Slain in the Spirit
ost of you have seen this phenomena occur in the charismatic churches. This is where you see pastors or ministers laying hands on people, usually on their foreheads, and then they fall backwards. The charismatics have named this phenomena as being “Slain in the Spirit.” Some people call it “Falling in the Spirit” or “Resting in the Spirit.”
Is this a real phenomenon? If it is – is it really God operating through the power of the Holy Spirit, or is it demonic spirits trying to masquerade as the power of Holy Spirit coming onto someone? There are many Christians and Christian groups who are really attacking this phenomena.
I will go ahead and give you the main Scripture verses where this phenomena is coming from. I will then give you some of the main arguments of those Christians who are against this phenomena and I will then end this article with my own personal opinion as to why I think this phenomena is a true manifestation from the Lord.
THE SCRIPTURE VERSES

Here are the main verses from Scripture showing people falling to the ground whenever God would manifest His presence to different people. The first verse is from the Original King James Version of the Bible, the rest are from the New King James Version.
“… that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.” (2 Chronicles 5:14)

Jesus said to them, “I am He.” And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. Then when He said to them. “I am He,” – they drew back and fell to the ground.” (John 18:6)

“And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.” (Revelation 1:17)

“And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.” But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” (Matthew 17:6)

“And as he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:3-4)

“So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face.” (Ezekiel 3:23)

“Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face.” (Numbers 22:31)

“And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory. It was like the appearance of the vision which I saw – like the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city. The visions were like the vision which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face.” (Ezekiel 43:2-3)

“Then He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple; so I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord; and I fell on my face.” (Ezekiel 44:4)
Now I will give you some of the arguments being made by those who are against this phenomena and then some of my own arguments as to why I believe this a real manifestation from the Lord.
ARGUMENTS AGAINST BEING SLAIN IN THE SPIRIT

The Christians who argue against this phenomena really being from the Lord base their arguments on the following reasons:
Every time people fell when the presence of God would manifest – they would always fall on their faces, not fall backward.

Nowhere in the Bible do the prophets, the apostles, or Jesus Himself ever lay hands on someone and then the power of God comes through their hands to knock them backward.

The only time people fell in the presence of God was when God was rendering some type of judgment.
Now to some arguments that will counter some of the above arguments if you should ever need them in any kind of debate.
ARGUMENTS FOR BEING SLAIN IN THE SPIRIT

I will take each one of the above arguments and see if I can give you an opposing point of view in order to try and defend this phenomena as being from the Lord.
1. The First Argument – people always falling face down rather than falling backwards. Granted, 5 of the above 9 verses specifically state that these people had fallen on their faces rather than falling backward.
However, the other 4 verses say they simply “fell to the ground,” or that they “could not stand” when the presence of God would manifest. Who is to say that when these people fell to the ground, they could not have been falling backwards. These verses do not say if they fell forward or backward, so I believe this means they could have fallen either way – thus showing that there was the possibility of falling backwards when the presence of God would manifest.
The first verse says that the priests “could not stand” when the manifest presence of God would enter into the temple. Again, they could have easily as been falling backwards as well as falling forward. Since Scripture does not specifically say in which direction they were falling, I believe we are on safe ground making the assumption that these other 4 verses give us the possibility of people falling backwards whenever the presence of God would manifest.
2. The Second Argument – stating that at no time did Jesus or the apostles ever lay hands on people causing them fall backwards. Though I could not find any actual Scripture verses that did show this phenomena occurring as it does today by the laying on of hands, I feel the key argument for the possibility of this phenomena occurring is the following argument:
Sometimes when the presence of God would manifest like described in the above verses, people did fall to the ground. No question about it. However, there were other times God would manifest His presence and people would not fall to the ground. This thus was a manifestation that was completely controlled by God. He, and He alone, would decide when people would get knocked to the ground and when they would not whenever He would manifest His presence.
I think the key point to grab a hold of is that this phenomena can occur when God does decide to manifest His presence in this particular way. And sometimes God will manifest His presence through the hands of a pastor or minister. And if He does decide to manifest His presence through the hands of a minister, then I believe it is only logical to conclude that God can knock people to the ground like He did back in the Bible days if He should choose to do so.
There is no question that the manifest presence of God is coming through a pastor or minister when hands are being laid on someone for a healing. The manifest presence and power of God will literally flow through the hands of the pastor or minister – flow into the person’s body and then the Holy Spirit Himself will do the healing once inside the person’s body.
If “healing power” can come through a minister’s hands, then why not “knockdown power?” God can either knock someone over with a direct hit Himself or through the hands of someone who is operating under His anointing at any given moment. I believe God can and does go either way with this particular manifestation.
3. The Third Argument – God only knocked people down when rendering some type of judgment on them. Look closely at the above 9 verses. It was only on the apostle Paul that God was rendering judgment on when He knocked him to the ground. The others were priests of the temple, prophets like Ezekiel and John the Revelator, or the apostles themselves. None of them were under any kind of direct judgment when this phenomena was occurring.
CONCLUSIONS

1. Being slain in the Spirit is simply when the presence and power of God comes directly at you causing you to either fall forward or backward. This power can either come directly through the hands of someone operating under the Lord’s anointing at any given moment, or directly at you by God Himself – such as when you see people falling to the ground while just sitting in their seats with no one laying a hand on them.
This manifestation of God’s power can either come directly at you very lightly where you just start to lose your balance and then proceed to fall. Or it can come at you very strongly to the point where you cannot resist it and you are literally blown to the ground. When this happens, it looks like a cannonball is hitting someone right in the stomach and they fall backwards with a fair amount of force. God decides how strong He will manifest this kind of power when He does decide to manifest it on someone.
Granted, there will always be some people in a church service that will be falling backwards out of their own flesh. The power of God is not causing them to fall backward. They just want to be part of the crowd and they will fall backwards all on their own. However, you cannot throw out the baby with the bathwater on this manifestation just because some people will always choose to act out of their flesh.
2. So what happens when people are slain in the Spirit? Sometimes just a nice, restful, peaceful, relaxed feeling will come over the person. Sometimes people can receive inner and/or outer healings while resting in the Spirit. Some people can receive visions, instructions or advice from the Lord on a situation that He may want to deal with them on. People can rest anywhere in the Spirit from 1-2 minutes or as long as 4-6 hours if God would choose to go that long with a particular individual.
For those of you who would like additional information on this phenomenon – there is a book titled “ Overcome by the Spirit” by Francis MacNutt. Francis MacNutt is an ex-Catholic priest who received a powerful healing ministry from the Lord. He noticed that this phenomenon would occur quite often whenever he would lay hands on people for their healings.
He interviewed many people after they had fallen in the Spirit to find out what their reactions were and exactly what had happened to them while they were resting in the Spirit. There are many direct quotes from the people he interviewed and it was all very positive.
He came to the conclusion that being slain in the Spirit was a very real manifestation of God that was occurring because of all the good fruit it produced in the people who had experienced this phenomena. He said some of the actual healings that came through his ministry occurred when people were “resting in the Spirit” after he had initially laid hands on them.
This man, in my opinion, is a true servant of God. He explored this phenomenon with complete objectivity back in the 1970’s. He covers, in this most informative book, all of the things that he saw happen when this manifestation would occur.
SHORT STORY

I will leave you with a short story on this manifestation occurring to someone I used to work with. I will never forget it as long as I live. It was very touching and I feel like God allowed this story to come my way when it did to help confirm that this particular manifestation was really coming from Him.
About 15 years ago, I worked with a man who was a very devout Catholic. He was married, with 2 girls, ages 8 and 11. There was a priest from Chicago who had come down for the Sunday service. I cannot recall the name of the priest, but he had a healing ministry and he did a lot of traveling with the healing gift that God had given him. He too found that people would fall backwards whenever he would lay hands on them.
On the Sunday this event occurred, this man, his wife and his two girls all went to see this priest. When this priest then made the call for anyone to come up and have hands laid on them, all four of them went up just to see if God would do anything with any of them.
My friend said that absolutely nothing happened to either him, his wife or his older 11-year-old daughter. They felt no power come against them and none of them fell backwards in the Spirit.
However, his youngest daughter, who was 8 years of age, was hit hard! He said she went down like a ton of bricks. He said it looked like a cannonball or bowling ball hit her right in the stomach blowing her backwards with great force. There obviously was a catcher behind her when she fell backward.
He said the minute she hit the ground, she started bawling profusely. He said she was crying as hard as she could. My friend initially thought there was something wrong with her because she was crying so hard. He then started to go over to see what was wrong with her, but he received an immediate check from the Holy Spirit that he was not to go near her, that God was doing something very special with her.
He said that she laid on the ground crying as hard as she could for a good 10-15 minutes. After the 10-15 minutes, she all of a sudden quit crying and stood up. He immediately went over to her and started to walk with her outside. When they got outside, he turned to her and asked her why she had been crying so hard after she had been slain in the Spirit.
I will never forget these words as long as I live. This little 8-year-old girl turned to her daddy and said with a real big smile on her face:
“Daddy, Daddy, He felt so good, He felt so good!”
God was obviously manifesting His loving presence all over this little girl for the 10-15 minutes that she was “resting in the Spirit” to the point that she was crying as hard as she could. She obviously was in the manifest presence of God and He was allowing her to literally feel His love for her.
As I was driving home from work that day after hearing the above story, I then tapped in and asked God what had happened and was that really Him that did all of that.
These three words immediately came up out of my spirit and again, I will never forget these three words. The three words were – “I touched her” – with an emphasis on the word “touch.”
I then immediately started to laugh. He touched her, but she went down like a ton of bricks! I really felt like God was telling me two things with these three specific words:
That it was His manifest presence that blew her backwards causing her to fall like she did, and that it was His manifest presence stirring on the inside of her causing her to cry as hard as she did.

The fact that she told her dad that “He felt so good” – showed that God had to be literally manifesting His love to her where she could literally and physically feel it all over her physical body.
You will each have to come to your own conclusions as to whether or not you feel this is a true manifestation from God. For those of you who do believe that this is a real manifestation from the Lord, the above Scripture verses, and arguments off of those Scripture verses, can give you some ammunition should you ever find yourself in a debate with another Christian over this topic.
As for myself, I really do believe that this phenomenon is a true and powerful manifestation from the Lord when it really is Him doing it. But as with all of the other manifestations from God, there are always demons out there who will try and counterfeit some of His manifestations, along with other people just acting out and pretending God is manifesting on them when He is really not doing so. These people are either operating under the power of suggestion or they simply want to be part of the crowd if they see other people truly falling under the power of God.
But do not let counterfeit activity from the dark side or some people acting out of their flesh prejudice you against what I feel is a very powerful and wonderful manifestation from the Lord when He does decide to do it on someone.
For those of you who have been truly slain in the Spirit – you know exactly what I am talking about since you have had this real experience. For those of you who have not – I challenge you to go direct God the Father in prayer and ask Him to personally show you if this manifestation is something that is really coming from Him or not. God loves it when you start to press in and ask Him specific questions on anything you may really want an answer on.

Killer cop paints uneasy marriage

2011-04-07 13:36:16 | (27 Comments)

Detective Corporal Wayne Llewellyn

Mark Beckford, Online Content Coordinator

Detective Corporal Wayne Llewellyn, who murdered four members of his family, before killing himself, appeared to have had marital problems, according to postings on his Facebook page.

Facebook postings, days leading up to this morning’s multiple murder/suicide, indicated that Detective Corporal Llewellyn was in a struggle with his relationship.

On March 26, Llewellyn posted a picture with the saying ‘Heart Closed Until Further Notice’.

On March 28, he changed his relationship status on Facebook from ‘married’ to in a ‘complicated relationship’.

One friend commented “imagine that”, while another asked, “what complicate your relationship now, married man?”

On April 1, Llewellyn then changed his relationship status to ‘no longer complicated’.

A friend commented “What God has joined together let no man put ……..no one said it would be easy. Ask the Lord to lead daily. Hang on in there.”

Llewellyn then responded by saying “Luv that sis …..but life has its options too….happiness comes from within.”

That was Llewellyn’s last relationship update, and today he killed his mother-in law, father-in-law, brother-in-law and stepdaughter in Tree Hill, St. Mary.

The victims were identified as 79-year-old Rachel Brown her husband 73-year-old Voldy Brown, Fitzroy Townsend, and 16-year-old Jorjhan Flynn.

Llewellyn also shot his 40-year-old wife in the neck and she was hospitalised.

Since the incident, several persons have commented on his Facebook page.

One person said, “Wayne!!!!!! Why??? I can’t believe this!!”

The same person went on to say, “Wayne, Wayne, Wayne!!! Only God alone knew what happened when you snapped and ended so may lives including yours. May God be with the family at this time!!!”

“I am saddened…Wayne we spoke at length and I suggested you give it time…I am in shock…I taught and loved Jorjhan…she was a beautiful girl….in hindsight you should have left your gun at home,” another person said.

With the recent drop of 31 categories in the annual Grammy Awards, the campaign to improve the Reggae Grammy award is on in earnest.

Yesterday the National Academy of the Recording Arts announced that it would be reducing the number of gramophones won from 109 to 78 and making changes. The changes which will take place for next year’s ceremony, according to Neil Portnow, the organisation’s president, are done to ensure “that the Grammy remains a rare and distinct honour and continues to be music’s most prestigious and only peer-recognised award.”

Changes concern the processes for voting and music submissions. If fewer than 25 submissions are received for a category, that award will be suspended for a year; after three consecutive suspensions a category would be eliminated, with future submissions being redirected to the next relevant category. The Reggae Grammy category, introduced in 1985, many speculate, could be at risk under the new changes.

According to an article on the New York Times website, at the first Grammy ceremony in 1959, there were only 28 categories. Over the years that number swelled with new genre fields and with multiple subcategorises within a single genre. Categories, including best rock or rap gospel album and best Hawaiian music album, have been eliminated. Separate awards for male and female vocal performances in the pop, rock, R&B and country genres have also been eliminated.

blame ourselves

Speaking with The STAR yesterday Cristy Barber, vice- president of marketing and promotions at VP Records, said the Jamaican music industry had no one to blame but themselves if the Reggae Grammy category gets suspended or eventually eliminated. Barber launched a campaign last year to educate the reggae industry about the awards and to get more voters in an effort to see the nominations and final result “reflect what is going on”.

She said: “The categories that fall in the same realm as the Reggae Grammy have been taken away, so we have to work to save what we have. We can do this by voters, registration and submission. We don’t have voters, we’re hanging on by a thread.”

According to Barber, despite her campaign to get voters, no one has signed up as she said: “If the Jamaican music industry doesn’t fight for it, it’s their fault for not doing their part. They have no one else to blame cause there is an island full of eligible voters.” Persons eligible to vote are those with six creative credentials which, according to Barber, apply to artistes, engineers, video directors, musicians, back- ground singers and more.

“We needed a 100 voters and just got 25. Everything is down to use, the next time it comes around, we got to start voting, or we’re gone and they aren’t gonna give us another category,” Barber added.

According to Barber, a Grammy is one of the biggest achievements in music and losing the reggae grammy category could prove to be a disaster. “There would be nothing to aspire for, no matter who you are – you could be a Rihanna, you want to win a Grammy, every artiste does. It brings up your brand as an artiste to have one under your belt,” she said. Registration to vote can be done at: www.grammy.com

MET dainty find out the baby wat munchy showtime have is for sean pelpa and dainty ago mad she think she was the first BABYMOTHER FOR SEAN PELPA I HEAR THAT SEAN PELPA NEVER STOP till munchy give him a dna to fin out the baby is sean pelpa now he want the baby last name to change MET I SEE WHY ALL OF THE MIXUP COMING FROM WITH FLIPPA MAFIA TRUE SEAN PELPA AND flippa friend maxx a bunn out MAFIA CREW PEOPLE UNNN RUN IN

Robbed to Riches

It was not hard to see that my mother was a hustler, she did not really have a real job but always had enough money. Grandma was a black woman but my mother’s father was a Syrian man from a prominent family that never owned her because he was married. I was born when my mother was supposed to be attending commercial school. So that is something my mother could not really live down she was my grandmothers second child and her mother basically disowned her eldest daughter to give her an education. My two younger siblings were from a marriage that did not last, there father left when the youngest was three. My aunt my mothers oldest sister basically helped to take care of all of us because she did not have any children. The difference with my aunt and my mother was clear my aunt was responsible but my mother was lackadaisical. Nevertheless there was a good balance, my grandmother was a quiet woman and did not speak much about her life but she was very kind. Being the oldest child I was named Susanna by my grandmother who taught me to cook and clean which I did exceptionally well. I never really worried about how I would make it in life until I was finished high school and had no means of going to college. Although I was not rich myself I went to a prominent high school which was the good thing about taking about common entrance placement. Fredrice was a nice girl a very humble person she was the third child and was name after her father and had a totally different life from I did. She had a driver that brought her to school, she had two helpers in her home and basically had people at her beck and call. Strangely her best friend would only exchange hi and byes with me simply because I was not in her class. Fedrice invited me to her house and at that time I was amazed I never new people lived like that but the relationship she had with her mother was what made me speechless. Her mother behaved very high class and was very attractive, Fedrice was also very pretty but she looked more like her father who was mullato. Fedriced ignored her mother and only gave her one liners for an answer. Anyway I told Frederica that I did not know what I was going to do after I was finished sixth form and she told me that I could apply for a student loan. She told me that she had an aunt that worked at the bank that could help me with the paper work.

Frederica went away to school and I was able to secure a student loan for CAST now UTECH. My first year of school I did very well and I got a lot of support from my aunt who would travel to come and see me more often than my mother did. Due to the fact that I wanted to improve my situation school was very easy and at the time I was involved with a young man four years my senior who gave me some support. The relationship did not develop merely out of love but mostly because I needed financial support. In my second year of school the relationship was getting hard because I was trying to focus on school and he wanted more out of the relationship. One evening Frederica contacted me and told me that she was visiting for the weekend and wanted to meet up with me and I told her that I would love to. That night she was happy to see me and of course her best friend was there and occurs she gave me the cold shoulder. By the end of the night I met several people one of those people was William Keane a very good looking older man.

Mr. Keane was a man that I heard about before but never really seen in person I new his family were wealthy and dealt in real estate and tobacco and other businesses. Mr. Keane was very charming and charismatic he looked and smell expensive and always seemed important. I was shy immature and poor but that night I made my self available. He smiled with me and nodded his head and I smiled back at him to show my interest in his notion. He bought drinks for Frederica, Thalia and I and to her he was known as Uncle Bill. Although I was two months shy of 21 years I new the way that this man looked at me was different from how he looked at everyone else. After the night ended I was given a phone number on a piece of paper by a man who walked up to me and stuck it in my hand. On the paper it said Billy Keane with three telephone numbers written on it. Although I was shocked I was receptive. For days I had the number and decided that I would not call because I was so afraid that I would say the wrong thing. One week passed and I got brave and gave “Billy” a call, but I did not get an answer. The next day while I was preparing to go to school I got a phone call and it was Billy. He asked me how I was doing and wanted to know when I would be available for a date. I did not want to seem eager so I told him that I would be available on Saturday which would be four days after his phone call he accepted and the conversation ended with me having butterflies in my stomach.

The night before the date I could not sleep I lied to my boyfriend and told him that I had to study for exams the following week. Mr. Keane came right on time and I bought a new green dress with money I had saved for a rainy day. When I walked up to the car Mr. Keane came out of the car and opened the door for me and told me that green was his favourite colour and that I looked beautiful in it. Mr. Keane did not ask me if I had a boyfriend or anything about relationships, he asked me about my parents, my religious beliefs, my ethnicity and my major in school. I asked him about his interest and he told me that he was interested in life and he smiled. Never once did he touch me or made me uncomfortable at the end of the date he asked me when I would be available again and I told him Tuesday. On my second date he told me to wear something comfortable and I did not go to school that day because I was so anxious about the date as he said that our destination was a surprise. That day I saw him for the second official date and I recognized that I wanted the life that this man had to offer me. It was clear that he was happy to see me because his hazel eyes lit up when I walked up to his car and he came out of the car and greeted me and told me that I was beautiful. After driving for about an hour he told me that he was going to take me to his farm and asked me if I like animal and such and I told him yes. This farm had to be about 80 acres it had a house and there was some persons working on the farm it was beautiful and he took the time to explain to me what he was doing and that it was his “hobby”.

We had gone out every week since we met and I was very impressed with this man. my aunt had called me because my birthday was coming up. She told me that she was coming to visit me and I politely declined and told her I had to study. She understood and then told me that she would wait to see me the following week. It was my birthday and I knew that my boyfriend would try to see me and I had to avoid him because I didn’t know how to break it off. On my birthday I got a call very early in the morning from Mr. Keane who told me that he was overseas but he will return before the days end to give me a gift. I thought to myself I just saw him three days ago and he was away needless to say I only had a passport I had never been on a plane. He did keep his word and gave me a kiss for the first time and handed me a small box light blue in colour with Tiffany written on it. In the box was a pair of earrings it seemed to be diamonds with a green stone at that time I was happy I didn’t even know what Tiffany was until months after. This would be a beginning of presents that I would receive from Billy for my presence.
Written By lKing/Real