Should we be drunk in the Spirit? Should we get slain in the Spirit regularly, as a way of getting close to God, to being filled with the Spirit, and to getting our lives straightened out?

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IS GOD DOING A NEW THING?

The fact that no believers fell over or laughed hysterically anywhere in the book of Acts, even on the Day of Pentecost, is of no consequence to those who practice falling over regularly today at some charismatic gatherings. Explanations are given for this, dismissing any such observation in the determination to do it anyway, because, well, “we mustn’t question the moving of the Spirit”. Questioning what is considered to be the work of the Spirit in our day is almost blasphemy of the worst kind, and at the least is a lack of faith.

Most people wrapped up in this kind of teaching will not condsider for a moment that what is going on is, to put it mildly, a little weird to many others. Those who have fallen over in church and are now claiming their lives have been magically touched with blessings are up on the stage giving their stories. The ones who’ve gone away empty, or disillusioned, or even disgusted, are not paraded on the stage: their stories and their skeptical views and observations are never heard.

From the nineteen eighties the common answer to the above observation that the phenomenon wasn’t a part of the New Testament Church has been that “God is doing something new”. “You can’t put God in a box”, they’ll tell you. The Spirit moves on, and we shouldn’t expect God to act as He did in Biblical times: that’s old and stale and for a past era.

God may indeed be doing new things all the time, but those new things will never contradict what He has already done or said. You can take Biblical Scripture to the bank. Every word of God is true for ever. But in order to bolster false beliefs, while false teachers imply Scripture is now out-dated, they will still often use it in a faulty interpretation to attempt to prove a point.

IS IT BIBLICAL?

Some within tjhe movement will defend what does go on by telling you that yes, people did fall over in Bible times because the Holy Spirit knocked them over and put them to sleep. Angels made prophets such as Daniel fall over and pass out. Jesus made John fall over when he appeared to give John the Revelation. Jesus made his enemies fall over in the Garden of Gethesemene when they came to arrest him: all by the power of the Holy Spirit. With such claimed examples any questioning or caution is dismissed and ignored. If you are one brave enough to question, you are accused of not believing in the Holy Spirit, of doubting, of opposing the work of the Spirit, and of not having the Holy Spirit.

The fact that proponents of such phenomena as being slain in the Spirit have to an extent abandoned the fixed authority of Scripture is a symptom and a sign of our times. Once that happens people are open to all forms of deception, and as I’ve noted many times, the greatest warning Jesus and the apostles (the real ones) gave of end-times events was of deception. “Many” will fall to deception, said Jesus in his Olivet Discourse.

A FAKE SPIRITUALITY

You might be wondering how I can make such a strong statement. After all, it’s a harmless practise isn’t it? What can be wrong with rolling on the floor happily and babbling, if it makes you feel good and makes you want to come back to church next week? One of the answers to this is that being slain in the Spirit (though I don’t believe it is in the real Holy Spirit) offers a completely false spirituality. Falling over in this way is assumed to be a quick fix of your life. It immediately solves an entire string of problems. It makes you more spiritual (it’s believed) and it makes you appear to others in the same circle to be more spiritual. You know you’ve “arrived” sprititually when you speak in tongues and fall over in front of everyone else.

Magically, all sorts of problems in your mind and your body and life are sorted out if you’re one falling over in church, and you become a super-Christian: a spirit filled believer on fire for the Lord-just by falling over. You have been filled with the power to live a Spirit-filled life and be effective for God. Just remember to go back next week for another dose.

Being slain in the Spirit is seen as evidence of the presense of God, but as I’ve written before this is an idolotrous attitude, and actually the opposite of faith. It sees other gatherings where people don’t fall over as being devoid of the Spriti, when the truth is that Jesus said , “Where two or three are gathered, there am I in the midsr of them” (Matthew 18:20). God is there whether people fall over or not; whether you feel His presense or not.

A MOCKERY

Many people involved in the practise of being slain in the spriit sincerely believe they are getting closer to God, and that the Holy Spirit is really at work. However, I believe that at worst, at the heart of it all is a demonic mockery of the Holy Spirit. This becomes clearer when you see power-and money -mad preachers seemingly commanding dozens of believers to collapse and laugh, shreik or even bark hysterically. God is not the author of confusion, but of order and beauty.

THE TRULY SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE

The Scriptural truth-for those of you who haven”t yet abandoned it-is very different. Godliness; holiness; the Spirit-filled life, is about how we perform in the real world. How are we going to act among others? Are we going to submit to the leading of the Spirit and of Scripture in any given situation? Are we going to love, to forgive and to sacrifice through the day, or not? Please recall that Peter was at the center of events on the Day of Pentecost when the Church first came into being, but at no time on that day or any other did Peter fall over or preach that believers should be slain or drunk in the Spirit. Instead, this was Peter’s view of how to live the Spirit-filled life:

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;  and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins (2 Peter 1:5-9).

Peter’s solution, then, to being ineffectual in your Christian life, was not to fall over, or to speak in tongues, but to “make every effort” to live as you should in accordance with the ways of God.

This is the pattern of Paul’s teaching also, as well, of course as Jesus’. Scan the books of the New Testament and you will see no quick fix or short-cut to a Spirit-filled life. We are to walk in the Spirit by our prayerful attitude, by our obedience to God, and, as Peter said, our efforts to do what we should do in every situation. We can please God by being conformed to His Son in the way we live daily.

I’ve known many people who were convinced they were high up on the spiritual ladder because they spoke in tongues and fell over regularly, but the reality of their lives was often different. Yes, some charismatic Christians are very nice and even godly people, but some are not. There is no shortcut to godliness.

A BAD AND FAULTY WITNESS

As I noted above, there are legions of people whose testimonies are never heard, because they don’t fit the view of charismata being promoted. How many people have left churches having been put off by the odd and sometimes ridiculous things they see going on, when often there’s no real love or godliness? How many people have come to the threshhold of the church only to turn around again because of what they see? How many people have made up their minds they will never set foot in a church, knowing what their strange Christian friends get up to and believe in? It’s common among charismatics to regularly speak of such things as speaking in tongues and falling over, rather than preaching on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our salvation. The obsession with many is not the gospel, or even Jesus, but those events mistakenly associated with the Holy Spirit.

POWER TRIP

At worst, some teachers of this kind of practise are simply false, as Jesus warned they would be. They’re on a power trip – an ego trip – and leading multitudes away from Scripture and from the real Holy Spirit.They give the impression that they can dispense the Spirt at will and cause people to fall over by their power.

DANIEL AND THE ANGEL

There are several instances of angels, or the angel of the Lord, appearing to God’s chosen servants throughout the Bible. It’s claimed today that these people fell over before angels due to the Holy Spirit’s power intentionally “slaying” them. One such example is Daniel’s experience in Daniel chapter 10:

 I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; those who were with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground.

A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling (Daniel 10: 7-11).

Notice a few things about this passage. First, those with Daniel were filled with terror and ran away. They didn’t fall over. Daniel stayed where he was, but was filled with dread. Seeing this being didn’t fill him with joy, or peace, or confidence, or arrogance, as some church leaders have when they claim to even see God himself. Daniel was extremely afraid, as any of us would be if we saw this person in front of us. The effect of the vision on Daniel and the others was fear, to the point that it seems Daniel all but passed out: fainted.

Secondly, notice that there is no mention of the being causing Daniel to pass out intentionally. Instead, he told Daniel to stand up! It’s the opposite of what is being preached today! Daniel stood up…trembling. There was no joyous peace, no tongues, and no silly laughing. It was with fear that Daniel stood to his feet as he was told to do. Daniel’s fearful state continued for several verses:

When he had spoken such words to me, I turned my face toward the ground and became speechless. And suddenly, one having the likeness of the sons of men touched my lips; then I opened my mouth and spoke, saying to him who stood before me, “My lord, because of the vision my sorrows have^]overwhelmed me, and I have retained no strength. For how can this servant of my lord talk with you, my lord? As for me, no strength remains in me now, nor is any breath left in me” (verses 15-17).

Daniel had fainted with fear, and was strengthened and told to stand up, not fall over.

JESUS AND JOHN

A similar situation occurs in the first chapter of Revelation, which is sometimes used to bolster the practice of falling over in church. John fell over in the presense of Jesus Christ: so should we. However, a quick read of the chapter reveals that the vision John saw of Jesus filled him with fear, as it would fill us. John fell because he fainted. Jesus told him to be strong, and didn’t tell him to fall:

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest (Revelation 1:12-13).

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last” (verse 17). 

JESUS IN THE GARDEN

The claim is made that those arresting Jesus fell over as an example of being “slain in the Spirit”. Here’s the verse:

Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”

Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.

“I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?”

“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said (John 18:4-7).

Notice that in this case, when the arresters fell back, they were still able to talk. Notice also that they were unbelievers, not Spirit-filled Christians. Also, recall that there is no other such event of people falling over in the gospels, even though Jesus had the Spirit “without measure” (John 3:34 KJV) throughout his ministry. People fell at the fee of Jesus out of reverence, not because the Spirit caused them to fall over. It seems pretty obvious, therefore, that these people attempting to arrest Jesus were in such awe of him and of the respect he naturally commanded, that they almost couldn’t carry out their task. They were carried back in fear when the one who was so famous and so influencial actually answered them in the dark, and they fell over each other in a near-blundered operation. Fortunately for us they regained their composure.

SELF-CONTROL

It is said that being slain in the Spirit, being drunk in the Spirit, and losing control because of the power of the Spirit is the way to spirituality. This, dear readers, is a false teaching and a false spirit. It is a lie. And where do lies originate from? Scripture may, to some, be outdated, but God does not change, and neither does the path to godliness. Here, then is the Biblical response to those who counsel us to lose control.

The Christian walk is in a world opposed to God. We are, in a sense, at war, which is why we need to be alert and aware of what’s going on. By such means as getting stoned on weed or by being “drunk in the spirit”, we are not on our guard against deception and against our own fallen nature. Being drunk or stoned is, obviously, the opposite of being sober. Therefore:

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).

If you’re really walking in the Spirit, said Paul the apostle, you will display self-control. This, obviously is the opposite of losing control and the opposite of being drunk in the spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23).

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming (1 Peter 1:13-14).

Consider this one. Paul’s admonishments fly in the face of those who say that losing conrol is a good thing:

The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people (1 Corinthians 14:32-33).

But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way (verse 40).

CONCLUSION

I’m not trying to say that those who practice these things are all lost or in sin. Many are sincere, and have a genuine faith and love for Jesus. They can even show up the rest of us by their enthusiasm for the Lord compared to our own complacency and lukewarmness. God wants our passion indeed. However, many of those people are sincerely wrong. Some are led into false notions of what it is to be a Christian, even to the point of not following the true gospel of Jesus. And once you begin to stray from the guide of the words of God Himself-the Bible-you’re on very shaky ground, and open to extreme deception.

Gal fruit o

• APOLOGETICS
• FAITH
• THE HOLY SPIRIT