Frederick Drummond

Seven year cycles

God taught Dr. Frederick A. Drummond and his church members in seven-year cycles that they only recognized as such after twenty-one years of living through them. Looking back it became apparent that God was laying foundational truths that he had been preaching for seven years at a time that he and the church were living out each day until the truths were fully seen and the foundation laid.

The Local Church.

The first lesson was about the role of the local church, which is the pillar and ground of the truth. God made him aware of its importance in the economy of God, and what a target it had become to satan over the years.  It was at the end of this first seven-year cycle that he faced the sorrow of a tremendous church split and began a time of self-reflection that necessitated all of them facing the demons in their basements and the angels in their attics. This was one of the greatest challenges for him in ministry for it was the first time his sincerity was attacked and he was questioned and criticized for his work of preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.

The Grace of Christ.

One of the most obvious earmarks of his ministry was his willingness to change his own opinion of a thing under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, whether it has to do with him personally, his theology, his preaching or his congregation. He has never been one to stick to what he is doing just because that is how it has always been done. As a fundamentalist preacher he was introduced to the spirit of the grace of Christ and the space to make errors in judgment as well as life choices, accessing the grace of Christ necessary to not only pick up and go again but to grow in his understanding of life and what it means to walk in the righteousness of Christ and not his own. Grace in its full meaning near to the heart of Christ is one of the identifying characteristics of his ministry. Not only did he begin to teach and preach it, but it also became who he is as a minister of the gospel. The spirit of grace was the second cycle.

The Fullness of the Spirit.

One of the greatest manifestations of that kind of willingness to change was manifested during a series of visits he made to Dallas, Texas and a ministry there that was growing in great ways under the preaching of the gospel. What he experienced in those meetings caused him to fall on his face before God and seek the answers to the questions that arose in him over what he saw happening. Again, in his fundamentalist understanding of the Scriptures, the fullness of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts were not things that were active ingredients in church life. But he could not ignore or justify away what he saw happening in that church. It was full of power to preach the gospel in a way that was affecting souls for salvation, healing and release from lifetime bondages. It was what he knew in his heart of hearts the gospel was really all about. He stood before his 'strict' congregation and cried out that something was missing in their ministry and that they were going to seek God for what it was until they received His answer. The passion to know the truth no matter the cost or the changes necessary to receive it has always been the heart of his ministry. Well, God heard those heartfelt prayers by this man of God willing to change what years of fundamentalist theology had laid as foundational to his Biblical understanding, and the entire congregation began to be filled with the Holy Spirit and the manifestations of that experience one by one. It was one of the most thrilling and scary times in their lives, but they will truly never be the same again because of it. The rich reward of God's fullness in their spiritual lives was and is now evident in the lives of his church members. Moving from serving God enthusiastically in their righteous flesh to moving under the unction of the Holy Spirit was the third cycle. This changed his understanding of pneumatology forever.

Spiritual Warfare.

The next cycle of seven years began twenty-one years into his ministry. Once again it had a traumatic send-off. After twenty-one years there were difficulties in the lives of his people that remained unresolved no matter how much ministry they received. Though they were willing and he was able to show them plainly from God's Word what to do, the results didn't last. During a visit from a ministerial friend from overseas on one of the most difficult days of his life, he looked at Dr. Frederick Drummond and said, "You have an incredible spirit of fear all over you. Would you like to be delivered of it?" He was shocked by these strange words and replied that he never thought that he had one, and that he wasn't sure he had any faith for someone to be able to pray over him about it and see him delivered. Nevertheless he submitted to his newfound friend's enthusiasm over it and allowed him to pray over him. It wasn't much of a prayer, nor did he feel anything happen when he did, however the minister was satisfied that it had been accomplished. About two weeks later Dr. Frederick A. Drummond realized that fear was gone and his life had noticeably changed. This birthed a whole new ministry. God began to show him that there must be truth to the fact that those problems which God's people can't shake, involve demonic reinforcement that must be addressed. Over the next seven years the deliverance ministry was developed.  He was a willing front-line guinea pig as he dealt with his own personal issues and then the rest of the congregation became willingly involved as they solved insurmountable problems through anointed delivering prayers and the Word of God. The truth of demonic warfare and the power of the Name of Jesus to deliver His own from their influence became the fourth cycle of foundational truth that God was laying.

Agapé Love.

The final seven-year cycle began in the twenty-eighth year. It was a fresh revelation on the love of God and the importance of living by it. Learning to walk in the love of Christ, which passes all knowledge, on purpose, is what God is teaching him and them now. To live by the love defined in 1 Corinthians 13 is to love like God. Truly this has been the most difficult and trying lesson of all. During this cycle God has taken him and the church through great transitions to set them up for their true calling. This is a lesson in progress. He is convinced that it is the hardest of them all because God's love is about how we treat one another regardless of how we may feel about them. Walking in love as Christ loved us is the greatest earmark of Bible-based Christianity.