When we started getting to know Jack we discovered something quite quickly. That he was a very scary person to be around. The reason he was scary was because he was fearless in what he believed. He wasn’t at all arrogant in it but he was bold and fearless in his belief without needing anyone else to agree with him. Paul the apostle said, “If any of you think differently, the Holy Spirit will make that clear to you.” (Philippians 3:15); Jack had the same attitude. He didn’t feel the need to push his point nor was he interested in having a discussion about it. He was always interested in people experiencing it and seeing it for themselves. For Jack, the focus was never about himself. Jack Winter didn’t have a false humility; God was such a reality for him. Jack was so ‘out of the way’ in his life; his life was really all about serving the Trinity. Because he was convinced and fully persuaded about what God had spoken to him, Jack would take enormous risks in faith. For Jack, they weren’t risks; he just believed it was what the Holy Spirit was saying. He didn’t even think about the risks because he had such a strength of conviction. Jack had a way of walking physically that seemed to depict his spiritual life. He walked with his head slightly bent but he would walk along with real purpose. This was what he was like spiritually, too. He just kept walking straight, without wavering or veering off course. He would never deviate to the left or the right. Whatever he felt the Holy Spirit showing him he would believe it and would go with it. Dorothy was just as significant in our lives as Jack was. Dorothy Winter still is an amazing and fearless woman. In 1955 Jack and Dorothy were beginning to move out into what God had called them into, to minister primarily in the areas of inner healing and deliverance. This really went against the grain of the denomination they were part of. When Jack was moving in speaking in tongues and in deliverance, it was at a time when this was not at all familiar within the denomination that he and Dorothy were a part of. Back then, Dorothy would try and get him to hold back, and she would urge him not to offend people. Dorothy would say, “Jack, you are so close to the edge, I am afraid you are going to fall off.” That was her stance for a number of years until one day she said to Jack, “You are so close to the edge that I am afraid you are going to fall off. But if you do, I’m coming with you.” That was Dorothy’s attitude from that day on, as long as Jack was alive, and she is still honouring Jack in everything he accomplished on this earth. Jack and Dorothy Winter left Bethany Bible Institute in 1963. Bethany Bible Institute was a charismatic, Lutheran organisation which sent out and supported hundreds of missionaries. Jack had gone to the Bible Institute and then became part of the staff, managing the printshop and lecturing in the Bible School. In 1963, Jack and Dorothy felt the Lord speaking to them to move out and leave the staff of Bethany Bible Institute where they were living with their three children. They had begun to move in a ministry of deliverance and the institute was not so comfortable with that, so Jack and Dorothy felt that they could not push their deliverance ministry too much. They took their belongings, a fridge, a bed and a dresser, and with their three children, went to stay at a campsite where they had been holding meetings. They began to live by faith, trusting God completely to provide for their needs as a family.
september, 2023
