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April 2004
Dear Friends,
As I write this newsletter Janice and I are recovering from a very busy time in Mexico. Be sure to read her report later in this newsletter. It was a wonderful time to be with hungry people that are so open to the Holy Spirit. I am convinced that God is going to have a people that will be unmoved by the circumstances of life, a people that are moving with God by the Spirit, in revelation knowledge, and expressing more and more the nature of our Lord.
In the month of May I will be traveling to the Philippines to minister on the island of Mindanao. I will have the privilege of ministering to over 500 pastors who are reaching out to the Islamic people on this war torn island. In the evening I will be ministering evangelistic healing services to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the needy and to encounter the Islamic people with the love and power of God.
Because of the United States involvement in Iraq, Americans are not too popular with Muslim extremist right now. However, the church must reach out to this people group with the power of the gospel.
Because Islam has rewritten history and kept the people in its nations from being exposed to any counter balancing truth, great deception is upon the people. In addition, Islam has created a curtain of no access to the Christian message.
The church in response over the past few generations has been content to accept this no access curtain. As a result Islam has grown in its deception and resentment and now is striking out at Christian peoples and nations that give Christian freedom. This is always the result when the church compromises the Great Commission and ignores a people group.
Now more than ever we must rise up to bring an effective witness of Christ to the Islamic people. This will involve warfare prayer as we must win the battle in the spirit world before we will see significant victory in the natural realms. At a time when the church of America is becoming content with less, we really need more.
We deeply appreciate your prayer for us and for these challenges. God is more than able to open the way to make an IMPACT for His Kingdom among Islamic people. There are many that are needy and hungry to truly meet with God. It is our privilege to bring Him in manifestation so that their lives are touched by His love and compassion.
While I am in the Philippines ministering, Janice will return to Mexico to minister on prayer and help with the development of Christian Life International Bible College in Mexico. She will greatly appreciate your prayers for her in this ministry.
Greetings to all our faithful partners in World Outreach. You are loved and deeply appreciated by us. May God continue to bless you in all His ways.
We have returned from 2½ weeks of ministry in Guadalajara, Mexico. The schedule was very busy for both of us. Upon arrival we travelled to a camp meeting for young people where we ministered to them in morning, afternoon, and evening sessions for 2 days. God met the young people in powerful ways. In the final session many young people that were new Christians received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. After the final session on Sunday we traveled to Guadalajara for a late evening church service.
Beginning on Monday Roger's first 2 hour session with the men who are leaders was at 7:30 a.m. Then he counseled with various leaders throughout the day before hosting an all men's service at 8:30 p.m. I did the same with the ladies, a morning leadership meeting and an evening meeting with all the women.
The Healing Wings ministry was presented to all the cell leaders who made it available to so many in need throughout the church. Words cannot convey the results in so many lives. Even men came to me and thanked me for helping them to receive inner healing. I even met with a former Catholic Priest who is now married to a lawyer and is going through Healing Wings and is receiving healing from an abusive background.
The people were so hungry that the attendance continued to grow in spite of the daily schedule. Roger brought all of us together toward the end of the first week for the evening services and began a series on faith.
Each night God brought healing and salvation. We saw tumors disappear, great hearing loss restored, a boy born completely deaf began to hear, and one lady born without an inner ear on the left side was hearing. One lady with x-rays demonstrated a creative miracle to restore several discs in her back. God moved on the people in so many ways.
The last night of the weekly meetings was a special service for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Over 100 people received this gift. At the end of the altar service Roger prayed for the workers and laughter broke out. All the people who were left in the service circled these workers to see those who were being refreshed. "Laughter does good like a medicine". When we woke up the next morning we were ready for another two weeks, laughter having refreshed us.
God was establishing the church, leadership, and patterns of ministry during our time. There was a lot of teaching and instruction to build a greater depth and foundation in the Word.
Many expressed a desire to study so plans are being made to start a Bible Institute and begin a translation of the material into Spanish. We have become a part of the lives of this church and will continue to work in Mexico to see people saved, healed, and established.
Thank you again for helping us to reach out to the nations for the Glory of God!
Janice Houtsma
The Holy Spirit is presently taking the Church through a process of transition, preparation and progression toward the Apostolic and final moves of God.
We are now in the stage where God is taking the Church to the refreshing river of TESTING AND SEPARATION unto a greater responsibility of maturity and ministry. Up until this time God's people have been occupied with things concerning Christ - now they are to be occupied with Christ Himself. It is a time of transition from the things related to Christ to THAT WHICH IS KNOWN OF HIM PERSONALLY. IN THE WAKE OF THIS OUTPOURING WILL COME INCREASING MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD'S JUDGMENT AS AN ACT OF MERCY, WARNING OF THE JUDGMENT TO COME.
The Holy Spirit has now been commissioned to start SEPARATING the CHAFF from the WHEAT, the PROFANE from the PURE, the FLESH from the SPIRIT, the FALSE from the TRUE. God will be purifying the inward life and prophetic flow of the prophets and the apostles by separating man's religious ideas from heaven's pure words. He will be separating self-activated actions from Holy Spirit manifestations, and self-serving ministry from sacrificial ministry.
We are going to look at a vision of the coming of the Lord given to the prophet Habakkuk. Then we will look at its meaning and apply it to our times.
Habakkuk 3:3-4
3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
4 And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.
Habakkuk 3:3-4 - NEW AMERICAN STANDARD
3 God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth.
4 His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden.
Isaiah 63:11
11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?
It has been the usual practice of God's people, when they have been in distress to help themselves by recollecting their experiences, and reviving them, considering the days of old. This is that which the prophet does here, and he looks as far back as the first forming of them into a people, when they were brought by miracles out of Egypt, a house of bondage, through the wilderness, a land of drought, into Canaan.
Recall YOUR SALVATION and times of DELIVERANCE.
He that through so much difficulty brought them at first into Canaan, can now bring them there again out of Babylon.
GOD'S APPEARANCE
God appeared in His glory, as He never did before or since: He came from Teman, even the Holy One from Mount Paran. This refers to the visible display of the glory of God when He gave the Law upon Mount Sinai. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai in a cloud and His glory was as the devouring fire, not only to enforce the Law He then gave them, but to affirm the deliverance He had wrought for them and to magnify it; for the first word He said there was, "I am the Lord thy God, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt."
At Sinai God had come like an awesome thunderstorm sweeping down from the mountainous region in the south. His glory covered the heavens which shone with the reflection of His glorious appearance; the earth also was full of His praise, or of His splendor, as some read it. People at a distance saw the cloud and fire on the top of Mount Sinai, and praised the God of Israel.
THE PROPHET INDICATED A PROGRESSIVE QUALITY TO GOD'S APPEARANCE BY COMPARING HIS SPLENDOR TO A SUNRISE. This season of change is progressive. The heavens are first tinted with the early rays of the hidden sun, then the earth is illuminated as the ball of fire appears over the horizon, and finally everything is flooded with brilliant, glorious light.
The phrase BRIGHTNESS of LIGHT in the Hebrew also means TO ENLIGHTEN, TO CAUSE TO SHINE, DAYBREAK. The light of His presence was to bring understanding to the people.
The word LIGHT in the Hebrew also means FIRE, GLORIOUS, TO BE OR BECOME LIGHT, TO BE ILLUMINATED, TO GIVE LIGHT, TO MAKE SHINE. By this light of understanding a process of TRANSFORMATION was to begin. As God manifests Himself we are to be transformed by the light of His presence.
Interestingly the Hebrew verb "to send out rays," is related to the Hebrew noun used to describe Moses' countenance after he had come down from Mount Sinai: "his face was radiant" (literally "his face sent out rays of light.")
Exodus 34:29-30, 35
29 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
35 And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
Just as rays of light streak across the morning sky, so rays flashed from God's hand. As God advanced, the all-pervading light was traced to its source, the hand of the Lord. The rays emanated from God as they do from the sun.
God's radiance is both emanating and concealing. It reveals His glory but veils His power. It is easy to forget that the light and warmth which showers the earth with blessing comes from a ball of fire that could consume the globe in a moment. So God's power is hidden in His glory. His revelation is restrained lest it consume its beholders.
The operations of His power, compared with what He could have done, are as the hiding of it.
Job 11:6
6 And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that THEY ARE DOUBLE TO THAT which IS! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
The progressive arising of the Day of the Lord is upon us, and the Lord is coming in His glory in the earth through His Church before coming for His Church.
We are living in a time of transition from one age to another. As in previous seasons of change of this nature so it is now. People will either become PEOPLE OF DESTINY or people dedicated to GREAT CALAMITY. It is a time when the gray compromise between good and evil evaporates. Evil manifests in thick darkness, while righteousness ascends to its most radiant and awesome heights.
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