“Seminar Beginning”
Written by Timothy Davis
It has been a blessing to watch the Holy Spirit take the Cleansing Seminar from Glory to Glory through 21 years of development.
In 1983 a well-known Assemblies of God church near Chicago Illinois invited me to join the pastoral team as a Pastoral Counselor. While I prayed with people concerning their pain and struggles, much to my surprise, demons manifested! As I continued to pray and follow the Holy Spirit's instructions, by the grace of God the demons were cast out. Sickness and disease submitted to the Name of Jesus and health was returned to sick bodies. Even a blind woman received her sight.
During this season of ministry God began to lay a firm Biblical foundation through counseling experiences I could neither explain nor understand. I continued to study and read every book that pertained to these New Testament miracles. My heart to see people set free was filled with joy as day after day God touched hurting souls.
However, there were some who did not receive freedom and I continued to press in on God for help and revelation. Soon I began to see a pattern develop in those who received their freedom. The Holy Spirit focused my attention on a few “key biblical truths” each person needed to apply. It was a number of years later before these “key biblical truths” were published into a seminar, but God was laying a solid foundation.
Unfortunately, the more often demons manifested in my ministry the tension with the church leadership also mounted. This tension was confusing to me because since I had recently received the baptism in the Holy Spirit I thought all Pentecostals were casting out demons and healing the sick. This theological conflict was unable to be resolved and ultimately required me to leave the pastoral team. In the early months of 1985 I relocated to California and began to attend the First Foursquare Church of Van Nuys, also known as The Church On The Way.
Soon I was introduced to a local doctor who worshipped at The Church On The Way and had a heart to help hurting people. He was blessed to see how God used my gifts and felt lead to offer his office to me every Saturday to minister to people he knew who desperately needed deliverance and healing.
Within a short time every Saturday was booked solid as I ministered the “key Biblical truths” that had become a proven tool God used to set people free. Many of the brothers and sisters whose lives were changed were members or attendees of The Church On The Way. As church leadership began to hear the rumors of a new person in the body ministering, I was invited to meet the senior pastor, Dr. Jack Hayford, and the pastoral leadership to discuss my ministry.
For the next many months I worked for a painting contractor during the week and ministered every Saturday in the doctor's office and I waited on God for direction. In November of 1986 I was invited to join the pastoral team of The Church On The Way and another new season of ministry began.
The Pastoral Care department at The Church On The Way was strong in counseling, but lacking in the area of deliverance and inner healing. I was invited to join the team and released to minister through the spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit was demonstrating through my life.
Within four months my personal counseling schedule was packed with appointments. So much so that the first available appointment was five to six months down the road! The “key Biblical truths” that I ministered one-on-one were becoming a “blessing and a curse.” A blessing because people were getting free from lifetime problems a curse because they left my office with such joy that they would influence ten more people who then called for counseling.
During one of those moments when I was overwhelmed with the task before me, I cried out to God for help and direction. The Holy Spirit began to move and to speak to me in what later I understood to be a life-changing moment. As the Lord spoke and I took notes, He began to put a specific order to the “key Biblical truths” that had successfully ministered to so many. Within a few minutes there was on paper before me “a cleansing seminar.” The Holy Spirit also directed me to minister to groups of people rather than to minister to only one person at a time.
I presented to the pastoral leadership the ministry direction I believed the Lord spoke to me and in June of 1986 I conducted the first seminar to a group of 26 married couples under the designated title “The Marriage Seminar.” The seminar concluded with a victorious weekend retreat in November and began again in January with another retreat in May.
By 1989 single adults who were desperate for freedom were “sneaking in” to The Marriage Seminar. When I realized how hungry people were for freedom, I proposed the idea to the pastoral leadership to open the seminar to not only marrieds but to singles also and to change the name of the seminar to The Cleansing Seminar. This idea was not approved and the seminar continued as it was to married couples only with retreats each May and November.
By 1990 God had demonstrated that His hand was on my ministry and The Marriage Seminar. I continued to receive ongoing revelation on how to adjust the seminar to see God's Spirit use it deeper in people's lives, but I did not have the freedom to move in the direction the Spirit was leading. In January I met with Pastor Jack Hayford to resign my pastoral position. My purpose was to move on and birth a ministry God had placed on my heart a ministry called Cleansing Stream Ministries. After three months of prayer and negotiations, I accepted Pastor Jack's offer to stay at The Church On The Way as an Executive Pastor and I was released to fulfill my vision there.
On October 15, 1990 I founded and incorporated Cleansing Stream Ministries and became the first president of the Board of Directors. In January of 1991 The Marriage Seminar was terminated and I began teaching the same seminar but now under the title God had given to me years before, The Cleansing Seminar.
By the fall retreat of 1991 visiting pastors and congregations began to attend the retreat and requests for The Cleansing Seminar materials began to increase. Using the Southern California retreat as a launching pad, regional retreats were developed in Portland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Alaska with attendance that mounted into the thousands.
By 1998 the combined Cleansing Seminar Retreats attendance had grown to nearly 12,000 participants a year. When, once again, the future direction of the ministry came into question I felt I had no other choice but to resign as president of Cleansing Stream Ministries. This proved to be one of the most agonizing decisions of my life, and in the end came down to only one question: was I to follow man's direction or follow God's direction? So in 1999 I founded Cleansing The Church Ministries determined to keep the original Cleansing Seminar as the focus for the future.
The way God spoke to me in 1984 has left a lifetime impression upon my spirit and continues to be the mandate which I follow in my ministry today. Even though The Cleansing Seminar I teach is updated with new illustrations it continues to be the ORIGINAL, patterned by the “word” God gave years ago.