When I was a new Christian I met a man of God who changed my life.

Now first you need to understand who I was. I was 20 years old. I had believed in Jesus my whole life but had never really known Him. I had spent 3 years in gangs, crime and drugs, I had searched for God through meditation, eastern religion and wherever anyone claimed that He was. I had quit searching for Him in church because my experience was that they only talked about Him and His rules but didn’t seem to know Him at all.

Having gone back to a church that was experiencing charismatic revival, I witnessed miracles and people whose lives seemed to be truly changed an people who claimed to hear from God. I immediately gave my heart to the Lord fully, was baptized in the Holy Spirit, began to pray in tongues and devoured the Bible that I might know God and be able to hear from Him and become a minister of His in power. I was hungry for more…

Billy was about 50 years old. He was single, lived on some kind of monthly stipend from an inheritance and He was strange. He acted somewhat retarded. He seemed to be smart enough, but he talked strange and he acted strange.

The first time I saw Billy he looked at me and said (in a very creepy voice) “God told me that you would be here today” It scared me and I ran away. But I went back and he was waiting for me. He wanted me to sit by him. I didn’t want to, but I thought I heard the Lord speak to me the verse “God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise”. God seemed to want me to sit with Billy. Little did I know that the decision that day would shape the rest of my life.

You see it was a meeting of Christian businessmen that I was attending. Many of the people there were wealthy, educated and successful. At each meeting we would stand up and give our names and what we did. I still remember after a list of attorneys, bankers and even a FBI agent Billy stood up and proclaimed, “My name is Billy Brown and I pray”. Because I sat with him the others assumed that we were friends and so I got classified with Billy as strange.

But after each meeting we would pray for each other and this is where Billy stood out. You see Billy really did pray. God’s Word and Spirit were more real to him than reality. And when Billy prayed for people they got healed. They often fell under the power of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes Billy would very authoritatively command an evil spirit to leave the person and they would jerk or groan and a few minutes later look like a totally new person. I caught the people (when they fell) that Billy prayed for and observed.

I had never had a mentor before and you would think that if I were to choose one it would be someone educated and successful, but I chose that day to become Billy’s disciple. He taught me how to hear from God and how to pray.

One day he came to me with a list of scriptures. He told me that I was to memorize them and meditate on them every day.To be honest he “ordered me to”. You see Billy knew who he was in Christ, even if nobody else did. He knew that God had sent me to him to learn and so he taught. It was embarrassing and humbling to have this relationship with Billy in public. But soon people also attributed to me the expectation of God’s presence, healing and voice that they had of Billy. They just assumed that I was just as anointed as him, and I began to hear, to step out and also to have results.

I am writing this today some 30 years later because I was thinking of some of the scriptures that Billy made me memorize. It was more than that really, I was supposed to “eat the words” and be changed by them. I was. I wish I remembered the list. I don’t I have memorized and “eaten” a lot of the word since then. You see it was not just those specific scriptures that I was to learn but the habit of consuming God’s Word that I was supposed to learn.

Of course I believe that the whole Bible is worthy of this attention but when God gives me a specific scripture or list of them at a specific time and I do more than just consider it or think about it for a minute, when I “consume” it and make it my diet continually, more happens. Often I will get revelation about a scripture that was not initially apparent.

One of the biggest things that happens when we meditate and “consume” the Word of God is we begin to be changed by it. Let me explain.

Most of us Christians believe that God answers prayer, that He heals and that He is always with us. Of course we do, the Bible says so. But in our daily life we struggle with the same things everyone else does as if God is not really there. It is as if we are supposed to work it out on our own. But if we were to be given the verse by God to memorize and consume, “ I can do all things through Christ Jesus”, eventually we would see our life and its obstacles differently and strangely we would have faith that God not only CAN do all things but that He WANTS TO do all things THROUGH ME.

A classic thought or statement when asked if they believe that God is going to heal them of an injury or disease is: “Of course I believe that God CAN heal me, He can do anything he wants, I just don’t know if He wants to heal ME. To be honest this is where most of us live. We believe in God, we have heard and believed testimonies of the great things that He has done, but we are of little faith when it comes to ourselves. Little do we realize that God is not a respecter of persons and He wants to Heal a lot more than we think.

So what needs to change for us to have success? What we think. But more than that, what we feel. I heard a quote the other day, I wish I knew who to attribute it to but it went something like this. “No man can change what is in his heart, but if we change our thoughts, God will change our hearts.”. In proverbs it says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. To be honest what we “think” is true and what we “feel” is true are often different.

In Romans it says, “Faith come by hearing and hearing by the Word of God”. I believe that this means when God speaks into our spirit or heart. This can happen when we read a scripture, but all too often we learn what the scripture says but we have yet to “hear” it from God and be changed by it.

By “consuming” the Word of God we give the Holy Spirit of God the chance to make the scripture “real” to us.

I ask you. What are you consuming now? Are you worrying, (thinking, meditating about your problems)? Are you afraid (thinking and meditating about what could happen)? Do you feel alone and unloved?

In Romans it says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.” and also ”the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us”.

Whether it is healing, giftings, fear, finances or whatever I believe that there are answers from God in His Word, and I believe that if you will “consume” the Word like Billy taught me…YOU WILL BE CHANGED.

WELCOME MESSAGE

Welcome to our new website. This site is still under construction. Keep checking back for exciting new developments on the site. There will be a picture gallery on this web site soon, so you can share pictures of your church friends and family. I am working on a Community Forum where you can discuss about what God is doing, ask questions, recruit prayer, support for projects, etc. I am also working on ways that you can listen to the messages from Friday nights and Sunday mornings.