Strange Fire | The Voice Christian magazine by Jonas Clark Communications

THE VOICE

Advancing Christian Life and Culture

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Winning the CULTURE WAR • Seduction, Deception & DELIVERANCE GOD’S WARRIOR, Niilo Yli-Vainio: THE GREAT FINNISH REVIVALIST Discerning SIGNS & THE SUPERNATURAL • The Voice EN ESPAÑOL AFTER JOSHUA: The Generation That Followed Other Gods WWW.THEVOICEMAGAZINE.COM

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No. 3

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THE DESK OF

PUBLISHER

THE VOICE

Volume V • Issue 3 August 2008

__________________________

ECOND CENTURY CHURCH FATHER ST. IRENAEUS OF LYONS WROTE OF MANY ERRORS

that attacked the early Church. In his book “Against the Heresies” he writes about the Gnostic teachings and ministry of Simon Magus that you might find interesting. Through Simon Magus, writes Irenaeus, “all heresies got their start.” This is the same Simon the sorcerer that Peter rebuked who wanted to purchase the Holy Ghost that he saw poured out on the believers in Philip’s meetings in Samaria. Scripture says, “And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money” (Acts 8:18). Peter rebuked him and told him he needed to repent of such wickedness.

AFTER THIS IRENAEUS WROTE THAT SIMON “SET HIMSELF EAGERLY TO CONTEND AGAINST

the apostles in order that he himself might seem to be a wonderful being and applied himself with still greater zeal to the study of the whole magic art that he might the better bewilder and overpower multitudes of men.” Simon did this by forming a religious sect and introducing strange fire among the people. He taught that angels and archangels created the world and that “prophets uttered their predictions under the inspiration of those angels.” Irenaeus further wrote that Simon had a deliverance ministry, sold prophesies, potions and charms, tapped into familiar spirits (Paredri) and used occult powers (Oniropompi) to send out prophetic dreams to his followers and those he would merchandise. Simon wowed the crowds and became so popular among the people that Claudius Cesar even honored him with a statue.

TODAY WE CAN LOOK BACK INTO HISTORY AND KNOW CERTAINLY THAT SIMON MAGUS

was deceived. But what would have happened if Peter had not brought attention to this man’s error? Philip didn’t discern it and others remained quiet. This makes it clear that all spiritual experiences need to be judged by the written Word of God. Irenaeus said Simon’s activities brought much confusion and damaged the early Church because “they mislead the minds of the more ignorant and ensnare them by falsifying the Lord’s words. Thus they become wicked interpreters of genuine words. They bring many to ruin by leading them, under the pretense of knowledge away from Him who established and adorned this universe, as if they had something more sublime and excellent to manifest than the God who made heaven and all things in them. By cleverness with words they persuasively allure the simple folk to this style of searching, but then, absurdly, bring them to perdition by trumping up their blasphemous and impious opinion against the Creator. In this matter they just cannot distinguish what is false from what is true.”

IN THIS ISSUE

THE VOICE

MAGAZINE WE EXAMINE STRANGE FIRE, THE PURPOSE OF

signs and the supernatural. We believe, the Spirit of God will open your eyes so you’ll be able to steer clear from spiritual deception. Be sure to share this issue with a friend. Your partner,

T H E V O I C E is a media platform for the apostolic voice. Our editorial board is pulling on the Spirit of God to bring present day truth about issues that impact our readers. _______________________

PUBLISHER Jonas Clark EDITOR Jennifer LeClaire MANAGING EDITOR Melanie Madon CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Bobbie Blystone David Coker Kenneth Copeland Charlton Heston Elizabeth Sanchez Benjamin Ranta ART DIRECTOR Brian Burke DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING Karen Ledbetter EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Elvera Baker Rhonda Clark C o p y r i g h t © 2 0 0 8 b y Jo n a s C l a r k Communications, Inc. All rights reserved, including translation. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations in this magazine are from the King James version of the Bible. EDITORIAL INQUIRY: Have a question? Send your letters to: T H E V O I C E , 27 W. Hallandale Beach Blvd., Hallandale Beach, Fla. 33009 or send e-mail to editor@thevoicemagazine.com. CUSTOMER SERVICE: For a change of address or other customer service issues, call 954.456.6032 or send e-mail to service@thevoicemagazine.com.

Jonas Clark

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C O N T E N T S

THE VOICE

FEATURES 10

AFTER JOSHUA: THE GENERATION THAT FOLLOWED OTHER GODS The Joshua Generation is a bold group of spiritual reformers aiming to turn the world upside down for Christ. But what happens after the so-called Joshua Generation? The Bible says after the Joshua generation died there arose another generation; a generation that did not follow God. By Jonas Clark

DEPARTMENTS

STRANGE FIRE

Throughout your ministry you will be faced with many odd, even strange things that will require much spiritual discernment. Spiritual discernment will come from the Holy Spirit and be veriﬁed by many Scriptures throughout the written Word of God. BY JONAS CLARK

WINNING THE CULTURE WAR

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects “the inherent right to self-defense.” Despite the victory it’s not the last battle we’ll see against the Second Amendment. B Y C H A R LT O N H E S T O N

STEPPING STONES GOD’S WARRIOR, NIILO YLI-VAINIO: THE GREAT FINNISH REVIVALIST From about 1977 to 1981 the small nation of Finland was shaken by one of the greatest revivals the country has ever seen. At the center of this awakening were the Holy Spirit and His instrument, Niilo Yli-Vainio. By Benjamin Ranta

DISCERNING SIGNS & THE SUPERNATURAL

One function of true apostles and prophets is to expose the counterfeit operations of Satan that try to slip in and subvert the credibility of the Word. B Y DAV I D C O K E R

Read More Related Articles Online: www.thevoicemagazine.com

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C O N T E N T S

THE VO ICE

en Español

COLUMNS 8

PROPHETIC OPERATIONS Seduction, Deception & Deliverance Discover the cause and cure for spiritual deception. By Jennifer LeClaire

CARACTERÍSTICA 44

OCHO NIVELES DE INFLUENCIA EN EL LIDERAZGO

Por Jonas Clark

APOSTOLIC LIVING Love Lessons from Asia How would you respond to persecution in a hostile nation? Lives could depend on it. By Jennifer LeClaire

IN THE NEXT ISSUE Don’t miss our October 2008 issue of The Voice featuring: New prophetic insights Cutting-edge commentaries An exposé on Kabala and much more.

CREDITS: The article appearing in the April 2008 issue of The Voice Magazine, ‘From the Footlights to the Light of the Cross: Evangelist Edith Mae Pennington’ was originally published in Assemblies of God Heritage 25:2-3 (Summer-Fall 2005). Reprinted with permission of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (www.iFPHC.org). All rights reserved.

LOS PROFETAS DIMINUTOS Dios está derramando su Espíritu profético en toda carne y pequeñas niñas y pequeños niños están profetizando. Por Bonnie Blystone

DEPARTAMENTO 42

CRUZANDO AL OTRO LADO: SABIDURÍA EN EL CONSEJO DE MUCHOS Oiga el resto de la historia de ministros de los 5 dones los cuales tienen sus Iglesias En transición al patrón del Nuevo Testamento. Por Elizabeth Sánchez

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PROPHETIC OPERATIONS

EDICAL DOCTORS CALL IT

USHER

Holy Spirit, also told us to flee from idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14). The Word of God never instructs us to do something the grace of God won’t empower us to do if we simply get into agreement.

syndrome. It’s a disorder that causes deafness and gradual loss of sight.

YOU MAY HAVE HEARD ABOUT IT IN THE NEWS

recently. Jacob, the nine-year-old son of star horse jockey Kent Desormeaux, is suffering from the disease. Jacob is progressively going blind, and more quickly than anticipated. Doctors say in a few more years he may not be able to see at all.

NOTEWORTHY

AS A PARENT, THIS TEARS AT MY HEART. I CAN’T

even imagine this father’s pain, watching as his son slowly but surely loses his senses of sight and hearing; realizing his son will soon be unable to hear his voice or see his smiling face. But this natural example also awakened my spirit to the Father’s pain in watching some of His own children slowly but surely losing their senses of sight and hearing – through deception.

L IKE U SHER

OF COURSE, THE DEVIL FIRST HAS TO SEDUCE

us before he can deceive us and he’ll usually start with something that seems on the up and up. After all, the Apostle Paul warned us that Satan transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). But with the written Word of God, and all its warnings about deceiving spirits to guide us, how does deception get its stronghold? Well, one way is ignorance of the Word of God and the ways of God. But I also believe deception finds a doorway in the idolatry of our hearts.

THE BIBLE

“GOD IS FAITHFUL [TO HIS WORD AND TO HIS

SYNDROME , DECEPTION IS

progressive. I don’t believe people move from worshipping God to worshipping angels overnight, for example. Nor do I believe one leaps from the practical study of biblical types and shadows to practicing Kabala quickly. It atarts with a little erroneous fox. Just as the Word of God warns us how one sin can lead to another sin (read: David and Bathsheba) it is also true that one error can lead us into another error. One wrong belief can cause us to believe many wrong things.

SAYS THE HEART IS DECEITFUL

above all things, and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). If that’s true, and it is, then none of us are above deception. If we think we are, then we’re deceived already. But the good news

IS A COMPARISON BETWEEN

two Scriptures that deal with fleeing. The Bible implores us to submit ourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee (James 4:7). The Bible doesn’t say idolatry will flee from you. Rather, it says we have to flee from idolatry. Why? Because idolatry allows the Tempter to get a foothold if we don’t turn our hearts toward God’s will instead of our own. Consider Paul’s warning:

SEDUCTION, DECEPTION & DELIVERANCE DISCOVER THE CAUSE AND CURE FOR SPIRITUAL DECEPTION. B y Je n n i f e r L e C l a i r e is Jesus sent the Holy Ghost to lead and guide us into all truth; truth that is readily confirmed in the canon of Scripture. If we follow His Spirit and His written Word instead of the idolatry of our hearts we’ll walk in the light.

IDOLATRY IS ALWAYS A DANGER. THE APOSTLE

Paul lists it as a work of the flesh (Galatians 5:20). But the same apostle, inspired by the

compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to a landing place), that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.

“THEREFORE,

MY DEARLY BELOVED, SHUN

(keep clear away from, avoid by flight if need be) any sort of idolatry (of loving or venerating anything more than God). I am speaking as to intelligent (sensible) men. Think over and make up your minds [for yourselves] about what I say. [I appeal to your reason and your discernment in these matters.]” (1 Corinthians 10:13-15 AMP).

WE CAN’T BLAME ALL THIS DECEPTION

business on the devil. Nor can we be ignorant to his devices. Part of his ministry is to find the idolatry in our hearts: the deceitfulness of riches, the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, or something else that causes us to give God’s place to another. Once Satan finds that idolatry he’ll tempt you with it. At that point we have a clear choice: destroy the idol or walk into darkness.

MUST PARTNER WITH THE

L ORD

guarding our hearts with all diligence from deception in these last days. Again, most of us wouldn’t consider looking at Hebrew symbols, numbers, letters and words – or even the accents on words – to discover hidden meanings in the

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Guarding our hearts from deception means being humble enough to acknowledge that we are capable of being deceived. It also means setting our minds on Christ and putting first the Kingdom. name of prophecy. Yet some have fallen into this snare. Likewise, most of us wouldn’t exalt angels to a place they don’t deserve – or even want. And most of us wouldn’t offer strange fire in the name of Jesus. Yet, we see these things happening in the Body of Christ even now.

employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God)” (Colossians 3:15 AMP).

AGAIN, DECEPTION IS PROGRESSIVE. IT STARTS

and should be turning hearts away from sin toward God, not thaumaturgy, mysticism, angels, or anything else. We’ve watched some in prophetic ministry stray from its purpose, sometimes for the sake of not appearing ‘religious.’ Yes, we want to make room for God to move how He wants and to avoid the trap of a religious spirit that would quench His operations. But does that mean we throw our discernment out stained glass windows to prove we’re open-minded? God forbid.

with those little foxes. Guarding our hearts from deception means being humble enough to acknowledge that we are capable of being deceived. It also means setting our minds on Christ and putting first the Kingdom. As far as the world is concerned we have died, and our real life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). Guarding ourselves from deception, then, means taking the Apostle Paul’s advice:

“KILL (DEADEN, DEPRIVE OF POWER) THE EVIL

desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is

PROPHETS ARE CALLED TO HOLINESS, HUMILITY,

CONSIDER

NINE-YEAR-OLD

JACOB. WHILE

there is deliverance from deception, there is

currently no cure for Usher syndrome. That means Jacob will soon lose his sight. This is not God’s will. So I ask you, what would it be like if the Church rose up in power, equipping the saints with the truth to see signs of God – like healing the sick and opening blind eyes – following them that believe? I submit to you that Christ would be getting the glory He deserves and young Jacob would be able to hear the sound of his father’s voice and see him cross the finish line of a world-class horse race again.

Click these links to order: NextLevelProphetic.com, TheVoiceBooks.com.

AFTER J

E’RE THE “JOSHUA GENERATION.”

Or at least that’s what many of us have heard preached in sermons and heralded in high praise throughout Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. The Joshua Generation is a bold group of spiritual reformers aiming to turn the world upside down for Christ. It’s the group that goes in to possess the land. We’re the ones who vowed that our household would serve the Lord.

BUT WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE SO-CALLED Joshua Generation? Let’s look at the account of Joshua’s days. The Bible says after the Joshua generation died there arose another generation; a generation that did not follow God.

THE PROPHET SAMUEL WROTE, “AND THE

The generation that followed other gods. BY JONAS CLARK

children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers which brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies” (Judges 2:10-14).

THIS SCRIPTURE IS INTRIGUING AND LEADS

to many questions such as: Could this be prophetic for us today? Are our children and grandchildren in grave danger? Who were these “gods of the people” that enslaved the children of the greatest warriors in history? Have spoilers begun to mount their dappled horses already? Should someone sound the alarm and blow the trumpet in Zion?

JOSHUA

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JUST

T H E AS THE

UNITED STATES’ AMBER ALERT

V O I C E

Plato taught in “The Republic” that you could

System notifies the public when police confirm a child abduction, the Church needs to notify the next generation of the dangers that lie in wait. And not only notify them, but teach them how to remain steadfast for God, like Joshua did. After all Scripture teaches us to “Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they shall not depart” (Proverbs 22:6). Who is training our children today? Who are the wise guides of the next generation? Are they pastors, church leaders, moms and dads, aunts and uncles, or grandmas and grandpas? Where do our children get their values? Who provides the moral compass that directs their way? Who climates their educational atmosphere? Who are their mentors? Who influences them? Are there “other gods,” strangers, fostering the children of the next generation?

figures, rappers and hip-hop artists. They spend their time watching them on TV, listening to them on iPods and otherwise sharing their messages with friends. So, I ask you, if time equals influence, then who has the most influence on our children? The answer is found in how children spend their time. Here is an annual estimate of how the average U.S. kid spends their time: 1,500 hours in public school, 600 hours watching television, listening to music or playing video games and 35 hours spent in quality family time.

THE

FUTURE LEADERS OF OUR NATIONS WILL

come from our children. Is that a positive or negative thought? Have you taken a close look at the youngsters of this generation? They are very different from our generation. Some have problems concentrating, seem indifferent, have no sense of urgency, are mistrustful of intimacy, are easily distracted, materialistic, can’t reason, are not logical, are abstract thinkers with limited problem solving skills, are immature, can’t think, are drugged, violent and cruel, can’t finish what they start, rarely learn from mistakes, financially illiterates, and separated emotionally from parents and family. Jesus said sound judgment looks at the fruit a tree produces (Matthew 7:20). Could it be that these children are the socially engineered products of “the gods of the people?” Have they been mentored by strangers?

THIS QUESTION WAS ASKED IN A POLL IN 1998:

“Do you believe in God?” 93 percent answered “yes” and 7 percent answered “no.” The yes votes broke down like this: Of those serving in the military 90 percent said yes; of business owners 70 percent said yes; politicians 50 percent said yes; in the entertainment industry 3percent said yes and those in media only 2 percent said yes. Of this short list, which ones have the most influence with our children? If you answered entertainment and media, you answered correctly. This is startling and reveals of those industries that influence our children the most, 97 percent of them do not believe in God. So where do our children get their virtues and values? Who are the mentors of the next generation? The answer is the godless.

WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE ARE ASKED WHO their heroes are, many answer sports Related Articles Online: Life and Culture

gage a society by “marking the music.” Never in history has any art form been so directed toward children.

the next generation? Unfortunately, it seems the answer is godless strangers, the “gods of the people.” Let’s look at music, video games and the public school system, three of the most influential mentors of today’s kids.

report that 70 percent of pirated music is downloaded by kids age 9-14. It’s not uncommon for teens to have over 500 songs, 33 hours of nonstop sounds digitized on their iPods. Music is not neutral. It contains a message and is almost always accompanied with an activity. Today’s lyrics are full of hate, lawlessness and drugs. The words are vulgar and demean women. The themes are violent, sensual, sexual and full of flesh, flesh and more flesh. Plato taught in “The Republic” that you could gage a society by “marking the music.” Never in history has any art form been so directed toward children. Plato also said music could be debased further by adding dance. Music videos confirm his philosophy by glorifying illicit dances that simulate sexual intercourse. Little is left to the imagination. The more adulterated the more accepted the music.

MORAL MENTORS

CHARLES

WHO ARE THE GREATEST INFLUENCERS OF

This generation is addicted to music. Nothing seems to excite them more. Music is the moral mentor of this generation. How often do you see children wearing those hi-tech noise reduction headphones latched to each ear? What are they listening to? Have you seen black-windowed cars, rolling woofers that shake, quiver and throb every vehicle within a stone’s throw, blasting the current hip-hop tunes? Can thought, reason, contemplation and reflection coexist within that blare?

THE PRACTICE OF TEENAGERS DOWNLOADING pirated music from the Internet is out of control. Illegally copied music has seriously damaged the music industry. Statistics

SECONDAT MONTESQUIEU, 18TH

century political philosopher and author of “The Spirit of the Laws” said, “It is not young people who degenerate, they are ruined only when grown men have already been corrupted.” Children and teenagers are not the founders of the music industry, “grown men” have already paved the way. Our children stop watching “Thomas the Tank,” “Barney and Friends” and “Sesame Street,” and graduate to “MTV.”

MTV PROMOTES A FAUX IMAGE OF success and fame without virtue. It is Viacom’s flagship station for developing youth culture in

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North America and around the world. Episodes of the popular “MTV Cribs,” for example, visit the homes of hip-hop heroes displaying giant walk-in closets filled with hundreds of pairs of expensive Nike tennis shoes, designer clothing, jewelry, home entertainment theater rooms and private recording studios.

MIAMI ARTIST RICK ROSS IS A TYPICAL EXAMPLE

of MTV’s guests. He exhibited his spoils on MTV’s 15th season. The show opened with Ross showing off his black 2008 Mercedes-Benz CL65 V12 biturbo 612 hp engine. Ross is a hip-hop artist. His album “Port of Miami” hit Number 1 on Billboard in its first week, selling over 160,000 copies. The album is full of songs that portray Ross as a proud cocaine dealing thug. His single, “Hustlin,” contains references to the former Panamanian drug running dictator, General Manuel Noriega, who owes him “a hundred favors,” along with Pablo Escobar, the brutal Columbian murderer of 30 judges, 457 policemen and hundreds of innocent people. Ross then shows his custom motorcycle and tricked out white Cadillac Escalade before escorting viewers into his Miami mansion complete with marble floors, home theater, and South Florida tropical views. On the tour Ross takes a moment to point out framed photos of his young children.

MARKETING GENERATION NEXT: Lucky fans attending MTV’s Total Request Live take home the new XBOX 360. (Photo by Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images)

VIRTUAL TERMINALS

Competing for influence with our children are the ever-popular video game mentors. These are virtual terminals training our children to kill with precision. The video game industry is hot, hot, hot. As a multi-billion dollar industry it is another stranger molding the next generation. “Death Race” became the first controversial video game back in 1976. In that game, players drove a car that simulated vehicular homicide by running down pedestrians to score points. Today’s games are way beyond that with mind-blowing graphics and off-the-hook sound effects. Through these games, players get to act out violent crimes like carjacking in “Grand Thief Auto” and evading cops in “Need for Speed.”

THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

issued a report that reveals, “violent video games can increase children’s aggression.” Surely parents should have known that already, but the knowledge hasn’t slowed sales. Lt. Col. David Grossman is a former West Point psychology professor who has written several books on the issue of violence in the media, including “On Killing” and “Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill.” He describes first-person shooter games as ‘murder simulators’ and argues that video game publishers

DANGEROUS GAMES: Young men playing the popular video game, Grand Theft Auto.

are actually training children to use weapons. If that’s not bad enough, he also asserts that these murder simulators are hardening their emotions to murderous acts by simulating the killing of hundreds or even thousands of opponents in a single video game.

DUMBING US DOWN

Next on our list of next-generation mentors is the public school system. Again, the public school system has your children for over 1,500 hours a year. Do you know your children’s teachers and the content of their text books or are they strangers? Thirty-year award winning teacher in New York City’s public school system John Taylor Gatto is the author of “Dumbing Us Down.” He believes that the public school system is flawed. He writes, “Over the years of wrestling with the obstacles that stand between child and education I have come to believe that government

monopoly schools are structurally unreformable. They cannot function if their central myths are exposed and abandoned. Over the years I have come to see that whatever I thought I was doing as a teacher, most of what I actually was doing was teaching an invisible curriculum that reinforced the myths of the school institution and those of an economy based on caste.”

ARE ALL PROUD OF THE THOUSANDS OF

good school teachers that are doing their best to educate our children, but let’s face the facts: The God of the Bible was removed from our public schools when the United States Supreme Court removed prayer June 25th, 1962. C. S. Lewis said, “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” Today’s public school has been overshadowed by progressive secular humanists, the social engineers of the next generation. Gatto is quick to remind us

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No. 3

As we move closer to Socialism within the United States we will see more

and more government involvement and experimental social engineering of our children and a caste society becoming more apparent.

that good teachers within the public school system are not the problem, the system itself is marred.

LOOK

AT THE MAJORITY OF THE LEADERS OF

commerce, industry and government in our nation. From what schools did they receive their education? Do you think they will send their children to pubic schools or private Ivy League type schools like Harvard, Yale, Brown or Princeton? As already said, the public school system has our children over 1,500 hours a year and now many regions are introducing year-round school. It seems the responsibility of parents is only to finance their children’s care, mind their safety, purchase their food and clothing – but have little part nor time allotted in mentoring them.

T HE

PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM WAS NEVER

designed to teach the necessary skills required for leadership. It was designed to educate the poor with enough basic skills to get a job, teach them to be good citizens and unthinking indebted consumers. Pulitzer Prize Award-winner for literature Will Durant, author of “The Story of Civilization” said, “In class societies the middle class have tended toward the professions while the aristocracy received leadership education. That left the lower classes. So many nations established public schools to educate the poor.” Throughout history the public school was never intended to raise the next generation of leaders. It was an institution designed for the poor because the ruling classes educated their children in private schools.

F OUNDER

G EORGE W YTHE C OLLEGE ,

Dr. Oliver Van DeMille, author of “A Thomas Jefferson Education” describes three different types of education and I paraphrase: The first is the “conveyor belt education,” which tries to prepare everyone for a job, any job, by teaching them what to think. Second the “professional education,”

from apprenticeship and trade schools to law, medical and MBA programs, which creates specialists by teaching them when to think. Thirdly, “leadership education” that teaches students how to think and prepares them to be leaders in their homes and communities, entrepreneurs in business and statesmen in government. His book makes it clear that our nation needs world class leadership education guided by inspiring mentors, not professors, who direct children how to think. He says that “greatness is the first rule of leadership education” and that “greatness is fostered by coming face-to-face with greatness.”

ALL

OF THIS ONLY CONFIRMS THE FRUIT OF

the strangers, “gods of the people” who are mentoring the next generation of students that can’t seem to think. As we move closer to Socialism within the United States we will see more and more government involvement and experimental social engineering of our children and a caste society becoming more apparent.

M ONTESQUIEU

WROTE ,

“T HE

HISTORY OF

despotic rulers educating the subjects was dangerous.” In order to control their subjects they would provide little education and “take everything away in order to give something and begin by making a bad subject in order to make a good slave.” He continued, “Extreme obedience assumes ignorance in the one who obeys; it assumes ignorance even in the one who commands; he does not have to deliberate, to doubt, or to reason; he has only to want.” These are the weapons of the secular progressive Godhaters. They are socialists bent on engineering unthinking consumers who are addicted to debt.

ROAD TO SERFDOM

Our future is dependant on the godly leadership abilities of the next generation. A leader is one that has a passion to serve others, make the world a better place and knows how to think. It’s that virtuous thinking ability that leads toward liberty and justice for all. Take that power away and you get serfdom.

ALL KNOW THE FUTURE LEADERS OF OUR

nation must come from our young people. Who will be our leaders and from what mentors will they come? What shall we as parents, grandparents and Christian leaders do?

THINK

JACOB’S

WISDOM WILL INSPIRE AND

encourage. He said to his household, “Put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments: And let us arise, and go up to Bethel and I will make there an altar unto God who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand and all their earings which were in their ears and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. And they journeyed and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob” (Genesis 35:2-5). This is sage advice for all our families, “put away the strange gods.” Who will hear what the Spirit of God is saying to our nation?

THE KINGDOM

GOD

IS UNDER ATTACK

but Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The Kingdom is represented by its citizens, their culture, virtues, honor, morality, shared values and, most importantly, their God. Let’s heed the lessons of history and not surrender our nation’s children to strange mentors, “the gods of the people.” When we as adults, believers in Christ’s Word, His moral excellence and standards, take a stand for righteousness and resist State patrimony, and secular humanistic social engineering, we will see this nation turned around.

THE

PRINCIPLES OF GODLY EDUCATION AND

righteous mentorship will not be found with strangers but from Christ, the family, and His Church. Just as the nobles of old thought it necessary to bring up their children with moral excellence, manners, culture, honor, virtue, and shared Christian values we will do the same.

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COLUMN

No. 3

P. 17

APOSTOLIC LIVING

LOVE

LESSONS FROM ASIA How would you respond to persecution in a hostile nation? Lives could depend on it. B Y J ENNIFER L E C LAIRE

OU ’ VE HEARD IT SAID ,

“When in Rome, do as the Romans.” But what do you do when you are smack dab in the middle of a Muslim nation that disdains Americans, offers little respect to women, and is determined to make sure you know it?

DURING

A RECENT VISIT TO AN

Asian Islamic nation I couldn’t blend in. I stood out like, well, like an American woman in a Muslim nation. No burka for me. I’m a proud American woman with red curly hair and freckles. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Christ in me seemed to stir the principalities and powers that wondered why I was there.

TO SAY THE HEAVENS WERE HARD would be an understatement. To say the people were rude would pay them a compliment. And to

say I didn’t struggle to maintain a positive attitude would be an outright lie. You see my appointed escorts took noticeable pleasure in running me ragged, giving me the silent treatment, leaving me stranded at airports and feeding

do it gracefully, but I did know this: These Muslims had a dossier on me that told them who I was, what I wrote about (read: radical Islam, prophetic operations and fervent Christian living) and they were dishing out an American hazing in the most politically correct manner possible. In other words, I probably wasn’t in any eminent physical danger but I was not being treated with respect. Rather, I was being persecuted for my faith and on behalf of my nation.

They were trying their level best to provoke me, to see if I would lose my composure, to break me. As an ambassador for Christ, I knew I had to let them see Christ in me. me unclean food. To say I wasn’t working overtime to be diplomatic in the face of this treatment would be less than truthful.

FRIENDS WERE TEXT MESSAGING me with suggestions that I take the next flight home. I somehow knew I had to stick it out to the end. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to

SO WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU

are in a Muslim nation? The answer is not to ‘do as the Muslims.’ Sure, there was a temptation to fall back on the ‘eye for an eye concept,’ and dish out the rudeness in return. But these folks knew I was an active Christian and they were watching my every move. They were trying their level best to provoke me, to

see if I would lose my composure, to break me. As an ambassador for Christ, I knew I had to let them see Christ in me. But in a jetlagged, utterly exhausted and poorly nourished state, I also knew I couldn’t take another step without a specific strategy. I needed more than a pat answer from the Bible. I needed a rhema word from God. So I cried out to God in my hotel room, “How do I respond to these people?”

DIDN’T TAKE

HIM

LONG TO

answer. In that still small voice, He made it all so simple: “If a man compels you to go a mile, go two.” At first I thought to myself, “I’ve already walked 15 miles with these people!” But, alas, this wisdom from above was pure, peaceable, considerate, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. And peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness (James 3:1718). I turned immediately and began reading the Beatitudes. I took great comfort reading, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which

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P. 18

T H E

No. 3

V O I C E

As I was riding in that van God exposed His heart to me. His heart aches for everyone that is dying and going to hell every day. The intensity of Christ’s love for all people pricked my heart and it was all I could do not to weep. are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matthew 9-12).

T HERE I

FOUND GRACE FOR

the next few days of my journey through Islam with the power of the Holy Spirit to be a witness. And something amazing happened. By the last two days of my visit, these Muslims who had treated me so rudely began to change their attitude toward me. We discussed Christianity, Islam, Judaism and other religions in

an open-minded exchange of ideologies. We laughed together, began to understand each other, and started to look at one another not as Christian and Muslim, but as people. By the end of the journey, they were saying things to me like, “You are not like other Americans. You’re different.” And they meant that in the most positive sense.

WHAT

ABOUT YOU ?

YOU

MAY

the airport, God did something I didn’t expect. Earlier in the week I asked Him how Jesus would respond to Muslims. In the wake of extreme terrorism, the Western world tends to do its own fair share of persecuting those who practice Islam without considering the people who practice Islam. Yes, the religion is anti-Christ but Jesus loves all people, including Muslim people.

never go to a Muslim country that’s hostile toward your religion. But you may go to a workplace where you feel like you don’t get a fair shake. You may have to deal with unsaved neighbors who work your last nerve every weekend. How will you respond? Will you turn the other cheek? Will you walk the extra mile? Will you love your enemies? Will you stand in your role as an ambassador for Christ?

AS I

CHRIST

SO WHETHER YOU FIND YOURSELF

SENT THE

HOLY GHOST

so we could be witnesses. Paul said we are living epistles. Like John the Baptist, we need to burn and shine. That doesn’t always mean looking for the quick conversion. It may just mean walking in love so people can see the real Christ.

THE END OF MY

A SIAN

adventure, as I was riding back to

WAS RIDING IN THAT VAN

God exposed His heart to me. His heart aches for everyone that is dying and going to hell every day. The intensity of Christ’s love for all people pricked my heart and it was all I could do not to weep. Scripture says that “God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). in the midst of a spiritual war in an Islamic nation or in the midst of a workplace war on the job front, remember this: God hates the sin, but He loves the people. He’s counting on you to be the salt and light that opens the door for lost souls to enter into the Kingdom of God, where Jesus is waiting for them with open arms.

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STEPPING STONES

GOD’S WARRIOR NIILO YLI-VAINIO:

THE GREAT FINNISH REVIVALIST

BY BENJAMIN RANTA

ROM ABOUT

1977 TO 1981, THE SMALL NATION OF FINLAND WAS

shaken by one of the greatest revivals the country has ever seen. At the center of this awakening were the Holy Spirit and His instrument, Niilo Yli-Vainio. First, I will discuss the general context of the Finnish Pentecostal movement. Second, I will tell the fascinating story of Yli-Vainio’s part in the revival. Finally, I will consider what possible lessons can be drawn from the revival of Yli-Vainio. The Pentecostal movement in Finland and the revival of Yli-Vainio show that although revivals often tend to center around charismatic leaders, they are fully dependent on the Holy Spirit and an attitude of prayer and humility on the part of their participants.

IN 1906, AN ENGLISH METHODIST MISSIONARY TO NORWAY, THOMAS

Ball Barratt, itinerated in the United States in order to raise support funds for his missionary work. He read about the Azusa Street Revival from

a periodical and began to seek Spirit baptism at prayer meetings. Soon, he received Spirit baptism at a New York City prayer meeting. When he left the United States, he took the fire to England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. In 1911, Barratt visited the Swedish-speaking areas of Finland. Although the revival meetings were first held among the Swedish minority of Finland, soon the Holy Ghost fire spread among the Finns themselves.

THE EARLY FINNISH PENTECOSTALS DID NOT INTEND TO LEAVE THEIR

former denominations, but their churches did not tolerate healings, speaking in tongues, and the believer’s water baptism. As a result, the Pentecostals began to gather in homes, taking turns at hosting meetings in each believer’s home. The singing of hymns and fervent prayer while kneeling on the floor marked these meetings. Thus, among Pentecostals a life of Pentecost came to be known as “traveling the way of the knees.”

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P. 22

T HE

T H E PASTORS WERE NOT HIGHLY

educated, and their message was simple but effective. They taught the soon coming of the Lord, baptism in the Spirit, salvation from hell, and most importantly, the centrality of Jesus to the life of believers. In traditional Pentecostal fashion, Finnish believers also shared prayer requests and testimonies of how extraordinary God had been to them. The sharing of testimonies and prayer requests is still practiced in Finnish churches today.

ITINERANT

PASTORS WERE THE NORM,

and even those who stayed in one city often traveled to nearby villages. Later, when the local churches obtained their own buildings, the pastors continued itinerating to reach the lost and thirsty of surrounding villages. Although this itineration caused loneliness and strain on families, the pastors often saw the church as having a higher priority than their wife and children; as one pastor remarked, “When I felt the call to be a minister, I thought to myself that God was calling me to the life of a wandering Gypsy.”

ANOTHER UNIQUE ELEMENT IN FINNISH

No. 3

V O I C E

when the Finno-Russian war broke out in November 1939. During this war, YliVainio was sent to the front as a soldier. (Many Pentecostals refused to bear arms and were imprisoned as a result. They saw their heavenly citizenship as transcending any human government and believed that to follow Jesus’ example in loving one’s enemy required that they love Russians as Jesus had loved them.)

UNTIL THIS TIME ,

Y LI -V AINIO

had been a nominal Lutheran. On the battlefield, any faith that Yli-Vainio OPENING THE HEAVENS: Niilo Yli-Vainio addresses might have had was taken from him. He an audience in Helsinki, about 1977. explains his attitude, “There is no such thing as the Word of God. I crawled through forests and thickets for four years during the war, and I did not see anything other than deceit and wrongdoing. The chaplains blessed us and promised heaven to us if we fall in battle. Then, they drove us to be cannon fodder like lambs to the butcher.... God does not exist. If humans do not help themselves, they will remain unhelped.” Little did he expect that a greater warrior than he would soon storm the ramparts of his soul.

A FTER

THE WAR ,

P ENTECOSTALISM

Pentecostalism is the guitar choir. The grew in many regions due to the relocation guitar choir is composed of both men of refugees after the war. Before the war, and women, almost all of which strum many of these refugees were part of a guitars in harmony. Sometimes similar FULFILLING THE CALL: Niilo Yli-Vainio winning the Pentecostal revival in Viipuri (Vyborg) choirs were formed with accordions. lost with the choir in the background. near the Russian border. Linnea began to These choirs were put to effective use attend house church meetings in nearby with a strong beat, a minor key, and forlorn lyrics calling the unsaved to villages, while Yli-Vainio worked long days at a workshop. The Word of repentance. It was in this context that Yli-Vainio came to know Christ, God was planted in Linnea’s heart, and she accepted Christ as her Savior. and was called to the ministry. Although Yli-Vainio was very much against this change, he sometimes visited Pentecostal house meetings. He was struck by the joy and NIILO YLI-VAINIO WAS BORN IN FEBRUARY 1920 TO A MILDLY authenticity of the believers’ faith. He was also touched by the beautiful religious Lutheran home. His father was a soldier decorated in the songs sung by the guitar choirs. Soon, he too accepted Christ as Lord. Finnish War of Independence (from Russia, 1918), but had left the military to work in the logging industry; while his mother was a caring NOT LONG AFTER HIS CONVERSION, YLI-VAINIO BEGAN SEEING homemaker. The young couple lived with Yli-Vainio’s grandmother. visions of lost souls being chained and sent to Hell. He was greatly disturbed at these visions and felt that this was a call to ministry. Shortly WHEN YLI-VAINIO WAS BORN, THE DOCTOR EXPECTED BOTH HIM AND thereafter, he began the process of visiting nearby villages with a friend, his mother to die. However, the grandmother prophetically proclaimed holding evangelistic meetings in homes. People were saved and filled that this son would not die, and since the family already had a soldier of with the Spirit at his meetings, and he received further confirmation of war, the son would grow up to be a strong soldier in the Kingdom of God. his calling through a personal prophecy. The father laughed at this idea. Nonetheless, both the mother and child survived the rigors of labor, and Yli-Vainio grew to the stature of a man. THE YEARS PASSED IN ITINERATING, AND YLI-VAINIO WAS EVEN ELECTED the pastor of an established church. Nevertheless, his messages were IN ABOUT 1938, YLI-VAINIO MARRIED A YOUNG WOMAN BY THE always centered on evangelization and repentance. During this time of name of Linnea. Unfortunately, he had barely been married a year persistent work, he lived in Sweden serving as the (Continued on Pg. 34) Read More Related Articles Online: Stepping Stones - Revival History

WINNING THE CULTURE WAR

By Charlton Heston

PHOTO: CANDICE TOWELL/GETTY IMAGES

The Second Amendment guarantees Americans the right “to keep and bear arms.” Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects “the inherent right to selfdefense.” Despite the victory it’s not the last battle we’ll see against the Second Amendment.

Charlton Heston, long-time president of the National Rifle Association and the Christian actor who played Moses among other roles, went home to be with the Lord earlier this year. But Hollywood’s hero of faith left us with a prophetic perspective on the America’s new civil war. Below is the text of a speech he gave almost a decade ago that rings especially true today.

REMEMBER MY SON WHEN HE WAS FIVE,

explaining to his kindergarten class what his father did for a living. “My Daddy,” he said, “pretends to be people.” There have been quite a few of them: prophets from the Old and New Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various nationalities and

different centuries, several kings, three American presidents, a French cardinal and two geniuses, including Michelangelo. If you want the ceiling repainted I’ll do my best. There always seem to be a lot of different fellows up here [people Heston has portrayed]. I’m never sure which one of them gets to talk. Right now, I guess I’m the guy.

AS I PONDERED OUR VISIT TONIGHT IT STRUCK

me: if my Creator gave me the gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want to use that same gift now to reconnect you with your own sense of liberty ... your own freedom of thought ... your own compass for what is right.

DEDICATING THE MEMORIAL AT GETTYSBURG,

Abraham Lincoln said of America, “We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” Those words are true again. I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural war that’s about to hijack your birthright to think and say what resides in your heart. I fear you no longer trust the pulsing lifeblood of liberty inside you ... the stuff that made this country rise from wilderness into the miracle that it is.

LET ME BACK UP. ABOUT A YEAR AGO I BECAME

president of the National Rifle Association,

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P. 26

 FINALLY, JUST LAST MONTH ... DAVID HOWARD,

which protects the right to keep and bear arms. I ran for office, I was elected, and now I serve ... I serve as a moving target for the media who’ve called me everything from “ridiculous” and “duped” to a “brain-injured, senile, crazy old man.” I know ... I’m pretty old ... but I sure Lord ain’t senile.

head of the Washington D.C. Office of Public Advocate, used the word “niggardly” while talking to colleagues about budgetary matters. Of course, “niggardly” means stingy or scanty. But within days, Howard was forced to publicly apologize and resign. As columnist Tony Snow wrote: “David Howard got fired because some people in public employ were morons who (a) didn’t know the meaning of ‘niggardly,’ (b) didn’t know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c) actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance.”

AS I HAVE STOOD IN THE CROSSHAIRS OF THOSE

who target Second Amendment freedoms, I’ve realized that firearms are not the only issue. No, it’s much, much bigger than that. I’ve come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated.

FOR

EXAMPLE,

MARCHED FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

with Dr. King in 1963 – long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else’s pride, they called me a racist. I’ve worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe. I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite. Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh. From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they’re essentially saying, “Chuck, how dare you speak your mind. You are using language not authorized for public consumption!” But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we’d still be King George’s boys – subjects bound to the British crown.

HIS BOOK,

THE END

SANITY, MARTIN

Gross writes that “blatantly irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, new anti-intellectual theories regularly foisted on us from every direction. “Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something without a name is undermining the nation, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don’t like it.”

LET ME READ A FEW EXAMPLES.

 AT ANTIOCH COLLEGE

OHIO,

YOUNG

men seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the process from

kissing to petting to final copulation ... all clearly spelled out in a printed college directive.

 IN NEW JERSEY,

DESPITE THE DEATH OF

AT WILLIAM

MARY,

several patients nationwide who had been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDS, the state commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not ... need not ... tell their patients that they are infected. AND

STUDENTS TRIED

to change the name of the school team, “The Tribe,” because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name.

 IN SAN FRANCISCO, CITY FATHERS PASSED AN

ordinance protecting the rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery.

IN NEW YORK CITY, KIDS WHO DON’T SPEAK

a word of Spanish have been placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R’s in Spanish solely because their last names sound Hispanic.

 AT

THE

UNIVERSITY

PENNSYLVANIA,

in a state where thousands died at Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set up segregated dormitory space for black students.

YEAH, I KNOW ... THAT’S OUT OF BOUNDS NOW.

Dr. King said “Negroes.” Jimmy Baldwin and most of us on the March said “black.” But it’s a no-no now. For me, hyphenated identities are awkward ... particularly “Native-American.” I’m a Native-American, for God’s sake. I also happen to be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife’s side, my grandson is a thirteenth generation native American ... with a capital letter on “American.”

WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN? IT MEANS THAT

telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can’t be far behind. Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate on America’s campuses? And why do you continue to tolerate it? Why do you, who are supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression? Let’s be honest. Who here thinks your professors can say what they really believe? It scares me to death, and should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason.

YOU ARE THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST. YOU,

here in the fertile cradle of American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River, you are the cream. But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the land, are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since Concord Bridge. And as long as you validate that ... and abide by it ... you are – by your grandfathers’ standards – cowards.

 HERE’S

ANOTHER EXAMPLE .

RIGHT

NOW

at more than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are being told to shut up about their findings or they’ll lose their jobs. Why? Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayors’ pending lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm manufacturers.

I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT GUNS.

But if you are not shocked at that, I am shocked at you. Who will guard the raw material of unfettered ideas, if not you? Who will defend the core value of academia, if you supposed soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and plead, “Don’t shoot me”? If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If you see distinctions between the genders, it does not make you a sexist. If you think critically about a denomination, it does

Read More Related Articles Online: Life and Culture

T H E not make you anti-religion. If you accept but don’t celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a homophobe.

DON’T LET AMERICA’S UNIVERSITIES CONTINUE to serve as incubators for this rampant epidemic of new McCarthyism. But what can you do? How can anyone prevail against such pervasive social subjugation? The answer’s been here all along. I learned it 36 years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., standing with Dr. Martin Luther King and two hundred thousand people. You simply ... disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely. But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don’t. We disobey social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom.

L E A R N E D T H E AW E S O M E P OW E R O F

disobedience from Dr. King, who learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau, and Jesus, and every other great man who led those in the right against those with the might. Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate kinship with that disobedient spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the back of the bus, that protested a war in Viet Nam.

THAT SAME SPIRIT,

AM ASKING YOU TO

disavow cultural correctness with massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives and onerous law that weaken personal freedom. But be careful ... it hurts. Disobedience demands that you put yourself at risk. Dr. King stood on lots of balconies. You must be willing to be humiliated ... to endure the modern-day equivalent of the police dogs at Montgomery and the water cannons at Selma. You must be willing to experience discomfort. I’m not complaining, but my own decades of social activism have taken their toll on me. Let me tell you a story.

A FEW YEARS BACK I HEARD ABOUT A RAPPER

named Ice-T who was selling a CD called “Cop Killer,” celebrating ambushing and murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Police across the country were outraged. Rightfully so – at least one had been murdered. But Time Warner was stonewalling because the CD was a cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around it because the rapper was black. I heard Time Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned some shares at the time, so I decided to attend.

P. 27

V O I C E

“

I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr. King, who learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau, and Jesus, and every other great man who led those in the right against those with the might.

”

WHAT I DID THERE WAS AGAINST THE ADVICE OF

my family and colleagues. I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of “Cop Killer” – every vicious, vulgar, instructional word. I got my 12 gauge sawed off. I got my headlights turned off. I’m about to bust some shots off. I’m about to dust some cops off... It got worse, a lot worse. I won’t read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. The Time Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that.

THEN I

DELIVERED

another volley of sick lyric brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing two 12-year-old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore: “SHE...” Well, I won’t do to you here what I did to them. Let’s just say I left the room in echoing silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps, one of them said “We can’t print that.” “I know,” I replied, “but Time Warner is selling it.”

T WO

M O N T H S L AT E R ,

Time Warner terminated Ice-T’s contract. I’ll never

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be offered another film by Warners, or get a good review from Time magazine. But disobedience means you must be willing to act, not just talk.

WHEN A MUGGER SUES HIS ELDERLY VICTIM FOR

defending herself ... jam the switchboard of the district attorney’s office. When your university is pressured to lower standards until 80 percent of the students graduate with honors ... choke the halls of the board of regents. When an 8-yearold boy pecks a girl’s cheek on the playground and gets hauled into court for sexual harassment ... march on that school and block its doorways. When someone you elected is seduced by political power and betrays you ... petition them, oust them, banish them. When Time magazine’s cover portrays millennium nuts as deranged, crazy Christians holding a cross as it did last month ... boycott their magazine and the products it advertises. So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobediences of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God’s grace, built this country.

I F D R . K ING would agree.

WERE HERE ,

THINK HE

P. 28

T H E

V O I C E

any people are pursuing prophetic ministry and it seems there is no lack of confusion surrounding its

proper function. Whether you are called to prophetic ministry or just serving Christ with all your heart, you will be faced with many odd, even strange things that will require much spiritual discernment during your walk with God. Spiritual discernment will come from the Holy Spirit and find confirmation in many Scriptures throughout the written Word of God. LET

ME SAY THIS:

THE HOLY SPIRIT

IS NOT

strange, weird or mystical. He is the third part of the Trinity. He is a gentleman, a statesman and a loving Spirit Who lifts up Christ, the only begotten Son of God. He is not a female presence. He is not an “it,” a “thing,” a “mist,” a “feeling” or some orphic force.

HISTORY HAS INTRODUCED MANY DIVAGATING

leaders with strange manifestations. Your advantage is 4,000 years of written biblical history, from Adam to Christ, to serve as your guide to accuracy. One cornerstone for staying biblical is using that written history as your foundation for measuring truth. When strange things happen, look to the Word for biblical examples. If you can’t find any, then something is terribly wrong.

EXPERIENCES,

EVEN VIVID, POWERFUL, AND

supernatural ones, are not measurements for truth. In my generation I’ve seen meetings where gold dust, feathers, gems, and people barking and roaring like lions were showcased. A search through the Scriptures gives no evidence that the Holy Spirit used any of these manifestations to confirm Christ’s resurrection. These are only a few examples of strange fire.

S OMEONE

MAY TELL YOU THE THINGS OF

the Spirit can’t be understood by the natural man. That’s not true at all because the Holy Spirit can be understood. He never violates the written Word. The things of the Spirit are understood by the logos, the Bible (Hebrews 4:12). Again, the Holy Spirit is not strange, weird or mystical.

STRANG

GE FIRE BY JONAS CLARK

P. 29

PROPHETS OF DECEPTION

In my generation, Jezebel and Baalim prophets are the prevailing enemies of true prophetic ministry. In the last 20 years these spirits have grown sophisticated. They’ve built their own network of churches, followers and training schools. They’ve written books and produced many training videos. These spirits intend to hijack the prophetic ministry and hold themselves out to be the “experts” in the field. They condemn criticism as irrelevant, unloving, ignorant and judgmental. Hopefully by the time you read this material you will see their folly and will escape their deceptions. More than likely things will grow worse. If so, you will find them as your strongest opponents.

THE PROPHETIC GROUPS OF JEZEBEL AND BAALIM

– and others you will encounter – have all types of strange signs and wonders in their meetings. Just remember not all wonders, no matter how mystical and exciting, are from the Holy Ghost (1 John 4:1). Even legitimate miracles in meetings do not confirm these ministers are flowing right. Scripture says, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22-23).

ONE PARTICULAR TRAIT AMONG SOME MINISTERS

is the love of money that finance extravagant lifestyles. Some who embrace these spirits are merchandisers. A merchandiser sells prophecies, healings, religious oils, potions and various products that reinforce their message. Typically they work within their own networks, focusing on getting as much money from people as possible. They have all kinds of gimmick offerings that manipulate people. They are always recruiting followers to join their groups. I have seen some work every kind of evil when it comes to stealing from God’s people.

ONE

YOUNG MAN, WE’LL CALL HIM

SCOTT,

hooked up with one of these merchandising networks. He came to meet with me recently, looking to repent. Scott offered up his ordination papers from the various ministers within the network and renounced his involvement. He went on to reveal the purpose of their many conferences: to raise money, not to advance the ministry of Christ. After these services the organizers divide the offerings among themselves. Scott shocked me when he shared the mindset of these merchandisers. They believe that the amount of money one raises confirms the level of one’s prophetic anointing.

P. 30

FOR

SEVERAL HOURS ,

SCOTT

the offer of forgiveness of sin to the repentant (John 3:16).

SPOKE

of many individuals, some well-known and others obscure. He disclosed numerous evil strategies for meetings across our nation. I learned that they even merchandise one another! They look for young naïve upstarts to turn into devils like themselves. There is every sort of evil working behind the scenes among these people. These are “professional prophets.” They watch videos and listen to audio with the intent purpose of learning the sayings and particular mannerisms of true ministers of the Gospel so they can imitate them (Jeremiah 23:30). Avoid them and don’t do any meetings with them – and don’t attend them. Beware their accolades, flatteries and smiles toward you. At first they will flatter you. If that works, then they will merchandise you. If that doesn’t work, they will blackball you. Just remember, if you can be flattered, you can be bought. Christ’s servants are not prostitutes.

SPIRIT OF REJECTION MAY ATTACK

SEARCHING HIDDEN SECRETS

TRUE PROPHETS ARE ALSO CALLED TO TURN THE HEART OF PEOPLE TOWARD GOD, WALK IN HOLINESS, CONFRONT SIN AND BUILD THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. AVOID FAME, ACCOLADES FROM MEN AND VAIN GLORY, AND MIND YOUR MOTIVES IN ALL THINGS (PROVERBS 4:23).

you if these leaders shun you. If you feel that way just think of it like this, rejection is protection. You don’t need anybody’s approval save Christ’s. God’s servants can’t be bought at any price! Don’t try to learn anything from them. You are not a psychic, mystic, spiritist or soothsayer. You are a minister of Christ. You have a responsibility to use your gift as a faithful steward to serve the Body of Christ. The purpose of the anointing is to establish and advance the Kingdom of God, give witness to the love of God and confirm to the world the resurrection of Christ our Savior. True prophets are also called to turn the heart of people toward God, walk in holiness, confront sin and build the Church of Christ. Avoid fame, accolades from men and vain glory, and mind your motives in all things (Proverbs 4:23).

THE

FLOW OF

NEW TESTAMENT

PROPHETS IS

primarily used for edification, exhortation and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:3). This gift also helps turn logos, the written Word, to rhema, a lifegiving Word, as the Holy Spirit wills. Again, New Testament prophets are not physics. A psychic uses demon powers to prophesy. As already said, prophets are not mystics. A mystic is one that uses spirit counterfeits to appear like they have some sort of special access or favor with God.

F ALSE

PROPHETS CAN RELEASE FEAR AND

curses. I have heard some tell people they are endangering themselves if they don’t obey their prophetic words. That type of stuff is nothing but witchcraft. Bind it up and carry on for Jesus. No prophet is anointed by the Holy Spirit to curse people. Paul said “bless and curse not” (Romans 12:14). Cursing is a sure sign of a false prophet. Baalim, a true prophet gone bad, did the same and lost his life for it. God doesn’t send storms, hurricanes and earthquakes to judge people, cities and nations for their sins. Jesus said these things would increase before His return. Yes, one day their will be a judgment of the living and the dead but fear does not lead people to Christ. God’s loving kindness, the good news does, and

Prophets of Christ depend only on the Holy Spirit and the written Word of God. They don’t need objects from people’s clothing, locks of hair or photos to assist their prophetic utterances. Nor will they need to astral project into the spirit world. True prophets will not blend the New Age teachings of the god-self into their teachings or try to unlock hidden meanings or secrets within Scripture. They will not sell prophecies, potions or elixirs. They are not occultists, soothsayers, mediums or shamans. Occultists search for hidden secrets and “knowledge of the hidden.” They use various methods to find obscured ‘truths’ like numerology and the reading of Hebrew symbols and letters. Numerology is the study of relationships between numbers and objects needed by spiritualists for divination. Kabala practitioners, for example, look for knowledge of the hidden in numbers and symbols. This is not biblical!

I HAVE SEEN PEOPLE USE THE HEBREW

calendar and its annual symbols to prophesy events of the coming year. This is not the working of the Holy Spirit but the sign of ancient Babylonian soothsayers. Jannes and Jambres are biblical examples. Scripture says the secret things belong to our Lord and what He has chosen to reveal are found in His Word, only occultists search for the forbidden. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

SOME THINGS WILL NOT BE EASILY DISCERNED. In some cases you will have to wait for the appearance of fruit (Matthew 7:17). As you wait for the fruit to appear remember that the Holy Ghost doesn’t produce unstable, bizarre or flaky people. They will be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. They will be full of love, power and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).

BEWARE UNHOLY MIXTURES. DON’T KNOWINGLY

preach with amoral teachers, preachers, musicians or singers – and don’t sit in their meetings,

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either. You will find that some in error are very talented but talent does not usher in the presence of the Holy Ghost. Talent is seen in skillful performances and useful for entertaining. Entertainment, however, will not change hearts. New Testament prophets are called to turn hearts to Christ, not put on a show for people.

forget that all the glory belongs to God. Scripture reminds us, “He will not give his glory to another” (Isaiah 42:8). Finally, beware of sexual sins. When you get married, stay faithful to the spouse of your youth. Sexual sin has destroyed the ministries of thousands of people before you arrived on this earth. It can take you out, too.

AVOID THE GOLD, THE GLORY AND THE GIRLS.

POLISHED SHOWMANSHIP

This is an old proverb that will help you make it. Yes, God will prosper you because obedience to His Word always brings a measure of prosperity. Scripture says, however, that “The love of money is the root of all evil.” As you minister don’t

As already said, avoid strange fire. Strange fire is the introduction of something foreign into the ministry, message, church, prophecy, prayer, offering or ‘anointing.’ The sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, offered strange fire and lost their

How God Disciplines His Children

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? (Hebrews 12:6-7)

HERE’S A TERRIBLE MISUNDERSTANDING AMONG

believers today about God’s method of disciplining His children. They’ll point to some kind of disaster-- a tornado or a car accident-- and say, “I guess God sent that catastrophe to teach us something.”

HOW DOES HE CHASTISE HIS OWN? WITH HIS WORD. SECOND TIMOTHY 3:16-17 SAYS, “EVERY SCRIPTURE is God-breathed--given by His inspiration-and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, and for training in righteousness, So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work” (The Amplified Bible).

YOU’LL LOOK IN

2 CORINTHIANS 7,

YOU’LL SEE AN

example of this. There the Apostle Paul talks about a situation in the Corinthian church that needed correction. That church had gotten out of line and had to be disciplined.

HOW DID PAUL DO IT? NOT BY ASKING GOD TO SEND AN earthquake to shake them up! He did it by writing them a letter. He wrote them a word of reproof that hurt so badly they would have preferred being beaten with a stick. It cut deep into their spirits and brought them to repentance.

THE

YOUR

HEAVENLY

FATHER

LOVES YOU AND BECAUSE

does, He will chasten you. But He’ll do it with spiritual, not fleshly tools. He’ll use the spirit power in His Word to chasten unbelief and purify your spirit in such a way that you’ll come out strong, not weak and condemned.

QUIT BOWING DOWN TO DISASTERS AND START

subjecting yourself instead to the Word of God. Yield to the Word. Let it correct you and trim away the flesh and the lusts that lead you astray. Remember, the Sword of the Spirit is two-edged--one side is for Satan and the other side is for you. Let God use it to keep you in line! – By Kenneth Copeland

This article was used with permission of Kenneth Copeland ministries. Kenneth Copeland is a graduate of Oral Roberts University and he is the president and founder of Kenneth Copeland ministries. He is the husband of Gloria Copeland. He can be reached at www.kcm.org.

PROPHET ’ S GIFT IS NOT TO PUT ON A

show. Prophets are not entertainers. Deceitful prophets are showmen and know how to work a crowd. Polished showmanship, no matter how mystical, seemingly spiritual or entertaining is not the anointing. You may live in a time where the difference is not clear and God may use you to bring clarity. Some revivals attract strange fire. You can read the history of the Welch revival in Whales and the Azusa Street revival in North America for examples of strange fire that got into the meetings.

WHEN

YOU’RE NOT SURE OF THINGS BEWARE

the ministry of novices and seek counsel from the trusted old-timers, those gray haired saints that have been walking with Christ for a long time. The safest are those that have been in the ministry a minimum of 25 years and have lasting fruit. Don’t look to beginners even if they appear to be highly anointed (1 Timothy 3:6). I have seen these young ‘superstars’ come and go. The race for God’s ministers is a long one. It’s a marathon race that’s completed at heaven’s finish line.

THE

NO, HE DIDN’T! A LOVING GOD DOESN’T SEND DEATH and destruction on His children to instruct them. He doesn’t unleash His bad dog to bite us on the leg, so we’ll learn to wear our boots!

lives (Leviticus 10:1-10). The ministry is a holy ministry with holy servants serving a holy God.

VERY THINGS THAT ARE THE STRANGEST,

the Jezebel and Baalim prophets, will present themselves as the experts. You should also know that moves of the Holy Spirit are not confirmed by the number of people attending the meetings or by the endorsement of celebrity Christian personalities. Only by the Word, witness and fruit can you know for sure. Even some fruit is misleading. As already said look for lasting fruit, changed lives, salvations and glory for Christ alone.

SOME OF WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN WILL PROBABLY

grieve you. That’s good. If it doesn’t something might be wrong. If you are going to walk closely with God, you will be required to die much inside along this journey. Many things you see will sadden you. Lamentations, morning and woe will be your traveling companions. These will prompt you to intercede for Christ’ will to be done in the lives of your brothers and sisters in the Lord. The good news is that you can make it and bring honor to Christ along the way. The Apostle Paul said it best, “Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3). Avoid strange fire and watch for the return of the King of Glory, the Author and Finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Follow this link:

www.JonasClark.com/tv

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Not long after his conversion, Yli-Vainio began seeing visions of lost souls being chained and sent to Hell. He was greatly disturbed at these visions and felt that this was a call to ministry. (Continued from Pg. 22) pastor of several Finnish immigrant churches. He was considered a successful pastor. Churches grew under his leadership, and he wrote tracts for Christian living and evangelization.

HE ALSO OFTEN CONTRIBUTED TO RISTIN VOITTO (THIS PUBLICATION,

translated “The Victory of the Cross,” is the Finnish equivalent of the Pentecostal Evangel). In one of his articles, he wrote about peace. He proclaimed that individuals must have peace between both God and their fellow humans. The prophecy of his grandmother was being fulfilled; the son of a decorated soldier no longer served in an earthly army, but was a soldier for the Kingdom of God.

DURING

ONE OF THE GENERAL COUNCILS OF THE

PENTECOSTAL

Church of Finland, Yli-Vainio made a striking observation. He told the gathered pastorate that he had noticed that the fires of Pentecost had begun to ebb in Finland. He said that people were no longer being filled with the Spirit with the same frequency and zeal as before. He connected this development to the lack of prayer. The Finns were no longer “traveling the way of the knees” as they had before. This observation was duly noted in the minutes and in Ristin Voitto, but life went on as usual.

THEN, IN 1963, SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAPPENED. YLI-VAINIO BEGAN having heart trouble. Although God miraculously healed him, it was not long before he was also diagnosed with cancer. After struggling with

cancer intermittently for over 10 years, his wife was also diagnosed with cancer in 1976. There was nothing that could be done. Yli-Vainio was operating at 80 percent effectiveness, and even his wife was ill. The middle-aged couple began to plan the rest of their lives. They would move to the countryside to die in peace. This time of sickness taught Yli-Vainio the humility he would later need.

THAT CHRISTMAS, YLI-VAINIO

WENT TO

AUSTRALIA

TO PREACH AT

the Australian Finnish Pentecostal Conference. During his visit, he experienced a transformation. It was as though God had opened a window into his life and he was filled with joy and healing. After that point, his sermons changed. It was as though they were filled with light. At the prayer meetings in Australia, people began to be filled with the Spirit unlike Yli-Vainio had ever seen before. When he returned to Finland, his wife was miraculously healed at home.

IN 1977, YLI-VAINIO

WAS INVITED TO THE CITY OF

LAPUA,

preach. As Yli-Vainio preached, people began to be slain in the Spirit (to fall under the power of the Spirit), others were healed, and still others spoke in tongues. In the first several meetings, there were several hundred listeners, but within weeks the meetings had to be moved to a large hall. Thousands flocked to Lapua. Busloads of people from all walks of life, Christians and non-Christians, and people from various denominations came. Meetings were held in Lapua once a week, and on other days Yli-Vainio itinerated.

Read More Related Articles Online: Stepping Stones - Revival History

P. 35T TH HE E V VO OI IC CE E

THE NIGHTLY MEETINGS ONE

hundred to 200 hundred people regularly came to accept Christ as Lord. Newspaper reporters came to observe the meetings, some to mock, others recognizing the indisputable evidence of miracles. Between the years 1977 and 1980, each weekly issue of Ristin Voitto contained at least three articles and three advertisements for meetings concerning Yli-Vainio’s revival and his schedule. A ALTAR CALL: Three-day conference in Helsinki, film was shot concerning his revival, and 1977, in which almost 400 accepted Christ. his biography was published in 1978. One advertisement stated, “This is a different Lapua Movement,” in reference to a 1932 Fascist insurrection of the same name. Yli-Vainio, who became known as “God’s Warrior,” was at the center of a movement that was even renaming past militaristic movements.

YLI-VAINIO

NO LONGER ITINERATED

in houses and villages, but in stadiums and cities. He even traveled to the Far East to spread the revival. The lame walked, the blind saw, and those with cancer received healing. Some people reported being healed merely at the sight of Yli-Vainio’s picture, while others were healed by having a kerchief blessed by Yli-Vainio laid on him or her (this relicbased healing is still practiced among Finnish Pentecostals).

P. 35

BY 1981,

THE REVIVAL APPEARED TO

DURING

HIS TIME OF MINISTRY , HE

be slowing down. Yli-Vainio wanted to take a month off to fast and pray, but his itineration was as feverish as ever. He went to Spain in February, and planned to visit Ukraine soon after. Although the Spanish visit was intended as a vacation, Yli-Vainio still held meetings. Then, one day while jogging, he collapsed. His heart had become too weak with his furious pace of meetings and trips. He died as he had lived, far away from his family. Yli-Vainio definitely made an impact on Finland. visited or pastored in Sweden, Norway, Japan, Thailand, Spain, Australia, Canada, and Israel. Today, Yli-Vainio is still the second most known Pentecostal in Finland (69 percent of Finns can recognize his name) next to Sari Essayah, a Finnish Olympic athlete (88 percent).

ALL PENTECOSTALS

MAY LEARN FROM

Yli-Vainio’s life. He emphasized that an attitude of prayer and expectation is indispensable to experiencing Pentecost. In his ministry, he insisted on drawing people’s eyes to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit, not to himself. He proclaimed that revival does not depend on what one does, whose meeting one attends, or even what label is plastered on the side NEEDLESS TO SAY, THE GREAT FAME MADE GOD’S WARRIOR: Niilo Yli-Vainio of the church; it is the work of God. The humility quite difficult for Yli-Vainio. The Holy Spirit chooses which gifts are given revival caused almost a cultic following around him. People referred to him to which people, and he decides the time and place of Spirit baptism. as “the miraculous healer Yli-Vainio” or simply “the healer Yli-Vainio.” He received mail and continuous phone calls seeking appointments SOME PEOPLE IN FINLAND ARE ASKING THE QUESTION, “DO WE NEED and asking him to heal individuals. Nevertheless, he remained humble. another Niilo Yli-Vainio to gather the embers of revival?” I would suggest no. Yli-Vainio taught that Christians should focus on Christ, not HE DESPERATELY SOUGHT TO FOCUS PEOPLE’S EYES ON CHRIST AND on a person. The lesson for Pentecostals everywhere is that revival is the the Holy Spirit, as he taught in one sermon, “Do not tell others that result of prayer, expectation, and Christ-centered teaching. someone has been healed by the power of a human here. Humans do not make anyone healthy, only God can do that.... The Holy Spirit BENJAMIN RANTA, undergraduate student at Evangel descends on the person, moves as a gust of wind through the person, University. He was raised in an immigrant Finnish Pentecostal and if God so desires, the person is healed.” He also declared, “I do not church in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan. This article, written recommend some denomination to you, some church or organization. I in partial fulfillment of an internship at the FPHC, recommend Jesus. He fills the person with the Holy Spirit and fire. The makes accessible to English-speaking audiences valuable Bible says, ‘There is no salvation in any other name.’ God loves all people information about the life and ministry of Niilo Yli-Vainio. without paying attention to race, nationality, color, or denomination.” The sermons and writing of Yli-Vainio reflect an almost desperate state. It seemed that people just did not understand; it was not about him, Originally published in Assemblies of God Heritage 26:1-2 (Spring-Summer it was about God. At his meetings, he repeated almost like a mantra, 2006). Reprinted with permission of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (www. “Jesus did it, Jesus did it.” iFPHC.org). All rights reserved. Read More Related Articles Online: Stepping Stones - Revival History

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DISCERNING SIGNS & THE SUPERNATURAL WHAT’S THE PURPOSE OF SUPERNATURAL SIGNS THAT POINT TOWARD YOUR DESTINATION?



By David Coker

OD IS BUILDING AND ESTABLISHING

His Kingdom. But He’s not pressured to build His Kingdom using media hype and hocus-pocus. No, He’s doing it His way, according to His Word. He’s setting apostolic governing churches in territories to build His Church. One function of true apostles and prophets is to expose the counterfeit operations of Satan that try to slip in and subvert the credibility of the Word. If Satan can discredit the quality of a move of God by sending the false, he is able to successfully restrict and limit the effectiveness of the true move as it happens. In this season, it is vital that we build everything we do upon the foundation of the Word of God. I’m not trying to criticize any particular move

of the past or present. My goal today is to equip you with knowledge and understanding to help identify a true move of God.

IMAGINE YOU ARE DRIVING TO YOUR FAVORITE

vacation spot. When you get about 30 miles from your destination, you see the first road sign with the city’s name. Do you slam on your brakes, slide across the median and jump out at the sign? I would hope not! Yet, in the body of Christ, it seems we have become sign hunters. At the first sign of a “miracle” or the “supernatural,” we bring everything to a screeching halt so that we can take pictures of the sign, dance around the sign, and even build churches to the sign. How foolish we have become! The sign’s purpose is

to reveal location. Spiritual signs are no different. When you see a spiritual sign, it is not advertising itself, it is merely pointing the way to where God wants you to go.

JESUS SAID IN MATTHEW 12:39, “AN EVIL AND

adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.” Jesus didn’t say they were “slightly in error.” He called them EVIL and ADULTEROUS! What He is saying is that if you are seeking after a sign, you are showing love for the sign rather than the one who gives the sign. You are actually cheating on the truth. You are adulterous, looking for benefits from something that you don’t have real relationship with.

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T H E

and what to do. Moses followed a cloud of fire and Gideon set out fleeces, but Paul simply prayed in tongues and built up his inner man (1 Cor. 14:18). He then proceeded to write two thirds of the New Testament! In Proverbs, David prophetically writes that the spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord and searches all the inward parts of the belly. As New Testament Christians with the nature and Spirit of God resident in us, we don’t have to look for outward signs. We can simply know in our “knower.” We are to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7), meaning we follow the leadings and promptings of the Spirit that dwells in us.

THE NEW TESTAMENT

NOT ONLY TELLS US

which signs are from God, it even lays out which signs are used in which situations. There are signs that follow believers (Mark 16:17), there are signs to the unbeliever (1 Cor. 14:22), and there are gifts of the Spirit that are operations of the government and power of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12, and Ephesians 4).

SIGNS

COME FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES AND

serve different purposes. Some are road signs that regulate driving, some are billboards that advertise, and some are identifiers that tell what and where things are located. All of these signs are legitimate, but they aren’t all from the same people. In the supernatural, there are all kinds of signs but they aren’t all from God. How do you know the difference between a legitimate sign from God and just a billboard?

ONE SUNDAY

HOW

MANY CHURCHES AND

“REVIVALS”

HAVE

become so “sign” minded that they have become adulterers to the Truth?

OUR MEDIA-SENSITIVE WORLD, WE HAVE

billboards everywhere and they can distract us from our real focus. If we’re looking too intently at a billboard, we could miss a signal from another driver and cause a wreck. When the sign becomes the focus, we lose sight of the true destination.

IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, PEOPLE HAD TO LIVE

by signs. They didn’t have a born-again spirit from God to give them direction through an inner witness (Eph. 3:16). They needed outward signs from God in order to know where to go

WAS PREACHING IN MY

church, just as I pointed at one of the ceiling fans someone happened to turn the fan on. Now I know people who would take it as a sign that the “wind of the Spirit is moving.” No, it was just a coincidence. I call these “Santa Claus signs” because it’s like a young kid that convinces himself Santa is real because the milk and the cookies are gone the next morning when he wakes up. When you want something badly enough, circumstances can always line up to support your hopes that it is true. If you’re looking for a sign, the devil will make sure you see one. I absolutely believe in prophetic and supernatural signs, but I also know how to measure them against my born-again spirit.

I’VE

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KNOWN FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS

– good people, many of whom sincerely loved Jesus – who visited psychics. Those psychics were able to tell them why they were there, what they were looking for and what the outcome of a situation would be, and it all came true. Does

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Many signs point you to dead ends. It’s important to remember that there is a real spiritual world out there, and God isn’t the only one putting signs up on your spiritual road. that mean you should visit a psychic? By all means NO! Psychics operate with the help of demonic, familiar spirits, not the Holy Spirit. Demonic power can be real, not just a powerless imitation.

NOWHERE

IN SCRIPTURE DO WE FIND SIGNS

of jewels appearing, gold dust falling, people being led to act like animals, stigmatas (blood or oil from peoples hands like the wounds of Christ), odd “friendships” with angels, or special angels that carry special anointings. These are “billboard” signs that have been put up by other supernatural powers but don’t fit into God’s reality. The important thing to understand is that these false signs are just as real as the other signs. Have you ever followed billboard signs, looking for a certain restaurant or café, only to get there and find that the location doesn’t exist? Just because a sign is real, doesn’t mean it’s from God or that it’s pointing you to God. Many signs point you to dead ends. It’s important to remember that there is a real spiritual world out there, and God isn’t the only one putting signs up on your spiritual road.

DON’T

GET ME WRONG;

I’VE

SEEN

GOD

some very interesting things. I’ve seen people healed, delivered, and set free. I’ve seen miracles that simply cannot be explained. However, there is one common element to everything God does… His Word. God’s response is always in line with His Word. And His Word will bring real transformation in the lives of His people.

IF THERE’S ONE THING

I know, it’s that people can be completely ignorant and still operate in the Spirit. I once worked for a great man of God. He loved Jesus and wanted

P. 38

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No. 3

to live right before Him. One time he was in the hospital with pneumonia and had a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ walking up a hill with His back beaten and bloody. He recounted this vision to me with such detail, recalling even the sharp contrast in the red blood against the green grass. I have no doubt that it was a true vision from God. The problem was that he was ignorant in how to interpret the vision. He thought that it meant that since Jesus was willing to suffer that much for him, then he should be willing to suffer pneumonia for Jesus. How sad! He was given a vision showing that Jesus had already carried his sickness and healed all his diseases to strengthen his faith, but because he lacked understanding, this man got it all wrong!

We must understand how to discern signs and compare them to our instruction manual. We must keep our focus on where God is taking us and not get caught up in the supernatural things around us on the way.

ANY TEXT THAT WE TAKE OUT OF CONTEXT IS

I’VE

touch with God’s plan for their lives. Consider William Branham, the great healing evangelist of the 1940’s. He started off pursuing God, but then started experiencing visitations from angels. He became so deceived that he started to think he was Elijah the prophet. Because of his deception, many other believers began to doubt that God really wanted them healed. Now that is exactly what the enemy intends; to discredit God’s reality, destroy ministries, and turn people away from the Faith.

DAVID COKER has a refreshing voice and the heart of spiritual father. He is a 1985 RHEMA graduate and the founding apostle of Gateway Believers Fellowship in Carnesville, Ga. He is also pioneered Breakthrough Apostolic Ministries Network (B.A.M.), A relational network of apostolic ministries. His ministry can be reached at www.gatewaybelievers.com.

KNOWN OTHER FOLKS WHO GENUINELY

loved God, but got distracted by the bright billboard strategies of Satan. These good people wanted to experience a mighty move of God so badly that they got caught up in the flakiness of whatever the current “revival” was doing. I have watched many get excited about “something new” and then disappointed (and sometimes deeply wounded) over the outcome. Unfortunately, I’ve also seen plenty of these people who became so deceived by the trickery that they completely lost

a pretext. The same goes for any sign. Any sign taken out of the context that it was received (good or bad) is a pretext and can get us into trouble. That’s the problem with living by signs. They can be interpreted incorrectly. They can come from the wrong people. We can build a temple and worship at the sign, never making it to our God-purposed destination. We MUST learn to walk by faith after the Spirit. We must understand how to discern signs and compare them to our instruction manual. We must keep our focus on where God is taking us and not get caught up in the supernatural things around us on the way.

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THE VOICE

en Español Característica Los Profetas Diminutos Dios está derramando su Espíritu profético en toda carne y pequeñas niñas y pequeños niños están profetizando..

Departamento: Sabiduría En El Consejo De Muchos Oiga el resto de la historia de ministros de los 5 dones los cuales tienen sus Iglesias en transición al patrón del Nuevo Testamento.

8 NIVELES DE INFLUENCIA EN EL LIDERAZGO

P. 42

D E P A R T A M E N T O

CRUZANDO AL OTRO LADO

SABIDURÍA EN EL CONSEJO DE MUCHOS Oiga el resto de la historia de ministros de los 5 dones los cuales tienen sus Iglesias en transición al patrón del Nuevo Testamento. Por Elizabeth Sanchez

I USTED HA ESTADO LEYENDO LA REVISTA

LA VOZ DESDE SUS

humildes comienzos, entonces probablemente recordara al Apóstol David Coker y la visión que cambio su vida. La visión espiritual que lo llevo a la verdad y a la restauración de apóstoles en la Iglesia moderna, y que inspiro al personal editorial a lanzar un departamento llamado “Cruzando al otro lado”. Empezamos a buscar a otros que estuvieran dispuestos a compartir sus historias de transición apostólica y ofrecer sabiduría practica para otros que estaban en el mismo camino hacia el ministerio modelo del Nuevo Testamento.

DESDE

ESE MOMENTO HEMOS CONTADO LAS HISTORIAS DE MUCHOS

hombres poderosos y mujeres de Dios que han cruzado a lo apostólico, pero no tuvimos suficiente espacio para contarte todo lo que ellos nos relataron acerca de las lecciones que han aprendido. Así que en este número especial de aniversario nos hemos propuesto revisitar algunas personas que hemos reportado en estos 3 años pasados y contarte el resto de su historia. Mientras lees sus crónicas, quizás te recuerden de un ministerio que está pasando por este proceso ahora, o pondrá inquietudes en tu corazón, preguntas que quisieras dirigir a este departamento. Llámanos y déjanos saberlo.

PARA AQUELLOS QUE NO HAN OÍDO ACERCA DE LA VISIÓN DE

Coker, revisemos rápidamente la revelación. En la visión, Coker estaba detrás del podio en una Iglesia local denominacional del evangelio completo. Cuando empezó a ministrar, el se dio cuenta de que estaba con su sombrero puesto, así que rápidamente lo removió, cuando se dispuso a seguir leyendo el texto, sintió que algo no estaba bien, se sorprendió al mirar la brisera de una gorra en su cabeza y si había una gorra en su cabeza. Parecía tan familiar y se sentía tan confortable que no era posible reconocer su presencia hasta que la vio. www.thevoicemagazine.com

“AVERGONZADO, LA REMOVÍ RÁPIDAMENTE. PERO ANTES DE PODER

continuar el mensaje, me di cuenta de que otra gorra estaba sobre el mismo lugar donde las otras habían estado. De donde venían estas gorras? Porque no me había dado cuenta de que estaban allí? Resolví el misterio cuando me volví y vi a un hombre familiar parado detrás de mí. El estaba colocando los sombreros sobre mi cabeza cada vez que removía uno,” Coker cuenta.

CUANDO SE DESPERTÓ

A LA MAÑANA SIGUIENTE, SE DIO CUENTA DE

que esto era una visión profética. Mientras meditaba en el significado su insatisfacción era tan grande que él le dijo a su esposa, Geraldine, “Necesito que Jesús venga y hable conmigo. Tengo tantas preguntas y necesito respuestas. Si tan solo el viniera a sentarse conmigo y me ayudara a entender.” Parece que el Señor lo escucho y respondió con una revelación. Mientras el oraba en lenguas y leía el libro de Hechos, el Espíritu Santo le hablo expresamente. Le dijo” Hijo, tú has aceptado la Iglesia de la manera que se te ha entregado”.

P. 43

T TH HE E V VOOI IC CE E

ESTAS PALABRAS FUERON LA LLAVE QUE ABRIÓ

el significado de la visión de la noche anterior. El realizo que el hombre familiar del sueño era alguien que él conocía en lo natural. Era un buen hombre. Pero en el sueño representaba el sistema de la iglesia de las generaciones pasadas. Las gorras que el ponía en la cabeza de Coker eran capas de pensamientos religiosos que él había abrazado a través de los años.

MIENTRAS

EL CONTINUABA ESTUDIANDO LA

Palabra, vino a la revelación de que el patrón de la Iglesia del Nuevo Testamento era muy diferente a lo que él estaba viendo en la mayoría del Cuerpo de Cristo- y ese patrón estaba en el Nuevo Testamento. Fue entonces que él empezó a cruzar a lo apostólico. “El Espíritu del Señor nos está pidiendo que construyamos su Iglesia”. Coker dice, “El nos está llamando a romper y quebrantar mentalidades religiosas y las costumbres y tradiciones de hombres hasta que la fundación sea segura. Jesús declaro, “Yo construiré Mi Iglesia”. El nos está llamando a someter nuestras vidas, tomar la cruz y terminar el trabajo que El empezó. Ellos no deben temer a la persecución que viene a los que están dispuestos a seguir adelante.

QUE

QU IERE DEC I R E S T O , H A B L A N D O

prácticamente? Como romper con esas mentalidades y costumbres? Como vencer el miedo y la persecución que viene contra lo apostólico y seguir adelante construyendo Su Iglesia? Escuchen a nuestro ofrecimiento de consejos prácticos acerca de Cruzar al Otro Lado de los pasados tres años, que te ayudaran en la transición de tu iglesia hacia el patrón del Nuevo Testamento.

“NECESITAMOS ENFOCARNOS EN DIOS Y NO

en la gente. Si te enfocas en la gente no llenaras tu propósito porque estarás preocupado en el que dirán y como reaccionaran. El miedo a los hombres ha detenido a mucha gente de alcanzar su destino, “dice el apóstol Jerry Adkins, quien era miembro de la denominación Bautista, antes de abrazar la revolución apostólica. Adkins es el hombre asignado en el Equipper’s Outreach Fellowship en Weinmer, Texas.

PASTOR NORMAN PIERCE, HOMBRE DESIGNADO

a la Primera Iglesia Bautista llena del Espíritu Santo en una pequeña ciudad de Pensilvania llamada Cantón, recuenta que algunos de sus familiares se disgustaron con él cuando empezó

“El nos esta llamando a romper y quebrantar mentalidades religiosas y las costumbres y tradiciones de los hombres hasta que la fundación sea segura. Jesús declaro, ‘Yo ediﬁcaré Mi iglesia…’ El nos esta llamando a rendir nuestras vidas, tomar nuestra cruz y completar el trabajo que El empezó.” – Apóstol David Coker a predicar mensajes apostólicos osadamente. Su reacción fue la siguiente, “Si tú no estás enojando a la gente, no estás haciendo muchoy si no estás enfureciendo al enemigo no estás haciendo nada.”

ESTE HOMBRE OSADO CAMINA HUMILDEMENTE

delante de Dios y ve esta combinación como critica para el proceso transitorio. El admite que fue apagado por los títulos de apóstoles y profetas porque el realmente no los entendía, pero estuvo dispuesto a humillarse lo suficiente, para explorar lo que él sentía que Dios estaba haciendo. “tienes que ser humilde. No puedes andar desfilando con un titulo para ser visto. Tienes que creer en lo que estás haciendo en lo apostólico” el aconseja.

A PÓ STO L

T RE VO R B A NKS ,

PA STOR

principal del Centro de Alabanza Vida Familiar Resurrección en Ft. Pierce, Fla. Recuerda a los www.thevoicemagazine.com

que están cruzando que si Dios te ha llamado entonces Dios te respaldara. Es un llamado a tener confianza en Dios. “talvez tu tendrás que luchar, pero si te conectas con otros apóstoles que puedan sostener tus brazos en alto, entonces podrás triunfar,” dice Banks.” Haz lo que sabes que has sido llamado a hacer”

ASÍ DE FÁCIL REALMENTE ?

¿O SADÍA ,

humildad, reverencia a Dios y seguridad en tu llamado realmente ayudan a sobrepasar los obstáculos de la transición a lo apostólico? Es una gran parte de ello. Le daremos al Apóstol Coker la última palabra: “Hoy, en esta generación alguien tiene que ser como Nehemías y tener un corazón para la Iglesia. Alguien tiene que ocuparse acerca del plan que Dios ha establecido. Estos hombres y mujeres de Dios no deberán temer a que sus fundaciones sean sacudidas. Somos los que Dios desea usar para esta poderosa restauración de su Iglesia.

T H E

P. 44

V O I C E

E N

E S P A Ñ O L

8 NIVELES DE

INFLUENCIA EN EL

LIDERAZGO POR JONAS CLARK

UNQUE EL

E SPÍRITU S ANTO

HABLA

expresamente. Algunas veces nos toma un minuto entender lo que El nos está diciendo. Es lo que me pasó a mí cuando el Espíritu Santo empezó a hablarme acerca de crear una cultura de liderazgo en nuestro ministerio. En ese tiempo, todo lo que yo sabía era que no teníamos suficientes líderes. Los pocos que teníamos estaban sobre trabajados y al borde de quemarse.

C OME

PUEDE VER , HASTA ESE MOMENTO

cultura de liderazgo significaba que yo tenía que ser un mejor líder y colocar importancia al entrenamiento de liderazgo a través de nuestro ministerio. Después de formular un ambiente de entrenamiento de liderazgo empezamos a aprender el lenguaje de liderazgo, a descubrir el valor del auto-desarrollo y a través del tiempo, las dinámicas de liderazgo comenzaron a salir y empezamos a pensar y actuar como líderes.

CREAR UNA CULTURA DE LIDERAZGO NO OCURRE

nosotros no estábamos enfocados a entrenar líderes. Estábamos enfocados en bendecir a los creyentes. La transición hacia el ministerio apostólico empezó a retar nuestra perspectiva y llevarnos a ver seriamente nuestra habilidad para equipar a gente y levantar líderes. Pero entre mas que examinábamos nuestra capacidad para entrenar lideres más estrepitoso era el testimonio. Estábamos fallando miserablemente.

de la noche a la mañana. Le resultara interesante el saber que yo le pregunte al Señor cuanto tiempo tomara el crear una cultura de liderazgo en nuestro ministerio y El dijo “Diez años.” Guau! En nuestro caso, tenemos una estrategia a largo plazo para implementar la cultura de liderazgo. Hasta ahora solo han pasado cuatro años. Tenemos un largo camino pero por lo menos nos estamos moviendo en la dirección correcta - y hemos progresado notablemente.

É RAMOS

HAS

BUENOS PARA BENDECIR GENTE

pero estábamos haciendo un pobre trabajo en entrenarlos a hacer algo. Estábamos atascados teniendo una “buena Iglesia”. Como resultado, nuestro medio ambiente estaba lleno de seguidores y sirvientes, pero muy pocos líderes. Si estudias liderazgo, descubrirás la diferencia: seguidores te siguen y servidores te ayudan- pero son los líderes los que llevan a cabo las cosas.

P OCO

DESPUÉS DEL ENCUENTRO CON EL

Espíritu Santo empecé a leer tantos libros acerca de liderazgo a como pude encontrar. Crear una www.thevoicemagazine.com

OÍDO PROBABLEMENTE DECIR QUE

liderazgo es influencia. ¿Pero cuanta influencia, como líder, realmente tienes? Durante un taller efectuado recientemente en nuestro ministerio titulado “Desarrollando Los Líderes Que te Rodean” basado en el libro de John Maxwell con el mismo nombre, les pregunte a los que estaban en entrenamiento, “¿Porque siguen a su líder?” Sus respuestas fueron extremadamente interesantes y reveladoras. Aprendimos que aquellos que atienden a tu iglesia o lugar de trabajo te responden diferente en diferentes niveles. Podríamos decir que tienes varios

P. 45

límites para tu influencia de liderazgo. Teniendo esto en cuenta, revisemos los ocho niveles de influencia que descubrimos en nuestra sesión de entrenamiento de liderazgo.

NIVEL 1: TITULO O POSICION El nivel uno

es el más bajo en la influencia de liderazgo. Cuando la gente viene a tu iglesia o lugar de trabajo, al principio, te seguirán a cierta distancia porque tú eres el líder(o el jefe); Pero el nivel de influencia es limitado. Déjame darte un ejemplo. Un Domingo por la mañana, durante el servicio de alabanza todos cantaron la mismas canciones, oraron juntos y escucharon el mismo sermón con un amen de corazón. Después cuando les pedí que ayudaran a recaudar fondos para un proyecto de alimentar a niños huérfanos en Nicaragua, algunos dieron y otros salieron del edificio sin siquiera considerar el pedido de ayuda. ¿Cual fue la diferencia? La gente responde a sus líderes basados en varios niveles de influencia. Es ingenuo el pensar que todos responderán a ti solo porque tienes un titulo o posición.

NIVEL 2: REPUTACION DE GANADOR

El segundo nivel de influencia de liderazgo es basado en una reputación de obtener resultados. En este nivel la gente te seguirá porque les beneficias personalmente. Todo el mundo ama al ganador, y como tienes un buen historial de éxito como líder, este grupo te seguirá mientras puedan sacar algo de beneficio.

¿R ECUERDAS

YO CREO QUE LOS LÍDERES DEBEN ORAR POR SUS SEGUIDORES Y LOS SEGUIDORES ORAR POR SUS LÍDERES MIENTRAS VIAJAN EN EL CAMINO DE INFLUENCIA. FINALMENTE, LOS NIVELES MÁS ALTOS DE LIDERAZGO SE REDUCEN A LAS RELACIONES.

LOS VIEJOS COMERCIALES DE

televisión de E.F. Hutton? E.F. Hutton era una firma de corredores con una reputación de ganadores. Un día uno de sus corredores cenaba con un cliente en un restaurante. Durante el curso de la cena el corredor estaba a punto de comentarle a su cliente acerca de lo que E.F. Hutton pensaba de un tema en particular. Cuando empezó a hablar de repente sobrevino un silencio en el restaurante y la gente se dispuso a escuchar lo que E.F. Hutton tenía que decir. Nivel 2 de influencia es directamente relacionada con la reputación exitosa. La gente te seguirá si eres un ganador.

NIVEL 3: DESCUBRIENDO EL CORAZÓN DEL LIDER.

En el tercer nivel de influencia de liderazgo, las personas descubren algo acerca de ti que los motiva a seguirte. En la clase de liderazgo este descubrimiento parece ser el punto crucial para el compromiso según la mayoría de los encuestados. Aquí fue donde la verdadera influencia empezó. www.thevoicemagazine.com

P. 46

T H E

Cuando vieron mi Corazón me dieron permiso para guiarlos en una diferente capacidad. La gente quiere seguir a un líder que realmente cree en lo que él o ella están haciendo. Cuando la gente descubre tu corazón ellos te seguirán a otro nivel. La manera que la gente descubre el corazón de un líder es a través de su pasión y compasión. Pasión y compasión son rasgos básicos que todos los grandes líderes poseen. Es la razón por la cual hacen lo que están haciendo.

PARA DESCUBRIR LA MOTIVACIÓN MAS INTIMA DE

un líder todo lo que tienes que hacer es tocar su pasión. Un día Jesús entró en el atrio del templo cuando iba a orar. El se volvió por los cambia dinero y mercaderes que llenaban el atrio. El reaccionó a su presencia preparando un látigo, el cual utilizo para apalear a los mercaderes mientras volteaba las mesas y los sacaba del templo. El dijo, “La casa de mi Padre será llamada una casa de oración pero ustedes la han hecho una cueva de ladrones”. Cuando su pasión fue tocada El respondió. Los que lo siguieron después de ese día lo hicieron a un diferente nivel porque vieron su corazón por la casa de Dios. Hubo otras veces en las cuales Jesús revelo su corazón a sus discípulos, como la vez que fue movido con compasión por las multitudes que parecían ovejas sin pastor. El tercer nivel de influencia de liderazgo es directamente relacionado y activado cuando la gente ve el corazón del líder.

NIVEL 4: CREE EN MÍ

La gente siempre se mueve hacia la expectativa que el líder tiene de ellos. El cuarto nivel de liderazgo es el nivel de poderío.

V O I C E

E N

E S P A Ñ O L

Aquí es donde el seguidor realmente siente que su líder cree en ellos. Este es también el nivel donde se construye una confianza laboral entre el líder y el seguidor. En este nivel el líder ve algo en el seguidor que el seguidor nunca había visto en sí mismo. Fe en aquellos que trabajan en tu equipo desata identidad y el descubrimiento del propósito. Cuando una persona empieza a descubrir su propia identidad, ellos están listos para moverse al siguiente nivel porque ellos aprenden más cuando están listos para ser instruidos.

OLVIDEMOS QUE VALE LA PENA INVERTIR

en la gente. Tú inviertes en ellos guiándolos con visión, pasando tiempo con ellos, agregándoles valor sembrando recursos en sus vidas y dándoles poder con oportunidades para mejorar. Busca el don particular que está en ellos y sácalo de allí.

NIVEL 5: SE INTERESA POR MI

El quinto nivel de influencia de liderazgo es cuando la gente sabe que su líder realmente se interesa por ellos. En este nivel una confianza sólida es ganada hacia el líder. Algunas veces me parece que la gente se olvida que el ministerio es acerca de gente. Es muy fácil enredarse en actividades del ministerio y “cosas” y olvidarse de que lo único que realmente tenemos son las personas y ellos son los bienes activos más valiosos del ministerio.

DIOS

A PUESTO DENTRO DE CADA PERSONA

un don particular que solo necesita un poco de ánimo. Cualquiera puede ver gente como ellos son, pero los grandes líderes ven lo que la gente puede llegar a ser. La gente siempre responde al líder que realmente tiene un interés de corazón. Si la revolución apostólica nos ha enseñado algo es el ver a las personas como hijos e hijas espirituales en los cuales vale la pena invertir.

NIVEL 6: UNA VIDA CAMBIADA El sexto

nivel de influencia de liderazgo es alcanzado cuando la vida de una persona ha sido realmente cambiada. Liderazgo envuelve ayudar a otros a avanzar hacia una meta común. Aceptémoslo, tu éxito como líder depende de tu habilidad para ayudar - verdaderamente ayudar - a aquellos que están alrededor tuyo a llegar a ser todo lo que Dios quiere que sean. Nunca serás más exitoso que aquellos más cercanos a ti. Así como los que están alrededor tuyo alcanzan sus metas, así lo harás tú también. Es cuando la vida de una persona mejora debido a su líder, que el sexto nivel de influencia es alcanzado. ¿Pregúntate esto, “ha mejorado tu vida por tu asociación con tu líder”?

NIVEL 7: DESTINOS CONECTADOS

El séptimo nivel de influencia de liderazgo es cuando el seguidor reconoce que su destino esta de alguna manera divina conectado con su líder. Nunca hubiera habido un Eliseo sin un Elías, un Pablo sin un Bernabé, o un Josué sin un Moisés. ¿Como hubiera sido la vida de Timoteo sin el Apóstol Pablo? Influencia de liderazgo crece cuando la gente ve que una cierta medida de su destino reside dentro de alguien más. El patrón para los destinos conectados lo encontramos a través de la Biblia. Eliseo quería doble porción de la unción de Elías. Elías le dijo si me ves ir arriba entonces puedes tenerla. Su destino estaba dentro de la vida de Elías.

NIVEL 8: VISION COMPARTIDA

El octavo nivel de influencia de liderazgo es el más alto de todos. Es el nivel donde la visión del líder se convierte en la visión del seguidor. Ya la persona no sigue a una persona, pero ha tomado completa propiedad de la visión. Esta persona no es más un seguidor sino un colaborador. El líder y el seguidor ahora tienen un solo corazón y están trabajando por la misma causa. El nivel ocho era requerido por los discípulos antiguos, el entregar sus vidas por Cristo.

¿EN QUÉ NIVEL ESTAS TU CON TU LÍDER? YO

creo que los líderes deben orar por sus seguidores y los seguidores orar por sus líderes mientras viajan en el camino de influencia. Finalmente, los niveles más altos de liderazgo se reducen a las relaciones. Sin relaciones, el liderazgo les parece a algunos como reglas y regulaciones. Con relaciones, se convierte en algo lo suficientemente personal para que un grupo de líderes y seguidores hagan un mayor impacto…juntos. www.thevoicemagazine.com

T H E

No. 3

V O I C E

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P. 47

CUANDO

LOS NIÑOS SON IMPULSADOS CON LA

Palabra de Dios que les dice que el Espíritu Santo es de ellos si tan solo lo piden (Lucas 11:13, 1 Corintios 7:7) y después se les da la oportunidad de ejercitar sus dones (Hebreos 5:14), los vemos moverse con tanto celo, pasión y osadía como los colegas mayores. En muchos aspectos ellos son menos reservados y no se han encumbrado por las ideas de exaltación o estar sujetos a un espíritu de complacer a los hombres.

NO HACE MUCHO TIEMPO, TUVE LA OPORTUNIDAD

Los Profetas DIMINUTOS Dios está derramando su Espíritu profético en toda carne y pequeñas niñas y pequeños niños están profetizando.

POR BONNIE BLYSTONE

NA COMPAÑÍA TOTALMENTE NUEVA DE

profetas está saliendo en el escenario. La mayoría de ellos son entre 3-1/2 a 4 pies de estatura, pesando alrededor de 40 libras y especializándose en pintura con los dedos, rompe-cabezas y en el arte de contar cuentos. Estos son los Niños –K, los Samueles, miembros de la generación Omega, quienes están siendo lanzados en los dones del Espíritu Santo en las Iglesias a través de América y alrededor del mundo.

C ON

LA REVELACIÓN DE QUE NO HAY UN

“pequeño” Espíritu Santo, pero “un Espíritu Santo” (1 Corintios 12:11), los ministerios de niños en las iglesias están adaptando sus métodos de estudios más ortodoxos para incluir momentos para activar los dones en estos ministros

miniatura. Los estándares de las actividades en las clases se han movido mas allá de las básicas historias bíblicas y merienda.

MÉTODO DE ESTUDIO PROGRESIVO, HOY

incluye “circulo de tiempo” para oraciones de sanidad con imposición de manos, oraciones de guerra contra los trabajos del diablo, y oraciones por la naciones imponiendo las manos sobre mapas del mundo o pasando bolas gigantes pintadas como un globo del mundo. Los niños están siendo activados para usar sus dones proféticos mientras los maestros sientan a estos profetas diminutos en círculos antes conocidos como círculos de lectura y los lanzan a compartir lo que oyen y ven después de un tiempo de oración silenciosa y de escuchar lo que Dios está diciendo. www.thevoicemagazine.com

de atestiguar los resultados de tal entrenamiento dentro de nuestro ministerio de niños K. con el cual tuve el placer de servir como maestra principal por más de siete años. Nuestro servicio del viernes por la noche es seguido por un tiempo de “llamamiento” profético. Uno de los miembros del grupo profético tiene una hija precoz a la cual he visto florecer al don profético, oración sin reserva y alabanza. Mientras los miembros mayores del grupo tomaron su turno ministrando la palabra del Señor a los asistentes, esta profetiza miniatura tomó su turno osadamente para declarar palabras de edificación, impartición y consuelo sin cometer error alguno.

R ECIENTEMENTE ,

DURANTE LA ORACIÓN

corporal de la noche, el nieto de cuatro años de nuestro obispo tuvo una visión que compartió entre la predominante asamblea de personas mayores. Dentro de la simple visión del joven visionario había una profunda palabra del Señor. En esencia fuimos amonestados, “Debemos disminuir, para que El aumente.” (Juan 3:30)

LOS DÍAS EN QUE PENSÁBAMOS QUE LOS NIÑOS

son para ser vistos y no oídos deben finalizar. Está en el corazón de Dios y en su agenda que a estos miembros de la generación final les sea dada toda oportunidad para ejercitar sus dones y ser entrenados a oír la voz de Dios para declarar su Palabra, legislar su voluntad desde los cielos, destruir los trabajos del diablo y moverse en las señales, maravillas y milagros. ¡Debemos reconocer la voz del Señor dentro de estos futuros líderes del Reino y formadores del mundo y reconocer quien está hablando, también! BONNIE BLYSTONE sirve en el ministerio en Christian International Family Church donde ella ha side entrenado como un ministro prophetico e intercessor, funcionando en la uncion de vigilante. Ha servido por 8 anos en el ministerio “K-Kids” de la iglesia donde ella derramo amor y energia atraves de creatividad e inovacion espiritual.

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

  

Sin is seldom addressed and homosexuals are allowed on the platform while tolerance is expected. Real issues like racism, adultery, abortion, false prophecies and “devils,” are avoided. Ministry to the heart of man has been replaced by entertainment and a Sunday morning motivational message. Evangelism is no longer a priority and shameless leaders squander millions of dollars.

 

Filling the seats is more important than telling the truth.

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Even when dark clouds ﬁll the economic sky, entrepreneur Mike Floyd shows how a business founded on tried-andtrue biblical principles can succeed and prosper. The principles contained in this book are vital to anyone in ministry or business. Subjects include: Foundations, Principles, Favor, Attitude/Altitude, Patience, Determination, Perseverance, Vision, Wisdom nuggets, Confession, Ego and God’s purpose for prosperity.

Book - $10

Audio - $20

Mike Floyd Ministries P.O Box 3266 - Tallahassee, FL 32303 www.Mikeﬂoydministries.com

GOD’S ARMY

by Terry McReath

The Handbook for the Prophecy Soldier Whether you enlist in the battle or not, you are still at war, Soldier! You have an enemy who is devoted to doing three things: to kill, steal and destroy you (John 10:10). He never sleeps, he never gets tired. He’s forming strategies to take you out, and he doesn’t know the meaning of the word stop. There’s victory in God’s Army. Become a Prophecy Soldier and wear the Armor of God. TEN HUT, SOLDIER!

Order ONLINE: Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Target.com or Amazon.com. You can also order at these stores or visit: www.prophecysoldier.org. Sponsored by: Stanley Owensby Ministry

This Holy Spirit inspired text will motivate you to stand strong in uprightness, courage tenacity and faithfulness. Jesus is longing for you to step into the ranks - by His side - to advance His Kingdom. This book is a prophecy for this hour and - the hour to come.

Voices )))))) WISDOM’S HOUSE

by Justin Arnold

Is the local church important? Should saints have leaders and a meeting place? Is there work to be done outside of the church? Wisdom’s House is a book that answers all of these questions and more by teaching prophetic truth from Proverbs 9:1-6, and revealing apostolic wisdom about the fully restored gifts and ofﬁces in the Body of Christ. Wisdom’s House is a great book for your New Member’s class.

Ordering Information: www.ACCGlobal.org click on the “Grand Haven Outreach” link.

To order call: 866.909.2665 Ext. 1173 or visit: www.xulonpress.com, Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com E-mail: wepublish-it@hotmail.com

For discounts on bulk orders contact: Sales@GrandHavenOutreach.com

GOD, JESUS CHRIST, SATAN & THE ANTI-CHRIST

by Brigitte Gabriel

by Donovan Brown

This book examines many topics which include:

• Who is God? • Is

Almighty God a Trinity? • Who is Satan? • What is our importance to these spiritual beings? • Does Almighty God really want us to live in ﬁnancial dominion? • Was the soul of Jesus truly tormented in hell for three days? • What is the Rapture? • Who is the Anti-Christ and is he already here? • The battle of Armageddon and the millennial Reign of Christ?

BECAUSE THEY HATE A Christian Arab journalist who witnessed the deadly beginnings of fundamentalist Islam issues a passionate wakeup call to America.

Available at: www.Amazon.com and www.iuniverse.com/bookstore

Brigitte warns that radical Islam will stop at nothing short of domination of all non-Muslim countries. She points out mistakes the West has made in consistently underestimating the single-mindedness with which fundamentalist Islam has pursued its goals over the past thirty years. Gabriel outlines the history, social movements, and religious divisions that have led to this critical historical conﬂict. Fiercely articulate and passionately committed, she refuses to stand silently by while it happens here.

Also available at most bookstores worldwide and on other websites.

ORDER NOW www.TheVoiceBooks.com

ISBN: 0595494536

List Price: $11.95.

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M I NOI SNT - FRI RY E DCIHRUERCCTHO R Y M I N I S T RY D I R E C TO RY THE VOICE Ministry & Church Directory is also online: www.thevoicemagazine.com

Locate an On-Fire Church or Ministry in your City, State or Country.

C o n n e c t i n g A p o s t o l i c a n d P r o p h e t i c B e l i e v e r s W o r l d wide COLORADO

DELAWARE Praise to the King Ministries, Inc. Apostle Nailah & Pastor Wayne Gilliam Wilmington, Delaware (302) 571-0695 www.praisetothekingministries.org FLORIDA Christ’s Kingdom Life Center International Apostle Leslie Brown III Hollywood, Florida (954) 963-1355 communitymission@bellsouth.net Prophetic Revival Center Pastor/Prophetess Sandra Moore Miami, Florida (305) 248-0033 www.sandramoore.org Restoration World Outreach Ministries Apostle Steve & Michelle Lyston Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (954) 297-9552 Jamaica (876) 754-0500(1) rwominc@yahoo.com

Resurrection Life Family Worship Center Apostle Trevor & Pastor Martha Banks Fort Pierce, Florida (772) 465-0036 www.trbanks.com Spirit of Life Ministries Apostle Jonas & Pastor Rhonda Clark Hallandale Beach, Florida (954) 456-4420 www.jonasclark.com GEORGIA Sandy Hall Ministries Rev. Sandy Hall Jonesboro, Georgia (678) 479-6472 www.sandyhallministries.com Gateway Believers Fellowship Apostle David Coker Carnesville, Georgia (706) 384-5242 www.gatewaybelievers.com Dr. Kluane Spake Jubilee Alliance Atlanta, Georgia (678) 478-4958 www.kluane.org Life Center Ministries Apostle Buddy & Prophetess Mary Crum Atlanta, Georgia (770) 399-0660 www.lifecenter.org

ILLINOIS Faith Center Apostle Don Lyon Rockford, Illinois (815) 964-8000 www.rockfordfaithcenter.com INDIANA Whole Truth Gospel Tabernacle Bishop Kevin B. Wise, Sr. Gary, Indiana (219) 884-1353 www.wholetruthgospeltabernaclehc.org MARYLAND Redeemer International Family Church Pastors Chris and MaryEllen Geeslin Frederick, Maryland (301) 514-2759 www.RedeemerFamily.org MINNESOTA Five-Fold Ministries Bishop Mark & Kathryn Shaw Rochester, Minnesota (888) 808-5455 www.5fold.org LOUISIANA AEGA International Headquarters Dr. Henry Harbuck, General Overseer Monroe, Louisiana (800) 842-5176 www.aega.org

LISTINGS CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

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M I N I S T RY D I R E C T O RY

The Rock of Frontrange Apostle Erich R. Hardy Boulder, Colorado (303) 442-ROCK (7625) www.TheRockOfFrontrange.com

FLORIDA (Cont’d)

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M I N I S T RY D I R E C TO RY MISSISSIPPI End Time World Ministries International Apostle James & Prophetess Theresa Jones South Haven, Mississippi (901) 628-6969 jamesjones1027@yahoo.com NEBRASKA

MINISTRY DIRECTORY

HE VOICE Zion Restoration Int’l Ministries Apostle Donnetta Mathis Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 435-4260 www.zrimhome.org NORTH CAROLINA Heart House Ministries Apostle Noland M. & Prophetess Jo E. Owens Raleigh, North Carolina (919) 413-5260 hearthousenc@aol.com Healing Rain Ministry Prophet Michael and Lyn Bacon Wake Forest, North Carolina (919) 671-3614 www.healingrainministry.org OHIO Believer’s Church International Apostle O. Michael & Prophetess Beverly Smith Deﬁance, Ohio (419) 782-9723 www.believerschurchinternational.org Judah Tabernacle Pastors Jeff & Louanne Leslie Columbus, Ohio (614) 492-6000 www.judahtabernacle.com OKLAHOMA Faith In Action Prophetess Maggie Johnson, Sr. Pastor Muskogee, Oklahoma (918) 360-9928 faithnactionm@aol.com

OREGON Voice of the Trumpet Ministries Apostles Gary & Traci Carson Clackamas, Oregon (503) 630-4294 www.voiceofthetrumpet.org PENNSYLVANIA

TEXAS Equippers Outreach Fellowship Apostle Jerry Adkins Weimar, Texas (979) 725-8233 pastorja@equippersoutreach.com VIRGINIA

Jubilee Ministries International Apostle Mark & Pastor Jill Kauffman New Castle, Pennsylvania (724) 657-3884 www.jubileeministriesint.com

Cornerstone Ministries Prophetess Thialyn Reed Quinton, Virginia (804) 536-4945 Cornerstoneministries1@gmail.com

Prevailing Word World Outreach Center Apostle David M. Young, Sr. & Pastor Diane Young New Castle, Pennsylvania (724) 658-5282 www.prevailingwordwoc.org

Covenant Life Church Apostle Jeff H. & Prophetess Linda R. Herbert Alexandria, Virginia (703) 321-8092 www.covenant-life-church.org

SOUTH CAROLINA Disciples of Christ Evangelistic Church Apostle Daniel & Eva Harmon Elloree, South Carolina (803) 353-8681 Harvest Center Church Apostle Rufus & Bertha Smalls Summerville, South Carolina (843) 875-6238 RufusLSmalls@comcast.net World Harvest Ministries Apostle Alvin Green & Apostle Alva Green Columbia, South Carolina (803) 765-9090 www.worldharvestministries.org TENNESSEE Christ the King Inc Apostle Prega Gounden Dandridge, Tennessee (423) 790-9980 goundenprega@yahoo.com

Click www.thevoicemagazine.com to find more Churches and ministries online.

Mercy and Truth Ministries Apostles Eric & Johniene Miller Newport News, Virginia (757) 240-4695 www.matministriesva.org INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORY BAHAMAS Bahamas Faith Ministries Dr. Myles Munroe Nassau, Bahamas (242) 341-6444 www.bfmmm.com HONDURAS Grace Life Ministries Pastors John Paul & Edith Yesenia DuBose Siguatepeque, Honduras (504) 773-4977 NICARAGUA Center of Christian Fellowship Apostle Arturo Sanchez Managua, Nicaragua (505) 265-7096 www.casabetesdanicaragua.com Redeemer International Ministries Apostles Chico Hernandez, Chris Geeslin Jenotepe, Carazo, Nicaragua (301) 514-2759 www.WinNicaragua.com

JONAS CLARK MINISTRIES JM

Answers you’ve been searching for...

30 PIECES OF SILVER Discerning the dangerous spirit of religion. (Revised “The Religious spirit” book)

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PROPHETIC OPERATIONS What every prophet needs to know to minister effectively.

ISBN 1-886885-11-7

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LIFE AFTER REJECTION Start prospering over rejection. Reclaim your life from fear and enter God’s path to emotional healing.

EFFECTIVE MINISTRIES AND BELIEVERS Introducing the apostolic ministry and what it means to you.

ISBN 1-886885-22-2

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COME OUT!

THE APOSTOLIC EQUIPPING DIMENSION Discover your purpose and enter the exciting world of ministry.

KINGDOM LIVING Dominion, Restoration, Purpose and how to Activate Your Spiritual Authority.

Don’t ignore demons. Get rid of them! Stop demons, curses and witchcraft today.

ISBN 1-886885-10-9

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EXPOSING SPIRITUAL WITCHCRAFT How to overcome curses, demons, witchcraft and controlling powers.

JEZEBEL: Seducing Goddess of War Recognize this spirit’s manipulative ways and break free from its controlling powers.

ADVANCED APOSTOLIC STUDIES A step-by-step understanding of the apostolic ministry.

ISBN 978-1-886885-21-9

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EXTREME PROPHETIC STUDIES Learn how to run with the prophets. Prophetic training from an apostolic perspective. JONAS CLARK

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Hallandale Beach, FL

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