Really? How did you come to that conclusion?
I saw nobody making animal noises, no "tokin on the Holy Ghost", nor any serious focus on weird signs and wonders like this particular thread is against.
What I did see was an overweight unattractive bald man who against all odds somehow got the attention of millions. Nothing about the man was appealing to me, but I could sense God working through him. The lead musician couldn't even sing on key! How can anyone imagine that this was the hand of Man that wooed the nations?
Or do we assume that because the guy was flawed to begin with and fell into sin in the end, that it was the nearly-almighty spirit of kundilini who was responsible for the entire thing?
As with all things involving discerning of spirits, it started with my wife and I tuning in to God TV to see what we'd heard was this fantastic revival that broke out in Lakeland, Florida. Within minutes of listening to the worship, which sounded great to my ears, the Holy Spirit was telling both of us was seriously wrong. We were literally grieved, but didn't know why. So we listened carefully night after night and it soon became very apparent.
What we saw was a man who stood on the stage of God TV not preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified, but the good news of the healing angel 'Emma'. Todd stated that God told him 'not to preach on Christ', but to preach about the Angel' . . . that people 'already believed in Christ, but didn't believe in the angel'. So he taught on revival, on portals, on great outpourings, and on how when the angel arrives, people get filled and touched and healed.
And he invited Patricia King to speak on various nights, a woman who was his mentor. A woman who came out of witchcraft, but had just been publicly rebuked in a letter from the leading voices in the New Apostolic Reformation such as C Peter Wagner, Chuck Pierce, Cindy Jacobs, etc. They stated that her teachings on angels and portals and at-will visits to heaven contained very concerning teachings from the occult and new age; things she learned from her mentor, Bob Jones. Jones was once one of the leading prophets of the Kansas City prophetic movement, along with Paul Cain, but who was forced to step down from ministry for having women 'stand naked before the Lord' (and the prophet) in order to receive a prophetic word. Jones had been getting increasingly into occultic teachings on heaven and the like, most concerning was his stated capability to visit heaven at-will and he could take your hands and lead you there himself. Jones introduced Todd to his angel 'Emma' and other angels and prophesied to Todd about the revival he would lead. They believed Todd was to be one of the prophesied 'forerunners' who, like the Two Witnesses in Revelation, would be able to call down fire from Heaven and would be immortal, unable to be killed - teachings that Paul Cain, Bob Jones and others from the Kansas-City movement believed from their dominionist theology. They believed Todd was stepping up into this long-awaited status as super Christian, world-leader and he was paving the way for a new era in the Church. They were looking and waiting for this, and so it was infused with much hype which God TV was happy to fuel. I learned of these things as I investigated and traced down where this revival was coming from.
So Todd proceeded night after night to pray for people as they shook violently and wept and fell down encountering 'the angel' as he was taught by Jones. He told of people being raised from the dead, claiming dozens of such victories. He told of miracles beyond any being experienced in this day and era. He kicked them, even knocking one man's tooth out, claiming to operate in a Wigglesworth-like anointint. And the people ate it up night after night. Still never preaching Christ, not once.
So I contacted several I know from Charisma magazine and the Apostolic team that was brought in to help oversee and shepherd the event that was seemingly becoming bigger than anything imaginable. What the team discovered drew concern. They initiated a significant effort to track down and document some of the significant claims to prove the veracity, particularly of the dead being raised. They spent many hours trying to contact and fact check. They weren't able to verify any of them. In fact, just the opposite, they found there were no instances of the dead being raised at all. Todd was reporting stories of what people sent in via email, without ever checking on anything. Not unexpectedly, they were all lies and exaggerations. And when they followed-up on the people who stood on stage claiming healing, even those who were kicked and punched, they reported that they had, in fact, not been healed despite their testimony on-stage, a result of adrenaline and faith, but not reality.
I watched helplessly as friends and family were drawn to Lakeland for their healing and anointing. To a person, they were initially blown away thinking it awesome, but within a few nights began to be very concerned that something was wrong. One, in particular, took her brother who was dying of cancer. Todd laid hands on him proclaiming him 'healed' and announcing it from the stage, but within days he realized it didn't happen - he died a week later. They testified of strange spiritual problems in the wake of their visit - constant bad dreams, spiritual attacks, and a feeling of distress that only left after they received pray from a team here - they'd picked up demonic spirits on their trip.
Then comes Paul Cain, a man who had quite a history (legendary) in the prophetic movement, onstage to proclaim his validation of Todd and the revival. The only problem was that Paul was still supposed to be sitting it out after he confessed to a long-term pattern of homosexuality and alcoholism. But Todd wanted validation from his heroes in the faith and Paul was in his personal Mount Rushmore.
And then came the grand finale. The night all the co-called super apostles showed up to validate and anoint Todd. C Peter Wagner (global supervising apostle), Rick Joyner, Stacey Campbell, John Arnott, Dutch Sheets, Bill Johnson, etc, etc stood on stage and prophesied how Todd had transcended to that next level they'd been waiting for. They told how this revival would continue and not end and it would grow and magnify in miracles and lead to major spiritual changes. Little did they know despite their so-called prophetic gifts.
In a day or two, in complete contrast to what the prophets said, Todd's secret sins and instability came out. He left the revival. It was discovered he'd been having an affair with his staffer while his wife was struggling with cancer. It was discovered that Todd was in the bars at night in Lakeland getting drunk. He left his wife and filed for divorce. It wasn't a shock to his team who knew what was happening behind the scenes. It was his second affair in the past few years. One earlier resulted in him stepping down from ministry for a year while he got tatt'd and pierced all over (he lied on stage when he said he had the tattoo's before he got saved, he had a few, but got most the year of his adultery). He showed the spirit of the revival was not God, no way no how.
My friend who was on the apostolic team sent there said it was the most embarrassing thing the charismatic movement had ever experienced. It was all hype. It showed forth the so-called apostles who had no idea what was really behind the scenes and that none of the proclamations of healings and miracles were true. It revealed their agenda and their shame.
Having established that the revival was indeed, not the Holy Spirit, the only question is what was causing all of the physical manifestations we witnessed? Was it all hype and mass hypnosis? Or was there truly an evil spirit deceiving people and causing the shaking and swooning? Normally, I'd chaulk it up to hype. But with Todd preaching on angels and his embracing of occult teachings about portals and all, I'm actually leaning to evil spirits directly involved with that event. Todd courted and set the stage, literally, for demons to put on a show and they did. And the leaders of the charismatic movement today endorsed it wholeheartedly and in-person. To me, it was an absolutely perfect example of God turning them over to their sin of pursuing manifestations and an agenda that is not from God. God let them show the world their weakness and sin. Worst of all, only Dutch Sheets had the integrity to publicly repent. The rest spun it to make themselves look good. Shame on them.
One of the other things I learned weeks later had to do with Todd's past. I appreciate more than most the power of conversion and the forgiveness of sins. However, I was disturbed to read that Todd was involved in a sexual assault gang in Canada. They would literally go around looking for victims to rape and sodomize. When Todd was 15, he was convicted for sodomizing a 7 year old boy. Now, I praise God for reaching Todd, but there limits to those I would ever see in a leadership role in a church, much less elevated to the level of poster boy for the charismatic movement. If Charles Manson repented, would you put him on stage and ooo and ahhh as he prayed for people and preached? Of course not. For me at least, Todd falls into that same category. Based on what I saw at Lakeland, it does make me wonder whether he ever got delivered from the demons that manifested when he was roaming the streets raping innocent victims.
