Here's How the Glorious Church Builds God's Kingdom on Earth
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| Equipment World |
Evangelism
Share your Kingdom faith with as many. Ask God's guidance about it, particularly who you'd share it with. Sometimes, God wants specific targets. Only the King knows who is fit for the Kingdom so you have to follow his lead about who to share the Gospel with and who to disciple. Many are invited but few are chosen. The prophet Samuel was sure it was Eliab who would be king but the Lord said Eliab seemed kingdomly only in appearance but not in essence.
We should share the Gospel with everyone, but at times the Lord would zero in on an individual and use you for the purpose. So you have to know when it happens. Ananias was given specific instructions by the Lord where to find Saul and what to do with him.
The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” [Acts 9]Indeed, there are times when the Lord will lead a Kingdom person to share the Gospel with specific people only. Giving them even the specific address. It happens if you are a Kingdom person. And it is not for us to judge who they are because they are identified only by their hearts---their inner man---not their appearance or status in life. And only the Lord can do that. So we should be sensitive to the leading of the Lord.
Here's how to be accurately attuned with God's Spirit. Click here.
There were many fishermen in Gethsemane and yet the Lord personally invited only Peter, James and John and several others to specifically "follow me." The rest merely followed him without personal invitation from Jesus. There were many other people in the crowd when Jesus entered Jericho but he chose Zacchaeus in particular to dine in his home and share the Gospel with him.
The Lord also issued specific instructions to Peter when he shared the Gospel to Cornelius and his family in Acts. Yet sure enough, Jesus shared the Good News of the Kingdom to all and the apostles and Acts church shared the Gospel to everyone.
Discipleship
Then, as you share the Gospel, God will lead some of them to your discipleship. They will pursue your leadership, as the apostles and disciples pursued Jesus' Lordship. God decides who pursues you, how many and when, not you. You simply pray and wait. You cannot have what God has not allowed you.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, [John 6.44]Jesus never ran after people and pestered them to become his church members. Instead, the Father brought people to him. and these folks pursued hard after him.
The Spirit will bear witness with the spirits of people you shared the Gospel with and tell them that you should disciple them. God will talk to them and lead them to you. This process is important and we can do nothing to hasten it. Just wait for God.
It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. [John 6.45]But if you are in the numbers game and you want to produce a lot of members in the shortest time possible, you'd skip this part and just start grabbing people anywhere. You'd have a big church, for sure, but soon all hell would break loose and you have a chaotic church out of God's will in no time.
But if you follow Kingdom protocol, those God assigns to you will simply come to you at the right time because God selected them to be your disciples. It may sometimes take time, but you have to exercise patience. Though God has a timetable, he is never in a hurry. Get God's timing. Just walk with him. Those God has not chosen will be led to other ministries, and that's okay.
God may decide to give you a few or a lot. It's not for you to decide how many. Just share the Word, period. That's exactly how Jesus did it. It does not matter how many members you have or how big or small your church is. What matters is your faithfulness to God's Word as you handle what is given you, whether small or big. Promotion comes from the Lord [Psalm 75.6-7].
In his lifetime, Jesus handled only 120 disciples, the 12 included. Those that didn't belong to him left him. One day, after praying all night, Jesus chose 12 of them to be leaders. It was something personal, choosing only those "he wanted" [Mark 3.13]. You cannot put up a bible school or seminary and then invite everyone to enroll. Then all who enroll and graduate become your "pastors." It's not like that. It's not the way of the Kingdom. You have to choose those you want. Only Jesus' way works in the Kingdom.
Leadership
You have to pray and ask God to guide you when choosing your leaders and then choose those you want. And then train them personally. Jesus trained his apostles himself. They did not enroll in a special apostolic course in some seminary and then paid the professors who taught them. They didn't pay any tuition fee. Jesus did it in a simple personal discipleship. And to think that apostles were crucial because they'd be the foremost leaders and spiritual fathers of the church. Jesus trained them simply through a discipleship.
Therefore, discipleship is crucial in producing authentic and anointed church leaders. It's not just another church program. Discipleship is where apostles and prophets of the church should emerge, aside from evangelists, pastors and teachers. And it should be a Jesus-style discipleship. They all must work with you in ministry. They are trained by doing.
Ministry
What did they do? They preached the Word and did miracles. Nothing more, nothing less. Jesus taught them hands-on. The anointing on him was imparted to them while they were with him. In your discipleship, your disciples should be imparted a portion or measure of your anointing in preaching and signs and wonders.
However, you don't see this Kingdom process anymore today. What they do is teach human theology in seminaries. That's all. All talk, no power.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. [1 Corinthians 4.20]What's the danger in doing ministry if the supernatural power of God is not manifested and it's all just talk? This was what Paul said:
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. [1 Corinthians 2.5]
Moreover, Paul said all talk and no power of God empties the cross of its power:
...to preach the gospel---not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. [1 Corinthians 1.17]
No wonder Jesus always accompanied his preaching with signs and wonders and miracles. The absence of powerful and supernatural works of God nullifies the cross. Sadly, signs, wonders and miracles are all gone in church today. Instead of pursuing them, church leaders are preoccupied about school credentials to get their titles and degrees. To them these give them power to get the highest positions in church and the highest salary. But no power whatsoever in the spirit realms. No wonder churches are powerless and empty, though looking "alive" with activities.
The Family Grew
Now, when the Holy Spirit took Jesus' place on earth, the church fathers (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) did what Jesus started. They duplicated it through the power of the Spirit. They learned from Jesus how to grow God's family. They shared the Gospel wherever they went and God gave them people to disciple.
The church is God's family. It's not an organization with superintendents, directors, presidents, chairmen, church boards and government permits. The passage below shows how Jesus saw the church as family, not an organization:
Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said,“Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” [Mark 3. 34-35]
Those in discipleship are the ones doing God's will and they are one family in Christ, with mothers, brothers, sisters, and church fathers. Church is God's family. Jesus' discipleship grew the church and the church just kept doing Jesus' discipleship.
But somewhere along the way, some men and impostors in church changed the process and introduced new things that produced more church members much quicker. They turned God's family into a church organization. It's also when they divided the church into separate denominations with its own doctrines.
If you are really serious about following Christ and being part of Kingdom building through his glorious church (not just playing church and beating other churches in the numbers game), you should go back to the bible and see how Jesus did ministry---and do the same, paying special attention to the Kingdom principles and protocols involved.
The way Jesus did ministry is the only way God's Kingdom on earth can be built.
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For more radically life-changing insights, get our e-books!
GOD's Flesh: "And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" [Job 19.26-17]. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK!