Charisma the New Holy Spirit?

Emotion driven sermons are prevalent in charismatic churches. Scenes of a boisterous, excited, and determined preacher in front of a crowd of people worked into a frenzy praising the Lord. Music taking center stage with heavy baselines and syncopated drumming.

Is this the true form of the Holy Spirit?

I give you two examples where the situation is similar. When the Israelites left Egypt and the Red Sea was split in two. They walked across dry land to end up in front of Mount Sinai. Moses went into the mountain only to return to hear and see a similar scene to my brief description of some charismatic churches. God disapproved.

Another example are rap and rock and roll concerts. Here we have a charismatic band or artist working the crowd into a frenzy. Frenzy is not used in an uncontrollable fashion but usually it is controlled by chants and repeated movements. Again the same mechanics exist within my first description of charismatic churches.

I bring this out because the manipulation of a persons emotions is a form of abuse. We see it within abusive relationships where one partner uses their perceived authority as a way to apply pressure to the other party to conform to their will. In relationships, this takes the form of sexual , verbal, emotional, and physical abuse,.

Within some charismatic churches in particular, your emotional display has become the indicator of your full participation within church standards. This can be a dangerous position to take because your faith becomes, not based on your understanding but based on your emotional expenditure. Emotions are finite. If your emotions are triggered over and over long enough, you break. Within some churches, a person may become completely dependent on their pastor and the rush of adrenaline they get each meeting. In the extreme, some become emotionally dependent on the church and not independently strong, confident, and able to use their critical thinking skills.

So, no. Emotional manipulation in the form of charisma is not beneficial. It is also not the new Holy Spirit. Pastors must work harder to lessen this charismatic aspect and increase the knowledge base of the sheep in their care. There is an unfortunate balancing act pastors run into in this case. Our society is attracted to glitz and glamor. If pastors focus on real teaching, their flock is smaller. If pastors tickle the ears of their sheep, it grows. In our society, a growing church is a healthy church. This is the sad rock-and-hard-place I'm sure a lot of pastors have to deal with. This is systematic and unfortunately a symptom of greater issues we won't get into here.

The most important part of this equation is you. Let us simplify. Jesus mentions at Matthew 5:3 that those aware of their spiritual need are happy. Most of the time people stay constantly aware of their physical need but give no time to their spiritual needs. The basis of charismatic church theology feeds a physical emotional need. It is 8 parts emotion to 2 parts spiritual. You have to work 5 times harder to obtain any useful spiritual subsistence than you would approaching God directly in prayer.

Being moved by the Holy Spirit is not the same as being moved emotionally. Your experience with Holy Spirit will be a much more personal experience. Like everything else Jesus has done he sends the "helper" not for you to be approved in the eyes of men but more-so as your personal proof of approval. The emotionality drawn out through some charismatic churches is much more closely related to showy displays.

Charismatic churches hold a role within the spiritual realm akin to donuts in the nutritional realm. They are fun and tasty but too many of them rot your teeth and make you heavy and weighed down. So be careful and continue to build a personal relationship with God through his son Jesus at all costs.

May God bless your discovery.