Is Christ a Pentecostal?

When I first become a believer, I was brought into a strain of Christianity that had a high degree of Pentecostal influence. It brought me into the avenues of healing, deliverance, speaking in tongues, gifts of the spirit and emotional altar experiences.  Now all of this was equated as the presence of God, where He was speaking to people, filling people, prophesying through people for the distinct purpose of equipping them to be better disciples.

God does heal, He does deliver people from bandages, He does speak to us in prophetic language and He is still gives gifts to His Church to equip them to do supernatural work among people.  All of this is true and Biblically correct. However, I am not sure God intended any of this to be celebrated to the extent that it becomes a major focus in ministry.  Recently I was in a group of people where names of some of the leaders of these preachers were mentioned as if they were super stars.  It made me a little uncomfortable because these leaders were hyper pentecostal leaders who were being celebrated by the group as people of importance in spiritual status.  Now, testimonies of what God has done through His people are always encouraging and uplifting, but God shares His glory with no man, so when we try to elevate human beings to a spiritual status only reserved for God, I believe we just established a cult.  Are there cults within the Church today?  We have people who would defend a charismatic way of worship and forget to love their neighbor. We have people who spend there day in prayer, but never witness to anyone about Jesus.  We have people who study the Bible, but fail to come to know the God of the Bible. We have people who will exercise supernatural gifts, but won't pay their bills.  We have people who will prophecy and divorce their spouse. We have people who will have heavenly visions and dreams, and fail to have integrity on earth.  We have people who speak a strong message of holiness and righteousness, and yet in secret are unholy and unrighteous.  We have people who preach the word, and yet will be the first to depart from it when life gets tough.  We have people who preach against immorality, yet lust after the things in life, including their neighbors wife. 

You get the point right?  God doesn't need us to put on airs of spirituality that aren't about Him?  He knows how phoney we can be, and if we would allow Him true access to our lives He would convict us of wanting to be noticed by people rather than be servants of God. 

I may sound a little jaded on some of my thoughts today, but I want to make it clear that I am anti anything that takes away from who God is, and what He wants to do in and through our lives.  I am against the cults of spirituality that tries to convert us to a brand of thinking or behaving that is engineered by a denomination or by theological beliefs of leaders who are presenting a Christianity that is part spirit, part entertainment and a lot of marketing. Sorry, not for me. 

Is Jesus Christ a Pentecostal?  No, neither is he Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, or any other favor of Christianity. If He is anything, He is a Jew, and is coming back as a Jew to the land of Israel, where He will rule and reign. Perhaps we need a new reformation, one of honesty, and truthfulness where we honor Christ and not the people who promote Him. Christianity in American has lost it's soul, and we have tried to find it only to come up short. 

Listen to this short piece by Leonard Ravenhill and it will be quickly evident to you why much of the Church has lost its way. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv59vWZfJB0

Keeping it honest and truthful. 

K