripture, I would like to know what philosophy you have bought into that trumps Scripture.

Sorry if this comes across as harsh. I don’t mean for it too but I am quite busy and just don’t have the time that I would like to maybe be a bit more tactful.

Ok, let the conversation begin (in love).

John Burton

(Here’s the latest video by Rick Joyner: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1127600550639&ref=mf)