The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Cole
 

A while back we had a thread on here about Billy Cole and his health. He was in a hospital with congestive heart failure and we prayed for him. Thank God, he was later released.

In that thread there was mention of a book titled "The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Cole" and some mentioned that they were going to procure a copy. I got a copy and read it. It's not a long book (227 pages), the print is large and it has lots of pictures so it can be read pretty quickly. I have read it and would recommend it. I like biographies/autobiographies.

I have only heard Billy Cole twice, both at Calvary Church (UPC) which is a couple of miles from my house. Once was just when he was visiting and once was when he preached the funeral of Sis. Paslay, one of the pastors. Calvary Church was formed in 1968 when there was a split. Bro. and Sis. Norman Paslay had a falling out with Bro. F.E. Curts so they and part of the congregation left and formed Calvary Church. The Church is now pastored by their son, Norm Paslay. Some of my wife's relatives go there. When I first met Pastor Norm Paslay he was about two years old. He's now an adult and is a fine man and pastor. I just couldn't go there and have him as my pastor but that's my problem, not his.

I'm going to post some quotes from Billy Cole's book. I'm sure many accept him as an Apostle and great man of God with a unique ministry.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

In pages 210 to 217 Billy Cole has a section titled My Heroes. He says:
"I have had several heroes in my lifetime that deeply impacted me and greatly influenced my ministry. Every one of my heroes was a minister."

He starts out by telling about his Mother, then his father and then lists about 17 others.

One that he lists is T.D. Jakes. This is what he says about T.D. Jakes:
"Brother T.D. Jakes was a plumber and a preacher while he was in our fellowship in Charleston, West Virginia. It is phenomenal how he has become so influential today, so quickly. To the best of my knowledge, he has not compromised the message of the Oneness of God, water baptism in Jesus name, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost. We are proud that his children attended our church school, and that he and his wife were married in our church building. Some call him a compromiser, but in my opinion he is just full of wisdom regarding how to speak to people."

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

There has been some discussion on AFF about tongues and whether people who speak in tongues speak in known languages or not. Here is a passage from pages 98 and 99 which mention that:

"We saw some that, when they received the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues, spoke in English perfectly, even though they did not know a word of English! Some of these were jungle people that had never been to any school even a day in their lives, even little children and teenagers. I remember what one little girl in particular said when she spoke in English as she received the Holy Ghost. Her native tongue was Laotian. She did not even know the Thai language, let alone English. She had never been to school a day in her life, but when she got the Holy Ghost she said, 'This is so wonderful. I am so happy. I magnify the name of Jesus.' Brother Oscar Vouga, missions director, was there and witnessed that miracle."

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

On page 98, Bro. Cole says this about "Signs, Wonders, and Miracles"

"After these people received the Holy Ghost, many signs, wonders, and miracles began to occur. We saw the lame miraculously healed! Oh, how they would walk. We saw deaf ears opened! Oh, how they could hear. Often each notable miracle would result in a church coming into existence, usually with about thirty or forty members. The Thai people would not believe without a miracle, but many would believe when there was a miracle."

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

No comment.:yo

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

Bro. Cole has a great sense of humor and an incredibly contagious laugh. He's a great preacher, although personally he can be a pill at times. I enjoyed the times he spent in our home as a kid. Great man of God.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

I can't find it now but I think the Coles were in Thailand about three years before anyone received the Holy Ghost baptism. Many were baptized in Jesus' name but people just were not receiving the Spirit baptism.

On pages 97 and 98 he says:

"In the very first service where converts received the Spirit, the Holy Ghost came in suddenly, just like on the Day of Pentecost! The converts there were seated on split-log benches, (They had taken logs, split them in half, and made benches with no seat backs. The benches had been placed under a building made of bamboo and grass.) The Holy Ghost fell on them all at once, and it was accompanied by a sound like a rushing mighty wind! Several Buddhist neighbors came running, because they thought an airplane had crashed. When asked why they thought that, they said they had heard a sound come down that sounded like 'WHOOO!'".

Then on page 125 he says:
"After the breakthrough in Thailand, we averaged probably one hundred people per month receiving the Holy Ghost. We would seek out those who needed a miracle, and work with them and pray for them. The Lord would heal them, and people would be converted as the result of the healing or miracle."

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

from page 125:

"When we finally left Thailand, we had baptized 6,000 people, the majority of which were Buddhists. At first we baptized Christians (Presbyterians and Christian Missionary Alliance members), However, eventually we baptized far more Buddhists than nominal Christians."

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

On pages 140-143 he talks about going to the island of Sulawesi. They went by train to a city on the eastern edge of the island of Java. From there they were to take a plane to Sulawesi. The flight had been cancelled so they were stranded in Java. When they got off the train they took a taxi to a hotel. He goes on:

"On the way there, we learned that that I had chosen was of the Assemblies of God, and yet he had never been filled with the Holy Ghost. In the lobby of the hotel, we prayed together and he was filled with the Holy Ghost immediately. Later he was baptized in Jesus name, and became the first member of our church there, which grew quite rapidly."

After they were able to get a flight to Sulawesi they were able to get into the interior where the churches were located. The leader of the group stepped forward and (through an interpreter) told them, "For twenty years we have been baptized in Jesus name, but we do not have the Holy Ghost, and we don't know how to be filled with the Holy Ghost." Bro. Cole goes on and says:
"That very day, fifty-four people were filled with the Holy Ghost. By the end of the week, 250 people had received the Holy Ghost."

While there a young preacher approached Bro. Cole and asked him to go to his church. It was on top of a mountain and Bro. Cole was not physically able to make the trip. The preacher pleaded with him saying that his people were "very shy mountain people, and they will not come down here into the city." Eight men carried Bro. Cole up the mountain in a chair that was wired to bamboo poles. Thirty-nine people received the Holy Ghost Baptism as a result of that trip up the mountain. Bro. Cole then adds a statement that at last count he was told that about 10,000 people had been filled with the Holy Ghost in Sulaesi.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

My understanding is that in some circles, people accuse him of making up stories where many got the Holy Ghost? Have you heard that? If so why, would people say that about Billy's Testimonies?

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

I think Billy Cole to be a remarkable man, I am sorry that his health is bad. In my opinion another reason to practice stewardship over our earthly tabernacle. How much more effect we can have when we feel healthy and are strong/

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

I don't know why Bro. Epley would place no comment. I have heard him speak on several occasions. I felt a witness in my spirit when he spoke and saw many received the Holy Ghost in those meetings.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

Not that Epley is involved, but there have been circles that have accused BC of being a liar and a fraud concerning the # of people who have gotten the Holy Ghost under his ministry.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

Are you talking about Ethiopia?

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

That and other areas of ministry, anything concerning large #'s this group questions it, and some even accuse this fine man of being a liar and fraud.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

well time and eternity will tell the true story...I have no stones to throw and like most people I have heard a lot...both good and bad...I choose to believe the good...

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

Sister Alvear, you are truly a gem. You always have something good to say.
Love & prayers to you.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

Here we go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_8mccuFE8g

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

Uh, forgive me if I'm wrong but I think Pastor Epley's "no comment" was in reference to Billy Cole not consigning T. D. Jakes to the ranks of the heathen.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

I visited with brother Cole and Shirley in Thailand in 1966 in not only the headquarters church in Bangkog pastored by Boon Mark Kittisan who was formerly a Presbyterian Pastor brought to the truth by him. It was a large church. I am an eye witness of the great amount of fruit from his ministry while I was there...all there.

I spent more than a week with him. Went on vacation with him and swam in the waters of the Gulf of Siam where Mrs Kitisarn had a retreat. I was in the jungles and saw the work and the results of this man's great ministry.

On the phone with him one day last year, he told me that if I should see T.D. Jakes for him to send his tithes to his pastor...referring to himself.

The man is genuine but I never understood how he could let himself get into such a shape. He just simply ate far too much. I almost want to walk away (sometimes do) when I see anyone do that, especially preachers.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

Elder Epley can speak for himself but I think his "no comment" was about Billy Cole's words about T.D. Jakes.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

On pages 175-182 Billy Cole describes a crusade in Thailand.

Then I preached the Holy Ghost crusade service on the second night. As I always do for crusade type services, I preached very briefly. Within my first three minutes in the pulpit, I convince the people that the Holy Ghost is going to fall; that they will get the Holy Ghost. Then I would spend two or three minutes honoring distinguished guests, followed by a very short sermon, perhaps only twelve or fourteen minutes long. Finally, on inviting them to come and stand at the front of the platform, we were overwhelmed by the huge number that came forward.

I always begin a crusade altar service with a prayer of repentance. Being they were Buddhists, they had to be instructed in detail on what it means to repent and how to go about it. They all repented sincerely and intently for quite some time.

Then I gave my usual instructions for the seekers (these are the same directions I give at any crusade altar service after repentance):
1. Desire to receive the Holy Ghost with all your heart.
2. Focus your attention entirely on Jesus Christ.
3. Have faith that God is going to give you the Holy Ghost now. They were told that they must believe that God has heard their prayer of repentance, and forgiven them.
4. Because of your faith, worship the Lord, being careful not to "beg" for the Holy Ghost. They were instructed to not have a begging attitude or begging tone of voice, but to be enthusiastic in exercising faith. We instructed them to worship the Lord by saying "Hallelujah!" or "I love You, Jesus!" or "Praise the Lord!" or something similar.
5. Submit to the control of the Lord's Spirit. I explained that while they were worshiping the Lord, strange sounds or words would come to their mind. At that point, they were to continue to give their voice, but allow those words to be spoken. I told them that God would take control, and they must not attempt to keep control (trying to force themselves to speak Thai), but to allow the Spirit's words to be spoken, and they would in fact be speaking in other tongues, as the Spirit gives the utterance.

Then I told them that I was about to speak the word of faith, at which time they should begin worshiping the Lord with a great shout, and that the Holy Ghost would fall. Finally, I spoke the word of faith, by commanding them to, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost!" Immediately there was a great roar of worship that went up to the Lord, and when we had finished worshiping the Lord, we counted the number filled, and over 1,500 Buddhists had received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Following the altar service, I asked Brother Edwin Harper to preach a short message on baptism in Jesus name. Literally hundreds of people went straight to the river to be baptized. I am not aware of anyone that received the Holy Ghost that was not also baptized in Jesus name.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

On pages 198 and 199 Bro. Cole lists a 7 year history of domestic crusades covering a period of 1995-2001. He provides a list of location, date, attendance, number filled and speakers' name. He summarizes the figures as being 128,945 in attendance and 9,032 filled.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

On pages 165-169 he speaks about the crusades and relationships in Ethiopia.

For the next several years, we did back-to-back crusades in Papua New Guinea and Ethiopia, annually. The number that received the Holy Ghost in the Ethiopian crusade increased every year....

The Ethiopian crusade kept growing and growing. One year, more that one million people were in attendance....

Within a ten year period, close to one million people were filled with the Holy Ghost in these annual crusades, and their constituency grew from 250,000 to almost two million during the same period. The revival there continues, even though there are two small splits in their church work.

Because of our harsh judgment towards Teklemarium, concerning the doctrine, Ethiopia chose to disfellowship us. To put it in simple terms, they are extremely Oneness, to the point of believing Mary was just a surrogate mother of Jesus. Nevertheless, they continue to grow. As of 2007, they are reporting 21 million constituents, not counting the two small groups that have split away. We are Pentecostal, but they are Apostolic, and because of that, we cannot understand one another.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

LOL I don't even need to get the book now.
BTW I've enjoyed the posts.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

Here is another clip.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPjjtfC1AuE

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

Well, I did not mean to hurt book sales but I just wanted to post a couple things that might promote discussion, like Billy Cole's opinion of T.D. Jakes, his words about the Ethiopian debacle, speaking with tongues in a language that was understood by the hearers, etc.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

The thing is those who received the Holy Ghost and spoke in english,didn't speak English before they received the Holy Ghost did they ? So that reinforces ACTS.2:2

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

I only remember one instance where details were given about the girl that spoke English and from how it was explained, she did note know English. He said Bro. Vouga was a witness to the incident.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

~ ~ QUESTION ~ ~


Have yall seen Billy Cole's new book????

No Kidding, He told some preachers OFF !! and I mean OFF!!!!!

He did not mince any words let me tell you

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

What is the title of his new book?

He said some stuff about politics and organization in the book I've been quoting from but I can't find it in there now.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

\


Let me ask my brother tonight - he got a copy in the mail about 2 weeks ago. a visiting preacher was here and they was talking about it ( of course I was all ears :christmoose)

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

Check this one out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv90ZD5cI6g

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

from pages 205-207

Attitude Determines Altitude

The greatest problem in evangelizing the world is our attitude toward each other. That's our number one problem. It's not the devil. It's not the world. It's our own sorry attitudes.

...I love the UPCI, but it's not been possible for us to have a crusade here in North America the magnitude of, say, a Billy Graham crusade or a Benny Hinn crusade Such a thing has not been possible for the UPCI because of an attitude among us that we will not allow any one of us to become that popular. Whenever one of us becomes too popular, he is targeted for ruin. The reason is simply because it is a political organization It is a man-made, political organization.

Now, I'm a member of the UPCI, and I would not even think of leaving. And there are spiritual people within the organization. But the organization itself is not spiritual. People come intoour ministerial fellowship thingking that the organization is going to feed them and help them spiritually, and they are disappointed because it does not happen. It is a political organization, and the most authority in the organization is elected offices; not spiritual ofices. We have a place for apostles and prophets among many of our people today, but these apostles and prophets have a very subordinate place, not a place of authority. (This is heavy stuff).

Preachers are some times disillusioned when they try to get spiritual encouragement from the organization and it does not happen. One must turn to a spiritual individual.

We foster an attitude such that once we grow, we devour those are in spiritual leadership. We destroy each other because of our intolerance. We make heaven-or-hell issues over things that are nothing more than just opinions. We have preacher who preach heaven-or-hell over issues that do not warrant it. For instance, we have preachers who are so opposed to a man wearing a beard that they'll preach him straight into hell for it. And there is not one verse of scripture for that. In fact, Jesus Christ had a beard, apparently. The Bible prophesied of Jesus that His beard wuld be plucked by those who would smite His back (Isaiah 50:6). Yet, in some of our churches, if you wear a beard, they will preach you straight into hell; they make a heaven-or-hell issue of it. If the Apostle Peter showed up today an had a beard (he very likely did have a beard), some of us would run himout on a rail.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

I have thought some of Elder Cole claims were over the top through the years but his absurd claim about Jakes is off the wall.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

That doesn't sound like "no comment."

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

I am afraid it was assumed I was being negative personally about Elder Cole and that wasn't the case.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

No it isn't the case as you Elder Epley are not one to run somebody down ,I know that is not your motive.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

I believe he is on target here and that is why we keep having splits developing.

Re: The Life and Ministry of Billy and Shirley Col
 

You don't believe the reports that gave concerning those that received the Spirit?