Slain in the Spirit
I had been to gatherings where “slain in the Spirit” occurred.
I was always one of the few who was not even touched in the slightest… Many people in such meetings seemed to get something. One time, at a youth convention led by Benny Hinn, hundreds of young people around me (I was young too) were falling all over—left and right; before and behind me—they were all slain, when Benny “blew air” to the audience, but I remained standing, the entire time.
I looked up at Benny Hinn, who was on stage doing his thing, and he didn’t meet my glance.
At the time, I was dejected. I had been doubting if I had lost my salvation since I was at a very young age, and this experience made me feel like the Spirit might had given up on me. Maybe somehow I had crossed the path of no return by having committed an “unforgivable” sin?
I saw that some of the most handicapped people at the convention remained unhealed. They were quickly led passed the stage when people were taking turn to receive prayer from Benny on stage. The visibly handicapped weren’t healed!
I had been to several other gatherings, large or small, when slain in the Spirit occurred, and one time a pastor slightly pushed me when he laid hand on my chest to pray for me, and I remained standing. He moved on to the next person. This was what they all did when you didn’t manifest anything—they would move on to the next person.
These gatherings were always long winded. They began with great music, and then some teachings or testimonies, and then there came the “slain in the Spirit”, or other “manifestations”.
Now that I have read something about hypnotism, and watched some stage performances, I can’t help but to link this type of Christian meetings to hypnotism.
The way they conduct the miracle meeting is filled with signs of hypnotism—they way they make verbal suggestions throughout the meeting, the way they pump up emotions of the audience… you will know what I am talking about if you read some books on hypnotism.
Hypnotism or Biblical Practice?
There were many differences between miracles in the Bible, and miracles in modern faith healing gathering. The miracles in the Bible didn’t require long winded sermons, catchy music, and “slain in the Spirit”. There were no warm up. Jesus or his disciples would see the sick, and heal them right there and there. The blind would see. The deaf would hear. The handicapped would lift his arm or walk again.
These days, most healings are pain relief (adrenaline produced by the mood of such gathering, or power of suggestion would achieve that almost without fail), or short leg that grow back to normal length (can be easily done by an illusionist)
All in all, most modern miracles and signs I have heard or witnessed mostly resembled products of psychological, hypnotic, or magic tricks, rather than biblical miracles and signs.
Is “Slain in the Spirit” from the Bible?
The Bible never told us anything about “Slain in the Spirit” as a regular phenomenon in Christian gathering, not even as a rare phenomenon.
It does tell us that people do fall on their face, getting paralyzed by the powerful presence of spiritual beings such as angels, or God, but they generally don’t fall over when a minister prays over them (Revelation 1:17; Ezekiel 1;28; Daniel 8:17-18; 10:7-9; Matthew 17:6; Acts 9:3-4).
The one time when two believers fell before an apostle, Peter, they were struck dead by the Holy Spirit. It was not a positive spiritual experience. See below:
Acts 5:1-11
Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”
“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
9 Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
That was it. There were no other instance when “Slain in the Spirit” is mentioned. In the New Testament, nothing is said about it in the context of Church gathering.
Why Did I Stand When Others were Slain?
I have been reading a book about hypnotism recently, and it confirmed my theory why I always remained standing in faith healing gathering.
I believed that my mind was too scattered to be hypnotized by certain hypnotizing techniques. My mind was always thinking about this or that. I could’t focus on a single idea for a long enough period of time to be hypnotized.
I am not an auditory learner. I have to read to learn effectively. It’s hard for me to follow verbal instruction.
Also, I am often disengaged with those around me. Even in the most exciting environment, I often find my mind drifting off, detached from what’s going on in that place.
My inner voice never stopped talking when I was in faith healing gathering. It countered the minister’s verbal commands.
Because of these reasons, I remained standing when everybody around me were slain!
