I would like to share some highlights of my testimony for those that may not know anything about me. It all began while I listened to missionaries give their testimonies at Full Gospel Business Men's Breakfasts in Johannesburg, South Africa, the place of my birth. I remember how exciting it was as they shared their exploits from the missionary field. As a young boy, my heart was moved and I too wanted to go to the mission field and experience God’s wonderful hand at work there. The Lord convicted my heart during this time and I received Him into my life as Lord and Saviour on August 30, 1980, at 12 years of age. And so my journey with the Lord and His Holy Spirit began...

 As I began to encounter the Person of the Holy Spirit, He began a work in my life that brought much change to my life and kindled that hunger for God in my heart. Soon after being born again, I was attending a prayer meeting at a Full Gospel Church in Kempton Park, South Africa. I remember as we all stood at the front of the church praying in one accord, that suddenly I was knocked to the floor. Surprised, I quickly stood up only to find myself on the floor again. After this happened six or seven times, one of the deacons came over to me and helped me to sit down on one of the pews. That night the Lord had filled me with the Holy Spirit and this began a new depth in my walk with Him and a hunger to know Him even more. 

 This desperation for more of God and His Presence drove me to spend many hours in prayer and in the study of God’s Word. It was during these early years that God deposited into me that which would prepare the way for my future. During this same time period of my life, I had an encounter with God during a series of meetings of Benny Hinn at a church where I lived. It was a life-changing experience with the Holy Spirit. After preaching that night, Benny Hinn told the congregation of five thousand to stand up. He prayed and said, “Touch!”  The Holy Spirit knocked us all back into our seats shaking under the power of God!

 Needless to say, I was compelled to respond to one of the altar calls he gave, and as I stood at the front I remember how difficult it was to stand up, because of the Presence of God. An overwhelming, supernatural joy and peace filled me that was so exhilarating that I felt I could explode! I felt a sense of destiny on my life—God would have me preach His Gospel! This calling was soon confirmed by various dreams that I had and prophetic words from church leadership. However, it was my personal experience with the Holy Spirit that most impacted my life. 

 I was fourteen years old when a youth leader invited me to come and speak at his youth group service. With much excitement and anticipation, I prepared for this opportunity in prayer and in God’s Word. As I prayed to God, “Lord, give me a taste of what it will be like in the future.” Little did I know that what God would do for me that night would be a very significant signpost; one that I would hold onto for many years to come, with hope and destiny attached to it.

 As I stood that night and preached, the Holy Spirit fell upon those young people in such a way that I knew God had answered my prayer. Many of the youth were suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit and stumbled around as if they were drunk. Some even ended up on the floor, laughing and crying. As I simply touched or waved my hand, they would fall out. I felt the Presence of God on me like a heavy blanket. At that point in the meeting, I heard the Lord say, “When you see this happening again in your life you will know that your time of release has come.” 

 The sense of destiny once again arose in my heart as the Holy Spirit stirred me. And yet still another season of twelve years of testing and hardship followed before the Lord released this anointing that He promised in my ministry.

 When I was fifteen years old, I was privileged to attend a Reinard Bonkke tent crusade in South Africa. I saw miracles, signs and wonders. Many people received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. The witch doctors came forward and threw their instruments of witchcraft at the altar and denounced the devil. It was amazing, life changing, and very challenging all at the same time! As we sat down on the wooden plank seats, they called from the stage for a time of prayer. What was to follow is still imprinted on my mind as if it had just happened yesterday...

As I was praying, I opened my eyes to quickly glance at the stage where the pulpit was located. As I looked, I saw an open vision of the Lord seated on His throne! It covered the entire front area of the stage and tent. God spoke to me of the Lord of the Harvest, the Lord Jesus, and asked of me if I would be willing to follow Him into those harvest fields!

 A few nights later I dreamt about a three-day open-air-crusade in which I was the one preaching! The dream was detailed and very vivid—God was beginning to make it very clear what I was called to do. I was only fifteen years old yet it burned in my heart. God truly is the Lord of our present and our future!

Moving forward about ten years, in May of 1993, with prophetic confirmation, the Lord told my wife and I to move to the United States of America, and that He would open the nations to us in order to fulfil the vision – to take His Gospel to the nations. It was during this period of time that the Lord imparted that which would take me into the fulfilment of what He had designed for the ministry He’d called me to. 

With family and friends, we travelled nine hours by car in order to attend a week of revival meetings in Louisiana, New Orleans. Arriving late for the first service, we entered the building and found five thousand people in attendance. During one of the services, the Holy Spirit began to touch people through out the building. Many were drunk on the Holy Spirit and hundreds were on the floor shaking under the power of God, like I had seen in the youth meeting in that garage years ago. 

Hungry for an impartation of this same anointing, and desperate for more of God, I raised my hands, crying out to the Lord to touch and change my life. In that same moment, I felt a gentle wind blow across my face.  When this happened it was as if my spirit leapt within me. I thought to myself, ‘Could this be the wind of the Holy Spirit?’ I looked around to discover that there were neither open windows nor fans blowing on me. I raised my hands again and said, ‘If this is you, Lord, don’t pass me by!’ The gentle wind blew across my face once more, and this time electricity went through my entire body. I fell to the ground laughing and crying at the same time and was completely undone, lying on the floor for over two hours. 

When the end of the meeting came, the ushers had to carry me out to the car. My wife managed to help me to the room and into bed at our hotel room. Needless to say, it turned out to be a life changing experience. It marked the beginning of the release from God that He had promised years before. There was an impartation of the anointing of God, which was present in an increased way for ministry. 

Two months later, I received my first invitation to preach internationally. Since the year this happened in 1994, we have seen God move wonderfully, touching hungry hearts with His love and His healing, delivering and saving power. The nations are desperate for a God who is personal and yet powerfully supernatural.

The one thing I will say out of all my experience throughout the years in my walk with the Lord is this: God is after our hearts. He wants all of us – body, soul and spirit. He wants to be the centre of our lives – even as the universe revolves around the Throne of God, so must our hearts and our lives. He is our all in all. He is Holy. And we will become like Him if we surrender all to Him. He will take our lives and make them beautiful, if we will allow Him to work in our hearts. Stay teachable; never think you have arrived, for God resists the proud. He will give you grace, His ability and power working in you, to accomplish His works prepared for you, if you remain humble, broken and contrite of heart... 

God bless you,

Vincent W.Skinner