Direct Revelation - Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity

Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity

Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity has always maintained that God directly speaks today through direct means such as dreams, visions, voices, impressions, and signs (or meaningful coincidences). While these Christians have emphasized speaking in tongues or even praying for healing, for the longest time Charismatics have shied away from expressing the gift of prophecy – which is the cause of these direct spiritual experiences. The reason for this is that Christian prophets in history have often come into conflict with the pastors and religious authorities of the church hierarchy. Throughout church history, Christian prophets have usually been mystics or people that practiced divine contemplation or soaking prayer.

Various Christian groups throughout church history could be labeled "prophetic", because they have welcomed the gift of prophecy in their church meetings and lives: the Montanists, the Desert Fathers, various orders of Catholic monasticism such as the Dominicans and the Discalced Carmelites, the Waldensians, the Anabaptists, the Jansenists, the Quietists, the Quakers, the French prophets, various people in the Great Awakening and Second Great Awakening, the Irvingites, individuals in the Holiness movement, the early Pentecostal movement, the Latter Rain revival, the Charismatic movement, the Jesus movement, the Vineyard; and especially the Kansas City prophets, the Toronto Blessing movement, and Bethel Church in Redding, California.