TESTIMONIES FROM STUDENTS
We asked our students and faculty about their experience at Zion
College. Here are a few excerpts of what they said:
E.G. (Student): “Throughout the years I have learned many things but
much of that was still disconnected and sort of out there. Zion College
has helped me to connect those truths to where they make more sense to
me, which has brought me into a greater depth of understanding.”
Cindy Decker (Faculty): “Digging into the richness of the materials was
marvelous personally and for all of us. It was a living experience…”
Rob O’Neal (Student): “After being in church for many years, more than
anything else I was impressed by the development of friends and family
and the ability to connect, interact and talk to the teachers.”
Yvonne Hicks (Administrative Dean and Dean of Students): “Teaching at
Zion College has been like working in a quarry, filled with the glory of
God. Zion College has hewn our students out to be rocks, who are
steadfast not only in the foundational truths but in flowing with the
rivers of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I am confident that as our
students continue in their studies here at Zion College and move back
into their everyday routine that they will create greater ripples in the
lives of those they encounter. They will have the right stuff, the right
anchors, the right understanding, the right disciplines to do great
exploits for the Lord – from laying hands on the sick, releasing words
of wisdom and knowledge, to being able to give a sound reason to anyone
at anytime for the basis of their faith.”
Steven Mullis (Student): “Before I started attending Zion College I was
floating around without an anchor or a focus or a goal. Zion College has
helped me to embrace the foundational things and to develop goals to
strive toward going somewhere in my spiritual life.”
Rosemerry Blash (Admissions Officer/Registrar): “I am blessed to have
had the opportunity to assist with registration and reviewing the
journals and papers at Zion College. I was especially touched because it
allowed me to see into the hearts and lives of our students. It has
taken me to a new level of appreciating them. Also, the Lord has
expanded my heart as I have witnessed their growth as the Lord has
walked them through challenges. The experience has changed my life.“
Heather Harris (Student): “I came out of Hebrew class ready to go after
Goliath. It transformed me like a fire hose of faith coming through…It
was really powerful.”
Don Williamson (Student): “My time at Zion College has been a catalyst
that brought together several things. I was stretched and grew
especially as I went through Hebrew and learned how to read in-between
the lines. I realized that there was a connection between the intensity
of the language and how things are described in the Word and the depth
of the treasures hidden within these truths and how we can apply them to
our everyday experiences.”
Dr. Joe Desloge (Ph.R.D., Logos Graduate School, M.Div. Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary and Faculty Member at Zion College): “Historically,
institutions and churches either lean towards the Spirit or toward the
Word. So they are either doing one or the other. You have a purposeful
and unique school striking the balance between the Spirit oriented and
the Word oriented. There is a more dynamic presence in this setting here
which takes from both lines and draws them together. The balance is a
challenge to maintain and a worthy goal to reach. I’ve taught Hebrew for
15 years including doctoral level and some of the Zion College beginning
students are as bright as the graduate students I have. This school is
purposefully hooking Word and Spirit and making the balance in a way
that enables our students to benefit from what All Nations Church and
the ministry are doing.”
Excerpts from students’ mid-term papers highlighting their experience
at Zion College:
Revolutionized relationship with the Holy Spirit!
“More than any other area, the Lord has given me a much broader
understanding of my relationship with the Holy Spirit through the
classes at Zion College. Not only has a veil been removed from my heart,
but He has opened my eyes to see so much more about the Holy Spirit than
I ever imagined. Even after seeing the visions of my relationship with
Holy Spirit on the movie clips during our first class on ‘Our Friend
Holy Spirit’, I still had difficulty grasping the depth of what my
relationship with Holy Spirit is to be. I still had the Holy Spirit
locked into this place of a gut feeling that nagged me when I needed to
pay attention to Him, or a wind I could soar on when I went deep into
worship, but not necessarily as a friend that I could talk to and
certainly not a person who actually loved or even cared about me.
However, shortly after our first class on the Power of Speaking in
Tongues, I had a dream that began to crack this box. In the dream a
woman came up behind me, placed her hands on my back and began to
prophecy over me in just deep groanings. I could feel the anointing in
her hands and the power of the Spirit rushing through my core. Even
though all this woman did was groan, I was drinking in every second. I
didn’t need any words – I could feel the deep intercession and love and
burden that this woman was carrying in her heart as she prophesied over
me. I was awakened by my alarm clock, but as I came out of the dream, I
was saying: ‘Please don’t stop, please don’t stop.’ As I asked the Lord
about this dream, He told me that this was how the Holy Spirit feels
about me. He reminded me of Romans 8:26: ‘In the same way, the Spirit
helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but
the Spirit Himself interceded for us with groans that words cannot
express.’
Before this dream, I had always interpreted this verse to mean – when I
don’t’ know what to pray, I can pray in my prayer language and the Holy
Spirit will make sure that the sounds coming out of my mouth are the
ones that will pray the right outcome. It was a very sterile
interpretation to say the least, with absolutely no emotional attachment
or involvement from the Holy Spirit on my behalf. However, in this
dream, the Lord downloaded into my heart this precious gift of being
able to see, feel and experience the ministry of the Holy Spirit for me.
Just as God is love, so is His Spirit one of love and compassion and
zeal for me. This dream still overwhelms me as I recall the power and
love that God was pouring into me as He ministered to me.
I am really just beginning to grasp the very tip of the power of the
gift that the Father has given us in His Spirit. Reading The Hidden
Power of Speaking in Tongues has been like opening a treasure chest of
the gems of heaven (which is basically what 1 Corinthians 2:6-12
states). However, one of the most significant results in reading this
book has been that it has completely wrecked my former ‘glory box’ and
helped me mature beyond my narrow definition of connection to the glory
of God.” - Heather Harris
From conference Christian to disciple!
“One of the problems in the church today is conference Christianity.
They develop a belief system of getting the word over and over again,
but never act on the knowledge they receive, never producing any fruit
from the Word. It’s like the man in the parable of the talents. In the
parable, the man gave each of his servants an amount of money and then
went on a journey. When he came back he inquired of his servants, what
they had done with what he had given them. Two were fruitful and
produced more money. The man said to these servants: ‘Thou good and
faithful servants, you have been faithful in little, have authority over
more.’ But the third servant hid his money in the ground and the man
rebuked him and called him a wicked servant, and cast him away because
he was unfruitful with what the man gave him. We know the man represents
Jesus, and the servants represent us, the Christians. Perhaps the money
can represent the revelation of God’s Word. If we are not faithful to
produce fruit in our lives from the teaching of those appointed to
instruct us, we will be like that wicked servant that was cast away. We
will be like one of those that the Lord said to: ‘Get away from me, I
never knew you who work lawlessness’.
In my daily journal, God was showing me that in my own walk I didn’t
practice being obedient to what I was taught. I wanted to work out my
salvation my own way. But God showed me that to get to the next level of
authority and serving the Lord, I needed to be obedient to what I
learned from the sermons, daily reading, and those God put over me to
disciple me. Walter Lee said to me on several occasions: ‘If you are
faithful in little God will give you more.’ So God has really spoken to
me about being obedient to Him.
One example of that is my water baptism. On the Saturday before I got
baptized Pastor Bonnie was teaching about the importance and reason for
being baptized in water. I was under conviction to be baptized, so I
decided to be obedient, and get baptized. When Jesus got baptized in
Matthew 3:15-18 (NLV) at one point it said: ‘But Jesus said, it must be
done, because we must do everything that is right.’ So then John
baptized him. This is what I was feeling, fulfilling all righteousness
to the Lord. I felt the heavens open and the Father looking down on me,
saying: ‘This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.’ There are
really no words I can find to describe what happened, except I felt so
very new and clean after I came up out of the water. Everything around
me was different and I felt connected to the Body of Christ. This felt
good, because for the first time in my life, I really felt a part of the
people there, and a sense of being where I was supposed to be. There was
an amazing new place open in my heart the Lord gave to dwell in. I felt
the Lord gave me His heart of compassion for others. It was like the
Holy Spirit was living in me in a new way, and He just wanted to reach
out and comfort those in desperate and difficult situations.
Through the revelations I was receiving at Zion College, the Word and my
daily journals, God was showing me about having a kingdom mindset. In
Philippians 2:5 (KJV): ‘Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ
Jesus.’ The Word of God says in Proverbs 23:7(KJVa) : ‘As a man thinketh,
so is he.’ There is power in the way that we view the Word and
circumstances in the Word.
Through my time at Zion College, I have been like the children of Israel
waiting for the revelation on how to serve the God that rescued them
from bondage. Zion College has been the Moses bringing the teaching and
revelation in to my life. God also gave me revelation in my life, pruned
my life to be more fruitful through situations about the importance of
the Word of God. So, obedience is having a kingdom mindset and faith.
God has done this to take me to that next realm of worship and serving
Him. My time at Zion College can be described out of these passages of
John 15:3-5 ‘You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by
the message I have given you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is
severed from the vine and you cannot be fruitful apart from Me. Yes, I
am the vine, you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in
them, will produce much fruit.’” –Steve Mullis
A door of revelation and communication opened!
“I have found that there are connections between physical and spiritual
discipline and how when we are obedient with one, the power of God is
released in the realm of the other. For instance, in the past I had not
had the discipline in journaling everything the Lord communicated to me.
Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how much I missed out in terms of what
God wanted to communicate in addition to what He had already shown me.
It wasn’t until I actually started journaling that I realized that by
doing so, I am giving God an invitation to speak to me more about the
subject matter. Hence, my discipline in journaling is directly connected
to the extent that He is speaking to me. Within the past few weeks at
Zion College, I clearly recognize a door of revelation opening up to me
when I take the time to journal my meditations and revelations with the
Lord. I have also found that principle applied during my Bible reading.
Since I started journaling, God elaborates much more on His word than He
has prior to my journaling. So my personal discipline of journaling is
directly connected to the depth of my walk with the Lord and the level
of revelation He releases to me.
Because of my studies of Basic Hebrew I am also receiving more insight
into the fact that during the translations some of the literal meanings
of various words in the Bible are somewhat diluted because there is no
literal translation. As a foreigner, I fully understand this concept.
One cannot directly translate German and at times, a similar meaning
will have to be found. However, that particular word may not encompass
the fullness of the meaning of the original word. Understanding the true
meanings of biblical truth is like finding treasure hidden in a field of
words, languages and cultures. They are there all along but without
knowing the original language, the treasures remain hidden. The
connections is that, as I gain more understanding of God’s Word, I am
better equipped to engage in warfare, stand on God’s promises and
conduct my life in a manner that pleases God. This in itself builds the
confidence I need to step forward in boldness into the promises of God
for me and my family as well as minister to others.
Just like the Shunamite woman in 2 Kings 4, we are standing on the
threshold of an open door and it is our choice as to whether we will
provide a place for the Holy Spirit or not. How can we provide such a
place for somebody who is eternal and considers heaven His throne and
earth His footstool? As we discipline ourselves in spending time with
our Lord Jesus, putting Him first in everything, setting time aside,
drawing near to Him, we will find that He is drawing near to us. By
doing this, we will get to know the Holy Spirit and embark on personal
adventures with God. God is never boring and He never runs out of
creative ways to communicate with us.
Memorization has not been easy for me and I have made many skimpy
efforts in the past to memorize various scriptures. I was delighted when
I became aware that memorization of scriptures was a part of the
Discipleship training at Zion College. Here again our smart God saw to
it that I am given the tools to fully make use of everything He has for
me. I have since been practicing this and find it a very exciting way in
not only honoring God but also benefiting my learning. I have found the
Holy Spirit is my personal rabbi!” –E.G.
Application