Pastor's Circle - Jerry Horner

Jerry Horner has been a university professor and administrator since 1962. He currently functions as the Executive Director of New Creation Ministries.

He joined the Pastor's Circle after extended world travel to talk about excitement over the Word of God. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of his interview.

Of any place you've been in the last year, where is God's work most exciting?

I believe it's in parts of Southeast Asia. There is mission work going out like nothing you've ever seen from places like Singapore and Malaysia and Indonesia.

One of the most exciting places is in the Philippines, where there is a revival going on in the police and the military.

It's amazing to see the movement of the Holy Spirit and the power of the gospel. I'm wonderfully excited to see the movement of God in Muslim countries.

Is there a difference between Southeast Asia and America in their love for the Word?

You know, you're exactly right. One of the marks of a Spirit-filled church and a Spirit-filled individual is his submission to the Word of God.

I'm impressed that the very first characteristic of the first church in Jerusalem in Acts 2 is that they submitted themselves to apostolic teaching. 

They had just come from a tremendous spiritual experience, having the Holy Spirit fall upon them, but they knew that they couldn't live by experience alone.

We have bequeathed to us in the pages of the New Testament the very same teaching that they received. The Word of God has the power to transform lives.

I really believe that the agent of the devil could get up and read the scripture and people could get saved, because of the power of the Word of God.

What is your method in your personal devotions?

There are different ways to approach Bible study, and I think there is a variety that is in order here. You might concentrate on characters of the Bible. What can I learn from the life of David? What can I learn from the life of Paul?

Another way is a thematic study. What does the Bible have to say about love, about faith, about courage, about fear? Go through and saturate yourself in the teachings of the Bible on that subject.

I love to go back and read the prayers of the Bible and apply them to myself. I think Paul's prayers are still being answered today. I'll make it contemporary and put my own name in there.

I like what the Apostle Paul said more than once about the history of Israel. He said, "These things were written for our benefit." They were written for us to benefit in history, in doctrine.

You can read it and study it, but unless you apply it in real, contemporary life, it doesn't do you any good.

What happens to a movement that is excited about the Spirit but not the Word?

The early Church recognized that you don't live on experience alone.

I think that the Lord is less interested in how high you can jump when you praise Him than He is in how you walk when you hit the ground.

The Spirit of God is given to change us into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Let's concentrate on knowing Christ, and being like Him.