“My son attends a gay church. He says the gifts of the Holy Spirit operate there, and people get saved, healed, and blessed. Could that be true?”
That question came to me from a mother recently. You might be surprised how often it comes up. If you haven’t heard it yet, you will.
To me the subject’s not just academic. I, too, found a gay affirming church when I came out 48 years ago, thinking it was an answer to prayer.
I was a born-again Christian who had wrestled silently with homosexuality, even when serving in the ministry. I finally decided to give in to it when I was 23.
My first year “out” as a gay man was sleazy, full of promiscuity and drunkenness. I soon realized this was a destructive lifestyle but was unwilling to repent of homosexuality itself. That’s when I heard about a church where I could have it both ways: Gay and Christian.
Upon joining, I stopped the drinking and sleeping around, feeling much better about myself. I also adopted a pro-gay interpretation of the Bible, hoping to silence my conscience on the issue.
But here’s where it gets interesting – I eventually joined the pastoral staff and taught weekly Bible studies. Not just “gay sermons,” but didactic, verse by verse expository teaching.
During worship services I, and others on our prayer team, prayed for the sick, at times with results. I even evangelized gay non-believers who visited the church, curious about what the Gospel had to say to them. I would lead them in what’s called “the sinner’s prayer,” and God alone knows the results.
In short, the gifts of the Spirit I had exercised in my prior ministry, now seemed to show themselves through me and others, though we were clearly a church in blatant, lethal error.
So, as that mother asked earlier, “Could this be true?”
Here are 3 possible answers.
1.. What Seemed Spiritual Was Demonic
When Paul and Timothy were ministering in Troas, a young woman there seemed to have a gift of prophecy, or at least exhortation, when she loudly announced the two were sent by God to show the way of salvation. (Acts 16:16-18)
Sounded good, but Paul saw through it. She was demon possessed, speaking true words from a false source. So what looked like an operation of the Holy Spirit was in fact demonic, not prophetic.
Paul had to speak up, because when she spoke truth, people might have trusted and then followed her when she started promoting lies.
That’s relevant, because Satan hates humanity, wanting to deceive non-believers into continued unbelief, and believers into compromise. It’s possible, then, that much of what we identified as the move of God was in fact a Satanic ruse.
The Angel of Light can be, like his works, stunningly attractive. So having seduced us with the false gospel of gay theology, it stands to reason he would also confirm his message with false signs and wonders.
After all, when our discernment is weakened by compromise, we’re apt to believe something supernatural must also be something godly.
The Devil knows our weaknesses, appeals to them with flattering doctrines, then confirms his lies with, as Paul described them, “Signs and lying wonders.” (II Thessalonians 2:9)
That’s why he warned the Galatians (a group of believers vulnerable to the error of legalism, as we were to the error of gay theology) not to cling to the miraculous as proof of right versus wrong, when he wrote:
“But should we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8)
2. What Seemed Spiritual Was Emotional
Another possibility is that we mistook good vibrations for Biblical giftings. One case in point stands out to me as evidence.
In the Spring of 1980 the choir from my affirming church made the rounds of the local gay bars to sing for the guys, and to promote the church. The reception at each place was good, but one took it further than applause.
At that particular bar we decided to sing Andre Crouch’s classic “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power.” Since I played piano for the choir, in addition to other staff duties, I belted out the introduction and within minutes, it seemed every patron there had stood up and was singing along, word for word.
Clearly these men – half of them shirtless; many of them drunk – knew Andre’s music. I could only guess they’d been raised in Evangelical churches and were reliving more Christ-like days.
Many lifted their hands and shook like old time Pentecostals, belting out with eyes closed and ecstasy washing over their faces. When we finished, they yelled for more.
We met at the church later for debriefing, and we, too, were ecstatic, giving the event rave reviews:
.“Wow, were we anointed tonight!”
“Did you see the how the Holy Spirit came over those guys?”
“God moved, for sure. Thank you, Jesus, we just had Church1”
Yeah, I know, and I’m shaking my head right along with you. A bar full of intoxicated men singing something they learned in Sunday School was not a Holy Ghost revival. But golly, was it ever an emotional high!
I suspect, in hindsight, that all of us who’d known the Lord before coming out were still hoping we’d made the right decision.
Anything confirming that hope was so welcome, so comforting to our wobbly consciences, that we interpreted it as a move of the Spirit.
So when our music triggered a joyful response, we labeled that a manifestation of spiritual gifts.
But it wasn’t. We’d just encouraged men in sin to continue in sin by singing reassurances to them. That’s not Spirit-led ministry, it’s carnal Manpleasing. True ministers would have called them to Truth.
3. What Seemed Spiritual Was Spiritual. But It Wasn’t Validation
This third possibility takes me out on a limb, but I think it’s not only true, it’s also the best explanation for what I experienced during my years in the gay church.
Paul said, “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” (Romans 11:29) The Greek word he used for “gifts” is “charisma,” the same word used to describe the gifts of the Spirit listed in I Corinthians 12.
This chapter in Romans is about God’s irrevocable covenant with Israel. By placing the word “gifts” alongside “calling” in this verse, he asserts that spiritual “charismas” are, like God’s call to His people, permanent gifts of grace, not temporal rewards for good works.
That explains how ministers who were found to be in sexual sin for years did, in fact, manifest powerful gifts of the Spirit, even when they were indulging. God’s gifts were not revoked from them, though they were seriously outside of God’s will.
Surely the presence of those gifts in their ministries did not mean God condoned or ignored their sinful behavior. But neither did their sinful behavior cancel the gifts God had given them.
Ongoing sin and spiritual gifts can co-exist. They shouldn’t, and the minister exercising those gifts while continuing in sin is only kidding himself if he thinks there will be no consequence. (James 3:1) Yet it happens, and it’s nothing new.
Consider the church at Corinth, which was a mess. They were divided into factions (I Corinthians 3:4) they were taking each other to court (I Corinthians 6:1) some got drunk at communion (I Corinthians 11:21) and they tolerated the openly incestuous relationship of one of their members. (I Corinthians 5)
Yet the gifts of the Holy Spirit were unmistakably operating there, requiring Paul to educate them on the rationale and proper use of such gifts. (I Corinthians chapters 12 and 14)
Note that Paul didn’t deny the gifts existed at Corinth. He affirmed that they did, despite the many sins in the church he addressed and corrected in this book.
That’s why I’m convinced of two things to this day, things I’ve considered ever since I repented in 1984 and left both the gay church and community: A person can retain the gifts of the Spirt God gave him even when deceived, backslidden, or in rebellion. Yet the vessel’s gifts can never justify the vessel’s sin.
That’s exactly why we shouldn’t assume the presence of charisma, whether in personality or gifting, is proof of godly character.
It’s also why Christians who identify as gay and legitimize their sexual behavior by the Holy Spirit’s presence and gifting are deceiving themselves, and others.
So is that concerned mother’s son telling the truth when he says spiritual gifts show up in his church?
Probably, at least to a point. But he’s also believing a lie, because the gifting of God isn’t proof of His approval. As Bible commentator David Guzek said so well:
“A person can be affected by the power of God (resulting in amazing experiences), but not surrendered to the power of God, which results in a changed life.”
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