Rob Rufus on Apostles

"The primary ministry of an apostle is government of grace and laying foundations and the primary sign of an apostle is signs, wonders and miracles. Apostles equip the church for miracles as do evangelists!".

Rob Rufus - "The Flow of the Anointing" - Grace and Glory Conference - the Phillipines

Terry Virgo on the Growth of Church History

"Church history does not grow by gradual evolution but by divine intervention".

Terry Virgo - "Main Session 1" - Stoneleigh Bible Week 1998 - audiotape.

Ern Baxter on the Christian and Community

"There is no such thing in the New Testament as a Christian out of community".

Ern Baxter - "A Crisis Beginning - 1" - (Where Are We Going? Series) - Dales Bible Week 1976 - audiotape.

Terry Virgo on the Vital Need for ALL Ephesians 4 Ministries

"The Lord Jesus ascended on high and gave gifts to men. He appointed apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. If the church is to arrive at full maturity, become a functioning body and fulfil its glorious destiny, it must derive the benefit that comes from embracing all of these promised ministries. Without them we inevitably fail to benefit from all that was in God’s heart in making provision of them".

Terry Virgo - "Fathering Leaders - Motivating Mission" - Terry Virgo's Blog - June 21st 2011

Terry Virgo on Apostles Laying Foundations

"Clearly the planting of churches was foundational to the task of world mission, and apostles played a very significant part in that process. They presented a clear body of doctrine centred in the coming of Christ, his life, death, resurrection and ascension, and the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which led to the formation of an international people of God".

Terry Virgo - "Fathering Churches - Motivating Missions" - Terry Virgo's Blog - June 21st 2011

Terry Virgo on the Myth that Apostles Must Write Scripture

"The frequently held view that apostles functioned only in the first century and that their primary task was the writing of the New Testament Scriptures. Of the original Twelve only three made any contribution to the New Testament while Luke, who was never regarded as an apostle, wrote more of the New Testament than any other.

While the stance that apostles were essentially Scripture-writers has been maintained the vital work of an apostle as described in the New Testament has been almost entirely overlooked. Paul writing to the Corinthian church said that as a wise master builder he had laid a foundation in that particular church. As an apostle he had a task which was related to the formation of local churches".

Terry Virgo - "Fathering Leaders - Motivating Mission" - Terry Virgo's Blog - June 21st 2011

Anthony Hopkins on Exorcism

"Does a burglar turn on the lights? No - he prefers you to know that he isn't there. Just so with demons ... Choosing not to believe in the devil won't protect you from him".

Anthony Hopkins - "The Rite" - 2011.

Ern Baxter on Hope

"Now the Word of God says that we are to entertain this as a hope. In the New Testament when the Holy Spirit uses the word “hope” – He doesn’t use it in the sense of the word “wish for”. Hope in the New Testament is that which God has declared will be and that toward which we move with certainty".

Dr Ern Baxter - "Crisis Beginning" - ("Where Are We Going" series) - Dales Bible Week 1976 - audiotape 1.

Terry Virgo on Sovereign Grace Ministries

True?

"This is a loving group of churches - no one is here to beat anyone else up".

Terry Virgo - "Grace to Say No" - Celebration Mid-South 2001 - audiotape.

Ern Baxter on the Effects of the Anointing

"When the anointing is upon you, it has physical effect".

Dr Ern Baxter - "The Ephod" (Priestly Garments Series) - Anglia Bible Week 1984 - video cassette.

Terry Virgo on Church Growth

"Churches can sometimes become obsessed with numbers so that members feel that they are merely the means to an end and not particularly valued for themselves. Growth can be measured purely in terms of the body count on Sundays while spiritual growth and developing maturity can be marginalized or go unnoticed".

Terry Virgo - "The Spirit-Filled Church" - Monarch Books, London (2011) - p139

C J Mahaney on the Doctrine of Sin

"If we do not unveil and apply grace, our emphasis on the doctrine of sin will leave the members of our churches devoid of hope, without joy and aware only of their sin and not of the grace of Christ".

C J Mahaney - "The Pastor and the Trinity" in "For the Fame of God's Name" (Storms and Taylor ed) - Crossway Books (2010) - p393.

C J Mahaney on the Error of Preaching the Gospel

"The other error, one to which many of us are prone, is to teach and apply the doctrine of sin while neglecting grace".

C J Mahaney - "The Pastor and the Trinity" in "For the Fame of God's Name" (Storms and Taylor ed) - Crossway Books (2010) - p392

Terry Virgo on Falling from Grace

"Falling from grace"(Gal 5:4) is not about backsliding; it's about trusting in your law keeping skills".

Reference: Terry Virgo - Twitter - @TerryVirgo - 15th June 2011

Phil Wilthew on New Testament Prophets

"A New Testament prophet’s job is not actually to do all of the prophesying, but rather to empower others to hear God for themselves (Eph. 4:12)".

Phil Wilthew - "Creating Prophetic Cultures" - Newfrontiers Magazine - Apr-June 2011.

Terry Virgo on Law and Sanctification/Justification

"All evangelicals know that they can never be justified by the law, but what they often fail to realise is that they cannot be sanctified by it either. The law ALWAYS condemns".

Terry Virgo - "The Spirit-Filled Church" - Monarch Books, Oxford (2011) - p59.

Ryan Rufus on Mortifying Sin

From the recent "Glory and Grace Conference" in the Philippines;

"To say that focusing on your past sin helps you to fight temptation is a lie from the pit of hell. What right to we have to focus on sin that God has declared He will not remember? Focusing on your past sin will simply cause an increase in the law in your life, and resulting in further sin and self-righteousness - guilt and pride".

Gordon Fee on the Experience of the Holy Spirit

"For Paul, the Spirit was an experienced, empowering reality. Paul would not have understood most historic Protestantism. I know that sounds unkind but it is true. The reason he would not have understood it is because he would not have understood a Christian life in which the experienced life of the Spirit was not the key to every dimension of that life".

Gordon Fee - speaking at Holy Trinity Brompton 1996 - cited by Greg Haslam - "Be filled with the Spirit" - Preach the Word! (Ed. Greg Haslam) - Sovereign World, London (2006) - p606.

Greg Haslam on Being Filled with the Spirit

"In explaining this matter of being filled with the Spirit, we are sometimes urged to seek a "second blessing". But this might imply that we could end our spiritual quest right there, on the ground that we have now "had it". The New Testament never urges us to settle for the first time we were baptised in the Holy Spirit as if that was the sum total of His power and Presence that we would ever need. The truth is, we need the Lord to pour out on us a continual effulgence of the Spirit's life and power so that we will be filled with joy, victorious over temptation, bold in witness and maturing in all our relationships".

Greg Haslam - "Be Filled with the Spirit" - Preach the Word! (Ed. Greg Haslam) - Sovereign Books, London (2006) - p600.

Philip Greenslade on Ephesians 4 Ministries

"Without the prophet, the church becomes a spiritless organisation in which even apostolic work hardens into a new form of religious bureaucrac, and without the prophetic thrust - the teaching ministry perpetuates cycles of timeless truth but is deaf to what the Spirit is saying now to the churches. Without a prophetic voice challenging God's people to lay down their lives for the world, pastoral nuture can easily degenerate. Evangelism too, desperately needs to hear the prophet if it's methods are to be as godly as it's message and if it is to avoid giving stereotyped answers to questions people are not asking".

Philip Greenslade - "Leadership: Reflections on Biblical Leadership Today" - CWR.

Greg Haslam on Ephesians 4 Ministries

"We cannot omit any of these dimensions of ministry of the Word without suffering loss. If we delete apostolic and prophetic ministry, we are missing two-fifths of Christ's Word-ministry to His Church. If they are operating and being received well, all five of these ministries 'prepare God's people for works of service'; they are equippers of the saints".

Greg Haslam - "Prophetic Preaching" - in "Preach the Word!" (ed. Greg Haslam) - Sovereign World, London (2006) - p428