Welcome to this first edition of The Visionary for 2012. May the Lord richly bless you throughout this whole New Year and most abundantly at that, from the richness of His grace.
In this Issue
1. Seminar with Drs Ken and Denis in February
2. A Word From Ken
3. Missions Update - update on our books to Africa
4. A Moment with Alison
5. Student Honour Roll
6. Australian Student Body
7. The Last Word
8. Korn Korner
The New Year has started with a flurry of activity for us. The student bodies are renewing their activities, we have new prospects and opportunities, and the books to South Africa were sent on Australia Day. It is a great start and speaks of a big year to come. Whatever is in store I remain confident that with God we can do it. Every year has been bigger and better with ever new challenges, and in that regard, this one will be just as exciting. So I remind myself that with Jesus ANYTHING is possible.
Jesus said to him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. (Mark 9:23 MKJV)
What is ahead in your new year? How great is the challenge? How strange the opportunity? How big are the options that God is placing in front of you? Do not be dismayed or overcome! Remember, He knows every frailty of your being and will not give you a challenge beyond your faith capacity − so raise your confidence in Him! Take heart dear friend. If God sees fit to place an opportunity in YOUR hands, it is because He is confident that in Him you can do it.
A Seminar With Dr Ken And Dr Denis
On Saturday the 18th of February 2012, we have the pleasure of hosting Dr's Ken and Denis for the first seminar of the year. Our subject will be, “The Power of Pentecost for Today” − and we will be referring to Ken’s book Clothed With Power.
As always, students are encouraged to take advantage of this seminar. Your full attendance at the seminar is the equivalent of one assignment. Therefore, a recognised student gains full credit by attending and an accredited student will only need to complete the multiple‐choice assignment. Costs: non‐student, $65.00; students who want study for credits pay their regular subject fee. Morning and afternoon tea is included. Lunch is $10.00 per person. Call 9603 2077 to register. Book Early.
A Word from Ken - SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians contains that rarest of things, a cluster of ideas that no one on earth had ever before imagined! It defies the maxim of old that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ec 1:9-10). This small letter is filled with concepts that here come into the world for the very first time. It is a miracle! If someone wants to scorn the gospel, then he must first explain away the divine mystery of Ephesians. How could any man have conceived and written such things, unless they are simply true?
And it becomes even more wonderful when you remember that Paul was a firstcentury Jew, a devout monotheist, utterly committed to the worship of one God − Yahweh of Israel. He reckoned it foul blasphemy deserving a savage death to call any man divine. Yet suddenly we find him ascribing to Jesus of Nazareth an exalted honour beyond imagination! Paul no longer sees him as merely human, but as wholly divine, possessing dazzling, heavenly magnificence! Such a transformation is inexplicable apart from the explanation Paul himself gives – he had undergone a radical conversion caused by his shattering encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. (Ac 9:1-8; 22:3-10; 26:9-19)
If that story is denied, then some other adequate explanation must be devised for the staggering things the apostle wrote. But no one has ever been able to do so.
Nevertheless, some people, even if they accept that Paul was a real person, still denounce his letter, calling it a piece of fiction, a human invention, an irresponsible fabrication. But it defies reason to suppose that such a man as Paul would or even could invent such a collection of ideas, and then present them as life-changing truth. What he writes in Ephesians runs counter to all that he had formerly been as a man, a Jew, a scholar. Here are beliefs that undo many of his previous deepest convictions, so that although he once called it blasphemy to accord divinity to anyone but Yahweh, now he calls it blasphemy to deny that Christ possesses divinity equal to Yahweh! (Ac 26:11)
Furthermore, Paul dared to write such things while thousands of people were still alive who had actually seen Jesus in Palestine! To those observers, Jesus had been just as human as they were. Paul too, during the years when he furiously persecuted the Church, had thought of Jesus only as a common blasphemer, if not insane. Yet now we find Paul, with immense drama and passion, calling Jesus God! And he presents visions of Jesus so supernal they demand that all creation should revere the former Man of Galilee and offer him heartfelt worship.
No explanation of this transformation of Paul the Jew to Paul the Christian is easier to accept than the claim that what he writes is no human coinage, but divine revelation.
(From the preface of Ken Chant’s new book, “Treasures from Ephesians.”)
The College in South Africa
The Books have been sent, bless God! Vision Colleges’ new office in South Africa, where Nicholas Daniels is our
director, will receive them with joy. Nicholas and his team are setting up a distance education university program
to offer Bachelor and Master Degree programs in Pentecostal Theology. This is a brand new concept, and the
studies will be available worldwide, to every student everywhere in the world, and South Africa has some of the
finest education standards in the world.
The story of the books began when I received a rather casual and matter of fact email from Nicholas: “We need between 25,000 to 50,000 books for the library − 25,000 as the minimum for a Bachelors.” It was not an appeal, it was a statement.
My initial thought was “I will send a few books”. I then remembered a colleague who sends books to Myanmar, and I contacted him – “Sure, I have two pallets of books you can have.” I accepted them and wondered how I could get two pallets of books to South Africa. He called me back and advised me that he could get a container for me for $2,700.00 delivered into Cape Town. I accepted this and wondered where the money would come from.
From my email lists (we have several) I made an appeal for books for the Library. Over the last few months books have come to us from every state in Australia. The books have come from private individuals and from schools and colleges wishing to help. A Christian opportunity shop donated 6 boxes of books and sent them. Elderly folks wanting to get rid of old books and young people buying new books from book stores, sent them. From Perth and Adelaide, Brisbane, and Melbourne, enquiries came asking how to get books to us. A Christian courier took up the challenge and transported books free of charge; others offered amazingly low prices to get the books from around the country to our office, or to the Bible Society in Ingleburn, where the books were to be loaded and shipped.
Meanwhile people donated money to transport the books. From pensioners offering $5.00, to other others sending larger amounts, sufficient money came in even when, of course, the quote of $2,700.00 snowballed to well over $3,000.00 with the expenses of packing and preparing the books.
On Australia Day our team, with volunteers at the Bible Society in Ingleburn, loaded a container with in excess of 30,000 books for South Africa, you could not get so much as an extra sheet of paper into the container!
This was an amazing feat. To make this happen so many worked together in so many ways, unrelated to each other apart from the idea of sending books.
A combination of emailed messages, a small notice in “Eternity”, word of mouth contact from one person to another, individuals who sent books or transportied them for others, courier services offering free or very low cost rates to transport books from around Australia to Sydney, colleges, schools, universities, shops, churches who donated books or finance − it all came together for God’s glory to start a Library in Cape Town. This will help to establish world class accredited degrees, available from South Africa to around the globe at affordable rates, and it all started with a thought "I will send a couple of books". My initial “couple of books” turned to be 20 odd boxes plus all that came to us from near and far.
How amazing, and yet so much like God it is that He took a small thought and multiplied it out so that a Distance Education college in South Africa, with one of the world's highest standards of education, will be able to offer legitimate degrees in ministry at truly affordable prices to any students anywhere in the world. – That is GOD.
Since our last newsletter the following students have graduated from NSW, Vic, W.A. Qld and Japan. We know how hard you worked for your results. Below I have listed those who graduated in December 2011 and January 2012. Well-done to each one of you.
December 2011 January 2012
Elizabeth Harding, Diploma of Christian Ministry and Theology, South Brisbane Qld
Ps Cheryl Windle , Certificate in Biblical Studies, Brisbane Qld
Ps Andrew Miller , Diploma of Christian Ministry and Theology, Minoh Japan
Lynne Byrne, Diploma of Biblical Theology, Leongatha VIC
Ps Cheryl Windle, Diploma of Ministry, Brisbane Qld
James O'Neill, Certificate IV in Christian Ministry and Theology, Wilsonton Qld
Peter Sherlock, Certificate in Biblical Studies, Cranebrook NSW
Lynne Junor, Certificate in Biblical Studies, Augusta WA
The Old Testament prophets came from many different walks of life and they were very different from one another in temperament, but even so they were all used by God. Elijah the Tishbite came from the wilderness across the Jordan, wore rough clothing with a leather belt (2 Kings 1:8), and had no fixed abode. Through his many prayers he shook the nation of Israel and destroyed the priests of Baal. In contrast, Isaiah was of the ruling class and had access to the king whenever he needed to speak to him. He was a poet as well as a prophet, and of all the prophets he had most to say about the Messiah who was to come.
Some were rich men, some poor farmers, some were women, but all of them had a deep personal faith and when they received a word from God, they spoke with great power and anointing.
In the Old Testament, in contrast to the priest who spoke to God for the people, the prophet was a preacher, a spokesman for God, one who declared by divine inspiration something that would take place, sometimes immediately, but sometimes far into the future. This kind of prophetic office was different from anything we might experience today. The Old Testament prophets knew without any doubt they were speaking as God’s messenger and they held fiercely to the words they were given, even to the point of death. and many of them did die at the hands of wicked men (2 Kings 9:7; Jeremiah 26:20-23).
In the New Testament, the office of prophet is different and the New Testament word for prophet means to ‘speak forth’ or ‘forth teller’. New Testament prophecy has in it more of the idea of strengthening, comforting, and encouragement rather than the fore-telling of future events (1 Corinthians 14:3).
Nowadays the foretelling of future events in a person’s life can sometimes happen through what is called ‘personal prophecy’, but this type of prophecy needs to be treated with great caution. A Christian will usually find that the word given is a confirmation of something God has already revealed to him or her from another source. If not then it is better to wait for further confirmation before acting on a ‘personal prophecy’. This will ensure that no lifedestroying mistakes are made, as we are advised in scripture --.
“A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses” (Deuteronomy 19:15b). “Many advisers make victory sure.” (Proverbs 11:14b). (Taken from Alison’s book, Cameos of Christ.)
Resource Centre
We consider it an honour to work with pastors through the Resource Centre program. It enables pastors to train
men and women for ministry, not only for their own local ministry but also to the world beyond. Instead of
sending members to a Bible college and losing them from your ministry, our program enables you to train members
in your own church, and help them discover their field of service, thus fulfilling our commission.
Traineeship Program
Last year we developed our traineeship program. This enables a local church intern or trainee to receive our
training from Certificate IV through to the Diploma. The state Government pays the student fees, the Federal
Government pays the local church up to $4000.00 towards the costs of training. If you have, or if you are a trainee
with your local church, it is worth inquiring from Trish, our registrar, for further details. At this stage traineeships
are available in NSW and Western Australia.
Forty four years ago I accepted Jesus as my personal saviour in a little AOG church in England. I did not know it then, but I came to the Lord literally at the tail end of a revival time. A couple of years later I came to Australia where the church was much the same as it was in the U.K. Pretty ordinary really. We spoke in tongues, there was the odd word of prophecy or message and interpretation, and an occasional healing. In Australia any sense of revival or move of God had pretty much come and gone. By biblical standards the Pentecostal church was really nothing much to write home about. Oh, the services were good, the presence of God was real enough, but...
I had never seen nor been a part of a “revival”. My closest experience was the “Holy Spirit” or “Charismatic Renewal” in Sydney in the 1970’s. In hindsight, it now seems to me that while that renewal brought a lot of teaching, some wonderful experiences, and a sense of respectability and acceptance to the Pentecostal church, it came at a price. It robbed us of the power of Pentecost rather than releasing a flood of “New Testament church” activity. The Pentecostal church today is a shadow of what it ought to be.
My personal conviction has always been that the God of the book of Acts is as real and active today as He was in the Acts. I have consistently thought so, acted as if it were so and, I must admit, seen a fair share of miracles, healings, prophecy and so forth though my ministry and in others. However, I am not satisfied with what I see and am a part of. My God is bigger than anything I have seen or heard or can imagine. Acts 1:8 reverberates from Jesus down through time across the centuries, over continents, nations, states, provinces and cities from the mount outside Jerusalem to us today.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Baptism in the Holy Spirit is MORE than speaking in tongues. I want to experience its glorious fullness. I have a hunger, for myself and for those I know, and for every member of my church, and for every student of our colleges, and the rest of the church, that we will all know by experience and demonstration that Baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was talking about when He said, “You shall receive power to be witnesses...”.
Oh! I can speak in tongues and interpret, prophesy, and pray for the sick like others. I have seen everything from cancer to a common cold healed. I have not yet raised the dead nor walked on water, nor have I seen the blind see, but then there is time for that − I am still breathing! It seems to me that we have, as it were, merely dipped our toes gingerly into the waters and became pleased with the feel, instead of wading into deep waters of experience in God. Our seminars speak into these issues, of being baptised in the Holy Ghost - Clothed with Power. The Power of God through you to breathe life, power and authority and to express the very presence of Jesus in our churches. Such should be the norm. I hope and pray, and I dare to speak prophetically, that through these Vision Seminars, we will start to see these experiences in our churches again.
Moses, Jesus and an elderly man are golfing. Moses steps up to the tee and hits the ball. It goes sailing over the fairway and lands in the water trap. Moses parts the water and chips the ball onto the green.
Jesus steps up to the tee and hits the ball. It goes sailing over the fairway and lands in the water trap. Jesus walks on the water and chips the ball onto the green.
The elderly man steps up to the tee and hits the ball. It goes sailing over the fairway and heads for the water trap. But, just before it falls into the water, a fish jumps up and grabs the ball in its mouth. As the fish is falling back down into the water, an eagle swoops down and grabs the fish in its claws. The eagle flies over the green where a lightning bolt shoots from the sky and barely misses it. Startled, the eagle drops the fish. When the fish hits the ground, the ball pops out of its mouth and rolls into the hole for a hole-in-one.
Jesus then turns to the elderly man and says, "Dad, if you don't stop fooling around, we won't bring you next time."
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