Forms of groaning, crying, and utterances that appears to be mimmicking the sounds of certain animals - can also involve bodily motions appearing to mimmick the animal in question.

It turns out that many accounts of animal sounds being heard at Toronto Blessing meetings are purely the expressions of release from deep mental and/or emotional torments that people suffered, and are not specifically meant to mimmick animals as such!! Much of this would be related to weeping - many of the howling, groaning, etc in pain releasing would appear to be similar to animal sounds.

Weeping

Furthermore the groanings that often accompany deep intercessory prayer can be mistaken for animal sounds.

However there are some occasions where certain animal sounds are meant as geniune mimmicry of certain animals.

One Prophetic interpretation of genuine animal mimmicry refers to God's urgent end-time warnings to this world for repentance before the Great Tribulation or "Jacob's Trouble" (JEREMIAH 30:7) - I refer you to MICAH 1:8 (the wailing of dragons) and AMOS 3:8 (the lion hath roared!) - both MICAH and AMOS are Prophetic books refering to the end-times that we are living in right now!

	JEREMIAH 30:7
	MICAH 1:8
	AMOS 3:8
	The End Times

Howling like a wolf is sometimes reported, this is similar to barking like a dog, since that the wolf belongs to the same canine family as dogs!

Another Prophetic interpretation refers to God "roaring like a lion" against His enemies (ISAIAH 31:4; 42:13, JEREMIAH 25:30, JOEL 3:16). God is expressing His anger at Satan for what he has stolen from the Church.

	ISAIAH 31:4
	ISAIAH 42:13
	JEREMIAH 25:30
	JOEL 3:16

Roaring can also relate to Intercession, for example, HOSEA 11:10 speaks of God roaring to call the people back to Himself.

HOSEA 11:10

Other animal mimmicry reported at Toronto Blessing meetings includes braying as a donkey and mimmicking the sound of an oxen. This may refer to ISAIAH 1:3 where God speaks about the spiritual condition in the world today. As both the ass (donkey) and the ox knows their master and resting place, the world (or more specifically, the Israelites) does not know their God! Like the ass and the ox, many in the Church does know their God!

ISAIAH 1:3

The donkey could also of course be refering to Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem upon a donkey.

During one Toronto Blessing meeting there had been what was described as "a barnyard of animal noises". Afterwards someone had a prophetic interpretation revealed to him from MATTHEW 24:37-39 where Jesus spoke about just like in the days of Noah is how it will be in the end-times! Just imagine what life would have been like in the ark with all those animals in there!!

MATTHEW 24:37-39

We often hear of Pharisees (Christians who already made up their mind the Toronto Blessing is Satanic) objecting to our use of such mainly Old Testament Scriptures to "justify" the animal manifestations. However a few points need to be realised....

1. Pharisees have already made up their minds that the Toronto Blessing is Satanic, counterfeit revival, in the flesh, etc, so whatever Scriptures we use to "justify" manifestations they are not going to believe anyway. They will find some excuse to reject such use of Scriptures, usually resorting to the common mantra "out of context".


2. There is a common belief among professing Christians that the Old Testament are no longer relavent, that it no longer applies today, citing common New Testament passages claiming the law has been abolished and we no longer need to obey it. In the same light, they reject the Old Testament prophets as being "for ancient Israel only", that they no longer apply today, they lived in a "different dispensation", thus is not appropriate to use Old Testament prophet's account of animal noises as "justification" for animal sound manifestations today.


3. Furthermore, it is claimed the Old Testament prophets never actually mimmicked animal sounds, the terms are only "metaphoric", used only as a means of expression.


4. Pharisees also claim that only God is allowed to be roaring like a lion, claiming the acceptance of such manifestations today as being blasphemy against God.


5. Finally we need to realise this is NOT about "justifying" manifestations. It is simply that we are hilighting examples in the Scriptures where the prophetic cries of prophets manifested as animal sounds. Therefore animal sounds in the prophetic sense does have definite Scriptural precedence. Not every animal sound quoted in Scripture is reported at Toronto meetings today, and not every animal manifestations today are found in the Scriptures.

SO.... what is the truth????

- The Old Testament has NOT been abolished. Christ did NOT abolish the laws in the Old Testament. There are no Scriptural basis for the supposition that since the Old Testament prophets belonged to a "different dispensation" they are therefore no longer applicable today.


- Most of the Old Testament prophets including the "minor prophets" are actually prophesying for modern Israel today in these end times. We can read specific proof of this fact in many of the prophetic writings. For example Ezekiel's prophecies are aimed at "the house of Israel" who have been taken into captivity many decades earlier by the Assyrians and became the "lost ten tribes" of Israel - anciently they never returned to Israel and thus Ezekiel's prophecies never made it to Israel. Ezekiel's prophecies were given at the time of Judah's captivity. By this fact we can prove Ezekiel's prophecies are aimed at the modern descendants of the "ten lost tribes" of Israel in these end times freely available to them through the Old Testament book of Ezekiel!!


- Thus it is accurate to determine that many of the prophetic animal sounds of the Old Testament prophets are actually aimed at modern Israel TODAY, in some contexts being the church.


- There are no Scriptural grounds to claim that all cases of animal sounds in the prophetic writings are purely "metaphoric" though some may have been. We read statements such as "I WILL wail and howl..." and "I WILL make a wailing...." (Micah 1:8) which tend to show the literal intention of mimicking animals.


- The uttering of animal sounds can be seen as a means of prophetically "acting out" God's message. There are other accounts of Old Testament prophets "acting out" God's message, such as given in Ezekiel 4 & 5 where Ezekiel was commanded to perform some very strange acts in order to get God's message across.



	EZEKIEL 4
	EZEKIEL 5



- We do indeed read several accounts of God Himself making animal sounds, for example in Hosea 11:10 where we read the explicit statement referring to God Himself "he shall roar like a lion". There are no Scriptural basis for the supposition that to "roar like a lion" would be blasphemy against God. Prophets are called to speak God's Word, the same applies for prophets today. The speaking of God's Word may indeed involve "roaring like lions"!!

We therefore see no basis for Pharisees' claims that animal manifestations are Satanic and inappropriate for the church today.


In short.... if it's good enough for Old Testament prophets.... it is therefore good enough for us today!!!!