OK, so I’m late to the story (as usual) but I’m not buying that there have been resurrections because of the Lakeland Revival:

Hundreds are claiming healing from various ailments, including deafness, cancer, tumors and paralysis. There are also unconfirmed reports of the dead coming back to life. One of the cases involves a 3-year-old girl, dead for two days, who allegedly woke up and coughed as she was being wheeled into a room to have her organs harvested, Strader said. The hospital denied the report. Another case involves a woman in West Virginia who had three heart attacks last Saturday, but was revived after family members had made the decision to pull her breathing tube. The woman’s niece, Darla Pence, told Charisma she received prayers of “healing, revival and restoration for your family” one week prior to her aunt’s heart attacks from someone who had been to Lakeland.

How many times throughout the modern age have we had news of such a revival? Over and over again we hear of an outpouring of the Spirit of God and the healing of many people. People seem to need to be “touched by God” they want emotions and if they can’t see things happening then they don’t believe that God is in their midst. So they go to revivals looking for a closer connection to God. They want to experience God. But is it really God or just an emotional response to a charismatic preacher?Here’s a video of Todd Bentely claiming a 13th resurrection:(via)Where to start? Doesn’t a corpse have to be embalmed before it’s buried? I thought it was the law. And if you are in heaven with Jesus, why would you want to return to earth? Bentley admits that he hasn’t verified it, why allow a story like that to go out over the air until you’ve verified its truthfulness?And as I was watching the video, I kept thinking about his desire for the press to cover the revival. He keeps asking where is the press, as if he’s doing it for the publicity.I’m a cessationist, so of course I’m going to be skeptical but I would think that if God were outpouring his Spirit in Lakeland, then we would be seeing a powerful preaching ministry (that’s what happened with The Great Awakening) instead of focusing on signs and wonders. But here’s an example of Bentley’s teaching:

Here’s what happened. At first I saw heaven open, and as I ascended a ladder into the heavens I saw full vibrant wings and feathers! These feathers were white and as real as they would be in the natural realm; that’s how vivid it was. Then I noticed wings that moved and there was an arm under one wing and another arm under another wing! As the wings lifted I saw every precious gem you could think of under those wings; and then I saw the angel standing, having a body like a man with six wings. I knew it was the angel of finance.Next, I saw a door called “treasure” and the door was open. Without thinking or considering what to do, I found myself in a treasure room in heaven. The only item in this room was gold coins, and I began stuffing those coins into my pockets until they were falling out. Then, after filling up another pocket, I opened my trousers and started filling my trousers with gold coins. After that, I stuffed them into my suit jacket. I even opened my shirt and started stuffing gold coins down my shirt!Still in the trance, I asked the Lord, “What am I doing?” “You’re getting the offering!” He said. Now we weren’t receiving the offering yet in the meeting, but God said that I was getting the offering! Now, we don’t usually, if ever, see it that way, yet God was saying this because the offering, the money, is in heaven. After I heard that answer, I made a conscious decision (in this experience) to get even more gold. Now I was collecting more, stuffing as much as possible anywhere I could fit it, even my ears!

An “angel of finance?” Not exactly Jonathan Edwards, huh?Here’s what Jesus says of those who need signs and wonders to believe:

ESV Matthew 12:39-40 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. or just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.ESV Luke 11:29-30 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

Signs are what unbelievers seek, not believers.Miracles were bore witness to Chirst:

ESV John 5:36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.

The apostles performed miracles as a witness to the power in the name of Christ. They were necessary to establish the church but were no longer necessary when the church was established.