2023 Equipping Conference with Costi Hinn | Session 1&2

Opening Worship, Prayer, and Conference Announcements

Okay, welcome to our opening night of our 2023 equipping conference. We're going to get started this evening with a few songs of worship before we introduce our guest speaker. So would you please stand as we sing.

How firm a foundation? How firm a foundation. Ye saints of the lord a dismay will still use thy pathway. Shall not all sufficient shall be. Shall not you may be seated. All right, let's begin with a word of prayer.

Our father we are so grateful to you for the many blessings that we get to enjoy to gather here in freedom in this place. Looking forward to a weekend being fed from your word. And it is our heart's desire that you would speak to us through costi that you would speak to us in your word.

That you would be magnified and glorified through our fellowship our worship. And all that we learn here this weekend. We pray your blessing upon this time. We thank you for the the faithful hands that have worked so hard behind the scenes to prepare this for us.

And we pray that you would be honored and glorified through all that transpires through today and tomorrow and into sunday morning. We praise you for your goodness for your salvation. And for your grace and pray that you it would be magnified today in our lives in our minds And in our hearts for the glory of christ our king in his name.

We pray. Amen. All right a couple of announcements welcome by the way to our equipping conference. We are excited about this and we have one of these a year if this is your first one. We do this around the end of may 1st of june every year and you'll see Announcements in your booklet as well as on the screen of upcoming conference next year.

Let me give you just a heads up for the schedule of events in your booklet. You'll notice it just says session one session two. Costi didn't get the titles of the sessions to me until about two hours after I had printed these yesterday.

So i'm going to just ask costi to give us the title of every session at the beginning. So, you know what to. Uh, so, you know what to write down in your booklet. Tonight's q a which is session two. Is not questions from the audience.

You should have three by five index cards on your table. At some point there you can write down questions through tonight and into tomorrow and then at the end of our time tomorrow. Our very last session will be a q a will will be i'll be asking costi some of those So at any time today or tomorrow you can come and drop those Cards with your question on it on the table at the front here.

And those will be incorporated into the final q a tomorrow afternoon. I think that's all I have. So now I will introduce costi costi grew up in a.

Costi Hinn’s Prosperity Gospel Background and Family Influence

Uh.

Christian and I would use that term loosely and put it in air quotes family probably one that you have heard of the hymn family. And he has an inside view of a segment of christianity that most of us do not.

He serves as the teaching pastor at shepherd's house bible church in chandler, arizona. He is a graduate of midwestern baptist theological seminary and he serves as president and founder of for the gospel.

He hosts a weekly podcast providing sound doctrine through digital media and he is the author of defining deception. Which was your first book right. With anthony wood and then god greed and the prosperity gospel.

Which is the one that you got there. And you can come up and costi will autograph that for a hundred dollars. Prosperity gospel dies hard, doesn't it? He has a book titled more than a healer. A book knowing the spirit and then two children's books the king who found his self-control and in jesus name I pray now one of those is not available yet, right?

The king who found his self-control is not available yet, but in jesus name I pray you can get on amazon and he and his wife christine have five children. You please welcome costi in.

The guys in our church. So many times. All right. First of all, thank you for for showing up. This is great. There's a lot of other things you could be doing right now one in particular that I almost stopped and say that.

There is a yard sale. And it's a good one. It is about 12 minutes away and there was a standing bear there was an eagle in full spread. There was a four by four or a five by five. And a lot of it and they were serving food and I was driving by.

I thought my wife was an old Driving on. And I just looked and I thought it's so good. She's not here with me because she would just want to move out here. And just slow down the pace of life and be at that yard sale.

I kid you not. So I told gina and nate and the gang I made it and there was a lot of distractions on the way here. But seriously, thank you. I grew up in the pacific northwest. So being here is beautiful flying into spokane.

Was like flying home and we are big outdoorsy types. And so thank you pastor. Jim. Thank you so much for letting me serve. This is a real privilege and I have habitually called him Jim Osman because that's just how i've been saying it.

But I have been rebuked and corrected Jim osman uh, it just rolls osman just rolls off the tongue, so Uh, there is that I will uh write something in the inside of your books if you ask me to. I don't sign bibles.

That is something I don't do and i'll tell you a funny story. I don't know if these are being recorded, but we can cut this part out. Uh, was that a major conference? I won't name the conference and people were coming up to me asking to sign their bibles and It's not a jaded like came out of the prosperity gospel thing.

So now, you know, it can never do any of that stuff. It was just simple. I think if I would have been asked on that side of it, I still would have said no. But I looked at this young woman who had her bible and she asked me to sign it.

And I said listen, I don't sign bibles only jesus should he's not here right now in person. So. But i'll write you a note or sign a book And she had opened her bible and when I looked at the names that had already signed it I was mortified and I thought none of none of those men are ungodly.

All of those are my heroes, too. Please don't tell them I said that.

And.

You talk about the prosperity gospel dying hard. So now every once in a while people will come up to me and they'll go. Hey, will you sign my bible and I go they're like just kidding. We heard the story.

So Man no offense to anyone but uh. Yeah, thank you so much again for your warmth your hospitality and your kindness. The sessions that we're going to go through are all a little different. The progression is going to work this way.

Pastor Jim asked me to share my testimony to start if that's redundant for some of you. Have you heard the story. Then just listen again and test to see if i'm still accurate and all the details line up besides that.

In the next session i've titled it.

Three Historical Heretics and the Old Tricks of the Devil

Three.

Historical heretics or three of history's heretics and. What I want to do for you in the second session is present to you three particular heroes that influenced my life our family. The prosperity gospel and the ministry and walk you through bios on them.

So you have a good handle of that? There are going to be some moments where you're going to sit there and think hey That's what this guy does or that's what she does or I have totally seen that play before.

And what you'll come to find if I achieve the goal and if the material is clear. You will come out of that session thinking wow, there's really nothing new under the sun. These are just new faces and new modern strategies on one of the devil's oldest tricks.

So that'll put a lot of us at ease while it doesn't change the fact that these are dangerous players and dangerous movements. That'll help you and then we'll begin to open our bibles more and more throughout the sessions all the way, of course until sunday when we'll walk through a biblical text from the book of ephesians, but the first two sessions are Highly story driven or history driven and so bear with me on that.

It's been a number of years since i've done any type of conferences where I just share my testimony. So this is really Uh kind of you to entertain the story once more if you haven't heard it before. I hope that it encourages you.

But even still in all those details my joy is ahead as we open up god's word. And also in the q and a's as we talk through questions and the practicals if you will Go to the lord with me one more time in prayer.

Let me ask for his blessing on this particular session and the one to come with the q and a father. I want to pause as well. I know pastor jim prayed already, but I want to recognize that without you.

I wouldn't be here. None of us would be that you are the sovereign god who saves. You are a god of mercy and your grace, which is literally your unmerited favor has Found us that you would save us that you would love us.

That you would then give us the privilege of being a part of The body of christ and be used to be given spiritual gifts get to use those to edify and build up one another all of that Is grace upon grace upon grace and so in this Testimony session, would you help me to be?

Accurate to be clear. Would you also edify those who hear? There is a side to this that we loathe and it is to go back down memory lane. But our purpose is to give you glory through it. Our purpose is to think about where we've been.

And then give you glory and honor and praise for where we are now. All of the credit is yours all of the glory the honor the praise. Every detail orchestrated by your Masterful hand and so what would we do?

But pause to say thank you. And ask your blessing on this session and the q a to come. I pray all of this in jesus name. Amen.

Testimony of a Prosperity Gospel Insider

So.

To go back to kind of a point in time in my life where I felt like I was on top of the world would be helpful for you. And then i'll rewind the tape and we'll go back to my childhood, but there was a point now some 17 to 19 years ago.

I haven't thought about it. The last time I I shared this with people formally in a setting like this. It was about 15 years total. So I think we're getting close on 17 to 18 years, but we were at the grand resort laganese In greece and we had flown into athens.

We were on a ministry trip and used to do layovers in really beautiful places. Rent a lot of suites or lease suites or in other times, you know houses and whatnot. But in this particular point, we're at this hotel where you have the presidential suite.

You got prime minister suites. You got every kind of person in government suite so you can picture that. And i'm standing there and I remember vividly I was wearing a a shirt that was a canadian shirt.

It was a hockey shirt. Because i'm canadian and love hockey and I had these clear non-prescription glasses. Because I thought I was like judah smith before he was judah smith. And everyone was looking trendy using those kind of cool glasses and i'm standing there and we're at the grand laganese resort.

And I remember thinking that I had made it like this was my life. I had arrived and I was young still.

And so.

I knew that there was some time before I would see the fruition of whatever I believed I was going to be but I was old enough to think. Like this is my trajectory. I've got it made.

And.

I was flying on a private gulfstream jet regularly staying in the nicest hotels in the world. Working for my uncle who was benny hinn at these crusades and services. I was a catcher which is you catch the people who are falling and I was his assistant on the road.

So that meant carrying bags checking out of hotels helping with whatever was needed. And we had you know The louis vuitton luggage the kind of whole deal. If you ever watch one of those crazy reality shows and you see The kardashians or these other people and you wonder like who in the world spends five grand on luggage.

Uh, we did so those are realities for me and i'm just living the dream and thinking like this is life.

And.

I was so confident that it was the john 10 10 abundant life. This was god's will if other people didn't have it. Our job was to go and show them how they could if they never really reached that it was their problem.

They didn't have enough faith. They didn't have a good belief system or they weren't believing and coming under our super anointed Covering and the irony that day. And that trip is that we were staying on the aegean sea which is connected to portions bodies of water in which paul Is on his missionary journeys and the way i've always described it in post after conversion is Standing there right near a body of water where paul had preached the gospel many times.

The only problem was we weren't preaching anything near what paul was preaching and it was years later that The lord would open my eyes. But that gives you a picture Of what I imagined life would be forever.

Growing up my father his name is henry pastor to church in vancouver british columbia. He had along with the family emigrated technically refugees. We found out just a couple Months ago that they were refugees.

They escaped war in israel. They arrive in toronto canada and as refugees they begin this life in which they go from having a lot in jaffa israel To then having nothing in canada. It was my dad filing for his pension in canada with my mom.

And my mom called me and said hey i've got big family historical news that kind of changes the narrative. I said what she said your dad is actually filed in this country in canada As a refugee so it maybe helps you understand a little more of what life was like for your dad.

They didn't immigrate it wasn't like from jaffa israel and a good life over to canada right into things. It's these refugees that come over from the middle east and they are going to make a life for themselves and that ties into Kind of other ideas in which even for my uncle and many others in the family.

Proving themselves becoming wealthy achieving the american dream. Climbing the ladder if you will of some sort of lifestyle is very Normal for refugees or immigrants who come here and say whatever it takes.

We're going to have a better life. We're gonna have a new life. And so my Uncle ends up finding his way. Through these kids at school having very odd experiences and he finds acceptance within the charismatic movement and charismatic circles.

Katherine coleman becomes a big hero of his and he sees this woman Who has this power and this aura about her if you will and he says that's what I want to do. That's my calling in the meantime. The family is not at all involved with that sort of branch of Belief they were raised greek orthodox.

And so that was the belief they came to canada for peace not war. They came for education not religion. And so my uncle goes kind of on his merry little way and slowly. But surely different family members begin to buy in to at that time preaching.

Generally, uh repent and believe gospel with a katherine coleman dream kind of hovering above the whole thing and in those days There were a lot of guys that would preach the gospel just like now. Justin peters told me one time when we first started talking he said brother I've heard your uncle preach a better gospel than some baptist ministers.

It's just all the things that come afterwards if he would just stop there.

You know.

That was very much A reality and so in whatever version of the gospel being preached the family starts one by one buying in my dad being one of the last. And when he jumps all in he serves my uncle benny he goes into ministry.

Following in my uncle's older brother footsteps and that leads him on a path down to orlando florida. That's where I was born. Even though I was raised in vancouver british columbia. He goes down to orlando and my uncle had started the church orlando christian center.

It was a mega church all sorts of things going on down there and from there. My dad plants a church in vancouver british columbia. It was called vancouver christian center and it was the same As orlando christian center.

It was just the canadian version. And so we had healing services on the last sunday night of every month. You bring the sick you line them up on your right and left he would Jet out once in a while and do healing crusades.

The teaching and preaching was very similar to what you would hear from Kenneth hagan kenneth copeland if you looked throughout history and read books or saw teaching from oral roberts. These were the heroes of the faith for the family and so I grew up in a very much word of faith prosperity gospel mixed church.

We were kind of up and coming a lot of people would come to the church. They liked the church but there were also a lot of problems we would have issues with. What we would call dead churches whether it was baptists or other denominations even some in the assemblies of god denomination.

There was the revoking of papers there was distance even from some general pentecostals from our family. All of it labeled as well. You guys are doing shady things or you've gone too far. Well the way that I grew up dealing with that was really simple.

We were attacked criticized ostracized and Separated from because we were being persecuted. Ultimately the devil had it out for our ministry and these people who went to dead churches. Or these other types of pentecostals that were really just jealous because we had better more powerful spiritual gifts than them.

We're really all seeking to undermine our ministry our power our authority. And we were just like jesus just like the apostles. We were being persecuted. I grew up in a home that was in the ballpark of 10 000 square feet.

Everything we drove was a benz and we lived the high life and enjoyed life. I viewed the church as A family no doubt. My friends were in the church. I was part of the youth group. I sang songs. I watched the donut man.

And mcgee and me and all of these other different shows that maybe some of you remember if you've heard of the adventures in odyssey. We listened to that too very much in line with things that other people would grow up with.

We sang some hymns. We sang some contemporary music we sang some stephen curtis chapman and michael w smith and whatever else was cool at that time. And I remember even growing up that there was a radio station just over the border in washington state.

It was called praise 106 .5 and they had this guy that would come on and he was called the bible answer man. His name was hank hanegraaff, which of course we all know but He would criticize my uncle. And he would criticize sometimes my dad.

And we'd listen to him and I remember my dad saying, you know, this guy is just attacking us this bible answer man Is just a a hater on all that god's doing at our church. There's another example of just a jealous leader who can't stand what we're doing and all the while I was in these early years of my life watching as my uncle grew Exponentially in fame as my dad throughout canada and traveling with my uncle and going different places around the world.

Was very well known very powerful. We were very wealthy and so I very much believed that everybody else was wrong. And we were right. We're in the center of the universe. Over the course of my teenage years my dad more and more traveled with my uncle because my uncle had left his church.

And began to travel full-time and do crusades. And it was around that time where we got heavily involved from an employment standpoint and become very close. We were always really close with family because in the middle eastern family and with the prosperity gospel ties running through it.

I've often described it as a mixture between the royal family and the mafia because you had the the wealth and the family attachment of the royal family. And even the attention the focus and the care that would happen there because we were kind of it top of the hill.

And then you had the mafia because you just never turn your back on family. You always roll with family blood is thicker than water every other one-liner you could think of. You absolutely always side with family.

So.

Throughout those teenage years. We traveled with uncle benny. He always treated me incredibly. Well, I was very close with him and most of my other uncles very tight with my cousins. Everything was incredibly Great to say it in just a simple way.

But there were certain cracks that were forming in the dam throughout those years. In the early years of my life There were kids that would say, you know Your uncle's a false teacher. My dad says that your dad is a liar and a scammer and I would just think you know These are these kids that go to dead churches.

They just need the holy spirit. As I got older things got a little more serious. There was a gal in my high school class Who was on the swim team? She was healthy. She was popular and she ended up getting a form of cancer and I remember Asking my dad if we could just go heal her like just go pray for her.

She's one of our friends like just go handle it and I remember that being met with kind of a well.

They you know, they don't really believe like us and they don't really have enough faith. And in my mind.

And even in some of my responses with family, I would think and say Well, you know, let's just go do it. Then they'll all believe it. We'll just heal her. And I really did believe that we could heal when I was at healing services even at our church and people would come up imagine it would never happen here, but just imagine in your What jp calls your sanctified imagination?

Uh, keep it sanctified but you know people lined up on my right and my left and as they come up, you know. They're walking across the platform and you pray for them and they fall and the ushers are catching and the whole thing and you're sitting There as a kid just thinking wow, like look at these people.

Everyone's crying. You're singing hallelujah or whatever song just keeps playing and you would invite friends and people would come and I remember our church would grow by like 200 people on sunday nights because all the people from other churches would come to get their healing or to get prayed for.

And all that did was serve as more evidence.

That.

To experience the power of god. They've got to come here. And to experience healing and real church and real ministry, where do they go at the end of the day here? And so I thought as even a young man that a lot of people go to these different churches because they have to or they've got friends their family there, but really.

They all want to be at our church. They all know who the best in ministry is who the most powerful is who has the real anointing and the real authority.

And.

At that particular time I didn't go against my family. I didn't think oh, you know, they couldn't heal my friend, but I call it a crack in the dam. Because it opened up just a small amount of doubt that what we say we could do.

We're not doing. I heard certain family members boast that they would verbatim they would say I have all nine gifts and if you read the new testament, there's more than nine spiritual gifts, but uh, there are about nine let's say miraculous gifts or that's what they were referring to those in particular and They would say these family members in particular that we can operate in all of these at any given time.

And so the amount of arrogance the amount of pride.

It was so deep.

And so wide that it permeated every ounce of our conversations in the way that we viewed ourself. In ministry, and so if we didn't do things there was only one particular person to blame. It was never us.

It was always the person who didn't have enough faith who didn't believe like us who wasn't obedient or submissive enough. There were multiple moments throughout my teenage years and these are stories.

I haven't told much yet because.

Um.

There was too close still and there were still some conversations I need to have but i've had all those now. Where particular people left our church and these are fascinating conversations for me to have now decades later.

And at the time whether it was our church or another family member's church, they would be threatened that death heart attacks cancer prodigal children. Their family losing their salvation losing money would befall them would come upon them if they left our apostolic covering.

And I remember years later. I was at a particular concert and I ran into one of those families and we had a really big conversation and There were things that the lord had done in their life and opened their eyes, too.

But that was the way it was. That's why I would say it was very much like the mafia and that if you leave this you're done you're dead. And divine judgment would find you. As high school was winding down. We were coming out of this era where a local newspaper came after my dad.

He hit the news nationally. There was a helicopter flying over our house at one point and I remember because we were in the basement. We had this really nice built-out basement. We had ping-pong table and foosball and like bubble hockey because I was canadian again.

And we had this big theater room. We're all in the theater room and we're basically watching the news about us and There was a helicopter flying over our home.

And.

They released a magazine article that was titled jesus the devil and henry hymn and it was about my dad. It was in a business journal and we were so proud of it.

That.

They would fly a helicopter over our house because they were jealous of how big it was.

That.

God's blessing on a man of god was seen through how much money he had and how big his house was. And the world needs to get with it and church folk are just jealous. And so someone hired a helicopter to fly over our house because they're really just jealous about all that we Had.

As I come out of my high school years, there's really only one thing I want to do at that time. And it's to play baseball. I was playing baseball throughout high school. I wanted to play in college and Eventually probably play pro or go as far as I could.

My dream was to be in the big leagues and so like any kid, I knew I had to go to college or at least figure out a way to get drafted and before Seeing my dream come true. There was something that I needed to do and this is again part of the belief system.

If I wanted god to bless me if I wanted him to do what I desired then I would need to make an offering of some sort or to Give him my first fruits and so I remember talking with family and seeking wise counsel and The wisdom was you should take a year.

And you should give it to uncle benny. You should serve him in the ministry go work for him and then go to college play baseball and it made total sense to me. As I thought if I want god to give me the desires of my heart.

And I want to play baseball and I want to be in the big leagues and I wanted this and that and the other then I need to sow a seed of faith into his ministry and Money wasn't really what I was thinking of.

I thought the greatest gift that I can give because i'm part of the family Is to lay down my dream to give my time and serve him and so before going to college I took a year off. I joined his ministry and that's when I was a catcher and was serving with him.

And.

That year in particular it was a year plus we ended up staying in some of the nicest hotels in the world. That's where i've talked about a hotel called the burj al arab in dubai. We stayed in the royal suite.

It was 25 ,000 a night u .s. And we had other suites along with it and a lot of those other suites were around a thousand dollars per night. The reason I know those numbers and remember those numbers is because I was assisting helping to check out of hotels and Checking in and I was standing with my dad in our room or his room actually because I ended up staying in the royal suite.

Because there were several bedrooms and it's a massive square footage and one of my well My brother-in-law's brother married my cousin. This is a side note, but There are two brothers michael and theo culianos that'd be Another topic for another time, but michael is head of jesus image and they're kind of a very up and coming.

They've already upped and gotten Uh, they're absorbing a lot of my uncle's partners and a lot of his ministry momentum. Jesus image is michael culianos and jessica my uncle benny's daughter and then theo married my sister.

And so greek brothers. Well, michael was on the road with us as well. So michael and I Were staying in the royal suite uncle benny had his monstrous room and we had ours. And I remember just living the dream.

It was like living in one of those weird Music videos where like there's a bunch of nice cars and bentleys and all these crazy hotels and it's just it's worldly. And it's wild and you're out there living the dream and then it's ministry and you kind of turn the switch on and off.

Where it's time to minister so you go be spiritual and then it's time to live it up. And so you just go and enjoy yourself and we flew all over the place at one point. We stayed at this hotel called villa deste and It was on lake como which is where like george clooney lives.

It's in italy beautiful place. There's a one of the james bond movies was filmed there and we're enjoying that. We're flying all over the world. We're staying in.

Uh.

The nicest hotels at one point we were staying at uh, the hotel de paris in monaco in monte carlo and I remember going to the The casino next door and gambling and like hanging out and just enjoying the life there.

I shopped at versace. I mean everything we bought was just high caliber and high class and this was the life. And during that season there were a lot of prophecies made over my life that I would be next that I would be the era.

Parent, I was the oldest costy. There's four of us and one of them one of my cousins passed away a couple years ago. But there's four costies and the way that it works in the family is you name your first born son after your father.

So my grandfather's name was cost andy or costy and full name is cost andy. And my dad had the first costy that's me and there's like significance to that. And so i'm to carry on the family name out of all the cousins and typical like my big fat greek wedding stuff.

It's like that Times 10.

And so.

Traveling with him. Working for uncle benny being around the family. Uh, I would be prophesied over and so I remember one time oral roberts laying his hands on me. And to give you a full picture. I I wasn't fully bought in.

To man, I gotta get oral roberts to lay hands on me the actual story and I I wrote this. It's in the opening chapter of the book and it's about the most ridiculous story and the most childish story. But it gives you a picture of where I was at.

I'm working for my uncle and i'm back in the green room and i'm eating cheez-its or something like that. And my dad just comes bursting in and oral roberts is about to head out. And he wants me to be prayed for so that oral roberts can give me a double portion or whatever.

I was getting really old and I just remember his big sweaty hand big hands. He's a big guy. And he laid it on my head and said something. I don't even remember but it was some sort of prophecy double portion stuff and There was another night where this guy named steve brock.

He was one of my uncle's famous singers. Made this big elaborate prophecy that i'm to take over my father's church. And then i'm gonna take the healing ministry from all the family. To heights that it had never seen and all this stuff and everyone's crying and i'm like sweet i'm gonna be rich.

I'm gonna be next. I'm gonna live in a big house. I really just want nice cars and. Okay, and I want to keep flying in private planes and all the while. The way that the ministry was framed. There were nfl players.

Big league players. There was at one point where we were flown somewhere. And a particular owner and i'll i'll spare their identity on purpose just to respect them. I don't know where they're at now in life, but They owned a major food chain and two major sports franchises.

And we flew into where they lived they came onto the plane and one of the family members had cancer and they had Particularly given a massive donation. And my uncle prayed for them. And so all the while I remember going to without walls church before.