“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” — 1 John 4:1
If you’ve spent any time on X lately, you’ve probably seen the clips. People collapsing, shaking violently, convulsing, and thrashing on the floor while a smiling woman in stylish clothes lays hands on them or simply stands nearby. The setting isn’t always a church service. Sometimes it’s a bookstore. Sometimes it’s a book signing for her latest title, Ignite Revival. Crowds cheer. Phones record. Captions declare the power of God is moving.
These videos keep going viral. The New York Post even ran a piece calling the scene cult-like after footage from a Houston book signing showed followers dropping and seizing as Kathryn Krick prayed and signed copies. Critics say it’s theatrical or hypnotic. Supporters say it’s pure Holy Spirit power.
As a chaplain who has walked with people in deep bondage, trauma, and genuine spiritual warfare, I want us to slow down and look carefully — not at the hype, but at what is actually happening, and at what Scripture says.
Look at the Clips Yourself
Don’t take my word for it. The Christian account @Protestia has posted several videos of her ministry. Here are three. Watch them. Then open your Bible.
You can disagree with how sharp Protestia’s captions are. Fine. Still watch the videos. Still test them by Scripture. View counts do not make something holy.
A Brief Word on Who She Is
Kathryn Krick rose out of Los Angeles after an acting career, a Christian music attempt, and a prophecy from Tanzanian minister Apostle Dr. GeorDavie Moses Kasambale — her “spiritual father” — that she was called to be an apostle who would reach the nations with miracles. She founded Five-Fold Church (5F Church), grew through TikTok deliverance clips, and now markets books, stages, and an “anointing” brand with no formal seminary training behind it. That background is public. What matters more is this: Scripture already told us how to handle ministries that look like this.
Brothers and Sisters: Do Not Be Childish in Discernment
I write to you as a chaplain, not as a man trying to win a comment war. But I will not soft-pedal what the New Testament already says with a hard edge.
John commanded, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15–16). He also warned that false christs and false prophets would arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect (Matthew 24:24).
Signs do not settle the question. Pharaoh’s magicians produced signs. Simon the sorcerer amazed people and wanted to buy the power of the apostles (Acts 8:9–23). The test is always doctrine, fruit, humility, and whether Christ is exalted — or the minister.
If Paul Wrote a Letter About This
I am not Paul. I do not claim his office. But the church still has his letters, and they were written for times when smooth talk, spectacle, and self-exalting “super-apostles” were already in the room. If Paul sat down to address a ministry that thrives on thrashing bodies, birthday worship language, and a self-claimed apostle title, he would not open with, “Well, it depends.” He would open the way he always opens hard problems: with Christ, the gospel, and a charge.
1. He would guard the gospel first
To the Galatians Paul wrote, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6). Then he said it twice so nobody could miss it: even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached, let him be accursed (Galatians 1:8–9).
That is not Twitter language. That is apostolic seriousness. Any ministry that replaces “repent and believe in the finished work of Christ” with “come get breakthrough through my anointing” is already off the rails. Paul would ask one question before he asked about the camera angles: Is Jesus enough, or do you need this woman’s hands?
2. He would name false apostles without flinching
In Corinth, men were already calling themselves superior apostles and pulling the church after personalities. Paul answered: “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:13–14).
He feared that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, their thoughts would be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ — and that they would put up with another Jesus, a different spirit, a different gospel (2 Corinthians 11:3–4). That is the danger in viral deliverance culture. Not only wrong doctrine. A redirected devotion. Eyes on the stage. Ears tuned to the thrash. Hearts trained to need the “anointed one.”
Paul did not say, “Judge not, because the crowd is big.” He said, “Look carefully then how you walk” (Ephesians 5:15). And he told the Romans to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine you have been taught — avoid them. “For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive” (Romans 16:17–18).
3. He would refuse the title game — and refuse self-glory
Paul’s apostleship was not a brand he invented on social media. He was “an apostle — not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (Galatians 1:1). He had seen the risen Lord (1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:8). The New Testament apostles were foundational to the church (Ephesians 2:20). The church is built on that foundation; it does not keep inventing a celebrity class of new foundational apostles every decade.
And when people tried to exalt true messengers, the messengers refused it. Peter lifted Cornelius up: “Stand up; I too am a man” (Acts 10:26). Paul and Barnabas tore their garments when men tried to offer them sacrifice (Acts 14:11–15). Paul’s motto was not, “Access my anointing.” It was, “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5).
So when a birthday crowd thanks “Apostle Kathryn” for laying down her life that they may live, and calls her the burning bush, Paul would not call that honor. He would call it a theft of glory. Christ laid down His life. Moses met God at the bush. No modern influencer gets those lines.
4. He would demand order, self-control, and a sound mind
Paul told the Corinthians that God is not a God of confusion but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33). The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets (1 Corinthians 14:32). Everything is to be done decently and in order (1 Corinthians 14:40). And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22–23).
Read that list again next to a room full of people thrashing on the floor while phones roll. Paul would ask: Is this the peace of God, or a spirit of confusion baptized with Christian words? When Jesus cast out demons, the man was left clothed and in his right mind (Mark 5:15). That is not the same thing as a nightly spectacle that needs the same crowd, the same thrash, the same star.
Paul also told Timothy that God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). A church that cannot tell the difference between the Spirit’s power and a body out of control has already lost its bearings.
5. He would warn about money, power, and the exploitation of the weak
Paul warned Timothy about those who imagine that godliness is a means of gain (1 Timothy 6:5). He said the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils (1 Timothy 6:10). Peter rebuked Simon Magus for thinking the gift of God could be obtained with money: “May your silver perish with you” (Acts 8:20). If people are taught to sow for breakthrough, or shamed for not being healed because they lacked faith, Paul would call that what it is: pressure dressed up as spirituality.
And children? Paul charged the church to protect the vulnerable, not to use them. Jesus said, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). Putting a small child in the middle of a public deliverance show is not bold faith. It is a failure of pastoral care.
6. He would tell the church to mark it, test it, and stay with Christ
Paul told the Thessalonians, “Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:20–22). He told Timothy that in the last days people would have the appearance of godliness but deny its power — and that impostors would go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:5, 13). He told the Colossians not to let anyone disqualify them by insisting on false worship and visions, “not holding fast to the Head” (Colossians 2:18–19).
That is the letter Paul would write in plain terms:
- Do not trade Christ for a personality.
- Do not call confusion the Holy Spirit.
- Do not let anyone receive the honor that belongs to Jesus alone.
- Do not buy what God gives freely in the gospel.
- Do not hand your soul — or your children — to a stage.
- Test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Cling to Christ.
What Faithful Voices Are Already Saying
I am not alone in this. Mike Winger, Allie Beth Stuckey, Justin Peters, Chris Rosebrough, and others have publicly warned about this pattern — the self-claimed apostleship, the repeated theatrical deliverances, the cult-like loyalty, the money pressure. They are not fringe. They have spent years testing claims like these against Scripture. Hear them. Then open the Bible yourself. Do not outsource your discernment to a feed, including mine.
A Charge
I am not saying every person who has walked into one of those rooms is a fool, or that God cannot work even in messy places. God is sovereign. But the overall pattern — self-exaltation, theatrical manifestations that do not match Scripture, worship-language aimed at a minister, and a gospel of anointing access — matches the very things Paul spent his life fighting out of the church.
So I charge you, as Paul charged Timothy: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching (2 Timothy 4:2). If you are hungry for more of God, go to the Word. Sit under sound local preaching. Pursue holiness, repentance, and the ordinary means of grace. The Holy Spirit does not need viral theatrics to set captives free. He has been doing it for two thousand years through the simple, powerful gospel of Jesus Christ.
If you have been hurt by high-pressure “deliverance,” by financial pressure, or by leaders who made you feel freedom only flows through them — hear this: Jesus does not need a celebrity intermediary. He is near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18). He still sets people free. And His people are called to walk with the wounded without putting on a show.
Test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. And stay close to Jesus.
A Prayer
Father of mercies and God of all truth,
We bring this moment before You — the clips, the crowds, the confusion, and every soul tangled up in it. You are not the author of confusion, but of peace. You give wisdom generously to those who ask. Give us clean eyes and steady hearts.
We pray for Kathryn Krick. Lord, You know her frame. You know every public word and every private place. If she has walked in error, bring her to repentance. If she has been deceived, open her eyes to Christ alone. Strip away every false title, every demand for glory that belongs only to Jesus, and every teaching that sells what You give freely in the gospel. Save her from the fear of man and the hunger for a platform. Draw her to the real cross, not a stage. Have mercy on her, Lord.
We pray for those who follow her — for the ones thrashing on the floor, the ones calling her Momma, the ones sowing money for breakthrough, the ones who left more wounded than they arrived. Father, untangle their hearts from personalities and lead them back to Jesus. Where they have been hurt, heal them. Where they have been lied to, tell them the truth gently and firmly. Where they are hungry for more of You, meet them in Your Word, Your people, and Your ordinary means of grace — not in spectacle. Protect the children. Guard the vulnerable. Break every chain that is not Yours.
And we pray for Your church. Strengthen Christians in this loud age. Give us backbone without cruelty, discernment without pride, and love without compromise. Teach us to test the spirits, to hold fast what is good, and to refuse every form of evil. Keep us from mocking the lost and from baptizing chaos as the Holy Spirit. Make us a people who preach Christ and not ourselves. When false gospels go viral, make the true gospel clearer in our mouths and cleaner in our lives.
Lord Jesus, You are the Good Shepherd. You laid down Your life. No other name saves. No other anointing is needed beyond what You have already finished. Hold Your people. Wake the deceived. Humble the proud. And let Your Name alone be exalted.
In the strong name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.
If you need someone to sit with you — not to perform over you, but to pray, open Scripture, and walk at a human pace — that is part of what chaplaincy is for. You can reach me through workplace care, family support, or the resources on this site.
Test everything. Hold fast to what is good.
From a chaplain’s heart — Kris Cruz