AROME OSAYI AND THE ALLURE OF ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY (PART III)

“The Holy Spirit Does Not Produce Chaos”

By Akin Ojumu

Many Charismatic meetings resemble circus performances more than assemblies of Christian worship. They are boisterous, chaotic, unruly, and emotionally volatile. The typical gathering of the “Penterascals,” much like the disorder Paul condemned in the Church at Corinth, is combustible—charged with explosive emotional energy, heavy-handed manipulation, theatrical displays, and a great deal of theological gobbledygook.

These gatherings are frequently characterized by an apparent loss of bodily and emotional control. People jerk violently, scream, holler, babble incoherently, collapse to the floor, laugh uncontrollably, or claim to have been rendered helpless by “the anointing.”

The central question this commentary series seeks to answer is this:

Can such behavior legitimately be presented as evidence that a person has been “overpowered,” “intoxicated,” or “possessed” by the Holy Spirit? Can we reasonably conclude that someone experiencing these euphoric and ecstatic episodes is “filled with” or “under the influence of” the Spirit of God?

In previous installments, we established that God is not the author of confusion but of peace and order. The Biblical evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence is not uncontrollable behavior, but an increasingly Christlike life.

Even when genuine spiritual gifts operated in the early Church, those exercising them remained morally accountable for their conduct. This is one of the clearest principles governing Christian worship: the operation of the Holy Spirit does not abolish personal responsibility.

Those who are genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. They sing and make melody to the Lord. They give thanks to God and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

These are coherent, purposeful, relational, and morally responsible actions. The Spirit-filled believer is not spiritually intoxicated; he is spiritually governed.

In this installment, we will examine several other Charismatic behaviors that are frequently attributed to the Holy Spirit but are inconsistent with His revealed nature and ministry.

5. Falling Under the Anointing

Scripture records extraordinary occasions when people fell to the ground during overwhelming encounters with divine glory.

Ezekiel fell on his face after beholding a vision of the glory of the Lord. Daniel lost his strength during terrifying and overwhelming visions. John fell “as though dead” before the glorified Christ.

These accounts should not be dismissed or explained away. The glory of God is overwhelming, and frail human beings may become physically weak when confronted with an extraordinary divine revelation.

Nevertheless, several important distinctions must be observed.

First, these individuals encountered unmistakable revelations of divine glory. They were not standing in ritualized prayer lines where falling was expected, encouraged, rehearsed, or treated as proof of a minister’s anointing.

Second, they generally fell in reverence, fear, or physical weakness. In several passages, they fell forward upon their faces rather than backward into the arms of waiting “catchers.”

Third, falling was never identified as a spiritual gift, a sacrament, or a necessary sign that someone had received the Holy Spirit.

Fourth, God or an angel frequently strengthened and raised the person so that he could listen, understand, obey, and fulfil a divine assignment.

When John fell before Christ in Revelation 1, Jesus touched him and said, “Fear not.” The purpose of the encounter was revelation and commission—not the production of a repeated physical spectacle.

Scripture therefore allows for the possibility that a person may become physically overwhelmed during an extraordinary encounter with God. It does not, however, establish “falling under the anointing” as a normative test of the Spirit’s presence.

Nor does Scripture provide justification for ministers pushing people, pressing forcefully against their foreheads, blowing upon crowds, waving jackets, or creating an emotionally charged atmosphere in which congregants feel socially or spiritually compelled to fall.

A descriptive event in Scripture must not be transformed into a prescriptive ritual for the Church.

6. Writhing, Convulsing, and Rolling on the Ground

The clearest Biblical descriptions of people being violently thrown to the ground, convulsing, foaming at the mouth, becoming rigid, and rolling on the floor occur in accounts of severe affliction and demonic oppression.

In Mark 9, an unclean spirit repeatedly throws a boy to the ground. He convulses, foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid.

Jesus does not celebrate this manifestation as evidence that divine power has come upon the boy. He does not describe it as a spiritual impartation or a deeper encounter with God. He rebukes the unclean spirit and delivers the child from its torment.

Scripture never identifies convulsing, writhing, rolling on the floor, or losing bodily control as characteristic signs of the Holy Spirit blessing believers.

This does not mean that every involuntary bodily movement is necessarily demonic. Physical illness, neurological conditions, psychological distress, emotional strain, fear, exhaustion, and other factors may produce unusual behavior.

It does mean, however, that such manifestations must never be automatically attributed to God merely because they occur inside a Church building or during a religious meeting.

The location of an experience does not determine its spiritual source.

7. What About Weeping, Screaming, Laughter, and Jerking?

7.1 Weeping

Scripture contains many examples of godly weeping.

People weep because of repentance, grief, compassion, persecution, answered prayer, gratitude, or overwhelming joy. Jesus Himself wept. Paul served the Lord with tears. The people who heard Ezra read the Law wept when they understood its Words.

Genuine conviction may certainly produce tears.

The error arises when involuntary crying is treated as proof that someone has received a special impartation, entered a higher spiritual realm, or encountered a uniquely powerful minister.

Tears may accompany a genuine work of God, but tears alone do not prove that God is at work.

A person may cry because of sorrow, fear, emotional pressure, evocative music, painful memories, suggestion, exhaustion, or manipulation. The presence of tears cannot establish the presence of the Holy Spirit.

7.2 Screaming

The Bible contains cries of lament, fear, praise, desperation, anguish, and repentance. There are occasions when people lift their voices loudly to God.

However, uncontrollable screaming is never established as a normative manifestation of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

A minister cannot justify disorder merely by announcing that angels have entered the room, that a “portal” has opened, or that an unusual spiritual atmosphere is present.

Claims about invisible spiritual activity must still be tested by the written Word of God.

The more extraordinary the claim, the greater the need for Biblical discernment—not unquestioning acceptance.

7.3 Holy Laughter

The Bible recognizes laughter, gladness, and profound joy. God’s people may rejoice greatly, and there is nothing inherently unspiritual about laughter.

Nevertheless, Scripture never identifies contagious, uncontrollable “holy laughter” as a spiritual gift or as evidence that the Holy Spirit has fallen upon a congregation.

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. Hysteria is not.

Biblical joy is compatible with sobriety, reverence, self-control, and rational thought. It does not require people to become helpless, incoherent, or incapable of responding responsibly to those around them.

7.4 Jerking and Shaking

The Bible does not identify repetitive jerking, twitching, shaking, or bodily spasms as signs that someone has received the Holy Spirit.

A person may shake because of fear, illness, physical weakness, neurological disturbance, emotional intensity, or any number of other causes. But no minister has Biblical authority to transform such behavior into a doctrine of spiritual manifestation.

An experience does not become Biblical merely because it happens in Church.

Nor does an experience become divine because a preacher gives it a spiritual-sounding name.

8. Experience Must Be Judged by Scripture

Christians are not commanded to accept every supernatural claim unquestioningly.

1 John 4:1

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.”

1 Thessalonians 5:19–21

“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.”

These passages establish two necessary boundaries.

On the one hand, Christians must not dismiss every spiritual claim merely because it is unusual. On the other hand, they must not accept every manifestation merely because it appears supernatural.

The Biblical response is neither cynical unbelief nor naïve gullibility. It is careful discernment.

Every teaching, prophecy, experience, and alleged manifestation must be tested by questions such as these:

1. Does the teaching agree with the whole counsel of Scripture?

2. Does it exalt Jesus Christ, or does it magnify the minister?

3. Does it produce holiness, humility, love, truth, and self-control?

4. Does it edify the congregation?

5. Is it sufficiently intelligible to be evaluated?

6. Can the leader’s claims be questioned, examined, and corrected?

7. Is the gathering characterized by peace, reverence, and Biblical order?

8. Are people being manipulated, pressured, pushed, or socially conditioned to imitate others?

9. Is the manifestation being used to advertise the minister’s supposed spiritual power?

10. Does the experience lead people into deeper submission to Christ and His Word?

Emotional intensity is not necessarily false, but neither is it self-authenticating.

A quiet person may be undergoing profound conviction, while a highly demonstrative person may be responding primarily to music, suggestion, expectation, fear, peer pressure, or crowd psychology.

The visible intensity of a reaction is not a reliable measurement of the invisible work of God.

Noise is not anointing. Excitement is not regeneration. Emotionalism is not spirituality. A manifestation is not genuine merely because it is dramatic, unusual, or difficult to explain.

9. The Holy Spirit Glorifies Christ

Jesus described the ministry of the Holy Spirit in explicitly Christ-centered terms.

John 16:14

“He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

The Holy Spirit does not come to make a spectacle of Himself. He certainly does not come to construct a cult of personality around a preacher.

Where the Spirit is genuinely at work, Christ is exalted, the Gospel is clarified, sin is confronted, believers are sanctified, truth is proclaimed, and the Church is edified.

A ministry that continually directs attention to the spiritual rank, supernatural adventures, angelic encounters, mysterious experiences, and unusual powers of its leader must be examined carefully. More than likely, such a ministry is a place where Satan has his throne.

When the minister becomes the central attraction, Christ has been displaced. When the preacher’s alleged ability to make people fall, shake, scream, laugh, or lose control becomes the principal evidence of his anointing, the congregation is no longer being directed toward Christ but toward the supposed spiritual power of a man.

The Holy Spirit was not given to enhance the celebrity of ministers. He was given to glorify Christ. Any manifestation that obscures Christ, diminishes Scripture, suspends discernment, produces disorder, or magnifies the preacher bears little resemblance to the Biblical ministry of the Spirit of God.