Terry Virgo on the Lakeland ‘revival’

Lakeland, Florida

On my recent return from the Ukraine, an old friend called and lovingly enquired regarding my wife’s recovery from surgery but concluded with the question, ‘Have you heard about the revival?’ I had not and my caller began to tell me about the sudden outbreak of healing that was taking place in Lakeland, Florida, and mentioned that his pastor was about to fly there.

I subsequently learned that CNN had broadcast that people were flying into Lakeland, Florida from all around the world because so many healings and miracles were taking place there and an ever-growing crowd was attending its daily meetings.

I’d like to make one or two observations at this stage – not because I feel thoroughly qualified, since my personal knowledge is inevitably limited and I am therefore very cautious to speak ahead of time, but because many have asked what my thoughts are.

Cautious negatives
At a recent gathering of our UK Newfrontiers pastors for days of prayer and fasting I shared my observations (a recording of that talk will soon be available on the resources section of this website). I began to speak with some ‘cautious negatives’ about what I was observing.

One of the unique features of what has been taking place in Lakeland, Florida is that it is being daily shown live on God Channel. Turning on the channel, I was alarmed and saddened to find that immediately prior to the visit to Lakeland viewers were invited to send prayer requests by e-mail to an ‘upper room’ in Jerusalem where they would be laid on an ‘altar’. I was horrified and deeply saddened that Christians were being encouraged to do such a thing when the Scripture makes it clear that we have a great High Priest who has gone through the heavens on our behalf. An altar in Jerusalem is hardly relevant!

This certainly did not get me off to a good start and for some of us that could be enough to write off all that followed as utter foolishness.

My second ‘negative’ relates to how we weigh or assess what we observe. Sadly some would encourage us, in order to receive something from God in connection with the activity of the Holy Spirit, to allow Him to ‘offend our mind’ in order to ‘reveal our heart’. Undoubtedly there can be an accumulation of intellectual knowledge which sadly ‘puffs up’ rather than ‘builds up’ but we make a terrible mistake if we want to find out whether something is of God or not by simply kissing our brains goodbye.

The Apostle Paul warns the Corinthians about being puffed up because of knowledge. But he also mentions the danger of becoming puffed up in ‘taking a stand on visions one has seen’ (Col. 2:18). It seems to me that humility is required on all sides when trying to assess these things.

Test all things
The Scriptures tell us to test all things and we need to bring them to the plumbline of the Bible rather than abandon all previous knowledge accumulated by submission to the Scripture’s revelation.

In ’94 and ’95 we in Newfrontiers did not embrace the Spirit’s activity which was so rampant among us by abandoning our minds but by looking closely at the fruit of what was happening and searching the Scriptures. I will return to that later.

A third concern I have relates to the general atmosphere and ambience of the meetings which can be observed on the God Channel. Sometimes there is a celebration of ‘freedom’ which debunks the supposed formality of church life. In some ways this can sound similar to what those of us who have enjoyed the breakthrough of being set free by the grace of God have experienced when we have realised we are no longer ‘under law’. Praise God for the freedom we enjoy in breaking out of mere religiousness! But sadly there can also be another sense in which ‘freedom’ is used to cover what can become debased into a kind of abandonment and mockery that does not seem appropriate. Indeed, the editor of Charisma Magazine has recently warned about the dangers of putting bizarre behaviour on a platform with the implication that it is normative.

What do you mean by ‘Revival’?
Another observation would be in connection with the use of the word ‘Revival’. It’s not strictly a Bible word so I guess we are free to interpret it as we like, but historically I have personally embraced what would tend to be the classic British evangelical view, namely a time of fresh activity of the Holy Spirit first among Christians, often leading to repentance and renewed devotion and prayer, this in turn developing into evangelistic breakthrough and conviction of sin among the lost leading to multiplied conversions and ultimately resulting in transforming impact on the culture.

What is being described in Lakeland is more of a phenomenal outbreak of healings and powerful signs and wonders among gathered Christians.

Of course, some people’s view of revival is so much rooted in history that they would crave a return to the days of the Puritans more than the days of the Acts of the Apostles. For myself, I would prefer a full recovery of New Testament Christianity.

But what about multiplied healings and can you ‘catch it’?
These opening remarks therefore seem to be couched in negative terms. However, a friend of mine who actually attended the Lakeland meetings for several days felt ‘I hate this … I want to get out of here’ but actually went on to be blessed and, as he watched more closely, felt that he saw remarkable compassion and mercy, particularly being expressed to large numbers of poorer people who were flocking to the meetings.

Since his return to the UK, he has witnessed a number of healings, as indeed others have. It is claimed that what is happening is ‘transferrable’, and perhaps this is what makes these developments so fascinating and, for some, magnetic in their appeal.
(To be continued.)