It is with great concern that I write this. I hope that to all who might read this that you read with an open heart. I have been monitoring things that have been talked about on this page and many things are concerning to me. I desire to share my concerns with you. I know that you all are interested in knowing God and doing His will. It is also my desire to know God and do His will. Throughout my ministry I have always tried to do what I believe was God’s will. I do not want to teach anything or do anything that I am not convinced of myself. I do not base my beliefs and conviction on things that other people tell me to believe or not to believe. Instead I often search the Word of God and pray honestly asking the Holy Spirit to direct me and teach me what is correct and what is not. Chuck Smith always taught us that there are different churches because God has different personalities. God is not limited to Calvary Chapel. But those who believe and are comfortable with Calvary Chapel should feel free to worship in the Calvary Chapel way. If you do not agree with Calvary Chapel then you are free to worship someplace else. God is not limited to Calvary but if you choose to worship there you should search the scriptures and see if you are in agreement with what Calvary teaches and stands for. If you are not in agreement then you should move on to a place that suits your personality and beliefs. When I first came to Calvary Chapel, I came from an extremely charismatic and Pentecostal background. As a baby Christian I grew up under the teaching of Kenneth Hagen, Kenneth Copland, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggert, Morris Cerilo and a lady called Roxanne Brant. We used to attend these meetings all the time. I have been to Kathryn Kuhlman crusades where Benny Hinn was ministering with her as her assistant before she died. I have prayed for many people and seen them slain in the Spirit. At that time I felt my ministry was to impart the gift of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, and healing. I have been in more healing services than I can remember. In those years our prayer meetings were full of prophecy and visions. It was exciting. Some people got healed, some who were demon possessed were delivered and others experience the anointing power in great ways. However, we seldom studied the Bible. We would church jump and go wherever the Spirit was moving. For over 6 years my life revolved around prophecy, visions, and healing services. Then the Lord lead me to California and to Calvary Chapel. When I first came to Calvary I did not agree with their teaching about the Holy Spirit. I thought they were limiting the Spirit and quenching the Spirit. I could not accept their teaching on prophecy and interpretation of tongues. I was challenged in my beliefs. So I started studying and searching these things all over again. I would listen to Chuck Smiths teaching and the things he taught about the Spirit made a lot of sense to me. Chuck was from a Pentecostal background like I was, and he spoke my language! Things that he observed that did not sit right were the same things I had experienced and had seen. God used Chuck’s teaching to help me come to a balanced view of the work of the Spirit. I praise God for the teaching of Calvary Chapel and for the balance. After coming to peace and finding the balance God lead me to attend HSE (School of Evangelism) that was in 1978-79. After HSE, I want to Singapore for my internship. The church I was serving in Singapore had just opened up to charismatic things. They were getting deep into healing, prophecy, deliverance, and operation of the Spirit. It was a struggle for me as I was back into the same stuff that God had taken me out of. I knew how to function in this environment. I knew how to pray, how to function in a Pentecostal church. However, my heart was no longer open like before. I started questioning many things that were going on. Even though I was praying for people to get healed and they would fall down being slain in the Spirit, my heart would question was this the Spirit or just their emotions. I could not longer function whole heartedly in this type of ministry. While in Singapore we would have prayer meetings where everyone is praying together in tongues. This is typical charismatic style for a prayer meeting. In Calvary Chapel we do not pray this way but since they all prayed like that I was free to pray with them. While praying in tongues on 2 different occasions with different people, I was asked where I learned Chinese. I told them that I do not speak Chinese. On both occasions they told me that I was praying in fluent Chinese. I said no, I was praying in tongues. So then asked them what I was saying when I prayed. They told me that I was praising God in Chinese! This again confirmed to me what Chuck Smith teaches about tongues and interpretation of tongues. I always wondered, why someone would speak a short sentence over and over and the interpretation would be a long paragraph. Or why someone would speak a long message in tongues and the interpretation would be one sentence? After I came to Macau and learned how to speak Chinese, my prayer language was no longer a Chinese dialect. Sometimes it sounds like Burmese, sometimes it sounds like Korean, sometimes it sounds like a language from India like Hindi or something. But I know in my heart that it is always praise to God! I could go on with experiences. I have seen God work true miracles. Death people’s ears open up, liver cancer healed miraculously. I myself have been healed of various sicknesses miraculously on several occasions. However, I have also seen a lot of damage from healing services. I have seen many who claim to be healed in a healing service and then end up in the hospital because they claimed their healing and stop taking their medication! In the 1980’s I had close contact with a vineyard church. They would come to China on a regular basis. I even went to their church in California to speak and share. One time when I went they were conducting a School of the Prophets teaching seminar. I sat through their teaching and ministry time. It was no different from what I grew up with. They gave me many teaching tapes to listen to. I had a huge box of over 100 school of the Prophets teaching tapes. I listened to many of them but in my heart could not accept what they were teaching. After a while I had to toss these tapes because I just could not accept the teaching. Unfortunately the pastor of that church ended up dying of cancer at a young age. So sad, they taught people how to pray and heal the sick but he himself was not healed! Through all these and many more experiences which I do not have time to share, I have come to the conviction and belief that I hold and teach. I do not believe what I believe because I was told to believe it. I do not believe what I believe because I was told other beliefs are off limits. I believe what I believe because I have tested the Spirits and examined the scriptures. Over the years we have ministered to many people who have been ripped off by extreme teaching. God uses the balance of teaching His word and use of the gifts to bring healing and grace. How can we know truth? Do we learn truth because someone we know and love was healed? This is a dangerous way to test truth. Even if the person healed is your friend, do not base your belief on the experience alone. Do you base your believe on what a respected teacher teaches you? This is also dangerous. We need to always be careful to check out everything we are taught and see if they are accurate and in line with the whole counsel of God. Just because someone I respect and like teaches something, doesn’t make that teaching true. I have many great books in my library from various teachers and preachers. I do not agree with everything written in these books. If a man that I respect teaches things that I cannot find to be true in the Bible, I need to step back and say, I am going to check this out before accepting it. If it is found to be dangerous and unstable I will not accept it even thought he is a respectable teacher. I teach my own congregation to test the things that I teach. Don’t accept it just because I teach it. I have seen miracles performed by Buddhist teachers using “qi”. I have seen guys in a demonic trance do things that are supernatural. You can go to the Philippines and find people who heal by going into a trance and reaching their hand into your belly to pull out the snake or the rat that is causing you the pain! Even Mormons have angels and miracles in their meetings. If we base believe on the fact that someone is healed we are on shaky ground. Do I have to go into a Buddhist meeting or a Satanist black mass to know that they are false? Can we learn from people printed teaching or internet postings what they believe and teach without attending their meeting? Do I have to take heroin to know that it is addictive? There is plenty of evidence to prove that Randy Clark received his “blessing” from Rodney Howard Browne who received the same blessing from Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland. It is the same Randy Clark who started the Toronto blessing movement in the Airport vineyard in Toronto. This same Randy Clark is the leader of the Global Awakening moment. This same Randy Clark states on his website response to the critics, why Holy laughter, barking like dogs, and roaring like lions is from God! So my question is: How can Miles say in a sermon May 18th, after the GA meetings: “the Rock is the Rock and will always be the Rock. We will not start barking like dogs”. How can you take some of the teaching and leave the rest out. If you are open to what Randy Clark and GA are teaching, why stop when it comes to laughter and dog barking? Why if this is all of God and you respect the work that God is doing through these people will you tell the congregation that you will not go all the way? We can know them by the teaching that they teach. Not just from one meeting or one conference but from the overall teaching that they teach. After my looking into these things, for me they look no different from what I was taken out of. I prefer to stand on the balanced teaching of the Word.
Posted on: Tue, 27 May 2014 10:03:52 +0000
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