June 2009

CLU Student Newsletter

Peace in the Midst of the Storm
by
Dr. Karen Joy King

Do the economy, diseases, and all kinds of atrocities unnerve you? It is easy to become focused on all these things and to become upset. I must confess that at first, these things really bothered me, but recently God took all the anger and fear away when He reminded me (again) “Do not let your heart be troubled! Rejoice!”

I trust you will be encouraged by the story below describing one student’s wonderful experience as the Communion with God course helped re-unite her with her First Love. The second article is an exciting testimony of how God is using another CLU student in powerful ministry.

Do you have a heart to disciple others?
by
Dr. Mark Virkler

The Communion with God Ministries Personal Spiritual Trainer program may be the opportunity you have been looking for! We have had a great response from believers seeking a mentor who will spend just a little time with them, helping them learn new skills and behaviors as Christians, answering their questions, advising them on their journaling, and just being an encouragement. If you are not aware of the program, you can find out about it at www.cwgministries.org/pst.

The PST program provides a structure for the self-motivated believer to use under the guidance of a mentor to grow in a specific spiritual discipline or area of knowledge. Trainees use the same basic syllabi as CLU students, and are expected to complete all of the assignments except the mid-term and final tests, and the final paper. They do not submit their work to the Trainer for grading. There is weekly contact with the PST either through email or by telephone.

Trainers are to cover the following areas in their weekly contact/consultations with the trainee: Have you completed this week’s lesson? Did you have any problems with any of it? What did the Lord especially speak to you about through the lesson? What have you done this week to apply what you are learning in this module? How often have you journaled this week? Share a sample of your journaling. Is there anything I can pray with you about?

Our initial group of Trainers has been able to meet the needs of those who want to correspond by email. However, many people would like to spend just 15 – 20 minutes per week for 12 weeks on the telephone (using their dime, not yours) with someone who will focus on them and their spiritual needs, listening to them and praying for them. If you would be willing to invest in the lives of others in this way, we would love to have you join our team. You may qualify to be a PST for any CLU course that you have completed with an A or a B grade. Just submit the application form found on our website. If you are fluent in Spanish please let us know as we have also found need of a Spanish-speaking PST.

As an expression of our appreciation for investing your time and your heart, we will pay you $50 for each trainee you help through an entire module. Remember, you are only committed to a 12-week relationship with each trainee, and you can decide how many people you can work with at a time.

Thank you for being part of the worldwide network of people who have joined with us to use this program as a means to do our part in fulfilling the Great Commission to disciple the nations!

The Determination of God
by
Victoria Halbert

God has been determined throughout history to speak to His beloved children. He spoke first to Adam and He speaks to us in a relational manner today. As a child, I enjoyed this relationship with God and cherished the times I spent with Him. I loved basking in His presence and hearing His voice. I often would leave friends and family in order to have more time with Him.

However, I began to listen to satan’s voice which convinced me that the times I spent with God were not real, childish, and prideful engagements with God. In time, I began to lose that sweet encouraging, supportive relationship with Him and failed to recognize His voice. At first, I was not too disturbed, but I greatly missed that sweet relationship I previously had when communing with God, and that became my first alarm that something indeed was wrong. Not hearing God’s voice put me in a very dangerous place and led to self-loathing, poor self-esteem, sadness, and defeat.

However, God rescued me. My hunger for God’s relationship was so strong I began searching for Him. When I found Christian Leadership University and read the by-line of ‘Bringing the voice of God to your learning experience’, I knew it was exactly where I needed to be and quickly enrolled.

I cried through the first chapters and was elated to get back into the arms of my Lord and Savior. Indeed He is the lover and the guardian of my soul. As I began refreshing and renewing my mind, the Holy Spirit bore witness in my spirit that it was God’s plan for me to be in God’s presence and to hear His voice.

One of the first things God confirmed to me was that He had never left me. “I spoke to you in all those early morning talks about work and your life. Yes, that was Me. I have directed and made your paths straight. All that time was God ordained, even though you did not recognize it, I remained close to you.”

I began to learn more about the Holy Spirit dwelling with my spirit. As I meditated on the scriptures, I began to recognize that I am not an ‘I’ but a ‘We’. The ‘We’ is the relationship of my spirit and God’s Spirit living in me. It is through listening, yielding, and praying without an idol in my heart that allows the river of God to flow through me. Allowing the Holy Spirit to flow through me will certainly be a life long journey.

As I saw myself as a ‘We’ and allowed His Spirit to flow through me to accomplish His work; He then asked me, “What are your desires? Bring them to me and seek My counsel. I want you to identify your desires and your goals.” I said, “I want to finish my doctorate.” He replied, “I will give you time, do not get worried and negative regarding your time spent anywhere. I am organizing that for you. I will open and shut doors for you. Stay close to Me, and I will show you how to do this and ways to study. Stay focused, not on your goals, but on Me. I will take you deeper into Me as we sojourn together. I love you.”

This course has restored my relationship with God. The material has shown me how to live my life as a ‘We’ and has made clear to me that God wants to flow through me. I am very thankful for the determination of God to hang on to me and to stay with me. He renewed my heart so I can commune with Him. ‘We’ can now accomplish His work on earth. Amen!!

An Incredible Gift Has Been Given to Me—God Asked Me to Leave the Life that I Knew
by
Susan Cruz

For the last five years, God placed within me the desire to see Christians walk in the fellowship with God; to be a Christ follower; to go behind the veil into the Holy of Holies and not settle for anywhere else “in the Temple”; and to know what it means to truly experience His presence. I felt strongly that if we, as Christians, knew “THAT place”, we might think twice about turning our backs on the only True One when life doesn’t go our way or when despair sets in over our circumstances.

God began to impress upon me II Chron. 7:14, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

One day, I saw what appeared to be a globe in my hands. On the inside of the globe was the Ark of the Covenant. On the exterior, in circular form were the words, “Repent, pray, obey, and worship”. Also, on the exterior, I saw what appeared to be paths, like a maze, to the Holy of Holies. When I inquired about this, I sensed the Lord telling me about the above passage that if His people would repent, pray, obey, and worship, they would know what it’s like to experience the very presence of Him anywhere and anytime.

However, there was a slight problem with all of this. While God was giving me one desire, He was withdrawing another – my personal desire to continue owning our financial services business my husband and I had built over the previous seventeen years which provided a very nice lifestyle for us and our four children!

After a long struggle about the question “is He asking us to leave the life that we know?” my husband and I finally decided that the ‘season is over,’ and I was to step away (my husband did not feel that he could run it since he is more of a behind-the-scene kind of guy). I can’t begin to describe how difficult this decision was since we had to walk away from all that we are, all that we know; all that defines us; and obviously our way of supporting our family.

During the battle of “should we or shouldn’t we,” I asked the Lord to show me what He was asking me to do if I stepped away. He told me to step away first and then He would show me. It became a cat and mouse game, one that I knew I would lose, but I still tried like crazy to get answers PRIOR to jumping out in faith.

Once we felt certain that stepping away was the thing to do, we began to pray about when. The answer came quickly, “Immediately!” I was not to wait any longer, for the time had come to simply trust God. That was in December 2007. At that time, even though very difficult, walking through that process would become one of my most treasured memories. Now, I can look back and say, “Oh that was so worth it!”

After this difficult decision, God birthed Catalyst 4 Christ Ministries in February/March 2008, and the conferences were going to be the catalysts that God was going to use to rally His flock. We scheduled the first Experiencing God Conference March 21 & 22, 2009, and used the information that had been revealed to me as the core element for the content. What began as something I thought would be relatively simple, quickly became a big project, but as I began to plan the event, God placed people and tools in my life at ‘just the right time’. As the pieces came together, He made it clear to me that these conferences were to grow His church.

Approximately eight weeks prior to the conference, the Lord gave me a project manager, Christine Potts, to oversee every detail needed to do the weekend event! She has the gifts I fail to possess. Her attention to every detail was unbelievable. As we began to fit the pieces together, we saw the hand of God in so many ways.

I decided to use our intercessory team as my “Board”, so whenever a big decision was to be made, I would go to them and believe that if something was to be, there would be an agreement in our decisions. Repeatedly, the Lord revealed His directions through those means. I learned that the Lord will show up when you depend on Him alone.

As the date of the conference drew near, the Lord raised up volunteers ‘out of nowhere’ to be a part of the ministry team. God really awed me! When the weekend finally arrived, I can honestly say it was done with class and attention to detail. The Lord gave me a super team of individuals!

Every detail was so covered that when I arrived at the church the first night of the session, I only had time to give the altar workers instruction, and then I was cut off from doing anything other than just chatting with the Lord about the message for that night. Christine separated me from everything so I could remain calm.

My message on Friday was about entering into the Holy of Holies and not stopping at the gate, altar, laver or even the Holy Place. The crux of it was a question, "What prevents you from going to the Most Holy Place?" When we gave the altar call, I was so humbled. My heart was broken when I saw such brokenness. Even though we had over fifteen altar workers, we still did ministry for an hour and a half after the session was over. God worked, and I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!

As I was walking down the stairs to my seat after the message, I saw that there were only a few hundred people in attendance. (I come from a background that if I were doing a conference, one determining element of success was if we filled every seat.) The church we rented held approximately 800 people on the bottom portion. Anyway, as I reached the bottom step, the Lord told me that He was going to redefine my idea of success through this process.

I went to my seat in the front row and watched as people went forward for prayer. I saw forgiveness being poured out; hearts being healed; and families being restored. One woman was on her knees at the altar about five feet from me. She was grieving. I didn’t know her need, but I knew it was a deep pain. Ironically, I never felt led to pray for a single individual that night, for the Lord had me stand back and pray for our intercessory team as they prayed for others.

One of the prayer team members knelt next to the woman and held her. In that moment, I saw Love in the flesh. The next morning after the session, the woman asked if she could speak with me. She told me that she had lost her 23 year old daughter to breast cancer nine months ago. Even though she had served the Lord most of her life, she had become angry at God for taking her child, had allowed bitterness to grow, and cursed the very God she had once loved and served in amazing ways. She told me that the Lord had used the message from the previous night to restore her. Her ‘veil’ had been lifted. She had been delivered from bitterness and experienced God’s forgiveness.

Recently, our women’s ministry pastor asked me, “What did you learn from doing the conference?” Without hesitation, I stated that I learned lessons one doesn’t get from a book. I learned through this process that God is faithful; that He really wants us to be in a right relationship with Him; that He will give you what you need when you need it; that He will provide the necessary resources when He calls you to a task; that He can be trusted; that I know His voice; that He is so worth serving; and that He never leaves us (I am so profoundly grateful that He pulled me from my pit so many years ago).

God is so awesome! He even provided Spanish translators and headsets from a local church. This church also owns a radio station, so it broadcasted our conference locally, in the twelve states in which they are licensed, and to the local prisons. Over the two-day conference, we had approximately 70 volunteers. Five churches partnered with us in the promotion effort. A local business provided over a thousand color flyers, along with a couple thousand black and whites. The local newspaper allowed us to run the ad at no charge for three weekends.

Even though my church does not believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, it had the greatest percentage in attendance. This was exciting! Also, several key staff individuals attended. Many came to the altar, and even a young pastor experienced the Baptism. It’s exciting to see how we all get stretched from time to time when we allow the Lord to be Lord of all. Excitingly enough, my team has agreed to be a part of my next conference in October!

Senior pastor sought by Spirit-filled, Bible believing church

Our church, The Father’s House, is located in Brighton, MI, about 50 miles northwest of Detroit. We are a fellowship of approx. 90 families intent on seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Our goal is building disciples as we preach our Lord’s kingdom gospel with signs following, to glorify Him through abandoned worship and to forward His agenda with fervent prayer.

Our pastor of over ten years has recently received his promotion to heaven and we now seek another visionary apostolic leader to further God’s work in our midst.

For further information please contact pastor Maria Miller by e-mail mlm29@sbcglobal.net or phone at (810) 227-2005, or Tim Griffith by email at tkg164@gmail.com or phone at (810) 599-4269.

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