CWG Ministries Newsletter - January 2003

January 2003 Gods Voice Worldwide From Dr. Mark Virkler
Author of Communion With God and President of Christian Leadership University
Vision: To Saturate the World with Communion With God

This newsletter contains: Dont Miss What God Is Doing in His Church!; Christian Leadership University Uses Lamad Curriculum; A CLU Students Testimony; A CLU Student Journals; A Powerful Prophetic Word from A. L. Gill; A Dream of Mark Virklers; Pondering by Rev. Maurice Fuller; Church Looking to Hire Youth and Childrens Pastor; Saved and Hearing God; New Translations


Dont Miss What God Is Doing in His Church!
World Christian Trends 2001 by David Barrett

	Of the six billion people in the world in 2000, 33% profess to be Christians.
	26% of Christians are Pentecostal, Charismatic or Neo-charismatic.
	From only one million in AD 1900, Pentecostals/Charismatics/Neo-charismatics have mushroomed to 602 million.
	Every 24 hours, these average increases will occur: Evangelicals - 11,000 Pentecostals/Charismatics/Neo-charismatics - 30,000 Christians joining the Internet - 68,500.

CLU will train you in-depth in the ways of the Holy Spirit, so you can walk with comfort, ease and skill as a Spirit-filled believer and minister of the grace of Almighty God.

Current CLU Statistics: 1415 students enrolled; 486 enrolled in the last 12 months; 352 students are studying in church-centered Bible schools around the world; 118 students are receiving courses free because they are in third-world nations or are incarcerated.


One CLU Students Testimony - Don Weber, Lead Pastor and Executive Director, Infinite Horizons Ministries
Mark, I am three-quarters of the way through Counseled by God and I am lovin life again. You provide the missing how to key to the counseling puzzle. The course also renewed my habit of listening to God through journaling and gave me some insights on how to incubate the things I hear and see. I really believe that you have saved my ministry!

I am in a time of transition and I want to do it well - but I am getting some negative, critical feedback from [denominational] leadership on the validity of my ministry. I am learning to sort through the stuff and still hear God in the midst.

I know God has called me to both the church world and the business world. I am beginning what I think will be my third and final church plant. If the Lord allows, I will lead that church for the long haul. I have also become very successful as a manufacturers rep for a window company. God is so good. You sowed the seeds in me years ago by addressing the sacred/secular split, and offering some secular assignments for five-fold gifts. I want to be able to expand the kingdom of God in both venues.

You have many courses in leadership and entrepreneurship that I want to take. Thank you for remaining faithful and constant in pursuing the voice of God for our generation. After I finish the Masters I want to discuss Graduate Certificates in Leadership and Entrepreneurship. Anything that could prepare me for an apostolic type of ministry is desirable.

I agree with you that I must study what I am passionate about, and not just focus on a degree. I am making Counseled by God my first step to training people helpers. Please pray for our church plant in Calvert County, Maryland (south of Annapolis). We are starting tomorrow, January 19^th.


A CLU Student Journals
I was going out to jog (after about a three-month break) and was trying to determine how much to run...against my feeling of compulsion I listened to what was coming from within. I was able to run this amount, realizing that if I had followed my compulsion, I would have failed to succeed in the goal. As I thought on this (nearing the end of my jog) I felt God saying to me Lynda, I want you to succeed. This was a revelation to me.

The next day in my journal I said to God, Lord, I have so many questions, what is real faith? What is success? Why is it so hard for me to believe You really have my best in mind? Speak to me, Father.

Yes, My child, I do want you to succeed. It has always been My plan that you would have success. But as your mind is telling you right now, the success I have for you, and for all My children, is not the success as the world knows, or measures. Your success is measured by your oneness with Me. That is how I made you to be. You become truly you, truly human, when your oneness with Me is complete.

The Father and the Son are one. Jesus did nothing out of His own initiative. He only did what He had already seen the Father do. That is why I want you to come to Meto rest in Me, to spend time with Me, so you will truly know Me and thus be able to follow in My ways.

As you have been gathering faith in My love for you, your ability to express that genuinely for others has increased. As you have shed tears over My mercy and grace and the price I paid for you, you have shed tears for others, and with compassion reached out in My name.
       
My Son did not have success in the ways of this world. He largely spent His time with 12 men and of those, primarily three. He had contact with a lot of people, healed many (but could have healed more) but He poured His life into that motley crew...fishermen, ordinary people. The more of an agenda these men had, the harder it was to truly see Me and be one with Me.
       
Its not that I dont want you to have visions and dreams and aspirations, but I want them to be seated in your oneness with Me...for I want you to succeed, to accomplish what I made you for...not because that is where or how you earn your value and love. Your value is a given. It just is. You are My daughter, My precious child. My love for you is complete. You have nothing to prove or accomplish or do to make My love any greater for you. Neither will you ever lose or be separated from My love.
       
You are beginning to discern some of your own deception of your strengths and weaknesses and even wisdom. Your deception comes from a yet unhealed heart. You are only beginning to grasp My view of you...it will take you time to put to death your view of you, and own how I see you. This is part of the renewal of your mind.

When you place faith and confidence in your old structures and behaviors and ways of thinking...you will fail. The old way is built on law, on striving, on succeeding by will power. The new way, My way, is based on rest, on humility, on becoming child-like, on dependency. These ways continue to be foreign to you but you are walking in them more and more. It is My desire to see you succeed, to see you one with Me, to let the river of life flow freely from you.

Dont look at this as somehow losing yourself. In fact, it is really becoming more of who you really are. What you are putting to death is the mask, the facade, the fortress that holds you in, imprisoning who you really are. Work with Me. Like Joshua, listen to Me. Sometimes you will think My instructions foolish, or of making no sense...but the walls come down. Be strong and courageous...in following My ways. For I will be with you. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for I will be with you. I AM WITH YOU NOW. Be still, rest and know that I AM GOD.


A powerful prophetic word from A. L. Gill Dean of CLUs School of Divine Healing
His Christmas newsletter gave a wonderful testimony of the miracle-filled crusades he is conducting and what God has shown him is the foundation of his healing ministry. The night after reading A.L. Gills newsletter (read this first), I had the following dream:

A Dream of Mark Virklers (12-23-02)
I witnessed the burning of some grown turkeys. Their flesh was burned. I also witnessed the crucifixion of a disciple.

Mark, do not forget about death to the flesh and living a life of crucifixion. It is only as man dies that I come alive within him. Mans initiative and Gods initiative do not both work at the same time. It is either one or the other. You may choose to live, or you may choose to let Me live My life out through you. However, both will not occur at the same time. You choose and the results follow. What will your choice be?

Lord, my choice is to let You live Your life out through me. So what does that mean I need to do?

That means you charge yourself up with praying in the Spirit, with praying in tongues. That annuls your life, while it enables Mine. Both occur in this one simple exercise. That is why this one simple experience is so foundational to your life in the spirit. That is why it is first and foremost, while being the first of the gifts. It is the foundation through which other gifts flow.

The one who rejects this, rejects Me. They are rejecting My life and My Spirit, while choosing their own selves as a replacement. Reject not the foolishness of God in favor of the wisdom of man. For the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of men. Choose the foolishness of God, and become wiser than the wisest of men. Choose the foolishness of God and become stronger than man. Choose the foolishness of God and experience divine anointing. Choose mans way and lose it all. The choice is yours.

God, I choose You.

Good, Mark, then pray in tongues every morning. Make it a regular part of your exercise time. That is an ideal time to worship Me in tongues.


Pondering by Rev. Maurice Fuller
There are times when a believer will think things through with his own human intelligence, without the Spirit of God. This is the way the word ponder in Psalm 73:16 is used. It is the Hebrew word chashav (pronounced kashav). In the Piel stem of the verb, the stem that is used in this passage, it means the result of a thought process that (usually) brings one to a wrong conclusion. The Psalmist at first reasoned without revelation and got it all wrong. Then, in the presence of God, he received revelation that enabled him to see all things clearly.
 
It is used in Psalm 77:5,6. Here the Psalmist reasoned in his heart and his spirit but he still got it wrong. The significance of heart and spirit here is that even when thoughts come from the very deepest part of us, from the very core of our being, if they are uninformed by the Spirit, they can still be completely wrong. Chashav does not always indicate a thought process devoid of the Spirit, though. In Psalm 119:59, when the Psalmist considered (chashav) his ways he saw them clearly and realized he should turn his steps to Gods testimonies.

The central idea of chashav is to compare an unknown thing with known things so as to clarify and define it. It is a very deep and thorough process yet, without the Holy Spirit, it can be dead wrong. The word also occurs in Proverbs 16:9 and 24:8, Daniel 11:24, Hosea 7:15 and a few more. In some of these passages it has the idea of carefully laid plans which, if they do not include Gods guidance through the Spirit, are futile.
 
I would say that, yes, Spirit-led reasoning is a gift and when it is well developed, as it is in left-brainers, it is especially useful. Right-brainers need to learn how to utilize this capacity just as we left-brainers had to learn how to hear from God. If they dont they will think every thought that comes into their head is from God, no matter how wonky, not realizing how our own defective theology can distort divine revelation.

Flaky prophets suffer from underdeveloped analytical abilities. The balanced person is the one who is able to compare new revelation with his storehouse of knowledge gained from former revelation, from life experience, from the Scriptures, and from what other godly people have shared with him. Maybe, Mark, there needs to be a special course on Spirit-led reasoning for super-intuitive people.
 

Church Looking to Hire a Youth Pastor and a Childrens Pastor
Contact Pastor Kip Jackson, The Light of Lancaster A/G., Lancaster, WI 53813, 608-723-2522, pastorkj@chorus.net


Saved and Hearing God
I had the privilege of leading a Chinese woman to the Lord on a plane trip a couple of weeks ago. During the flight, I also taught her the four keys to hearing Gods voice, and within two weeks she is receiving journaling from the Lord! Isnt this the way its supposed to be?


New translations have been posted at www.cwgministries.org/freebooks!
A German translation of Naturally Supernatural is now available for free downloading. Please ask God who you know who speaks German that you can share this information with.

We have received several offers from individuals around the world to translate our books into various languages. We appreciate each and every offer. If you would like to volunteer to translate any of our materials, please contact Mark Virkler.


E-mail: drvirkler@cluonline.com
Website: cluonline.com
Enroll in Christian Leadership University: cluonline.com/apply
Marks Speaking Itinerary: cwgministries.org/itinerary
Online shopping for books by Mark and Patti Virkler: cwgministries.org/catalog
Ordination opportunity: cluonline.com/network
Establish a church-centered Bible school: cwgministries.org/college