Blog – Timothy West

King Edward’s Bath Sixth Form Carols – Christmas Address

By adminMission133 Comments

I just had the privilege to share the gospel with my sixth form this Christmas. These Men and Women are the future of this generation and have such potential to change the world for the better.

We had some brilliant singing and it was a great atmosphere.

The Great Light – Jesus

For quite some time I have had this burning in my heart….

Isaiah 9

²The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

⁶For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Story

Have you ever been round to someone’s house and needed to loo in the middle of the night and not known where the light switch was? I found myself recently stumbling around my friends flat in Edinburgh trying to find the light switch to the toilet. It was a most awkward experience but eventually I found it. I was glad as it is not the easiest thing, as a man, aiming for the loo in pitch black.

It’s not easy bumbling around in the darkness, maybe with no hope or direction or guidance and for some this can be a symbolic picture of where we at in our lives now when we look deep down in our heart of hearts!

Every Christmas we are reminded of some extremely awesome news. This is that a great light has shone and this light is Jesus.

John 3

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

¹⁹This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

We have heard it so many times but stop and think a while on this line “for God so Loved us that he gave his one and only son” or ” For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given “Gods great gift to mankind was His Son Jesus. God came himself and dwelt among us and this is why so that through Him and what Jesus went on to do on the cross for us we may not perish but have eternal life!

This Christmas when we open our presents and receive all those lovely gifts may we remember that God sent His Son for us because He loves us. And that we no longer have to stumble around in darkness but have the Great Awesome Light, the light of Christ!

But what is “Eternal Life”?

John 17`

³Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

May these words challenge and comfort all those that heard them and may we come to really know Jesus this Christmas.

12/12/2013

Trusting in the Holy Spirit – mission update Sake DRC – CEPAC Church

By adminMissionNo Comments

Wow what a day it was yesterday – it started by whizzing off on a little picky picky to a CEPAC church out of Saké – my heart started to pound as people packed into this wonderful church – I thought “Lord who am I to speak to these dear 650 souls – ” – but I tell you the Holy Spirit really lead the meeting and it was a lesson learnt in trusting in Him to give you the words to say! What was marvellous was 4 men have their Hearts to Jesus! This was so precious! Salvation in Christ is the greatest miracle of all!

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Then we where able to pray for all who where sick and even for about 25 widows from the war! My heart goes out to the Congolese as there is such need

He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. Psalm 107:20

I was given such a great gift a LED flash light to be light wherever I go – may a shine brightly for you Jesus and may I decrease and You increase!

It gives me great comfort that we serve a mighty God who promises to be with them and help them. The Holy Spirit the comforter will fight on their behalf! We have to trust in this otherwise the burden is too great!

My prayer for them is that may meditate on his word and Forget not all his benefits! Psalm 103

He crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, Psalm 103:4

As I sit here in Goma, seeing of members of the team to various locations around Africa, I have much joy, peace and love in my heart and know this is not the end only the beginning of a life long service for His Kingdom here and to the ends of the earth!

29/07/2013

Glorious testimony of deliverance in Saké Congo

By adminMission378 Comments

Day 2 Saké Report

The mighty Word of Christ went out to the people in Saké in power this
afternoon! Roger preached with great unction and flow in the spirit with
many stories and parables to convey the Gospel of the Kingdom!
After the main message Shireen felt prompted to cry out and plead with the
many non churched people saying “you must be born again”!

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he
cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 ESV)

We know that many responded to this call but also are praying that their
hearts are not hardened to the call of Christ to surrender all!

Whilst Mama Shireen was crying out to the souls of Saké we saw the crowd
gather around a man that was manifesting a demon! He was carried to the
intercessors and in the mighty name of Jesus they cast out the demon! The
man was freed and was able to say who he was and where he lived but most
importantly give his heart to the Lord and bowed his his knee to Jesus!
There was another lady who travelled 23 kilometres to get to the meetings
who was also demon possessed who again gave her heart to Jesus and was set
free.

One little girl came to the intercessors tent and bowed down to the Lord.
She was clearly mentally troubled but the dear little girl raised her little
hands to Jesus and confessed the name of Jesus! Even as I write now my heart
is burdened for this precious little girl called Faith! Please would you
pray for her this very moment as she will need alot of support physically
and spiritually!

We also invited the children to come and commissioned the very first airing
of the Saké children’s choir – they made a wonderful shout of joy and praise
to the Lord singing Jesus is Lord and My God is Good.
Have a look at the video!

We prayed for the sick again and it was wonderful to have one man testify of
his eyesight being healed. He was an elderly man and that very morning could
not read his bible but this afternoon he said he had faith God could heal
him and he proceeded to read beautifully from his tiny print bible! Praise
the Lord our God heals!

Our morning pastors seminars was fantastic once again! Please pray for the
pastors as they need to be able to forgive one another and teach forgiveness
in their churches. Whilst Roger prayed I could see many of the pastors and
leaders doing business with the Lord in the area of forgiveness. We know
that forgiveness is the key to allowing their ministry to be full of love
towards one another rather than bound in hatred towards other tribes and
even nations!

Pray that we see an out pouring of the Holy Spirit tomorrow as this is very
important to seal those who have committed to Jesus!

We laid hands on a lady who had a goitre (lump) on her neck bigger than two
hands out together and believe God will heal her. Please pray for her and
many others in great physical need!

Please pray for the unchurched people who were challenged tonight to turn to
Jesus!

Please also keep praying for Faith, the young girl I wrote about earlier!

video of kids singing their heart out

25/07/2013

Overcoming wrong fleshy desire and passion through Jesus in you and the Holy Spirit fighting for you!

By adminHoly Spirit23 Comments

Do you struggle with lust, hatred, evil thoughts, jealously, sexual sin…. The list is endless and I and we are faced and struggle with these things constantly – The bible helpfully shows us in James 4 that unhealthy desire and passion is in us all and it seems we seek to gratify these wrong passions and desires through things also sorts of vents….!

Do you reading this let your worldly fleshy passions consume you and dictate you? Gods word I’m sure is challenging you even now but please keep reading as there is hope!

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? (James 4:1 ESV)

There is hope – ask the Holy
Spirit even now. You simply cannot fight this war that rages inside you on your own. You need Jesus in you and the Holy Spirit your advocate to fight this battle on your behalf.

So instead walk by the spirit in the fruits of the spirit.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16 ESV)

Pray in the spirit much this helps me so so much!

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, (Ephesians 6:18 ESV)

Pray for others also!

You can over come this but only once you stop fighting this in your own strength and let God take over.

Make and active choice to turn your passion and desire to loving The Lord Jesus with everything, your heart, mind, soul and strength. This beautiful exchange of intimacy from self to Saviour will be the best thing you ever do! Make Jesus Lord Today!

Lets break the taboos and talk about this with people we feel we trust! Get a group of guys or girls around you be real!

Please comment, share or like so we can smash the enemy on this one by creating a culture of prayer and accountability!

21/05/2013

Recieve the Holy Spirit – powerful teaching by Derek Prince

By adminHoly SpiritNo Comments

I believe that in order to keep going as an effective follower of Christ we need to be constantly filled with the Holy Spirit. This will lead to more power as we seek to make Jesus Known in every day life.

I have been so blessed by this mans teaching on the Holy Spirit.

If you have not been filled with the Holy Spirit and want some sound teaching from a really respectable preacher then please watch.

Remember Jesus Christ is the baptiser of us into the Holy Spirit.

06/05/2013

How to gain Christ, give you life to Him and Go!

By adminBible StudyNo Comments

The call to serve Christ will not be easy.

The word of God shows us that Paul began to learn that pain, struggles and oppression awaited him in the next town he was visiting!

And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. (Acts 20:22, 23 ESV)

As Paul I too want to be lead by the spirit and even though the cost may be great, I want to be totally willing to lay aside the concerns of the flesh in order to share the Gospel.

The Holy Spirit can speak to us and tell us about things to come. Don’t worry if you are not sure who is speaking here (I think we sometimes don’t think the Holy Spirit can tell us it’s going to be tough). The word tells us that many times it won’t be easy and we need to learn this as disciples of Christ as sometimes we think its all going to be comfy and cushty!

Then Paul says possibly the most amazing line of one who is fully committed to making Christ known!

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24 ESV)

We can learn from this hugely – reading this inspires me because I too want to live like this, totally committed to making Christ Know. Reality is it won’t be easy and it’s all very well to say yes yes yes – no now we need to actually live it!

Luke the evangelist wrote ( it is very interesting that Luke almost certainly wrote the Acts of the apostles and so it’s brilliant to see unity in both Luke and Paul’s heart about what Jesus taught) about the huge cost of being a disciple. It’s not an easy walk!

Jesus said “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26, 27 ESV)

Finally I leave you with Paul’s writings from Phillipians. Brothers and sisters even though Christs call may be hugely challenging the reward is Christ Himself.

We gain Christ as we go for Christ!

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7-11 ESV)

My dear friends as you read this I pray that you get a glimpse of eternity and the need to live for Christ wholeheartedly, totally sold out for His Cause. Lets give, lets go, all for Jesus Sake!

21/04/2013

Prayer and giving to the poor! Bible Study Acts 10 Part 1

By adminBible StudyNo Comments

Bible study on Acts 10

Part 1 Read Acts 10 – Verses 1-8

The first thing to say is that God speaks in visions, dreams and even through angels! Scripture shows us that He can speak so clearly like this. God is the same yesterday today and forever and so we can and must expect God to keep speaking like this in these days!

Cornelius was a upright respected man. He was a God fearing man and a man that prayed to God continually. He gave to the poor and was well spoken off!

So when ever I read of angelic visitations like this I ask myself what was the reason for it. How is that Cornelius was so blessed to Recieve this. I’m not saying there is a formula to see angels I’m just interested in the context at which they visited.

Cornelius is for us a good role model in how we must be pressing in to God and walking righteously in our lives.

“Noun 1.alms-giving – making voluntary contributions to aid the poor”

a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God……..And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” (Acts 10:2, 22 ESV)

So Cornelius encounters and Angel of The Lord. It’s so overwhelming he thinks is The Lord himself. It must have been terrifically terrifying as he tells us. Simply amazing.

1) The very first thing The angel does is affirms him and his dedication and commitment to prayer and giving to the poor. This indicates to me that we must be doing this first and foremost part of our culture and way of living before The Lord. God was pleased with these prayers and offerings and they had ascended to heaven as a memorial before God. This shows us that God hears our prayers and sees our generosity to the poor. The awesome thing here is that its memorial before the Lord he doesn’t forget It. Verse 4. So it’s clear that prayer and giving is a key to part of Gods supernatural workings.

2) The angel tells him to send for Peter and gives him explicit detail as to where he is. So God is precise when he speaks. It was the names and the location which would have been more then enough to find them! He really is exact and precise.

3) The important part now is that Cornelius obeys and actions this immediately. He doesn’t hang around. How often does God speak to us and we procrastinate and not action and do what he has told us?

So in this small Chunk of Scripture there is so much we can take from it.

How can we be upright men and women of God in this day and age much like Cornelius?

Who is with me in committing daily to prayer and providing for the poor?

02/04/2013

A bible study on Acts 6:1-7 Apostolic Practical Ministry

By adminBible StudyNo Comments

Please read the Scripture.

There was obviously a community issue here.

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. (Acts 6:1 ESV)

Widows where being forgotten and the disciples knew they needed to help. It was the custom at the time to help serve and distribute food to people in need of which widows where one of those. Scripture also talks about orphans and the need to help them practically. James 1:27.

So the apostles who where called by God to preach the Gospel and Word said this.

And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. (Acts 6:2 ESV)

One might think that this was rather elitist and selfish of them. On the contrary. They recognised that God had called them to the preaching of the word and identified that it would not be right for them to neglect this calling.

So they equipped, blessed and released others to do it.

Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. (Acts 6:3 ESV)

The qualities the men needed are interesting to note and to try and live by in any service and word we do for The Lord.

• Good Repute / attested character. So obviously had experience in life and had been seen to be Godly men.
• Full of the Holy Spirit. I believe this means spirit filled and walking in Gifting’s in the Holy Spirit.
• Wisdom of high importance. More precious than Gold even.

After they had chosen the 7 the apostles prayed for them and interestingly laid hands on them which I think is important to do when commissioning people for a specific service to The Lord.

This allowed and freed up the apostles to do what they felt so strongly called to.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4 ESV)

If you feel called to apostolic ministry then I very much suggest you heed these words above as I really believe we have a biblical model here for ministry and service to The Lord. NOTE how prayer is Key. Prayer goes hand in hand with the preaching of Word of God.

“Apostolic may refer to; An Apostle meaning one sent on a mission” – Wikipedia

Then to check whether we are walking and working how God would want we need to check the fruit. I believe that as the Word of God increases in a city or town so will the amount of Disciples of Christ! And exponentially!

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:7 ESV)

I do believe their are different callings in ministry and it is clear from this scripture that we must not neglect the practical side of ministry such as feeding the needy. Instead we should equip and release others to do this which in turn allows for the preaching of the Word to continue which will in turn release more disciples to be equipped to help the needy in our world.

How are walking in His calling?

Are we devoting ourselves to prayer and preaching of the word?

How do we equip more people to walk in what God has called them to?

Would there be or are they complaints from others how we are serving the poor and needy in our local area?

23/03/2013

Preparing for Mission – a missionary in the making!

By adminMission125 Comments

I humbly write these following thoughts with great humility but exceeding joy.

My writing will be simple and to the point.

With great boldness and Joy I am delighted to say that I believe God is calling me to be a missionary overseas. My greatest hearts desire is to see people come to know Jesus and to see Christ formed in them through the teaching of the Word of God.

I very much love reading the bible everyday and one of my dreams is to give people the opportunity to do this by practically by providing them with a physical bible in their own language.

The motto “To know Christ and make Christ Known” has really blessed me and encouraged me greatly over recent months. I thank Bath CU for introducing me to it! What greater endeavour could a man do with his life than live it for Jesus and tell others about Jesus!

I believe God is calling me to first go to Africa where I grew up. I love Kenya but I really have central Africa on my heart. If it is God’s will Eastern DRC Congo! BUT it must be the Lords will and way. I personally know the importance of walking in his will and will only do this from now on!

Right from the start though I want to make it really clear that I do not want to make me famous or big but only Jesus. So I am going to go big and bold for Christ unashamedly. I only want to make Jesus famous not me. Oh Lord hold me to these words as I can be so arrogant especially in my mind!

Christ must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30

This has always been a scripture that encourages me to keep giving Jesus the Glory.

Not unto us, O Lord , not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. (Psalms 115:1 KJV)

So I am going to document my thoughts here on my blog for others to pray for me and offer me counsel and encouragement.

I have currently put in my application for the Onesimus Program at HTCD and they have accepted me onto the program and will be walking with me through this calling. Oh how exciting this is.

Jesus thank you!

21/03/2013

Hands Raised to Jesus

By trcwestPhotoBlogMission136 Comments

There is something amazing and wonderful about how even across cultures we can reach out to Jesus and he helps us and hears us. These dear Congolese kids where reaching out to Jesus asking Him to come into their lives. How marvelous. How beautiful.

Psalm 134

¹Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord
who minister by night in the house of the Lord.
²Lift up your hands in the sanctuary
and praise the Lord.

³May the Lord bless you from Zion,
he who is the Maker of heaven and earth.

21/03/2013