The IHOPU Student Awakening: Manifestations, part 1

I've received several questions and emails about this topic, so rather than answering them all individually I want to take a few posts and give you some of my thoughts on physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Are they from God or are they demonic? Are they carnal and fleshly? Are they biblical? And if so, what is their purpose? Often times we look for easy answers to difficult questions like these, and I’m not so sure that the answer is as cut and dry as we’d like – mostly because God the Holy Spirit is a Person with a personality as opposed to a coin-operated vending machine that dispenses Himself in a predictable measure every time.

To give you some personal background, I grew up in a church where the gifts of the Holy Spirit were welcomed and honored, but I don’t remember any physical manifestations of the Spirit on a person’s body that ever took place in the way that many would refer to them today. When I say “manifestations”, I refer to things like joyful dancing, falling over or being unable to stand under God’s power, being filled with God’s overwhelming joy and laughing, or shaking uncontrollably because of the Holy Spirit’s presence on a human body.

If you’ve attended or watched any of the IHOPU Student Awakening meetings at all by webcast, you’ve probably noticed an increase in the physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit on peoples’ bodies compared to what we normally see around here. When the awakening meetings first began back on November 11th, I was a little shocked as to who and how many people were moving their bodies in bizarre ways. Shaking, laughing, and falling down would sometimes occur in ministry lines at our weekend services, but never in a room corporately with so many people for such an extended period. It was obvious that something unique and different was happening in our midst, and it was clear to me that there would be new dynamics that we would all have to navigate in our hearts as a result.

Controversy has surrounded every move of the Holy Spirit since Pentecost in Acts 2. When the Holy Spirit fell in that upper room, the inhabitants of Jerusalem labeled the Spirit-filled believers as drunkards (Acts 2:13,15) because of their bizarre behavior. Similarly today, some may label those touched in an unusual move of the Holy Spirit as demonized because of the way they physically move, shake, laugh, or cry. Evaluation and criticism also comes at lesser levels, including distinguishing between biblical and extra-biblical manifestations and just labeling the extra-biblical ones inappropriate. Others are simply annoyed, distracted, confused, or even bitter that God is not touching them like “that guy”. (If you can relate to that last statement, read this post).

As I said earlier, I don’t think there is a simple way to describe what happens to every believer when the Holy Spirit touches them. When a holy God comes near a human frame, something happens. Unfortunately I think what we see in the western world is far from the experience of “normal” Christianity (as defined by Matthew 5-7 and the book of Acts), and as a result we tend to evaluate God and His dealings with men through the lens of our culture rather than the lens of the Word of God and the power of the Spirit.

Manifestations and the Bible

In light of this truth, it's critical to examine the manifestations of the Holy Spirit through the lens of scripture. However, the end-goal of this examination should not be to determine if a manifestation is unauthentic but rather to determine if that manifestation should be proclaimed as a pattern for all believers to contend for and operate in. I’ll explain why I don’t believe that it even matters to us if a manifestation is authentic or not more in my next post on this subject.

A common manifestation of the Holy Spirit as we see in the scriptures, especially in the book of Acts, is that of speaking in tongues. Tongues was the external evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Mark 16:17; Acts 2:4,11; Acts 10:46; Acts 19:6). Therefore, we can be confident that all believers can have the experience of speaking in tongues devotionally and that it should continually be a normative part of the experience of Christianity.

However, to say that every little manifestation during an unusual move of the Holy Spirit must be found in Scripture is not in keeping with our understanding of a sovereign God who can do as He knows best and wills to do. An example of this would be divine healing. We believe and proclaim this truth, but we do not conclude that God can heal only diseases mentioned in Scripture. Because there are many different instances of healing in Scripture, we know God is able to heal any infirmity or disease.

Likewise, there are many instances in Scripture when God moved with His power on human beings. The apostle Paul reported one of his experiences (2 Corinthians 12:1-5), but he never proclaimed such as a normative experience that every believer should seek, nor did he claim to be more spiritual because he had the experience. John also had an unusual experience on the Isle of Patmos (Rev. 1:10). In each case God manifested Himself to a specific person, in a specific time, in a specific way, for a specific purpose. These occasions were never recorded as recurring regularly for everyone. This does not mean that the manifestations were not real, only that they were special acts rather than normal everyday occurrences in the life of the believer. God is sovereign and creatively dispenses His blessings to His people, in His timing. With this in mind, we should not be seeking to actively defend every manifestation of the Spirit in an unusual move of God as a normative pattern for all believers or as an indication of the Lord’s presence actually moving upon someone. Through this, I believe the Lord works humility in all of us – those who shake or do strange physical things when the Holy Spirit comes upon them in an usual way and those who don't.

As we have been saying to the students and those participating in the awakening services, an outward manifestation is not a measure of the depth of encounter with the Lord. Some of the most profound encounters in this awakening have come through a simple laying on of hands or a simple prayer, without any physical manifestation in a person’s body. An outward manifestation is no guarantee that a person’s heart is changed and will be different 5 years from now. Thus, as we have been saying to the students, we should seek Jesus and set our eyes on Him, His glory, and His indescribable worth, not the manifestations. The end goal of these meetings are not to do say that we did bizarre physical things with our bodies, but to have our heart transformed into the likeness of Jesus by the power of the Spirit. I'm personally grateful that this has been the focus of both Allen Hood and Wes Hall from the beginning.

In my next post on this topic, I'll examine some passages of scripture where the Lord's presence had a dramatic effect on human bodies and give some more practical thoughts on manifestations. Facebook users and feed readers, feel free to leave your comments on the blog entry on my website if you have your own thoughts!