Tag: God

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How to Prepare for the New Year – Part One

Why prepare and plan for 2014?

An instinctive reason is that we all need new starts. From time to time we need to bury the past and start again to go further. God is the God of creation, of seasons and rhythms, of night and day. Jeremiah says, “Your mercies (compassions) are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22). So my regular prayer – often in the mornings when I come before God – is “O God of second chances and new beginnings, here I am again!” And God promises us, “Do not hold onto the former things… I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19). Look for the new things he’s doing.

We need to prepare for 2014 because we need vision and direction: “where there is no vision (purpose from God), the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). Viktor Frankel (in Man’s Search of Meaning, his observations from the Holocaust) said to live for a purpose beyond yourself is to have real reason to live. In terms of vision, if you aim at nothing you will surely hit it! If you aim at some things you will grow, you will be directed, you will be stretched and achieve some things. It’s important for self-image and living well with yourself. And “new year’s resolutions”, “turning a new leaf”, etc, is mostly a self-defeating exercise. Most people revert back to their old habits within a few weeks. We need an approach that is long-lasting and more long-term, that is deeper in terms of vision and convictions and sustainability. Continue reading How to Prepare for the New Year – Part One

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Post Resurrection Encounters – Peter’s Call Renewed (Part 2)

The text: John 21:15-23 (continue from previous sermon). The audio is available to listen online or download with notes.

This is Peter’s story: the emotional drama of how Jesus tenderly restores him, renewing his calling to follow… to minister… and to lead. How does Jesus do this?

Firstly, by the miracle of the large catch of fish (John 21:1-14), re-enacting Peter’s first encounter with Jesus, thus renewing his call to follow, form and fish (Luke 5:1-11).

Secondly, by making a fire of burning coals, re-enacting and reversing Peter’s threefold denial, which took place around a fire (read John 13:36-38 cf. John 18:15-18, 25-27).

Reflection: Jesus takes us back to unresolved pain and failure, to relive and resolve it in light of his intervening and healing presence. When & where has this happened for you?

Meditation on John 21:15-23: become silent before God; live into the scene by imagining you’re Peter around the fire, now warm and fed. Jesus probes your depths… the key issue is: Jesus wants to know if you truly love him – love for him to be THE motivation for your life, your following of him, your ministry, and leadership (if you’re a leader)

John 21:15 Why did Jesus use his full formal name, Simon son of John (after he had changed his name to Peter – ‘rock’, strong & stable, John 1:40-42)? Does God ever do this to you? Continue reading Post Resurrection Encounters – Peter’s Call Renewed (Part 2)

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Exploring Membership with Following Jesus: Session 2

SESSION 2:  THE EARLY CHURCH AND COMMITTED BELONGING 

We looked at following Jesus, which meant joining his community: Following Jesus… in community… for others (one reality in three inseparable values). Jesus told them to “go, make followers…” How did the early church do this? What did belonging in community (‘church membership’) mean in this context?

Continue reading Exploring Membership with Following Jesus: Session 2

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Ministry Trip to Global School of Supernatural Ministry (GSSM), 6 – 10 Sept 2011

I didn’t send out a report after this trip because when Gill and I got back home one of my teeth became seriously infected. I’ve been through two weeks of the most terrible pain. The short story is that I had to have dental surgery to extract the tooth and to scrape the infection from the jawbone. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy!! Anyway, I’m now recovering and I want to share with you our experience to thank those of you who prayed for us – God answered powerfully!

Anointing with oil
Anointing with oil

When I wrote Doing Healing, Randy Clarke from the USA wrote an endorsement for the book. He was the guy God used to start “The Toronto Blessing” in the mid 1990s. He has since left pastoral work and has started an international ministry called Global Awakening, with Schools of the Supernatural in various places, to equip followers of Jesus to do Kingdom ministry in the power of the Spirit. He sent a team to South Africa to set up a GSSM. It started in February 2011, hosted by Harvest Church in Umhlanga Rocks, Durban. Randy is on record as saying in a number of places that, in his view, Doing Healing is the best book on healing out there! What a commendation! What an honour!

Teaching
Alexander teaching

So he invited me to teach Doing Healing at GSSM SA, from the Wednesday to the Friday, about 10 hours of teaching and practice. We were hosted with such generosity and kindness – treated like royalty!! There were 12 students and 5 staff members and one or two guests who came for the lectures. What great fun! I so enjoyed having quality time to teach eager students and then to practice ministry – for them to receive and to learn ministry. I was totally in my element, realizing that working with committed disciples/students who are in a structured process of learning, is one of the best things I can do with my time and energy. There is a real sense of impartation that takes place over a few days of intense time together in worship, prayer, teaching, discussion, and ministry.

Students ministering
Students ministering

Gill thoroughly enjoyed the trip as well, also getting stuck in during ministry times. We prayed for many students with a good flow of the prophetic gifts of the Spirit – insight, knowledge, wisdom, healing, deliverance, etc. There were some really strong power encounters and manifestations of the Spirit. Gill and I came home filled with joy and gratitude to God for such an awesome privilege that we can do this for God’s people. And what lovely people we met! We are the richer for the whole experience. We say thanks to Rosanne for hosting us, and to the GSSM staff and students for an amazing time together. Perhaps the best way to communicate something of the experience is to include an email from the GSSM administrator with brief comments from the students:

Ministering the kingdom
Ministering the kingdom

Hi Alexander,

 

Here are some of the comments/testimonies our students had following your time with us!

  • He was naturally supernatural, real and sincere…that really spoke to my heart
  • His love and compassion just flowed
  • He demonstrated the Word with power and love
  • One of the things Alexander said that really impacted me was, “the whole of me is

the most important part of me.”

  • “The prayer over me really touched me…healed a memory from many years ago.”
  • He spoke truth into “closed” areas of my heart
  • I learned a lot about discernment too and to hear what God is saying to me

They were also encouraged by the prayers and declarations spoken over them.  The two students who received deliverance thank you for your compassion during the process.

Things during this school year have naturally been building…one teaching has built upon previous teachings and our students are seeing how their foundations are being firmed and strengthened.  Thank you and Gill both for being a part of this process.  You are both treasures 🙂

Blessings and Joy!!

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Report on Norway Ministry Trip

Thanks:  A heartfelt thanks to those who prayed for me. You have participated in a real but mystical way in what God did while I was in Norway.  One day when all is revealed you will see how your prayers partnered God – and me – in the work we all did together. Thanks for this labor of love.

Worship at the conference
Some of the conference participants

The Facts:  I gave two inputs on church government, biblical leadership and models of leaders and teams, to the Vineyard pastors who had gathered in Kristiansand. We had a great time of ministry to each leader. The weekend public conference had five meetings. I addressed 1) Understanding intimacy with God and others, 2) Intimacy in sexuality and spirituality, 3) How to build intimacy with God and others, 4) Healing blockages to intimacy, and 5) Characteristics of a mature intimacy. We had extensive Spirit ministry after each session.

Yummy snacks at the conference!
Coffee and yummy food during the break

Then I went to Larvik, three hours drive from Kristiansand. The first night I met with the broader leadership team of the Vineyard and talked through leadership issues. The next night I addressed a public meeting of the congregation on “The 10 Communications of God” – a prayer that Gill and I developed years ago and pray often (available on request!) – to develop intimacy with God. I also had the privilege of addressing pastors at an ecumenical meeting for church leaders in Larvik. It was a particular honor. I spoke on keeping our hearts soft and tender in God’s love to be authentic spiritual leaders. The danger of hurt, going through the motions, hardening of the heart, and professionalization, is ever present for pastors. One young pastor announced at the beginning of the meeting that he had resigned as the pastor of his church. He was tearful as I shared. My heart went out to him as I saw such pain in his eyes.

Leaders meeting in Larvik

Some observations:

  1. The recent massacre of young people has struck deep into the Norwegian psyche. Christians are praying it will turn people to God. I felt a hunger for God and desire for revival among the people I mixed with.
  2. The love, hospitality and appreciation of the people were overwhelming!
  3. I felt an unusual freedom in preaching and teaching God’s Word. There was authority and conviction by the Holy Spirit. People said they were liberated and healed by hearing open and honest talk about sensitive issues.
  4. The extensive ministry times were marked by a strong sense of God’s compassion, with lots of tears and manifestations of the Spirit. I’ve seldom experienced such an outpouring of love from the Father.
  5. Healing went deep in terms of unseen “inner healing”, touching serious levels of psycho-emotional, sexual and relational brokenness.
  6. Men in particular need healing from broken masculinity, and couples need to be ‘unblocked’ to restart the fountain and flow of true intimacy.
  7. I can tell of individual stories, but I’ve kept this report short. It was one of my most enjoyable ministry trips. I had an unusual sense of God’s presence in the form of love and tenderness in ministry, and freedom in teaching God’s Word.

Please pray for Gill and I as we go to Durban for me to teach at a Bible School at Harvest Church in Umhlanga Rocks, from Tuesday to Friday (6-9 Sept)…. thanks so much!

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Report on Ethiopian trip

Laying on hands in ministry to people

Forgive me for repeating myself, but my reports are a means of feedback because of your prayers for me on these trips and ministry events. The older I grow and the longer I go in ministry, the more I am convinced that the intercessory prayers of God’s people makes many, if not most things possible. I am slowly losing my self-awareness and ‘fear of pride’ in asking people to pray for me. It is a desperate and intense spiritual battle out there – I know it firsthand – and I know your prayers make a difference. So you need know how things went!

I was in Ethiopia for the Easter weekend, leading an international “mission partnership” team of three of us: Noah Giteau, leader of the Kenyan Vineyards, and Svanhild Kjondal, pastor of Larvik Vineyard in Norway. The reason for our trip was to do leadership training for the local Vineyard pastors – how we see and do biblical leadership in the local church in relation to “translocal” ministry and leadership. This arose because of unresolved conflict between two senior leaders in Ethiopia; so our ultimate motivation was to mediate reconciliation.

It was an intense and exhausting trip with long meetings from morning till late evening – plus some really stressful emotional stuff. I understand what Paul means when he refers to the care of the churches weighing upon him. The training went well. It never ceases to amaze me, and challenge me, to see the hunger in Africa for God’s Word. There is definitely something envious about the humble and poor (of spirit) – people who live very simply and are close to the oral means of learning. They are so sincere and intent, listening for hours, asking questions, still wanting more! No “sound bites” or 10-minute sermons here! It is an awesome and humbling privilege to teach such people. There were about 20 leaders representing about 15 churches and plants in different parts of Ethiopia. On Easter Sunday I preached in a church plant in Addis Ababa and then enjoyed spicy Ethiopian food and amazing coffee from freshly roasted beans!

Training meeting
Some of the training participants

We had to prevail upon one of the leaders in the dispute to meet with the other for a reconciliation meeting as per Jesus’ instruction to not even worship if there is unresolved offense (Matthew 5:23-26). Eventually he agreed. It began well with apologies and forgiveness. Then things went horribly wrong! After 3 hours of intense discussion and appeals, because of the intractability of one of the leaders, there was no reconciliation and we had to withdraw our working relationship from him. His elders will meet and decide what they want to do regarding their pastor and ongoing relationship with us as his/their leaders – to push him back to reconcile with us or to withdraw from our leadership. So it ended in a sad mess. I felt like tearing my clothes and sorrowing with repentance for God’s intervention. Pray for the written report we have sent to those elders and the pastor concerned, and to the international leaders to whom we are accountable. God can turn this situation for good.

After lunch roasting coffee beans

I conclude with a few observations. To reconcile, no matter what the issue or who is at fault, requires humility – putting aside pride, power and position. If one party hardens their heart there is nothing one can do to mediate reconciliation until that person – and/or the Lord – softens their heart. Unresolved issues, conflict and division in relationships, is NOT caused by differences in beliefs or doctrine, or “personality clash”, or the many other reasons we tend to give. My experience and scripture tells me it is because of “carnality” – power, prejudice, “selfish ambition”, “vain conceit” (1Corinthians 3:1-4, Philippians 2:1-5f, 4:2-3). Jesus said people divorce because of  “hardness of the heart”  (Matthew 19:8).

Africans say that when leaders fight it is like dueling elephants that trample on the ants – it is the people that suffer. We see it in children when parents quarrel and quarrel, then get divorced. Psycho-emotional violence is far more damaging than the injuries inflicted by physical violence. The pain caused by unresolved stuff in human relationships looms larger than Mount Everest; it is more destructive than the tsunamis that devastated Indonesia and Japan. The need for reconciliation, for relational healing and health, for harmony and wholeness in community, is greater than ever before in my estimation. And what bliss (heaven on earth) when we experience Shalom – God’s peace, harmony and wellbeing – based on loving, right relationships, in families and in churches and society!

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Durban Retreat Report

This is my very first blog post!! Can you believe it! Thanks to some friends who have tried really hard (over many years) helping this e-challenged pastor to start doing a blog! I have been in an e-fog, or so it seems, for a long, long time. Things are getting a little clearer now!

This first posting is a report on a trip last week to Durban (30 March to 3 April). I have sent this report to two email groups – to my ministry colleagues in the Vineyard, and to my community, family and friends (“prayer-partners” in the ministry that I do – often with my wife, Gill – on our trips to various places).

Gill and I were invited to lead a two-day silent retreat for Sam Kisten’s church (Chatsworth Vineyard). There were 23 people – 4 or 5 being from one or two other churches. It was held at the Marian Hill Retreat Center outside Pinetown, near Durban – a lovely place.

Marian Hill was started in the mid to late 1800s by an Austrian Catholic missionary-priest, as a mission to the Zulus. It evolved into a Trappist monastery – a silent order. It is now a sprawling development with many building, facilities and aspects of ministry, one of them being a large retreat center to serve the broader church. It is very well priced and well worth a visit for a personal or group retreat (I must learn to take some pics of these places so that I can include them here in my reports!!!)

It was a great honour and privilege for Gill and I to lead a silent retreat for a Vineyard church!! It was a first for all of the participants. We have different pictures/ideas that arise in our heads when we hear “silent retreat”.  Anyway, it was not as you may think. We took the theme of “Introduction to Christian Retreat” and built meditation exercises around the key aspects of any classic Christian retreat: Solitude and Silence, Rest and Renewal, Meditation and Prayer. The purpose was to introduce the participants to the experience (first and foremost) and the understanding of authentic Christian retreat, so that they can then continue a journey – now with a clear frame of reference – of taking periodic personal retreats. And some of the leaders who are given to the “inner work” of the soul, can also use this experience and these materials to begin introducing others to retreat.

Each session had a brief verbal input with some practical exercises (entering into silence) and a meditation handout-sheet, which the participants worked with for 1 to 3 hours. Then we had times of feedback and sharing what God was saying and doing with those who wanted to share. We ended on the Friday with worship and breaking of bread – it was pregnant with God’s presence – tears and “God-stuff” flowing freely!! In fact, almost every sharing time ended in tears for some! It was evident that God did a deep work of bringing people to stillness, of some healing, peace, rest, instruction, calling, guidance, etc – they all in their own way testified to this.  The beauty of this kind of experience is that people experience God for themselves as they work with the Word, with God in prayer, with their hearts and lives in the stillness of his presence.

On the Sunday I preached in the Chatsworth Vineyard. The worship was heavenly! It’s a healthy strong church. I felt God led me to preach on “A Call to Prayer – which is a call to the Desert, to Warfare, to Spiritual Growth”. I took a quote from Evagrios the Solitary (345-399 AD, a hermit in the Egyptian desert), who wrote 200 tacks on prayer. He began with, “First of all, pray for the gift of tears so that through sorrowing you may tame what is savage in your soul”. I find that profound, unnerving, terrorizingly true! I don’t know about you, but I know me, and there is a savage in me that needs to be tamed by God’s Spirit of Love. The word “sorrowing” is a favorite Greek word used by the Desert Fathers, penthos, which means a deep mourning for one’s true condition before God as a sinner, captured in “The Jesus Prayer” which they used incessantly: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Anyway, I spoke on Jesus’ baptism and his conferred identity from Father, “you are my Son, my Beloved”, which was immediately tested by the devil in the 40 days of fasting and prayer in the desert…. “if you are the Son of God, then….” When we truly begin to pray we enter a desert where demons manifest and test our identity as God’s beloved. This is how we learn to defeat evil by God’s Word and grow into our true identity as beloved children of the Father. I called people who wanted to respond by saying, “God, I want to get intentional about prayer in my life, and truly begin to seek your face”. Most of the church came up and knelt down, and many wept.

Pray for us, because Samuel kinda prophesied at the end of the retreat, and at his church on the Sunday, that God will use us to raise an army of people who know the spirituality of retreat & silence, of growth & character transformation. The whole area of Christian spirituality and spiritual growth has to be built into God’s people (especially the Vineyard!!) Here am I Lord, send me! So pray for us as we do more of this, and as I continue to write the book “Doing Spirituality”

And once again, this report is to say thanks for praying, because it makes all the difference – we cannot do this alone – we are an extension of you!

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Introduction

This blog – Alexander Venter – is the product of Alexander’s teaching ministry since January 1975 when he was ordained to ‘the ministry’ as a church planter and pastor. His years of experience, empowered by numerous significant relationships, has produced relevant resources in the form of teaching notes, audios, DVDs and books – to help all who want to follow Jesus, with a view to equipping them for life and ministry in God’s Kingdom. As a “teacher of God’s Word instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven, he brings out treasures from his storeroom, both old and new” (Matthew 13:52). This website makes some of these Kingdom treasures available to all who may be interested.