Charles Finney

[Triumph1300]

Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Charles Finney wrote about how God gave him mighty infillings of the Holy Spirit. He said, "[These infillings] went through me, as it seemed, body and soul. I immediately found myself endued with such power from on high that a few words dropped here and there to individuals were the means of their immediate conversion. My words seemed to fasten like barbed arrows in the souls of men. They cut like a sword. They broke the heart like a hammer. Multitudes can attest to this...Sometimes I would find myself in a great measure empty of this power. I would go and visit, and find that I made no saving impression. I would exhort and pray with the same results. I would they set apart a day for private fasting and prayer...after humbling myself and crying out for help, the power would return upon me with all its freshness. This has been the experience of my life."

 

[Helen]

I used to read his books and sermons when young...I find them a bit 'heavy' going now. ( Probably my mind has turned to mush in watching too much TV!!)

He said -
"Unless I had the spirit of prayer, I could do nothing."
- Charles Finney
Very true...that is where our power lays...in staying connected to 'The Power' and never disconnected.

.........H

 

[Triumph1300]

I just finished reading a biography. Yes, heavy stuff......don't read for more than an hour at the time......but I did read the whole thing and it's awesome.

 

[Helen]

Have you read John Wesley's? Or George Whitefield's? Excellent. Both biographies are great.

They lived at the same time mid 1700's
Wesley Vs. Whitefield

 

[Triumph1300]

Have you read John Wesley's? Or George Whitefield's? Excellent.

No, I didn't.
Probably should.

Interesting link.

 

[Helen]

No, I didn't.
Probably should.

Interesting link.

Easier to read than Finney.
The book about George Whitefield ...written by John Pollock called "George Whitfield And The Great Awakening" ...it starts off with Charles Wesley in Oxford University..( he was the Wesley who wrote all the words to the lovely old hymns still being sung in many mainline churches) and then the friendship between him and George Whitefield...I don't believe either one were what we would call more than nominal christians back then. It's a good read...promise...

 

[Windmillcharge]

Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Charles Finney wrote about how God gave him mighty infillings of the Holy Spirit. He said, "[These infillings] went through me, as it seemed, body and soul. I immediately found myself endued with such power from on high that a few words dropped here and there to individuals were the means of their immediate conversion. My words seemed to fasten like barbed arrows in the souls of men. They cut like a sword. They broke the heart like a hammer. Multitudes can attest to this...Sometimes I would find myself in a great measure empty of this power. I would go and visit, and find that I made no saving impression. I would exhort and pray with the same results. I would they set apart a day for private fasting and prayer...after humbling myself and crying out for help, the power would return upon me with all its freshness. This has been the experience of my life."

I haven't read any books on Finney, what I have is a couple of reviews of his life.
They have show that God used a failible man to challenge a staid, respectable 'religeon' and to breath life into popular Christianity.

They also showed that leaders should be trained in theology as Finney when he started to write as a leade about theology showed how little he understood it, as he wrote he believed in the possibility of sinless perfection for newly converted Christians, the denial of the imputation of Adam’s sin and guilt, the human ability to create for oneself a new nature, the denial of the substitutionary Atonement, and the power to manufacture revival by the application of specific techniques. taken from Charles Finney: The Controversial Evangelist

 

[tabletalk]

Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Charles Finney wrote about how God gave him mighty infillings of the Holy Spirit. He said, "[These infillings] went through me, as it seemed, body and soul. I immediately found myself endued with such power from on high that a few words dropped here and there to individuals were the means of their immediate conversion. My words seemed to fasten like barbed arrows in the souls of men. They cut like a sword. They broke the heart like a hammer. Multitudes can attest to this...Sometimes I would find myself in a great measure empty of this power. I would go and visit, and find that I made no saving impression. I would exhort and pray with the same results. I would they set apart a day for private fasting and prayer...after humbling myself and crying out for help, the power would return upon me with all its freshness. This has been the experience of my life."

He said: "My words seemed to fasten like barbed arrows in the souls of men. They cut like a sword. They broke the heart like a hammer."

Sure sounds like he equates his words with the Word of God.

 

[Triumph1300]

Oh, sure, there's always something to find negative about a great evangelist.



(Seems to me that's what internet forums are used for most of the time.)


Why not focus on the many healings and salvations?