"The Bottom Line - Multitudes were saved in the book of Acts, but there are only a few examples of how they got saved. There is the dramatic conversion of Saul (Acts 9), the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8) and the Philippian jailer (Acts 16). Was your experience like theirs? If not, does that mean you aren't really saved? Do you see the foolishness of that sort of reasoning? The important thing is to get saved regardless of the example of how you got saved." - Bert Farias
The examples provided to prove his point are just ludicrous. And to do it defending any form of salvation is so dangerous. Read Matthew 7 and see the people who say Lord Lord when they stand before Christ only to discover they never knew Him. HOW you are saved is entirely the point! Romans teaches us that people are only saved through the true presentation of the gospel. Rick Warren declares people saved after a seven-word prayer. Joel Osteen never preaches on sin but declares you saved after each of his self-help messages. Narrow is the way and few are those who find it! Do not believe for a second that how you are saved is unimportant. I said the sinner's prayer in 1998 but was not saved until 2002. Do not be deceived. So many join a popular mega church. They serve and are happy. They are told they are saved. They last about three years and have a falling out. They never go back to church but still believe they are saved. Read Matthew 7 and work your salvation out with fear and trembling!
"Here is the wisdom to all these questions: The Bible is not just a book of examples but principles. If there is no exact example of it in the Bible, yet it is still in line with God's nature and principles, don't throw it out. Only from the Bible can we know the true character and nature of God and His principles, so the Bible is still our final authority." - Bert Farias
This is dangerously stupid. The bible is not just principles. It is the final revealed will of God! We can convince ourselves anything is of the nature of God but having to defend it with scripture is another story. The bible is our final authority, period. Of everything, not just His nature and principles. Let's examine this for a second using his own example of slapping the deaf girl. Does slapping the disabled line up with God's nature or principles? Of course not but Farias would probably say that the healing does. Yes Bert but why then did you slap her? Is God incapable of healing someone unless you slap them first? You see healing is in the bible but your actions to get there are not.
"A majority of God's principles are to save, fill people with His Spirit, and heal and deliver. He wants to see His people blessed and edified. He will never violate those principles, but there are not always exact examples of what He does in the Bible. After all, Jesus did many, many things that were never recorded: "There are also many other things which Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written. Amen" (John 21:25)." - Bert Farias
So than all bets are off? Is that the summation here from Bert Farias? Because the things Jesus did were so unaccounted for we can assume everything is ok? Drunk in the spirit? No problem because Jesus probably did this in one of those unwritten moments? Salvation leads to the filling of the person with the spirit, healing them spiritually, and delivering them from the hands of the enemy. These are not the principles of God. Farias has so much confused. According to this God will never violate the principle of wanting to see us blessed. All of us. That Jesus was handed over to death on a cross so that we might always enjoy temporal blessings. It is sad that this is what so many preachers have reduced the gospel to.
"Here's the bottom line. The Bible is not enough. The Word is not enough. We need the Word and the Spirit. We need the life and the manifestations of the Spirit of God. We need to judge all things, not just by whether they agree with the Word, but by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I've observed many strange and flaky things people have supposedly done "in the Spirit," but there was no anointing on it. We must also learn to evaluate things by the anointing. A casual observer will not be able to discern the difference between what is and what is not the anointing, and what is soul and what is Spirit. For example, I see so much in the so called "prophetic" movement today that does not carry any anointing, yet people are running after it." - Bert Farias
Well at least Farias was honest to admit that he does not believe the eternal word of God is enough. We must also have these man-created manifestations of the spirit. Look at what he asserts here. That discernment is not only achieved through counsel with the word of God but also with the "anointing of the Holy Spirit." How subjective can you get! I have seen many people swear by the anointing of utter charlatans! How many people swear by the anointing of Bill Johnson! How about when the entire NAR, including Johnson, went to Lakeland to anoint Todd Bentley a prophet? The reason why so many are false in the prophetic movement has nothing to do with some abstract concept of anointing and everything to do with the bible. The word of God says if they are wrong once, they are false. Period, end of story. I feel bad that Bert Farias is not satisfied with the word of God. I truly am.
"But the anointing which you have received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. For as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and just as it has taught you, remain in Him" (1 John 2:27). Familiarize yourself with the true anointing of the Holy Spirit, and with Jesus, the living Word. Go to meetings and places where He is in manifestation, for many of these things are caught more than taught. Learn to commune with the Lord in the Spirit. Pray much in other tongues. Learn to flow with the Spirit in your own private prayer time and communion with God. Get full and get free! Remember, the letter kills; it is the Spirit that gives life." - Bert Farias
