Personal Statement of Faith

My Personal Faith

The most important part of my faith is the knowledge that there is nothing that I can do to earn the love of God as it is a gift, paid through the death and bodily resurrection of his His Son, Jesus Christ, who was God’s walking example of his Agape love on earth. I believe that this gift has been made available to every man, woman, and child;  however I believe that each must personally ask for this gift, therefore surrendering their life to God the Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit. I believe that this surrender must be unconditional, and is done by inviting Jesus Christ to be Lord in all areas of one’s life – body, soul (mind, emotions and will) and spirit.

Personal Statement of Faith and Formal Statement of FaithUpon receipt of the gift of salvation on February 12, 1974, I determined to follow the example Jesus Christ set before me. To do so, I continue to learn about Him through the study of His word (the Bible), prayer and by getting together with other followers of Christ in church and out of the church. My faith in Christ is my focal point, and all decisions I make in life must filter through this focal point. In other words, “What would Jesus do?” I determine to keep short accounts with both God and man, repenting of sin when sin arises and making amends with those around me when I sin against them through my thoughts, actions or lack of action.

While I believe that the local church is not the only place you practice your faith,  I also believe it is almost impossible to experience the full accountability, encouragement, and support you receive from face-to-face fellowship with other believers.  I strong believe that participating in a local fellowship is crucial to the spiritual health and balance of every believer. Through the support, accountability and encouragement I receive in my local body, I am able to extend a practical expression of my faith worldwide through this web ministry and other means.

I have been a member of Harvest Vineyard Christian Fellowship, part of Vineyard Churches Canada since 1992 but over the years I have attended several denominations from Catholic to Presbyterian, from Baptist to Pentecostal.  I am unabashedly and unapologetically Spirit-filled, and I believe that physical and spiritual healing is for today, along with all the other Gifts of the Spirit that were evident in the gospels and Acts. I believe that is only right that we fully utilize all that was paid for through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Through the covering and blessings I continue to receive through my local church, I extend a practical expression of my faith worldwide through this web ministry and other means. I have been a member of Harvest Vineyard Christian Fellowship, part of Vineyard Churches Canada since 1992 but over the years, I have attended several denominations from Catholic to Presbyterian, from Baptist to Pentecostal.  I am unabashedly and unapologetically Spirit-filled, and I believe that physical and spiritual healing is for today, along with all the other Gifts of the Spirit that were evident in the gospels and the Book of Acts. I believe that is only right that we fully utilize all that was paid for through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Formal Statement of Faith

(VINEYARD CANADA STATEMENT OF FAITH)

WE BELIEVE that God is the Eternal King. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory.

WE BELIEVE that God’s kingdom is everlasting. From His throne, through His Son, His eternal Word, God created, upholds and governs all that exists: the heavenly places, the angelic hosts, the universe, the earth, every living thing and mankind. God created all things very good.\

WE BELIEVE that Satan, originally a great, good angel, rebelled against God, taking a host of angels with him. He was cast out of God’s presence and, as a usurper of God’s rule, established a counter-kingdom of darkness and evil on the earth.

WE BELIEVE that God created mankind in His own image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God’s judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God’s good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam’s original sin. Human beings are born in sin, subject to God’s judgment of death and captive to Satan’s kingdom of darkness.

WE BELIEVE that God did not abandon His rule over the earth which He continues to uphold by His providence. In order to bring redemption, God established covenants which revealed His grace to sinful people. In the covenant with Abraham, God bound Himself to His people Israel, promising to deliver them from bondage to sin and Satan and to bless all the nations through them.

WE BELIEVE that as King, God later redeemed His people by His mighty acts from bondage in Egypt and established His covenant through Moses, revealing His perfect will and our obligation to fulfill it. The law’s purpose is to order our fallen race and to make us conscious of our moral responsibility. By the work of God’s Spirit, it convicts us of our sin and God’s righteous judgment against us and brings us to Christ alone for salvation.

WE BELIEVE that when Israel rejected God’s rule over her as King, God established the monarchy in Israel and made an unconditional covenant with David, promising that his heir would restore God’s kingdom reign over His people as Messiah forever.

WE BELIEVE that in the fullness of time, God honored His covenants with Israel and His prophetic promises of salvation by sending His Son, Jesus, into the world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, as fully God and fully man in one person, He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God’s Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, inaugurating God’s kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Gathering His disciples, He reconstituted God’s people as His Church to be the instrument of His kingdom. After dying for the sins of the world, Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, fulfilling the covenant of blessing given to Abraham. In His sinless, perfect life Jesus met the demands of the law and in His atoning death on the cross He took God’s judgment for sin which we deserve as law-breakers. By His death on the cross He also disarmed the demonic powers. The covenant with David was fulfilled in Jesus’ birth from David’s house, His Messianic ministry, His glorious resurrection from the dead, His ascent into heaven and His present rule at the right hand of the Father. As God’s Son and David’s heir, He is the eternal Messiah-King, advancing God’s reign throughout every generation and throughout the whole earth today.

WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church at Pentecost in power, baptizing believers into the Body of Christ and releasing the gifts of the Spirit to them. The Spirit brings the permanent indwelling presence of God to us for spiritual worship, personal sanctification, building up the Church, gifting us for ministry, and driving back the kingdom of Satan by the evangelization of the world through proclaiming the word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus.

WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. We believe in the filling or the empowering of the Holy Spirit, often a conscious experience, for ministry today. We believe in the present ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise of all of the biblical gifts of the Spirit. We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing, and for recognition and empowering of those whom God has ordained to lead and serve the Church.

WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of Holy Scripture so that the Bible is without error in the original manuscripts. We receive the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as our final, absolute authority, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

WE BELIEVE that the whole world is under the domination of Satan and that all people are sinners by nature and choice. All people therefore are under God’s just judgment. Through the preaching of the Good News of Jesus and the Kingdom of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, God regenerates, justifies, adopts and sanctifies through Jesus by the Spirit all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. By this they are released from Satan’s domain and enter into God’s kingdom reign.

WE BELIEVE in the one, holy, universal Church. All who repent of their sins and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and form the living Body of Christ, of which He is the head and of which we are all members.

WE BELIEVE that Jesus Christ committed two ordinances to the Church: water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both are available to all believers.

WE BELIEVE that God’s kingdom has come in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it continues to come in the ministry of the Spirit through the Church, and that it will be consummated in the glorious, visible and triumphant appearing of Christ – His return to the earth as King. After Christ returns to reign, He will bring about the final defeat of Satan and all of his minions and works, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment and the eternal blessing of the righteous and eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. Finally, God will be all in all and His kingdom, His rule and reign, will be fulfilled in the new heavens and the new earth, recreated by His mighty power, in which righteousness dwells and in which He will forever be worshipped.

Download scriptural basis for this statement of faith here

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God
the Father Almighty.
From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen

©1998, 2016 Katherine Walden
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