So, I get this question a lot. “What do you think about grave sucking?” The issue is worthy of a great deal of ignoring, but the question has grown into a marker now. More recent public defenses of the issue cry out for clarity of the real issues. So, I’m weighing in.
1
First, the term “grave sucking” is made up, so we must ignore it to get to the real issue. Do not number me with the full-time pundits of revival who understand much less about how things really work in the spirit than the passionate people who laid in the grassy knoll.
I actually think of grave sucking: people who do not know how things work in the spirit attempt to receive anointing from graves, and critics who do not know how things work in the spirit make up a term to make fun of a funny practice.
Both miss the point of how things really work in the spirit. The passionate should be corrected. The bozos should be ignored.
2
Second, the real issue is “how does one receive anointing?”
One does not receive any anointing from the point of contact with a dead person. One connects to the spiritual reality through which God anoints, but the Anointing is a Person, not a substance or residue or fragrance.
The place that is special to God may remain special to God. The person that is special to God may remain special to God. Any situation may become an appropriate place for God to anoint someone, give meaning to the anointing at the moment He anoints.
Can anyone with an appropriate hunger for an anointing contact the dead through their clothing, residence, or grave? No. The hunger is appropriate. The presumption that God gives anointings in this manner is woefully inappropriate.
The Anointing is Holy Spirit; how anointing operates is entirely up to Him. Anointing matches assignment.
3
Third, there can be no defense of the presuppositions that lie behind lying on graves to soak up a dead person’s anointing. However, there can be an immediate recognition that people with good hearts, who desire God and look to Him for the power and authority they require to live out their purposes, will do silly things.
Yes, we should celebrate and feed the passion. Yes, we should also help these people clean up the messes made by passionate pursuit of things not fully understood.
This situation reveals a lack of kingdom leadership function. This practice reveals a weakness that uncovers some fundemantal flaws that could become fatal but are not fatal in and of themselves.
Don’t kill the passion! Don’t make the issue about distraction. Feed the passion and help people learn by assisting them in cleaning up their messes.
4
Fourth, the practice of what has been labeled by bozos as “grave sucking” is no more ridiculous than a half dozen other dumb ideas that have been established traditions in churchism, including the practices of the bozos who use “grace sucking” as a way of demeaning people more desirous of God’s power than they are.
By that firm statement, I mean the very people criticizing this easy-to-target idea are doing nothing to produce hunger for revival like those that look for God’s power with a heart to see a repeat of past revivals.
In the Azusa Street Revival, the leader often sat on the platform with his head in an orange crate. The light of God’s Glory was shining within that orange crate. He would take his head out of the orange crate at God’s direction, point to a section of cripple people, and the entire section would stand up healed. Lesson on how things really work in the spirit: God is in charge, not you; God looks for submission and obedience more than flair, flash, and fashion.
However, that in no way infers that an experience by one man becomes a principle of revival. That is not how things really work in the spirit.
5
Fifth, the most recent defense of the history of “grave sucking” was feeble. The leader missed the point and a great opportunity. Instead, he performed a “let’s ignore what happened and talk around the photos of people lying on graves.”
While protecting the leaders who published photos–I understand that completely–the aim to skirt what should be confronted fell far short of healthy correction–and correction is needed to clarify how things really work in the spirit more than slapping people on the back of the hands for having more zeal than wisdom.
We do not lead as we should without criticism of ourselves and loved ones. We do not learn from our experiences until we lead with our strengths and become intentional about our weaknesses. We do not feed spiritual momentum by sidestepping fundamental issues with false mercy. We make strong course corrections quickly because a slight deviation from course, like this error, leads thousands of people off course. We open the way to dead end detours if we do not steward the movement with a firm hand.
Our critics can be our best friends even when they intend our demise. We do not need to make enemies, but we sure do have them. We need to have enemies to love our enemies. We will have enemies immediately we obey God as leaders of a move of God. We ignore our critics or dismiss their odd conclusions to our hurt because all we do should stand up to scrutiny.
I feel that most recent discussion of grave sucking by the people who published photos of themselves practicing it ignores what requires scrutiny. I hear a false mercy message of “God just looks at our hearts, not our behaviors” that is as dangerous at the end run as witchcraft and leads many people to practice it. (I am not saying these people are in witchcraft.)
6
Sixth, cheer up. It is going to get worse. The move of God is here, and people without grounding in the Scriptures will start doing even crazier stuff. Why? They are not grounded in how things really work in the spirit.
The cure isn’t a criticism of an entire movement that is slow to correct an error, accepts existential thinking too readily to build too much on experience instead of principle, and lacks maturity in fathering discipline. That movement needs correction because all movements need correction. Get in line.
The real issue should be that God hates criticism, never judges, and expects us to function without these essentials of kingdom leadership. Instead, this error has become the hot air balloon of misguided mercy hovering over a movement marked by appropriate hunger.
Without a structure for correction, any move of God will feature what should not even happen at all, make much of what should be hidden, and change the subject from what God is doing to what people are experiencing.
John Kilpatrick, who lead the way in the Brownsville Revival that began Father’s Day 1995 said to me on more than one occasion: “if you do not deal with the flakes and nuts, good people will leave and all you will have left are flakes and nuts.”
A move of God isn’t under your control, but you are responsible to make certain someone else isn’t taking control.
7
In closing, let me share a few thoughts about how God does stuff and how humans miss the point when He does.
When I visit the Holy Land, I rehearse what God has done and remember how God does stuff. I do not look to the Jordan River to see if any white doves are waiting in the trees to rest upon me as I come out of the waters. No dove rested upon Jesus either. That is a tradition gone to seed with a consequence of missing how things really work in the spirit.
When I visit Brownsville, Florida again, I rehearse the experiences that changed my life. I do not go there with the idea that rubbing against the sidewalk or putting my hand on the corner of the building will recharge the anointing or put me in the Glory.
However, when Ruthanne and I first visited the site on Azusa Street where a great move of God occurred, we found ourselves weeping like babies as we prophesied that God would do it again. We felt a hunger for God to do what He did there in our generation. We didn’t steal a brick or lie on the sidewalk. We didn’t take a leaf from a bush as a anointed souvenir.
That is not how things really work in the spirit.
On a thousand occasions, however, God sent me to a place on purpose. He wanted to go to a specific place, perhaps at a certain time, to decree a certain word and to receive a certain spiritual capacity.
We get weird with Jewish things that we think hold magic powers because of their Jewishness when they do not. We get odd with contact points if we do not understand how things really work in the spirit.
God does not get weird. God looks beyond weird to the heart, but God isn’t interested in producing a Remnant who lives ignorant of how things really work in the spirit.
The phrase “I would not have you ignorant brethren” isn’t the refrigerator magnet declaration of an old maid.
Paul says he wants to be wise from a revelation of how things really work in the spirit, or understand spiritual reality. (Translation of the verse as “spiritual gifts” is faulty and leads to misconceptions.)
“I would not have you ignorant about spiritual realities, brothers” (1 Corinthians 12:1). The word is not “gifts” as supplied by translators in anticipation of the rest of the chapter. The word
So, I get this question a lot. “What do you think about grave sucking?”
First, the term “grave sucking” is made up, so we must ignore it to get to the real issue.
I actually think of grave sucking: people who do not know how things work in the spirit attempt to receive anointing from graves, and critics who do not know how things work in the spirit make up a term to make fun of a funny practice.
Both miss the point of how things really work in the spirit.
Second, the real issue is “how does one receive anointing?”
One does not receive any anointing from the point of contact with a dead person. One connects to the spiritual reality through which God anoints, but the Anointing is a Person, not a substance or residue or fragrance.
The place that is special to God may remain special to God. The person that is special to God may remain special to God. Any situation may become an appropriate place for God to anoint someone, give meaning to the anointing at the moment He anoints.
Can anyone with an appropriate hunger for an anointing contact the dead through their clothing, residence, or grave? No. The hunger is appropriate. The presumption that God gives anointings in this manner is woefully inappropriate.
The Anointing is Holy Spirit; how anointing operates is entirely up to Him. Anointing matches assignment.
Thirdly, there can be no defense of the presuppositions that lie behind lying on graves to soak up a dead person’s anointing. However, there can be an immediate recognition that people with good hearts, who desire God and look to Him for the power and authority they require to live out their purposes, will do silly things.
Fourth, the practice of what has been labeled by bozos as “grave sucking” is no more ridiculous than a half dozen other dumb ideas that have been established traditions in churchism, including the practices of the bozos who use “grace sucking” as a way of demeaning people more desirous of God’s power than they are.
By that firm statement, I mean the very people criticizing this easy-to-target idea are doing nothing to produce hunger for revival like those that look for God’s power with a heart to see a repeat of past revivals.
Fifth, the most recent defense of the history of “grave sucking” was feeble. The leader missed the point and a great opportunity. Instead, he performed a “let’s ignore what happened and talk around the photos of people lying on graves.”
While protecting the leaders who published photos–I understand that completely–the aim to skirt what should be confronted fell far short of healthy correction–and correction is needed to clarify how things really work in the spirit more than slapping people on the back of the hands for having more zeal than wisdom.
Sixth, cheer up. It is going to get worse. The move of God is here, and people without grounding in the Scriptures will start doing even crazier stuff. Why? They are not grounded in how things really work in the spirit.
The cure isn’t a criticism of an entire movement that is slow to correct an error, accepts existential thinking too readily to build too much on experience instead of principle, and lacks maturity in fathering discipline. That movement needs correction because all movements need correction. Get in line.
The real issue should be that God hates criticism, never judges, and expects us to function without these essentials of kingdom leadership. Instead, this error has become the hot air balloon of misguided mercy hovering over a movement marked by appropriate hunger.
Without a structure for correction, any move of God will feature what should not even happen at all, make much of what should be hidden, and change the subject from what God is doing to what people are experiencing.
When I visit the Holy Land, I rehearse what God has done and remember how God does stuff. I do not look to the Jordan River to see if any white doves are waiting in the trees to rest upon me as I come out of the waters. No dove rested upon Jesus either. That is a tradition gone to seed with a consequence of missing how things really work in the spirit.
When I visit Brownsville, Florida again, I rehearse the experiences that changed my life. I do not go there with the idea that rubbing against the sidewalk or putting my hand on the corner of the building will recharge the anointing or put me in the Glory.
However, when Ruthanne and I first visited the site on Azusa Street where a great move of God occurred, we found ourselves weeping like babies as we prophesied that God would do it again. We felt a hunger for God to do what He did there in our generation. We didn’t steal a brick or lie on the sidewalk. We didn’t take a leaf from a bush as a anointed souvenir.
That is not how things really work in the spirit.
On a thousand occasions, however, God sent me to a place on purpose. He wanted to go to a specific place, perhaps at a certain time, to decree a certain word and to receive a certain spiritual capacity.
We get weird with Jewish things that we think hold magic powers because of their Jewishness when they do not. We get odd with contact points if we do not understand how things really work in the spirit.
God does not get weird. God looks beyond weird to the heart, but God isn’t interested in producing a Remnant who lives ignorant of how things really work in the spirit.
The phrase “I would not have you ignorant brethren” isn’t the refrigerator magnet declaration of an old maid.
Paul says he wants to become informed instead of ignorant from a revelation of how things really work in the spirit, or understand spiritual reality. (Translation of the verse as “spiritual gifts” is faulty and leads to misconceptions.)
“I would not have you ignorant of spiritual reality, brothers” (1 Corinthians 12:1). The word means “the invisible reality of spirit.”
So, to answer the question of “grave sucking” clearly: it doesn’t work. To answer the bozos who made up the term, “Go get a life.” To answer the hungry who attempted to soak up something by lying on the ground: “Find kingdom leaders who know better.” To answer the people who just want me to lambast the ministry at question: “Help yourself if you have time for that; I’m busy training kingdom leaders who are hungry for Reformation on how things really work in the spirit, so we avoid these curiosities that distract from our main mission.
So, I get this question a lot. “What do you think about grave sucking?”
First, the term “grave sucking” is made up, so we must ignore it to get to the real issue.
I actually think of grave sucking: people who do not know how things work in the spirit attempt to receive anointing from graves, and critics who do not know how things work in the spirit make up a term to make fun of a funny practice.
Both miss the point of how things really work in the spirit.
Second, the real issue is “how does one receive anointing?”
One does not receive any anointing from the point of contact with a dead person. One connects to the spiritual reality through which God anoints, but the Anointing is a Person, not a substance or residue or fragrance.
The place that is special to God may remain special to God. The person that is special to God may remain special to God. Any situation may become an appropriate place for God to anoint someone, give meaning to the anointing at the moment He anoints.
Can anyone with an appropriate hunger for an anointing contact the dead through their clothing, residence, or grave? No. The hunger is appropriate. The presumption that God gives anointings in this manner is woefully inappropriate.
The Anointing is Holy Spirit; how anointing operates is entirely up to Him. Anointing matches assignment.
Thirdly, there can be no defense of the presuppositions that lie behind lying on graves to soak up a dead person’s anointing. However, there can be an immediate recognition that people with good hearts, who desire God and look to Him for the power and authority they require to live out their purposes, will do silly things.
Fourth, the practice of what has been labeled by bozos as “grave sucking” is no more ridiculous than a half dozen other dumb ideas that have been established traditions in churchism, including the practices of the bozos who use “grace sucking” as a way of demeaning people more desirous of God’s power than they are.
By that firm statement, I mean the very people criticizing this easy-to-target idea are doing nothing to produce hunger for revival like those that look for God’s power with a heart to see a repeat of past revivals.
Fifth, the most recent defense of the history of “grave sucking” was feeble. The leader missed the point and a great opportunity. Instead, he performed a “let’s ignore what happened and talk around the photos of people lying on graves.”
While protecting the leaders who published photos–I understand that completely–the aim to skirt what should be confronted fell far short of healthy correction–and correction is needed to clarify how things really work in the spirit more than slapping people on the back of the hands for having more zeal than wisdom.
Sixth, cheer up. It is going to get worse. The move of God is here, and people without grounding in the Scriptures will start doing even crazier stuff. Why? They are not grounded in how things really work in the spirit.
The cure isn’t a criticism of an entire movement that is slow to correct an error, accepts existential thinking too readily to build too much on experience instead of principle, and lacks maturity in fathering discipline. That movement needs correction because all movements need correction. Get in line.
The real issue should be that God hates criticism, never judges, and expects us to function without these essentials of kingdom leadership. Instead, this error has become the hot air balloon of misguided mercy hovering over a movement marked by appropriate hunger.
Without a structure for correction, any move of God will feature what should not even happen at all, make much of what should be hidden, and change the subject from what God is doing to what people are experiencing.
When I visit the Holy Land, I rehearse what God has done and remember how God does stuff. I do not look to the Jordan River to see if any white doves are waiting in the trees to rest upon me as I come out of the waters. No dove rested upon Jesus either. That is a tradition gone to seed with a consequence of missing how things really work in the spirit.
When I revisit Brownsville, Florida, I rehearse the experiences that changed my life. I do not go there with the idea that rubbing against the sidewalk or putting my hand on the building corner will recharge the anointing or put me in the Glory.
However, when Ruthanne and I first visited the site on Azusa Street where a great move of God occurred, we found ourselves weeping like babies as we prophesied that God would do it again. We felt a hunger for God to do what He did there in our generation. We didn’t steal a brick or lie on the sidewalk. We didn’t take a leaf from a bush as a anointed souvenir.
That is not how things really work in the spirit.
On a thousand occasions, however, God sent me to a place on purpose. He wanted to go to a specific place, perhaps at a certain time, to decree a certain word and receive a certain spiritual capacity.
We get weird with Jewish things that we think hold magic powers because of their Jewishness when they do not. We get odd with contact points if we do not understand how things really work in the spirit.
God does not get weird. God looks beyond weird to the heart, but God isn’t interested in producing a Remnant who lives ignorant of how things really work in the spirit.
The phrase “I would not have you ignorant brethren” isn’t the refrigerator magnet declaration of an old maid.
Paul says he wants to be wise from a revelation of how things really work in the spirit or understand spiritual reality. (Translation of the verse as “spiritual gifts” is faulty and leads to misconceptions.)
“I would not have you ignorant of spiritual reality” (1 Corinthians 12:1).
So, to answer the question of “grave sucking” clearly: it doesn’t work. To answer the bozos who made up the term, “Go get a life.” To answer the hungry who attempted to soak up something by lying on the ground: “Find kingdom leaders who know better.” To answer the people who just want me to lambast the ministry at question: “Help yourself if you have time for that; I’m busy training kingdom leaders who are hungry for Reformation on how things really work in the spirit, so we avoid these curiosities that distract from our main mission.
