From Mt Pisgah’s Lofty Heights
I returned from India this past Friday evening and then Ruth and I flew from Baltimore to Asheville, N. C. to spend the weekend with John and Camrin Harris and the congregation which they pastor called “His Gates”. We participated in the commissioning of two elders, a worship leader and a church planting husband and wife team.
John and Camrin, members of New Testament Fellowship of Churches, have blessed many of us with their accurate and life-giving prophetic giftings. When I discern God’s leading for a certain issue in my life and ministry, I will often call John for his perspective. He freely shares what he is sensing from God for me. At other times he will call or text me with a dream or revelation God has given him for me or for the church.
On a memorable day in his late twenties, John was immediately and dramatically delivered by a personal encounter with Jesus Christ from severe, disabling addictions. God filled him with the Holy Spirit and powerfully gifted him for ministry. God has used this humble, unpretentious man to minister life to the high and mighty as well as to the lowly that others might easily overlook.
Vaughn,our son, has valued John’s training of the students in the Ukunda Mission School on how to experience and walk in the gifts of the Spirit.
Through my relationship with John, I have developed a greater appreciation for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the gift of prophecy, in the life of the church.
As Paul says in I Corinthians 14: 1-3 : “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy… The one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.”
This one year old ‘His Gates’ congregation consists of people hungry for the things of God. The congregation meets Saturday evenings from 7- 10 pm for their weekly worship services. The presence of God is treasured above all things. Services are often characterized by signs, wonders and miracles. People from religious traditions that do not place the same value on the manifestations of the Holy Spirit often attend the services and subsequently carry new life with them wherever they go. Thus this congregation is impacting the entire Asheville region and beyond.
On this weekend Ruth and I came to know the wonderful group of people God has placed around John and Camrin in leadership. These people pursue an intimate relationship with Jesus, walk in the giftings of the Holy Spirit and humbly seek to follow the direction of the Holy Spirit in daily life, be it sharing faith with someone in the grocery store or graciously forgiving an injustice. And further God has given this team a genuine unity and mutual respect and love for one another.
I was honored and humbled to participate as a bishop in this commissioning service in which these leaders humbly committed themselves to serve Christ and His church whatever it may cost.
John and Camrin are effectively multiplying themselves in the teams and leaders they are training through their ministry at His Gates.
On Sunday afternoon John and Camrin and their foster son Jeremiah, took us on a drive ,through the breathtaking expanse of Pisgah National Forest. (Pisgah was named after Mt. Pisgah where Moses was taken by God to view the Promised Land).
We did feel that our time with the His Gates Congregation gave us a greater view of our ‘promised land’ inheritance in Jesus Christ.
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