Finger of God

[Perry]

No worries Ian.

[askmatt]

I will say that I have only posted here a few times, so I don't expect anyone to fully know if they can trust what I say or not. I do try to make sure that my life is one of integrity, though. I was raised in some very fundamental churches. When I got older I felt lead to go to more of a pentecostal church. After experiencing both sides I have found myself settling somewhere in the middle. I stress the importance of the Word and fundamental teaching, but I also love freedom of expression in worship and do believe that gifts such as prophecy and tongues are very much alive today when in line with scripture. However, when things like gold fillings, gold teeth, gold dust and feathers were talked about I have been very skeptical. Then, one week ago while catching up with some friends at Christian coffee shop, one of our friends had some kind of dust that started appearing all over her hands. I don't know what gold dust looks like, but this sparkled and was amazing. While I didn't see it, she experienced it the Sunday before in church and it was seen by others. Both times it happened as she was sensing the closeness and glory of God. I saw it once with my own eyes and trust this woman very much. Just like I believe that tongues are a glorious gift from the Holy Spirit when used properly, there is no doubt that people can greatly abuse it and cause damage, so I believe that in this day God is wanting to manifest His presence like I have never experienced in my lifetime. However, just like gifts of the spirit, I believe that there are people who will take something like what we are talking about and abuse or try magnify the wonder in their flesh, just to make it sound even more glamorous, instead of just allowing the Holy Spirit to work the way He wants to.

Because of what I have seen, I do believe that God has begun to reveal Himself in amazing ways that we are not used to. I just encourage people to treat everything with prayer. There was a time when I would have been very close minded to these things, but since I've kind of opened myself up more to the Spirit and said, "If these things are of You, Lord, bring them on," I have experienced the Holy Spirit and even what I would call the miraculous in ways that I never did before!

As a dear friend of mine likes to say....Eat the meat and spit out the bones!

Blessings!

[Ian]

I thought this thread had died but thanks for your post, askmatt, which concurs with an email reaction from my Birmingham friend (he has seen this post). He is not contactable right now to ask him formal permission to reproduce what he wrote, but I`m sure he won`t mind me quoting the less critical part of it:

i don't know why these things happen - re gold teeth - the pastor of a brazilian guy who stayed with us for almost a year - well respected Christian from a large but poor church in N brazil - he found God gave him a gold tooth. the wife of one of the leaders of a church in B'ham that we know - she was out for lunch with another christian when they found gold dust appear on his jacket as they were chatting!!! remember that one guy who talked about this was the archbishop/bishop of iraq who is very highly respected - but what about the orphans in mozambique praying for people, the underground church in china etc etc.

I think these are signs that he's beginning to move towards the end times - it's like drops oil from his garments as he rises up to start to come back.

What is important is to look at the fruit of what happens - does it bring people into a sense of awe of the Lord? does it increase faith? does it increase a desire to know Jesus better? or does it lead people away from God, cause them to decide not to follow him or be like him.

In Romans 15:15-19 you can see Paul's testimony that he preached the whole gospel. And what does he say is the whole gospel? 'word and deed' in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit.
I think many of these weird things like gold teeth, gold dust, gems, manna, fragrant oil - are 'wonders'.
We know not why but stand amazed and wondrous: I cannot dictate to God what he can or cannot do.

[backwoodsman]

What is important is to look at the fruit of what happens

Your friend hit the nail right on the head here -- the fruit is certainly the best indicator of whether something is of God.

Almost everyone I've ever known who got caught up in this sort of thing either was Biblically illiterate, or got so engrossed in wanting to see signs, wonders and/or emotional experiences of what they thought was God, that they gave up all semblance of any discernment, wisdom or Biblical counsel in chasing such things. That was true of me when I was briefly taken in by these kinds of things many years ago; it was true of many I knew at the time, and of many I've known since.

Sure, the fruit looks good when you're blinded by all that excitement; but if you make yourself take a step back and compare it to what the Bible says about _real_ Godly spiritual fruit, and listen to sound Biblical counsel from cooler heads who have been there before and learned the hard way, it doesn't look quite so good anymore.

Time after time Paul warns us to stick tightly to sound doctrine and not be deceived by things that look like God but are really deceptions of the enemy. Things like the "finger of God" would be a really good place for Christians to put that advice into practice.