Fresh Fire Ministries is an international ministry called to global harvest. Todd Bentley and his team take God's saving, healing and delivering power to the nations. Todd travels throughout North America , sparking revival fire and equipping the body in power evangelism and healing Ministry. As well, Todd and his team conduct many healing crusades throughout Africa , India , South America , Europe and beyond. Thousands have been saved, healed and delivered.

Todd Bentley, his wife Shonnah and three children, Lauralee, Esther and Elijah live in Abbotsford, BC, Canada.

In his late teens, Todd had a dramatic encounter with the saving and delivering power of God. This experience brought Todd out of a lifestyle of drug and alcohol addiction without cravings or withdrawal symptoms. He was also delivered from a lifestyle involving criminal activity, youth prisons, drugs, sex, satanic music and bondage. Todd's miraculous conversion to Jesus was much like the Apostle Paul's on the Damascus road. Todd was instantly transformed into a radical disciple and soul winning evangelist for Jesus.

God has drawn Todd into deep and intimate places of prayer. These extended times in God's presence has released a fresh prophetic and miracle-healing anointing. In the past God has used Todd to spark many revivals where meetings have been extended to last from one to two months, continuing on even after he has left.

The passion of Todd's life and ministry: is to see others set free through the anointing of the Holy Spirit and to see others come into the reality of intimate relationship with Jesus. He also desires to see Christ's body healed, equipped and rising up in the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill the great commission.

Todd believes the body of Christ needs to be strengthened and encouraged. He ministers prophetically, corporately and personally as well as brings forth the word of God with the power and demonstration of the Spirit -- God confirming His word with signs and wonders following. God has released an increase of the healing anointing into Todd's life to the point where the blind see, the deaf hear & growths dissolve as Jesus still heals every sickness and disease.

Since Fresh Fire, the revival and healing ministry of Todd Bentley, began igniting spiritual fires across North America and in other nations in recent years, many have asked the question: "How did it all start?" Many Christians seem to wonder how God could raise up and launch a young man in his early 20s into a powerful international ministry after only five years as a Christian.

As one of Todd's closest friends during the early days of Fresh Fire (in 1998), I believe I can offer some answers to these, and many other questions. By observing the beginnings of this spiritual explosion in the life of one young man, I believe that we can all learn keys, which can open the doors to personal and ministry revival in our own lives. Here is my story:

I met Todd in the mid 1990s, a year or two after he was saved at the age of 18. He was spiritually born into the new renewal/revival move of the spirit. I chuckle as I remember Todd as a Holy Spirit junkie who just couldn't get enough of God and his sweet Spirit. Todd loved to soak and play in the presence of God and to give it away. I also heard from friends about this young radical who loved to pray and preach.

A friend and fellow youth minister, Clif Robertson (who has served Todd's ministry the past few years), told me stories of this longhaired, bearded and leather-jacket-clad youngster who was leading people to the Lord on the street and at the skateboard park. It seemed he had this voracious appetite for more of God and as great a desire to share with others the treasures he had found in relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

By 1997, a small group of youth pastor's and I had been meeting for a few years for weekly prayer. A few of us, including Clif Robertson and Jean-Mark Russi (from a charismatic Anglican church in town), began to feel led to start an inter-church revival meeting. In September of 1997, 'Fresh Fire' was born. We began to meet in a small storefront church with a small group of spiritually hungry young people. Our goal was to pray, worship, prophesy, hear God and to ignite a revival fire through youth in our city.

In our monthly Fresh Fire revival meetings, the Holy Spirit would faithfully manifest, touching youth and youth leaders alike and stirring up a greater hunger for Him and His revival touch. In February of 1998, I was feeling a leading of the Lord to slowly step away from some of my ministry involvements including youth pastoring, worship leading and even speaking as much at Fresh Fire. I felt strongly that the Lord was leading me into a set-apart season of intimacy with Him. Clif was also slowing down his ministry involvements. So when I was looking for other fired-up leaders to speak or be involved in Fresh Fire, he suggested Todd.

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Todd Bentley (born 1976) is a Canadian Evangelical Christian and evangelist. He is one of the primary preachers involved in the Charismatic revival meetings in Lakeland, Florida known as the Florida Healing Outpouring. Attendance at the meetings has reached as high as 10,000 visitors a night from around the world[1].

Background

Bentley was raised mainly in Gibsons, British Columbia, a small community on the western coast of Canada. After his parents' divorce, Bentley wrote in his 2008 autobiography, The Journey into the Miraculous, that he struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and criminal activities. Bentley credited his conversion to Christianity for delivering him from that lifestyle and propelling him into ministry at age 18.[2].

In 2001 the now-defunct Report Newsmagazine, a secular conservative publication, ran a profile on Bentley. In the article, they claimed that his criminal activities as a teenager included more than one instance of sexual molestation. The article was graphic in details, summarizing Bentley's behavior as "heinous"[3]. In Canada, the criminal records of juvenile offenders are protected from public disclosure[4], which led to heated controversy in the Christian press, websites, and forums (although not much picked up in mainstream press) about whether Report NewsMagazine had acted correctly in publicizing Bentley's crimes - and whether, if true, this impeached Bentley's position as an evangelist.[5] [6]

Appearance

Bentley maintains an appearance that is very different from the archetype commonly associated with Billy Graham and other well known Christian evangelists. Bentley's arms and neck are covered with tattoos, he has multiple facial piercings, and he favors t-shirts over ties[7][8]. Fellow evangelist Randy Clark has said; "Some people are judging it because Todd doesn't look like your typical evangelist."[9] Bentley contends; "I don't look like your normal evangelist because I'm not."[10]

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Tabari VI:75 "'Messenger, how did you first know with absolute certainty that you were a prophet.' He replied, 'Two angels came to me while I was somewhere in Mecca.... One angel said, "Open his breast and take out his heart." He opened my chest and heart, removing the pollution of Satan and a clot of blood, and threw them away. Then one said, "Wash his breast as you would a receptacle." He summoned the Sakinah [the Hebrew Shekhinah, or God's presence], which looked like the face of a white cat, and it was placed in my heart. Then one said, "Sew up his breast." So they sewed up my chest and placed the seal between my shoulders.'"

3. What kind of leadership structure will the Ambassadors’ Alliance have?

* While Living Waters will oversee every aspect of membership in the Ambassadors' Alliance, reserving the right to include and/or remove churches, para-church ministries, and individuals from the Alliance, Living Waters will not impose a "top-down" leadership structure upon members of the Alliance. We firmly believe the Bible mandates that all spiritual authority is in Christ. And, in His Word, Christ has tasked the local church with providing spiritual leadership and direction to His Body on earth.
* Picture, if you will a wheel. Living Waters and the Ambassadors' Alliance will serve as the hub of the wheel. Each member of the Alliance, whether church, para-church ministry, or individual, will serve as spokes in the wheel, with each spoke carrying no more and certainly no less importance than any other spoke. The spokes are then connected to the outer rim of the wheel which, for purposes of this illustration, represents the world—the saved and the unsaved. Living Waters and the Ambassadors' Alliance, by serving as the hub of the wheel, helps to connect each spoke to one another and to the world, while facilitating the evangelistic movement of each member in the same, unified direction.
* At the moment, Living Waters has no plans to institute an "area leader" structure within the Alliance. Each individual member will be responsible to serve as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ—just as every Christian is responsible to do. And the ambassador's primary source of spiritual accountability and leadership is, again, his or her local church leadership.

6. How can my church get involved in the Ambassadors’ Alliance?

* Within the framework of the Ambassadors' Alliance, participating churches are known as "Embassies."
* Each prospective Embassy church will complete an application for membership in the Ambassadors' Alliance. A pastor or designated representative of the church will also be interviewed by the Director of the Ambassadors’ Alliance (by phone or in person).
* An Embassy is a church whose leadership and/or designated members have participated in an Ambassadors' Academy.
* An Embassy is a church that has commissioned an Ambassadors' Academy graduate to serve as the church's Ambassadors' Alliance liaison. This ambassador, at the discretion and under the authority of the church's leadership, will lead and/or facilitate biblical evangelism training and activities within the church.
* An embassy church is one that agrees with the Living Waters Statement of Faith and employs the biblical evangelism principles taught by Living Waters in a manner consistent with the philosophical distinctions of the church and the culture the church is trying to reach.
* Embassy churches will provide regular classes that teach biblical evangelism principles to their church family, and there will be an active evangelism team and/or ministry in the church.
* A church's membership in the Ambassadors' Alliance is not an official, blanket endorsement by Living Waters of neither the church nor all of the church's theological and philosophical positions. An Embassy church has simply met the membership requirements listed above.
* Beyond participation in the Ambassadors' Alliance, Living Waters assumes no authority whatsoever over any Embassy church.
* Living Waters reserves the right to remove any Embassy church from the Ambassadors' Alliance if a church is not in compliance with the Ambassadors' Alliance membership requirements, or for any other reason determined to be in the best interest of Living Waters and the Ambassadors' Alliance.

Todd Bentley’s announcement that his marriage is ending has
thrown our movement into a tailspin—and questions need to be answered.

It was not supposed to end like this.

Evangelist Todd Bentley had heralded the Lakeland revival as the
greatest Pentecostal outpouring since Azusa Street. From his
stage in a gigantic tent in Florida, Bentley preached to thousands,
bringing many of them to the stage for prayer. Many claimed to
be healed of deafness, blindness, heart problems, depression and
dozens of other conditions in the Lakeland services, which ran for
more than 100 consecutive nights. Bentley announced confidently
that dozens of people had been raised from the dead during the revival.

But this week, a few days after the Canadian preacher announced
the end of his visits to Lakeland, he told his staff that his marriage
is ending. Without blaming the pace of the revival for Bentley’s
personal problems, his board released a public statement saying
that he and his wife, Shonnah, are separating. The news shocked
Bentley’s adoring fans and saddened those who have questioned
his credibility since the Lakeland movement erupted in early April.

I’m sad. I’m disappointed. And I’m angry. Here are few of my
many, many questions about this fiasco:

Why did so many people flock to Lakeland from around the world
to rally behind an evangelist who had serious credibility issues
from the beginning?

To put it bluntly, we’re just plain gullible.

From the first week of the Lakeland revival, many discerning
Christians raised questions about Bentley’s beliefs and practices.
They felt uneasy when he said he talked to an angel in his hotel
room. They sensed something amiss when he wore a T-shirt with
a skeleton on it. They wondered why a man of God would cover
himself with tattoos. They were horrified when they heard him
describe how he tackled a man and knocked his tooth out during prayer.

But among those who jumped on the Lakeland bandwagon,
discernment was discouraged. They were expected to swallow
and follow. The message was clear: “This is God. Don’t question.”
So before we could all say, “Sheeka Boomba” (as Bentley often
prayed from his pulpit), many people went home, prayed for people
and shoved them to the floor with reckless abandon, Bentley-style.

I blame this lack of discernment, partly, on raw zeal for God. We’re
spiritual hungry—which can be a good thing. But sometimes, hungry
people will eat anything.

Many of us would rather watch a noisy demonstration of miracles,
signs and wonders than have a quiet Bible study. Yet we are faced
today with the sad reality that our untempered zeal is a sign of
immaturity. Our adolescent craving for the wild and crazy makes
us do stupid things. It’s way past time for us to grow up.

Why didn’t anyone in Lakeland denounce the favorable comments
Bentley made about William Branham?

This one baffles me. Branham embraced horrible deception near
the end of his ministry... and his strange doctrines are still
embraced by a cultlike following today...

Why didn’t anyone correct this error from the pulpit? Godly leaders
are supposed to protect the sheep from heresy, not spoon feed
deception to them. Only God knows how far this poison traveled
from Lakeland to take root elsewhere. May God forgive us for
allowing His Word to be so flippantly contaminated.

A prominent Pentecostal evangelist called me this week after
Bentley’s news hit the fan. He said to me: “I’m now convinced that
a large segment of the charismatic church will follow the anti-Christ
when he shows up because they have no discernment.” Ouch.
Hopefully we’ll learn our lesson this time and apply the necessary
caution when an imposter shows up.

Why did God TV tell people that “any criticism of Todd Bentley is demonic”?

This ridiculous statement was actually made on one of God TV’s
pre-shows. In fact, the network’s hosts also warned listeners that
if they listened to criticism of Bentley, they could lose their healings.

This is cultic manipulation at its worst. The Bible tells us that the
Bereans were noble believers because they studied the Scriptures
daily “to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11, NASB).
Yet in the case of Lakeland, honest intellectual inquiry was viewed
as a sign of weakness. People were expected to jump first and
then open their eyes.

Just because we believe in the power of the Holy Spirit does not
mean we check our brains at the church door. We are commanded
to test the spirits. Jesus wants us to love Him with our hearts and our minds.

Because of the Lakeland scandal, there may be large numbers of
people who feel they’ve been burned by Bentley. Some may give
up on church and join the growing ranks of bitter, disenfranchised
Christians. Others may suffer total spiritual shipwreck. This could
have been avoided if leaders had been more vocal about their
objections and urged people to evaluate spiritual experiences
through the filter of God’s Word.

Why did a group of respected ministers lay hands on Bentley on
June 23 and publicly ordain him? Did they know of his personal problems?

This controversial ceremony was organized by Peter Wagner, who
felt that one of Bentley’s greatest needs was proper spiritual
covering. He asked California pastors Che Ahn and Bill Johnson,
along with Canadian pastor John Arnott, to lay hands on Bentley
and bring him under their care.

Bentley certainly needs such covering. No one in ministry today
should be out on their own, living in isolation without checks,
balances and wise counsel. It was commendable that Wagner
reached out to Bentley and that Bentley acknowledged his need
for spiritual fathers by agreeing to submit to the process. The
question remains, however, whether it was wise to commend
Bentley during a televised commissioning service that at times
seemed more like a king’s coronation.

In hindsight, we can all see that it would have been better to take
Bentley into a back room and talk about his personal issues.

The Bible tells us that ordination of a minister is a sober
responsibility. Paul wrote: “Do not lay hands upon anyone too
hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others”
(1 Tim. 5:22). We might be tempted to rush the process, but the
apostle warned against fast-tracking ordination—and he said that
those who commission a minister who is not ready for the job will
bear some of the blame for his failures.

I trust that Wagner, Ahn, Johnson and Arnott didn’t know of
Bentley’s problems before they ordained him. I am sure they are
saddened by the events of this week and are reaching out to
Bentley and his wife to promote healing and restoration. But I
believe that they, along with Bentley and the owners of God TV,
owe the body of Christ a forthright, public apology for thrusting
Bentley’s ministry into the spotlight prematurely. (Perhaps such
an apology should be aired on God TV.)

Can anything good come out of this?

That depends on how people respond. If the men assigned to
oversee Bentley offer loving but firm correction, and if Bentley
responds humbly to the process by stepping out of ministry for a
season of rehabilitation, we could witness a healthy case of church
discipline play out the way it is supposed to. If all those who were
so eager to promote Bentley now rush just as fast to repent for
their errors in judgment, then the rest of us could breathe a huge
sigh of relief—and the credibility of our movement could be restored.

I still believe that God desires to visit our nation in supernatural
power. I know He wants to heal multitudes, and I will continue
praying for a healing revival to sweep across the United States.
But we must contend for the genuine, not an imitation. True revival
will be accompanied by brokenness, humility, reverence and
repentance—not the arrogance, showmanship and empty hype
that often was on display in Lakeland.

We are weathering an unprecedented season of moral failure and
spiritual compromise in our nation today. I urge everyone in the
charismatic world to pray for Bentley; his wife, Shonnah; his three
young children; Bentley’s ministry staff; and the men and women
who serve as his counselors and advisers. Let’s pray that God will
turn this embarrassing debacle into an opportunity for miraculous restoration.