The Pharisaic Spirit

Religious Stereotypes

I went to a great evangelical event yesterday, Saturday. It was the last of several meetings in Hull, a town on the East coast of England, where Nathan Morris, almost a local boy, was preaching. Like all the previous ones – it was packed to the rafters in there. After all, Nathan is the preacher who has taken the Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival all around the USA and he is returning there again on Monday. There were people milling around outside over 2 hours before the start. Excitement was high as healings and miracles had been the order of the day for the past two days. A street event had local people prayed for and brought to the Lord all over the city centre of Hull.

Yet miracles, signs, and wonders, wonderful though they are, wasn’t the highlight of the meeting, at least not for me it wasn’t. Nor was the awesome sense of God’s presence as we worshipped in the Spirit and Nathan felt compelled to stop preaching and stand aside to allow the Holy Spirit free rein. When he did that, the Glory seemed to fall and it became quite hard to move – those sitting unable to stand and those standing unable to sit. I was utterly unable to even speak for around 20 minutes. Some may rate that a joy, and others may rate it another miracle. The Lord simply held me silent until He released my tongue to praise Him again about 20 minutes later. Why? I don’t know. All I know is that He did it and I just stood there ‘floating’ in the Glory.

No, in all this, what hit me hardest in that meeting were these words of tremendous truth from the preacher. “Some people are more worried about the fact that I speak in tongues than the fact that a whole generation is going to Hell.” I still come very close to weeping before the Lord as I think about that statement. How can anyone get it SO wrong? ‘Speck’ and ‘plank’ I think are the appropriate words. There is so much religion and so many religious types getting in the way of God’s Kingdom. The pharisaic spirit is rampant in our churches and instead of simply throwing it out, we come over all PC and try to placate and appease it. How Satan must laugh at us and how the Lord must weep over our rebellion.

When there is more concern over doctrine than there is about preaching the Gospel and saving the lost, then the Church has demonstrably lost its way. When there is more concern over theology than there is about a demonstration of the power of God through the working of His precious Holy Spirit, then the next generation will continue on its journey to Hell because they think the Church does not care. The next generation doesn’t want to be told about the power of God – they want a demonstration – they want to see it in action. They want to see the lame walk, the blind see, and the deaf hear. They want to see the dead raised. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

This is what is being denied to the Church at this time by those who would rather see their man made rules obeyed than the wonders of God being displayed for all to see.