11 Toronto Leaders Speak for Themselves

WEIGHED AND FOUND WANTING by Pastor Bill Randies Toronto Eeaders Speak for Themselves The best and fairest way to try to put the Toronto Blessing in context would be to allow the leadership to speak for themselves. I have selected a sampling of quotes on a variety of subjects from a small handful of leaders. I will not necessarily offer counter comments on all of these. Suffice to say that some of the things said here I agree with and some I disagree with. The leaders I have selected to quote are by no means the only leaders of this movement, for there are many. In many ways, this truly is a nameless, faceless movement," as John Arnott told Charisma Magazine. There will be some comments to which I will reply, but briefly, as the rest of the book pretty much covers that ground. I urge you, as you read this, to consider two things. Number one, it is your responsibility to be a Berean and search the scriptures for yourself to see if these things be so. Number two, when it comes to examining a ministry or movement, the external manifestations are secondary, the main thing to examine is the message and it’s content!

John Arnott

I have already given you the testimony of how John Arnott entered into the Toronto Renewal. As pastor of Airport Vineyard, he and his church have been host to six day a week services continuously since January, 1994. They have, as of December 1, had at least 100,000 visitors from Canada, the United States, and all over the world! Six thousand of those visitors have been pastors, seeking to get a touch of God and to bring that touch home with them!

Arnott on God’s Purpose in this Revival

I have consistently heard John Arnott stress that the purpose of this visitation is in accordance withRevelation 2:1-29, restoring our first love. In short, this visitation is more of a renewal for the church then a revival (at this stage), which would result in the mass conversion of the lost. That is not to say that people aren’t being saved, according to them. But, the people in Toronto, including Arnott prefer to call this a refreshing or a renewal because it is primarily dealing with Christians. Ultimately, they hope it will result in conversion of the lost. Arnott, When it first broke out on us, I was so anxious to, Let’s get on with evangelism." I didn’t understand the purposes of God in what He had particularly for us here,... God has got a different dynamic going...God is renewing the church and then empowering the church to probably go and gather the greatest harvest the world has ever seen. (From his tape, "Receiving the Spirit’s Power.") Arnott on Hinckle’s Failed June 9th Prophecy

It’s always revealing, the attitudes people have about critical thinking. A common problem with leadership today is their refusal to criticize or judge the false. This is a tragedy for we need that kind of leadership more now than ever! A prime example is John Hinckle’s prophecy that on Thursday, June 9th, the Lord would rip all evil off the face of the earth. That "prophecy" was later spiritualized and revised to say that the "spiritual vail of darkness would be torn, allowing people to see the light!" The Kansas City Prophets and others allegedly had received "words from God" to the effect that for New Testament times, the standard for prophets was different thanDeuteronomy 18:1-22. According to them, a prophet" can be % inaccurate and still be considered valid! Unfortunately, thanks to people like John Wimber, their teachings have been widely accepted. You can see this lax view of prophetic standards in this Arnott observation! This quote may well have been said before June 9th.

[Arnott] People get funny when things like this happen... June 9th, there was a prophecy given by a reputable man,... that the Lord would tear open the vail, the shroud of darkness that is over the earth, that is blinding the earth, and as He tore the vail of the temple when Jesus arose, now He’s going to tear open the heavens and allow the glory of God to come down... I really hope it comes true... I know that He’s up to something... Don’t get too excited about dates, sometimes prophetic people are right about the event, but wrong about the date, [emphasis mine]

(I’m glad Daniel, Jeremiah, or Isaiah were never wrong about details in their prophecy. Speaking inaccurate things in the name of being a prophet may indeed no longer require the death penalty, but the sin is no less serious!) Arnott: God’s Getting Us Used to Him

We have had word after word about "get ready, cause you’re just on the hors d’oeuvres right now," but, the power is coming. We’ve had a word that said, you know, I’m just going easy on you now with this kind of stuff so you can kind of get used to me and acclimatize, because with the real power shows up I don’t want you to be terrified!" (From Receiving the Spirit’s power).

How Araott Learned to Receive

Arnott is very candid in his tape, "Receiving the Spirit’s Power," about how he had a hard time receiving, due to control, analysis, and fear. He relates in the tape how he had his friend, Benny Hinn, pray for him 50 times, and yet he never "went down under the power." Even if he did "go down" at a public meeting, the whole time he would be analyzing the experience, "Is that you God? Or me? Was I pushed, did my knees cave in, or what?" kind of thing. On the other hand, his wife Carol was to him, the most sensitive person in the Holy Spirit he had ever met. Eventually, he got to the point where he asked her how it all worked, this business of receiving from the Spirit,

"I finally start to ask Carol, "Honey, what do you feel?" Carol), "Oh, it’s just wonderful." (Arnott), "Well, help me," you know, and so she says, "Now, just tune in," and so I’d be tuned in and I’m there, going like this,... and maybe I’d even start weaving a little bit, and I’m thinking "Lord, do I feel something on my hands or am I just making this up? Is there something here or am I so wanting this?"...And Carol would say, "No, no, I can feel Him going in, I can feel Him going in, Just keep focused!" You know and then...she’d say, "Oops, where did you go?" I’d say, "What do you mean?" She’d say, "I feel it coming back on me, where did you go?" And I would realize my mind had drifted off again someplace. ("Receiving the Spirit’s Power")

(Did the apostles teach union with God through mental focus? Can you imagine Peter or Paul discerning the Lord "going in someone," then rebuking them for not focusing after feeling the Lord "coming back out?") On the Fear of Who Prays for You

Arnott has strong feelings about the church, "reacting in fear," as I quoted in an earlier chapter. To him, the church has an unreasonable fear of deception, fear of intimacy, fear of emotion, and in this case, fear of the wrong people laying hands on you.

[Arnott] Don’t react by even who’s praying, I get so tired of people saying, "Be careful who’s praying for you now, somebody might lay hands on you that’s not really free, and you might get something you didn’t bargain for" [crowd laughs].

Listen, you know what Jesus did? He’d walk right up to a leper and lay hands on him, He wasn’t afraid of getting leprosy!" and

Don’t worry about who’s praying for you, my goodness, there’s not a perfect person praying for people on the face of the earth! On Intimacy and Emotion

Arnott has a particular theme that he, DuPont and many of the others continually refer to, romantic intimacy with Jesus. I don’t think that passionate love for Jesus is a faulty theme, I myself am passionate in my love for Jesus, but how much did Jesus himself actually call people to concentrate on passionate romance for Him? How do you measure love for Christ? What does "a radical love affair with Jesus" mean?

[Arnott] Men, if you’re out looking for a bride, how would you like one who said, "Well, I’ll sign a contract with you and I’ll agree to all of those doctrinal items, but I will not be emotional with you ever. I won’t hug you, kiss you, love you, any of that because I don’t believe in emotionalism."

What a straw man! I’ve never met any Christians like that. Why is it that doctrinal allegiance always has to be brushed with the brush of being sterile, stuffy, and lovelessness? This next quote tells us that when it comes to the passionate love they speak of, don’t analyze, just go for it! The Holy Spirit wants to come and have intimacy with you. This is not the time to analyze... We’ve told hundreds of people, "Look, it’s all about romance, it’s not about analysis at all,’ and so when someone whom you really love, your husband, your wife, your friend, whatever, comes near to you and they’re kissing you, that’s not the time to analyze... "Ooh, why are they putting their mouth to my mouth? Don’t they know there’s more germs in the human mouth than any other part of the human body?" [crowd laughter]... You’d ruin the moment, right? ("Receiving the Spirit’s Power"). The Bible speaks much of those who are sensual, who lead people astray, they manipulate people by appealing to their discontent, dry times, or lack of "feeling God." Sensuality doesn’t always refer to the use of the five senses, in knowing God. The mystics were sensual, striving to base their unity with God on feeling Him, or seeing, hearing, and even smelling Him. This present move, is a mystical sensual revival.

Arnott on What to Expect

People ask us all the time, "What do you feel?" and that’s a valid question. At first, it’s almost imperceptible, but you think your hands are feeling a little heavier, this is my experience, and as you love Him, and stay tuned to that and say, "Oh, Lord, more of your presence," and it gets heavier and they begin to tingle, kind of, sort of like electricity and it can flow all up and down your arms and all over your face and up and down your legs and when it really increases, it’s like you’re being electrocuted, almost.

These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.Jude 1:19-20 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.James 3:15 Arnott On the Animal Noises

What? Animal noises? What are you talking about, Pastor Bill? I’m glad you asked. Animal noises coming from people is an increasingly common phenomena in the Toronto Blessing. And the leaders are having to give some pretty interesting interpretations to them. The following quote is taken from a question and answer session from the Wednesday, October 19, 1994, Pastor’s Meeting audio tape. The question is unclear, but as you will see from John Arnott’s answer, he is explaining the animal noises phenomena.

[Amott] All of the animal sounds are really interesting. A challenging question. Our official answer is, we don’t know why people do that, [crowd laughter]... If you eliminate the possibilities, it’s either demonic, or it’s the flesh, or it’s the Holy Spirit. Those are the three options I think, right? So assuming it’s the Holy Spirit, then what could He possibly be doing? And therefore, we see it as a prophetic message of some point. And always, the person will tell us how strong they felt. Did you feel His great strength going into you at the same time?

Answer unintelligible. [Couldn’t hear it].

[Arnott, in reply.] So, you felt great strength and greatly empowered, so it’s kind of a Samson anointing for strength. I don’t know what sort of noises Samson made when... he carried the gates to the top of the hill... he didn’t just go, "Oh, well, let’s just do this quietly."... He probably made this great roar... as he was empowered... it’s a natural impulse when people are going to war... because it’s the stronger spirit that wins as they say in karate.

Arnott goes on to explain that the roaring as lions and other animal noises tie in prophetically withHosea 11:10andAmos 3:6-7and incredibly with the cherubim ofRevelation 4:1-11.

[Arnott] It’s highly speculative and uh, very immature and undeveloped at this stage, but I’ll pass on some thoughts I had, if you want to turn toRevelation 4:1-11. We’re in the throne room of heaven. Now, one of the criticisms, even from within the Vineyard, ok, is that for human beings made in the image of God to make animal sounds is degrading and a slam against their integrity... The Holy Spirit would never do that. What we’re seeing is the animals themselves as a prophetic statement about the glory of God.

Arnott launches into a description of the four cherubim inRevelation 4:1-11, the one with the face of an eagle, lion, ox, and man.

[Arnott] And so now we’re starting to see people prophetically acting like lions, and oxen, and eagles, and even warriors. We had a phone call one time it said, One of our congregation’s been acting like an eagle, flying around the room. We can’t get them to stop, what do we do?" And we thought, you know, throw a rabbit out in the middle of the floor and maybe they’ll come down." [crowd laughter] "But, seriously, it’s a wonderful thing... we’ve seen it spontaneously in Steve Wood’s church, from St. John New Brunswick on the east coast, we had all four of those manifestations happening at the same time... What did the man look like? He looked like a warrior, just yelling, "Ahhhh !," you know. You see that, our first inclination is "that’s demonic!" But, that is too simplistic a view... It scared people so bad that many of them ran right out of the meeting... This little keyboard player lady, about 115 Ibs, she’s on all fours, just snorting and pawing the ground like an angry bull. That went on for a while and she’s frightened... she ran out of the room at one point. Carol went after her and we encouraged her, "You’re ok. Just let the Lord do what He wants to do. You asked for bread, after all, He’s not going to give you a stone." (Transcript from Wednesday, October 19, 1994 Pastor’s Meeting. Airport Vineyard. Toronto, Ontario).

Arnott goes on to say that at a leadership meeting with John and Carol Wimber, to discuss the problem, John Wimber concludes that there just isn’t enough spiritual ground to support that kind of phenomena. It was at this point, according to Arnott, that Carol Wimber interjected.

[Arnott] And his wife Carol, as only she could do in her way, is saying, "Well, wait a minute, John. If Jesus wants to bring His friends to the party, don’t you think we should let Him?" That’s good isn’t it?... "So if He wants to bring the cherubim from before the throne, and they’re... manifesting through different people of integrity, roaring and flying and all that, I don’t know." (October 19, 1994. John Arnott, Pastor’s Meeting. Airport Vineyard, Toronto. Audio Transcript).

I could go on, but I think you get the point. This man is the pastor of the Airport Vineyard, one of the primary leaders of this revival. I have tried to stay out of the way and allow him to speak for himself. Let’s move on to a few others who have been influential in the propagation of the Toronto experience.

Marc DuPont

Marc is an associate pastor at the Toronto Vineyard as well as a widely travelled conference speaker, much in demand. He is considered a "prophetic minister," in fact, a year before this outbreak, he prophesied extensively that it was coming! That prophecy is recorded in Guy Chevreau’s book Catch the Fire. On This Current Move

It’s always interesting to hear the perspectives on what is currently happening at Toronto and worldwide. DuPont has labeled 1994, "The Year of the Lion," after God had given himAmos 3:6-7.DuPont is also quite outspoken about his belief that God is partying with His people.

DuPont, "God is throwing a party right now and giving free food, which is Himself..." DuPont has another unique interpretation of what God is doing. DuPont, "This move of the Spirit is not just a Charismatic and Pentecostal experience concerning power or gifting. It is one thing to be clothed with power it is another to be indwelt with the person of God."

DuPont on the Church

Listening to Marc DuPont for very long, will leave you with either a cynical or at least a discouraging impression of the church. When I heard him preach December 1, 1994, he told us that God was bored with the church. In one of his tapes, he told us that when we bring people to church with us, "instead of seeing people drinking on the new wine, they see a bunch of people who have been mainlining on prunes." And, of course, the old "you haven’t been fed" charge is given a new twist, "We’ve been eating, old, maggot infested, dried out bread and we say this is revelation." Incredibly, this kind of cynicism can be quite effective in its impact on people, opening them up to discontentment. DuPont seems to be quite concerned about Christians becoming too doctrinal. He’s also one of the voices chanting the tired mantra, "Christians have more faith in Satan and the Antichrist’s ability to deceive us then the Holy Spirit’s to lead and guide us into all truth." His answer to that danger, "We have to trust more in our hearts than in our heads, and that is very scriptural,Proverbs 3:5-6.Jesus never said your theology would lead you and guide you into all truth. The Spirit will lead you." It is not scriptural at all to tell people to trust in their hearts,Jeremiah 17:9The scripture says,Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.In another amazing statement Marc DuPont accuses the church, that "We love the truth about Jesus more than we love Jesus Himself." (from the tape Lion of Judah.")

DuPont can say so much in one statement, just by implication. Let’s examine one statement, from his tape "Holy Ghost Train." "God is raising up a slightly different army of evangelists, motivated by the Father’s compassion rather than those motivated by cold, hard numbers, of either going to Hell or going to Heaven." Are you implying that up till now, evangelists have been "motivated by cold, hard numbers?" But, supposedly, we are different, we have compassion! Come on! I’ve never met any evangelist who was motivated by anything other than sheer love, this isn’t some "slightly different" army, or some new thing! These be they that separate themselves! The Mark of Marc

Marc DuPont believes that it’s the Spirit of God that is doing the violent, frightening manifestations that so many are experiencing. Once again, from the tape, "Holy Ghost Train."

God is not a gentlemen, God is God! God is not the great I was or I will be, right now, the dirty now and now. Not the sweet by and by... Quite often, when God’s spirit comes it’s a little more than crazy, how the Son of God comes on people! I’ve seen glasses fly across the room, I’ve seen marriage rings flying off fingers, I’ve seen boots and shoes flying off people, we’ve seen people destroy their clothes, almost being thrashed by the Holy Spirit! In a service that was actually led by Wes Campbell, Marc DuPont felt led to "move in the prophetic," calling selected men forward to be "ambassadors for the Kingdom of God" to other pastors and leaders in the Body of Christ because "it’s not a Vineyard message it’s a kingdom message, what God is doing."

Many leaders are going to be greatly shaken, I think that means not just theologically, but as already happening, many are being shaken in the spirit, it’s happening quickly, talk about paradigm shifts, many people are just losing their paradigms and that’s what needs to happen... I believe God wants to put a mark on many of you, even right now... He wants to put a mark upon you, I believe the Lord is going to start challenging you to contact other pastors and leaders that you’ve had relationship with in the past where maybe there’s been rocky turmoil things... God’s going to want to use some of you to be ambassadors for what He’s doing here, because He’s wanting this to go to other churches... I believe the Lord is going to put a mark on some of you and He’s going to put a burden within you for some other pastors, Lutheran, Baptist, whatever... We’re going to, uh, I see in the Spirit the angel, an angel, I don’t know if it’s the angel of the Lord, but angels are going to come and the Holy Spirit is going to put a cross on some of you...

I spoke enough of DuPont here and in another place to let you know enough about him. I’ll close with a little comment on his "mystical" ministry practices. On a tape featuring Wes Campbell, Marc is called forward to pray for a few of the pastors. In the ministry time, Marc proclaims that he is "placing a mark" on them, prophetically!

Wes Campbell

Another person who has been an influential voice, relating to this mystical revival, is Wes Campbell. Wes is the pastor of New Life Vineyard Fellowship of Kalowna. He came from a Plymouth Brethren background who says he often would use John MacArthur’s anti-Charismatic sermons, as a Baptist pastor. During a time of seeking for renewal, he found himself attending Vineyard Conferences. His worship leader attended a conference in Anaheim where, according to Campbell, "He was hit by the Spirit, and began to shake and bounce... for three to four hours at a shot." After going to see another pastor, to get prayer for this man, he began to bounce so violently, his glasses and his wedding ring flew off. Campbell said in a sermon, "His wife was afraid, my wife was afraid, I liked it." In the course of time, he says that the Lord began to release "strong manifestations of shaking and prophecy" into his conservative congregation. All of this broke out in 1988, but amazingly, Campbell himself had almost no manifestations himself. He believes that God used his sobriety, to allow him to be a "traffic director," and eventually to become an apologist for the movement.

It was Wes Campbell who produced the aforementioned paper, Prophet Sharing, 1992, Spiritual and Physical Manifestations. This paper was written to answer the questions that would inevitably arise, such as, "Why all this shaking and what is its purpose?" Under the first heading, Are Spiritual and Physical Manifestations Biblical? Campbell replies, In a sense that is a loaded question in that it may be asking if an issue can be proven by scriptural proof, or if the issue is acceptable based on scriptural principle. Of course, proof is always easier, but often in our Christian walk things are not that clear cut. More often than not the Bible tells us "what" to do but not "how." It states "absolutes," but not "forms." Hence in the 16th century, many reformers destroyed the church organs because they were not, quote, "found in the Bible." Of course, we know that this type of hermeneutic (means of interpreting the scripture) is faulty. So, to answer the question, are manifestation in general (ie shaking with prophecy) biblical? Yes. Is there a specific text for it? No. Do you see what he did there? I hardly think there is a comparison between what is happening in Toronto being questioned, and reformers destroying organs because they don’t see them in scripture! The one is obviously ridiculous, because the scripture plainly tells us to worship God. But, to imply that it is just as ridiculous to challenge these manifestations, on the basis of scripture, is unfair. Campbell does give a smattering of texts to look up however,2 Samuel 10:19;1 Samuel 19:20, andActs 2:2,Acts 4:31. In the same paper, Campbell attempts to anticipate possible objections that people may have to these manifestations. His answers to these objections are quite revealing. For example, Objection no. 2 states that, shaking produces fear and misunderstanding. That does not feel like God. To this he replies, Of course manifestations scare people precisely because they are of God. Every time God or the glorified Son appears, the reaction is immediate fear followed by an explanation and word of comfort not to fear. Why? Because the observer was in total fear... Moses and the people at the mountain; Daniel 10:1-21 John, Revelation 1:17; Gideon, Judges 6:23, Exodus 20:18-21 ... Whoever said that God’s presence should only bring peace doesn’t know God’s presence. The last two lines of this particular section speak volumes about where these people are corning from. Immediately after the last line, concerning knowing God’s presence, Campbell declares, "Let those who have communed with Him speak. Paul Cain and others." Those who have communed with Him? Paul Cain? These are the ones who are qualified to speak out about God’s presence, in this view, for these are the ones who have actually "communed with God." Whatever happened to, In that day... all shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest? In a tape recorded at the Airport Vineyard, Wes Campbell reminisced about the early times when "the Spirit" first began to manifest through shaking and prophecy in his church. Evidently, those were times when you could get questions you had answered by God, through people under this anointing.

One of the things that the Lord said to us through prophetic unction when this first happened was "Why does God shake people?"... Cause we asked Him, there were times when the Lord would move on different ones, and we could literally, in the early days, ask questions, they would prophecy and we would just say, "God why does this happen?" And then the answer would come through prophetic unction, and we would ask this. Why do we do this? And this would come through answer.

I believe in the gift of prophecy, but to inquire of God through a human being in the manner described above, makes that person into a channel, or an oracle. God doesn’t work that way. The anointing of the Spirit doesn’t come on people so that God can answer questions through their voice. Get a load of the answer, that this "Spirit" gave them. The second night He said this, He said, "I have come to you through... my Word and I tell you everything for life," and He says, "And you don’t listen"... Then He said this, "I’ve come through prophetic word and I’ve spoken, and you don’t listen,"... And all of the sudden, He went on David and He says (with emphasis) "And now... I shake you!... And now you will listen!"

Supposedly, God revealed to these people, that since we won’t listen to His written Word, or to the gift of prophecy, He has to physically shake us to get our attention! How did they learn this? Through a prophesied answer to a question, that was asked of God.

There is so much more we could say, I’m just trying to give you a feel for where these people are coming from. Judge for yourself! Listen to them, hear what they are saying. I can’t for the life of me figure out how people can openly state such positions and go relatively unchallenged. Can you see the mysticism being promoted? The faulty hermeneutics? The abandonment of the faith once and for all delivered? Heaven help us!

Let me close this chapter with a discussion of excerpts from Guy Chevreau. Catch the Fire

Guy Chevreau came out of the Baptist church. After a few years of preaching ministry, a hunger for more of "kingdom power" began to develop in his life. Before long, he was impacted by a church growth seminar featuring Mike Turrigiano, who told of his inner city ministry, which included outreach to heroin addicts, prostitutes, much prayer for the sick, healing and deliverance. It was at this point that he read Wimber’s Power Evangelism and Power Healing and began to shed his "de-supernaturalized" perspective.

Along with Wimber’s books, I was reading other church growth material: on leadership, innovation, infrastructure, time management, goal setting, and strategic planning, paradigm shifts and mission philosophy... Several years later, I resigned from a traditional, parish-based ministry and moved to a church plant setting, where it was hoped that we would have greater freedom to grow as a church that was unapologetic in its purpose: to be a supernaturally gifted and missioned community of faith, gathered to reach the unchurched through intentional relationship evangelism." (Catch the Fire, Page 12). The new church he started was soon determined to not be viable and by June, 1994, it was closed down.

But, in January, 1994, his wife, Janis, told him about the outbreak" of spiritual drunkenness at Airport Vineyard. Then he tells how he came to Catch the Fire. The next night, we came to the Airport meeting. I came more desperate than curious, and too desperate to be critical. As a Baptist pastor, I personally had not seen anything much by way of physical manifestation of the Spirit’s power or presence... It is an understatement to say that I was personally unfamiliar with the kinds of physical manifestations we saw at the Airport meetings, uncontrollable laughter and inconsolable weeping; violent shaking and falling down; people waving their arms around, in windmill like motions, or vigorous judo like chopping with their forearms. (Catch the Fire, Guy Chevreau, Page 13. Marshall Pickering).

It was Chevreau’s wife who first "took the joy." In fact, he tells us that Pastor Amott prayed for her repeatedly, leaving her on the floor, hysterical with laughter." Pastor Arnott actually prayed for her that she would stay that way, "in that state" for 48 hours. According to Chevreau,

She was that, and more, at times unable to walk a straight line, certainly unfit to drive, or to host the guests that came for dinner the next evening. Typically, she is able to prepare the meal ahead of time so that we can focus our energies on those visiting. When I returned home from work that particular night, the kitchen looked very unready for dinner, there was no food in sight, and when I asked about the meal, Janis nearly fell to the floor in hysterical laughter. I went out to buy fish and chips. On my return, our guests were already seated at the table. Without any place settings, Janis proceeded to toss hot, greasy fish to each of us; she dumped the box of french fries in the middle of the table, and then pushed little piles in our respective directions, all the while finding everything very funny. (Catch the Fire, Page 14). This is a testimony, not of one who is questioning this move, but of an ardent supporter. Catch the Fire is the definitive book concerning Toronto. I thought the Spirit was poured out to empower us to serve others! This drunkenness is more and more revealed as an exit into self absorption. As an example of this kind of testimony, Chevreau felt he should include in this book, out of all the possible testimonies he could have chosen, read this excerpt of the healing of a pastor’s daughter, of dyslexia!

[She] has struggled with dyslexia for her entire school career. [SheIsaiah 13:1-22years old]. From her early youth she had problems processing what she heard, and understanding both written and spoken words. Reading has always been very difficult. She often felt "left out" because of her inability to understand much of a conversation; she found it very hard to understand directions. In Toronto, she asked for prayer for her learning disability. We had been there four nights and had been getting ministry at every opportunity. Heather had many times, during and after prayer, shaken and jerked, and sometimes done dramatic dance-like movements. When she received prayer for dyslexia, she fell to the floor, very still. Later she told us that angels had done brain surgery. She heard God instructing them, and was told to be very still, because "This is delicate surgery." She also reported that one of the angels got so excited that she began playing with Heather’s brain, and that God had to calm her down, saying, "This is very serious, and not the time for play." (She thought that was funny). She felt herself on a cold operating table, and at the end, saw a picture of herself praying for other friends with dyslexia." (Catch the Fire, Page 171). This girl’s younger sister who is also labeled dyslexic, reported,

"The angels shaved my head, across the top of it from ear to ear. Then they cut my head, pulled the front of it open, and took out my brain." She drew a picture of how her brain looked, with a concave, indented area. ’That is what the angels worked on, pulling that out to be curved, like the rest of my brain. Then they put it back in my head and I could feel the tug of stitches, across the top of my head." (Catch the Fire. Page 172).

I can only see one of two possibilities here, for where these testimonies" have come from. Either these girls have a tremendously active (and morbid) imagination, or something demonic has happened to them. God has to cut your head open to heal you? He has to tell you to hold still, for Him to operate? He then has to rebuke an angel who plays with your brain? The main point, is not so much the stories the girls told, but that Chevreau, one of the chief chroniclers of this revival, actually picked them out of the thousands available, he used them for an authentication of this move. This is an example of the level of insight and discernment we have come to.