THE VOICE OF APOSTOLIC RESTORATION | VOLUME 81 ISSUE 6 JUNE 2013

IN THIS ISSUE:

LEADERSHIP ROUNDTABLE

Raising 1st Century Churches Out of the Ashes of the 21st Century Church

LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE

THE IMMUTABILITY OF HIS COUNSEL

2

THE NEXT WAVE

www.icof.net

PUBLISHER

International Circle of Faith (ICOF)

The Next Wave - Contributing Editors

David Tait, Lea Bates, Derrick Day, Bernie

Wade, Robert Straube, Barney Philips,

John Rogers, Doc Burkhart and others.

Advertizing Inquiries

For more information about advertising email

administration@icof.net or call 502.410.4263

Editorial Submissions

We welcome submissions and editorials. We

assume no responsibility for the return of

unsolicited submissions. Please send photos,

articles, and documents to P.O. Box 72,

Sulphur, KY 40070 Electronic submissions to:

nextwave@icof.net

THE NEXT WAVE MAGAZINE

P.O. Box 72 Sulphur, KY 40070

502.410.4263

Annual Subscription: $36 US.

LEADERSHIP ROUNDTABLE

Dr. Bernie Wade

Raising 1st Century Churches Dr. Robert Straube

RELIGITICS

From Uncle Sam to Uncle Scam

Let’s Get Ready to

Rumble

Carmen Licciardello

The Immutability

of His Counsel

Dr. Barney Phillips

Bishop Derrick Day

MEASURE

Barney Phillps

A CALL TO PRAYER

World Missions Dr. Barney Phillips

Individualism –

Enemy of the Church

Andrew Strom

3

LEADERSHIP

ROUNDTABLE

An open letter to those entrusted

with leadership in the New

Testament Church in 2013

by Dr. Bernie L. Wade

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great

multitude, which no man could

number, of all nations, and tribes,

and people, and tongues, stood

before the throne, and before the

Lamb, clothed with white robes, and

palms in their hands;

Praise the Lord!

For some time now we have been

discussing with key leaders how we

might work together to bring Apostolic

reformation to America and beyond.

When we speak of Apostolic reformation

we are not referencing any of a plethora

of groups or movements that have used

(or use) those words as a wall to keep

others at arm’s length. What we are

speaking about is the restoration of all

those things Apostolic. In other words,

those things that were believed and

taught by the Apostles of Jesus Christ

and practiced by the New Testament

Church during its initial 100 years. A

time before the loss of the key tenets of

doctrine were replaced by the edicts of

men.

Apostolic Reformation

The concept of Apostolic reformation

has been the rally cry of a plethora of

historic reformation efforts. The most

notable of these restorations was aptly

named the Apostolic Faith. This

movement began as a Bible college and

was organized by Charles F. Parham.

Parham is credited with being the father

of not only the Apostolic Faith

movement but also subsequent

movements including the Pentecostal

movement and the Charismatic

movement. It was Parham’s call for the

restoration of the Apostle’s doctrine that

was the catalyst for all of these

movements and reformation efforts.

Those who were drawn to these

movements primarily came from

denominational backgrounds. These

often found themselves outcast from

4

their denomination because of the

manifestations that were associated with

these reformation movements. To

counteract the void these adherents

organized their own denominations

(sometimes referred to as fellowships or

ministerial groups). They used the

systems that they were most familiar

with in organizing these movements.

Those who are beneficiaries of these

movements have inherited this same

denominational model (ministerial

organizations, ministries and other

organisms) that those who participated

in these early movements created.

Good, bad or indifferent these

organizations have left us with no

mechanism or method to bring us

together. Rather, they have left us

divided by man-made walls of

separation. This has left the posterity of

these movements segregated into a

plethora of factions.

The Challenge

The problem of bringing those divided

together is not a new one. This is the

situation that King Arthur found himself

when trying to bring the powerful men

of his kingdom together. Realizing that

they all needed each other he sought a

resolution. His solution was the

legendary Roundtable. As its name

suggests it has no head implying that

everyone who sits there has equal status.

Borrowing from the idea of King Arthur

and his Roundtable, we visualize a

method to bring the various ministries

and ministerial groups together to work

toward our mutual goal of spreading the

Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What we propose is a collaborative effort

to develop an Apostolic leadership

roundtable. This would be comprised of

key leaders in the Apostolic Church

(Apostolic used here in reference to

those who preach/teach and live the

Apostles doctrine) regardless of their

affiliation or organization; no titles at

the table. We want to unite men and

women of God who are hungry for a

genuine move of God in our nation and

world. These will work together so that

we might usher in the greatest move of

God that America has ever known.

Please note: We are not railing against

your doctrine, dogma or creed. Unlike

previous efforts of this type; this is not

nor will it ever be another ministerial

organization. Rather, those who need

5

licensure and the like can consult with

one of the organizations participating in

this roundtable effort. We have no

interest in duplicating or replacing their

effort.

Vision

We have pledged our lives, our fortunes

and our sacred honor in the valiant fight

against Spiritual starvation, poverty of

the Word Incarnate, and the chaos of

division. For too long now we have

been divided by unseen walls that are

more formidable than the Great Wall of

China. We implore you to join hearts

and hands with us in this effort. We ask

you to pray for this effort.

Your participation in this effort is

needed. We do not proffer the polemic

platform of debate, nor do we desire to

shed innocent blood in controversies, we

just want to come together in one

common goal and purpose and that is to

be the Church of Jesus Christ in the

earth, accomplishing His will and His

way!

WE NEED YOU!

I hope something we have written has

captured your attention. No one of us

has all the answers to the challenges that

face America and our World. We need

your help. The task of bringing us

together is enormous. With men this is

impossible, but with God all things are

possible. It will take all of us to

accomplish. What we initially envision

is bringing together leaders of a plethora

of ministries, ministerial organizations

and others to form a national Apostolic

leadership roundtable. We hope that

this humble body will work together to

cast vision, eliminate unnecessary

duplication and help us all to better

reach a lost and dying world. At the

same time we expect to organize an

effort at the grassroots level to

accomplish the vision of bringing

Apostolic leaders together in every

locale; first in North America and then

the uttermost parts of the World.

The purpose of this group is to draw on

each other’s strengths to creating a

collaborative effort that enhancing the

work already being made. Our

expectation is to create a groundswell

using like minded men and women of

God fuel by prayer and fasting and

encouraged by the mutual fellowship. In

the end we expect that together we can

6

make it difficult for people in your locale

to go to hell! To God be the Glory!

I would love to chat with you more

about this. Please contact me now!

Feel free to respond via email

bw@icof.net, call my office:

502.410.4263 or mail me directly at

Bernie L. Wade PO. Box 72, Sulphur, KY

40070.

This is simply not a task that can be

accomplished without you! Pray about

how God would like you to participate in

this effort. There are no dues to pay,

not fees or licenses, etc. This is simply a

collaborative effort to bring us together.

Have you ever felt alone or isolated?

Have you ever wondered who else God is

speaking to and what they are saying? I

know I have. We read in the Word of

God that Elijah (the great prophet) felt

like he was the only one who was

hearing from God. Yet, the Lord chides

him that there were at least 7000 others

who were like-minded!

Like you, I am sure there are many who

are hearing from God; unfortunately, I

don’t know all of them! However, I

would love to know them, be encouraged

by their labor and love and draw on

their experience, expertise, knowledge

and friendship to help address the

challenges I face in bringing the Gospel

to those who are un-churched and in

ministering to the Body of Christ in

general.

What we expect is that this leadership

roundtable will help us bring us into

dialogue with each other in an

unprecedented manner. I look forward

to joining with you in this effort! I look

forward to meeting you at the Apostolic

leadership roundtable.

Dr. Bernie L. Wade is the Chancellor of

ICOF CSU (International Circle of Faith

Colleges, Seminaries and Universities).

He is an author and church historian.

He serves on the Executive Board of

Apostolic Archives and is a member of

the Apostolic Historians Association.

He is the International Advisor for

Global Evangelical Christian College

(GECC).

As the Presiding Bishop of the

International Circle of Faith Ministerial

Association and President of ICOF

Global he helps lead a global body of

fivefold ministers.

7

I

8

Raising 1st Century Churches Out of the

Ashes of the 21st Century Church

By Apostle Robert Straube

I was at a Five Fold Roundtable Conference this last weekend and this came to me when we started comparing today’s church to Star Trek’s, The BORG. Controlled, no individuality, under the watchful eye of one all powerful individual. This was only one of many images and discussions I was involved. So, when I got home, my mind was on these images and I decided that I had to get all of these thoughts out onto paper.

Allow me to start off with some quotes and by saying...this is gonna hurt! Paul wrote, “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Galatians 3:3 “Christianity has achieved apparent success by ignoring the precepts of its Founder.” (H. Richard Neibuhr)

“How long? Not long. ’Cause what you reap is what you sow.” (Rage Against the Machine, Wake Up) “Size matters not.” (Master Yoda) As I watched his video, there he was, kicking down his radical manifesto to a crew of pastors who were very clearly not getting what he was driving at. Francis Chan was speaking about his unconventional move to leave his thriving California mega-church, travel to the developing world, and visit the underground Chinese church in hopes of radically rethinking what church was meant to be. Free-falling into the hands of God, he was on a mission of discovery to scrape together some paradigm of ministry that he could believe in: something that nurtured discipleship, was less self-serving to the pastor, and had more practical impact. And that’s when it happened. He said he had begun to wonder if there was something missing in our current setup. Then he dropped the A-word (and it ain’t what you’re thinking).

Apostle! It’s the new A-bomb in church circles. It’s a word that’s used in nearly every book in the New Testament, and yet twenty-first-century Christians dodge it like Superman recoiling from kryptonite. As it echoed in the vacuum of stunned silence, the hackles rose on

9

the nape of my neck. I thought, Holy New Testament vocabulary, Batman! This guy is going to blow the doors off the church if he keeps dropping the biblical A-bomb!

About thirty years ago, the word apostle had become like the ark of the covenant to me, and I was feeling the contrast between the pastoral Dr. Jones’s mundane routine of charming the ladies with stuffy indoor academic type pulpit lectures, and the alter-ego adventurer Indiana Jones inside me, desperately trying to break out. When reading the book of Acts, I’d often ask myself, “Why does what we do in ministry today look so different from the way Paul did it?” I’d been rediscovering the biblical role of the apostle for these thirty-some years, and I realized that men like Evangelist Leonard Ravenhill and Prophet David Wilkerson had been brought to my doorstep so that they could be used to deliver a divine kick up my backside by being so bold as to use that “A” word to speak into my life. The end result was me chaining myself to my Bible and writing about what I’d begun to witness in the church. For over a 3 decades I’d

been involved in various forms of church planting and ministry. Almost immediately I slammed into two important facts: First, the secular ethos and post-Christian mind-set were swallowing churches alive like the mighty Sarlacc pit’s digestive juices slowly eroding Boba Fett’s mandalorian body armor. Second, I was going to have to completely relearn ministry from the foundations up if I was going to get anywhere in this God-forsaken mission field. Those two realizations made me desperate. In the natural world, desperation creates a fight-or-flight reflex. In the spiritual realm, it’s not too different. The second you realize that it’s either sink or swim, the adrenaline starts to juice you up, and you get radical. Fighting isn’t usually my first instinct; flighting is. Nonetheless, I’ve always been the kind of guy who was willing to do anything, no matter how crazy it sounded, or how scared I was, as long as I knew God was in it. I can relate to Gideon. I understand all of his hesitation and boldness in alternating steps. That’s usually the cadence of my footsteps as well. Although I may not like it at the time, most often I’ll eventually drag myself to the electric chair, reluctantly strapping in with Thomas’s helpless, but sarcastic, words ringing in my head:

10

“Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16). I had been called by God to make an impact in a culture that saw a small percent of the population attending church—and I had to change. The way I did ministry had to change. So I started reading the Bible even more….Oh yeah, and I started paying more attention to the book of Acts.

The New Testament Word for Missionary

Let me ask you: doesn’t it seem weird that our missionary manifesto, the New Testament, lacks the word missionary in the English translations? Think about that. Can that be right? On the contrary, my dear Watson, the word you’ve been looking for has been under your nose all along. It is there. You just haven’t recognized it because of how it has been translated. It’s the word apostle. “Apostolos” in the Greek means “sent one” and can be translated as “missionary.” Now what did the New Testament missionaries do? They planted churches. What if all the buzz about

church planting and missional church wasn’t something new that plaid-clad, horn-rimmed-glasses-wearing hipsters had invented, but rather something that was inherent in the word apostolos? Before the A-bomb sends you running for cover, screaming what a freak I am, let me assure you that I mean apostle with a little a. I don’t mean a guy with superpowers or somebody who still writes Scripture in his spare time. Nor am I a member of the Apostolic denomination. Bear with me. Most people out there believe the term apostle belongs exclusively to the Twelve. True, the Twelve were “sent ones,” but the New Testament term apostle is not exclusively used for the Twelve. Once Paul used apostle to describe his role, there were thirteen, but did you know that the Greek word apostolos is used for nine other individuals in the New Testament as well? Oh yeah, it is, but the English translators rendered it as messenger or representative because it didn’t gel with their theology to translate it literally from apostolos to apostle. What if the church had a theological blind spot that was obstructing a biblical theology of church planting? What the translators fail to understand is that the New Testament knows two different types of apostles. The first group was known as “the Twelve.” They were capital-A Apostles and missionaries to the twelve tribes of Israel, and they were never to be replicated or replaced. They were handpicked by Jesus for a specific time in history. The second category—little-a apostles—was a lesser group of church planters who served under Paul. He gave them the title of apostolos. The word apostolos is definitely used for the Twelve, as in Matthew 10:2, but not

11

for them alone. The word is also used for Paul, and he wasn’t one of the Twelve. Here are nine other people called apostles (apostolos, plural: apostoloi) in the New Testament, none of whom were part of the Twelve:

• Titus (2 Cor. 8:23) • James, the Lord’s brother, not John’s brother from Club 12 (Gal.1:18–19) • Barnabas (Acts 14:14) • Apollos (1 Cor. 4:6–9) • Andronicus (Rom. 16:7) • Junias (Rom. 16:7) • Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25) • Timothy (1 Thess. 1:1–2:6) • Silas/Silvanus (1 Thess. 1:1–2:6) Those are just the ones Paul mentioned. Paul worked with a network of missionaries who were also sent out by Jesus on a frontline, life-or-death church-planting commando recon mission. In fact, Paul used the title of apostle for what he did in church planting: “for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles” (Gal.

2:8). He said to the Corinthians, “Are you not my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord” (1 Cor. 9:1–2). A paraphrase of that could be, “If to others I am not a ‘sent-out one,’ a test I am to you, for you are a proof or validation of my ‘sent-outness’ in the Lord.” His apostleship was proved by the fact that the Corinthian church existed. Why? Because apostle = church planter. The lesser apostles didn’t meet the same criteria as the Twelve. Instead, these lesser apostles operated as church-planting missionaries. There may be a parallel between the lesser apostles and the seventy-two disciples that Jesus sent out. Although these disciples didn’t have special status or authority, their role was nonetheless to spread the word to villages and towns that needed to hear. Paul was not one of the Twelve, but he was a kind of link between the twelve apostles who were there from the beginning and those who would take his place: Timothy, Titus, and the others. This makes sense of why, in Ephesians 4, Paul said apostles (and prophets and evangelists) are necessary for building up the church alongside pastors and teachers. Paul spoke of them as if they were commonplace. True, there are those who say, as I once was told, that the roles of apostle and prophet faded into oblivion upon the completion of Scripture. In the modern church, however, we’ve managed to exterminate teacher and evangelist as well so that we’re left with the pastor-only model. What if, as a result of amputating these roles, the church were

12

a dismembered quadriplegic? Would that explain why it isn’t moving? Would it shed light on why the church inchworms pathetically on its mission like a fat little grub?

If we ignore the biblical roles Christ gave us to accomplish the mission, then our structure will be wrong. If the structure is wrong, then the functionality will be limited. If the functionality is limited, then our mission will be compromised. If our mission is compromised, we won’t be as effective as Jesus intended. We have been ignoring these important roles to our peril. The Western church is beginning to wake up to the reality that with all the sound and fury of our success, we’ve lost something. This has happened throughout history. Did you know that it’s possible for a society to go backward in its understanding? An entire civilization can devolve technologically and lose vital stratagems for engineering because they’ve forgotten certain methods. For example, the Romans knew how to make fifty-foot-high hydraulic cement aqueducts that spanned valleys. If you go to modern Britain, you will still see their ruins towering against the backdrop of impossible landscapes. Centuries later, however, the engineers of the Dark Ages couldn’t replicate these feats because they’d lost the Roman technology to make structural cement.

What if the church has lost vital biblical technology essential to advancing the kingdom of Christ? Like medieval Europe, we’d be scratching our scalps, wondering how they did it in the past, yet we’d be hindered from making real progress ourselves. The church planting/discipling network that I run may be called Rock of Zion, but you’re probably beginning to piece together that we’re really kicking it old school. Like, two-thousand-years-old school. If the church recovers the apostolic-style ministry that made the first century tick, then it will jump-start the church back to the threatening force that it was two thousand years ago. Like Indiana Jones uncovering the ark of the covenant in the Well of Souls, we need to unearth the divine technology that has lain hidden in the depths of God’s Word all along. Before we do, let’s look at the current weakened structure of Western evangelicalism.

Formulas for Disaster Francis Chan’s dissatisfaction with the current model of evangelical hierarchy is only the beginning of the shakedown that is happening in Western Christianity. It points to cracks in our foundation. The emergent movement began with disenchantment with the evangelical mega-church movement in America, where many of them ran like big-business enterprises. Here are the nuts and bolts of the machine broken down from the instruction manual: How to Build a Mega-church in Five Easy Dance Steps

13

1. Get more people 2. More people = more money 3. More money = more toys 4. More toys = more ways to get more people 5. Get more people (rinse and repeat) This is the model that has been used for decades in America, but to what aim? Many young men in leadership during the 1990s stood at the top of the mega-church pyramid, rolled their idle crowns on their index fingers, and muttered, “Now what?” After the emergent movement dissed the mega-church movement, dissidents of evangelicalism flocked to these churches that put the “hip” in discipleship. When the emergent churches became “successful” in numbers, they simply reproduced what they had come from—except that now people did finger painting to punk music onstage. As history repeated itself, the emergent leaders sat on thrones built out of solid cool, forlorn with chin in palm, asking the familiar question, “Now what?” Thus history “repeateth.” Why did the early church that had seen so many conversions and changed the

first-century landscape not face this same problem? Well, it almost did. Picture yourself in Jerusalem at the dawn of the apostolic age, circa Acts 3. You had given up everything once you discovered God’s Sacrificial Lamb. Now you sat at the feet of eleven guys who were ordinary just like you, yet extraordinary. Ordinary fishermen and tradesmen, they were transformed, like you, by an encounter with Jesus of Nazareth. Their ministry was so powerful that you never wanted to leave their teaching or the warm fellowship of the community, or the fear and awe-tinged miracles that buzzed the atmosphere with supernatural power.It had all the makings of a mega-church experience: thousands of people, money to do anything they wanted, and ministry coming out of their ears. There was only one problem. The kingdom couldn’t advance in a holy huddle. God had to give them a spiritual kick up the backside. Enter Saul of Tarsus. Persecution smacked down on the church like Gallagher’s twenty-five-pound sledgehammer on a watermelon, splattering the seeds of the church to the far reaches of Asia Minor. If the church wouldn’t go out willingly, they’d be scattered unwillingly. That is God’s time-tested method of getting His people to heed the Great Commission. As an example, in Britain today, postmodernism has been forcing churches to venture outside to reach the unreached. There is desperation in leaders who have realized that it’s either sink or swim. Pioneer third-world missionary C. T. Studd once said: “Some want to live within the sound Of Church or Chapel bell I want to run a Rescue Shop within a yard of hell.”

14

The churches that won’t heed Jesus’s call to get out there will die—and in fact are already dying from within. This isn’t just happening in the third world. The dry rot in America has already been set. We’re just repeating Britain’s pattern fifty years later. In the 1950s in Britain, the churches were full, packed with families. Preaching legend Peter Jeffery recalls how on the streets of Britain in the fifties, an open-air preacher would draw folks out of their front doors, toting folding chairs so they could listen. In the sixties, however, the sexual revolution put the church to bed, and the youth slowly trickled out of the church scene. Nobody panicked. Do you know why? The churches were still relatively full. One decade, two decades later, and the silver heads woke up to the widening maw of an irreversible generation gap as they literally died off one by one. As the numbers in the church graveyard increased, the numbers in the pews decreased. When they woke up to the shrinking church—evidenced by the empty pews—the panic finally broke out. But by then it was too late. When I began to look at the church through born-again eyes, the first thing I noticed was that we’d lost the youth on a Sunday. Nobody is worried; the numbers are still big. Wait ten years. Churches that depend on their size tend to rest on their laurels. That’s what happened in the early church. When the book of Acts closes, the Holy Spirit leaves us with an important message. Mega-church Jerusalem had faded to the narrative background and ceased to be an influential presence in the world.

Instead, the focus of Acts is on the smaller, nondescript churches that were springing up in the most remote parts of the map. The kingdom was clawing its way outward, fighting for every inch of pagan ground taken. The expanding church was apostolic, and that made it vibrant and dangerous. Impossible to ignore. So much so that we still look back at it for inspiration. But have we put its principles into practice?

I’m not opposed to mega-churches. Please believe me. Overnight, God created the first mega-church in Jerusalem at Pentecost, but I don’t think we’re learning the lessons that God intended by studying their example. The mega-church model can be useful, but it can also provide a huge hurdle to kingdom expansion if the model is more concerned with bringing people in than sending people out. Let’s face it—that was largely the trend in the eighties and nineties. Mega-churches in the book of Acts, like Jerusalem in the early days—and Antioch and Ephesus—were biblical sending agencies, mission powerhouses. This is what God designed mega-churches to be. Ever wonder who planted the seven churches of Asia?

15

Acts 19:10 indicates that Paul used the mega-church at Ephesus as a church planting hub while he trained the planters daily in the school of Tyrannous: “This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord.” Rick Warren models the right use of mega-church might by using Saddleback’s accumulated money, influence, and energy to establish gospel work in every nation on earth. In the past twenty years, Warren has become a multi-church planting machine, equipping and empowering young people to plant around the globe.

Likewise, there’s another pastor in Huntington Beach. A reluctant mega-church pastor and true missionary at heart, he vowed in the 1990s to break the trend and send his best guys to the mission field without fail. Anyone who stays behind is repeatedly told that they are left behind to—you guessed it—help send others out. The irony is that only leaders who have the priority of sending people out will foster the type of church that will continue to bring people in.

You have to be willing to lose your life if you want to find it.

Nobody Uses An Eight-track

Anymore

When I was a kid, people still had turntables for vinyl records (they hadn’t discovered mixing yet). They also had an eight-track. I just lost half of you.…It was supposed to be the next big thing. The problem was that somebody came up with a better format that made the eight-track obsolete. The church keeps rolling out formats that are supposed to bring the next big wave of some kind of wonderful. Like the eight-track, they get dated, lose steam, and are forgotten. Some of you reading this are actually saying, “Oh yeah, the eight-track. Forgot about that.” Eight-tracks didn’t replace vinyl, but they opened the door for other formats. They gave way to cassette tapes, cassette tapes to CD, CD to digital mp3. Likewise, the church has replaced one format with another over the years, seeking to reinvent itself without questioning whether the next big thing is biblical. The end result is always the same. We’ve changed the format without revolutionizing the church into a time-tested format. As a result, we can’t even remember the previous formats that the

16

apostles laid down for us. The church is trying to play the eight-track tape of church to an iTunes world. What if there was a time-tested model in the Bible? What if it was laid out in the book of Acts, but we missed it because it doesn’t fit our church structure? What if the next big thing is going back to the biblical methodology? If God drew up the battle plan for us two thousand years ago, why do we feel the need to draft another one? It’s time for us to go back to the future.

Acts of the Church

Most of our modern books about church tell us how to do church. The book of Acts never does this. It never offers us a model of church that guarantees success if we follow the template. I would have thought that the basic “power principles” of church growth and dynamics would have been found there, not in a book by some author who lives in today’s anemic church culture. But Acts surpasses culture and time by refusing to provide a model and instead lists basic core components that every healthy church should have: breaking of bread, sharing with those in need, continuing in teaching, meeting together

often, praying, and so on (2:42). But it never goes any further than that in telling us how to have a church service. Isn’t that a bit strange? That depends on your assumption of what Acts was written for. Was Acts written to show pastors how to make church good, or was it written to show how the kingdom of God expanded through church planting? The more I read the Acts of the Apostles, the more I’m convinced that it’s the script of the first-century version of “How the West Was Won.” Maybe God isn’t so concerned about what the church looks like on the ground as long as those things in Acts 2:42 are all present. Maybe what God is more concerned about is that we understand how the kingdom expanded effectively through church planting so that we don’t merely hobble along in obedience to the Great Commission. If the Holy Spirit chose to invest great detail in a record of how churches got planted in a pagan world (against impossible odds), we’d be fools to ignore His advice. Like I mentioned earlier, Rock of Zion isn’t very new. It’s really old school. It’s just not been done like that for a long time. Rock of Zion Church Planting is using the time-tested method, tried and true by the apostles, abandoned only when the church became “successful” in the fourth century. In roughly ten years of church planting, Paul was able to say in Romans 15:19 “that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.” Did you catch that? Paul considered that he’d fulfilled his mission in Asia Minor.

17

Having fulfilled that task, he could now move on to another area where Christ hadn’t been named. Ten years, and a minimum of fourteen church plants later, and Paul was done. Why can’t we do this today? In trying to expand the kingdom of heaven, what on earth have we been missing?

Church Planting in Black and White

This is basically what church planting has looked like for a long time. Rod Sterling of Twilight Zone appears from the shadows and narrates what we’ve been watching for the past few decades: “Picture a man … a man who has nowhere to go up the pyramid ladder in his local mega-church … a man who is rightly dressed up for the ministry but has nowhere to go. He starts a home study in his living room, hoping to find others who are ready for change. Like attracts like, and soon he manages to reel in other cheesed-off Christians who attract even more dissidents. In his own twisted and distorted lexicon he will call it biblical church planting, never realizing that he is about to enter into what his forbears have already

discovered is in fact … the twilight zone.” Duh duh duh duh duh duh dumb dumb! This model has given church planting a bad name. Why do the eyes of so many pastors widen and twitch with fear at the mention of church planting? Planting that starts with Christians rather than nonbelievers strikes fear into the heart of any established pastor because it means that sheep stealing is afoot—and that’s a hanging offense in most churches! The error, however, is on both sides of the divide. Shame on the church planter who is church planting simply because nobody will give him a church of his own! Perhaps if he keeps at it for ten years or so, he’ll have a mega-church that resembles the one he left and be at the apex of his own pyramid. King of the Mountain is fun if you’re at the top. Equal shame, however, is also due to the pastor who is afraid to lose people because he needs their money for fuel to keep the machine running. The church is in the numbers business now, baby, and as Keith Green once said at Jesus NorthWest, “There is money to be made in Jesus’s name!”

Formulas for Failure (Remember the 1st formula from earlier? Check it in reverse:) Formula 2: Fewer people = less money = fewer toys = less ability to get people, which equals less money again. The people are just a means to an end after all. How have we let this happen to the church? How have we allowed this machine to grow into a giant Borg that

18

desires to assimilate all species into the mothership for world domination? It’s building your own personal empire versus building Christ’s kingdom, and make no mistake, the world out there is watching. Church can become a pastor’s own

personal tower of Babel in which he refuses to spread out and multiply to the glory of God. Babel teaches us that bigger is not always better. You can tell the difference between empire builders and kingdom builders: personal empires build upward rather than outward. The kingdom, however, is not of this world and always builds outward. The size that it’s concerned about is global, not local. Why then is the current model all about keeping people in? And why does evangelism seem to be merely a way of getting people in so that we can keep them there?

Ernest Hemingway may shed light on this. In Green Hills of Africa, Hemingway said that the writer only writes one pure book, and it’s always his first. The first book is written out of his heart, as an expression of literary art. After his first book gets published, and he gains popularity, he becomes accustomed to a certain lifestyle. The need to keep this lifestyle going becomes a concern, and thereafter he writes to get published so that he can continue to maintain that higher standard of living. Many are beginning to feel this way about the ministry. When the success brings affluence and prestige, they leave the reckless abandon that caused them to go into the ministry in the first place. Once-daring pastors are waking up fifteen or twenty years later asking, “Is this what I signed up for?” They wanted to impact the world, serve Jesus, and grow in the process. But this isn’t happening anymore .Instead, pastors are reluctant to fulfill the Great Commission because their church would shrink, and with it their capacity to buy toys. Coming from a church that started out of the Jesus Movement, I’ve long rubbed shoulders with guys who saw miracles and witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon a sex-crazed, drug-hazed generation. Years ago, there was a ceremony at a well-known Christian university where one of these ex-hippy pastors was asked to speak. He was known in the seventies as a countercultural, draft-card-burning, antiestablishment radical who’d do anything for Jesus, but his speech was a moralistic, right-wing diatribe that exhorted the students to “stay in school and get good grades” so they could be successful. When interviewed, a

19

bystander nearby was asked, “What happened to him?” The reply was, “He got rich.” It explains a lot. We have more now, which means that we have more to lose if we invest it in kingdom expansion. Formula 3: Having more = having more to lose.

Once upon a time, a Franciscan monk visited Vatican City with a gift for the church. The pope took him on a personal tour, displaying the vast wealth of the Catholic Church. “Never again will the church be able to say, ‘Silver and gold I do not have,’” he said. The Franciscan replied, “That may be true, but never again will the church be able to say, ‘Rise up, take your mat, and walk.’” The more we think kingdom expansion rather than empire building, the less we’ll resemble CEOs and start looking like Neos; less businessmen, more radical revolutionaries; less pleasing to flesh, more threat to the Enemy. Are you ready to change things? Then you’ve got to be ready to change. And if you’re

ready to change, then the church is going to change. It’s time for judgment to begin with the house of God. When we get it right, they’ll get it right. When I was trying to fit into a traditional pastorate like a square peg in a round hole, I came across an article in the Ikea catalog that profiled twenty-eight-year-olds. The article said this was the age when a man was most likely to disappear, change his name, leave his family, and drop off the face of the earth without a trace. Radiohead wrote a song about it: “How to Disappear Completely.” The article clawed fishhooks into my soul. I would guess that many pastors are feeling the same way, but not because they shouldn’t be in the ministry. They are called, but the church only has one caliber of bullet when it fires a man out of the barrel.

Some of these guys who are church planting are biblical apostles (or missionaries) and, like Indiana Jones, were never meant to be Princeton lecturers. They were born to be temple-raiding adventurers. But they’ve been

20

told they have to be pastors to serve God full-time. They’ve been tamed, castrated, stripped of their ability to fly. These guys either discover who they really are, and like Neo get freed from the Matrix, or they claw at the walls until they burn out, sabotage themselves, or get fired.

Every once in a while one of them wakes up and begins to see the Matrix code behind the illusion. Then it’s kung-fu-kicking-butt-in-the-subway-time. So before you flip this page, let me ask you: do you really want to take the red pill? It could cost you more than you’re willing to lose. And I warn ya, it’s gonna hurt like heaven! A Slave of Jesus Christ, Your Servant, Apostle Robert Straube

LETS GET READY TO

RUMBLE!

Correspondence from:

Carman Licciardello

To:Bishop Bernie L. Wade

Thanks for the message! In case you

missed it, here is my latest post.

Please take a moment to read and

share this with your friends. Thanks

and God Bless You!

LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!

2 Months ago I sat in a Doctors office

and was told I had incurable Multiple

Myeloma Cancer with a 3-5 year

window of time to live. I felt like God

had looked at me and said "Your

Fired" with no explanation. I never

even imagined I could ever feel so

worthless or dismissed. After 32

years of dedicated ministry, winning

21

souls and building the body...my own

body now betrayed me and heaven

went silent. Most of the members of

my own immediate family wouldn't

even call or write a text. I felt useless,

past my time of value, my shelf life

had expired and it was going to be a

painful exit from this world. As a last

resort I put up a simple post on face

book just telling it all. What did it

matter anyway.

Then the shocker of shockers

happened. People began to post the

most encouraging messages by the

10's of 1,000's. Just when I was

calling my attorney to finalize my will,

I looked and there was 10-20,000

comments saying we love you, stay

strong, read this scripture, I have

been through it too, and keep on

ministering. I was so shocked I

couldn't say anything but just stare at

the page. And it has been YOU, my

friends, my partners, my brothers

and sisters in Christ who have rallied

me back into the fight and prayed me

back to my feet. You've kept me alive

and even said over and over again "

What can I do to help"?

Well here it is. I'm going back into the

studio to make a new record with

new songs from a man who is staring

down the angel of death and backed

by the prayers of the saints. I'm

getting songs and melodies in my

sleep and at the strangest times. Like

when I first got saved. God is giving

me a new song and I need to record

them, then make a video and a

tour..just like I always been called to

do. And "This Time" YOU " will be a

part of it.

I'm asking you to do 2 simple things:

1. Click on this

link http://bit.ly/CarmanKickstarter an

d see what God would have you do.

2. Share this post on your page and

with your friends.

I'm determined to not leave this world

quietly and bring as many people

with me when God does call my

name. Will you join me?

22

23

MEASURE

By: Dr. Barney Phillips

Give, and it shall be given unto you;

good measure, pressed down, and

shaken together, and running over, shall

men give into your bosom. For with the

same measure that ye mete withal it

shall be measured to you again. (Luke

6:38).

I've been pondering on the word

measure for quite some time now as it

relates to Grace for gifting,

relationships, God’s spirit, giving and

faith. Then after further examination of

the bible I have come to the conclusion

that the measure of relationships is the

pathway to everything. This seems to be

our greatest struggle among ministry.

Therefore, explains why church has little

concept of love, relationship and family.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

The ultimate purpose of ministry is the

fostering of relationships among the

body, to the world and with God. The

ministry purpose of the body is a

ministry that seeks to bring those in the

world into relationship with the church

and with God. As his body, at times we

see dimly, and at other times, not at all.

As in gospel times, we often look for a

kingdom that speaks more of earthly

power, personal achievement, and

material acquisition than one of

relationship with the father and godly

knowledge, wisdom, and

understanding.

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of glory, may give unto you

the spirit of wisdom and revelation in

the knowledge of him:

The eyes of your understanding being

enlightened; that ye may know what the

hope of his calling is, and what the

riches of the glory of his inheritance in

24

the saints, And what is the exceeding

greatness of his power to us-ward who

believe, according to the working of his

mighty power (Ephesians 1:17-19).

And Jesus answered him, the first of all

the commandments is, Hear, O Israel;

The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou

shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy

heart, and with all thy soul, and with all

thy mind, and with all thy strength: this

is the first commandment.

And the second is like, namely this,

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

There is none other commandment

greater than these. (Mark 12:29-31)

We need spiritual enlightenment and

cease measuring and comparing

ourselves among ourselves and walk in

Love one to another; which can only

come through a love relationship with

the father and each other. The

fulfillment of the Old Testament is

found in these two commandments. WE

WILL NEVER RECEIVE OR WALK IN

HIS LOVE WITHOUT SEEKING

RELATIONSHIP. There is no greater

commandment of God then for us to

seek relationship by love.

The word Measure

yph h ph h

ay-faw', ay-faw'

Of Egyptian derivation; an ephah or

measure for grain; hence a measure in

general: - ephah, (divers) measure (-s).

Merriam Webster dictionary says,

Measure is an adequate or due portion

The Kingdom of God is manifested in

three levels or measure of relationship.

The Kingdom cannot be overcome but is

itself a mechanism that brings forth

change and order. Like leaven, it rises to

saturate all spiritual manna (spiritual

bread or the Word by which we live). As

Kingdom consciousness rises in our

minds, it influences and becomes part of

every thought.

Abraham was seeking this full measure

of relationship in all levels, when he

instructed Sarah to take three measures

of meal and cakes (bread) in response

25

the visitation of the Lord in the plains of

Mamre. Likewise, the apostle Paul

speaks of a measure in the fullness of

Christ to which we are to attain. One

becomes increasingly aware of the fact

that our ability to find relationship is in

large part dependent upon our ability to

see and respond to the Jesus in others.

Give, and it shall be given unto you;

good measure, pressed down, and

shaken together, and running over, shall

men give into your bosom. For with the

same measure that ye mete withal it

shall be measured to you again. (Luke

6:38).

There is a longing on the part of most to

experience the supernatural, to see

tangible manifestations of Heavenly

power via great miracles and

demonstrations of spiritual power.

These desires were likewise Present in

the masses who followed after Jesus. In

large part, they followed him to receive

bread, to see Miracles, and to witness a

demonstration of God’s power. Jesus

warned of an evil and adulterous

Generation who sought after signs. All

true signs point us to a greater with and

love for Jesus.

Sign-seeking will never produce

relationship because it is the result of

people desiring the gift rather Than the

Giver. There is an adulterous

generation---a generation who is willing

to enter relationships amiss and change

loyalties for personal benefit or dislike.

Like a child in a game of marbles who

loses and or does not like how the game

is going takes his marbles and goes

home. Unfortunately, if we are really

honest with ourselves, we are like

children when it comes to relationships

and getting OUR WAY.

There is also a generation being birthed

who seeks the Father, not out of

personal benefit, but out of desire for

order, obedience, and relationship.

When Jesus walked on the earth, most

did not see anything more than a man

possessing tremendous power. Some

attributed this power to God and others

to the devil, yet most saw only a man---a

gifted and unique man to be sure, but

yet just a man. Jesus’ purpose was to

reveal the Father to mankind. To those

with eyes to see, it becomes very

apparent why father/son order is the key

26

to relationships in ministry.

Then said they unto him, Where is thy

Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither

know me, nor my Father: if ye had

known me, ye should have known my

Father also (John 8:19).

The Mystery of the Kingdom was never

hidden from us but for us. Those that

are born again (according to New

Testament order). See Acts chapter 2.

The Kingdom was hidden within Jesus.

Only those who could see beyond the

man, beyond the miracles, and beyond

their own prejudices, could see into the

kingdom. There were people who

desired relationship. We like wise need

to learn to experience the kingdom

resident within the members of the body

of Christ---to go beyond our FEARS and

FLESH and our PRECONCEIVED

IDEAS and see the treasure that is

hidden within each of us.

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo

there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is

within you (Luke 17:21).

A unique part of God is hid in the soul of

each member, to be revealed by those

wise enough to dig it out. The kingdom

is within the body. We are not going to

find relationship by seeking after

miracles, or boosting of the miracles

GOD has worked through us, or by

pursuing gifted Christian ministries and

personalities to mimic, or by searching

the stars for Heaven’s location. If the

Church is to find true relationship, it

must begin to see and fellowship with

the “Jesus” within the Body.

This brings new understanding to the

following Scripture

For where two or three are gathered

together in my name, there am I in the

midst of them (Matthew 18:20).

Dr. Barney Phillips

serves as ICOF Vice

President of

Missions

http://www.icof.net

"If the Lord tarries, there may yet be a grass-

roots awakening that will overflow all

sectarian barriers. There are a host of good

people... who long for a visitation from heaven

in old-time power. The kindling wood is

scattered all round in all the churches. May

God help us to rake off the ashes, uncover the

live coals and may He blow upon us with the

breath of His Spirit!"

-Vance Havner

27

JOIN FIVEFOLD

CONNECTION

Dr. Teddy Dones has launched an amazing

new network! Fivefold Connection.

FIVEFOLD CONNECTION is like Facebook

without the distraction of unwanted

content allowed on Facebook.

Dr. Dones is an alumnus of International

Circle of Faith Colleges, Seminaries and

Universities (ICOF CSU). Looking at the

success of social media, he has had a

burden to create a place where those who

enjoy social media can interact without the

rudiments of the world dominating the

conversation.

Dr. Dones and his wife Janet are the leaders

of Messengers of Fire a powerful ministry

located in the Ohio valley (USA) but doing

ministry all over the world. Join Fivefold

Connection for FREE!

http://fivefoldconnection.co

Ephesians 4:11-14 "And He Himself

gave some [to be] apostles, some

prophets, some evangelists, and some

pastors and teachers, for the

equipping of the saints for the work

of ministry, for the edifying of the

body of Christ, till we all come to the

unity of the faith and of the

knowledge of the Son of God, to a

perfect man, to the measure of the

stature of the fullness of Christ"

28

In a recent weekly Executive Session

we discussed how the enemies of the

cross seem more committed to prayer to

their false deities than followers of Jesus

Christ demonstrate. In discussing the

challenges, understanding that there

has been some 2000 years since the

advent of Jesus Christ's earthly ministry,

we concluded that there is no organized

effort to call the people of God to daily

prayer. Granted, there have been and

remain efforts to such as the national

day of prayer but this is only to direct us

to prayer one day per year. Thus, it is

our expectation to see a global 'Call to

Prayer' where Biblical Christians

(followers of Jesus Christ) would commit

to pray on a daily basis.

Here is our challenge: Prayer - 3 times a

day. We are asking every follower of

Jesus Christ to commit to prayer three

times each day. This is a commitment to

daily prayer for the rest of our lives. This

prayer time can be anytime during the

day but we are suggesting the following:

• Morning - Pray by yourself, with your

family or those where you work or go to

school. This will help set the tone for the

day. • Mid Day - Before or after lunch

take time to pray wherever you are.

Encourage those around you to pray

with you (co-workers, peers, clients,

etc.) • Evening - pray with you family,

your friends, neighbors, etc. Encourage

places of business, church buildings,

malls, etc. to designate a place for daily

prayer. Pray for God to give us space

for REPENTACE!

Pray for your family, friends and others

who are not committed to Jesus Christ.

Pray for healing, renewal, deliverance

and more. Prayer is communication.

The key thing is to STOP what you are

doing. Take time to find a quiet place

where you can communicate with God.

We are not directing you how long to

pray. Rather we are leaving that up to

the individual or the group, but by all

means - PRAY!

Posture - in Scripture we find people

praying in a variety of postures -

kneeling, standing, laying prostrate, etc.

All of these are acceptable.

IF you would like to connect with others

who are praying in like manner please

feel free to email: JOIN THE CALL TO

PRAYER administration@icof.net

29

30

The Immutability

of His Counsel

Dr. Barney Phillips

God gave his own testimony on the witness

stand, “bearing witness” of his word in the

heavens, the earth and the legal heirs of the

promise. To verify the testimony of any

witness as true in the court of Law, the

witness must take an oath. Before God took

the witness stand and declared his word

into the earth, he first took an oath.

For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge

to lay hold upon the hope set before us: (Heb 6:13-18). The legitimacy of the testimony of the spirit is based upon the strength of his oath. In a court of Law we take an oath on a bible, which represents our submission to something greater than ourselves. God can “swear by no greater” so he speaks a promise and swears an oath on himself; in which lies the principle of the kingdom God will speak the promise to himself in the heavenly realm and then speak to the person receiving the promise on earth. This is the meaning of the “two immutable things”: a promise spoken to those on earth and an oath made to himself in Heaven. God will speak “once in the heavens” and “once in the earth.” Whenever God speaks a sovereign word in the earth. He does not speak it just once, but twice. When God’s voice needs to be heard at a time of great transition, our heavenly father will call the man on earth not once, but twice. The “Double Enunciation of Deity” is when God gloriously turns to speak in the earth from what already is in Heaven. If he wants to change the course of Abraham’s obedience and rescue the promise of God, he will not just say , “Abraham” once, but will speak his name

31

twice: “ Abraham, Abraham” ( Gen. 22:11). If God wants to call a deliver to rescue the Israelites, he will say, “Moses, Moses” (Ex. 3:4). When God wants to raise up a pure prophetic voice in a corrupt priesthood, he calls, “Samuel, Samuel” (1 Sam. 3:10).

When the temple is rebuilt after years of captivity God instructs Zerubbabel to install the headstone with the cry of “Grace, grace” (Zech. 4:7). When the word made flesh brings forth the word of his father, he does not say “verily” once, but 25 times in the Gospel of John Jesus says “verily, verily.” When Jesus prays for Peter before he is sifted he says, “Simon, Simon” (Luke 22:31). When Jesus appears to a very disturbed Pharisee who was killing his people he says, Saul, Saul (Acts 9:4). This one is very important and the fact that there is little to no teaching in the church this revelation is all but lost: When God claims someone as a child of the kingdom, he sends his spirit into his heart to cry the double name: “Abba, Father.” In heaven and in earth, the witness of God is given by his voice.

This double enunciation of deity almost always happens in situations where there is no natural answer or when the natural flow is broken. Thus there are times when God sovereignly takes over both positions in a connection. The heavens and the earth are connected by one voice. God speaks in heaven and the earth and says “Abraham, Abraham “because the circumstances were out of control. There was no way Abraham could understand why God wanted a human Scarface, and then change his mind (so Abraham thought). It is important to note: unless alignment with the father in heaven was made with Abraham sovereignly by God, his seed of promise would die. There is no way Saul of Tarsus would be saved without someone presenting Jesus to him. Without a sermon or a Bible, without illustrations, introductions, three songs and a poem, a murderous Pharisee lies upon his face, struck to the ground by the double enunciation of “Saul, Saul.” God had to

32

make the connection himself; once in the heavenlies and once in the earth.

At Shiloh is a priestly system that God is weary of, producing o nly iniquity and unrighteousness in the “sons of Belial” When an Eli produces a Hophin and a Phineas who steal glory, God will intervene. It is really not understandable, but God would allow a token son to sleep in the back room of his house, a son given away by his own mother out of a prayerful and starving situation in which she made a promise. He is there to receive God’s voice. Before the light goes out in the house of God, the word of the Lord comes to the boy and cries, “Samuel.” Three times the voice cries out his name once: “Samuel.” Eli finally recognizes this voice that has been veiled from him, and instructs the young man to receive revelation. When the voice of God finally calls for recognition and Samuel says, “Speak, Lord,” you will notice God said, “Samuel, Samuel” (1 Sam. 3:1-10). In the earth Samuel could not recognize the heavenly voice. That is why he answered to Eli and not the lord. This brings us to the said truth that not only do we have no

teaching in the church at large but we do not teach people to hear from God for themselves. This doctrine of the two immutable things is the very doorway to the entire Kingdom principle. Tragically genuine doctrinal truths from scripture that are dedicated to internal purpose with continuity throughout the Old Testament and New Testament are lost. Rather doctrine today is nothing more than a manipulation tool of externals with the purpose of control and were derived from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; in other words it came from the head. Where was I? Oh, that is what happens so often when men hear the voice of God. They go back to the system and ask, “Is this God?” They go back and ask a failed priesthood, “What am I supposed to do?” It is only when the voice of the Father says sovereignly, Samuel, Samuel, “that the rare voice of God is heard. It is becoming clearer to me why ministry has a problem with spiritual fathers or accountability period. If you do not know the voice of and have a relationship with the heavenly father then it is conceivable that you would not understand a spiritual or even an earthly father. Not to mention headship and accountability and worse, no concept of the

33

Kingdom. Where was I again? Once in the heaven, once in the earth; once in transmission, once in reception: The voice of the heavenly Father into your spirit and you know it is a connection from God. This is spiritual knowledge. It is not based on what you know or where you’ve been, what their names are, how great they are, or how well they are understood. It is the voice of the Father that take over both sides of the divide and forms a spiritual bridge, spanning the yawning emptiness of man’s ability with the purpose and power of God. I believe that’s a very good definition of the Kingdom. The Bible calls these “immutable things,” for when you hear that voice (and know with certainty its God), you know you can’t be lied to; you now have the immutability of his council.

God cannot lie (Tit. 1:2). If you hear the witness of one, it may not be the truth. But in the witness of two everything is established. (Mt. 18:16

Dr. Barney Phillps serves as Vice President of

Missions for International Circle of Faith (ICOF).

http://www.icof.net

34

ICOF members have united over 50,000 ministers

representing more than 25 Million constituents, several

hundred colleges, universities and other Christian schools,

orphanages & feeding programs, humanitarian aid

organizations, chaplains and other charities.

35

AVAILABLE BY REQUEST VIA EMAIL:

ADMINISTRATION@ICOF.NET

36

From Uncle Sam to Uncle

Scam By: Tony Perkins

When President Obama delivered the keynote at Ohio State's graduation last weekend, who knew how ironic his words would be? "Unfortunately," he told the class of 2013, "you've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems... They'll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices."

Well, turns out, the voices were right. Only now, the tyranny is no longer lurking around the corner--it's officially arrived. In an unfolding government corruption scandal that may very well eclipse Watergate, the IRS is finally admitting what some congressmen suspected all along: that the administration was using the agency as a hired thug to punish and silence conservatives.

The conspiracy, which started as early as 2010 and may have affected as many as 500 conservative and Christian groups, used the IRS to antagonize

organizations seeking non-profit status. Unlike liberal organizations, which, in USA Today's words "got a pass," the IRS demanded reams of sensitive--and often irrelevant--information from tea party, religious, and conservative groups to intimidate or otherwise frustrate the President's opponents. According to Politico, agents asked shockingly private questions, ranging from donors lists (which were later leaked), Facebook posts, and media interviews to minutes from board meetings, résumés of officers, tweets, political blog posts, and even a list of student trainees.

At the Waco Texas Tea Party, Toby Walker says the IRS even ordered her to provide "transcripts of radio shows where her group had mentioned political candidates by name"--a project that would have cost the organization $25,000 to complete. In Tennessee, an attorney sent chills down readers' spines when he told reporters that the IRS had asked him for a list of any students he had mentored or planned to mentor. "Can you imagine my responsibility to

37

parents," asked the founder of Linchpins of Liberty, "if I disclosed the names of their children to the IRS?"

In the Christian community, several established organizations were also targeted, including Franklin Graham, whose two North Carolina charities came under sudden scrutiny after he and his father, Rev. Billy Graham, published pro-marriage and pro-family election ads. In a letter to President Obama, the Grahams explain that an IRS agent visited both groups in October to conduct a surprise tax "review." National Organization for Marriage was another target, as their confidential documents were released to the Human Rights Campaign--whose then-president was a chairman for Obama's re-election campaign.

The abuse is so widespread that some of the White House's cheerleaders in the media are piling on about the deep roots of the administration's crookedness. For once, the cumulative effects of Fast and Furious, Solyndra, and Benghazi are starting to pull back the curtain on the lack of integrity and honesty in this White House. Now, thanks to this latest IRS outrage, Americans everywhere will

have to wonder if they're being targeted for their political views and activities--in a constitutional government that depends on their participation! If we want to eliminate the IRS as a tool for political corruption, then it's time to revisit the debate about an alternative form of taxation. Concentrating power in the IRS hasn't grown the American economy. In fact, the only thing it seems to have accomplished is breeding a mobster mentality that threatens U.S.freedom.

"The fact is," President Obama told the crowd at OSU, "all too often the institutions that give structure to our society have, at times, betrayed your trust." No one knew how profound that betrayal was. Now that we do, it's our duty to ensure it stops.

The aggressive anti-Christian actions of the

Obama administration are real, documented

and escalating. We must STOP anti-

Christian actions like these:

38

1. January 2010 -- Department of Defense

orders removal of tiny Bible references on

military scopes and gunsights.

2. June 2011 -- The Department of Veterans

Affairs forbids references to God and Jesus

during burials at National Cemetery.

3. August 2011 -- The Air Force stops

teaching the Just War theory because it is

based on a philosophy of St. Augustine.

4. September 2011 -- Air Force Chief of

Staff prohibits commanders from notifying

airmen of religious programs.

5. September 2011 -- The Army issues

Walter Reed Medical Center guidelines

stipulating that no religious items (i.e.

Bibles, reading materials and/or tracts) are

to be given to the wounded.

6. November 2011 -- The Air Force

Academy rescinds support for Operation

Christmas Child because it is run by

Christians.

7. November 2011 -- The Air Force

Academy pays $80,000 for a Stonehenge-

type worship center for pagans, druids, and

witches.

8. February 2012 -- The U.S. Military

Academy at West Point disinvites three-star

Army general, decorated war hero, and FRC

Executive Vice President, Lt. Gen. (Ret.)

William "Jerry" Boykin, because he is an

outspoken Christian.

9. February 2012 -- The Army orders

Catholic chaplains not to read archbishop's

letter to soldiers.

10. May 2012 -- The Obama administration

opposes legislation to protect the rights of

conscience for military chaplains who do not

wish to perform same-sex "marriages."

11. June 2012 -- Obama administration

revokes the long-standing U.S. policy of

allowing military service emblems to be

placed on military Bibles.

12. August 2012 -- Lt. Col. Jack Rich of the

U.S. Army emails subordinates saying they

should be on the lookout for people who

share FRC's values because they are not

"Army values."

13. January 2013 -- Obama announces the

opposition to a provision in the 2013

National Defense Authorization Act

protecting the rights of conscience for

military chaplains.

14. April 2013 -- Officials briefing U.S.

Army soldiers include "Evangelical

Christianity" and "Catholicism" along with

the terrorist organizations Al-Qaeda,

Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas as

examples of "religious extremism."

15. May 2013 -- The Pentagon meets with

Mikey Weinstein and the Military Religious

Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to establish

new rules which would restrict the religious

freedom of Christian and Jewish military

personnel.

Sadly, this list is just the highlights--and it

gets longer every day.

Standing (Ephesians 6:13),

Tony Perkins

President

39

Dear Dr. Wade,

Praise the Lord Jesus!

Bishop Tembi

Alfred and myself

had a very Grand

Award Ceremony

– an extension of

the June 2012

Award in Douala,

Cameroon on

March 10, 201 as I

shared with you on Skype.

The happy recipient

was Apostle Dr.

Andre Kueto - one

of the leading

Apostles in the

Apostolic Church

Cameroon.

Our joy was even multiplied the more

because we had

the opportunity

to sensitize the

huge population

in attendance

(over 2000) about

the ministry of

ICOF Global. In

fact, Invitees

came from

almost all the 10 Regions of Cameroon!

Three other ICOF CSU Alumni in Cameroon

were also in attendance!

Photo Explanation:

2 with Robes - they are Bishop Tembi

Alfred (with hand lifted up), introducing

the new Graduate, Dr. André Kueto.

Standing alone in Robe is Dr. André

Kueto.

Sitting and using mobile phone is Dr.

David Okposin

Dr. David Ngwa - Secretary General

ICOF Africa www.icof.net

International Circle of Faith Colleges,

Seminaries and Universities is available to

serve your Christian education

needs. ICOF CSU is a network

of Christian Education

professionals, bible

colleges, Christian

seminaries, Christian

universities, and other

Christian education

institutions. for more information visit us

online.

http://www.icofcsu.yolasite.com

or

http://www.icof

40

INDIVIDUALISM - ENEMY of THE CHURCH by Andrew Strom

We live in an utterly individualistic and "self"-oriented age today. I'm sure few would disagree. Every advertisement appeals to 'self' in some way. We are

taught from childhood to be completely self-contained, reliant on no-one, living

in our own little bubble where we decide exactly what will take place. We are

often frightened to commit to any particular group or cause, any particular

leadership. The modern man is an "individualist" to the core. "Don't ask me to join or commit! And don't tell me how

to live my life!"

But all of this, of course, is the exact opposite of "Body". It is the exact

opposite of 'Community'. And thus the exact opposite of the true Church. And yet millions upon millions of Christians

today (especially in the West) are just as "individualistic" as the next man.

Sometimes even more so.

As noted previously, the very first sentence used to describe the early church says: "And they continued

stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and

in prayers." (Acts 2:42).

That is the very picture of a BODY - not a pile of "individualists". They have GIVEN themselves to a group and a cause - a group with real LEADERS

who are anointed preachers from God. But it is almost anathema for a modern person to give themselves to any group in such a way. We are far too suspicious and individualistic and untrusting to ever

do such a thing. And thus the question must be asked: Is it even possible to

have true "BODY" in our day? Is "CHURCH" (in the true sense) even a concept that we can understand? Or

have the media and our entire culture so "individualized" us that true 'Body' is no

longer possible?

You know, Christianity is not designed to be lived out by a pack of

"individualists". And half-committed building-attenders on Sunday mornings are not it either. Christianity is designed

to be lived out CORPORATELY - the "Body of Christ" - an entity that can be seen and observed by people - full of

the glory of Jesus. A Body that corporately carries all the words and power and love and miracles of the

King.

So how on earth can such a "gathering"take place? How can the

scattered remnant of today come together to form such a Body? Well, it all

starts with the anointed "word". You notice in the above verse that these

people gathered around a very specific thing - "The apostles' doctrine

and fellowship". It is an anointed apostolic "word" being preached that is

a crucial element in all this. From such a 'word' everything else follows

and comes into alignment.

Could today's "individualistic" types bring themselves to form a real 'Body' -

even if such a word was being preached? Or is individualism so

ingrained that even 'apostolic' preaching might not bring this about? These are

questions that every one of us should be asking ourselves if we ever hope to be

part of a true movement of God in these Last Days.

41

Relationship between the

Apostolic and the local

Church!

Dr. Alan Pateman

"...look carefully at Jesus, the apostle

and chief priest about whom we make

our declaration of faith" (Hebrews 3:1

GW).

In today's Truth for the Journey we are

going to look at the relationship that

should exist between the apostle and

the local Church - how they should

relate. We will look at how the

authoritative structure within the Church

works. Also we will look at gifts - for

example is an apostle a position of

"office" or a "gift?" This we can answer

straight away - the position of an apostle

is an office and NOT a gift. Or in other

words; the apostle has a governing

office and can function in any of the

gifts. Therefore the apostle has an office

to govern, along with ministry gifts and

the authority to establish. It's important

to interject here - in no uncertain terms -

that THE APOSTLE DOES NOT "TAKE"

AUTHORITY BUT IT IS "GIVEN" BY

THE LOCAL CHURCH.

Apostle James offers us an exception

from the rule by the fact that although he

was considered an apostle in scripture,

he did not actually leave the church in

Jerusalem. Seemingly, he never

ministered outside of Jerusalem. But

Apostle Paul travelled continually during

his thirty-plus years of ministry. His

longest stay at any local church was two

years in Ephesus. So this begs the

question; "can an apostle be a 'sent-one'

and be a 'stayed-one' at the same

time?" Yes! So long as he is

"establishing," "building" and fulfilling a

mandate that he has ultimately been

sent by God from (from birth) to fulfil.

However this depends largely on his

"gifting" too and not just his "office." Now

his office is one thing, and his gifting

helps him to carry out the mandate upon

his office. I.e. an apostle whose main

gifting is to be a pastor can build right

where he is - while still able to be very

internationally minded (not parochial or

narrow in scope) with the spiritual

capacity to travel or to "go," but primarily

"stays!"

Now in addition to this, it must be stated

that all the gifts are EQUAL - they just

have different tasks to do. Likewise all

the "offices" are EQUAL; they just

operate with different gifting. For

example a local elder who has a

42

governing-office to "oversee," is one

who has been given dominion in a

certain area. However when it comes to

the local church in relation to the apostle

- it has to be said that being part of one

Body - includes being "connected" with

the rest of the Body. And a great part of

what the apostle does is through

"connections." He is a great connector.

The Holy Spirit uses the apostolic

ministry more than any other to do His

great global networking!

Now having said all this - any position of

authority or given office of governing

authority (whether apostle, elder/bishop)

is not dictatorial but submissive -

particularly the apostle who is able to

"recognise" what God has already

established and continues to establish.

It is also crucial to observe here that

once the local elders have been set in

and their role established - it is THEY

who have the authority over the local

church and "NOT" the apostle. Now of

cause he still has authority to bring

correction like a shepherd-father-figure

would - but he does not stay around to

carry this out. His role is to oversee... To

view this in scripture we go to the verses

quoted below in order to highlight or

showcase this point perfectly - when

Paul was troubled to write with much

concern to warn the Church in Corinth of

his pending rebuke!

"I'm afraid that I may come and find you

different from what I want you to be, and

that you may find me different from what

you want me to be... I already warned

you when I was with you the second

time, and even though I'm not there

now, I'm warning you again. When I visit

you again, I won't spare you. That goes

for all those who formerly led sinful lives

as well as for all the others. Since you

want proof that Christ is speaking

through me, that's what you'll get. Christ

isn't weak in dealing with you. Instead,

he makes his power felt among you. He

was weak when he was crucified, but by

God's power he lives" (2 Cor 12:20;

13:3-4 GW).

Obviously the apostle has a continuing

position of responsibility when it comes

to the local church but he is not there to

stay and to "RUN" the local church or

implement the local vision! This again is

the role of the set leading elders.

Let us move on now to the next step

and take a look at how apostolic teams

in particular should function and work

together. Before we do this let me point

out ever so briefly how important

structure is. The spine or backbone is

our natural structure. None of us can

live without it! And spiritually speaking

43

the same is true also. Even Satan's

kingdom has structure to it. We see this

evidenced in the sixth chapter of the

book of Ephesians and verse 12 where

it says; "This is not a wrestling match

against a human opponent. We are

wrestling with rulers, authorities, the

powers who govern this world of

darkness, and spiritual forces that

control evil in the heavenly world"

(emphasis added - GW). It is very

distinct here that there are varying levels

in the kingdom of darkness, levels of

authority or hierarchy to execute its

mandates. This represents none other

than a governing "structure" - yet

perhaps in reverse from that of the

Kingdom of God. And by using the

words, "in-reverse"

I don't suggest for a moment that this

means "equal-to" God's Kingdom - albeit

the other way around - by no means!

Yet Satan once knew just how the

Kingdom of God functioned and was

internally structured... therefore he most

certainly would have modeled his best

attempts at organizing his hordes of

darkness - upon what he saw working

with pristine order and condition within

the Kingdom of God!

Structure is valued by those who

understand how it works (and by

structure I don't mean that we get all

wrapped up in knots because we have

adopted some form of legalism,

nevertheless "structure-less-ness" is far

from freedom - but more like anarchy

and chaos and who can have success in

the midst of confusion?) Anyhow take

business for example; they could never

thrive without structure. Organizations

would collapse the world over without

structure and so would every great

building of antiquity that we know! From

the tower of London and Big Ben to the

Eiffel tower - still known as the tallest

structure in Paris! Nothing of

significance can remain standing without

some form of structure holding it up!

So we must not be "structure-shy"

especially within the Church where we

tend to feel obliged to run a "free-for-all"

and expect it to work! It must not be said

by our enemies that the Body of Christ

has no backbone or that we are

spineless! But nor let us try and create

our own image of structure based upon

what we think Church should be like...

No! Rather we should submit ourselves

to what God has already laid out in

scripture to work (irrespective and

notwithstanding our misguided

44

reservations towards...) the apostolic

ministry!

Instead we should shout, "Welcome

back!" For the Church as we know it -

has indeed been feeble and without

strength - yes even much of it has been

guilty of being spineless and void of

spiritual backbone! But now is the time

to embrace true spiritual structure as

Christ deemed fit to bestow upon the

Church and to recognize once again the

importance of this "apostolic ministry"

within His Body. Who are we to resist

any rate? We must work-with and not

against true spiritual structure.

It is true to say that it has never been

enough for the spiritually immature -

"floppy-n-floaty" (freshly filled with new

wine Christians) to get this great and

awesome job done! Nor has it ever been

enough just for the "stuffy-n-religious-

bookworm-types" to give their official

nod to everything! What we need is the

precious working of God's Holy Spirit,

the power of His Word and the coming

together of His mighty Body worldwide -

"a-great-working-together" - to get this

great and divine commission complete!

So as we continue then, from our brief

look at the supposed "hierarchy" of

Satan's kingdom - lets us now look at

the "structure-of-authority" as it should

exist within God's kingdom - according

to scripture (in other words apostolic

teams working together) - as follows:

Derek Prince presents to us,

1) Main Forces of Human Leadership:

A] Apostolic teams and Presbyteries

(elders):

1. Both usually PLURAL

2. A shepherd is a pastor

a) Shepherd (singular) always refers to

Jesus (Acts 20:17)

b) Elders (plural) are overseers (or

bishops) or shepherds (see also 1 Peter

5:1-2).

3. As shepherds (Elders) are united, so

will their flocks be.

45

B] Elder's Responsibility is to Govern -

Conservation (1 Timothy 5:17; Titus

1:5):

a) In the O.T. the elders place was at

the gate

b) Their function: judgement, counsel

and government

c) The N.T. concurs with this

C] Apostolic Team's Function is

Extensive (Romans 15:20-21):

a) Reach the unreached

b) They did not operate alone

D] Governing Body in an Area is

Sovereign:

a) Same applies to a family, mother and

father are sovereign independence and

sovereignty are not the same.

b) Sovereign: accountable to God

c) Independent: out from under God's

authority possibly?

E] Apostolic Teams:

Mobile

Top Authority of Church Extension

Presbyteries

Local / Resident

Govern Locally Conservation

a) Balance is 50% emphasis on either

side in N.T Church

b) The current balance is 98%

conservation and 2% extension.

F] There is no Place for Independence

in Christianity:

2) Interdependence:

A] Apostles Appoint Elders (Acts 14:21-

23):

a) After elders become installed, a

group of believers becomes a church.

B] Apostles sent out by Elders (Acts 13:

1-4):

a) They became apostles after being

prayed for and sent out (Acts 14:14)

b) They were selected by the Holy Spirit

from the most experienced and fruitful

c) Then new leadership emerges from

the less experienced.

C] Reproductive Cycle (Acts 16:1; 1

Thessalonians 2:6):

a) Apostle means; one sent forth

b) It all starts with God the Father.

3) Jesus Set the Pattern:

A] The first Apostle (Hebrew 3:1):

a) Women have a place (Luke 8:1-3)

B] The Early Church was mobile:

C] Apostolic Attestation :

a) It takes the supernatural to make

Gentiles obedient (Romans 15:18-19)

b) (2 Corinthians 12:12)

D] Marks of the Apostle:

a) Perseverance, character, not giving

up

b) Signs, wonders and mighty deeds.

E] The issue is NOT Apostle

Succession, but Apostolic Ministry (1

Cor. 4:20):

46

47

An UNUSUAL WORD

by David Wilkerson

Recently the Holy Spirit gave me an

unusual word, one that I did not want to

hear! He said, "You are bound to a very

limited vision of the Lord´s ocean of

tender, loving mercies. You have endured

much guilt, condemnation and fear

because you have not allowed the Holy

Spirit to reveal the vastness of My

forgiving, healing, reconciling mercies. You

do not know Me for My tenderness!"

God showed me that this is a root cause

for many giving up and falling away. When

sin strikes-when Satan

comes in like a flood, when

you fall into some old habit

or sin-the devil creates a

bondage. First, the guilt

comes flooding in, then fear

fills your

heart. A sense of total

failure and helplessness

overwhelms your soul. At

this point, most believers run out of grace-

because their view of God´s mercy is so

limited.

Satan comes to you and says, "You´ve

reached your limit. You´ve confessed your

sin time after time. There is no way God

will forgive you now, because you´ve

sinned against the light. If you return

and confess once more, you´ll turn around

and sin all over again. So quit now!"

The devil does not want you to see God´s

ocean of mercy; he wants you to see only a

trickle! Because of our ignorance of the

forgiving, restoring power of Christ´s love,

we are destroyed. We run out of mercy for

ourselves because we are horribly bound

by a limited vision. Our eyes have not yet

been opened to the endless mercies of our

tender Father! We are so bound by a

false, limited view of His mercies, we find

it almost impossible to believe or accept

what James said: "[We] have seen the end

of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful (full

of compassion), and of tender mercy"

(James 5:11).

This verse means, "God is

easily crushed by our

troubles and hurts. He

feels our pain and our

failures, and He is kind and

compassionate to us. He

loved us even when we

were His enemy. Even

when we offend Him, He is

quick to help, restore and forgive us."

The word mercy means "kind and

compassionate treatment of an offender

under one's power." God has the power to

damn us to hell every time we sin; He has

us under His control and can

do with us as He pleases. And it pleases His

tender heart to

be compassionate, loving and kind toward

those who have failed

Him the most.

48

German Home Schoolers Get a

Lesson in Liberal Hypocrisy

By: Tony Perkins

If anyone knows what it's like to be singled out by the Obama administration and targeted, it's the Romeike family. While illegal immigrants stream into the country unchecked, the Justice Department seems unusually interested in deporting a German homeschooling family, who--until recently--had been granted asylum. Unfortunately, that all changed when a Board of Immigration Appeals, in partnership with the DOJ, ruled that the family must return to Europe.

The Romeikes fled to the U.S. when German officials threatened to take custody of the children if the parents continued homeschooling them. Three years later, the Justice Department is arguing that a law banning homeschooling doesn't constitute

religious persecution, and, as such, the family should be shipped back home.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, upholding the Obama administration's decision to deny permanent asylum. Our friend Mike Farris, who heads up the Home School Legal Defense Association, has vowed to appeal the ruling, insisting that he will keep fighting to keep the family here in the U.S. "[W]e are in God's hands," Uwe said, which may be the safest place of all, given this administration's hostility toward religious freedom!

49

CONFRONTING THE ERROR of

HYPER-GRACE

by Michael Brown

The biblical message of grace is wonderful,

glorious and life-transforming. We can´t live

without it for one second of our lives. But

there is a message being preached today in

the name of a new grace reformation,

mixing powerful truth with dangerous

error. I call it hyper-grace.

One of the foundational doctrines of the

hyper-grace message is

that God does not see

the sins of his children,

since we have

already been made

righteous by the blood

of Jesus and since all of

our sins, past, present

and future, have

already been forgiven.

That means that the Holy Spirit never

convicts believers of sin, that believers

never need to confess their sins to God, and

that believers never need to repent of their

sins, since God sees them as perfect in his

sight. It is easy to see how such teaching

can be dangerous, especially to a believer

being tempted to compromise.

One hyper-grace teacher wrote this: "When

God looks at me, He doesn´t see me

through the blood of Christ, He sees me-

cleansed! Likewise, He sees us as holy and

righteous. He sees us, and He loves what He

sees!"

Really? Always? 24-7? God always loves

what he sees when he looks at his people?

Yes, he loves us, but does he always love

what he sees?

Did Jesus love what he saw when he

rebuked five out of seven congregations in

Asia Minor in Revelation 2-3? Did Paul,

writing on behalf of the Lord, love what he

saw when he warned the Galatians that

they had fallen from grace and become

trapped in legalism? Did

James, also writing as a

servant of the Lord, love

what he saw when he

rebuked his readers for

being "friends of the world"

and "adulterers and

adulteresses"?

And if the Lord doesn´t see our sins, why

did James write that if a believer who was

sick had also sinned, God would forgive him

when he healed him (see James 5:14-15)?

And if he doesn´t see our sins, why did the

Lord discipline believers in Corinth because

of their sins (see 1 Cor. 11:27-32)? (And pay

careful attention to 1 Corinthians 11:32,

"When we are judged by the Lord, we are

being disciplined so that we will not be

condemned with the world.")

If Jesus doesn´t see our sins, why did he say

to the church in Ephesus, "Yet I hold this

50

against you: You have forsaken your first

love" (Rev. 2:4, NIV)? And why did he says

this to the church in Sardis? "I know your

deeds; you have a reputation of being alive,

but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen

what remains and is about to die, for I have

not found your deeds complete in the sight

of my God. Remember, therefore, what you

have received and heard; obey it, and

repent. But if you do not wake up, I will

come like a thief, and you will not know at

what time I will come to you." (Rev. 3:1-3)

Does it sound like the Lord was thrilled with

what he saw in Ephesus and Sardis? If the

Lord always "sees us as

holy and righteous" and

always "loves what He

sees," why did he rebuke

the believers in Laodicea,

telling them that they

were "wretched, pitiful,

poor, blind and naked"

(Rev. 3:17)? Why didn´t

he say, "I see you as beautifully clothed,

healthy, and rich?"

If he was so happy with what he saw in

Laodicea, why did he threaten to spit the

congregation out of his mouth (see Rev.

3:16)? And if believers never need to repent

of their sins, why did Jesus say, "Those

whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be

earnest, and repent" (Rev. 3:19)? And how

interesting it is that the same Greek word

used in John 16:8-where Jesus says that the

Holy Spirit will convict the world of its sins-

is the word used by the Lord in Revelation

3:19 (translated there as "rebuke"; and

note Rev. 3:22: this is the Spirit speaking!).

It is because God loves us that he rebukes

us (not condemns us) and it is because sin is

so destructive that he calls us to turn from

it. This is the goodness of God, and this is

what grace does, as Paul wrote in Titus

2:11-12, "For the grace of God that brings

salvation has appeared to all men. It

teaches us to say `No´ to ungodliness and

worldly passions, and to live self-controlled,

upright and godly lives in this present age."

How tragic it is today when God´s people

mistake the voice of His

correcting love for the

condemning voice of Satan,

and how sad it is when they

resist the purifying work of

the Spirit, claiming that

there´s nothing to purify

since God no longer sees

their sins.

Has He justified us by the blood of Jesus?

Absolutely. Has He has set apart as holy to

Himself? Without a doubt. Has He called

us to be His sons and daughters, all by His

love and grace? Yes He has. And it is

because of these things that Paul wrote,

"Since we have these promises, dear

friends, let us purify ourselves from

everything that contaminates body and

spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence

for God" (2 Cor. 7:1). What a beautiful,

lofty calling. Don´t let anyone steal it from

you.

51

Africa Our past and present missions include: Drilling water wells, free medical services and in current development of Agriculture &Housing. Germany ICOF Germany held it’s first ever Fivefold Roundtable. Bishop Marcus Benson (ICOF Bishop of Europe) joined with Bishop

52

India Dear in Christ, Bishop Dr. Bernie L. Wade • we started Church construction with prayers. • Please keep in your prayers for the resources to finish this Church construction soon. • We need your prayers and supports to finish this church construction • If you lead by spirit to help for this Church constructions please feel free to contact me. Thank you Your brother in Christ Bishop DANIYELU. K

53

USA

FIVEFOLD ROUNDTABLE SPRING CAMP MEETING

In our second annual Fivefold Roundtable event for the Ohio Valley we expanded our scope and venue to include more of a conference focus. Our hope was to bring more of a worship atmosphere to our meeting and we were not disappointed. God manifested His presence in a mighty way.

Dr. Robert Straube with others during the ‘Twilight’

session at the Fivefold Roundtable

The emphasis of this conference is to bring fivefold ministers together to

network, train, encourage, uplift and more. It is our vision to see fivefold

roundtables in every part of the world. We were blessed by the capable ministry of a plethora of fivefold

ministers.including Bernie Wade II, Dr. Barney Philips, Dr. Robert Strabue, Jim

Kody, Blanca Wade, Melissa Kody, Sonia Green, and others.

The worship leadership provided by Jim and Melissa Kody gave the meeting the

Happy attendees at the ICOF Fivefold Roundtable meeting

We were blessed to have a good number of young people come to the youth portion of the Five Fold Roundtable

Spring Camp meeting.

54

emphasis we needed to usher us into the Throneroom.

Rebecca Goins organized the Youth ministry

with the capable help of Blanca

Wade, Matthew and Kelly

Desurne, Jackie and Alyissa Straube and

others! There was a viable and

capable Godly activity for children during the time the adults were in the

Fivefold Roundtable sessions.

---------------

Dr. Barney Phillips

ICOF VP of Missions

drbphilips@icof.net

55

56

57

Doc and Mia Burkhart

KOREA

FEBRUARY 2013

As we enter February, I am given pause to reflect on the first month of 2013. It has been a busy month! Upon returning to Korea, I am back into a full schedule again, with some extra duties. In the school, we finished up our three week winter camp for English-‘seekers’, and I preached in chapel twice to the students, and made some great new friends. Then, the last week of January, we started our Spring term at Lighthouse International School. It was good to see some familiar faces, and to meet new students in the semester. This term I am not only teaching high school Chemistry and Physics, but also Bible (FIVE different grade levels -*whew!*- but I am LOVING IT)! How many other people get to share the Word of God on a weekly basis in a discipleship setting with over 70 students a week?

As if THAT wasn’t enough, I have preached twice in area churches in the past month, and have launched our weekly Catalyst 316 Bible study for adult seekers. This coming weekend I will be involved in teacher training leading up to our Chungoong English Ministry (CEM) winter retreat later in the month. Mia is still in the Philippines, and we are still working out her visa issues to get her back to Korea as soon as possible. She has been keeping busy as only Mia can; she is not one to be idle. She has been assisting those others who want to come to Korea to

work or to visit, and she has also been managing her family’s affairs there in Angono Rizal. She wants to be back in Korea so bad (I want her here, too)! For me, ministry is a joy, and I am exactly where God wants me to be. I consider it a privilege to serve the King of Kings, and to stand in your place in ministry. So

many of you want to go to serve on the foreign field, but can’t because of a variety of reasons. I am here in Korea, standing in your place for you! There are so many ministry opportunities; it has become difficult to prioritize those ones that the Spirit has been leading. Please know that God is multiplying your prayers and your support for HIS Kingdom!

58

PAKISTAN

BIBLE DISTRIBUTION with

Pastor Amjad Shakir

TESTIMONY I WAS FEELING PAIN IN STOMACH & PRESSURE ON CHEST, AND CAN'T EAT MUCH FOR LAST SIX MONTHS, AND WAS ON MEDICINE THAT DID NOT WORK. I LOSE MY WEIGHT ABOUT 12 KG.CAN'T SIT ON COMPUTER FOR WORK. IT WAS SO CRITICAL FOR MY HEALTH.I WAS PRAYING ON SICK PEOPLE & TAKING HEALING MEETINGS, TEACHING SESSIONS, I DAILY SPEND 14 HOURS IN LORD'S WORK.WHICH REDUCED TO ONLY 1 HOURS HARDLY. I SHARE MY PROBLEM WITH BISHOP BERNIE L WADE TO PRAY FOR ME. I WAS TOUCHED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT WHEN HE PRAYED ON ME & RIGHT THAT MOMENT I AM 100% ALRIGHT. I RECEIVE HEALING WITH HIS PRAYER. MAY GOD ALMIGHTY BLESS HER & FAMILY FROM HIS GRACE RICHES MORE ABUNDANTLY IN JESUS NAME. AMEN. Kanwal Sohail ICOF SECRETARY GENERAL ASIA

59

Special gathering for pastors.

P. O. Box 230805

Montgomery, Alabama 36123

Frank T. Bozeman, Ph.D., Bishop

Greetings in the name of Jesus, The Global Word Fellowship, Inc. would like to invite you to the 2013 Global Evangelical Christian College and Seminary (GECCS) Graduation and Ordination Ceremony.

May 26, 2013 at 3:00 PM. The Host Church is, Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church 1794 Firetower Road, Wetumpka, Alabama 36093, Rev. Kenneth Lewis, Pastor.

The Guest Speaker is Dr. Roderick Williams, Jehovah Jireh Ministries, Alexander City, Alabama. The music will be rendered by Jehovah Jireh Music Ministry.

Contact Dr. Hurdis Bozeman at: 334-221-6115, Email: hurdisb@aol.com

“Empowered to Equip the World through the Word”

www.globaleac.org

Apostolic World Christian Fellowship

Youth Conference June 19-21, 2013

Apostolic Temple Church

2221 S Ironwood Dr South Bend, IN 46613

Pastor Luke Smith

812.760.1725 or lukesmith78@yahoo.com

To have your event published here send the information to administration@icof.net

Please send submissions at least

60 days in advance.

60