THESE MESSAGES HAVE BEEN CENTERED IN ACTS 6-7
All this week I have been concentrating on the things within the Church that have developed men like those chosen to serve within the first church. It is my prayer that can look back on these traits and these thoughts to try to develop some of the deeper desires to serve God in very special ways. It is in a way an attempt to stir people once again into action in the way that Stephen did in hopes that someone will catch fire for God.
For many years we have stirred ashes which have been dead and cold for generations through creeds and doctrines that have long been understood to separate men from one another, and promote a brand of Christ rather than the truth from Christ. For some few there is still a passion that rises to the surface when someone speaks about mission fields, but it soon dies because their exposure to it is limited, and their desire for self continues to be fed by the society around them.
As a voice chosen by God's Spirit it is my job to continue to share the desire for you to consider your personal calling. It may not be to a mission field abroad, but most certainly it is to some kind of mission work right here at home. The things that we read about the people of the first church are continuing stories that we should be writing even now through our own lives. The encouragement should be for us to go to those places that no religious creed would dare to go because it does not want to be stained by the possibility of sin. We need to get our hand dirty with people who need to be loved and shown the truth about love and a relationship with God. There are many of us in Christ that still know people who live the kind of life that simply frightens us to death...most of us are fearful because we don't want to get caught up in that life again...but who are we being called to heal? Who in this life needs the love and mercy that we have received?
The correct answer to those questions is that we are being called to heal the sick, and to raise the dead, but it is not on a physical basis; but on a spiritual basis. We have been caught up in the idea that this physical world is all that really counts...but if we only stop to think we know that is not the truth. Our Kingdom is not of this world any more so than Christ's Kingdom is of this world; therefore the miracles performed must first of all be toward our spiritual lives and not the physical. In Christ's ministry He did physical heeling's and miracles as a proof that He had been sent by God the Father, and yet in most of this world the enemy has been able to produce deceit so powerful that it would fool the most elite in Christ. These things draw crowds only in the places where they cannot be denied as being from God. The church which has been established by Christ in today's world must concentrate upon that which bears the greatest change, and the most fruit; which is of the Spirit of God. We are rapidly coming back to the days that parallel the times of Christ within the church. We may find those who are in places of religious power being the most eager to stamp out the truth in order to maintain their own followings.
I urge you to awaken Bride of Christ to what is going on around you...may you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
For many years we have stirred ashes which have been dead and cold for generations through creeds and doctrines that have long been understood to separate men from one another, and promote a brand of Christ rather than the truth from Christ. For some few there is still a passion that rises to the surface when someone speaks about mission fields, but it soon dies because their exposure to it is limited, and their desire for self continues to be fed by the society around them.
As a voice chosen by God's Spirit it is my job to continue to share the desire for you to consider your personal calling. It may not be to a mission field abroad, but most certainly it is to some kind of mission work right here at home. The things that we read about the people of the first church are continuing stories that we should be writing even now through our own lives. The encouragement should be for us to go to those places that no religious creed would dare to go because it does not want to be stained by the possibility of sin. We need to get our hand dirty with people who need to be loved and shown the truth about love and a relationship with God. There are many of us in Christ that still know people who live the kind of life that simply frightens us to death...most of us are fearful because we don't want to get caught up in that life again...but who are we being called to heal? Who in this life needs the love and mercy that we have received?
The correct answer to those questions is that we are being called to heal the sick, and to raise the dead, but it is not on a physical basis; but on a spiritual basis. We have been caught up in the idea that this physical world is all that really counts...but if we only stop to think we know that is not the truth. Our Kingdom is not of this world any more so than Christ's Kingdom is of this world; therefore the miracles performed must first of all be toward our spiritual lives and not the physical. In Christ's ministry He did physical heeling's and miracles as a proof that He had been sent by God the Father, and yet in most of this world the enemy has been able to produce deceit so powerful that it would fool the most elite in Christ. These things draw crowds only in the places where they cannot be denied as being from God. The church which has been established by Christ in today's world must concentrate upon that which bears the greatest change, and the most fruit; which is of the Spirit of God. We are rapidly coming back to the days that parallel the times of Christ within the church. We may find those who are in places of religious power being the most eager to stamp out the truth in order to maintain their own followings.
I urge you to awaken Bride of Christ to what is going on around you...may you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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