Is Being ‘Slain in the Spirit’ Biblical Or Bogus? LIVE Q&A for May 1, 2025

Is Being “Slain in the Spirit” a Biblical Concept?

From Ashley –

Hello Pastor David Guzik, I recently attended a church service with my husband and a few friends due to them being invited to lead worship one Sunday morning. At the end of the service the Pastor asked anyone who wanted to receive the Holy Spirit to come up for prayer and it seemed most of the congregation went up for prayer (this was a small church maybe 100 people total) mostly everyone that was prayed for fell to the ground shaking (I think most people refer to it as being “slain in the spirit”).

I have a hard time believing this to be a true spiritual encounter; I see it more as an emotional response. I have not found anything in the Bible proving being “slain in the spirit” is a true spiritual encounter. The only thing I have seen is people falling on their faces in the fear of God, in the awe of His presence, and in reverence of God, in places like Matthew 17:6, Acts 9:3-4, Ezekiel 3:23, Revelation 1:17, John 18:6, Ezekiel 1:28, and many more.

Can you please give me insight if my thinking is correct in this being more emotion-based than a true spiritual encounter? I don’t want to doubt anything of the Lord, if it’s a real spiritual encounter, but also don’t want to be misled.

PS I love your commentary and your teachings on YouTube. My husband Tim and I have been going through the book of Hebrews together watching your sermons on YouTube. I can’t wait for your new study Bible to come out. I’m stoked and will be preordering as soon as it’s available! Thank you.

Ashley, I’m going to give you a quick answer, and then go into it deeper – please listen to my entire answer!

Here is the quick answer: the phenomenon known as being “slain in the spirit,” as it is commonly seen in the church today, is an emotional, self-driven act more than a work of the Spirit of God.

This is how it usually works:

• People come forward for prayer, or to receive this experience.
• They are expecting to have the experience.
• Everyone around them is doing it and there is a sense of exhilaration.
• It seems good, and spiritual – and of benefit.
• No harm is discerned, so there’s nothing that says, “don’t do this.”
• It may be a familiar experience for the person.
• There is a (perhaps subtle) desire to not disappoint or embarrass the one leading the meeting.

Problems with the idea of being “slain in the spirit”

1. As commonly seen, it doesn’t match what is described in the Bible.

• Matthew 17:6 (disciples fall on their faces at the transfiguration)
• Acts 9:3-4 (Saul of Tarsus falls to the ground on the road to Damascus)
• Ezekiel 3:23 (Ezekiel falls on his face before the glory of the Lord)
• Revelation 1:17 (John falls as a dead man before Jesus in glory)
• John 18:6 (those arresting Jesus fall to the ground when He says, “I Am”)
• Ezekiel 1:28 (Ezekiel falls on his face before the glory of the Lord)

These all are scary, sometimes terrifying encounters – not “bless me” experiences.

2. As commonly seen, it can be explained by group dynamics or social contagion.
3. As commonly seen, it is often (not always) theatrical and often lacking the awe or terror marked by Biblical examples.

• As someone who has been pushed by an evangelist, I can tell you that there can be a strong suggestion from the leader, “Ok, now is the time to fall down.”

4. As commonly seen, it feeds a “bless me” pursuit of spiritual experience and thrill.
5. Historically, the phenomenon was associated with the conviction of sin.

There can be strange reactions to a move of the Holy Spirit, but those are not the work of the Spirit – it is the response of the person to what the Spirit may do.

Could God do such a thing? Yes.

Is this an experience to be pursued, sought out? No.

If you have been “slain in the spirit” and it has been a blessing to you, I’m not here to doubt it. But please listen: We don’t change doctrine our guide our biblical interpretation based on experiences, especially strange experiences. We don’t have to explain every experience, but we should never focus on such unexplained experiences. They just happen. Whether it’s good or bad can be seen in the fruit that it bears.

How can we discern between conviction from God and our own feelings?

How do I know if what I’m feeling is conviction from God on something versus my own feelings? Even if it does align with the Bible, can it still be my feelings?

This is a good question. It’s important for us to determine the difference between conviction and condemnation. Conviction by the Holy Spirit is something good, even though it doesn’t feel pleasant. Condemnation is bad, whether it comes from ourselves or from the devil.

How do we know the difference? I would explain it like this. The conviction of the Holy Spirit will push you towards the Savior, Jesus Christ. The feeling will be something like, “I am such a sinner. I need a Savior. Thank You, Jesus, for being my Savior.” Condemnation will make you feel terrible about yourself as well, but condemnation will serve to effectively push you away from Christ. Condemnation will push you away in the sense of saying, “You’re so worthless, you’re so filthy, don’t even bother going to Jesus.”

There is a sense in which conviction and condemnation can feel similar within us, but one pushes us outward towards our Savior and the other one pushes us inward to despair and discouragement. I think that that’s a handy way to discern between godly conviction and condemnation that comes from either our self or from the devil, who is the enemy of our soul himself.

As a recent continuationist, should I leave my cessationist church?

I have been taught about the gifts of the Spirit from people all over the theology map. It has become clear that it’s going to be an issue between me and God. I listened to your amazing teaching on the gift of tongues, and I feel like I finally understand its purpose and place for this gift. Thank you. This is my question, if I am in primarily a cessationist church, is this an essential doctrine to divide over? Are those who are cessationists in unbelief, as in Mark 6? Or are we free to belong and abide in our unity in Christ with the personal freedom to believe the Holy Spirit didn’t take some gifts away from the church when the apostles died?

To give the best answer, I’d have to ask a lot of questions about your life circumstances, whether this decision is just for yourself or also for your family. And if it’s for your family, then your husband needs to take the lead in determining which church is best for you all, and the children also have some role in that calculation as well. I’m not saying that everything should be done just for the sake of the children, but it needs to be considered. So, there’s a lot about your life circumstances which could impact a decision like this.

But here’s the general principle I would give. Commit yourself to the attending the best church in your practical traveling area. And if that church is the cessationist one you’re currently attending, but otherwise a very good, strong church, then I would stay there. If there’s not a better option, I would stay there. But I would not try to subvert the leadership of that church and try to get people to disagree with the teaching of the church. I would just remain silent. I don’t think it’s good to undermine the teaching and the doctrine of a church, even if I would disagree with it, and even if I think it’s wrong. I might have a personal conversation with the pastor, but I wouldn’t be networking through the church, trying to get people dissatisfied and unhappy with the church’s teaching on that particular topic.

So, there would be a lot of questions I would have about the whole thing. But in general, I would say you should probably stay where you’re at and just say, “Look, I disagree with my church, but I’m not going to subvert my church on this matter. I’m just going to agree to disagree on it and continue to serve the Lord and be a part of this church family.”

How do I know if I’m baptized in the Holy Spirit? Will I have a certain feeling?

How do I know if I’m baptized in the Holy Spirit? Does a person have to have the feeling of warmth down and up his body? I have never felt that, but I can speak in tongues voluntarily.

No, we don’t look for a particular feeling to validate the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Here are a few things we need to remember about the filling and the work of the Holy Spirit.

First, it’s good to remember that Jesus said that the Father is ready to give the Spirit to those who ask Him. If a person wants to continue to walk in the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit, I think they just need to ask, believing, in simple childlike faith. Jesus used an illustration about a father being ready to give good things to his children to describe how God is regarding the giving of the Holy Spirit.

I would also point out that we shouldn’t think of our experience with the Holy Spirit to be kind of a one-and-done kind of thing. Friends, I believe that when a person is born again by God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit comes and lives within them. There’s no such thing as a Christian who doesn’t have the Spirit of God. If they are a Christian, then the Holy Spirit resides in them. But I also believe that God desires and has subsequent experiences of His Spirit for His people. That’s why Bible translators point out that when Paul says in Ephesians 5, “be filled with the Spirit,” the grammatical tense of that phrase is, “be continually being filled with the Spirit.” In other words, it’s not just a one-and-done occurrence. Rather, God wants us to have an ongoing relationship and experience with the Holy Spirit.

However, when we talk about an experience, we’re not looking for a physical feeling. Our viewer asked, “Does a person have to have the feeling of warmth up and down his body?” No, that isn’t the indication of whether or not a person is filled with the Spirit.

The number one verification that a person is filled with Spirit is not the presence of some spiritual gift, but it’s the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, as described in Galatians 5:22-23, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Those characteristics are the mark of a truly Spirit-filled and Spirit-led person. So that’s primarily what we look for.

What is the goal of someone who leads worship in a church setting? How can we know that as worship leaders we are accomplishing this goal?

I have some real opinions on this topic, and I’m thinking about making a full video. Here is my essential thought on it. The goal of the worship leader is to lead the congregation in the worship of God.

It’s that simple. Their goal is not to perform. It’s not even so much for them to experience worship themselves, although I think that’s part of it. But the real test as to whether or not a worship leader is consistently doing the job is to ask, “Do the people worship God?” And since we’re usually talking about worship happening through song, we would ask, “Are the people worshiping God in song? Are they singing?” Worship leaders need to know whether the congregation singing. And let me just give you a little tip: when the congregation sings loud and heartily, those are the songs you need to sing more often. When the congregation sings like little mice and you can hardly hear them, those are the songs you need to sing less often.

That’s a general principle. The real measure of a worship leader’s ability and gifting and effectiveness is not their musical performance, even though I appreciate that worship leaders work hard and want to do well musically. That’s good, that’s honoring to God, and God bless you for it, musicians. But the real test is: do the people of God worship their Savior in song? We need to keep that in mind.

How do I handle arguments from those who only believe in the English translation of words?

I’ve been studying Greek & Hebrew full meanings of God’s Word since Dr. Chuck Missler. How do I handle arguments from those who only believe in the English translation of words?

Well, you may not be able to explain this to them. You’ll need to accept that. But the principle is plain. The principle is that the Bible wasn’t originally written in English, or in Spanish, or in German, or in Portuguese, or in whatever language you speak. The Bible was originally written in certain biblical languages, biblical Hebrew and Biblical Greek. The form of Greek is known as koine Greek. It was the common Greek at that time.

When you translate from one language to another, there is no perfect equivalent between different languages. For some words, there is a perfect equivalent. When that happens, great. That’s wonderful. But there are other situations where there’s a lot more nuance about how a word can be understood from one language to another. That’s why it’s helpful for us to have access to good Greek and Hebrew tools. A good starting place for you to use Greek and Hebrew resources is BlueLetterBible.org. Blue Letter Bible is a tremendous Bible resource. They also have my verse-by-verse commentary on their website. You can access my commentary on our website, enduringword.com, but it’s also been on Blue Letter Bible ever since the very beginning of that site, nearly 30 years ago. Blue Letter Bible has outstanding Greek and Hebrew resources, available absolutely for free, and you should check those out. That’s a great starting place. I don’t know how much it would apply to high level and deeper Greek studies, but as a starting place, I think it’s excellent.

What do you think of deliverance ministries?

What do you think of deliverance ministries? They use these verses: Luke 4:18, Mark 6:7-12, and others. But according to Jude 9, Michael didn’t himself dare to rebuke the devil.

Most of what passes for deliverance ministry in churches today is fake and ineffective. There is a definite need for focused and determined spiritual warfare. As Paul put it in Ephesians 6:11, we are stand against the wiles, strategies, and intimidations of the devil. There’s definitely a place for that. I we are often too slow to understand the true demonic origins or background of struggles that people face.

But what commonly passes in churches today as deliverance ministry is something like this. Somebody comes up to a pastor and says, “Pastor, help me. I’ve got a problem with smoking.” The pastor in that scenario would respond, “Okay, I’ll cast the spirit of nicotine out of you.” Most of that is just a foolish distraction.

So, how do we actually stand against the devil in a biblical sense? First, we stand against devil with truth. Secondly, we stand against the devil in Christ. The believer in Christ has a sense of authority, but we must never forget that the believer’s authority is decidedly in Christ and no other place. Sometimes when you see people acting in a proud and arrogant way, as if they can tell off the devil, they seem to forget that their authority really is rooted in Christ and no other place.