Steven Furtick had a great post here about a topic I unfortunately know about and have seen often. He has a very sobering quote that someone shared with him that is quite true:

There is very little that we do in the Spirit that we cannot fake in the flesh!

Being part of the Charismatic movement, I have been exposed to the genuine moves of the Spirit and unfortunately all of the fleshly displays of what some have passed off as a move of the “Spirit”. When much of what we do in ministry is based on performance, there is such a tendency to revert to recreating moments that we feel were “breathed” on by the Holy Spirit, in order to keep our acolytes coming back for more. I have watched as “men of God” manipulated people and hyped up worship and rhetoric to elicit a response from people. It makes you want to puke. The reality is though, I have been that guy that has used hype to get a response from the crowd. God forgive me.

When we look at the life of Jesus, there was an effortless flow of power from him because of his intimacy with the Father. Jesus did not have to hype up the crowd in to a fever pitch of uncontrollable frenzy in order for the miraculous to take place. He spoke a word, he sent people on their way, he made mud pies with his spit and applied it over someone’s eyes, he told people to pick up their mats and begin to walk, yet never do we observe him hyping up the crowd.

I echo Steven’s prayer, “God, keep us close to the Source of our strength.
Help us to never manufacture in the flesh
what should only be accomplished in the power of your Spirit.