THE
Part
1: KNOWING AND OBEYING GOD
Ref:
A Fresh Breeze is Blowing (Adapted from New Wine Skins)
By Nate Krupp, Preparing The
Way,
Publishers,
I
believe God is saying, "For 1,700 years you have done it your way. Now
you
are going to do it My way." This new move
of God
is characterized by the following:
1.
From
serving God to
knowing God.
An
intimate relationship “yada
– yada – yada”
Genesis
4:1 And
Adam knew (yada) Eve his wife; and she
conceived, and
bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.
2.
From a Gospel of "easy-believism"
to the Gospel of the Kingdom.
From “making a
decision” from “accepting
Jesus as Lord” to preaching "the Gospel of the Kingdom"
Galatians
2:20 "I
have
been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life
which I
now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me,
and
delivered Himself up for me.
3.
From
the efforts of man to the works of God.
We must learn to
"do God's work in
God's way." The days of putting out a sign, starting some programs, and
conducting services to do God's work are over!
4.
From insecure, wounded
people to people made
whole by Jesus Christ.
The word
"salvation" means
soundness, deliverance, wholeness. Jesus wants to
heal us and
set us free - body, soul, and spirit - to live a life of total victory.
5.
From being told by man what
to do to learning to
hear God's voice and doing what He tells you to do.
For too long we have gotten our
revelation
and guidance from others
THE
Part
2: FROM SPECTATORS TO
PARTICIPANTS
6.
From
clergy-dominated
services and programs to mutually-participating communities of
believers.
We are used to attending "a
church" and participating in "a service" led by "the
minister, clergy, or pastor." We need
to gather in each other’s homes to
experience "koinonia," to share their lives
with each other.(Acts
Train – Equip – Release THE SAINTS!!!
7.
From
one-man leadership to team, servant leadership.
The
early Christians worked in teams: Jesus sent the twelve and seventy out
in
pairs; Paul always had associates (Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Titus,
Priscilla
and Aquila, etc.) working with him; (Acts
14:23,
20:17-32, 1Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, 1 Peter 5:1-5).
Today
God is loudly calling His Church back to the simple patterns of the
Early
Church where those in leadership walk in humility (1 Peter 5:5-6), work
in
teams, are submitted to one another (Ephesians 5:21), are servants
(Matthew
20:25-28), and are coaches, releasing all others into ministry
(Ephesians
4:11-12).
8.
From being
"meeting" oriented to being "relationship" oriented.
God
doesn't care how many meetings we attend - or don't attend!
He
is concerned about relationships.
Let's
put a priority on one-to-one and small group time together.
Let's
restructure our church services to be times of building relationships
with God
and with one another.
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one
another,
so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can
accomplish much.” James 5:16
9.
From
gathering in church buildings to gathering in homes.
Jesus
never erected any buildings and He never said anything to His disciples
about
erecting buildings.
The
Early Christians gathered in their homes (Acts 2:46, 5:42,11:12-14,
12:12, 16:
40, Romans 16:5,16:2; 1 Corinthians 16:19,Colossians 4:14, Philemon 2)..
10.
From
looking inward to looking outward.
It
is easy for all of us to become involved in our own lives and forget
others.
(Matthew 25:31-46).
The
Bible further exhorts us to not look out
just for our own interests, but also for the interests of others
(Philippians
2:4)..
Take
the offensive, begin to function as an army, and go out to evangelize
the
world, trample on the devil, and take this world back from him and
deliver it
to Jesus. God is looking for soldiers!
God
is calling His Church
afresh to be deeply involved in:
a. evangelism
- taking the Gospel to every person in your nation
b. missions - seeing the Gospel taken
to the yet 12,000 unreached people groups.
c.
social justice
- seeing the oppressed of earth - the refugees, the homeless, the poor,
the
disadvantaged, the minorities, the oppressed, the disfranchised - have
a chance
to live productive, wholesome lives.
d.
all of society under
Lordship of Christ
- seeing every segment of society - the home, the schools, government,
banking,
business and industry, the media, the arts, sports, etc. - called to
return to
a Biblical foundation and brought under the rulership
of the living Lord Jesus Christ.
11.
From
big, expensive programs of evangelism to the simple,
Spirit-led witness of "the little people"
God
is emphasizing that the world will be evangelized by the simple,
Spirit-led
witness of every day people who love Jesus with all of their hearts -
sharing
Him by life and word everywhere they go.
12.
From
the subjugation of women to a release of women as equal
partners in the
Based
upon a look at all of Scripture, women are increasingly being released
to be
fully and freely led by God's Spirit to manage their home (Titus 2:5),
to be
fully involved in the life and ministry of the Church (Acts 2:17-18
13.
From
financial "sloppiness" and cover-up to
financial integrity, accountability, and disclosure.
The
Body of Christ and the world recently have
seen a
major example of financial mismanagement, cover-up, and fraud
14.
From
denominations to "the church of a city".
There
exists today over 20,000 denominations and
many more
Christian organizations.
In
the New Testament we find that all of the believers in a given city
were
identified as "the church in (that city)," i.e., "the church in
15.
From
being related to one another organizationally to being
related to one another in the
. God is bonding
people of various
backgrounds and affiliations together for His own purposes. We need to
be open
to these divine connections, allow these relationships to develop as
the Spirit
leads, and be used by God as He would choose.
