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[This question] comes from Rod...
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Do Christians fall down involuntarily
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while worshiping God?
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I've been worshiping God
with the praise of my lips,
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and had all the strength
removed from my legs
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which has made me fall to the ground
or into the chair behind me.
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Is this a Biblical experience
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or am I being seduced by another spirit?
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I'm not one who wants to
place my faith in experience,
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but the Word of God
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knowing that the heart
is deceitfully wicked.
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Now here's the thing, listen:
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True Christians have experiences -
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no question about it.
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Being saved is an experience!
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I've never known a person truly saved
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that their salvation wasn't an experience.
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True Christians have
experiences. That happens.
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But you know what? Lots of
not-true-Christians have experiences.
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There is the Holy Spirit.
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The Holy Spirit, if He
bears witness with our spirit
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that we are children of
God? That's an experience.
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If the love of God is poured
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into my heart by the Spirit,
that's an experience.
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If men's hearts are
regenerated by the Spirit,
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you better believe
experiential things happen.
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If I become a new man,
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old things pass away;
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all things become new.
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Folks, that's an experience.
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You become filled with the Spirit.
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Acts repeatedly speaks about
that. That's an experience.
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But, demons also do experiences.
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There are unbelievers that
have demonic experiences.
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And they think it's of God. Ok?
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Here's the thing. How can
we tell the difference?
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Well, the Scripture talks
about testing the spirits.
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How do we test the spirits?
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By the Word of God.
That's absolutely right.
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And when we go to the Word of God,
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the Word of God teaches us
things about the Spirit of God.
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And where the Spirit of God is,
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the Spirit of God works
based on the truth
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that is revealed about that Holy Spirit
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in the Word of God.
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And so, there are certain
things we can look at.
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I would just say this: Sarah Edwards,
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Jonathan Edwards' wife, listen,
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she had an experience that went like this:
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She says, "At one time,
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my strength was immediately taken away,
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and I sunk down on the spot."
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Sound familiar? Just
like this guy's situation?
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"Those who were near raised
me, placed me in a chair."
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Sounds very familiar - this guy,
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all of a sudden his strength's
gone, he falls in a chair.
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All of a sudden her strength is gone.
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She didn't fall in a chair,
she went to the ground
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and other people put her in the chair.
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There was another time,
she says she was,
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"moved so exceedingly, she was
drawn so strongly heavenward,
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that it seemed as if her body
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were feeling as if it were
being pulled upwards."
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She said, "I felt as if I must
necessarily ascend thither.
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At length my strength failed me,
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I sunk down, and they took me up
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and laid me on the bed."
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Well, guess what? I've seen
pictures of Benny Hinn
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waving his hands and
people fell to the ground.
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Ok, Sarah Edwards falls to the ground.
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Benny Hinn's got people,
they fall to the ground.
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So which category does this guy fall into?
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Well, let me tell you something.
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Let me tell you something
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about what Sarah Edwards
said in the midst of all this.
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She said, "the presence
of God was so near
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and so real that I seemed
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scarcely conscious of anything else."
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Now listen to what she says,
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"God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
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seemed as distinct persons,
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both manifesting Their
inconceivable loveliness
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and mildness and gentleness
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and Their great and immutable love to me.
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I seemed to be taken under the care
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and charge of my God and Savior,
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in an inexpressibly endearing manner,
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and Christ appeared to
me as a mighty Savior."
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Can I tell you one thing
about the Holy Spirit?
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You know what Jesus
Christ said about Him?
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In John 16:14, speaking of the Comforter
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or the Spirit of Truth,
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"He will glorify Me, for
He will take what is Mine
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and declare it to you."
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Can I tell you what? Where
the true Holy Spirit is operating,
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is it any marvel that
the Father and the Son
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were made much of,
but where another spirit is,
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the "Spirit" is typically
made much of. Watch that.
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In the Pentecostal circles,
the "Spirit" is made much of.
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In these health, wealth,
prosperity circles,
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the "Spirit" is made much of,
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but where the Spirit is truly operating,
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He doesn't make much of Himself,
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He makes much of the Father and the Son,
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and especially the Son.
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You watch: whatever experiences
people are experiencing,
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is Christ being magnified?
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Is He the focus? Is He central?
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I'll tell you this: You've got people
falling down where Benny Hinn is?
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He prophesied that God would destroy
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the homosexual community of
America by fire in the mid '90's.
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In about 1994 or 1995,
no later than that,
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he also foretold that Fidel Castro
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would die during the '90's,
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that the world would end by 1999.
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Hinn has taught that the
biblical Adam flew, had wings,
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that he even flew to the moon.
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He's said that the Christian Trinity
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is actually God in nine
persons, not three,
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because the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost
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are each comprised of trinities.
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You know, Hinn said in one broadcast,
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"I've looked for one verse in the Bible,
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but I just can't seem to find it...
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one verse that says 'if you
don't like them, kill them.'
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I really wish I could find it.
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Sometimes I wish God would give me
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a Holy Ghost machine gun and
I'd blow their heads off."
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You know what Sarah Edwards said?
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"My soul was so filled
with love to Christ,
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and love to His people,
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that I fainted under the
intenseness of the feeling."
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You know what one of chief marks
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of true Christianity is? It's love.
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And where the Spirit
of the living Christ is,
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there's love for God's people.
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Hinn wants to blow their heads off.
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Sarah Edwards is so taken up
with a love for God's people.
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Listen: test the spirits.
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You know them by their fruits.
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Pauline's right, go to the Word of God
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and see the marks of the Spirit.
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Go to the book of Acts.
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Look where the Spirit was operating,
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where places trembled,
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where there were fillings of the Spirit,
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where there were supernatural occurrences,
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where there were experiences,
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and look in the midst of all of it,
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and look at the flavor,
look at the aroma,
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look at the fruits of those things.
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Weigh things out by the Word of God.
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Hinn gives himself away
as a false prophet.
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Sarah Edwards gives herself away.
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She's so entranced by Christ
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and by a love for the people of Christ.