JOEL-NEWS-INTERNATIONAL-362 * 14 MAY 2001 * WWW.JOELNEWS.ORG
IN THIS EDITION:
JN362-1. Nigerian pastor plants megachurch in Kiev, Ukraine
JN362-2. Ukrainian officer raised from the dead
JN362-3. 18-year old challenges pornography in Denmark
JN362-4. A prophetic word for pastors
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JN362-1. Nigerian pastor plants megachurch in Kiev, Ukraine
"Words can hardly describe my meeting with Pastor Sunday Adelaja, a 33-year-old Nigerian," reports Ralph Neighbour, one of the world's most famous cell-church experts. "Sunday was invited to study in the USSR before Perestroika, at the age of 19. He was saved only weeks before travelling to the USSR. He learned as he went, with no contact with Western culture - his 'Word of Faith Bible Church' is in no way related with the 'Word of Faith' movement in the USA. The church services are attended by 17,000 people, and the 12 leaders each have responsibility for between 1,000 and 2,500 members who meet in cell groups. Sunday rents a sports arena, and holds several services each weekend. He aims to send his 12 closest associates out to plant sister churches throughout the world," says Neighbour.
FROM 7 TO 17,000 MEMBERS SINCE 1994
Sunday Adelaja says: "I came to the Belarusian State University in Minsk as a student in 1987. While there, I planted two Christian churches, later handing them over to local pastors. Following my graduation in 1993, I moved to Kiev, where I worked as a journalist for a television company. Then God called me to plant another church - a mega-church! Our aim is above all to train Christians from the Ukraine for mission in the Middle East and China. We started Kiev's 'Word of Faith' church in 1994, with seven members. Today, the church is one of the largest in Europe, with 17,000 members (March 2001). We have planted 15 satellite churches in Kiev, 15 daughter churches in the surrounding area, and 70 in other towns in Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Belarus and Georgia. Our Bible school, The 'Joshua Generation Bible School', currently has 600 students, and has trained over 1,500 since its inception 6 years ago. Through the work of the church, over 200,000 people have shown new interest in Christianity. Our community help project provides food for 1,000 people every day, and our drug rehabilitation program has been able to re-integrate 700 ex-addicts into society."
EXPERIENCING MIRACLES
"We experience many physical healings, including AIDS and cancer, and have seen people raised from the dead. God also protected us during a massive media campaign against us run by political and orthodox powers. A particular sign of God's grace is that we have won over twenty cases brought against us in court. The nationalistic government was particularly irritated by the fact that a church with 99% white members is led by a black man. The church television program can be viewed by over 8 million people, and more than 500 people decide to follow Jesus each month. The new believers include bandits and drug addicts, as well as top business people and a number of Members of Parliament," says Adelaja.
Source: DAWN FridayFax
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JN362-2. Ukrainian officer raised from the dead
36-year-old Boris Pilipchuk, Senior Lieutenant in a police unit in Ukraine's Khemlnitskij District lives with his wife and three children in Novaya Siniavka in the Starosiniavskij region. After doctors diagnosed his death, he shocked everyone by returning from the dead. The following is an extract from his report:
"I grew up a strict atheist. In 1996, I became a Christian after hearing a sermon by Mariopol's pastor Nikolai Ivashenko. As a Christian, I had difficulties in my profession, but after a while, my colleagues liked to have me tell about Jesus during breaks.
"I was physically very healthy. On 27 July 1998, after returning home from work, I was suddenly unable to move, and lost consciousness. I was taken to the hospital, where I lay in a coma for several days, after which I was transferred to the Khelmitskij District Clinic. The doctors diagnosed a hemorrhage affecting 95% of my brain. All nine tests confirmed that I was clinically dead.
"My police colleagues were shocked, and started to collect money for my coffin and burial. My wife called pastor Nikolai, who organized many Christians to pray for me. The doctors fought for my life for another 2 1/2 hours, but were finally forced to diagnose both clinical and biological death.
"I saw everything from above, and was suddenly in heaven. I saw a fantastic light, and a huge city, like a cube. Jesus met me: 'You have a wife and three children. Return to them - it is not yet time for you to be here,' he said. I instantly returned to my body, which was being taken to the mortuary. My wife stood next to the stretcher, crying. As I sat up, the staff fell to the floor, shocked. They fled in all directions, screaming 'Who are you? What do you want? Leave us in peace!' I told them not to be afraid, and asked for clothes, and was then allowed to return home.
"Over the next two weeks, I was examined by 15 different medical committees, including neurologists and psychiatrists. They told me that if they had not performed the diagnosis themselves on the evidence of the x-rays, cardiographs etc., they would be unable to believe what had happened. They advised me to keep the events secret, because people would otherwise consider me crazy. They refused to record my resurrection officially, but have all decided to follow Jesus in the meantime."
Source: http://www.word-of-faith-ch.org
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JN362-3. 18-year old challenges pornography in Denmark
By Dan Wooding
An 18-year-old Christian called Marianne Larsen has seen quite a victory in an extraordinary battle against pornography in Denmark. UCB Crossroad, a Christian radio and TV ministry, and the prayers of 185,000 Brazilian women in the city of Curitiba, have supported her fight. This news was revealed in an interview with Per Nielsen, who along with his wife, run a Christian media ministry based in Copenhagen.
"Marianne Larsen has done more in one year to change public opinion about pornography in Denmark than many preachers and church leaders have done in 20 years," Nielsen said in the interview conducted at the recent UCB International Conference in Auckland, New Zealand. He went on to explain that Denmark has had, for the past 35 years, "a very liberal legislation about pornography." Nielsen added, "The only restriction we have is on child pornography and that is illegal and is very strictly followed up by the police. Otherwise, there are no limitations. You can go to a gas station where newspapers are for sale and there will also be pornographic magazines. Also at the check out lines at the supermarkets. "Sadly, everybody seemed to have got used to it and nobody was reacting to it anymore."
That was until a year ago, when Marianne Larsen - who lives just outside of Copenhagen, came on the scene. Nielsen said that Marianne said she was feeling provoked by the pornography. "She had a boyfriend who teased her and said, 'If you feel provoked, why don't you do something about it?' So she decided to do something. "She made a happening in the center of Copenhagen where she wanted to draw people's attention to the fact that now was the time to say 'this was enough.' So with some girlfriends who were aged between 18-25, they stood on a pedestrian street with a petition that asked people to sign if they felt that the present situation was 'enough and had to be restricted.' The petition asked for it not to be shown at the height where the children besides the candies could see it. The petition also said that pornography should be restricted from the television channels." Nielsen added, "We have three channels in Copenhagen that broadcast pornography. There are open channels and you don't have to pay to watch this kind of material."
When Per and Kirsten heard about her campaign, they realized that this might be an answer to a prayer that they had been constantly praying - that pornography and abortion would be restricted in Denmark. "Actually, my wife Kirsten went to Brazil two years ago and visited the city of Curitiba, and there she met a group of ladies that have put up a Christian radio station with the prayer support of other ladies in the community. They have some 180,000 praying together every day of the year in the siesta time. "They took her in the radio studio there and asked her what they could pray for Denmark? She asked them to pray for pornography and abortion that something would happen. When we heard about this girl we believed that this might be the answer from the Lord for one of the problems.
"The key was that she was a young girl with a life ahead and she said, 'It's enough. I will not stand for this.' And then people said that she was right and this was wrong. We sent a television crew for our TV program out and made a news story that we broadcast throughout the city from our small television station. We only have two hours a week and so we used some of our airtime to pay attention to this.
"We then offered to help her organize her campaign and she came once a week and we helped her to send out letters from our database and we connected her with people to help her organize her campaign. Her goal was that in October of last year she would go to the Danish Parliament with a petition of 10,000 signatures and ask the parliament to do something about it.
"The newspapers also started writing stories about her and the different national TV channels had her in the studio to talk about her campaign, and she was very wise and she didn't come and say, 'Well, I'm a Christian and that's why I'm against pornography,' because then everyone would dismiss it as religious talk. Instead, she said, 'I'm a girl and I will not accept this view of my sex and me. It's destructive."
"Marianne also began to investigate how destructive pornography is and she put out figures and evaluations about it, especially in the United States. In Denmark, no one has looked into how pornography influences people. Everybody has accepted the idea that if there are no restrictions then people won't find it interesting. But that's a lie. It's destructive. It's poison for the soul. When she put our the figures she had gathered, she was able to show that it is destructive on the people and it gives a wrong picture of men and women. It's destructive for our young people's sexual life and also for their idea of how a family is going to function. It's destructive in every way.
"In October, she went to the Parliament with 20,000 signatures and the newspapers did a survey on what public opinion was on pornography and they were surprised that 83 percent said that it is enough. We don't want pornography in the open spaces and in the shops were children come and also on the open TV channels.
"We have a national ombudsman and he wrote a letter to the gas stations, the supermarkets and all places that were exhibiting pornography saying that they have to take care that pornography was not put in a place where children could see it and that's a complete change in the mentality of the Danish people. That is a total change in public opinion on this subject. Just one year before, you wouldn't have an official authority that would have done that.
"It all started because a young Christian girl said, 'This is enough. This has to stop.'" Nielsen said that there is a possibility that this year the Danish Parliament "will make a legislation that will say that it is illegal to have pornography in the shops and the places where children can see it. So that is a big change." Nielsen says that if pornography is also banned from open channel television, he will try to get a license to broadcast the gospel on one of those channels. "We realize that because one person cared enough, this terrible scourge can at last be halted in Denmark," he said. "We ask Christians of the world to now pray that abortion will also be limited in our country."
Source: Assist Communications
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JN362-4. A prophetic word for pastors
By John L. Moore <jlmoore@mcn.net>
(Author's note: I don't know that I have had a word that I've labored over as intensely as this one. I thought of dictating it as a prophetic word but felt the Lord gave me the option of expressing it more as an article. I chose the latter to embrace more humanness, and hopefully, avoid some of the risk of self-righteousness. If I failed, please forgive me. Last August I received a word of warning for prophetic intercessors and watched -- and participated -- as that company was severely tried and shaken. I did not post a warning when I received it but only mentioned it to a few close friends. I regret not having been a better watchman. This is a word for pastors, and surely I tremble more at this responsibility. It is not a word to all pastors. It is to those who stand outside a door that only they can open. It will be opened by the courage of relinquishing control and the nobleness of repenting identificationally for the sins of spiritual abuse. In the past year we have heard prophets call prophets to task and we have heard apostles issue challenges of integrity to their fellow apostles. It is time for a company of pastors to rise up, take responsibility, and set a pastoral example.)
"Fathers, do not exasperate your children, that they may not lose heart." Col. 3:21
PROVOKED TO WRATH
Shortly after coming to the Lord I got a puppy, a German Shepherd-Doberman cross. I named him Barabbas. One day my father noticed Barabbas running the highway. "Those well-bred dogs need something to do," my father warned. "If you don't work'em, they'll get in trouble." I heeded the warning and kept Barabbas busy with obedience training.
Barabbas was not a lap dog. He was a powerful but well-behaved watchdog that probably saved Debra's life one night in Albuquerque when a crazed heroin-dealer tried to break into our home while I was gone. Barabbas interceded.
Now, imagine giving a dog like Barabbas to someone used to lap dogs. He would probably be tethered on a short leash and beaten when he barked. After weeks of abuse the animal would either become vicious or die of a broken spirit.
THE WATCHDOGS OF THE LORD
Prophets are the watchdogs of the Lord. They guard, intercede, and warn. They are highly sensitive. As Ras Robinson pointed out in a recent teaching, the Old Testament prophet was a "foreteller, inspired speaker, and poet."
A poetic watchman. That is our modern prophet. But, poetry is largely dead in our culture -- a symbol of our famine for hearing the Word of the Lord. The closest we have to popular poetic expression in America is rap. Lord help us! Poets, by gifting, are expressive people. This is true whether they are as introverted as an Emily Dickinson, or as extroverted as cowboy poet Baxter Black who performs with pratfalls and histrionics.
But no matter their personality, the poet must express him or herself. The same is true for prophets. They must be given a forum. Even in infancy they must be allowed the opportunity to learn through practice. In many churches today prophetic people do not have that opportunity. They are watchdogs on a short leash, provoked by insecure masters. The snubs, harsh looks, and tight-fisted controls are like the blows of a stick. Most prophets endure quietly, but eventually they either lie down and whimper or snarl and leave. The ones that leave are dogs running loose in the night.
THE ABUSED RUNNING WILD
Those who moderate or oversee prophetic lists -- Meri Burlingame, Steve Shultz, Bill Somers, Pam Clark, and others -- often hear the howlings and whinings of abused watchdogs. In just the past few weeks I have had correspondences with several people who are outraged about traditional church authority. They've obviously suffered greatly at the hands of leadership. Having broken their chains they now howl or growl from a distance. If you approach them they turn and run. Discipline, to their reasoning, is simply another beating. They trust no one and are content to howl alone in the dark. Neighbours throw verbal shoes at them. "Dang, independent prophets! Won't submit to authority!"
A dog in the wild will not survive long. They starve, get shot, hit by cars, or are killed by the very wolves that some have mistaken them to be. Somehow the abused watchdog must find it in himself to trust again. He must scout the settlements until he finds a friendly home, one where he can submit but also serve. One where he can be what he was created to be: a watchdog, not a lap dog.
Some, unfortunately, will not come in from the cold. They become feral. Ultimately they will only produce the fruit of their own deception.
THE DANGER OF LITTLE KNOWLEDGE
I was recently told by one of my spiritual mentors that "...the problem is not that pastors don't know about five-fold ministry. The problem is that many know but they don't care." I think many do care but are intimidated by the challenge of implementation.
"I have to bring my people along slowly," pastors often tell me. "They can only take baby steps." Well, how much freedom is too much freedom? How much truth is too much truth? How much life is too much life? How much growth is there without the proper church government of five-fold ministry?
Growth is progressive, but the rate must be determined by the Holy Spirit, not the fear of man. Did Jesus lead the disciples in baby steps? "Oh ye of little faith," he often said, continuing to challenge and incite. If we treat people like babies they learn to act like babies.
"But I don't know how to do it," they exclaim. None of us do. He is a light onto our feet. We will learn by taking a step at a time in mutual submission. Do as He shows, not as you have seen others do.
In the past seven years leaders throughout the Body have been impacted by outpourings in Toronto, Pensacola, Smithton, and other wellsprings. And thousands have been inspired and activated by conferences in Colorado Springs, Dallas, and countless other cities. Multitudes of pastors have heard the call for apostolic reformation, five-fold ministry, and a Third Day church and have returned to their home churches with new zeal, ambition, and hope. They've organized powerful prayer concerts, hosted seminars, and had mini-revivals. But structure has not changed. People who claim to be apostles administer churches in the same style they speak against. The prophetic is often relegated to a sideshow for appeasing personal fears or giving a semblance of progressiveness.
Where is bold new direction? What about actual changes of government? It takes more than the latest worship CD, hot guest speaker, or the waving of banners to revolutionize an encrypted system. Directional revelation must follow visionary revelation. The prophets are the seers. They are the visionaries. Yes, apostolic leadership is necessary, but many pastors are in systems that do not believe in the modern prophetic office, let alone apostles! If these pastors and systems can't handle prophetic anointing, they probably aren't ready for the apostolic. Who's right is it to put stumbling blocks in their way? Reformation cannot be programmed into an old system. Forget the old wives' tales about making old wineskins new by turning them inside out and soaking them with oil. Any system that is flexible enough to be turned inside out is not the old system to begin with.
Faith means risk. If leaders of local churches believe in present truth they must pay the price for their beliefs. Until they do they will simply cheerlead the latest fad, copy other churches, and wreak havoc with the hopes and desires of their people. And if a watchdog howls during this process, beat it or neglect it!
TEACHERS AND PASTORS MUST PROCLAIM THE TRUTH
It is time for pastors to be responsible for what they know. Delaying a decision is a decision in itself. Delay produces decay. In researching an article for a national magazine I've talked to church leaders in fellowships where five-fold government and church growth is a reality. They all say the same thing: it comes at a price. The violent take it by force. And they aren't eager to tell you their system because their system might not work for others. "Seek God," they simply say. "He will show you what to do and how and when to do it."
In the past couple years many challenges have been issued to the prophets. I have issued a few myself and some have been issued to me. I have heard words of challenges for the apostles. How often does anyone hear strong words challenging pastors? They are still handled like NFL quarterbacks during scrimmages. They wear a special red jersey that means "no-contact." You can hit everyone else, but don't hit him! Don't touch God's anointed! Don't throw spears at Saul! And don't tell the emperor he has no clothes on!
I am not suggesting rebellion, disrespect, insults or violence to anyone, but pastors who believe in church reformation must announce it and then stand in the face of opposition. Stand! And if you are forced to go, then leave. Somewhere in the dark night a prophet is waiting. Find him. Seek God together. Pray for apostolic relationship. If this is too costly then abandon the vision. Don't play with five-fold ministry. It is more dangerous than dynamite. Seek God for confirmation of your calling and role. Don't appoint yourself as an apostle in an effort to maintain control. You have no idea what you are doing. If you are apostolic then begin a new work on a sure new foundation. But do the work. Just hanging the title on a shingle means nothing. Find men you know by their fruits and signs as five-fold officers. Get close to them. Relate to them. Pursue truth and direction by pursuing Him. Should you lose everything but gain Christ you've won.
Five-fold ministry will never be four adornments around the center of one main office. And church reformation is not a program. It is a revolution. Pastors can no longer sit in the security of their offices imagining ways to remodel their churches while cussing the noises they hear outside in the dark. The man outside might be a master architect with the plans of God. Walking at his side is the watchman, the prophet. They roam the night looking for a shepherd. Listen, they may be knocking at your door.
PASTORS MUST JUDGE EACH OTHER OR BE JUDGED BY OTHERS
I can already hear some pastors saying: "John, you don't know the abuses I've taken, you don't know the nights I've cried to God, or the demanding prophetic people who have camped on my step or upset my church. You don't know what it is like!"
I have seen many aspects of the church political system. It emits a foul odor. I am not talking about congregational control or a presbyterian system. I am not so naive as to suggest that anything will happen overnight or that feelings won't be hurt and livelihoods threatened. But I know each camp must judge its own before we can truly submit one to another. True shepherds must rebuke the hirelings that sit around their own campfires.
We are in a time of identificational repentance. Even the Vatican has officially repented for its treatment of Protestants during the reformation. Who is repenting for those who are howling in the night?
There is a shaking coming to the misconception of pastoral authority. I see a door that opens to new realms of heavenly authority. Standing beside the door is a small company of broken pastors. They have given up titles, positions, and politics. They only want to serve. They can prepare the way for the next wave of blessings. In their hands is the key.
Source: http://www.johnlmoore.com/ |