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This article is mostly for those of you in the different nations with whom I am connected in ministry or other partnership and relationships. Outside of the scope of my duties as a leader I'm not interested in judging anyone. However, proper judgement on serious matters is the duty of leaders who have people looking up to them.

Some have written to me regarding Todd Bentley and the Lakeland meetings, which some even called a "revival." From the very beginning I chose to call them "meetings," since I never saw a fundamental element, a non-negotiable (at least for me), and this was the salvation of sinners at Lakeland. I'm sure there were some, but no one ever insisted, even the main leaders of the meetings, that these were indeed meetings whose purpose was to see the lost saved.

By now you may have heard the news. Fresh Fire Ministries has announced that Todd Bentley has filed for divorce. Bentley and his wife, Shonnah, have two daughters and a son and are Canadian citizens. Under Canadian law, separation is a first step in divorce proceedings and takes nine months. Bentley and his wife have been in marriage counseling for several months.

This effectively ends the Lakeland "outpouring." Those who bought into it will be denial for a while and slowly but surely will come to a place where they will begin (hopefully) to see what I and many others saw already way back - too much media and platform hype, too little Biblical and Holy Spirit substance, too much controversial teaching and practices, too little foundation.

No one exposed Todd Bentley's lack of foundation. Todd Bentley exposed himself. But more importantly, Todd Bentley exposed us, the Church!

I say "us" not because I supported him or his meetings. I say "us" because I'm part of the Church, like it or not. I say "us" because the media will see to it that the news of his fiasco will travel far and wide and I know I'll end up in situations where Christians or unbelievers will ask me, "are you one of them?"

Yes, I am. We all bear the consequences of the fall of one man. The greater the media exposure, the greater the fall. If one part suffers, all suffer, this is the inevitable law of connectedness we have in the Body of Christ.

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (1 Cor. 12:26)

In our desperation to see God move in our lives and display his power on the earth, many in the Church, including prominent leaders, bought into the Lakeland "revival" and jumped on the band-wagon. Those of us who remained skeptical were denounced as "resisting God" and the rest is history.

No, I'm not one of those heresy hunters who will wag their "I-told-you-so" finger triumphantly! I am simply concerned about the state of the Church and how shallow we seem to be, especially those of us who believe in the supernatural and want to see the power of God in the earth. You won't see me trash talk Bentley. I pray things work out for him and his family and they find healing in Christ.

THE MARRIAGE INSTITUTION

Let me state this clearly: marriage is God's primary institution on the earth. It's more important than ministry and career. It's important that we don't allow mixed messages on the importance of the marriage institution in moments like this.

Let's sum up what the New Testament teaches on marriage:

God hates divorce and its consequences (Mal. 3) whether it happens in the life of a minister, an "ordinary" Christian or unbelievers. The marriage institution was ordained by God to be a representation of God Himself on the earth. However, in recent years it has become very evident how moral relativity, situational ethics, post-modern existentialism and secular humanism itself have crept into the Church and have offered alternative points of view on marriage and fidelity. We witnessed high-profile ministers such as Paula White and her husband divorce without giving any reason for their break-up, going on with their ministries as usual, not loosing a beat! We watched a pathetic TBN move masterfully engineered by clever image makers and PR experts reinstate Paula White on the pulpit and make a saint out of her, comparing her to Princess Diana. We watched the messy divorce drama of Juanita Bynam, who recently made a statement in a major Atlanta newspaper that her divorce was "not a sad thing".

Throughout these events, hardly ANY mature apostles or bishops or fathers in the faith took a stand for marriage and attempted to bring moral clarity to the Church. Why? Because no one wants to be seen as a bigot, judgmental or harsh. Because it's hard to come across concerned in a culture obsessed with the theme of "mercy" rather than truth.

How low will the Church go?

Jesus' teaching on the subject is very clear:

"Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery." (Matthew 10:11-12)

Adultery seems to be the only legitimate reason Jesus gives for divorce. While there may be some objective exceptions we can accept today as grounds for divorce, such as life threatening situations due to mental instability in one or both of the partners, the New Testament doesn't really offer many other alternatives that tolerate divorce. If a Christian leaves their marriage partner and it's not for the reason of infidelity, this person is an adulterer. The person who marries the adulterer is just as guilty and is categorized as an adulterer themselves.

The apostle Paul goes into more detail and explains that someone who has become a believer in a marriage and their partner abandons them due to the faith, such a person is free to remarry. (1 Cor. 7:15)

The board of Fresh Fire Ministries maintains on their web site that "Todd and Shonnah Bentley are presently experiencing significant friction in their relationship and are currently separated. We want to affirm that there has been no sexual immorality on the part of either Todd or Shonnah, nor has there ever been."

Only God knows the whole truth. As a Christian, I pray this couple comes back together for their own sake and for their children.

ACCOUNTABILITY NOT PART OF 'APOSTOLIC ALIGNMENT'?

It's sad to see how many people fell for the Lakeland hype. The defenders will tell you how they were there and experienced God's presence and possibly a healing. I'm sure that whenever there are people who seek God, He will respond to those in need of him and there will be presence of God and miracles. How many miracles and what kind of miracles remains to be verified. But for someone like me, who has given their life to see the Church reformed so we can fulfill the Dominion Mandate, I look at events like the Lakeland meetings in a different way from most ordinary Christians. For those of us who deal on a day-to-day basis with the Church, we have developed an "architectural mindset." We don't look at how pretty a balcony looks on the outside, we think of how solid the foundation is and how well the balcony and the pillars are built and are they up to standard. True apostles, because of their concern for the Church, have developed a generational mindset. I think of way beyond what this or that revival will accomplish in its brief lifespan.

I hope we all learn from this and examine our foundations. The Lakeland "revival" exposed how shallow and un-apostolic we still are. How hungry for the spectacular we are, while missing out on the true supernatural process of forming Christ in the Church.

I'm not going to go into the obvious signs - the tattoos, the Bam-Whams, the violent acts in praying for people and the female angel visions. Throughout this whole noisy controversy, I felt one thing, which I shared with some who are closer to me: distraction. This whole "Lakeland" event was one huge distraction from the real process of God in the earth, which is to reform the Church so we can transform our world. Yet to some, such as GODTV, it suited their need for publicity and the spectacular. I felt I'm not to waste my time in debating, explaining and discussing. Throughout this whole thing, the ministers who are on the board of GBMI - my wife Wanda, prophet John Isleib, bishop Joseph Mattera and apostle Naomi Dowdy were unanimously in agreement there is something fundamentally wrong with this whole Lakeland story.

Dr. Peter Wagner was the only member of the board of GBMI who was of a different mind. In fact, as many of you know, he was instrumental in moderating and facilitating the public "commissioning" of Mr. Bentley, which proved to be the beginning of the end. I'm sure we'll be hearing from Dr. Wagner pretty soon on this matter, and he will be able to explain better than anyone the rationale or the lack of it, which led him to become part of this situation. I remain supportive of him, regardless of the difference in opinion I had with him on this matter.

The real questions remain: can we ever have a true, functioning mechanism of accountability in the Church so we can trust leaders, especially those who rise to prominence? Why didn't Todd Bentley go to those he was now accountable to, why didn't he begin to discuss his marriage issues and the fact that they have been going to marriage counseling for months prior to the commissioning? Why cover up this obvious foundational issue and make such an abrupt announcement and shock everyone? Why not work on the marriage if there in fact is no infidelity involved? Why didn't Bentley disclose there are serious cracks in the foundation of his life and ministry, if he was aware of them? All of us who have been married for a long time know that in one way or another, we go through critical junctions in life. That's not shameful, what is shameful is to cover it up and allow it to destroy you and everything else you're involved in.

On August 11th, Dr. Wagner released a statement titled THE LAKELAND APOSTOLIC FINDINGS, in which among other things he wrote: "While I was talking to Stephen [Strader], God kept bringing the word 'alignment' to the front of my mind, so I questioned him on Todd Bentley's apostolic alignment. The upshot was that Todd believed in apostles and prophets, but he had never entered into a formal alignment. I did some more investigation over the next couple of days, and I was assured that this was indeed the case."

Why did Bentley "believe in apostles and prophets" but was not in formal alignment? It's like saying you believe in water baptism, but you don't see the need to go under the water. The short answer is that Bentley was promoted by people like Patricia King from Extreme Prophetic and others in her circles who are in essence "prophets gone wild". They will tell you they believe in apostles but in essence this is nothing more than a mere concept on mental level. These people do not understand and have no interest in being truly submitted to an apostle or apostles. Moreover, some of the "apostles" in these "extreme" Charismatic circles are in fact their own version of an apostle. These apostles are probably more than anything prophets who are filling in for true apostles who can bring foundations, fathering and integrity. On the other hand we have too many apostles who are either at odds with the prophets or are too intimidated and actually controlled by the prophets. The Biblical order is clear - first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers. (1 Cor. 12:28)

So, it's clear that somehow the "aligning" Todd Bentley came into didn't include in its definition accountability on important issues such as marriage.

"PROPHETIC" TIMELINE

Then comes the bizarre "prophetic timeline" we can't help but notice. Bob Jones, another prophet who has promoted Todd Bentley, prophesied that after a certain date in July, the revival was going to go to "a whole new level". This led to the June 23rd commissioning ceremony, which was broadcast LIVE on GODTV. Shortly after that Todd Bentley announced he is taking a much needed vacation and shortly after coming back from vacation, comes the announcement of the separation between him and his wife.

So much for the "prophetic" timeline and the "new level." Can the true prophets please stand up?

It is over for Todd Bentley, as well as the Lakeland "outpouring." That's one thing you can count on. The "Outpouring" was so engineered that it hung on Bentley and his iconic tattooed image. Heresy hunters will see to it that they destroy this guy's name forever through blogs and millions of writings, even if Todd and his wife come back together.

However, it is not over for the Body of Christ. We're still here and we still have much work left to do.

THE "OTHER" PROBLEMATIC ELEMENT

I am overwhelmed right now with work and this is not a priority for me, but I hope in time I'll be able to address the other problem the Charismatic Church still has, i.e. Patricia King and her Extreme Prophetic Ministry's teaching and practices. I'm sick and tired of being silent on some of these issues. I don't have anything to loose and I don't care what people think of me. What I care about are all the believers writing to me from Asia and Europe asking me about Extreme Prophetic and where I stand. The short answer is - stay away from this group! They have the genetics of Bentley and the ability to proliferate many more Bentleys as they are doing even right now. It's yet another manifestation of infantile way of thinking and behavior, due to the desperation of the Church for the supernatural.

Patricia King was instrumental in promoting Todd Bentley and he referred to her as a "spiritual mom". I can tell you with the same confidence I had in judging the Bentley (non)phenomena, that P. King is promoting a whole group of younger ministers who are headed for the same direction as Bentley. I don't know this lady personally and have nothing against her. But if the Church was to draw ANY lessons at all from the Bentley fiasco, it should be to go to the root problem. The root problem is pseudo prophets, who have no apostolic foundation, have no desire to align with true apostles and when they do, this is only a formal act, not an internal reality.

SUMMARY

• There are no shortcuts to what God wants to do in the earth. No single revival or revivalist can substitute for God's ultimate plan, which is the local church taking her place in the spirit and in the natural. (Eph. 3:10) Let this serve as warning to all of us who in our desperation for God and his power. We allow ourselves to be mesmerized by "revivals" or events that look like revivals. We're not asking the most important questions. On what foundation is this house built and how does it measure according to the apostolic standard as revealed in the book of Acts? What is the fruit? What is the purpose? Where is this going? How does it contribute to God's purpose for the Church?
• All fivefold ministry gifts must work together. All of us who are in ministry must aggressively pursue a system of accountability so we can avoid the pitfalls of ministry, whether they are pride, heresy, infidelity, greed or a host of other issues with which we all have to deal.
• God's agenda for the Church is: Reformation, Transformation, Dominion. Revivals are intermittent, unpredictable and should not sway us from the great task of forming Christ in the Church (Col. 1:28), bringing divine order in the Church (1 Cor. 12), equipping all believers for the work of ministry (Eph. 4:11) and taking dominion through evangelism and engaging the culture.
• Miracles we need and miracles we'll have, but not at the expense of the foundation of our faith - Christ Jesus Himself and the moral purity which comes from true discipleship and sonship. Many of the prophets in the Old Testament have no record of having performed miracles. This didn't make them less of a giant in God's Hall of Fame. The reformation of the Middle Ages didn't come on the wings of personal prophetic words and gold dust floating around. Our faith is so much greater and deeper than the supernatural alone.

Finally Lee Grady from Charisma Magazine has penned down a very good commentary, has been closely involved with the Lakeland controversy and is much more aquatinted with the details. I completely trust and agree with his analysis and would heartily recommend it to you.

George P. Bakalov