Frederick A. Drummond, Sr.

Five Experiences with God

Five significant experiences with God have shaped Frederick A. Drummond, Sr, and helped develop his mission.

Conversion.

In 1965 his best friend, Robert, convinced him to join his family in attending the Sunday night service in his small Baptist church. Althoug there was not a religious bone in his body, he gave in to make his friend happy. Was he in for a surprise! At last he was in a church service where it seemed like every body there, including the senior minister, believed what he was saying. The message preached that night was new to him. He found out that God wanted to save him and restore him to a personal relationship through grace. What a shock! To know that God wanted to save him and forgive him of all of his sins, and have an intimate relatioship with him for the rest of his life was a game changer. That night after hearing the gospel for the ffirst time, he received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and was saved. Everything changed for that young man forever.

Spiritual Empowerment.

A year later, at the age of 19, he came face to face with his destiny, to preach about the love of God for the rest of his life. He was asked to read the Scriptures during a special Saturday evening service at a rather large neighboring Presbyterian church. Everything was arranged, and that evening he sat in the packed church with the minister's son on one side of the auditorium, while the white-haired senior minister of the church and his ministerial friends sat on the other side. When the time finally came for him to be introduced to read the Scripture, the white-haired old preacher stood up behind his pulpit, and to Frederick Drummond's surprise announced that he was handing the service over to that young man.

To get the full impact of this announcement on that 19-year old boy who had never stood up in front of a congregation in his life, you need to understand him a little better. He wasn't a public speaker. In fact, he was a very fearful person whose mouth dried up and whose knees literally knocked together whenever he was asked to speak publicly in class. On top of that, put him in a strange church with two older ministers and their expectant congregation and you might begin to understand his dilemma. He jumped to his feet with his Bible in his hand and made his way to the pulpit at the front of the church, all the way mumbling under his breath to God, "What am I going to do? I am not a preacher and now I have to preach to the biggest congregation I have ever seen in my life!" Then he quickly said to God, "I will do it by faith. Please help me, God, and I will give you all the glory."

The moment he stood behind that pulpit, turned to his Scripture reading, and opened his mouth to speak, he became another man. He was supernaturally empowered from on high - filled with the Holy Ghost in a very respectable way in that very proper, Presbyterian church. At the end of the service the old white-haired minister took him by the hand and exclaimed to that 19-year-old boy, "I have never heard such preaching. I have never seen such power." When he got home later that night and was finally alone, he thanked God for his new-found anointing and promised to never again question the power of it to effectively deliver God's Word whenever and wherever He so desired.

Commitment to Pursuing God's Answers to Life's Questions.

His third major, spiritual experience with God took place about a year later in 1967. It was born out of a burden that God put in his heart to find real answers to hurting people's problems, especially his own. He was saved and knew it, but he was encumbered by fleshly bondges that he did not now how to resolve. He became very frustrated with the shallow solutions to life's problems in most churches. He knew that the God Who saved him had all the answers he needed.

One afternoon while his friend was watering the cannas in the back yard, he couldn't contain his quest for knowing more any longer, and so he found the nearest private place he could, the garden shed. He went in, quietly shut the door, and fell on his face and cried out to God for the wisdom he needed. At the same time he made a committment to build on any lesson at the hand of God, and forget nothing.

That experience took place more than 40 years ago, and regardless of what he has faced, good, bad or ugly, he has always gone to God for answers, found them and added them to his faith list. This rare ability has set him apart from most people, because holding himself accountable put him on the fast track to knowing God and passing on his faith wisely. Because of it, today he brims with spiritual understanding and holy wisdom to the glory of Christ and His grace. Through it all he has maintained a sweet, Christ-like loving spirit, that is eveident to everyone who meets him.

The Important Role of Churches.

From the day he was saved the value of good churches became apparent to him. Long before he know the Scriptures well enough to confirm this, God birthed a love in him for the house of God. This came to a climax a few years later on the West Coast in California. He couldn't avoid facing the problem that some had with the important role of local churches in the believer's life. They beleived strongly in the superiority of the so-called invisible church and downplayed local churches to the point of not making them essential to the Christian experience at all. This troubled Frederick Drummond very much, and once again he sought God for answers.

One sunny Saturday morning while walking along the beachfront, enjoying fellowship with God and thinking about his dilemma, he unwittingly kicked up what turned out to be a small pamphlet written by A. W. Pink on the fallacy of the invisible church. It contained Pink's rebuttal of the universal, invisible church theory that had made its way into mainstream Christianity. He wasn't sure what to think and was tempted to hide it so that no one would know that he was reading such a thing. Nonetheless, what Pink said in that little pamphlet made more sense to him than all the opinions he had heard up to that point. Although it didnt contain all the answers to the questions that were plaging him, he recognized the hand of God in what was written there and hid it in his heart, and continued to pursue answers, knowing that God would continue to lead him in his studies.

Many years have gone by since then and his faith in the local church has been reinforced over and over again by scholars, personal study, and endless research. Church life is basic to Christianity in the new Testiment. By the way, he still has that tract pasted on the inside cover of his Bible.

A Vision and an Anointing for Ministry.

That last of the significant experiences that have taken place in his life is very personal to him. Because of this he doesn't share it very often. It was too private, between him and God.

One afternoon, during a time of intense prayer, Frederick Drummond, Sr. heard in his spirit man, "Come aside to the far end of the room by the door, because I want to speak to you."  He obeyed and lay prostrate on the ground with his hands at his sides and his eyes shut, waiting on God.

Something happened that he had never experienced before.  Suddenly he was in the spirit; he could see himself prostrate before someone clad in sandals Whom he could only see from the knees down. He knew Who it was and what was going on.  The voice said, "My son, I want to anoint you to take the Word of faith and put it back into the churches. Put your hands on My feet and I will do so." In the vision he saw himself do so, and in that small passage way on his face before God, he extended his hands out to match what he saw in the vision.

God also clearly said, "I anoint your hands to heal, deliver, to bless and to prosper.The power will only flow through you as you obey what I tell you to do with your hands."

Of course, like most Christians, Frederick Drummond, Sr. has enjoyed numerous, wonderful experiences with God over the last fifty plus years. Nevertheless, these five have helped shape and direct him and his new creation message of hope through grace alone, above all others.