Let me first say that I did hint at an opportunity to un-request a review of this material, but since the request stands, here goes. I won’t be offering a product link lest anyone purchase it by accident — but I’m showing the CD cover art so you’ll know what to avoid if you should happen to see it somewhere. Yes, that’s a not-so-subtle foreshadowing of what I thought of the disc… I said on Twitter that this CD had no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but I have managed to stretch and find a couple.

I just pulled an envelope out of my mailbox from Mike Morell at The Ooze, as I’m one of those “select blogger” folks. Not that I’m out of reading material yet, but books in the mailbox always make one go “Oh, goodie!” inside. What I extracted from the envelope made me ask, “Mike, are you sure?” I set down the CD called “Toking the Ghost” to have a look at the book, which looked much more promising — it’s called Miracle Workers, Reformers, and the New Mystics. Hmmm, “New Mystics” (the emphasized cover text), I thought. “Should be good.” A slightly closer inspection of the front cover showed revealed the following text at the bottom: “Discover the lives of William Branham • William Seymour • Aimee Semple McPherson • George Whitefield • Sundar Singh • Brother Lawrence • Madame Jeanne Guyon • Charles Finney • Teresa of Avila • Smith Wigglesworth • maria Woodworth-Etter • St. John of the Cross • Jonathan Edwards • and many more!”

I wrote about BentleyLand the other day in a post that really seemed to strike a chord with a lot of people, and I mentioned the apostolic collision… collusion? collapse? Wagner called it an “alignment”, so now I know that the job of an apostle is to be some kind of hierarchical spiritual chiropractor. Grace calls Wagner on the reversal of his rhetoric concerning Bentley, who is is now distancing himself from. Little wonder, but as I said, he should have checked the guy out further before endorsifying him. Or whatever it is he says he did now. Turns out a lot more people are having their eyes opened… along the lines of what I wrote. A pro-Lakeland church leader quotes one of the “apostles” in Wagner’s network:

Yesterday it seems we had something of an impromptu synchroblog going as we offered responses to the  antics  ministries of John Crowder and Todd Bentley, with the labels of revival that have been tossed around. My thoughts as well as those of Robbymac, Kingdom Grace, and Bill Kinnon were born of an email conversation we had struck up following the thoughts of others, including Andrew Jones (see my earlier post for additional links). I love the graphic that Rob made up, and even Bill’s pic is a good one — he even looks thoughtful. The image on Grace’s post says a lot, and had me thinking about some years back when we were praying for a pastor for the church plant we were undertaking. A friend of mine on the team was famed for saying he’d even follow a donkey, as long as it was God’s donkey. Good line, but as I looked at the circus image, I was struck by the fact that following God’s donkey is alright, but you have to exercise discernment to make sure you don’t end up following the wrong ass. Just a general observation of course, not a characterization of anyone in particular.

The buzz of the day is around the old hyper-charismatic mess. Steve Knight opines on John Crowder who’s big on “Tokin’ the Ghost.” Yes, sadly, you read that right. I don’t know if it’s Todd Bentley-ish or what. Uh-huh. Here’s a few words to the wise should you get to watching the YouTube videos at the ends of those links. (1) When someone claims to have been through a “dark night of the soul” that ends with “spiritual power”, there’s a 99% likelihood they’ve never read St. John of the Cross. (2) When anyone starts using the phrase “whole new dimension” or “whole new level”, run away. (3) When you’re being told to ignore all that you know and believe only in the transrational “greater reality”, it’s time to exercise some sharp discernment… and use your brain. Seriously, claims of “bi-location” where one person appears in two places at the same time? What’s up with that? Did a simpler explanation never occur to anyone, or is it supposed to be a sign of faith to run to the most outlandish explanation? So I guess they’ve got this “revival” thing going on in Lakeland, FL. My email is abuzz this morning, and I’m thinking of Robbymac’s Post-Charismatic? book (link to Amazon.ca).