The feel good Christian

Last Saturday I went to a seminar on the events in Lakeland.
For who is not familiar with the events in Lakeland (and a few weeks ago, I was ignorant about it too): There is something happening that some Christians call a revival. For about half a year an eccentric person that has now disappeared from the stage held crowded healing services. From all over the world Christians came to Lakeland to experience this phenomenon or to receive healing. The services were transmitted live by the widely watched God TV channel.

During the seminar, these events were placed in a biblical perspective. And if you do that, then you see that what happened in Lakeland is contrary to what the Bible teaches us. Since you probably do not understand the DVD's of this day for they are in Dutch, for those who want to know more about it I like to refer to an article written by Dr. Andrew Corbett that can be found on the following page: www.findingtruthmatters.org/articles/charismania/.
It do not want to repeat all the arguments against accepting what happens in Lakeland as a revival. To me the bottom line is that we Christians are blinded quickly because we assume that signs also being used by God always come from God. But when these signs are not part of a complete picture fitting to God, it should ring a bell. If there is healing, but things like repentance, conversion, order and more are not present, then you know that this is not from God.

And that brings me to the message that I want to issue here. If all this is so identifiable and so clearly recognizable, how come that there are hundreds of thousands of Christians who accept it so easily and follow this hype without thinking? My conclusion is that a shockingly large and I fear growing number of Christians perception of faith is based on feeling. The perception of the faith is evaluated on the basis of the feeling that it gives. If on Sunday they go to the service and have a good feeling about, then it was a good service. If they visit a conference and then they are in a "Hallelujah-mood" afterwards, then it was a good conference.

But this verification by feeling is absolutely not biblical. The only biblical verification is to verify by the scripture! That is the example set us by the apostles.
If we do not meet the biblical truth, then we are a pawn in the hands of the devil. Then he plays with our feelings he has us believing whatever he wants.
Daarom moeten wij ons wapenen zoals ook de bijbel ons voorschrijft: Therefore, we must put on the armor of God as the bible tells us:
- The truth as a belt to the hips. Of this truth we can be sure because the Bible tells about it. For Jesus Christ himself is the Way, the Truth and the Life. (Jn 14:6)
- righteousness as a breastplate. Righteousness is made clear by the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:8) and the Holy Spirit does this by witnessing of Jesus (Jn 15:26). And of course we know Jesus through the Bible.
- fitting our feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. And of course we know the gospel from the Bible.
- faith as a shield. This is the faith and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ as He is made known to us by the Bible.
- as a helmet the salvation. The salvation through Jesus by the forgiveness of our sins (Col. 1:14). Realize this well! Through Jesus our sins are forgiven and the devil can no longer tell us we are guilty!
- and finally the sword of the Spirit. And the sword of the Spirit are the words of God! So the Bible!

If we are armed like this, we can not be deceived by our feelings. This is the basis of all verification: The Bible.
So make sure you learn His word; continuously! And whenever you do not know what the bible tells about something, search for it. Listen to what people have to say, but always check this on the basis of what you already know from the Bible or of what you can find in the Bible.

Only then can we can stand strong as Christians and we have the devil disarmed. That does not mean that we are not allowed to feel good. Quite the contrary. Especially when our religious belief is secured by biblical verification, we feel very good.
But feel good Christians are no good to us. Long live the know well Christian!