What Lakeland Tells Me About the Church #3: People Still Want to Believe the Bible

Lost on all the vehement critics of Lakeland are the greater lessons the move has for the church, like the fact that people will travel half-way around the world to go to a meeting where they say they still believe the Bible.  I have been to a handful of Lakeland meetings.  And in all honesty, some were not that amazing.  In spite of that, I still go back.  Why?  Because there is the possibility that it could be the greatest meeting I have ever been to.

I have been to pretty good meetings in the past.  I have held pretty good meetings.  I have preached where the anointing was so thick people began to wail in their chairs.  I have preached in meetings where prophecy just broke out and half the people there received visions of the risen Jesus.  I see people get saved and filled with the Holy Ghost as a normal thing.

In this age where being an unbelieving believer is the norm, it is really nice to be in a room where 5-10 thousand people are gathering with the understanding that the miracles of the bible did not end when they made a cover for the book. And there are lots of these folks out there.  While all the non-fruit producing preachers teach their way through fables, scores of people are desperate to obey their Savior’s instructions to heal the sick.  They have this nagging hunger deep inside to believe that just like men in the Bible, we too as children of God can lead a supernatural lifestyle.

There are lots of preachers who are hell bent on teaching that God does not intervene in the lives of humans and that he does not use people for anything more than as pastors and teachers (or gifts that help pastors and teachers).  This doctrine of demons teaches that when the Apostles were martyred, the enemy won and was able to end the gifts of God in the church.  They seek to smear the reputation of any minister who would be bold enough to contend for the truth of the Scripture.

For better or for worse, in Lakeland, there is a man who is not concerned about his reputation.  And there is this other thing that happens, God moves.  I wonder how many people would attend these meetings if there were more ministers who believed the supernatural things of the Bible for today and did not care what people thought about it?