Mishel McCumber
One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the apostolic and prophetic movement is being drunk in the spirit. “Have another drink” they shout, “Come and get some” and “More Lord”. However, do we really want to fill our glass with what these apostates are drinking? The truth is, nowhere in scripture does God equate the Holy Spirit with staggering, loss of control, disrupted motor function, slurred speech, confusion, disorientation, or stumbling around. In fact, it appears scripture teaches quite the OPPOSITE. We are admonished to stay sober and be vigilant and all the more as we see the end approaching!
Of course it is not surprising that the followers of the Apostolic and Prophetic movement would not know exactly what the Bible says about this. This movement discourages the use of scripture and exchanges the Word of God for “progressive” or “new” revelation from their prophets, and apostles. Questioning is never encouraged; after all, we dare not touch the Lord’s anointed.
Inevitably the verses in Acts 2:14-16 are used to prove that “getting drunk in the Spirit” is encouraged and sanctioned by God. Let’s look at these scriptures.
14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16
The accusation of drunkenness was leveled against these men because they were speaking in other tongues. The mocking bystanders, having nothing in their past experience to explain this strange phenomena thought they must be drunk. However, Peter clearly stated that THEY WERE NOT DRUNK. He flat-out refuted it! He very easily could have said they are drunk but not with earthly wine but he did not. He closed the door on this assumption altogether and stated that they were not drunk –period.
It would seem that we are admonished in scripture to remain sober and vigilant and all the more as the end approaches. Consider the following scriptures.
- 1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
- 1 Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
- Titus 2:6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.
- 1 Peter 1:3 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
Is spiritual drunkenness a blessing?
No! God sending drunkenness is always a sign of judgment in the Bible!
- Deuteronomy 28:29 24 He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. 25 They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
- Psalm 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. 26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. 27They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end.
- Isaiah 19:14 The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
- Isaiah 24:20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
- Isaiah 29:9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 10For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
- Isaiah 51:17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
- Isaiah 51:17 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
- Isaiah 63:6 And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.
- Jeremiah 48:26 Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.
- 1 Thessalonians: 6 Thereforelet us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
According to Thomas Shepard (1605-1649), an American Puritan minister and a significant figure in early colonial New England;
“Spiritual drunkenness occurs as the result of the excessive drinking of the pleasures of sin. When the wills and affections of men drink at fountains of forbidden pleasure, God will cause them to experience spiritual drunkenness. When they insist on imbibing the things their hearts should be weaned from, things which should be bitter to them, God will give them up to this. In this sense the Prophet calls the Kings, Priests and People, “The drunkards of Ephraim” (Is 28:1; Jer 25:15-18). The Lord puts His cup of just judgments into the hands of those he intends to destroy and bids them take their pleasure in sins. They lose all fear of death and judgment even when both are at their very doors.”
We are told that one of the main things that will characterize the end of the age is deception. Jesus warns us that the deception will come in his name and will be accompanied by miracles signs and wonders. He further tell us that these mighty feats will be so convincing that even those who truly know him (God’s elect) will find it nearly impossible to tell the difference! This will set the stage for the “lawless one” (2 Thessalonians 2:8, 9, 10) and the coming one world church. In fact the revelation of this lawless one will be accompanied by all manner of miracles!
The Bible tells also tells us that coming one-world-church will share the same mindset of as that of the Great Harlot! The Bible says they will be drunk with the wine of her fornication. Why was she called a fornicator? She had not remained true to her Husband (GOD) and had run after other deities! Her drunkennesswas therefore equated with idolatry. Thus the end time church will be literally drunk on idolatry. Is it any coincidence that all mystical and Eastern religions have the spiritual drunkenness phenomena?
In light of this I ask you, do you really want “another drink”?
I have been thinking of how love is so terribly misrepresented in the world today, for the last couple of days. What you wrote, that ties into what I have been thinking.
We know what the world says love is. It’s all about feelings and emotions, fireworks going off, and ecstasy. For many love is related to sex and an orgasm is ultimate feeling of love. In pop culture entertainment we see people fall in and out of love. When we lose that lovin feeling the end of a relationship will soon follow. Those people you are writing about might go into a church and proclaim that they do or do not “feel the Spirit.” Well, Jesus never said we’d feel the Spirit, but the that we would SEE the fruits. We do not always feel love nor do we always feel very loving toward others, but we should always see the fruit of love from those who say they love us and our love should bear fruit as well. Love has nothing to with feelings, as the world would have us believe.
Satan has woven that false notion of what love is intricately into our psyche. In the groups of people you are writing about that works perfectly in Satan’s plan to lead them from true worship to false worship.
If we want to get back to true worship we first need to know what true love is.
How do we know the Lord loves the world? He gave his only son.
How do we know what love is? Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
How do we know if we love Jesus?
“Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.” Deuteronomy 11:1
“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” John 14:24-25
How do we know if we love others? “We lay down our lives for our brothers and sister.” “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
I’m getting long winded, but I think we need to see that love is not a thing of the heart, it is a thing of the mind. Love is action, it’s a verb. We can whip ourselves into an emotional frenzy in our relationship with the Lord, just as we do in our relationship with a carnal lover. But that’s love, that’s lust. We love the Lord by showing mercy, helping others, forgiving, and understanding others.
Think about it this way; the emotional frenzy and a spiritual orgasm is all about me, it’s about self.
Look what Paul wrote, 1 Corinthians 13 “4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
Those things are all about others, not self.
Father, please let us know what love is, so we can worship you in Spirit and in truth. Amen.
BTW I also wanted to say that I was happy to see you posting things again. Thank you. What you write is welcomed, needed, and many are grateful.
Mishel, you have stated the facts well. Praise God. I hope everyone reading this will be blessed with the knowledge of the truth.
Very well said, Mishel. This should be a must-read for anyone associated with the prophetic/NAR crowd.
The Lord is not a silly goofball that would be part of this nonsense! I’ve seen this deception for years first in 1953 in the pentlecostal churches and tent preaches like Jack Coe who prayed for me after an burn accident for my arms telling me I had to have faith and giving me false hope, I was only thirteen.
Jack Coe died a few years later from polio, well his prayers didn’t work for him either! He was kind of like the Benny Hinns of today his claim to fame was that he had a tent bigger than Oral Roberts.I was one of those that attended his meetings in the Washington DC area along with 20-25,000 others each night hoping to get healed I was to young to understand at that time the deception these preachers teach and how they lead others to destruction.
You take all the fun out of it!
It is trully amazing how the Church has taken on every wind of doctrine of the world.
When I bring up this subject to people, they get soo angry as if they are recovering from a hangover!
Keep on contending Girl.. great article
…yes…this insane “spiritual drunkenness” crap is totally un-scriptural; I recall that several years ago there was another crazy “move of God” where folks were laughing hysterically. For me, I stay within the “safety zone” of the Gospel, i.e. the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ…no other doctrine!
I was at MSM for seven years. I also went to their school of the spirit. We are in agreement in regard to some deceptions. In fact, I question whether the ministry team (or at least some) were intentionally using techniques that the PHD’s of the world have learned concerning mind manipulation. Although, it is imperative that we not be naive and question everything in our quest for “The Truth” concerning the ultimate reality or what I would call, “The Knowledge of The Mystery of The Gospel of Jesus Christ”. Consider for instance the truth of obtaining a body like, “His”. Other events termed as supernatural such as Jesus walking on the water, etc. and how much of the church (in fact everyone born into the world) are pickled in natural mindedness. This condition that we are all born into is clearly (and thank God clearly, pun intended) called “confusion”.
I am in agreement with most of what you say concerning the coined term “spiritual drunkenness,” and that no teacher should encourage an act referred to as such. Nevertheless, I prefer to do more of a full analysis and give those that we correct more of a benefit of doubt.
Perhaps, they are like the Corinthians in regard this.
Perhaps, they or the hearers are confused about verbiage? Like many in the church still referring to some prophets as “troublers”, when the scripture clearly says that Elijah is not the “troubler” but those committing and teaching sin who were running the nation, i.e., Ahab and Jezzebel were the troublers.
My analysis would include teaching the listeners what really occurred at the “Plain of Shinar” what the church always refers to as the “Tower of Babel” and why. Particularly, what John says recorded in John 1:5; “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
In other words when God shows up the darkness within us is thrown into utter confusion. The audience on the “Day of Pentecost” were actually the ones confused and or we might say “drunk” and this is a very good analysis of the PHD’s of this world referring to the committed Christian as delusional when in fact they are the ones in delusion living in a cloud of confusion like unto drunkenness. That is when it comes to comprehending the ultimate reality of “The Knowledge of The Mystery of The Gospel of Jesus Christ”.
More could be said concerning…
Is there a way to edit these comments? I was a bit rushed and I just noticed typos and other editing that is needed…oops!
No only an Admin can edit- send me an email what you want edited and I will edit it for you- thank you for your input by the way- would be interested to hear about your experiences at MSM
Thanks for your response Mishel. It is just some grammar (or a lot, lol!) and something I should have tweaked. No big deal, just leave it. Perhaps, I will speak with you of my MSM experiences in the near future. BTW, I really like your site format and graphics. It is very clean and an overall good look. I recommend keeping it that way, don’t busy it up, in other words.
Hello, great blog! I was caught up in this deception of “spiritual drunkeness” and I really thought it was the true power of God but later found out the truth. My question is for you. How must you feel the presence of God through intercessory prayer? How would you know the difference between the real presence of God or a familiar spirit? I desire to know how I can hear and know that Jesus is really speaking to me. I’m filled with the HolySpirit but now I’m at a stage where I’m kind of confused. Through a particular ministry I’m learning the truth but since I am stripped from that way of “feeling the Spirit of God” in which I was decieved, how can you know its really God?
Wow, well said Mishel!
The church from the Toronto Airport is planting a church in the Dallas Ft Worth , TX area……….
Oh my, tragic. Do you happen to know the name of it? As a Canadian, I can only apologize that we are exporting deception to the United States.
Catch the Fire DFW is the name of the church. Alan Smith is the senior pastor. The USA ,too, needs to repent for its part in spreading heresy . 🙁
Mishel,
No need to apologize to the US for importing deception, i.e., the Toronto blessing… I fear that when the day comes for American’s to apologize to the world for all the deception our evangelists have spread, it’s going to be a very long list!
God bless you, sister!
Kathy
I just discovered your web site pretty late ( dec 2015). I have been well grounded in the WORD enough to be drawn to and repelled by these groups for a long time. You have answered a lot of questions for me about why I was repelled by what I saw and experienced. I first heard you on an interview and you said that you were prophetic before you got involved with Rick Joyners ministry. Do you still have that gift? The gift of prophecy that I have is well grounded in the WORD and 100% accurate and practical to the point where I see what will happen at work before I get to work and have already prayed through it. Then I watch the fulfillment and am able to minister to co-workers accordingly. I’ve seen enough of the nonsense you describe to understand your stand against it but am wondering if you have gone the other direction and oppose genuine gifts of the Spirit?