The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 43,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 16 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
https://renewaljournal.com/2015/annual-report/
Renewal Journal had around 43,000 views this year – including yours
Annual Report for Renewal Journal
Time for end-of-year reviews!
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“My involvement in the country has been to help facilitate the care of orphans and abandoned children.”
“So, with others, we have built homes, installed pumps and water purifiers, paid for food, clothing, medical care and education.”
This year my 3 adult children and most of my grandchildren will have served and helped in Myanmar/Burma and 5 of them go this December. Click link for more details and email me (geoffwaugh2@gmail.com) if you’d like to help. Australian ANZ bank details: Geoffrey Waugh Mission Account, BSB 014249, Ac. 5647 11123 (Swift code: ANZBAU3M).
Jonathan’s post
See my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/geoff.waugh1
In the 1990 sham election run by the junta, Aung San Suu Kyi won almost 80% of the seats. The election was annulled and Aung San Suu Kyi put under house arrest for 20 years. Twenty five years later, the move towards democracy has seen a new election take place this past weekend. The military gave themselves 25% of the seats, opened the rest for public vote, and created a rule that would disqualify Aung San Suu Kyi from being elected. Despite these obstacles, it looks like her party is even more popular than in 1990 and able to accept office.
I’ve been in Myanmar every Christmas for the past 7 years and seen extensive social changes over that time. Improvements in the roads, vehicles, buildings and society. SIM cards went from costing over $2000 to under $2. I remember looking at my interpreter in disbelief when told a SIM card was more than $1000. What? I was sure they got the conversion from Kyats to dollars wrong.
My involvement in the country has been to help facilitate the care of orphans and abandoned children. Children so easily become helpless victims of poverty. Simply because of where I was born, I have resources that can help. So, with others, we have built homes, installed pumps and water purifiers, paid for food, clothing, medical care and education.
As I return this year, I am looking forward to visiting the kids I know in seven different orphanages. Playing games and having a laugh while concentrating on developing their education. Not only can a well-educated person escape poverty, they can help many other people reach the same heights. So I’d love to start some schools. It’s not something I can do on my own. If you would like to help, I’d like to hear from you.
In her speech, Aung San Suu Kyi noted the often overlooked and misunderstood concept of the servant leader. So often, we want to be in charge and run things our way. I was reminded of the most amazing person in history, the servant-King. See link on my Facebook page.
:
Some of the signs of revival we have seen include a whole mountain ‘on fire’ one night during revival meetings at their Bible School, witchcraft items revealed then removed and destroyed by prayer teams, everyone prayed for in ‘custom’ villages healed, and angels filling a village church with songs in the night in a small village where the worship had been strong, lasting for many hours. Everyone prayed for there was healed and all unbelievers repented during the worship and many were baptized.
Noel & Judith Missingham and family with Christine Beattie return this December to work with Pastor Rolanson.
Photo Report – Andrew and others on Mission in Vanuatu:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153417636371912&type=1&l=c0d498ed0b
Photo report – Grant Shaw on Mission in Vanuatu:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.6091736911.8437.544796911&type=1&l=d2ec2184a8
Photo Report – Joel Shaw and team on Mission in Vanuatu:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153110738631912&type=1&l=4df07da74a
Photo Report – previous teams in Vanuatu:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.5798796911.7292.544796911&type=1&l=31e6d45ef6
Andrew Chee from Hawaii lived to surf. Now he lives to serve – for God.
See more photos on the Facebook Album
21 year old Andrew came with me on a three week mission to Vanuatu in June-July 2012 (and again two years later in 2014 and again in 2015 with Ben Gray and Noel Missingham – see below). A great way to escape winter! We saw God’s blessing and many miracles.
Andrew sensed God telling him to go on the trip, and he booked his flights only one week before we left when flights were full because of school holidays. At first he was wait-listed but the next day a seat became available on all my four flights!
His cousin Grant Shaw came with me to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands in 2006 when he was 22. See photos on the Facebook Album. He encouraged Andrew to join me [Photo: Andrew and Grant].
Grant and his wife Emma hit the news in 2012 with a front-page article in the Sunday Mail and guest appearances on TV shows because they take keen young people to nearby shopping malls and pray for the sick and for anyone wanting prayer. Grant’s brother Joel, also a pastor, began doing this kind of outreach some years previously. Joel and Grant saw God heal hundreds of people, especially non-Christians. Many of those prayed for are now keen Christians also.
Andrew loves praying for the sick because he sees God constantly taking away pain and healing people. He has strong faith in God’s Word, such as Mark 16:17-18. Jesus said, “these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; … they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
We saw all that in Vanuatu, literally. Daily. Both in 2012 and 2014 with Andrew, as well as in 2006 with Grant and 2013 with his brother Joel and his team from Glory City Church in Brisbane, and more since then – see Photo Reports listed above.
See photos and maps on the Facebook Album Huge numbers were healed, and leaders challenged and helped.
Port Vila
We flew into Port Vila late on a Friday night and stayed at the Churches of Christ transit house above the church there. Next morning at 6am we heard young people worshiping in their beautiful island harmonies, so joined them. They welcomed us and invited us to speak briefly and pray for anyone sick. Andrew had words of knowledge about people with pain who then came out for prayer immediately. Our praying continued for everyone wanting prayer after the closing prayer. Nice fast start to mission!
That morning we flew for an hour in a very small plane on the windy trip to Pentecost Island – the bumpiest I have had on my dozen visits there. Fortunately we only had time for one bread roll at the airport before leaving, so did not get sick!
I went to Pentecost Island first in 2003 to see their famous land diving, when men dive from 20-30 meter towers with only vines tied to their ankles. Chief Willie, my host, invited me to return with teams of young people from the Law School Christian Fellowship of the University of the South Pacific. I had met them in 2002 and hosted a month’s mission trip they had with me in Australia that year.
So now I was returning again, with another keen young firebrand for God.
Pentecost Island
This long, narrow island was sighted and named on the Day of Pentecost, 1764, by explorer Bougainville, and also seen by Captain Cook in 1774.
Pastor Rolanson met us at the airstrip and we walked 300 meters to the beach to ride for half an hour in the outboard canoe 10k south to Pangi village. There Rolanson’s sons met us to carry our bags along the muddy track half a kilometer inland to their village, Panlimsi.
I stayed there many times, including with Grant in the bush house behind Andrew and Rolanson in this photo. Rolanson, pastor and evangelist, keeps asking us to return to encourage revival, pray for people, and help him train leaders.
We had our first meeting there that Saturday night in the village church, partially lit by a couple of old fluorescent lights when the generator was started, usually after everyone has arrived – to save fuel! So most meetings begin in the dark with torch light or candles.
Early in the worship Andrew again had words of knowledge about people’s pain so worship included praying for the sick. Their pain left. After we both spoke that night, we prayed for many more.
So began a week of such night meetings at Panlimsi. During the day we rested, recovered, washed in the nearby river where water taro grew abundantly, and usually walked back to Pangi to swim in the ocean. Every time we went out into the villages people asked for healing prayer.
So like Jesus sending out the 12 and 70 (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1) in pairs, we too went through the towns and villages proclaiming the kingdom of God, healing the sick and casting out spirits. Many illnesses there result from curses or witchcraft. Often we had to break curses, bind afflicting spirits and cast them out in Jesus’ name.
They very first time I went there, in 2003, my host Chief Willie asked me to throw out an afflicting spirit giving him a headache, literally. He said that ‘enemies’ had cursed him. So we prayed together, bound and cast out attacking spirits, and he felt fine.
At other times people asked me to help them get rid of strong invading spirits such as one that haunted a house by ‘jumping’ onto the stones on the floor at night. We prayed and it was gone after that. However, that impudent one ‘jumped’ on the stones in my bungalow that night, so I had to cast it out in Jesus’ name, and it never returned. Rather weird to hear someone/something ‘jump’ into your dark room at night!
This time we experienced strong witchcraft. On our last day there, when Andrew and I were weary, Andrew was hit by severe aches and headache. That night I saw a strange dull light, like a reddish torch light, moving horizontally just outside our village hut. We began praying against powerful spirits. God’s Spirit reminded Andrew to bless those who curse you and pray for your enemies. He did. The strange spiritual connection was immediately broken, and pain started easing off. It took a day to recover from that one. “All hail the power of Jesus’ name …”
One Sunday there we shared in a combined churches service in the packed Panlimsi church. Before the service Andrew had words of knowledge about pain in a man’s shoulders and the right side of a woman’s face. Both came for prayer as people were gathering in the church. It turned out that the man was the leader of the service and the woman preached that day! Many times, the words of knowledge Andrew received, we discovered later, were for pastors and leaders, and then later we prayed for others.
At that Sunday service I was strongly led to call people out for prayer during communion. That was a first for them. It never happened in communion. A large number came for prayer and healings were fast and strong.
One night Andrew felt led to wash everyone’s feet. That took the whole service! We put a bucket of water near the door (regularly refilled) and Andrew washed everyone’s feet as they arrived while we worshiped, prayed, spoke and called people out for healing and empowering prayer. I was led to wash the leaders feet that night also [Photo: Andrew washes the chief’s feet]. That happened again in 2014 – following Jesus’ example.
Our adventures included another outboard motor canoe trip an hour north for a combined churches youth rally on the beach with a large campfire at the end of the meeting. We joined forces with another mission team from Gladstone staying there. That night we also prayed for many people after the service. Healings were the fasted and strongest we had seen till then.
Bunlap
The ‘custom’ village of Bunlap on the east coast is famous as the spiritual centre for native witchcraft and curses.
I went there in 2006 with Grant on a five-hour trek across the island, and then via Bunlap on a seven-hour trek to Ponra village where we saw the power of God at every meeting and I heard angels singing in the night, like the church was full, although no people were there. Grant had prayed for the ‘heeathen’ paramount chief’s son whose groin was healed at Pangi village, so we offered to go to Bunlap and pray for the sick. A couple of days later we heard that the chief had invited us to come and pray for his sick people – the first white people to ever be invited to pray for people there.
This time Andrew and I were swimming off the jetty near Pangi when one of chief’s sons from Bunlap and his friends wandered onto the jetty. Two of those young men had pain so Andrew prayed for them and the pain left. The chief’s son told us they would be there when we came to Bunlap the following Saturday to pray for sick people again.
This year we enjoyed the luxury of a four-wheel-drive truck trip across the island through the dense green mountains. We had three nights of meetings at Ranwas village, Friday to Sunday, including the Sunday morning service there. On Saturday we trekked half an hour through the jungle to Bunlap.
People were even more welcoming this time at Bunlap. We prayed for dozens of people, and their pain left. We talked about the kingdom of God and how Jesus saves and heals. Some of the people told us they believed that and when the chief allowed it they would be part of a church there.
The paramount chief once burned a Bible given to him by a revival team from the Christian villages. Now he is willing for a church to be built on the ground where he burned the Bible. Hallelujah – what a testimony to God’s grace and glory.
For the first time ever that paramount chief asked for prayer. He wanted healing from head pain. Andrew placed his hands on the sides of the chief’s head and we prayed for him in Jesus’ name. The pain left.
Pastors Willy, Gordon, Rolanson, with Andrew and the chief (seated)
Then another chief there prepared lunch for us so the pastors in the team and Andrew and I ate in his house – again the first time ever for white people on mission there.
Like Jesus’ disciples, we returned to Ranwas church rejoicing that afflicting spirits were cast out, people were healed in Jesus name, some believed in Jesus, and they now want plan to have a church there. Our host chief told Rolanson he can bring his guitar and have meetings in the chief’s house anytime.
Some Christians at Ranwas were amazed to hear the reports. They have endured witchcraft and curses from Bunlap for a century. Again, during communion on Sunday large numbers came for prayer for healing, and healings were fast and strong. They had never done that in communion before. At all the meetings Andrew had specific words of knowledge about healings, and pain left quickly. In the beginning, we had to pray for some people two or three times before the pain left, but as the weeks passed and faith rose, healings were much quicker and stronger. By the end of the mission trip people in the congregation were praying for each other in faith and seeing God touch their friends.
Andrew especially encouraged leaders to pray with him for people’s healings, just as he had learned from leaders in his church. Soon those village leaders and others were praying more strongly in faith. Many of them do that constantly anyway, so we were just encouraging them to believe and take authority in Jesus’ name even more fully.
We returned to Ranwas village, and Bunlap vilage in 2014, with similar results. The sick were healed. Hearts were opened to faith in Jesus.
In 2014 we also spoke and prayed with many people at the Independence Celebrations held every 24th July for a week. Many responded, and many youths came for prayer during our time there. We slept one night with a local football team and woke up to them singing:
For I was made in His likeness
Created in His image
For I was born to serve the Lord
And I can’t deny Him
And I will always walk beside Him
For I was born to serve the Lord.
I challenged them all to live fully this way and the whole team responded in prayer.
Some of the signs of revival we have seen include a whole mountain ‘on fire’ one night during revival meetings at their Bible School, witchcraft items revealed then removed and destroyed by prayer teams, everyone prayed for in ‘custom’ villages healed, and angels filling a village church with songs in the night in a small village where the worship had been strong, lasting for many hours. Everyone prayed for there was healed and all unbelievers repented during the worship and many were baptized.
The largest island in Vanuatu is Espiritu Santo (usually just called Santo) with Luganville the second largest town in Vanuatu, after Port Vila the capital. That’s the island where Pedro Fernandes de Queiros in 1606 named the island group La Austrailia del Espiritu Santo – the great south lands of the Holy Spirit, from which Australia gets its name.
We flew from Pentecost Island to Santo Island on a Wednesday and from Santo back to Brisbane, via Port Vila, on the Friday. At Santo, we stayed for two nights in the Churches of Christ transit house near the main church. We had time to relax, eat café or restaurant meals, instead of village food, and swam in one of the Blue Pools, a unique tourist attraction where the freshwater is a cool, clear bright blue.
There I met again two of their leading pastors who had worked with me in previous visits to Vanuatu, and we were invited to the youth meeting at the church on Thursday night, our last night in Vanuatu.
What a beautiful end to the mission trip. About 30 youth practiced a new song to sing on Sunday, and the leader invited us to speak briefly and pray for them. Again, Andrew’s words of knowledge proved to be for their leaders first, who were immediately healed. Then we prayed for other needs and finally asked all who wanted to be filled with Spirit and empowered by God to come out. Everyone came! What a wonderful atmosphere of faith and expectation.
We went to our beds rejoicing in the goodness of God and all we had seen him do in three weeks with the warm, friendly, and faith-filled people of Vanuatu. We especially appreciate your prayers and participation in the work of the gospel of Jesus in Vanuatu.
Vanuatu
I’m just back from a good time in Vanuatu, though tiring – reminds me I’m approaching 80! Great to have 3 young fellows full of energy and zeal, Andrew Chee (3rd time there, and he was with me in Nepal and Thailand last year), his friend Ben Gray, and my nephew-in-law Noel Missingham – see the Facebook Album. Pastor Rolanson has been the main organizer of my visits to Pentecost Island for over 12 years and I often stay in his village. This time Rolanson came to Vila the first week we were there so we stayed in Vila a week with contacts given to Noel. Rolanson is standing as MP for Pentecost in the national elections next June (many not happy about a pastor/evangelist doing that – but he could be a strong influence!). So we joined with a new church group there and had free accommodation as well. The boys loved praying for people in the streets and seeing immediate healings, and we were taken out by church people on 3 days to pray for many, including the Paramount Chief of Port Vila in his island village!
We had a good week on Pentecost staying with Elder Jackson and wife Annette (who worked in the one-room bank) in their house near the beach at Pangi as Rolanson stayed on in Vila with government stuff. The team prayed for healings every day and in all the night meetings. Night meetings in four different villages: Panlimsa, Hotwater, Wali and Pange, were all strong with personal prayers for healings, anointing, empowering and mission. See South Pentecost map on the Facebook album:
It was a time of building them up again. Everyone who was prayed for about their healing reported that the pain had gone – quickly. I left some of the treks into the mountains to the young men this time and Andrew and Noel returned and prayed for the ‘custom’ paramount chief, not only for healings in the village, but for his salvation. He indicated that he wanted to give his life to God and open all the ‘custom’ villages to evangelism. Two ‘custom’ chiefs opened their villages for healing prayers and evangelism.
Solomon Islands
In August 2015 I returned to Honiara in the Solomon Islands with two young ladies from the Kingdom Culture Church in Brisbane, Flora Meir and Sarah Feeney.
Calvin Ziru (one of the team of law students who came to Brisbane in 2002) is helped to co-ordinate with various churches in meetings arranged by Pastor Alpheus. We had meetings in different churches every night as well as in some home groups. We prayed for many people each day with many being healed and empowered. Flora Meir from Kingdom Culture Church is the South Pacific supervisor for the Global Development Group (GDG) and was able to help people there in Honiara and also in Vanuatu plan for self-sustaining projects. We value your prayer support – even now as you read this! I have truly appreciated your support in these mission trips over the years, and it looks like God keeps opening the way for more.
If you would like to help financially my Australian ANZ mission account is
Geoffrey Waugh, BSB 014249, Ac. 5748 99334.
ANZ Swift Code is ANZBAU3M
With appreciation for your prayers and support,
Geoff
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Some of the signs of revival we have seen include a whole mountain ‘on fire’ one night during revival meetings at their Bible School, witchcraft items revealed then removed and destroyed by prayer teams, everyone prayed for in ‘custom’ villages healed, and angels filling a village church with songs in the night in a small village where the worship had been strong, lasting for many hours. Everyone prayed for there was healed and all unbelievers repented during the worship and many were baptized.
Photo Report – Andrew and others on Mission in Vanuatu:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153417636371912&type=1&l=c0d498ed0b
Photo report – Grant Shaw on Mission in Vanuatu:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.6091736911.8437.544796911&type=1&l=d2ec2184a8
Photo Report – Joel Shaw and team on Mission in Vanuatu:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153110738631912&type=1&l=4df07da74a
Photo Report – previous teams in Vanuatu:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.5798796911.7292.544796911&type=1&l=31e6d45ef6
Andrew surfing
Andrew Chee from Hawaii lived to surf. Now he lives to serve – for God [Photo: Andrew surfing].
See more photos on the Facebook Album
21 year old Andrew came with me on a three week mission to Vanuatu in June-July 2012 (and again two years later in 2014 and again in 2015 with Ben Gray and Noel Missingham – see below). A great way to escape winter! We saw God’s blessing and many miracles.
Andrew sensed God telling him to go on the trip, and he booked his flights only one week before we left when flights were full because of school holidays. At first he was wait-listed but the next day a seat became available on all my four flights!
His cousin Grant Shaw came with me to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands in 2006 when he was 22. See photos on the Facebook Album
Grant founded Kingdom Culture Church on the north side of Brisbane. He encouraged Andrew to join me [Photo: Andrew and Grant].
Grant hit the news in 2012 with a front page article in the Sunday Mail and guest appearances on TV shows because they take keen young people to nearby shopping malls and pray for the sick and for anyone wanting prayer. Grant’s brother Joel, also a pastor, began doing this kind of outreach some years previously. Joel and Grant saw God heal hundreds of people, especially non-Christians. Many of those prayed for are now keen Christians also.
Andrew loves praying for the sick because he sees God constantly taking away pain and healing people. He has strong faith in God’s Word, such as Mark 16:17-18. Jesus said, “these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; … they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
We saw all that in Vanuatu, literally. Daily. Both in 2012 and 2014 with Andrew, as well as in 2006 with Grant and 2013 with his brother Joel and his team from Glory City Church in Brisbane – see Photo Reports listed above.
See photos and maps on the Facebook Album Huge numbers were healed, and leaders challenged and helped.
We flew into Port Vila late on a Friday night and stayed at the Churches of Christ transit house above the church there. Next morning at 6am we heard young people worshiping in their beautiful island harmonies, so joined them. They welcomed us and invited us to speak briefly and pray for anyone sick. Andrew had words of knowledge about people with pain who then came out for prayer immediately. Our praying continued for everyone wanting prayer after the closing prayer. Nice fast start to mission!
That morning we flew for an hour in a very small plane on the windy trip to Pentecost Island – the bumpiest I have had on my dozen visits there. Fortunately we only had time for one bread roll at the airport before leaving, so did not get sick!
I went to Pentecost Island first in 2003 to see their famous land diving, when men dive from 20-30 meter towers with only vines tied to their ankles. Chief Willie, my host, invited me to return with teams of young people from the Law School Christian Fellowship of the University of the South Pacific. I had met them in 2002 and hosted a month’s mission trip they had with me in Australia that year.
So now I was returning again, with another keen young firebrand for God.
This long, narrow island was sighted and named on the Day of Pentecost, 1764, by explorer Bougainville, and also seen by Captain Cook in 1774.
Pastor Rolanson met us at the airstrip and we walked 300 meters to the beach to ride for half an hour in the outboard canoe 10k south to Pangi village. There Rolanson’s sons met us to carry our bags along the muddy track half a kilometer inland to their village, Panlimsi.
I stayed there many times, including with Grant in the bush house behind Andrew and Rolanson in this photo. Rolanson, pastor and evangelist, keeps asking us to return to encourage revival, pray for people, and help him train leaders.
We had our first meeting there that Saturday night in the village church, partially lit by a couple of old fluorescent lights when the generator was started, usually after everyone has arrived – to save fuel. So most meetings begin in the dark with torch light or candles.
Early in the worship Andrew again had words of knowledge about people’s pain so worship included praying for the sick. Their pain left. After we both spoke that night, we prayed for many more.
So began a week night meetings at Panlimsi. During the day we rested, recovered, washed in the nearby river where water taro grew abundantly, and usually walked back to Pangi to swim in the ocean. Every time we went out into the villages people asked for healing prayer.
So, like Jesus sending out the 12 and 70 (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1) in pairs, we too went through the towns and villages proclaiming the kingdom of God, healing the sick and casting out spirits. Many illnesses there result from curses or witchcraft. Often we had to break curses, bind afflicting spirits and cast them out in Jesus’ name.
The first time I went there, in 2003, my host Chief Willie asked me to throw out an afflicting spirit giving him a headache, literally. He said that ‘enemies’ had cursed him. So we prayed together, bound and cast out attacking spirits, and he felt fine.
At other times people asked me to help them get rid of strong invading spirits such as one that haunted a house by ‘jumping’ onto the stones on the floor at night. We prayed and it was gone after that. However, that impudent one ‘jumped’ on the stone floor in my bungalow that night, so I had to cast it out in Jesus’ name, and it never returned. Rather weird to hear someone/something ‘jump’ into your dark room at night!
This time we experienced strong witchcraft. On our last day there, when Andrew and I were weary, Andrew was hit by severe aches and headache. That night I saw a strange dull light, like a reddish torch light, moving horizontally just outside our village hut. We began praying against powerful spirits. God’s Spirit reminded Andrew to bless those who curse you and pray for your enemies. He did. The strange spiritual connection was immediately broken, and pain started easing off. It took a day to recover from that one. “All hail the power of Jesus’ name …”
Every first Sunday of the month the Churches of Christ have a combined service for all their churches in South Pentecost. We shared in one in the packed Panlimsi church. Before the service Andrew had words of knowledge about pain in a man’s shoulders and the right side of a woman’s face. Both came for prayer as people were gathering in the church. It turned out that the man was the leader of the service and the woman preached that day! Many times, the words of knowledge Andrew received, we discovered later, were for pastors and leaders, and then later we prayed for others.
At that Sunday service I was strongly led to call people out for prayer during communion. That was a first for them. It never happened in communion before. A large number came for prayer and healings were fast and strong.
One night Andrew felt led to wash everyone’s feet. That took the whole service! We put a bucket of water near the door (regularly refilled) and Andrew washed everyone’s feet as they arrived while we worshiped, prayed, spoke and called people out for healing and empowering prayer. I was led to wash the leaders’ feet that night also [Photo: Andrew washes the chief’s feet]. That happened many times through the years – following Jesus’ example.
Our adventures included another outboard motor canoe trip an hour north for a combined churches youth rally on the beach with a large campfire at the end of the meeting. We joined forces with another mission team from Gladstone (in Queensland, Australia). That night we also prayed for many people after the service. Healings were the fastest and strongest we had seen till then.
The ‘custom’ village of Bunlap on the east coast is famous as the spiritual base for native witchcraft and curses.
I went there in 2006 with Grant on a five hour trek across to Ranwas village and then via Bunlap on a seven hour trek to Ponra village where we saw the power of God at every meeting and I head angels singing in the night, like the church was full, although no people were there.
Grant had prayed for the paramount chief’s son whose groin was healed at Pangi village, so we offered to go to Bunlap and pray for the sick. A couple of days later we heard that the chief had invited us to come and pray – the first white people to ever be invited to pray for people there.
This time Andrew and I were swimming off the jetty near Pangi when one of chief’s sons from Bunlap and his friends wandered onto the jetty. Two of those young men had pain so Andrew prayed for them and the pain left. The chief’s son told us they would be there when we came to Bunlap the following Saturday to pray for sick people again.
This year we enjoyed the luxury of a four-wheel truck trip across the island through the dense green mountains. We had three nights of meetings at Ranwas village, Friday to Sunday, including the Sunday morning service there. On Saturday we trekked half an hour through the jungle to Bunlap.
People were even more welcoming this time at Bunlap. We prayed for dozens of people, and their pain left. We talked about the kingdom of God and how Jesus saves and heals. Some of the people told us they believed that and when the chief allowed it they would be part of a church there.
The paramount chief once burned a Bible given to him by a revival team from the Christian villages. Now he is willing for a church to be built on the ground where he burned the Bible. Hallelujah – what a testimony to God’s grace and glory.
For the first time ever that paramount chief asked for prayer. He wanted healing from head pain. Andrew placed his hands on the sides of the chief’s head and we prayed for him in Jesus’ name. The pain left.
Pastors Willy, Gordon, Rolanson and his son David with Andrew and the paramount chief (seated)
Then another chief there prepared lunch for us so the pastors in the team and Andrew and I ate in his house – again the first time ever for white people on mission eating with him there.
Like Jesus’ disciples, we returned to Ranwas church rejoicing that afflicting spirits were cast out, people were healed in Jesus’ name, some believed in Jesus, and they now plan to have a church there someday. Our host chief told Rolanson he can bring his guitar and have meetings in the chief’s house anytime.
Some Christians at Ranwas were amazed to hear the reports. They have endured witchcraft and curses from Bunlap for a century. Again, during communion on Sunday large numbers came for prayer for healing, and healings were fast and strong. They also had never done that in communion before. At all the meetings Andrew had specific words of knowledge about healings, and pain left quickly. In the beginning of our trip we had to pray for some people two or three times before the pain left, but as the weeks passed and faith rose, healings were much quicker and stronger. By the end of the mission trip people in the congregation were praying for each other in faith and seeing God touch their friends. We really encourage them to keep doing that.
Andrew especially encouraged leaders to pray with him for people’s healings, just as he had learned from leaders in his church. Soon those village leaders and others were praying more strongly in faith. Many of them do that constantly anyway, so we were just encouraging them to believe and take authority in Jesus’ name even more fully.
We returned to Ranwas village, and Bunlap village in 2014, with similar results. The sick were healed. Hearts were opened to faith in Jesus.
In 2014 we also spoke and prayed with many people at the Independence Celebrations held every 24th July for a week. Many responded, and many youth came for prayer during our time there. We slept one night with a local football team and woke up to them singing:
For I was made in His likeness
Created in His image
For I was born to serve the Lord
And I can’t deny Him
And I will always walk beside Him
For I was born to serve the Lord.
I challenged them all to live fully this way and the whole team responded in prayer.
Some of the signs of revival we have seen include a whole mountain ‘on fire’ one night during revival meetings at their Bible School, witchcraft items revealed then removed and destroyed by prayer teams, everyone prayed for in ‘custom’ villages healed, and angels filling a village church with songs in the night in a small village where the worship had been strong, lasting for many hours. Everyone prayed for there was healed and all unbelievers repented during the worship and many were baptized.
The largest island in Vanuatu is Espiritu Santo (usually just called Santo) with Luganville the second largest town in Vanuatu, after Port Vila the capital. That’s the island where Pedro Fernandes de Queiros in 1606 named the island group La Austrailia del Espiritu Santo – the great south lands of the Holy Spirit, from which Australia gets its name.
We flew from Pentecost Island to Santo Island on a Wednesday and from Santo back to Brisbane, via Port Vila, on the Friday. At Santo we stayed for two nights in the Churches of Christ transit house near the main church. We had time to relax, eat café or restaurant meals, instead of village fare, and swam in one of the Blue Pools, a unique tourist attraction where the fresh water is a cool, clear bright blue.
There I met again two of their leading pastors who had worked with me in previous visits to Vanuatu, and we were invited to the youth meeting at the church on Thursday night, our last night in Vanuatu.
What a beautiful end to the mission trip. About 30 youth practiced a new song to sing on Sunday, and the leader invited us to speak briefly and pray for them. Again, Andrew’s words of knowledge proved to be first for their leaders who were immediately healed. Then we prayed for other needs and finally asked all who wanted to be filled with Spirit and empowered by God to come out. Everyone came! What a wonderful atmosphere of faith and expectation.
We went to our beds rejoicing in the goodness of God and all we had seen him do in three weeks with the warm, friendly and faith-filled people of Vanuatu. We especially appreciate your prayers and participation in the work of gospel of Jesus in Vanuatu.
Port Vila
On our return via the capital, Port Vila, last year (2014) Andrew was led to arrange for a hydro-electric plant to be shipped to Pentecost Island, to use in Panlimsi with Pastor Rolanson. It’s much better for their lighting and band for revival meetings. The hosted a national revival conference there on Pentecost Island in December 2014.
Vanuatu
I’m just back from a good time in Vanuatu, though tiring – reminds me I’m approaching 80! Great to have 3 young fellows full of energy and zeal, Andrew Chee (3rd time there, and he was with me in Nepal and Thailand last year), his friend Ben Gray, and my nephew-in-law Noel Missingham – see the Facebook Album. Pastor Rolanson has been the main organizer of my visits to Pentecost Island for over 12 years and I often stay in his village. This time Rolanson came to Vila the first week we were there so we stayed in Vila a week with contacts given to Noel. We joined with a new church group there and had free accommodation as well. The boys loved praying for people in the streets and seeing immediate healings, and we were taken out by church people on 3 days to pray for many, including the Paramount Chief of Port Vila and many of his people in his island village.
We had a good week on Pentecost staying with Elder Jackson and wife Annette (who worked in a bank branch there) in their house near the beach at Pangi as Rolanson stayed on in Vila with government stuff. The team prayed for healings every day and in all the night meetings. Night meetings in four different villages: Panlimsa, Hotwater, Wali and Pange, were all strong with personal prayers for healings, anointing, empowering and mission. See South Pentecost map on the Facebook album:
It was a time of building them up again. Everyone who was prayed for about their healing reported that the pain had gone – quickly. I left some of the treks into the mountains to the young men this time, and Andrew and Noel returned and prayed for the ‘custom’ paramount chief not only for healings in the village but for his salvation. He indicated that he wanted to give his life to God and open all the ‘custom’ villages to evanglism. Two ‘custom’ chiefs opened their villages for healing prayers and evangelism.
Noel and Andrew pray with the ‘custom’ paramount chief for healing and salvation
We had a few days at Santo Island on our return. Pastor Lewis (who hosted my time teaching at the Bible College in 2004-5) is there in the main office as director of mission. We had a few days to relax on Sunny Santo.
Solomon Islands
In August 2015 I returned to Honiara in the Solomon Islands with two young ladies from the Kingdom Culture Church in Brisbane, Flora Meir and Sarah Feeney.
Calvin Ziru (one of the team of law students who came to Brisbane in 2002) is helped to co-ordinate with various churches in meetings arranged by Pastor Alpheus. We had meetings in different churches every night as well as in some home groups. We prayed for many people each day with many being healed and empowered. Flora Meir from Kingdom Culture Church is the South Pacific supervisor for the Global Development Group (GDG) and was able to help people there in Honiara and also in Vanuatu plan for self-sustaining projects. We value your prayer support – even now as you read this! I have truly appreciated your support in these mission trips over the years, and it looks like God keeps opening the way for more.
If you would like to help financially my Australian ANZ mission account is
Geoffrey Waugh, BSB 014249, Ac. 5647 11123.
ANZ Swift Code is ANZBAU3M
With appreciation for your prayers and support,
Geoff Waugh
Prayer*
*
Model prayer (‘The Lord’s Prayer’)
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
(Matthew 6:7-13 NKJV)
At his baptism (Luke 3: 21-22)
Early in the morning (Mark 1: 35)
In deserted places (Luke 5:15-16)
All night (Luke 6:12-13)
Giving thanks (Grace) (John 6:11)
On a mountain (Matthew 14:22-23)
Transfiguration mountain (Luke 9:28-29)
At Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:41-42)
*
The Last Supper (Passover) (John 17: 1-26)
Gethsemane, 3 times (Matthew 26:36-45)
*
*
Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34)
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34; Psalm 22:1)
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. (Luke 23:46; Ps 31:5)
Resurrected:
Emmaus (Luke 24:30-31)
Bethany (Luke 24:50-51)
Adoration – worship
Confession – concentration
Thanksgiving – praise
Supplication – intercession
Speaking – eyes closed & open
Thinking – meditating, fellowship
Writing – journal, diary
Songs – worship, repentance, faith
Instruments – guitar, flute, piano
CD/DVD/smartphone – background music & worship (car, home, bedroom)
TV – prompted by news, needs
Relaxed – in bed, shower, cooking, cleaning
Active – walking, riding, cycling, dancing
In need – “Help” (eg exams, crisis)
With others – home, meetings, coffee, church
24/7 Worship and Prayer – an invitation
Living in the Spirit
The Holy Spirit and the Christian Life
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Voices from History:
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Living in the Spirit: https://renewaljournal.com/2010/12/26/living-in-the-spirit/
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APPENDIX 1: Voices from history
Reproduced from Living in the Spirit
Detailed Contents with Photos from this book
Tertullian (160‑220) lived during severe persecution of Christians, noting that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. He was a brilliant Christian scholar and lawyer theologian from North Africa. In commenting on baptism and the Spirit, he says:
“Not that in the waters [of baptism] we receive the Holy Spirit, but cleansed in water, and under the angel we are prepared for the Holy Spirit.”
Tertullian joined the Montanist movement early in the third century and challenged the worldliness of the church of his day. The Montanists flourished in Asia Minor from the second century into the fifth century. Montanus spoke in tongues at his baptism and began prophesying. His movement called people to holy living and they expected the Lord to return soon. They valued the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy, although the movement became excessive and was rejected by the established church.
Augustine of Hippo (354‑430) wrote:
“When you were exorcised [that is to have evil cast out] you were so to speak, ground. When you were baptised you were, so to speak, watered. When you received the fire of the Holy Spirit you were, so to speak, baked.”
Augustine refers to making bread and uses this to describe the work of God in our lives:
ground ‑‑ to grind the wheat; watered ‑‑ to mix the dough; baked ‑‑ to bake the bread in an oven.
Augustine of Hippo was a great thinker, leader, and writer in the early church who embraced the Christian faith after a varied career through the first half of his life.
He witnessed, was often instrumental in, and recorded many miracles. He said, “For when I saw in our own time frequent signs of old, I desired that narratives might be written, judging that the people should not be ignorant of such things.”
Often healing miracles accompanied the celebration of the sacraments and were supported by a dedicated life of prayer within the Christian community. He wrote, “Today miracles still go on happening in our Lord’s name, through the sacraments he instituted and through the prayers and memorials of his saints.”
Augustine believed that miracles build up faith: “The world believes, not because it is convinced by human argument, but because it has been faced with the power of divine signs.”
The Spirit’s gifts and power given to the apostles were part of the experience of the church in Augustine’s day.
Cyril of Jerusalem lived about 315‑386. He was Bishop of Jerusalem from about 349.
He likened Christian initiation [baptism in water] to the experience of Christ in the river Jordan. “As the Holy Spirit in substance lighted on him, like resting upon like, so after you had come up from the pool of sacred waters, there was given to you an unction [anointing], the antitype [a pattern of the way things happen in the future] of that wherewith he was anointed and this is the Holy Spirit.”
In other words, Cyril of Jerusalem held that Jesus’ experience of water baptism followed by anointing by the Spirit was a Pattern that Christians were meant to follow. That is to say, people would become Christians, enter the water of baptism and then receive empowerment for service by the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Gregory the Great (540‑604) became Pope in 590. The times were wracked by war, famine and devastation. Nevertheless, it was a time of intense missionary activity accompanied by the overt manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit. Gregory was a prolific writer, and in his Dialogues and sermons we read of many accounts of prophecies, healings, and visions that people were currently experiencing.
In commenting on Augustine the missionary to Britain (died 604), he said, “By the shining miracles of his preachers, God has brought faith even to the extremities of the earth… The tongue of Britain, which before could only utter barbarous sounds, has lately learned to make the alleluia resound in praise of God”, and Augustine and his fellow missionaries “seemed to be imitating the powers of the apostles in the signs which they displayed.”
He believed that such phenomena should be integrated into the life of the church, and in the Dialogues he says, “Every act of our Redeemer, performed through his human nature, was meant to be a pattern for our actions.” After describing a healing, he said, “If anyone would ask you how this happened, tell him simply that the Lord Jesus Christ was here doing his work.”
Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) was born in that typical Italian town of the thirteenth century. It had a hierarchy, at the bottom of which were peasants, believing in the power of miracles, relics and pilgrimages, but knowing little of the power of Christ in their lives, or even of the facts of the gospel story. Then came prosperous citizens, the higher clergy and the land‑owning gentry. Assisi had its wars, such as that which made such a deep impression on Francis, the war with the neighbouring city of Perugia .
Into this world came Francis, renouncing his family’s prosperity and proclaiming the excellence of a life of poverty, peace, love, and labour. He has been called the Mirror of Christ, God’s Jester, and the Little Poor Man of Assisi. He took Christ seriously, reminding his world that love is more than an abstract virtue about which to preach sermons and write poems; it is something that has to be hammered out in the painful realities of daily living.
He told how the power of Jesus’ Spirit changed him: “I remember the first victory of my new heart. All my life I’d panicked when I met lepers. Then one day on the road below Assisi, I did one of those surprising things that only the power of Jesus’ Spirit could explain. I reached out and touched a leper, a man the very sight of whom nauseated me. I felt my knees playing tricks on me, and I was afraid I would not make it to the leper. The smell of rotting flesh attacked all my senses – as if I were smelling with eyes and ears as well. Tears began to slide down my cheeks because I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. Then, as I began to lose my composure, I grabbed the man’s hand and kissed it. In doing so, I received more than I gave. In finding that leper, I found Christ.”
Walter Hilton (1340-1396) was an English mystic whose spiritual writings were widely read in the fifteenth century in England. The most famous of them The Scale of Perfection describes the spiritual journey of the soul. The section on prayer advises the reader to be detached from all earthly things and use every effort to withdraw one’s mind from them so that the mind may be stripped free of them and rise continually to Jesus Christ. While Christ will remain a mystery in his divinity, his humility and humanity are ways of experiencing his goodness.
To pray well is to allow one’s heart to be freed from the burden of all worldly thoughts and, by the power of the Spirit, rise to a spiritual delight in the presence of Christ. “For prayer is nothing other than the ascent of the heart to God.”
In the section on loving others but hating their sin, he quotes Paul from Romans 5:5, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given us.” It is only by this givenness, this grace, that we can love others and hate sin, and without this “… all other actions do not make a man good or worthy of heaven.”
All Hilton’s writing depends on the basic thesis of the initiative for salvation and spiritual growth lying with God.
Thomas á Kempis (1381‑1471) lived and wrote against a background of education and experience in the schools of the Brethren of the Common Life, an association founded in the Netherlands in the fourteenth century to foster a higher level of Christian life and devotion. Thomas á Kempis, while widely sought after as a spiritual adviser, is probably best known for a book which tradition strongly suggests he wrote The Imitation of Christ. It is a series of meditations and prayers designed to draw the individual Christian into a deep love for Christ.
In one meditation, he exhorts the reader to give up or forsake oneself in order to find God. “Stand without choice, without following your own will, and without all possessions, and you will advance much in grace.” If you resign yourself wholly into God’s hands, and take nothing for yourself, you will gain great inward peace.
That is something which should happen all the time, every hour, in great things and in small. God urges: “In all things I would find you naked and poor, and bereft of your own will. … Stand purely and firmly in me, and you will be so pure in heart and in soul that darkness of conscience or slavery to sin will never have power over you.”
St Teresa of Avila (1515‑1582), The Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic, is remembered by the church for two major reasons. She was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and thus a woman of strong character, shrewdness and practical ability. She was also an influential writer on prayer and the first to point out the existence of states of prayer between meditation and ecstasy; she gave a description of the entire life of prayer.
Her combination of mystic experience with ceaseless activity as a reformer and organiser make her life the classical instance for those who contend that the highest contemplation is not incompatible with great practical achievements.
In her book of prayer Interior Castle, she describes a kind of prayer which she desires for all Christians, but which the Lord gives: a strange kind of prayer, the nature of which one cannot ascertain. What happens, she says, is that one’s faculties are in close union with God, but our Lord leaves both faculties and sense free to enjoy the happiness, without understanding what it is that they are enjoying and how they are enjoying it.
St Teresa describes the joy of the soul being so great that instead of rejoicing in God alone she would rather share that joy so that others may rejoice in praising God “to which end it directs its whole activity.”
“How can your tongues be better employed, when you are together, than in the praises of God, which we have so many reasons for rendering him?”
Martin Luther (1483‑1546), a Reformation pioneer, distinguished between the Spirit and the letter in Scripture, “for nobody understands these precepts unless it is given to him from above. … Therefore, they most sadly err who presume to interpret the Holy Scriptures and the law of God by taking hold of them by their own understanding and study.”
Luther argued that the Holy Spirit is hidden in the letter of Scripture, since the letter itself may proclaim only the Law, or the wrath of God. The Holy Spirit conveys the word of grace, the gospel. So the true reading of Scripture involves a continual process of bringing faith to birth, or constant renewal and re‑creation of spiritual awareness.
John Calvin (1509-1564) of Geneva was a prolific writer. Among his writings we find commentaries on most of the Bible. In commenting on Ephesians 3:14ff., he disagrees with those “who argue, that, if the grace of the Holy Spirit alone enlightens our minds, and forms our hearts of obedience, all teaching will be superfluous.”
“For we are enlightened and renewed by the Holy Spirit so that the teaching may be strong and effective, so that light may not be set before the blind, nor the truth sung to the deaf. Therefore the Lord alone acts upon us in such a way that he acts by his own instruments. It is therefore the duty of pastors diligently to teach, of the people earnestly to attend to teaching, and of both to flee to the Lord lest they weary themselves in unprofitable exertions.”
Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680), the seventeenth century Puritan leader, in a lecture on the letter to the Ephesians, explains how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of all men and women. He explains that the Holy Spirit works in three ways:
First of all, the Holy Spirit makes it possible for a person to turn to God. The Holy Spirit touches a person’s mind so that he or she is able to believe. This is called regeneration.
The second thing the Holy Spirit does is in water baptism when we are cleansed from our sin.
The third thing the Holy Spirit does is to fill us so that we are able to carry out the task of evangelism. This he calls being sealed in the Spirit.
Richard Baxter (1615‑1691) was an English clergyman of Reformed persuasion who made a deep impression on English Christendom. He left nearly two hundred writings, breathing a spirit of unaffected piety and love of moderation. Near the end of his life, writing his autobiography, he says:
“I am now, therefore, much more apprehensive [have more perception] than heretofore of the necessity of well grounding men in their religion, and especially of the witness of the indwelling Spirit; for I more sensibly perceive that the Spirit is the great witness of Christ and Christianity to the world. And though the folly of fanatics tempted me long to overlook the strength of this testimony of the Spirit, while they placed in it a certain internal assertion or enthusiastic inspiration, yet now I see that the Holy Ghost in another manner is the witness of Christ and his agent in the world. The Spirit in the prophets was his first witness; the Spirit by miracles was the second; and the Spirit by renovation, sanctification, illumination, and consolation, assimilating the soul of Christ and heaven is the continued witness to all true believers. And if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his (Romans 8:9).”
John Wesley (1703‑1791) found strong motivation for evangelism at a conversion experience at the age of 35 while hearing Martin Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans read at a meeting in Aldersgate Street, London. “About a quarter before nine while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed, I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given to me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” From then on he resolved “to Promote as far as I am able vital Practical religion and by the grace of God to beget, preserve, and increase the life of God in the souls of men.”
He told how he and others including his brother Charles and George Whitefield with about 60 people were touched by God at a love feast in Fetter Lane, London: “About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of his majesty, we broke out with one voice, ‘We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord’”
In a Letter to a Roman Catholic, he wrote (among other faith statements), “I believe the infinite and eternal Spirit of God, equal to the Father and the Son, to be not only perfectly holy in himself, but the immediate cause of all holiness in us: enlightening our understandings, rectifying our wills and affections, renewing our natures, uniting our persons to Christ, assuring us in our actions, purifying and sanctifying our souls and bodies to a full and eternal enjoyment of God.”
Wesley understood the value of small groups designed to promote Christian growth through prayer, Bible study, and the sharing of lives, and he established these groups all over Britain.
David du Plessis (1905‑1987), acclaimed by Time magazine as one of the nine best known religious leaders in North America, was a humble man who dared to love others. A group of Catholic and Protestant editors included his name in a list of eleven religious giants who have challenged the assumptions and changed the thinking of the Christian community.
This gracious Pentecostal pioneer lectured at Princeton, Yale, Union, and leading Catholic seminaries in America and Europe as well as at the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches. He was an official observer at the Vatican Council and involved in the Catholic Pentecostal dialogue in Rome where Pope Paul VI greeted him with, ‘So you are Mr Pentecost?’
He earned that nickname through his untiring efforts to bring the Pentecostal message to the whole church. Known as the boy preacher at fifteen where he was involved in the despised Pentecostal movement in South Africa, David du Plessis lived to see that movement grow over 100 million Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians worldwide by 1980, to over 400 million by 2000, and over 600 million by 2008.
The forthright English Pentecostal evangelist, Smith Wigglesworth, gave a remarkable and heretical (for a Pentecostal) prophecy to young David in 1936. The Lord would pour the Spirit upon the established church, he said, and the ensuing revival would eclipse anything the Pentecostals had experienced. David would be mightily used by God to bring acceptance of the Pentecostal message to the established churches. “This same blessing will become acceptable to the churches and they will go on with this message and this experience beyond what the Pentecostals have achieved. You will live to see this work grow to such dimensions that the Pentecostal movement itself will be a light thing in comparison with what God will do through the old churches. There will be tremendous gatherings of people, unlike anything we’ve seen, and great leaders will change their attitude and accept not only the message but also the blessing.”
David du Plessis declared, “God has no grandsons”, emphasising that all God’s children needed a personal spiritual birth for life in the Spirit. He stressed that Jesus is both the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and the baptiser in the Holy Spirit (John 1:29‑34).
At an ecumenical leaders’ conference, he was asked, “What is the difference between you and us? We quote the same Scriptures you do, and yet when you say those words they sound so different. We say the same things that you do, but there seems to be a deeper implication in what you say.”
Referring to 2 Corinthians 3:5‑6 (the letter kills but the Spirit gives life), he replied: “Comparisons are odious, and I do not wish to injure anyone’s feelings or hurt your pride. But the truth as I see it is this: You have the truth on ice, and I have it on fire. … My friends, if you will take the great truths of the gospel out of your theological freezers and get them on the fire of the Holy Spirit, your churches will yet turn the world upside down.”
Reproduced from Living in the Spirit
Detailed Contents with Photos from this book
Back to Blogs Index 3: Devotional
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Voices from History:
https://renewaljournal.com/2015/06/13/living-in-the-spirit-appendix-1-voices-from-history/
Living in the Spirit: https://renewaljournal.com/2010/12/26/living-in-the-spirit/
Living in the Spirit*
*
because God’s Spirit gives life
Free eBooks on this page. Paperbacks in the Renewal Journal Store
If you are a Christian you need to read this book, it helps to understand the Holy Spirit and how he works in your life. (SW)
5 out of 5 stars Great study book
This book is not only good for personal use but also GREAT for group study, even good for a Sunday School class. (Allen R Lancaster)
Information: Originally published as an 80-page book in 1987, and reprinted in 1990 and 1991, this personal or group study book is now enlarged to 127 pages, and greatly improved. Some new sections have been added, and each chapter now begins with a powerful example of that chapter’s theme.
Thousands of copies of the earlier version have been used for personal and group study, including its use as a small group study book. Many home groups, cell groups or student study groups have found this survey of living in the Spirit both informative and inspiring. It invites a response from the reader, whether read alone or studying in a group. It offers fresh and challenging perspectives on living in the blessing, power, and anointing of the Holy Spirit, who always exalts Jesus as Lord.
INTRODUCTION: New Perspectives
South Pacific mission team in Australia
TOPIC 1: Father, Son and Holy Spirit
1. Father, Son and Holy Spirit
God is One
The Father’s heart shows God’s love
Jesus reveals God’s love
The Spirit imparts God’s love
READINGS: God is One
Mele palm at place of martyrdom on Pentecost Island
TOPIC 2: Born of the Spirit
2. Born of the Spirit
The Spirit creates
The Spirit re-creates
God acts
We respond
READINGS: The wind blows
Church at Pentecost Island near place of martyrdom
TOPIC 3: Filled with the Spirit
3. Filled with the Spirit
The Spirit in God’s people
The Spirit in Jesus
The Spirit in the early church
The Spirit in us
READINGS: Baptised in the Spirit
Leaders praying for one another in Pentecost Island
TOPIC 4: Fruit of the Spirit
4. Fruit of the Spirit
The fruit of the Spirit in us personally
The fruit of the Spirit in us communally
Growth in the Spirit personally
Growth in the Spirit communally
READINGS: Christ-like character
International mission team in Brisbane
TOPIC 5: Gifts of the Spirit
5. Gifts of the Spirit
Power for mission
Gifts for mission
Unity for mission
Love for mission
READINGS: Tools for the job
South Pacific mission team at the Three Sisters, Katoomba, Australia
TOPIC 6: Ministry in the Spirit
6. Ministry in the Spirit
Body ministry
Mutual ministry
Wholeness ministry
Freedom ministry
READINGS: We all minister
South Pacific ministry team visits churches in Australia
TOPIC 7: Led by the Spirit
7. Led by the Spirit
The Spirit leads us
The Spirit leads gently
The Spirit leads personally
The Spirit leads corporately
READINGS: Hoist your sail
Vanuatu mission team prays together in Brisbane
TOPIC 8: The Spirit of the Lord
8. The Spirit of the Lord
The Spirit of the Lord in Israel
The Spirit of the Lord in Jesus
The kingdom of God
The king: Jesus Christ is Lord
READINGS: God is Spirit
Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives
Photographs in this book show international revival teams from the South Pacific, living in the Spirit together, involved in mission in the islands, in Australia and beyond.
These studies combine theological and biblical reflection with practical application. Many people have found these studies to be helpful and liberating.
Free postage worldwide on The Book Depository
See details, contents, photos and reviews of revival books on Amazon & Kindle
*Blogs and videos about recent revival movements:
God’s Surprises – Blog
God’s Surprises – PDF
Biographical stories of current revivals in over 20 countries
Jesus’ Last Promise – Blog and Video – Pentecost
You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you
God’s Promise – Blog and Video – I will pour out my Spirit
Seeing God’s Spirit poured out in over 20 countries
