I spent much of my childhood and adolescent years trying to prove I was normal even though I didn’t go to
movies or dances. In the Pentecostal church I attended, movies and dancing were considered horrible sins.
Since I couldn’t join my friends in their worldly activities, I asked them to attend church with me, for we were
constantly being exhorted to witness for Christ by bringing friends to church.
The problem was that almost every Sunday the pastor would warn of the evils of Hollywood,
dancing, drinking, and smoking. He used to say, “If God wanted man to smoke, He would have put a chimney on top of his head.” Besides this, the service was always interrupted by two or three “messages in tongues” and interpretations.
Many times as I was seated with my unsaved friends that I had brought to church, Mrs. Newman would start
breathing funny. I had learned that this was the prelude to her speaking in tongues, so I would quickly pray, “Oh, God, please don’t speak in tongues today; my friends won’t understand.”
Either God wasn’t hearing me or Mrs. Newman wasn’t listening to God, because she would stand up, shaking all over, and deliver God’s message for the day in a loud, high-pitched voice. I would die inside as my friends giggled beside me. I hoped they weren’t committing the unpardonable sin.
I was always tense after the service as I waited for my friends to ask the inevitable question, “What was that?” I had a hard time explaining it because I didn’t fully understand it myself.
As a child I couldn’t help but wonder about these “messages in tongues” that I heard. Sometimes a short message was followed by a long interpretation or else a long message was followed by a short interpretation. At other times I would notice repeated phrases in the message in tongues and wonder why there weren’t correspondingly repeated phrases in the interpretations.
T h e M o u n t i n g Q u e s t i o n s
There were other things that bothered me about the church I attended. I wondered why, if we were the most spiritual church in town and had the most power, the other churches had so many more members. I was told that most people were looking for an easy way to heaven, and that the other churches were larger because they told the people what they wanted to hear. If our church did that, it would be full too—of people bound for hell.
Another problem I had with our church was its lack of love.
I knew that the fruit of the Spirit is love, so I couldn’t understand why there were so many church splits.
It seemed that there were always some members who wanted to get rid of the pastor and others who supported him. People left our church so often that, if all the former members of the church returned, we would have had the largest church in town!
Somehow, leaving our church was tantamount to leaving the Lord. Those who had left had surely backslidden in their search for an easier way to heaven. However, I often found myself wishing I could go to the Community Church or the Presbyterian Church. Then on Sunday night I would feel convicted for my desire to “backslide,” and I would go forward to the altar and get “saved” again.
I tried to prove that I was normal by excelling in school. I worked to be the smartest kid in the class, the fastest runner in the school, and the one who could hit the ball farther than anyone else. Unfortunately, most of the other kids in my Sunday school class tried to prove they were normal by smoking, drinking, and running around with the tough gangs at school.
Very few of them remained in Sunday school past junior high. Through the grace of God, and with deeply committed parents, I somehow survived.
T h e R e s u l t s o f M y Q u e s t
As strange as it may seem, I am convinced today that the dead orthodoxy of many churches could be enhanced by the gifts of the Holy Spirit in operation within the body.
Not the unscriptural excesses I observed as a child, but the gifts exercised in a solid, scriptural way, with the Word of God as the final authority guiding our faith and practice. With this in mind, I began a search of the Scriptures for a sound, balanced approach to the Holy Spirit and His work in the church today.
There must be a middle position between the Pentecostals, with their overemphasis on experience, and the fundamentalists, who, in their quest to be right, in too many cases have become dead right. The results
of my quest are recorded in part in this book, which I pray that God might use to lead you into the fullness of the Spirit-filled life.
Charisma is a beautiful, natural anointing of God’s Spirit upon a person’s life, enabling him or her to do the work of God. It is that special dynamic of God’s Spirit by which a person seems to radiate God’s glory and love.
Charismania is an endeavor in the flesh to simulate charisma.
It is any effort to do the work of the Spirit in the energies or abilities of the flesh—the old, selfish nature of a person.
It is a spiritual hype that substitutes perspiration for inspiration.
It is the use of the genius, energy and gimmicks of man as a substitute for the wisdom and ability of God. It can be demonstrated in such widely divergent forms as planning and strategy sessions, devising programs for church growth, raising funds for the church budget, or wild and disorderly outbursts in tongues that disrupt the Sunday morning message. Whatever lacks a sound biblical basis and demonstrates a lack of trust in the Holy Spirit to accomplish His purposes in the church apart from the devices and abilities of man is the work of the flesh.
T h e B a l a n c e d P o s i t i o n
This book will seek to present a scripturally balanced position between the detractors who say, “The devil makes them do it” and the fanatics who say, “The Holy Spirit made me do it.” It will also show who the Holy Spirit is and will describe His proper work in the world, the church, and the life of the believer.
We do not ask you to blindly accept all the premises, but we encourage you to search the Scriptures to see if
these things are so. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
