What I believe...

I Believe; The Common Denominator - Non Negotiables:

• The Bible is the Word of God - Perfect and Complete; 
• First place and final authority for all matters of life. 

• The is one God, who is three persons - Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

• Jesus - The Only son of God, 
• Born of a virgin, by the Holy Spirit. 
• Always existed as God.
• Came to earth as a man, becoming fully God and fully Man. 
• He died, rose again, and now sits at the right hand of God the Father waiting the fullness of time to return to this planet. 
• The way, the truth, and the life; No man comes to the Father accept by Him.
• People are saved, personally, through faith in the name of Jesus. 

• There is a real heaven, and a real hell, and real people go to both places.
• One question determines that: "What did you do with the gift (Jesus) that was offered?"
• Jesus is coming again! The Rapture! There is coming a day when Jesus will come for His Church and usher them to heaven. This event will be the catalyst for a final 7 year period of time that is known as the Tribulation. The Anti Christ will NOT be revealed, and cannot be known, until the church is removed from this planet in a world wide evacuation. 
• I'm not THE expert on these matters, my understanding has changed some regarding some of the dynamics regarding these events. But a Pre-Tribulation rapture, in my mind, is absolute! 
• I am not saying that I could not work with someone, for the sake of the Gospel, that taught a post-trib, mid-trib, no trib, doctrine. But I would find it VERY hard. I find this to be SO core in the understanding of the message about who Jesus is, why He came, and how he's coming again that I simply wouldn't trust ANY doctrine that came from a person who did not believe in a Pre-Trib rapture. What else am I going to have to disagree with in front of a person we are both trying to reach?
• Teachings that go against a Pre-Trib Rapture are doctrines of demons intended to distract from the truth. They are known by their fruit: Distraction, Self Interest, Self Preservation, Fear, Storing up goods and hiding them, etc... I usually find other strange ideas and doctrines creep up from pastors who teach non Pre Trip Rapture doctrines. I just don't trust them. 

I Believe; The Important Numerators - What sets us apart:

• Signs of the Covenant:
• Water Baptism: 
• Water baptism is an important symbolic event.
• Intended as a public declaration, and personal demarcation, saying "I die to myself and live for Jesus". It's an event you can put on a calender, celebrate every year like a birthday, if you wish. 
• It is a result of salvation that has already occurred, NOT a requirement to be saved.
• Trickle, Dip, Dunk, Dive... it's a symbolic event, do whatever you want with methods.
• Acts 10:44-46 tongues were the sign that caused Peter to acknowledge the gentiles he was preaching to had been filled with the Holy Spirit (before being baptized)  

• Communion: Bread and Wine
• Like baptism, this is an important custom, observed by Jesus himself.
• Wine vs Juice vs Water, various kinds of bread, it doesn't matter, the point is what it means. Do what you want with methods. Use what's available.
• Communion is a reminder of our new covenant with God, through Jesus. It represents his Body broken for us, and His blood shed for us. It causes us to pause and remember what He did on the cross and how it's forever changed our lives now, and for eternity to come.

• Baptism of the Holy Spirit
• 9 Gifts of the Holy Spirit located in 1 Cor 12 are a manifestation of the Holy Spirit (vs 7). 
• 1 Corinthians 12:6 ...the same God works ALL IN ALL
• This means that all gifts are in all people all the time and the Spirit uses whom ever, when ever.
• Manifestation means: The bible says that when the Holy Spirit shows up to physically alter a service or situation that these are the things that will evidence His arrival. 
• These are HIS gifts to us, not our gifts. That means that no gift mentioned here is unique to any one person or calling. All born again filled with the Spirit of God and therefore can operate in these as He is willing and as the person is willing to cooperate. 
• We are to seek the best gifts, which means we have a role to play as to whether we walk in these gifts or not. (vs31)
• In almost all occasions when the Holy Spirit filled believers they spoke in tongues. Most notably in Acts 2 when the original 120 were filled ALL of them did, and in Acts 10:44-46 tongues were the sign that caused Peter to acknowledge the gentiles he was preaching to had been filled with the Holy Spirit (before being baptized I might add)
• Tongues are not THE sign someone is filled with the Spirit, but there is abundant evidence that tongues are A sign, and the most prominent or notable sign, and that almost without exception all believers experienced this in the New Testament Church. Even Paul, although it doesn't say he spoke the moment he was baptized, says he spoke in tongues more than anybody. (1 Cor 14:18)

• Holy Spirit: Dwelling In VS Filled With.
• All people who accept Jesus have the Holy Spirit on the inside of them. 
• Being Filled with the Holy Spirit, also known as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is NOT a one time event. Ephesians 5:17-21 tells us to be filled continually as we sing in the Spirit and give thanks to God. Some scholars have translated this "Be Being Filled..." 
• This is two separate topics but one Spirit. Being born again is when the Spirit comes inside of you and re creates your Spirit. That is an event. Then you can be filled with the Spirit (allow Him to fill you and overflow out of you) as often as you like. Prayer and Praise allow Him to fill you, Like a cup that has water, but then you just fill it up until it spills! 
• Ephesians 5 seems to indicate that this is a good replacement for feeling the need to drink alcohol with excess! 

• Gospel Defined:
• Why did Jesus come?
•  Jesus came that they might have LIFE and life more abundantly! John 10:10
• Abundant Life is the reason Jesus came for you!

• What did Jesus Preach?
• Jesus came preaching "The Good News of the Kingdom of God" Mark 1:14
• The Kingdom of God is God's system of operation on this planet. Jesus continually compared the way fallen mans thinks to the way God thinks. "You say eye for an eye, I say Love your enemy..." Matthew 5:43-44
• When He sent his disciples out he sent them to preach the Kingdom of God and Heal. Luke 9:2

• How did Jesus Minister?
• The Anointing is how He walked in this Kingdom, and it is how we walk in it now. 
• Luke 4 and Isaiah 61 show us that Jesus was "Anointed to do..."
• See my study on The Anointing. 

• What did Jesus restore to us?
• The Blessing of Adam, Noah, Abraham, and then Jesus has been restored to us through the death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus.
• All that The Blessing is has been restored to us and all that The Curse is we have been redeemed from. (Deut 28, Deut 30:19, Galatians 3:13)
• We are born again and Spirit filled.
• Redeemed from the curse of depression, lack, sickness, etc...
• We have IN HIM:
• Joy
• Healing
• Prosperity
• Etc
• Through belief in Jesus we have the restoration of THE BLESSING and we enter the Kingdom of God. This includes being born again and going to heaven some day, but that is the key to the door. We have so much more that Jesus died for! The Good News of Jesus is a WHOLE LIFE deal. He died, went to hell, and rose again so that we could be redeemed of everything that happened to mankind in Genesis 3. Duet 28 breaks down The Blessing of God and the Curse of Satan's kingdom. 
• Jesus is coming again! The Rapture! There is coming a day when Jesus will come for His Church and usher them to heaven. This event will be the catalyst for a final 7 year period of time that is known as the Tribulation. The Anti Christ will NOT be revealed, and cannot be known, until the church is removed from this planet in a world wide evacuation.  

Explanation 

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Why write this document about what I believe?:

Most ministries have a page to let you know in a glance: "What we believe". I have decided to put one together as well. It's helpful to see where someone stands and make sure you get where they are coming from.

I would say there are things that are the common denominator between all true believers in Jesus Christ. Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Word of Faith, Calvary Chapel-ers, and all the other groups that call them selves by a name. If we can agree on the basics we can agree to disagree on the rest.

In math there is a thing called "Least Common Denominator". You can take unlike things and add them together if they share something in common. If there is no commonality, you cannot add them together. If Jesus is our common denominator that we can agree to disagree about certain things and still work together toward a common cause. On a small scale that common cause may be to feed the hungry or preform some other good work. Ultimately we can work together to see the lost saved from a devils hell!

So in all walks of life there will be those things that are common denominators, non negotiable things that we must agree on to work together. That is true of faith, life, marriage, business, etc.

Then are things that are the numerators. These are things that set us apart, make us different, and give us our own flavor. These are the things that make us Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic, Methodist, Calvary Chapel, Pentecostal, Word of Faith, "Choose a Name Here". Many call them selves "Non Denominational" and then turn around and form a group, call it one name, and the whole set of churches in that group abide by a unifying doctrine.

On one hand separation causes friction between groups, on the other hand each group could learn something from the other. Maybe another group sees things from a perspective you didn't see before? So this is my list of what I believe. Common Denominators and Numerators. These are the things that we MUST agree on to work together in a common cause, and the things that I feel are absolutely true but we don't have to agree on to work in a common cause. 

Let us sharpen each other and iron sharpens iron. Proverbs 27:17

Darrell G. Wolfe