What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. -- 1Corinthians 14:15 (ESV)
One of the fastest growing heresies in the apostate church today is experiential Christianity. This is where our experiences are taken at the same level of scripture. In fact, the bible is relegated to second place and those that insist upon biblical truth are accused of being legalists or needing some deeper revelation of the spirit of God. As part of the false signs and lying wonders phenomenon, experiential Christianity seeks to place a shroud of mysticism over our faith. By mystifying it, the charlatans and hucksters are free to add to the bible what they see fit. It starts with silliness such as gold dust and gemstones but soon moves on to glory clouds and holy laughter. Check YouTube for clips from the alleged Brownsville Revival and see people shaking spasmodically and believing it is God. Check out the Toronto Blessing and you will see them rolling around on the ground and barking like dogs. Search for the Lakeland Revival and see Todd Bentley kicking and punching people to impart healing.
One of the more obvious false teachings within this paradigm is contemplative prayer. This is a widely popular practice in Eastern Mysticism and religions other than Christianity. It uses chants, mantras, repetitive phraseology, centering, and soaking prayers. The idea is to empty your mind and allow an emptying of yourself. They may claim it is to focus on God but the reality is you leave yourself susceptible to demonic influence and without the bible you have left behind, you are ripe for the picking. One example is the testimony of Kim Walker Smith, worship leader for the heretical worship outfit known as Jesus Culture; known for their experiential mysticism. Smith tells of a "waking visitation" where Jesus whisks her away to the throne room where she meets the Father face to face and he rips out a piece of his heart to mold a miniature version of Smith to dance for Him. I kid you not. This is what happens when you empty your mind and cast aside your bible. The Word would have informed Ms. Walker-Smith that she could not possibly meet the Father face to face and still live. Thus she would have realized it was a demonic encounter. The above link is from renowned false prophet James Goll. He calls himself Dr. James Goll but I refuse since he received his doctorate from another False Prophet extraordinaire; C. Peter Wagner. Let us reason together as Goll shills for contemplative prayer!
"Contemplative prayer has too often been relegated to ancient church history. But God is restoring it as a means to develop intimacy with Him. I have found that the most direct road to greater intimacy with God has come through the practice or discipline of an almost-lost art in the fast-paced church of today--something called contemplative prayer. More than a decade ago, this type of prayer came to my attention through some experiences God ordained. Since that time, it has become one of the central features of my walk with God." -- James Goll
God is most definitely not restoring contemplative prayer since it violates His Word! Read the key verses! We are not supposed to abandon our faculties in order to be intimate with God! When Adam and Eve were in the garden before the fall they weren't sitting in a lotus position and chanting. One of the signs of contemplative prayer is the abandonment of self yet self-control is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit! James Goll admitting that such an ungodly and unbiblical practice is central to his walk explains the wackadoodle prophecies he keep spewing. Like Kim Walker-Smith before him he has cast aside the verity and surety of scripture for the gooseflesh of lapping up carnal experiences and the devil is more than happy to keep feeding him.
"When I first began to practice it, I spent one full year reading only the Bible and the writings of the earliest Christian leaders, commonly known as the "desert fathers." The more I read, the more I realized I was on familiar ground. This was a road I was already walking, to some extent.
Contemplative prayer is all about the quest for intimacy with God. The Bible is full of references to this quest:
