Wesley, from his "journals":
"A well dressed, middle aged woman suddenly cried out as in the agonies of death.She continued to do so for some time.With all the signs of the sharpest agony of spirit."
This occured three weeks after Wesley started preaching.
His first "manifestation" of the spirit moving others to repentance.
Within 3 months, mass scenes of "conversion" were taking place in Wesley meetings.
"These disturbing scenes became more frequent, affecting large numbers of people,usually women at first".
Very early on, while establishing himself, Wesley frequented prisons.
Preaching to the condemned visions of hellfire and eternal burning.
Little wonder then:
"one and another and another sunk to the earth.They dropped on every side as though thunderstruck.One of them cried out loud and we besought God on her behalf and he spoke peace unto her soul".
Wesley induced terrifying visions of condemnation and then offered a way out of the punishment.
The convertees, being so frightened and in extremis at his hellish speech, once convinced of their forgiveness, went to the other extreme, weeping and crying out in joy at their deliverance.
Not hard to do, one would imagine, in a prison.
here is a personal account of one Mrs Edwards, how she felt after being "saved":
"I had a very lively consciousness of Gods being near me...the communication was more open and free. I lay awake most of the night with a constant delightful sense of Gods great love and infinite condescension, and with a continual view of God as close by me".
There is the PERSONAL confirming experience of God induced within the INDIVIDUAL.
A church is comprised of individuals.In charismatic churches, for sure, every individual has these confirming experiences.After that, they are bound to the leader of the movement they recieved the confirmation thru.
How about in the Dubs??
