When we consider all these phenomena, several questions arise in our minds:

• Does God need ecstasies to accomplish His will in us?
• Isn’t it Satan who enjoys playing with humans?
• Is the spirit of the prophets not subject to the prophets?
• Is it the manifestation of voluntary emotions?

The reason for trances is not God, but rather the nature of humans and that of spiritual matters. Spiritual matters are powerful and dazzling. Their introduction into the realm of the physical and visible causes unusual phenomena in humans.

Most of the time, the dazzling effect produces ecstasy. A person not used to anointings or to a particular anointing can easily enter into ecstasy.

It is the same if the anointing poured upon a person exceeds their capacity to withstand it. As soon as the person yields, ecstasy becomes possible.

When the human spirit is confronted with the glorious things of God or a great anointing, it may feel overwhelmed by their power, which can lead to ecstasy. This phenomenon results from the weakness of man before God, the physical before the spiritual. It is the preeminence of the spirit over the body.

In ecstasy, man enters his true universe. He faces realities he often feels but has never experienced. He penetrates his true essence and realizes that he is not only a physical being but is primarily of a spiritual nature.

Ecstasy is a condition of spontaneous and temporary exaltation under the impulse of a strong anointing; the entire being feels its effects. While the spirit may be carried into visions and new experiences, the body may exhibit physical ecstatic reactions like those mentioned earlier.

The anointing can stir the body and provoke uncontrolled reactions bordering on hysteria. Ecstasy becomes convulsive, especially when it encounters demonic oppositions in the life of a Christian, thus creating a conflict between light and darkness.

Every time a trance originates from God, it carries a particular blessing, even if this is not immediately visible or understandable.

If we inhibit the action of the Holy Spirit through excessive theological and rational considerations, if we overly care about our composure during the administration of the Holy Spirit, if we, through our physical means or teachings, try to prevent ecstatic manifestations, our churches will lose the vitality necessary for a spiritual awakening.

Ecstatic phenomena are biblical and relevant within churches that walk in the dynamic of the Holy Spirit. However, one must remain vigilant not to fall into traps, such as when experience takes precedence over the Word of God, or through many demonic counterfeits in which Satan tries to pass himself off as God.

A church that does not experience ecstatic manifestations during its ministry is a dead church. Even though it is normal for church leaders to stay watchful, we must acknowledge that when we follow the Holy Spirit—rather than trying to control Him—there will always be manifestations beyond our control.

An authentic relationship with the Holy Spirit and the anointings is full of irrational contradictions because a spiritual relationship with God is constantly filled with divine creativity and originality.

We are going through difficult times in which Satan is working with renewed zeal to seduce Christians through deception and counterfeit. Even if the line between true and false is sometimes hard to discern and it is wise to remain cautious when unusual phenomena occur, it remains true that many ecstatic phenomena are works of the Holy Spirit and thus deserve our full attention and even our embrace, despite purely rational considerations.

We will not always understand the way God acts, but let us remain confident that when He truly acts, we will inevitably be comforted by it…

This text is an excerpt from the book “Divine Anointings: Know-Understand-Experience” written by Guy L. BAYONG.

We invite you to read the following article: “THE IMPREGNABILITY OF OBJECTS.”

ECSTASIES. ECSTASIES. ECSTASIES. ECSTASIES.