In his teaching CD titled The Grace of Yielding, Derek Prince makes some interesting and prophetic comments about the Charismatic movement.
The teaching is copyrighted 1974 by Derek Prince Ministries International. Prince died in 2003.
The tape begins with Prince making the statement that “the spirit of the age is get what you can for yourself. Let the weak take care of themselves.”
He continues, in a segment titled The Spirit of Christ, to say: “In God’s sight you don’t prosper by asserting your rights. The spirit of Jesus did not lay claim to his rights. I believe prosperity, health, and inward peace and wellbeing of soul are the rights of the new creation. But many times they’re abrogated by the old man for his own selfish purposes.
When I hear people today say “Brother, just claim it!” something in me winces. Because when I hear those words “Brother just claim it,” inwardly I picture an arrogant ego asserting its rights. And I would like to ask you—but don’t answer—how many of you would really like to live with someone whose always just claiming it?
…I’m inwardly weary of the legalistic assertion of my inheritance in Christ. And I’m really tired of hearing Christians being told how to be healthy and how to prosper…brother and sister, when you’ve learned how to be healthy and how to prosper, you are not out of kindergarten spiritually.
Your strength isn’t what you have or what you can demonstrate. Your strength is the ability to bear the infirmities of the weak. That’s altogether different. Now the Spirit of Christ was a spirit that freely yielded, and I believe He was the supreme example of yielding.
Let me just give you to begin with one contrast. It says in Phil. 2:6 of our Jesus being in the form of God he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. That is the King James Version. But the New American Standard Bible says: He thought not equality with God something to be grasped at.
You see we have a complete specific contrast. Jesus was entitled to equality with God. It was His by divine nature, divine right. He did not grasp at it.
Lucifer who became Satan was not entitled to equality with God. He did grasp at it and he fell.
And I am exercising my mind as to how much of our assertion and claiming and demanding is the expression of the Spirit of Christ and how much of it doesn’t come rather from the other source.
I really believe that the Charismatic movement is going to have to face this issue. See, we are really going to have to discern between true and false prophets, true and false ministries, those who are serving God in spirit and truth and those who are not.
Miracles are not the decisive point of difference.
The mark that separates is the Spirit of Christ. If any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of Him.
You know what I believe about the Charismatic movement? I believe it’s just the interval between two waves. One wave has been going out and another wave is coming in. In between, there’s a mess, isn’t there? A churning up, a lot of dirt and mire churned up, kind of confusion, two forces going opposite directions. That’s the Charismatic movement. It’s not God’s ultimate, believe me.
Something else is coming. It’s going to be orderly, disciplined, Christ honoring and it’s going to promote humility, brotherly love, and each esteeming other better than ourselves.
As far as I’m concerned, the day of God’s individual man of faith and power is on the way out and I say that without being critical of any man who might ever have qualified for that title.”
The Agony of Victory 