Revival: The Gift
- McLeod seems to have a direct pipeline to the Lord; his message
is frequented by such terminology as, "I said to the Lord," and
"the Lord answered and said ..."
- McLeod tells a story about a lady in a church, who incidentally was that
church's Sunday School Superintendent -- McLeod appears to have no problem with
women in leadership positions.
The Role of Prayer in Spiritual Awakening (2/89)
- McLeod claims that God personally talked to him about the
subject of prayer.
- McLeod extols the virtues of the huge churches (in membership) in South Korea,
apparently as an example of what can happen for God when we have revival --
"One church has more than a half- million members!" (This "one
church" can be none other than that of Paul
[David] Yonggi Cho's 700,000-member Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul,
Korea. Cho teaches that positive
thinking, positive speaking, and positive visualization
are the keys to success, and that anyone can literally "incubate" and
give birth to physical reality by creating a vivid image in his or her mind and
focusing upon it.) That McLeod would use this New Age/cult church as an example
of the results of godly
revival is mind-boggling.
Judging or Esteeming
- This message contains no balance whatsoever between what is
incorrect judging
and what is correct judging. McLeod claims Matt. 7:1-2 as the proof-text for
this message that, in essence says, 'all judging is incorrect.' McLeod would
have us ignore the heretical teachings of others and "leave it to God to
judge." (This would imply that no church discipline would be allowed
either, because how can we confront one another's sin if we must wait on God to
judge?) [Mt. 7:1-2 is clearly talking about judging one's motives (i.e.,
improper judging) instead of his fruits (proper judging); i.e., improper judging
is the indiscriminate, self-righteous, prejudicial judging not based on
discerning the facts. On the other hand, a "righteous" judgment, via
the discerning of facts, is commanded in Scripture, not prohibited (Jn 7:24).]
It would appear that McLeod would have us substitute unconditional
love and unity for Biblical discernment and correction.
- McLeod tells of a man who prayed to God during a church meeting to
"stop" a critical brother (from being critical) -- and God struck the
critical brother dead! (a modern-day Ananias and Sapphira story?).
- McLeod tells of an "Afterglow" meeting where "people coming and
kneeling at a chair [the infamous "prayer
chair" no doubt] asking for prayer." He then uses James 5
("confess your faults to one another") as the proof-text that we are
to publicly confess our sins to each other. (The context of the James 5
passage is clearly that we are to confess sin only fully enough to
facilitate prayer for one another, not to 'spill our guts' in common confession
sessions.)
- McLeod tells a story of a woman whose husband killed himself because
she left him and removed all hope for him -- McLeod claims that it was the
woman's fault that the husband killed himself ("she failed him"). (The
Bible, on the other hand, teaches that each is responsible for his own sin
[Ezek. 18]; there is no way a Biblical case can be made that the husband's
ultimate act of self, i.e., the sin of killing himself, would be attributed by
God as the sin of the wife.)
Dying to Self (Joseph)
- McLeod again reveals the nature of his direct communication with
God -- The Lord came to me and said, 'Would you mind if I gave credit to someone
else for something you did?'"
The Christian & the Occult
- McLeod details his artificial distinction between demon
possession ("total control" of an unbeliever's spirit
and will) and demon invasion (partial control/"oppression" of a believer's
body and will) [see asterisk (*) footnote to the CRF
review]. McLeod appears to be playing games with words because he teaches
that "oppressing" fiends must still be commanded to depart because of
their hold on a believer. It becomes virtually impossible to distinguish between
believers "deeply invaded" by demons versus unbelievers in a state of
"total control."
- McLeod's song leader prayed that a woman would go blind if she was faking
demon possession; she was faking, and the Lord struck her blind (until she
confessed all, at which time the Lord restored her sight).
- According to McLeod, a Christian's avoidance of the occult will not
necessarily protect him from demon invasion. McLeod gives the following
additional signs that a believer "very frequently" has
"genuine demonic invasion": less and less desire to be found in the
house of God; blasphemous thoughts against God [Can someone blaspheme
God and be a believer?]; inability to pray (solved by commanding demons to
depart); and body pain with no physical root.
- God "tells" McLeod (by a vision) exactly what occult practice a
lady was involved in.
- McLeod interprets the Luke 10 account of the seventy casting-out demons as
authorization for men (such as himself) to cast-out demons today.
- One lady, after McLeod helps her to cast-out her demon (apparently a demon of
bulimia), sees a vision of Jesus.
Recognizing & Dealing with the Occult
- McLeod details a testimony (found also in his book Fellowship
with the Fallen, p. 48), whereby a man is harassed by demons "poking
fingers in his back." At the invitation to come forward, the man walks like
a serpent, is knocked to the floor by a giant-like hand, and a demon's loud
voice comes from the man, petitioning Jesus not to cast them out. (Of course,
the demons had no way of knowing that their pleas were going to be of no avail,
because they had no idea that Jesus was going to honor McLeod's "prayer in
faith" from the day before). We are then told this
"demon-invaded" Christian's problem was not occultic involvement, but
that of resisting God's will in his life. Now, according to McLeod's theology,
even disobedience makes the "Christian" eligible for demon invasion!
- McLeod teaches that hypocrisy also makes one susceptible to demon invasion,
and that "occult manifestations" will likely occur, such as violent
"bed-shakings," "visions of floating faces," etc.
- McLeod tells of the case where a woman finally got victory "because we
commanded the demons to loosen their hold, we break their power in the name of
Christ, we address them directly ... commanding them to go into the
pit." (Doesn't God, in Deut. 18, forbid communication between His people
and demons; i.e., is not such communication a form of spiritism?)
- McLeod prays to the Lord concerning a lady's "problem" and the clear
"impression" from the Lord came to McLeod that "this girl is
demonized." McLeod asks the Lord (silently) for a sign of the demonization.
Subsequently, a woman present reads Acts 16 (aloud); McLeod now has his sign,
and proceeds to command the demons to leave the girl, which they eventually do
after tossing her around the room a bit.
- McLeod sometimes is unable to tell whether it's the Spirit of God speaking to
him through a person, or whether the communication is from a demon spirit in a
"possessed" or "invaded" person, so he asks the spirit to
identify itself (claiming 1 John 4 and commanding the spirit to confess that
Jesus has come in the flesh).
- McLeod can't be hurt by a demon spirit because he claims the blood of Christ
over the entire room.
