Like I said I have many Baptist friends.
I never attack them.
Nor did I anywhere in my post you ACCUSED me of.
Oh the irony.
To each of the seven churches in Revelation the Lord through John told them:
"‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches"
Was the Lord and John attacking them, or were they trying to help them by pointing out a problem - with the problem being that they are not hearing the Lord via His Holy Spirit???
Too often in these days there seems to be this "victim" mentality where if you reprove someone they think they are being attacked!!
My parents took me to a conservative Baptist church as a child and what was written about not knowing a Baptist that hears the Lord is not surprising. Still, it was at that church I felt the Holy Spirit come on me as a nice feeling when I should have been bored at the same time an altar call was made, so I went forward and got baptized for the first time. Still, because I never heard from the Lord not saw anymore reasons to believe, I went my way when I got in high school and beyond. I worked and had a family, but when weird things were happening one day I stood in front of my house calling on God to speak to me, but I didn't hear a word from Him. It turned out that I was expecting God to speak to me in sound waves, but God is spirit. They never explained that in that particular Baptist church I had been taken to as a child. Thankfully the Lord fixed that problem by waking me up one morning saying, "Read Your Bible", and those words hit me like a powerful smack to the side of the head.
So I learned to hear from the Lord via His Holy Spirit and that small voice which is near us so that we pick it up in our spirit - meaning the Word of God we preach is found in our mouths and lips, not our physical ears or even our Bible. That was not preached at that Baptist church!!
And when I found the Lord and went back to another conservative Baptist church, I found out at that church there were a few people who heard from that small voice of the Lords, but they usually kept quite, because it was only ok to hear "what the Spirit says to the churches" on rare occasions and by certain people in the church.
How sad it was, that they actively put down people for saying to hear from the Lord, except in rare occasions! I remember going to a "Gifts of the Spirit" class they had. They gave us a test which we filled out. Mine came back with a strong gift for prophesy, and the lady leading the class actually took the time to point that out to the rest of the class just to make fun of me. She proclaimed boldly that God does not give prophecy today - and she was the person they had leading a class of gifts of the Spirit? It was just sad!!
Now before I go on further, this is not true for all Batist churches, but it is true that in one way or another 'the angel' (religious spirit) at all the churches who wants the chief seat, tries to keep the Lord's people from hearing what the Spirit has to say to the churches. It just happened to be more a bigger problem at those conservative Baptists churches.
I remember another time when I was working in the children's ministry, and the Lord had me give a word to a pastors child to give to him. It was an encouraging word and could not have been received in a negative way, but I told the child to tell him the Lord had said. I was kick out of working with the kids after that. I "ironically" (since rebuilder 454 like 'irony') that churches was desperate for people to work in the children's ministry at the time, so that they were asking (almost begging in their messages before service) for more people to help in the children's ministry. And so it was that the Lord had already asked me to help, and they had to kick me out of it because I told them that the Lord spoke. And 'more irony' - I was a retail manager with ToysUs' that famous kids toy store at the time, and was never good at fixing things. The lowest scores on my 'gift of the Spirit' test was in the area of working with my hands. Their own "Gifts of the Spirit" test was supposed to help them find the right place at the church for me to help, yet me giving a word from the Lord they put me to fixing chairs at the church under the maintenance guy who never came around.
I did that for a while until I had fixed everything first assigned to me, and could not find the guy to get more work from. That pastors used to come by me while I was working and they never ever said anything to me. So I was talking to the Lord about this and He told me that He was going to take me to another church. He took me to a very Charismatic church, which blew me away. Everyone at that church including the kids heard from the Lord and well. I help in a children's class there and told them a parable the Lord had given me, and ask them "How do you think I got that parable?", and they all answered that they felt the Lord had told me it. I was shock that all the kids there knew about hearing from the Lord personally - shock I tell you!! Each and every child at that Christian church seems to hear and understand about hearing from the Lord than any of the pastors at that prior Baptist church!
But don't get me wrong - I am not talking about every Baptist church, nor every person in any Baptist church!! One of the most prophetic men I ever knew personally was an old Southern Baptist pastor. However I meet him at that same very Charismatic church the Lord had taken me to. And since that was over twenty years ago, I have learn a lot from the Lord since.
I met a wonderful old lady who attended a very conservative Baptist church who heard from the Lord so very well, and she gave me so many wonderful little saying the Lord told her. She called them "popcorn" because the Lord just kind of 'popped" them into her head. And I also knew a Baptist pastor of 35 years with a doctorate. degree in theology who was on the board of a well known Baptist college who one told me that he personally had not heard the voice of the Lord for over 13 years - but he had heard the small voice a few times in his life.
Yet the Lord has told me, and over and over and over, to preach Him as the Word of God and that to mean that He wants His people listening to Him everyday called "Today"!!!
So am I "attacking" those churches who do not get those at their churches to "hear what the Spirit has to say", or am I trying to help them????
I say and boldly 'QUITE PLAYING THE VICTIM AND START SEEKING THE VOICE OF THE LORD!!!!!'
And encourage others to do that also! It's called preaching the Word of God!