The Alter Call, Slain In The Spirit, And The Laying On Of Hands For Healing – Is It Ministry Or Majick Manipulation?

Many in modern-day ministry unknowingly use Occult language and practices to get their audience to react and respond to their message. The enemy will always attempt to circumvent a sovereign work of God by crafting a cunning counterfeit to confuse Christians. What God intends for good, the enemy's intent is for evil to prevail. Jesus is the God of the miraculous. He is the same today as He was thousands of years ago and will never change. (See Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). His anointing and power can dramatically come upon the Believer with supernatural Signs and Wonders to bring healing and reconciliation.

No matter how many religious leaders want to deny that God moves supernaturally today, He still does despite their prevalent disbelief. It is because of that fact the enemy will do whatever he can to counter-act a holy and righteous move of God to give the scoffers the armament and ammunition to lead a full frontal assault against those who are actively moving in the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.

Listed below are some of the most common types of deception used today. Please note that I am not saying in any way, shape, or form that all Signs and Wonders seen or experienced in the church today have their origins in the demonic. I firmly believe that it is quite to the contrary! However, there is much to be discerned.

Perilous Persuasion

Cults, human potential training organizations, businesses, and many militaries of the world use persuasion and manipulation techniques. The military uses them to break people down to rebuild them as actual soldiers, responsive to every command without rational thought or consideration.

The use of these techniques could be one of the reasons why there is only a ten percent retention rate of those who "accept" Jesus at revival "events." I have seen both subtle and outrageous manipulation techniques in every size of church and various denominations. I do not believe (or maybe I just don't want to believe!) that those using these techniques were taught directly how to use them. I truly hope it has been more through ignorance of their Occult roots or simply naive learning through observation because of the so-called "successful" results of others. Some examples of Occultic techniques used in ministry are listed below.

Music Ministry Manipulation

Worship and praise music is vital in preparing the heart to receive from God. The Bible recommends that Believers "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name..." and to "Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Psalm 100:4: Ephesians 5:19-20 NIV).

However, music can also be used for evil. One of the classic methods of music ministry manipulation is used to introduce hypnotic programming that can generate an "alpha" state of relaxed and suggestible consciousness in a very high percentage of people in the audience by playing a repetitive beat that is close to the rhythm of the human heart, which is 45 to 72 beats per minute. Music builds excitement and creates mental involvement.

Pre-Christian cultures considered the drum one of the most sacred and oldest ritual instruments. Drums were used as powerful trance-inducing instruments. The beating of drums is believed to express primal cosmic truth because the first sound a human hears is the rhythmic pulse of their mother's blood.

Alter Call Conditioning

The altar call (aka invitation) is a man-made practice started in the 19th Century. There is no example of it in the Bible, nor is there an example of anyone saying a prayer to receive Christ. However, the Bible calls people to follow Jesus, repent, and trust in Him to forgive sins (Matthew 4:19, 7:24, 9:9, 10:22,32, 16:13-17; Acts 2:38; 1 John 4:1-3).

The altar call is an appeal made after a sermon to come forward and make an immediate public response as an act of commitment to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. It is given great spiritual importance and relies on emotional/psychological manipulation, rhetorical persuasion, and social pressure to induce people to make an immediate profession by telling sad, tear-jerking stories and playing mood-creating music in the background. It can involve hand raising, walking down the aisle to the front of a church auditorium for counseling, or signing a 'commitment' card.

The significant issue concerning the altar call is whether a decision is sincerely motivated by honest repentance and trusting-faith in Jesus or whether it is a response to the pressure of making a 'profession' of faith that is not genuine. That can cause a false hope of salvation and a counterfeit conversion because a person reacts and does something by going forward in church to be saved.