David Alsobrook - Falling under the power : what about being slain in the Spirit?

Falling Under the Power

What About Being "Slain In The Spirit?"

David Alsobrook

Contents

Chapter One

1 Wheat and Chaff are Not The Same
Chapter Two
2 A Demonstration of the Spirit is Not a Work of Grace
Chapter Three
3 How Scriptural Is It?
Chapter Four
4 Wait a Minute, I Have Some More Questions!

Chapter One

Wheat and Chaff are Not The Same

I don't think I shall ever forget her face! I have "seen" the Lord's presence in His people many times, but never as I saw the Person of Jesus Christ in her kind expression. "Would you like this anointing of the Holy Spirit on your ministry, David?" I nodded affirmatively and experienced the electric-like power of God as never before or since. For seventeen hours His presence lingered sweetly upon me in a wonderful and unique way. Two airline stewardesses noticed it on the flight back home to Texas (where I lived eleven years ago). So did my younger sister, Joy, who greeted me at the airport.

What happened when Kathryn Kuhlman touched me and the power of God came upon me so mightily? I "fell under the power of God"

as the saying goes, or was "slain in the Spirit" as another might say. I do remember how my legs buckled and how hard it was to get back up!

My legs wobbled like jelly as I was assisted back to my chair on the platform. The distinguished gentleman sitting next to me kept asking, "Are you all right?"

Indeed, I was!

A few months later there was a miracle crusade in my town. The evangelist coming to conduct the city-wide meeting was billed as one of the most greatly anointed men of our day. I was excited about his coming and was eagerly inviting friends to the crusade.

I shared with one friend who had been diagnosed with advanced cancer about the healing power of Jesus Christ and the miracles I had witnessed in other meetings. I gave the Word to him, (as did another minister) and could see his faith rising stronger each day. We made him promise to attend the civic center miracle crusade.

He was there the first night. The "full gospel" type of message the evangelist presented was new and different to him, but his spirit was open for more of the Lord. When the invitation was given for cancer victims he went 6

Wheat and Chaff are Not The Same forward for the prayer of faith. The evangelist seemed to be slapping people on the forehead. I wondered to myself why he was pushing them so hard. When he prayed for my friend he hit him so hard his neck jerked back sharply. The evangelist then put his microphone to my friend's mouth asking, "Where's that pain now?" "In my neck," came his honest reply.

Angrily the evangelist ordered "this skeptic"

off the platform. Sadly, he died of the cancer a few weeks later, fully trusting Jesus as his Savior, but not his Healer. I heard dozens of reports in the weeks that followed of disillusioned people who testified "the preacher pushed me" trying to make them fall. A Baptist minister who had earlier expressed his interest in the gifts of the Spirit before his entire congregation withdrew to his former, traditional position. He too had been prayed for by the evangelist when a call for ministers had been made in one of the "anointed" services.

It is easy to see upon reflection that those who "fell under the power" in this man's ministry were untouched by the Spirit of God.

The effervescent joy of the Lord was missing from their countenances. They simply fell back into the arms of nonchalant ushers who lowered them to the floor. In all honesty, a few of the many prayed for were surely healed as God moved in spite of "the man of God."

Not infrequently I receive inquiries from sincere believers about the phenomenon of falling backward, which is common in full gospel/charismatic/pentecostal meetings. I am asked, "Is falling under the power scriptural?"

"Is it of God?" I am cautious not to give a blanket answer to these letters as I do not know what type of ministry the writer has witnessed or experienced. My honest answer is: there is a valid experience based upon the Word of God of a person falling in His presence...there is an invalid experience of a person falling by fleshly manipulation.

In this message I want to share with you other experiences I have observed in more than thirteen years of continual ministry. I hope to clearly distinguish what is of God and what is not of Him. I want to examine the scriptural records of this event and notice similarities and dissimilarities in our day. Please bear with me and God will reward you.

A friend of mine related an experience which occurred in his ministry. In one meeting the power of the Lord was unusually present to heal the sick. A number of the people who came forward for healing were dramatically "slain in the Spirit" on the way up to the front of the auditorium. No one but God touched them. It was like a wave of the Holy Spirit's power.

After the service one of those so touched was asked what it was like when she "fell out."

She replied without thinking, "I don't know because I fell in!"

Chapter Two

A Demonstration of the Spirit is Not a Work of Grace

When the Christian hating zealot, Saul of Tarsus, journeyed toward Damascus a light brighter than the midday sun shone upon him and his party. Years later when he stood before Agrippa, Paul testified, "And when WE WERE ALL FALLEN TO THE EARTH, I heard a voice..." (see Acts 26:13-14).

It was through this encounter on the road to Damascus that Saul, the persecutor, became Paul the believer. He definitely experienced the initial work of grace, regeneration of the Spirit, through his encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. The scales that fell from his eyes immediately prior to baptism signified the opening of his darkened understanding unto the light of salvation (see Acts 9:18).

When he fell on the ground it was due solely to exposure to God's presence. Notice: "...and suddenly there shined around about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth..." (Acts 9:3). Jesus Christ "dwells in the light which no man can approach unto" (1 Timothy 6:16). Out of this light he "heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? And he said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I AM JESUS..." (Acts 9:4-5).

What I wish to illustrate from these verses is the fact that EVERYONE who accompanied Saul fell to the ground. But only one of the company, so far as we can tell, was born again*.

* There is a theological debate as to the precise moment of Paul's conversion. Whether he was saved at the initial encounter or three days later after contemplating through prayer and fasting the full meaning of the apprehension is beyond the purpose of our present study.

They all fell, but only one got saved.

Furthermore we see a similar event in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested. The officers, with their torches and weapons, came to the garden to arrest nothing more than a religious troublemaker. I would like to quote from the Fenton translation the event which followed:

"Jesus then, knowing all the events that were coming upon Him, advanced, and asked them: 'For whom are you looking?' 'Jesus the Nazarene,' was their reply. 'I AM,' Jesus answered them. Judas, who was betraying Him, was also standing with them. No sooner had He said, 'I AM,' then they started backward and fell to the ground. He therefore asked them again:

'For whom are you looking?' 'Jesus the Nazarene,' replied they. 'I have told you,'

replied Jesus, 'that I AM. If you therefore want Me, let these go away'." (John 18:4-8).

One familiar with this story no doubt noticed that the above translation quotes our Savior as saying "I AM" rather than "I am he " as the King James Version quotes Him. Many of the modern translations disagree with the KJV.