A Message from the President of VCI
Dr. George Hill
God will never give you more then you have made preparation for. Joseph went through years of preparation for overnight success. The 1980's were foundational years for the Victory Churches, the roots of relationships and purpose went down deep. The 1990's have been incredible years of growth, expansion and increase as we have gone from five churches in western Canada to approximately 1700 around the world and 85 in North America.
It has been a decade of great growth but also of greater preparation as we have consistently sought to develop on two major fronts. Firstly, the pursuit of revival and the presence of God. Secondly, the more practical matters of planting and building strong, healthy, local churches, following the Apostle Paul's example of being a Wise Master Builder (I Cor. 3:10).
During a time of famine the prophet Elisha was asked to seek God for rain, before he did he prophesied that they should dig ditches so that the rain would be conserved.
The 1980's have been years of ditch digging for us as Victory Churches. Every new local church planted is a ditch ready to contain the harvest of souls that result from an outpouring of God's Spirit.
The world population is now over six billion and it is estimated that within the next 30-50 years the world population will increase to twelve billion.
James 5:7 says, "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it, until he receives the early and the latter rain."
Two things are going to happen for sure in these last days. Number one - Jesus Christ is going to return, Number two - before He returns there is going to be the greatest harvest of souls this world has ever known.
We as Victory Churches International are poised to take advantage of the greatest opportunities the Church has ever known. We have apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers all in place. We have a proven workable strategy for the spontaneous multiplication of leaders and churches. We have church planting movements already established in 40 different nations around the world. We believe in the Full Gospel message with the confirmation and demonstration of the power of God through the gifts of the Holy Ghost in signs, wonders and miracles. We are ready to do our part in God's Big Picture. We realize we are not the whole picture, but we thank God that we are in the picture.
We are ready to take advantage of every God given opportunity to plant new churches, hold healing and evangelistic crusades, to release newly trained leaders to do the work and to use the multi-media to spread the powerful message of the Gospel of Christ. The Lord is building His Church through three main channels today.
Number One - An Open Continuous, Progressive, Revelation
"She did not consider her destiny therefore her collapse was awesome." - Lam. 1:9
Without an open, continuous, revelation a movement can die. Many moves of God start in a cave of power and end up in a Cathedral without purpose. As a movement we must consider our destiny and discern what we must do. Our ignorance of events in the future can keep us from making changes right now.
When we draw close to God, He gives us a glimpse of what the future can look like and when you see what it can look like you will never be happy with the way it is right now. The Lord always has more for the hungry, thirsty and diligent. God said to Abraham,
"Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art northward and southward and eastward and westward. For all the land which thou seest, so thee will I give it." - Gen. 13:14-15
Some people have asked me, "Did you ever see all this?" I said, "No, not ten years ago, but I did see it three years ago." In 1990 at our Canadian Leadership Conference I made a great statement of faith when I said, "I can foresee the time when we will be planting five churches a year." It took ten years to plant our first five churches so this was a great statement of faith, but I saw it in my spirit.
A few years later I said, "I can see the time when we will be planting a church a week. Now I can see the time when we will be planting one church a day somewhere in the world. It took fifteen years to plant our first fifteen churches in Canada and then in the Fall of 1999 we were able to plant 15 new churches in Canada alone, Praise God! He is the God of multiplication and increase and we as Victory Churches are committed to growth and increase not just maintenance.
Secondly - Genuine, Caring, Covenant Relationships
If you get a vision from God it will be bigger than you and if it is bigger than you, then you will need God and other people. Matt. 18:15-20 basically says, "To do whatever you need to do to get rid of strife and division so that you can stay in harmony and agreement with the team God's placed you in, because teamwork and agreement is the place of Power."
God's power and anointing cannot flow in a strife-riddled atmosphere it repels God's anointing. But, when the saints dwell together in unity that's a place where God can command His blessing. (Psalm 133)
In the book of Acts, revelation and power flowed freely when the saints were in one accord concerning God and His purposes. There must be a deep, genuine, caring love and concern one for another.
We must come into covenant love and not just convenient love. Victory is built on relationships; we are a family, which is why the devil has not been able to divide us. Out of the original 23 people on Mother's Day, 1979, eighteen are still with us today. We have been through good times and bad times, exciting times and dry times but we are still together. We place great value on relationships and do not treat them lightly everyone is important.
Thirdly - Transformation is the Proof of the Product
The gospel is the power of God and can totally transform any life that is committed to Him.
Transformation is the proof of salvation. It is the fruit worthy of repentance that John the Baptist was looking for (Matt. 3:7-8). It can, has and does transform lives, families, cities and nations. According to Hebrews 2:3-4, the reason we are to believe the gospel is, number one - that Jesus preached it, number two - because of the testimony of eye witnesses and number three - because it was confirmed with signs, wonders and miracles.
Hazel and I received Christ nearly 30 years ago and since that time we have seen healing, deliverance, salvation, restoration and transformation in the lives of multiplied thousands of people, including our own lives.
Jesus himself needed the miracle working power of God to confirm His Word, so did the early believers in the book of Acts. In our generation we need the miraculous every bit as much as they did. I have written in my Bible at the beginning of the book of Acts, "the acts of my generation shall supersede the acts of this book" We must hear God's voice - move clearly, act upon His Word - move swiftly and enter into the miracle working power of God -move fully.
We are going to preach, pray, plant, prophesy and partner with the Holy Ghost for the greatest harvest of souls this world has ever known.
John Wesley is dead, Charles Finney is dead, William and Catherine Booth are dead, Smith Wigglesworth is dead, Kathryn Kuhlman is dead, BUT you and I are alive for a time such as this, this is our day, this is our hour. Get Ready! Be prepared and enter in - it is harvest time!
Our goal is to plant at least 200 more churches in North America and another 3000 churches around the world during this next decade, should the Lord of the harvest tarry. With a combined, focused, effort and God's supernatural extra added to our best, we could far exceed these projections for His glory and kingdom sake.
Yours for the Planting of Thousands of Fresh, New, Vibrant Churches --
Dr. George Hill
President Victory Churches International
