Here you will find news, updates and general information about our ministry. Come back often to check on the latest news. Click Here for The Zone archives.
Wow! A lot has happen since last update. Giving God
the Glory we had approx 52 visitors and have started baptizing someone just
about every week. Our services are growing and we are moving to a new location
by April if not sooner.We have been doing our best to see the Church grow by
growing people.
We have a Music Minister flying in this month to be on staff. This is a
blessing to us! Pray for us as we seek His will. Normal Church is not always
normal.
When God has done something in a church,
then He can do something through a church.
When something has happened inside the
walls, something can happen outside the walls.
The churches were multiplied. That’s the
second time that particular word is used in the Book of Acts. Acts 6:7 says, “Then the word of God spread, and the number of the
disciples multiplied.” How does a church multiply? How are people won to the
Lord Jesus?
Acts 5:42 says. “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they
did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”
People are won to the Lord publicly—in the
temple.
AndPrivately house to house
Every
service is a soul-winning service. Every service contains an invitation for
people to come to know Jesus as their Savior.
People are
won publicly. But also—”and in every house.”
The same
thing is found in Acts
20:20, “[I] taught you publicly and from house to house.”
Personal or
private evangelism is commanded and exemplified by Christ, and works
hand-in-hand with public evangelism.
Together
they lead to the multiplication of the church.
Inward
edification and outward multiplication: these are the tools you need to build a
church.
Original Church as in the beginning is
And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
This is from a soul winner who is a friend. He has impacted my soul and convicted me to be a better child of God. Read this and let God deal with you
We need change!
The Best Year of Our Lives!
(Please Read Complete Article)
Looking back, 2008 has been the greatest year of our lives!
It has been an amazing year of soul winning and reaching the lost! We could
never have dreamed that God would open so many doors and give the increase in
so many people's lives as they were filled with the power of the Holy Ghost!
I would like to take time in this last news letter of 2008
to tell where God has brought us from and what he has done. I would also like
to help clear up any misunderstandings on what we do and how it all works. Even
I sometimes find it hard to believe what God has been doing, so I know how some
must look and say this cannot be.
Just five short years ago God began to deal with my heart
very heavily about what soul winning is. He began to put a greater passion and
burden in my heart to really reach more people and also help other Apostolics
learn how to reach more people.
I left a service one night and felt a call to start a web
site that could provide preaching and tools to help others be inspired and also
give tools to reach the lost. I started the web site www.gowinsouls.com as I began looking for
messages preached on the subject of just soul winning I soon realized that is
was harder to find complete messages dedicated to soul winning than I had
thought. Over the last few years I have gathered several that will stir your
heart to a greater passion and have listed them on our site.
We also began reaching the lost in a greater way as a
family. We began to see how easy it was to get people to come to church. Every
member of our family personally wins souls. We were seeing many souls come to
God in just a short time. I was asked to give an interview to an Apostolic
magazine about soul winning and our web site and from that point everything in
our lives changed!
We were living the American Dream, things were going very
well for us financially, and we were content with just living life and reaching
souls. God had more plans, we began to get calls from Pastors asking us to come
and help their churches win souls and grow. It was all new to me, I remember
back when I received the Holy Ghost at 19 years old I asked God to make me a
Pastor, he spoke back to me and said if I wanted to be a Pastor I must first
fill up the church I was in with souls, otherwise how would I fill a church of
my own if I couldn't win souls! At that point I never again thought about being
a preacher or Pastor. I just wanted to win souls!
We started receiving calls from all over the country Pastors
were asking us to come and hold revivals with them. We had to make a decision
about our family and life. With the calls coming in we quickly scheduled six
months of non stop revivals every week going to a different church. We had to
decide if we would just give up everything we had and travel reaching the lost
or would we count the cost and say it was to big of sacrifice. We obviously
chose to give everything up and take Jesus! Our true vision is to help Pastors
and churches see how easy it is and give them everything we have in training
and revival so their vision can be refreshed and they can reach their cities!
In our first year of revivals we went non stop for the whole
year with only taking time off to attend General Conference and Because of the
Times. We had been to 50 churches and seen incredible things happening. The
first year over 3000 people were baptized through our ministry. Thousands of
first time guests came to experience this wonderful truth for the first time
ever!
The second year has been incredible as well; we have seen
this year 2251 people baptized in the name of Jesus! With many receiving the Holy
Ghost!
We have seen many miracles, many churches more than
quadruple in size in just a short time. Churches are getting the passion to get
out and win souls like they have never had before. One church in Ashland KY
that I write about often has went from around 30 people a year ago to averaging
120-130 every week and just last Sunday had 226 in attendance!
God has been good and has opened our understanding to
greater expectations of what he will do if we just get out there and work the
harvest fields.
Not long ago I read a quote by Charles Spurgeon who said "Have
you no wish for others to be saved than you are not saved yourself be sure of
that"! I must admit at the time I read that statement I was kind of mad. I couldn't
believe someone would think if we didn't win souls we would be lost. I began to
study the word of God and to my surprise I found over 30 passages of scripture that
suggested the same thing!
I began in a way to realize something; you see I had always
been bold to tell people from the Assemblies of God or Trinitarian churches
that they could not make it to Heaven without being baptized in Jesus name.
Most every one of them would look me in the eye and say oh no you're wrong, I
know I'm going to Heaven. You see there was a spiritual blindness. They couldn't
see the revelation of the One God. The interesting thing is I know people from
the Assembly of God church who can go to the people in a Baptist church and
know that the Baptist won't go to Heaven because they don't believe in
receiving the Holy Ghost like the Assemblies of God. The Baptist can go into
the Catholic Church and know they can't go to Heaven for whatever reason, you
see they can clearly see where the other is blind but can't see the blindness
in their own belief!
I began thinking about this, could we as Apostolics be just
as blind and be missing out on something so important? What makes us believe
that we have all of the truth? Could we be blinded to something that would keep
us from Heaven? I began to see as I searched the scriptures, we must win the
lost we must not get distracted we must stay focused on reaching them!
Many of us would agree we must win the lost, we must win
souls! However when we understand what soul winning is that's when it becomes
clear if we are or are not winning souls. You see, soul winning is when a
person has participated in the new birth. John 3:5 says unless they have been
born again they cannot enter the kingdom. Acts 2:38 says as we all know that
they must repent, be baptized in Jesus name and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
So when a person obeys these scriptures that's when their soul has been won.
You might say well, if they do that and don't stay in the
church they were not won. We must learn that soul winning and discipleship are
two very different things. Both are very important but they are different. You
see if we compel someone to repent and be baptized in Jesus name and God fills
them with the Holy Ghost at that point they have become a new creature, they
have been born again. That is when their soul is won. Then comes the
discipleship part, we MUST raise our babies, we must teach and train and do
everything we can to keep them. However some may stay in the church for 50
years and then walk away. We cannot make people stay. However there is something
called soul winning that we can do for sure. We compel them to repent and be
baptized in Jesus name!
Some also would say that some plant, some water but God
gives the increase. We believe that! However we do not believe there is an
option that you can just be a planter or you can just be a person who waters. We
believe the scripture teaches that when someone receives the Holy Ghost they
receive power to witness they receive a power to make them a soul winner! Yes,
sometimes we may plant, we may hand out a church card or invite someone, and
this is planting. Other times we may water, we pray for someone to receive the
Holy Ghost or follow up on someone seeking. But neither of these are soul
winning, they are planting and watering. When we win souls we actually compel
someone to repent and be baptized and when God fills them with the Holy Ghost that's
the increase! We have won a soul!
Yes, there are other things we do as Christians to minister
to people, we visit the shut ins, we sing in the choir we teach Sunday school,
we become ushers and hostesses but we must understand all of these are
important to minister to people however they are not soul winning. We need them
all to be working to be the greatest church in our city but we cannot get
confused in believing ministry is soul winning. The Bible says the five fold
ministry was given for the perfection of the SAINTS. We must be very careful to
not get out of balance spending more time and energy perfecting the saints than
winning the lost.
We are truly excited to see so many people for the first
time in many years actually win their first soul. Many who have been afraid to
witness or compel people have learned just how easy it is. One of our revivals
over 72 people stood who had won their very first soul that week! It is easy to
win the lost; they are waiting on us to go get them!
When we think about this, isn't this really why we are here?
Is this not the true reason Jesus came, to seek and save that which is lost? If
we spent more time actually winning souls wouldn't our churches be healthier? Wouldn't
our buildings be fuller? Jesus said follow me and ill make you fishers of men,
if were not fishing for men who are we truly following?
One thing I believe is we must learn to be accountable for
winning souls. You see if we believe in soul winning but we never win souls
that could be very dangerous. I believe it is one of the greatest tricks of the
devil. We must be willing to have someone ask us "When is the last time you
personally won a soul"? Out of many of the people who had won their first soul
last year I found that the reason they didn't ever win anyone is because they didn't
know how. We must teach and train our people to go back out and win the lost!
In our ministry we have heard the question posed, well why
go out and get them if their not going to stay. I want to carefully address
this because I see it sometimes used more as an excuse to not go win souls than
a true question of discipleship. Here is one reason I would say, the Bible says
the Holy Ghost will lead and guide us into all truth. If we go out and win
someone and God is caring enough to fill them with the Holy Ghost he must see something
past just their new birth. Would you rather have someone who has already been
baptized in Jesus name and filled with the Holy Ghost on their death bed or
someone who hadn't done anything other than repent?
I truly don't believe God would fill people with the Holy
Ghost if it wasn't his will for them to be saved. That said, we MUST disciple
them. We must care for these babies. I always ask the person who ask the
question about isn't it worthless to go out and win all these people and
baptize them if we don't keep them, I ask well did you personally do everything
you could to keep them? Did you personally go visit them, teach them a Bible
study, call and offer them a ride to church? You guessed it, the answer sadly
is no, they didn't do one thing to keep them personally. This is where we must
get better, we must all not assume someone else is going to do it; we must
personally take the responsibility to care for the babies! We teach and stress
in our revivals the importance of caring for the babies; we believe it is
essential in keeping them. However when we leave it is up to the church and the
saints to do it. In all the churches that are growing so fast they are using
the methods we provide for discipleship. You can download our discipleship
methods on our web site under www.gowinsouls.com
then click download recourses and then outreach materials and then
discipleship.doc
We believe each and every person reading this news letter
can become a great soul winner and experience revival in your life. We truly
believe it to be the absolute will of God for you to win souls and reach the
lost this coming year like never before. I am challenging you to do more, to
work harder to set aside things that have gotten in the way of your soul
winning life. For the year of 2009 let us focus everything on reaching souls
and truly winning the lost. I believe if we did that, God would give us the
greatest revival the church has ever known! I humbly ask today, is that not
what the church is supposed to be? Are we here for any other reason than
reaching the lost? If that's the case then we must make certain that we win
souls. I cannot find one exemption in the word of God for not winning souls, we
can't say were to old, to young, to busy or any other excuse, we must be about
our Fathers business!
Saints, get out there and win souls, don't let hobbies and
cares of life distract you from your mission. Preachers, don't just preach
messages, lead people to the streets and show them how to win souls, Pastors do
everything you can to clear your schedules and not be more involved in ministry
than actually winning souls. As leaders we must be the ones who go first, we
must be the ones leading the way. Let's work as hard as we can to win the lost
in 2009!
In closing, I want to compel each person reading this to
take time to listen to a message I have just added to my web site. Bro. Chester
Wright who has grown a tremendous church on the East coast is preaching "The
Cause of The Lost" you can hear it by clicking http://gowinsouls.com/download/media/cw.wma
or by going to http://gowinsouls.com and
clicking on listen to message and then soul winning and then the top message by
Brother Wright. You will truly be blessed and challenged by this word from the
Lord!
We also want to thank everyone who supported us this past
year. We could not have done what has been done without your financial
support
and prayers. This last few weeks of the year has proven to be a
challenge to
us, we have not been scheduled to be anywhere for several weeks due to
the
holiday season. If it were not for your support we would have had to
leave the
field. We cannot say enough how much you have blessed us. We also want
to thank
you for continuing to support our efforts to purchase a new van. We
have raised
$7550.00 of the $20,000.00 needed to make the purchase. Please scroll
down to read more about this project. Also please pray and ask God
what you could do to help support this need.
May God bless each of you this holiday season, Merry
Christmas and Happy New Years to everyone! We love you so much!
God Bless,
Well we have been having growth! We have got settled in and are looking for a sweeping move of the super natural. God heals!
God good! devil bad
God heals devil sickness
The christian world has turned it around. The say God makes a person sick so they will gain maturity. The God I know robed Himself in flesh HEALING! That is what we want healing for all. Some need a new perception of who God is. He is good! He blesses! He helps us get closer to Him!
We started having people get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. Praying for more! Building a structure to hold on to the new ones and mature the saints.
That is our motto Reaching the Lost.............Maturing the saints
The website will be taking on a new look and I will be adding media. I have been very busy.
Hope everyone is doing well! We have been traveling and have had
limited excess to the internet. Also have been moving. The Lord has
placed us in a set Ministry in Colorado. A couple of years ago I flew
here to test the waters to possibly take the leadership of a Church. At
the time I did not feel it was the right timing. The current pastor and
I stayed in touch and after much prayer came back out with my wife and
children. As soon as I entered the city I felt the Lord doing something
new. I have felt for a long time I was being placed in a set ministry
but did not know the specifics. Then my wife began to feel it also.
Then on a Sunday I felt a burden come over me for this body of
believers and city. I can not explain it. That was the pivotal point in
the decision. The vote was 100% with everyone in leadership in
agreement with the members.
We located a home situated right by Pikes Pike and moved here! We give God the Glory.
Growth is already happening. Attendance is rising and the transition is going smoothly.
Please pray for us. We want the manifestations of sons and daughters here. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We are forming a team together for music. God is already opening doors
there. I will be writing about all that is happening. This website
will be taking on a different face as we transition however the web address will stay the same.
We have been traveling lately! I have some exciting news I will be posting soon. We are on the road to a massive outreach next week. Pray for us. Souls are everywhere! Let's shake this earth.
We have been all doing well and seeking more of God. I will write next week about all the changes happening. I am at a stop now and have limited time. We love you all!
We have been in Colorado Springs. What a beautiful city. In all the population in this region is approx 600,000. In all the attendance for Churches preaching the power of the Gospel and salvation as we know it is under 1,000. The harvest is massive. Who will go. So many cities! So many souls!
We have had a great time here and are seeking God. There has been some doors open please pray with us for three things. 1. Perfect will of God in our lives 2. Perfect timing of God 3. God's financial plan
We appreciate your prayers. I will be flying to St. Paul shortly. We will be having new media including dvd's, cd's and a brand new Bible study available soon. Graphics are done and I am working on the finished product and a publisher. This Bible study will help you win the lost.
If we have blessed you in anyway please pray about becoming a partner with us. Small or large all support help us to do God's will. If you can support us we would appreciate it! Thank you again.
Matthew 7:21 - 23 (TMSG) 21“Knowing the correct
password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere
with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father
wills. 22I can see it now—at
the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached
the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone
talking.’ 23And do you know what
I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make
yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of
here.’
Matthew 7:21 - 23 (ESV) 21“Not everyone who
says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does
the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22On that day many
will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out
demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23And then will I
declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of
lawlessness.’
This scripture has always bothered me. I guess it should. Out of all
the great things we do if we do not do the will of our Father it is for
not! All will not matter filtering everything through the lens of
eternity.
The will of God is vital.
John 15:1 - 2 (ESV) 1“I am the true vine,
and my Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch of mine
that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he
prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
John 15:8 (ESV) 8By this my Father is
glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
Fruit. See it. Feel it. What we produce is very important. For who we are on the inside reproduces on the outside.
Galatians 5:22 - 24 (ESV) 22But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23gentleness,
self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong
to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires.
The fruit is for a reason........
Proverbs 11:30 (KJV) 30The fruit of the
righteous is a tree of life; and
he that winneth souls is wise.
God began to show me that the fruit is to destroy the works of the
flesh AND to win souls. If I walk in the Spirit I will not fullfill the
lust of the flesh but also I will do the will of the Father. My fruit
will have me win souls.
I want to do the will of my Father not my will! These scriptures began
to reveal more of His will and plan. We are here to produce fruit. That
fruit is Godly fruit that will have us care, love and have compassion
on a lost world.
Praise the Lord my fellow revivalist! I hope all is well and you are going deeper. Praying more! Winning more souls then ever. Never let anyone tell you God is not alive. That angels do not visit us, miracles cease and we are to hold on. Holding on is for something that is dieing!
We have had a blast here in Madisonvile, KY. Praying people through on the street, miracles, signs and wonders. We meet a man by the name of Nelson last week outside a resturant we were planning on eating at. After a conversation I asked if we could pray. As we prayed we lead him to repentance then right there God filled him with the Holy Ghost. We have baptized people all through the set of meetings. I have worked with the leadership to set an infrastructure for retention. Bible studies and outreach are going through out the city.
Last Thursday we trained for Home Bible studies. The Church is taking care of the babies. This is awesome. It is our commision to baptize, teach and make disciples. Greater Lighthouse is doing that. I want to say it has been a pleasure working with this great church. Pastor Hendricks and Rev. Shanks are awesome. Both are wanting more of God and less of the world.
The Church needs to do more then pray we are in this mess because we have not
reproduced and dominated this earth with son's and daughter's of God. We need
massive soul winning, miracles, signs and wonders. Nothing else will do.
With so many saved people looking to a government for answers I am thinking
maybe we need a shift in our thinking.
Is it better to make laws not to sin or saturate the earth with truth and
change peoples lives so they do not want to sin. We maybe wanting to make
laws where we as a Church as a whole have been lacking.
I do not know many soul winners. Personal soul winners that
consistently win souls. There are some and I am sure you could name a
few but on the mass scale most leaders are not and most saints are more
worried about this election then their neighbor going to hell.
We are not commanded to vote we are commanded to Go teach, disciple and
reproduce. I am worried too. I worry about how saints of God worship a
football more then God. How we attend school, college and spend more time on
education then educating our lost loved ones and neighbors about salvation.
What worries me most is not who is in the white house but who becomes God's
house.
I pray the Church will rise to the occasion! I am confident we can but will
we? Will we win our neighbor, fellow laborer, family and strangers? Will we
saturate this nation and globe with revelation for a revolution?
John 15:7 (KJV) 7If ye abide in me,
and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto
you.
abide:
men'-o
A
primary verb; to stay (in a given place,
state, relation or expectancy):—abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present,
remain, stand, tarry (for), X thine own.
Thayer
Definition:
1)
to remain, abide
1a)
in reference to place
1a1) to sojourn,
tarry
1a2) not to
depart
As
we dwell in Him and His word in us we pray His will not ours. So many
pray their will and see it not come to pass. His words become our
words. We become like Him. Not of ourselves. We find it better to pray
for others needs. To love others as ourselves. When we pray our prayers
are answered.
Mark 9:23 (KJV) 23Jesus said unto
him, If
thou canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth.
Prayer is the key. The strength of a man is in the hidden place of prayer. His prayer life is his strength.
