The following are our doctrinal beliefs

The Bible is the Inspired, Inerrant Word of God to Man

The Holy Scriptures are God’s revelation of Himself to Man. We believe that all 66 books of the Bible, although written by different men, only had one Author, God the Holy Spirit. God told Jeremiah, “I watch over my word to perform it.” (Jer. 1:12) This indicates the importance of the accuracy of the Bible to the LORD because He has to do what He said He would do; therefore, it was incumbent upon Him to be certain that the Scriptures were both set down and translated accurately.

Therefore, we believe in the inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures.

In addition, we believe that the Word of God as set forth in the Bible is sufficient to meet all the needs – spirit, soul and body – of every person alive today upon the earth. The LORD told Brother Timmons in 1985, “The main reason I left my word was to meet the needs of mankind.”

The Bible contains promises of God set forth in a covenant or legal agreement between God and man which will meet every need you will ever have in this life. The Spirit of God inspired men to write the books of the Bible as evidenced by the following Scriptures:

“The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.” (2 Samuel 23:2)

“And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying …” (2 Kings 21:10)

“But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. (2 Peter 1:20-21).

“All Scripture is inspired by God …” (2 Timothy 3:16)

“And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

The Lord Jesus left His word for us to meet our needs. Every need you have or will ever have – healing, finances, relationships, etc. – can be met through the word of God by a person believing by faith and trusting that the Lord will do what He said in His word He would do.

The number one problem in the Church today, however, is that most Christians – even ministers – don’t believe the Bible. Jesus left His word for you but if you don’t believe it He cannot “confirm it with signs following” (Mark 16:20).

Sometimes people will ask me, “Brother Timmons, what’s the greatest thing you’ve ever learned about Jesus?”

I always reply, “The greatest thing I’ve learned about Him is that He is who we believe Him to be. If we believe He’s our savior and by faith confess what the Word says about salvation then He becomes our Savior. If we believe He’s our healer and confess what the Word says about healing (1 Peter 2:23,24 et al) then He becomes our healer.

"Conversely, we can believe and accept Jesus as our Savior yet deny Him in His role as the Great Physician and limit His ability to heal us. "Jesus’ name, YHWH, means, “I AM.” He is the I AM -- a very present help – for all that we believe Him to be. He is more than sufficient to meet our every need if we will only believe."

“For with God nothing is impossible.” (Matthew 19:26; Luke 1:37)

On October 19, 1998, in Elliston, Montana, the Lord appeared to me in a vision. In the vision He looked differently than He normally does. Usually He appears in a dazzling white garment with a gold belt and an incredible brilliant surrounding white light. This time He was dressed as a simple prophet.

In the vision He spoke to me about the gift of Working of Miracles and gave me 3 steps to receiving a miracle anyone can use to receive a miracle from Him.

• He said, “Find it. You must find scriptures for the promise you are believing Me for.”
• “Fast it, He said, “like Daniel did for the promise you are believing Me for.”
• “Let your words and your actions be in line with the promise you are believing for and act as if you already possess it.”

This last point is the one we have the most trouble with. The Word of God will meet your every need if you will read it, believe it and act upon it (the Bible says that faith without corresponding action is dead, James 2), and that we are to be doers of the word. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22)

THERE IS ONE TRUE GOD

Although there are many false gods existing in this world and in the spirit realm, there is only one true God; however, He exists in three forms: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. There are many, many scriptures that support this fact in both the Old and New Testaments.

The Lord Jesus Christ was both God and Man.This is a difficult concept to understand and is in fact misunderstood by the majority of Christians who believe the Lord Jesus, because He was (and still is) the Son of God had a much easier time on earth than they do because He was God and thus had certain special privileges by virtue of His omnipotence, omniscience, etc.The key to understanding this concept is found in Philippians 2, a concept from the Greek word, Kenosis, which means an “emptying.”

Jesus emptied Himself of His Divine attributes (v.7) and “taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” The main difference between Jesus and all other men and women is that His Spirit, the Spirit of God, was placed inside a Body within the womb of Mary instead of a human spirit. Therefore, He was still God but He had laid aside His Divine power and privileges when He came to earth to do the will of the Father. This is why the Bible says that Jesus, "increased in wisdom." Can God increase in wisdom? No, but He had "emptied Himself" and laid aside His power and glory. This is why Jesus never performed any miracles until after He was anointed with the Holy Spirit when He was water baptized by the prophet John. He had to be anointed by the Spirit for His ministry just like we do today although for a different reason – because He had left His power and glory in Heaven prior to His coming to earth to be born of a virgin.

“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38) Jesus has always existed as the Son of God. He existed with the Father before the worlds were created and like the Father He is eternal. “’I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’” (Revelation 1:8)

Jesus was the only person ever born of a virgin. It was prophesied of the Messiah that He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22-23, Luke 1:26-35 et al.) yet the Old Testament prophets did not understand why. He had to be born without sin in order to be the sinless, spotless Lamb of God “who takes away the sin of the world.” He lived a perfect, sinless life and became sin for us by being made a sacrifice for all the sins of man.

THE CREATION, FALL AND RESTORATION OF MANKIND

Man was created as a three-fold being – spirit, soul and body – in the image of God. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26) However, because God created man with a free will, man chose to willfully disobey God causing him to fall from innocence and goodness. Thus sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve.

It is interesting to note throughout the Bible in God’s revelation of Himself to mankind through different covenants that man always has the right to choose life or death. In the first covenant with Adam and Eve, God told them they could eat of any tree in the Garden of Eden except the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. “God said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” (Genesis 3:3) Therefore, when they chose to disobey God, He had to fulfill His word to them through covenant, which was spiritual death. They chose death over life by disobeying God’s word.

Jesus, called the Second Adam in the Scriptures, came to restore eternal life to mankind and take away the fear and threat of eternal death. Eternal life is freely available to all who will receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and accept His Blood sacrifice upon the cross for their sins.

In the Scriptures this is called justification. That is, when a person recognizes that they are a sinner (Romans 3:23), repents of their sins and accepts the Blood sacrifice made for their sins (Romans 6:23), then they are justified in the eyes of God the Father. In the Church we more commonly refer to this experience as salvation.

Because God is a holy God He cannot be in the presence of sin; therefore, only those who are sinless can enter into Heaven. A person becomes sinless by identification with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior by praying the sinner’s prayer to accept the Blood of Jesus as the sacrifice for their sins. God the Father then looks with mercy upon that person through the Blood of Jesus, which takes away all sin.

When a person accepts Jesus as their personal Savior they are saved or born again--born from Above, i.e., by the Spirit (John 3); they become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) in, by or through the Lord Jesus Christ. We refer to this salvation experience as the new birth because a person receiving this spiritual experience of the new birth receives the Holy Spirit of God as a deposit and guarantee of God’s promise of eternal life. The Holy Spirit causes this rebirth or spiritual transformation in the person’s spirit who accepted Jesus as Savior.

When a person reaches the age of accountability where they know right from wrong and they willfully choose wrong, e.g., to steal or commit fornication, then “sin brings death” and their spirit dies. If they die in this spiritual state, no matter how much good they do in their lives, they will go to hell at death because of eternal death brought by sin.

Sin brings eternal death whereas the Holy Spirit brings eternal life. A person born again by the Spirit of God goes to Heaven upon death because the penalty for their sins was paid by the Blood of Jesus. We believe it is clear from the Scriptures that salvation is a free gift from God and is given out of His love and mercy by Grace; it is not something that can be earned by good works. Justification is sometimes called the first work of Grace by the Lord.

The second work of Grace is referred to as Sanctification, which simply means to separate or be set aside for service. The Presence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s spirit brings about a new birth; however, the Spirit then continues His work of sanctification by convicting of sin and continuing to purify that person and remold their character into the nature of Jesus Christ. The term Christian means “little Christ.”

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor.” (I Thess. 3-4) Sanctification occurs continually as a person separates themselves from the world, evil and unrighteousness and dedicates themselves to the work of the Lord and the expansion of His Kingdom on earth.

The Bible commands us to “be holy” because God is holy (I Peter 1:16) for “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (I Corinthians 6:19-20)

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)

“Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power …” (Revelation 20:6) “Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection (maturity), not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.” (Hebrews 6:1-2)

The resurrection of the dead was affirmed by Jesus:

“This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” (John 6:39)All human beings who ever lived will be judged by the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteous will receive eternal life and dwell with God forever in the new heavens and earth in the Holy City, New Jerusalem, whereas the wicked dead will be raised from the dead to face eternal death – separation from God in the Lake of Fire with the devil and his angels. (Revelation 21, 22)

SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH

There are two sacraments of the Church: Water Baptism and Holy Communion. These were commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ and were practiced by the Twelve Apostles, the Apostle Paul and the early church.

Water baptism was clearly by immersion in water and is a type of the death, burial and resurrection of the new Christian. It was commanded by the Lord in Mark 16. By following Jesus Christ in water baptism, a person is baptized into the Body of Christ, which is the church. As such, that person becomes a part or portion of the Body of Christ, the church. (I Corinthians 12). Water baptism by immersion was practiced throughout the early Church and from the Book of Acts we notice that the apostles baptized "in the Name of Jesus." On the Day of Pentecost when thousands were convicted of sin by the inspired preaching of Peter they asked him (Acts 2:37): "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Peter replied: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins ..." We also learn from the New Testament that there was an urgency for water baptism. These thousands who accepted Jesus on Pentecost "...were baptized" on the same day (Acts 2:41); the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized right away; the Philippian jailer who was converted by Paul along with his household were baptized that same night. I've learned that water baptism is a very important spiritual "sign" to Satan in the realm of the spirit so I encourage all Christians to be water baptized as soon as possible and not put it off.

Holy Communion is sometimes referred to as the Lord’s Supper. It was a commandment of Jesus to His disciples to “do this in remembrance of me.” It consists of partaking of the elements of bread and wine (or grape juice) as a reminder of what the Lord Jesus did for all mankind through His passion.

The bread represents the Body of Jesus who was the “bread of life” and was “broken” for us whereas the Blood of Jesus is represented by wine or grape juice and is symbolic of the New Covenant which was ratified or made legal through His Blood. (I Corinthians 11:23 ff.)

It should be noted that these two sacraments are much more than just forms – they have great spiritual significance to man, God and the devil, Satan. Satan knows where a person is spiritually and he knows when a person accepts Jesus as their Savior and is water baptized.

In addition, the Apostle Paul writing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit stated, “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” (I Corinthians 11:28-29)

Most churches practice Holy Communion but they rarely speak about these two verses and ask each Christian to “examine themselves.” This means you are to search your heart before you partake of Communion and ask forgiveness in any area that the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin.

BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

A person receives the Holy Spirit at the new birth; however, there is a further baptism or anointing by the Holy Spirit. It is normally referred to as the Baptism in the Holy Ghost (Spirit). We prefer to call it the Baptism of Power by the Holy Spirit because of the Greek wording in the original manuscripts. This Spirit baptism for power is the third work of grace.

One of the most powerful testimonies as to the validity of the Scriptures and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is eyewitness testimony – many, many hundreds of people both saw and spoke to the Lord Jesus after His resurrection. Not only did they see Him but He continued to teach them: “…of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up… and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:1-3)

After the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, He spent 40 days upon the earth walking, talking, teaching and eating with His disciples. He reminded them during this time of a promise made to them. Just before His ascension (Acts 1:4-5) “He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ‘which,’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.‘”

Of this “Promise” Jesus further said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

So we learn from this verse that this Promise is a Baptism by (the Greek preposition can mean in, by or through) the Holy Spirit is a Baptism of Power. It’s through the gifts and anointings of the Holy Spirit that a Christian can do the works of Jesus and even “greater works than these” (John 14:12).

A careful study of the Book of Acts reveals that this Baptism first manifested on the Day of Pentecost and was the normal experience for all Christians in the early church. (cf. Acts 8 and 19, et al.)

This Baptism brings nine gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in I Corinthians 12: there are 3 revelation gifts – word of wisdom, word of knowledge and discerning of spirits – that reveal something; there are 3 vocals gifts – tongues, interpretation of tongues and prophecy – that say something; and there are 3 power gifts – working of miracles, gifts of healings and faith – that do something.

The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to every Christian; it is then our responsibility to find out what they are and which ones He gave to us individually.

“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them." (Romans 12:6) For much more in-depth teaching on this see our book, The Gifts and Operations of the Holy Spirit.

The initial evidence of this Baptism of Power by the Holy Spirit is clearly revealed in the Scriptures to be speaking in other tongues. It was so at Pentecost and is clearly seen throughout the Book of Acts (8:12-17, 10:44-46, 11:14-16, 15:7-9, 19:1-6). These tongues are foreign languages, either physical or spiritual and are usually unknown to the person speaking them but may be known to others present as was evidenced at Pentecost and still happens today. When you receive this Promise of God the Father you will speak in other tongues.

THE FIVE-FOLD OFFICES

The Lord Jesus when He ascended into Heaven "gave gifts unto men" as mentioned in Ephesians 4:8-15. These gifts are the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher. The purpose of these offices are “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

These five offices are an extension of Jesus Christ to the Church and are commonly referred to as Five-fold Ministry or Ascension Gift Ministries.

We believe that all five gifts are supernatural gifts and all five are in existence today. We also believe that a person cannot learn to function or be picked by man to function in these offices. But for a person to qualify as a true five-fold gift they must be picked or chosen by God and given the specific anointing for that office. (Hebrews 5:4)

Each of the gifts has supernatural abilities that come with it when God anoints a person for that office. Anyone born-again and spirit-filled can evangelize, teach, prophesy, have a “pastor's heart” etc, but the five offices are different and carry a different and higher level of anointing. Because a person can teach does not mean that they are anointed in the office of teacher; just because a person can evangelize does not mean that they are anointed in the five-fold office of evangelist, and because you can prophesy does not mean that you are a prophet. Today there are many who try to function in five-fold offices who are not called and not anointed by the Lord to do so. It is only the true call of God and His anointing for a five-fold office that will produce effective results. Calling yourself an Apostle, Prophet, etc., does not make you one; it’s the anointing that makes you one.

ETERNAL JUDGEMENT AND RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

There are two resurrections spoken of in the Scriptures – the resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked.

“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2)

“Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power…” (Revelation 20:6)

“Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection (maturity), not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrines of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.” (Hebrews 6:1-2)

The resurrection of the dead was affirmed by Jesus: “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” (John 6:39)

All human beings who ever lived will be judged by the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteous will receive eternal life and dwell with God forever in the new heavens and earth in the Holy City, New Jerusalem, whereas the wicked dead will be raised from the dead to face eternal death – separation from God in the Lake of Fire with the devil and his angels. (Revelation 21,22)

We’ve traveled to many different nations and cultures in the world. There are common deceptions fostered by deceiving spirits (evil spirits from the Dark Kingdom). One of these that we hear often in all cultures is: “How could a loving God send His children to hell?”

The fact is God does not send His children to hell, but the devil does send his children to hell. Because of free will a person chooses whether they will go to Heaven or hell. If you’re reading this you have a choice to make – you can accept the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins and enjoy eternal life or you can reject it and your final destiny will be the Lake of Fire.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1989, I was in Benin City, Nigeria, when the Lord awakened me at 3 A.M. and then unfolded a vision. He showed me His hands and a Bible, which was open to the Book of Acts, chapter 10. He spoke these words, “I speak to all men.”

He then took me to the Lake of Fire in the spirit. I could feel the intense heat from it even though I was about 30-40 yards away from it. It was very dark all around it and the huge lake was full of what looked like molten lava.The Lake of Fire was empty but the Lord reminded me of all the people He had saved from the Dark Kingdom in Africa that I knew, some of which He had also taken there and told them, “This will be your final resting place if you don’t serve Me.”

This spiritual visitation from the Lord settled the questions for me that people ask all the time such as, “What about the Aborigines? What about people who never heard the Gospel, etc.?” The Lord “speaks to all men” and all have a chance to receive Him as Lord and Savior. I pray you have made that decision and have chosen life.