I have been abroad for a while and so I missed developments on this thread.
I believe the modern charismatic movement is not of God, even though there are true believers involved in it. We must also acknowledge that great Christians in the past have held the view that direct revelation continues, for example, Sandy Peden, Donald Cargill and numerous other Scots Worthies. On that note, we should also acknowledge that certain Covenanters in the past felt sanctioned by God to commit acts we would regard as seriously amiss, and also that their initiatives ultimately floundered; they lived by the sword, and they died by it; they would have been better listening to Jesus' warnings on that subject. Can it be that their guidance was, while ostensibly from God, actually received from another source? I am DEEPLY wary of anything that would distract us from exclusive reliance on the more sure Word of God.
The charismata of the New Testament are clearly stated to have the supreme role of assigning authority to the apostles and early Christian prophets in the wake of what was a unique revolution in Church history (i.e. the Advent of the Christ). Fresh "revolutions" since, most notably the first Reformation, were devoid of New Testament style miraculous healings, fresh additions to the canon, visions like Peter's, and so on. Yes, we have records of instances of intuitive revelations like those Cargill, Peden, et al received; but, as stated above, so far from being used of God to form a foundation to a subsequent rapid church-building endeavour, these revelations were associated with increasing declension as the conventicles faded away and the church became, if anything, increasingly apostate rather than stronger in the face of persecution, as attested to by the lamenting sermons preached at the close of that strange era in Scotland.
Nevertheless, I think we cannot deny that presentiment of future events does occur. Can it be that God allows this to happen in order to test our trust in the Scriptures, or even to enter into studies such as this? Certainly, even false prophets in the Bible were occasionally accurate in their predictions.
To close, I think that presentiment definitely does occur, but I am not convinced it can always been indetified as accurate until or unless the event comes to pass, and even at that, it may be coincidental. I also think we must always beware of a VERY subtle Adversary who can appear as an angel of light and who can deceive the very elect for a time. Therefore we must cling to the more sure Word and its promise that it alone is sufficient to perfect us unto every good work.
