MY INVOLVEMENT WITH, AND DELIVERANCE FROM, THE "TORONTO EXPERIENCE"
(First published March 1996, updated June 2006)
by SALLY RICHARDSON

My involvement with Toronto first started in July 1994. At that time, I was
in a paid position of leadership in the Anglican church I attended, and on
the church Staff Team.

In July 1994, the leadership of many churches in west London received an
invitation to attend a meeting at a certain church in Acton, west London,
which was a Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) church plant. The purpose of this
meeting, the invitation letter explained, was for people to hear about and
experience for themselves what was described as the "new move" of the Holy
Spirit happening at the Airport Vineyard Church, Toronto and being known to
some as the Toronto Blessing. The letter stated that various members of HTB
had recently returned from Toronto and wanted to share all they had learnt
there and then pass it on in ministry afterwards.

Several of us in leadership in my church, including myself, attended. I
remember at the time feeling very excited because, if this was, as was
being claimed, a new move of the Holy Spirit, then I wanted to be part of
it and to experience everything that was on offer. Others in our party were
a lot more careful and cautious in their approach.

We arrived at the church where the meeting was to be held to find it full -
there were no spare chairs. Someone hastened to find some for us, and
meanwhile, the meeting started. There was a great sense of excited
anticipation in the air; so tangible was it, that it was almost electric in
effect.

At that point, our chairs were brought to us, but owing to lack of space in
the church, the members of our party could not sit together. We were
therefore separated and given chairs in various locations round the church.
I remember I was sitting in the aisle, at the end of a row, and very near
the front.

The meeting started with praise and worship before the various people who
had been to Toronto were brought to the front, and introduced, the notable
exception being Sandy Millar, Leading Minister at HTB. Every person at the
front was exhibiting various unusual manifestations such as jumping up and
down like pogo sticks, jerking, laughing, convulsing, etc. As you can
imagine, it was very difficult for these people to speak, and so the
testimonies they gave were somewhat disjointed, to say the least!

Each person said that it was a "new thing" that God was doing, that it was
a new move of the Holy Spirit, and that it was an empowering and anointing
for ministry. We were then told that the time for ministry had come, and
so, having invited the Holy Spirit to come, the various members of HTB and
its associated churches began to move amongst the congregation, laying
hands on all they could reach.

As I had a prominent position in the aisle, I was one of the first to have
hands laid on me. Immediately, I went down on the floor, seemingly with
some considerable force, and began to roll around on the floor, laughing
uncontrollably. I seemed to be filled with an exceedingly great joy, which
I felt I could hardly contain.

After some considerable time, during which I had been unable to stop
rolling around on the floor laughing uncontrollably, I tried to get up and
return to my seat. However, I felt very groggy and unsteady and could only
manage to clamber halfway into my seat. As I did so, someone came up to me,
laid hands on me and said, "Give her more, Lord, give her more!" I went
down onto the floor once again, and the whole process of rolling around and
laughing uncontrollably started once again. Altogether, this experience
happened seven times in total - each time I tried to get up from the floor,
someone would come along, lay hands on me, utter the now familiar words,
"Give her more, Lord!", and off I would go again.

Two particular occasions stand out in my mind as I remember that night and
this particular meeting. On the first occasion, I had just had hands laid
on me for the third or fourth time and had fallen on the floor. As I lay
there, I was aware that my skirt had ridden up, and was somewhere around my
waist, exposing my person in somewhat indecent fashion. However, in
comparison to what was happening, this seemed so very trivial that I could
not be bothered to put my skirt down. All I did was lie there, laughing
uncontollably. Then someone came along and tugged at my skirt to pull it
down and make me decent. At this point, I glanced up and saw that the
person pulling my skirt down was none other than Sandy Millar. For some
reason, I found this
uproariously funny, and laughed the harder and the louder. I remember
seeing, at the same time that Sandy Millar pulled my skirt down, that
various people in the congregation were either lying down shaking and
laughing, or staggering around, holding onto articles of furniture to stop
them from falling as they went.

On the second occasion, I remember having clambered onto a pew, where I lay
laughing and shaking uncontrollably. Once again, someone came up to me and
repeated the now very familiar words, "Give her more, Lord, give her more!"
Whereupon, I fell off the pew and onto the floor, where I lay uncomfortably
wedged between my own pew and the one in front, having uncontollable
hysterics yet again.

Eventually, it seemed, the meeting ended. By this time, my vicar and the
local Baptist minister had come over to me and were quite literally pulling
me up off the floor. I could hardly stand, and was falling, staggering and
flopping about like someone who had had too much to drink. It was very
obvious to my vicar and the Baptist minister that there was no way that I
could walk unaided, and so of one accord, they took one arm each, and
supporting me on either side, half led and half carried me out of the
church. I was laughing uncontrollably still, but as we left the church, I
glanced round to see what was happening. Some people were still lying on
the floor laughing and shaking, and others were staggering drunkenly about.
Yet others stood with vacant or bemused expressions on their faces as
though wondering what to make of it all.

Meanwhile, we were going out through the church doors and into the
car-park. Still, the two leaders were half carrying me, and when we got to
my vicar's car, they had to open the back door and deposit me like a sack
of potatoes on the seat. None of the others, I noticed, had been touched in
the way I had. I remember thinking, "Poor things - they HAVE missed out!"

When we got back to the block of flats where we live, I was helped out of
the car and to the main entrance. I remember I could not open the door, and
our next door neighbour's son, who happened to be standing just inside, saw
me and opened it for me.

He made an exclamation of astonishment and said I had obviously had too
much to drink! I remember at this point thinking how grateful I was that
our flat was on the ground floor, otherwise I would never have got up the
stairs - our block of flats has five floors, and the local council has not
seen fit to install a lift!

I staggered into our flat and into the sitting-room, where my husband was
sitting watching television. He looked up at me as I entered, a look of
amazement and astonishment dawning on his face. "Are you drunk?" he asked.
"I thought you had been to a church meeting!" For some reason, I found this
remark highly amusing, and collapsed on the settee, laughing
uncontrollably.
My poor husband! He just did not know what to make of it all, and was very
perturbed. Eventually, not being able to get any sense out of me, he went
to bed, leaving me to it. I remember, during one bout of hysterical
laughter, glancing at the wall-clock and seeing it said 2am. I must have
fallen asleep sometime after that because I awoke, around 5am in the
morning, in a stiff
and awkward position on the settee. I still felt groggy, as though it was
the morning after the night before. Before I became a Christian, I had had
a drink problem, and used to get drunk almost every night of the week on a
bottle of wine or several strong beers. This experience seemed no
different, except of course, that I had had no alcohol!

After that initial meeting, it was as though I could not get enough of
Toronto. Toronto was like a drug to me, and I needed my "fix". The more I
had, the more I wanted. I couldn't do without it. It was like being on a
permanent "high". When I had been to a Toronto meeting and had been forward
for yet another anointing, the effects on me were similar to when I had
dabbled with drugs, especially cannabis, in the years before I had come to
know the Lord. Cannabis had given me a light, floaty, dissociated feeling,
and this was the same, except I didn't have to pay for it!

One particular meeting, out of all the Toronto meetings I attended, stands
out in my mind. This was the Times of Refreshing Conference at HTB in 1995,
and at which Nicky Gumbel was taking one session. I remember, I was sitting
with my friend Mandy just in front of the recording desk, when I began to
jerk and shake and jump up and down from my chair. I didn't seem able to
stop myself, despite holding tightly to the back of the chair in front of
me. The next thing I knew, I was jumping higher and higher each time. One
or two others, I noticed, were doing the same.

At this point, Nicky Gumbel stopped speaking and said, "There are people
here that God wants to anoint for a ministry of evangelism!" He beckoned
for us to come forward, which we did, I being the first to reach the front.
Nicky Gumbel laid hands on me and prayed for me, whereupon I collapsed in a
heap on the floor. Later, at that same conference, John and Eleanor Mumford
from the sw London Vineyard Church led a session. There was no preaching or
teaching - instead it was mostly Eleanor Mumford sharing her testimony of
how she had brought the Toronto Experience over from the Toronto Airport
Vineyard Church (as it was known then).

It was following this that Sandy Millar stepped forward and asked all
present (over1,000) to take their chairs, and stack them up against the
walls so that ministry could begin. This having been done, he then invited
the Holy Spirit to come. Immediately, order flew out of the window and
complete and utter pandemonium reigned - people began falling like
ninepins, including myself, laughing, screaming and making various animal
noises as they went. Various anointings for various ministries were
announced as the meeting progressed, and there was total chaos as people
tried to make their way to the places where the various anointings were
taking place, pushing their way through the sea of bodies lying prostrate
on the floor jerking,
convulsing, rolling and shaking. It was at this point that I experienced
some stirrings of doubt and misgiving, but I quickly pushed them away and
went off to receive my anointing or yet another ministry.

A few days after the Times of Refreshing Conference, I received a letter
from a lady whose ministry I supported. She was writing in response to a
word of knowledge I had had for her, and was sharing how that word had been
pertinent to her circumstances at that time. She had enclosed with her
letter various news and prayer letters from several ministries, including
her own and those of Prophetic Word Ministries and Moriel. All, without
exception, were about the Toronto experience, saying it was not a blessing
at all, but a deception and a delusion and an alien spirit.

When I look back, I cannot think of any reason as to why this lady saw fit
to send these news and prayer letters except that the Lord had laid it on
her heart to do so. Much as I admired the ministries of those who had sent
them, I had great difficulty in accepting what they said about Toronto. The
lady whose ministry I supported recommended a tape by David Noakes, so I
wrote to him requesting a copy. Meanwhile, I was determined to know the
truth of the matter, so I took a day off work and went for a walk by the
river in Putney. Here, I found a quiet spot to prostrate myself before the
Lord and to ask Him to show me whether these people were right or wrong in
what they were saying about Toronto. I didn't want them to be right, but at

the same time I knew I needed to come into truth - Biblical truth - about
the matter. I never thought to look at the Scripture references these
ministers gave and check them for myself.

The following day, I had the day off work anyway, and decided I would go to
ClaphamJunction to do some shopping. I was going down Lavender Hill, when I
noticed a Christian bookshop called Cornerstone.

I went in and immediately noticed a section of books on Toronto -
unusually, books WARNING against it, not promoting it! One particular
booklet, entitled "No Laughing Matter" by Stanley Jebb, particularly caught
my eye. I picked it up, and began to look through it.

At that point, the proprietress of the bookshop came over and asked if she
could help me. I asked her about the booklet, and she said she could really
recommend it, as it went into great detail, with relevant Scripture
references provided, to point out the dangers of the Toronto Experience.

I told the proprietress that I had been heavily involved in Toronto, and
that I was trying to discover the truth of the matter as it seemed it might
be different from what I had been led to believe. As difficult as it might
be, I told this lady, I was duty-bound to find GOD'S truth on the issue.
The proprietress urged me to take away the booklet and to look up the
Scripture references therein for myself. Meanwhile, she told me, she would
pray for me, and ask the Lord to bring me into truth.

The next day was the day my church's Intercession Group met. The four of us
in the group met as usual, and began to bring our church, its leaders,
ongoing issues etc. before the Lord, and to seek His face.

After a break in prayer, the Pastoral Worker at the church said that the
leadership of the church were considering sending our vicar to Toronto, and
were going to bring it up at the next meeting of the PCC. The PCC meeting
was a few days later.

I could not keep quiet, and told the others that I was having second
thoughts about Toronto, and that perhaps we should therefore reconsider the
decision to send our vicar to Toronto. I then showed the other members of
the group the materials I had been sent.

With one exception, my suggestion was met with derision and scorn. "Who DID
these people think they were?" they said. "How DARE they criticise a mighty
move of God!" And I was just as bad for even CONSIDERING that they could be

right!

We continued to pray, but I found it very difficult, as I no longer felt I
was of one mind with the others in the group, and that we were praying at
cross-purposes. Nevertheless, I soldiered on. It was then that the Lord
gave me a picture of a broken down stone wall of the sort that are common
in Derbyshire and the Peak District.

I brought this picture before the group and we asked the Lord what it
meant. However, He seemed to be saying that He would show us later, so we
left it there and continued to pray.

Upon returning home, I found that the postman had been and that I had
received David Noakes' tape. David had been to Toronto in October 1994 to
experience what was happening there and to report his findings, and this
was the tape recording what he had found there. I settled down to listen to
it.

As David shared, I began to realise, through a witness in my spirit, that
this was indeed the truth of the matter, and that Toronto was indeed a
delusion and a deception. As David gave Scriptural references to back up
what he was saying, I checked them for myself and found them to be true.
(Up until this point, I had never checked the Toronto experience with the
Word -
rather, I had just yielded myself up to it and had chased one new
experience after another).

Then a phrase that David used caught my attention. "The walls of scripture
are being broken down", he said.* Immediately, the picture of the broken
down stone wall came back to my mind, and I knew instantly that this was
that to which it referred. The Toronto proponents were taking Scripture out
of context and were making it fit the phenomena, instead of rightly testing

it against the Word.

David went on to say that, in his experience, anyone caught up in Toronto
inevitably needed ministry because of the strong, very dark spirits behind
it. I was very perturbed, and after praying, I wrote to David Noakes
explaining the fact that I had been heavily involved in Toronto, but now
come out of it, and asking him to pray for me.

Meanwhile, I had returned to Cornerstone, the Christian bookshop in Clapham
Junction, where Ulrike , the proprietess, suggested I have ministry to cut
me free from the Toronto spirit. I told her that I had written to David
Noakes, whom she knew, asking him if he might minister to me and that I was
awaiting his reply. She told me that she knew someone who would minister to
me if I did not want to wait to see David.

As the days went by, I became increasingly friendly with Ulrike and her
husband Brian, who owned and ran "Cornerstone". Ulrike took me under her
wing, and, like a mother of Israel, began to lead me in the way of truth
concerning not only Toronto, but other false teachings as well. She also
introduced me to "Intercessors for Britain", under whose auspices at the
time that I began to attend the Ladies' Prayer and Bible Days which were
then at Westminster Chapel and led by Pat Hughes, Patricia Gordon and Gay
Hyde.

On my second visit to the Ladies' Prayer and Bible Days meeting, I was
chatting to Ulrike during the lunch break when Ulrike came over to us.
Ulrike introduced me to Patricia, and told her about my involvement with
Toronto. Patricia then asked if I had had ministry to set me free. I told
Patricia that I was awaiting ministry with David Noakes, but she lovingly
but very firmly assured me that there was no time like the present, and
that she, Pat Hughes and Gay Hyde would minister to me after the meeting.
She went on to add that David Noakes, whom she knew and regarded very
highly, would not mind at all, saying that the Lord had provided the
opportunity for me to have ministry and that I should therefore make the
most of it.

Before ministry began, Pat and Gay asked me some very searching questions
such as, what had Toronto done for me, what good had come from it and
whether, as many claimed they did, I had a greater hunger for God's word.

Their penetrating, but nevertheless very necessary, questions made me
realise that in fact the very opposite was true. Instead of having a
greater hunger for God's Word, I actually found it very difficult to pray,
much less open my Bible. I honestly had not been aware of this until these
three dear and very Godly ladies confronted me with it, so caught up had I
been in chasing various spiritual experiences.

The three ladies first of all led me in a prayer of repentance after which,
my having renounced my involvement with Toronto, proceeded to cut me free
from the Toronto spirit. As they did so, I can only describe what then
occurred as a heaviness going, a feeling of a large and very heavy blanket
being lifted and a fog dispersing. It was as though I could see clearly
again!

Later on, I did see David Noakes for ministry as the Lord had showed me
that for me, Toronto was just the tip of the iceberg. Previous to becoming
embroiled and entangled with Toronto, I had been involved in other false
teaching and deceptive practices such as Restorationism and
Name-it-and-Claim-it and realised I needed ministry in order to be released
from the detrimental effects of these teachings. I saw David Noakes and his
prayer partner in January 1996, and in the ministry that followed, I was
wonderfully and gloriously cut free from the roots of all the deceptive
practices and teachings I had taken on board in the past.

Since coming into the truth concerning Toronto and my subsequent ministry,
I have had such a desire to walk in truth and holiness before the Lord, and
to set no unclean thing before me. Nothing less than this will do. Since
then there has always a "check" in my when something is not of God, even
though there are occasions when I cannot find the reasons why in my Bible.

The Lord has also made it very clear to me that, having come into truth and
having been set free (Gal. 5:1) that I am no longer to go to churches or
associate myself with ministries where Toronto and indeed other false
teachings, are promoted and accepted. This has meant that I have had to
leave my previous church where I had worshipped for seven and a half years.

Toronto was in evidence there, as well as other false teachings such as
Replacement and Dominion theology to name but two.

I thank God that, in the midst of this, He promised me that He had
"prepared a place for me, a place where I would continue to be nurtured and
fed and where the things that were now dear to my heart were practiced and
taught." In June 1996, he led me to this place, a little independent chapel
in nw London where the teaching is sound, the ministry balanced and without

excesses and where I received a warm welcome and became part of a
close-knit church family. I AM used of the Lord there, but not in any of
the supposed "anointings" I received when I was caught up in Toronto. I got
nothing from these "anointings", despite all their promises of equipping
for ministry. Instead, I still have the gifts I have always had since being
baptised in
the Holy Spirit.

Sally Richardson June 2006

EPILOG

11 years on, and I am still at the same independent fellowship that the
Lord led me to in 1996. It is a precious little fellowship where the things
of God are faithfully taught and where the truth of Scripture is paramount.
I am reminded that it was at Shavuot (Pentecost) 11 years ago that I first
attended a service at this little church, and it was Shavuot last weekend.
I owe so very much to the Lord, and am grateful too for those dear folk who
prayed for me and helped me to come out of deception. Sadly, although our
church has been extremely careful to uphold Biblical practice and teaching,
much of the church has not, and in the last 11 years, I have seen error and
deception proliferate and multiply.

The Lord has spoken to me much out of Ezekiel 13. Read it for yourself and
you will see how relevant and pertinent it is to the situation in much of
the Church in these days. When I look at verse 5, which reads YOU HAVE NOT
GONE INTO THE GAPS OR BREECHES, NOR BUILT UP THE WALL (FOR THE HOUSE OF
ISRAEL - parantheses mine) THAT IT MIGHT STAND IN THE BATTLE OF THE DAY OF
THE LORD, it reminds me of David Noakes' warning on that tape I listened to
all those years ago where he said that the walls of Scripture were being
broken down.* Much of the church is in ruins because of false teaching,
false prophecies and deceptive practices, and yet they seem unaware of
their wretched state. People tell me that Toronto is over, but it has
surely left its legacy. So too, will the latest fads and teachings that
many are so taken with, the latest being Purpose Driven.

I can only pray for those caught up in false teaching and deception and
especially pray that He might open their eyes and bring them out as He
brought me out. Will you join me?

Sally Richardson
richardsonsally4@hotmail.com
07867 793253