My wife and I went with a friend to the Toronto Blessing. (I was going there because I felt the Lord asking me to go to the meeting. I asked him why? To sit and observe only, he said.) The three of us took our seats and the service began. Holy laughter, sobbing, roaring, and various degrees of enthusiasm. Praise, worship and speaking in tongues. Words of prophecy. It was a lively meeting.
Later in the evening I asked God what it was all about. Some of it was from God. Some of it was from the enemy. And of course, some of it was the flesh. Here is my understanding of what was going on.
Some people got together under the umbrella of the Vineyard Movement. God began to manifest his Spirit in the meetings. This was a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit. The people became children in the eyes of God and acted accordingly. Laughing, crying, roaring like lions with all the exuberance and passion of children at play. This was wonderful. This was great. Eventually Satan wanted to stop it. He began to counterfeit what was going on to bring disgrace on the movement. Other people appeared to watch the show. Still others got carried away by their own flesh and reached earthly realms of mental ecstasy. It was a circus when I went yet I know that the hand of God was moving. With time I believed they would mature and the devil and the mentally aroused would be reigned in.
I haven’t been back since that time. Have they matured? I do not know. Yet God is still moving and the Blessing has moved to other countries. Hopefully with more maturity but with no less power to set free.
🙂