The acceptance of contemplative prayer has hit an all-time high in the church. And is it any wonder? Christian media, Christian publishers, pastors, mission societies, Bible societies, authors, radio hosts, youth leaders, women’s group leaders, and Christian ministry leaders are all promoting it more than ever. The video below that was posted on Charisma Magazine’s website on September 10th is yet another example of how Christian media (Charisma being one of the most popular Christian magazines today) is doing their part to get masses of Christians involved with contemplative prayer (remember our recent article on YWAM’s goal to get all YWAMer’s doing contemplative prayer).
The Charisma article titled “The Ancient Spiritual Prayer Today’s Church Fails to Practice” states: “[Pastor] Shigematsu offers an easy step-by-step guide on how to do contemplative prayer in this video.”
The pastor who is featured on this video is Pastor Ken Shigematsu. Shigematsu is the author of God in My Everything: How an Ancient Rhythm Helps Busy People Enjoy God (2013) and Survival Guide for the Soul (2018, foreword by Ann Voskamp). In what he calls a “spiritual ecosystem,” Shigematsu provides a who’s who of New Age sympathizers and Catholic mystics in God in My Everything, that includes Thomas Merton, Evelyn Underhill, Kathleen Norris, Marva Dawn, Basil Pennington, Richard Rohr, Gerald May, Dorothy Bass, Parker Palmer, Joan Chittister and many of the usual evangelical/Protestant suspects such as Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, Richard Foster, Ruth Haley Barton, and Gary Thomas. In that book, Shigematsu makes no apologies for encouraging Christians to practice various meditation exercises to help calm the mind.
Survival Guide for the Soul is a continuing saga of his earlier book God in My Everything with gleanings from many of the same sources but also added to the mix is contribution from mystics such as David-Steindl Rast, Henry Nouwen, Walter Brueggeman, Thomas Keating, Anne Lamott, John Ortberg, and Dorothy Day.* In Survival Guide, Shigematsu boasts that “The spiritual direction movement is growing, and there are now more than six thousand spiritual directors under the banner of Spiritual Directors International, most of whom serve in North America” (ch. 9, endnote #15). The spiritual direction movement is one of the outgrowths of the contemplative prayer/Spiritual Formation movement (i.e., every contemplative Christian needs a spiritual director to guide and direct his or her esoteric experiences to help avoid any dangerous altercations with devils and demons, which Richard Foster says can occur when practicing contemplative prayer).
If you are someone who is aware of the dangers and the true panentheistic, interspiritual nature of contemplative prayer, you have probably noticed that contemplative spirituality has moved from its infancy stage in the church to what appears to becoming the norm. Because the “big” guys in Christianity (e.g., Rick Warren, Christianity Today, YWAM, Charisma, Focus on the Family) are pushing fast forward to get the church through this mystical paradigm shift and the “little guys (e.g., Lighthouse Trails, The Berean Call) are written off as negative, divisive, and only worthy of being ignored and seen as being out of sync, contemplative spirituality (which encompasses all things emergent) will become the “new” Christianity, and all one has to do to get there is . . . breathe in . . . and breathe out.
To see the video on the Charisma site, click here.
*Most of the names mentioned in this article can be found on the Lighthouse Trails Research Project blog and in many of our published resources. Just use the blog’s search engine to look up the names.
Related Article:
The Christian of the Future by Ray Yungen
CW
Charisma used to be a LOT better than it is now. Over the last couple of years in particular, I’ve been shocked by some of their articles. I’ve seen issues where I could only find one article which was not blatantly teaching unBiblical things. As far as I know, Dr. Michael Brown is still teaching Biblically. I hope so.
CW
Anna Rosa, perhaps I misunderstood your comment. Just wanted to say, the seduction of the church will never be 100%. There will always be a faithful remnant who are strong by the power of the Holy Spirit, because of the blood of Jesus our Lord. True Christians have never been a majority anywhere or at any time.
Craig Giddens
Really Carol Powell, you’re going to quote Franklin Roosevelt as support for contemplative prayer?
Jeffry
I quoted Tozer in a comment I made earlier. I spent time reading a number of his books he wrote after other comments were put into this article on contemplative breathing. His quoting of some catholic mystics stunned me. I need to be very careful in comments I make. Discernment of the Bible and writers about the Bible need to be done with Knowledge and care.
admin
Carol, thank you for being honest. Do you see anywhere in Scripture where Jesus or the disciples taught or encouraged this kind of prayer?
admin
Unfortunately, the list of popular Christian leaders who are in that gullible category is a long list. Here is a partial list we put together some time ago: https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=8359.
admin
We’re not saying that Tozer was necessarily a mystic; but it’s been brought to our attention by many readers over the years (and we have seen it now for ourselves) that he often quoted some heavy-duty panentheistic mystics (such as Miester Eckhart). He’s not here to explain to us what he was thinking, but many contemplatives use his materials to try to prove their point. Sad.
Carol Powell
Contemplative prayer opens people to the presence of God within them helping them to love and surrender to God in daily life. It is not dangerous. It is life giving and helps the person to serve others and bring God to them. There is nothing to fear but fear itself. I have been practicing this prayer for thirty years and it has helped me get through many difficult times in my life. It has strengthened my faith, hope, and charity
Charles Earl Mangum
I do not understand why some Christians are gulabale enough to swallow this garbage. When I was a teenager, I got involved with yoga. The results — demon possession. Only by the grace of God, I was freed. I feel sorry for those who are being deceived by contemplative meditation, which is neither Christian nor biblical. They should be seeking God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, NOT some pipedream.
Carol Berubee
@Anna Rosa, I’m not sure that it’s 99%, but you’re right, the Antichrist will come with signs and lying wonders, and speaking smooth words for itching ears. Many will be deceived and believe the lie, but the Body of Christ will not be here when the Antichrist comes. Deception has been rampant since the Church began, though. What is being peddled now is nothing new, either. It is repackaged Gnosticism.
JDV
Ah, ‘new’ insight! Secret knowledge! Smiling faces! Who needs discernment when there’s something ‘new’?
Victor
Thank you for the constant reminder about the advances, dangers and practitioners of this demonic movement. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;” (1Ti 4:1 KJV) “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;” (2Ti 4:3 KJV) “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” (2Pe 2:1 KJV) “Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;” (2Th 2:3 KJV)
T. I. Miller
Excuse my spelling, but….. The Eastern Mystics have been in the slow subtle conversion business for decades even centuries. The Catholic Desert Fathers Mystics were influenced by Hindus. Yoga according to Hindus is inseparable from Hinduism. Tai che is also about breathing and the Ying and Yang of Taoists. Then came the TM, Transcendental Meditation, movement . Mindfulness, another name for TM is being imposed upon our children at all levels of public education. The goal is to seduce the west into accepting Pantheism. God is in all and all are in God therefore all are God. The yoga Namaste greeting means, the god in me greets the god in you. Where are the pastors who are willing to fight the good fight? Where are the big celebrity pastors with mass media at their beck and call? To say nothing is called complicity through conspiracy of silence. Gods wrath is kindled against all false teachers and all who are too cowardly to speak the truth to boldly defend the faith.
Jeffry
A generation ago A.W. Tozer wisely said, “One of the most popular current errors, and the one out of which springs most of the noisy, blustering religious activity in evangelical circles, is the notion that as time change the church must change with them. ” Faithfulness to GODS WORD, not to what evangelicalism calls success, will be the standard of reward at the judgement seat of Christ (1 Cor. 2:4-5) The churches need to preach and teach, without trimming our sail to the wind of the world, is our most pressing need of the hour.
E lizabeth Bennett
It is frightening to see how most evangelical churches and colleges are being fooled by this emergent/spiritual formation philosophy. Their ignorance of the dangers involved is mind-boggling! I am warning my grandchildren not to ever do the spiritual formation-contemplative scenario. They are missionary kids, some going into college. I pray for their safety. West Coast Baptist Bible College in Lancaster , CA and Pensacola Christian College do not require Spiritual Formation, praise the Lord.
Anna Rosa
After the seduction of the church is 100% complete, those in it will be 100% ripe for the antichrist. It’s about 99% now…