Strengths and Dangers of the Charismatic Movement: Hearing Voices

When I started hanging out with Charismatics, something that struck me very quickly about them that looked quite different from many of the believers I grew up around was how much patience and effort they showed to listen to the Holy Spirit in everyday conversations, prayer, or counseling times. I think the foundational belief of Charismatics in the continuation of the gifts of the Spirit for the modern day generally compels them toward a greater desire to walk in and hear from the Spirit every second of the day. As a result, you’ll hear a lot more language in Charismatic churches of “what the Holy Spirit is saying,” both to the church and the individual.

Strengths: I love that Charismatics want to hear from God and have the faith to believe that He actually wants to guide them through everyday life. Some of my worst decisions in life and most regrettable ministry experiences involve me thinking that I’m quite capable in my own wisdom of of doing just about everything I’ll ever need for a great life. Had I simply taken the time to inquire of the Holy Spirit as to who he was making me to be, or what he was up to in my friends’ lives, I could have avoided some really dark and painful circumstances.

Since hanging out with more Charismatics, I’ve found that in my conversations with others, I’ve become significantly more sensitive to what God is doing in their hearts and lives, and have become increasingly bold in declaring God’s truth over them. A lot of my speech has taken on an authority that just wasn’t there before (call it “growing in the prophetic” if you will), because my words are grounded in a deep conviction of specific truth that God is highlighting for the person across the table from me rather than taking some stabs in the dark as to wisdom that might be helpful for them. I’ve come to a deeper understanding of my own need to hear from God in order to do anything of eternal value (John 15:4-8), and it’s been incredibly humbling for me.

Something that’s also been pretty challenging and eye-opening is a practice that the leadership at Antioch Community Church: Wheaton has of beginning a prayer time three hours before the Sunday morning service to ask God what He wants to do that morning. This time doesn’t determine the all the programming for the service, but it allows the pastor, prayer leader, and worship leader some time to adjust and examine what they’re going to be doing that morning in light of what God is doing in their Body. This attentiveness to the Spirit feels much more life-giving than the idea of deciding all the church programming for a service weeks in advance, and just sticking strictly to the plan Sunday morning because that’s what was decided to be best weeks ago. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong about that method, because I think God can speak three weeks before a Sunday service in the same way He can speak that morning, I’m only saying that the idea of just “going with the program” all the time makes me a bit uneasy.

Generally, the thing that makes most evangelicals cringe about this sort of talk is the potential lack of responsibility for and testing of a so-called “word from God”. But I think a lot of churches with Charismatic influence do a pretty good job of teaching responsibility in hearing from God. I think the following clip from Bethel (among the most influential Charismatic churches in the United States) is a great conversation on some ways to practically discern the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Dangers: As with any practice in any church that invites God to move powerfully on behalf of his people, I think Satan really wants to hijack this intent desire to hear from the Holy Spirit, and turn it in some pretty dark directions. I think he wants to accuse Christians that silence from the Holy Spirit is actually spiritual deficiency in the heart of the believer.

Since many of the Charismatics I’ve been around are enthusiastic to tell others “what the Spirit is telling them”, I’ve noticed among some of the younger believers in these churches an incredible uncertainty in how and when God is speaking to them. This tends to have less to do with false teaching by church leaders, and more to do with lack of personal direction in what it means to walk with and hear from God from more seasoned believers with more developed faculties of spiritual discernment.

What I mean is, when a believer who is not well-versed in God’s word doesn’t seem to be getting nuggets of spiritual truth dropped from the heavens on a regular basis during their quiet times with God like it seems their leaders are, they can very subtly drift into a way of thinking that Christians have to attain a certain level of holiness just to hear from Him. I’ve heard subtle implications of this in the tones and laments of many younger Charismatics.

This, then, can evolve into a soul-destroying effort to attain this level of holiness by their own power, and if all their striving doesn’t produce the kind of faith that gets the Holy Spirit on speed dial, they may spiral into self-contempt. I found myself headed down this path a bit in my own mind as I spent time in some of the churches. I wanted to “increase in anointing” so as to hear God like the heavy hitters. But when I felt the spirit of Law inside of me, I began to repent. Just before the self-contempt came.

The comfortable alternative to self-contempt, of course, would be to convince yourself that your own voice is actually God’s, telling yourself things that sound spiritual or affirming, and calling it the Holy Spirit (which, as harmless as it may sound, is an idolatry of self and a horrible way of taking God’s name in vain). If you’re convinced that God is always talking to the really spiritual people among you, it’s far more emotionally bearable to hear your own voice in your prayer times and call it God than to believe that He isn’t talking.

Because that that would make you a nobody.

So then, when we’re pretty sure that in our prayer time before heading to the mall, God highlighted a lady in a lime green jacket for us to talk to and pray for (known to some as a pre-treasure hunt prayer time), and no such lady seems to exist after searching the whole place, we of little faith (i.e. me) begin to think that there’s either no God or He doesn’t talk to me like He does to other people, presumably because there’s something wrong with me.

Now, don’t hear me saying that every Charismatic responds this way or is susceptible to this thinking. The leaders I’ve met in these churches readily admit that often the lady in the green coat never shows up, and they’re secure enough to know that sometimes they don’t hear God quite right, or perhaps God has a purpose in giving them a vision that isn’t fulfilled right away. And I have no problem with that whatsoever. I just think there comes a great danger in telling younger believers of all the exciting stories of God speaking without being equally transparent about His silence and the disappointment we can feel, because it can lend itself to some pretty harmful false expectations. This is not necessarily a problem with Charismatic churches, but it is definitely a challenge for all of them.

I find it very comforting that passages like Acts 1:20-26 and Acts 15 show the Apostles asking God for help, and then doing something like casting lots or talking it out with each other, and just going with the decision, using language like “It seemed best to the Holy Spirit and to us to ______.” rather than “The Holy Spirit has clearly spoken to us saying _____.” The wording in these passages strongly suggests to me that the Holy Spirit didn’t clearly speak some clear direction in audible words to them, and if anyone should be hearing clear voices, it should be these guys. That makes me feel much better when I just have a sense of what God wants, and just go for it, rather than waiting on some magic moment in my prayer time to hear a clear direction from God.

The truth is, I think God is silent all the time. And I really like that. It woos me into deeper relationship with Him. If He responded to me with the answer I wanted every time, I’d never have to draw close to Him, never have to wait with Him or mourn with Him, and I’d probably expect Him to start waiting on me, answering my every beck and call. If you’re like me and the early Apostles of the church, and you don’t always hear a clear voice from God for all the direction in your life, you can rejoice in knowing that God is still good in keeping silent, and that He has a great love and purpose for us in doing so.

Related posts:

1. Strengths & Dangers of the Charismatic Movement: Name-It-And-Claim-It