Smallest Seed

This is NOT a time for usual things. Much less for church traditions. If in CIY Fellowship we've been doing things so unusual, it's time to leave these "elementary teachings" and go on to the next level of maturity. As there's a new normal in the world, so there is in the heavenlies. Actually, the new normal in the spirit realms has started long before the one in the world came to be. [Picture by TedwardQuinn, Unsplash]. Just as the Jesus' spiritual church started long before man's church in this world started. Least is the Greatest In these last days, God is introducing some brand new things to the Philadelphia church [Revelation 3]. This church is weak (it has "little strength") and probably belittled and despised. The least church by all earthly measures and standards. But in God's eyes it is a 5-star general in his army, being in possession of an "open door" from the Lord that no one can shut. To this church Jesus ha...

In a way, Resurrection's good news is also about the grace that enables us to stop drinking from the cup of God's wrath, and having the enemy drink from it instead. By Jesus' rising from death through God's supernatural power, true believers become children of God spared from his wrath and given supernatural power to live his life on earth and do his ministry. [Picture above by Damir Spanic, Unsplash]. “See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again. 23 I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, ‘Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.’ And you made your back like the ground, like a street to be walked on.” [Isaiah 51.22-23] But it doesn't end there. To a lot of church people, though, it does--escaping the wrath is the end--and all they have to do now is be active in  their church and in their ministries happily ever after. This is what they call church...

Here's Gospel of the Kingdom 5 USC Dornsife There's no other discipleship except Jesus's discipleship. So examine carefully everything he did with his disciples and make that your discipleship model, nothing more, nothing less. It's not a church program---it's a life. It's also the Kingdom vehicle to seriously and powerfully train for ministry and missions. Well, many today claim their discipleship is not a program. But when you look at it, IT IS. Nothing but man's religious program. Yup, Jesus used mainly his discipleship model to train apostles and prophets. His plan was to leave his ministry to 12 apostles (plus the 72 others), some of whom were also prophets (like John and Peter), and to train them for this, he used discipleship---not bible schools or seminaries. You have to grasp this truth or else you totally lose it. The secrets of the Kingdom is given only to some---to those who get Jesus' truths, not man's religious theories. To...

Here's Gospel of the Kingdom 4 GlassDoor Matthew chapter 4 clearly shows it. Jesus did just three things in ministry--- preached the Gospel , made disciples and healed the sick . Period. Nothing more, nothing less. And that's what he did to the end, before dying on the cross for our sins. Then in John 14.12 we find him saying, "Anyone who has faith in me will do the same works I've been doing." If you want to do the genuine ministry, you have to do as Jesus did. And he focused on just three. Anything beyond them is trash. Dead works or works of the flesh. Good to look at, even effective, but trash nonetheless. It can draw lots of people to your church, even produce conversions and mega membership, but it will just create an image of liveliness. Like a mega Sardis church: " ...you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead." Here's a Sardis church---sleepy, dead and whatever it has left is about to die, incomplete. And ye...

Here's Gospel of the Kingdom 3 DepositPhotos Repent for the Kingdom is Near The pressing message of the Gospel of the Kingdom is REPENT! It was then and it will be in these last days. John the baptist preached it (Matt.3.2) as did Jesus (Matt.417). It's the urgency, the top agenda, in the Book of Revelation as angels warn churches in the last days. To the Ephesus church, God says repent and do the things you did at first (2.5). To the Pergamum church, he says repent and do away with the Nicolaitan's and Balaam's teachings (2.14-16). To the church in Thyatira, he says repent or suffer with Jezebel (2.22). To the Sardis church he says repent from dead works (3.3). Finally, to the Laodicean church he says be earnest and repent of lukewarmness (3.19). All on repentance. Only Smyrna and Philadelphia are spared. Thus, it's easy to see if you're actually building God's Kingdom on earth or just building your own empire. If you're not preachi...

Here's Gospel of the Kingdom 2 Lynda.Com How to Grow Your Ministry This is the perennial problem of pastors---how to grow their ministry. They seek high and low, far and wide for this. They worry about it endlessly, not understanding that growth belongs to God alone. He decides this, not us. Our job is to share the Gospel of the Kingdom, period. I've seen pastors make target goals for their membership. They plan to hit this much by year's end or after 3 or 5 years. It's foolish. A 5-year old kid cannot target to grow taller by 5 inches at the end of the year. God decides this. If he wills that you grow to 5 feet 8 inches when you're 16, then you will. Others take growth pills and gain height artificially. Okay, but be ready for the side effects---like an elongated head perhaps. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. [1 Corin. 3.7] Growth is God's department (in fact, everything...

normansennema The Only Thing Important in Ministry Jesus came for only one thing. Over the years, as man's churches put a lot of useless add-ons to faith and ministry, this one thing has been blurred and relegated to the far sides---to the backdrop. Sometimes, they even kick it out of the picture for good. But it remains the single most important thing---Jesus Christ came to preach the good news of the Kingdom. The Gospel of the Kingdom. "I must proclaim the good news (Gospel) of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” [Luke 4.43] The Gospel of the Kingdom. Examining the Gospel (and the Scriptures in general) we find that this Gospel is all about living in the Kingdom NOW through the LIFE of Jesus in us, how to live and operate in it, how to build it on earth, and how to be in its very heart---which is the heart and life of God. That's why we start by becoming his children, being wholly transferred from the kingdom of da...

DeviantArt Second Part Here Peter didn't like the idea how Jesus would suffer a lot, be humiliated and killed. He corrected Jesus about it. But Jesus rebuked him, equating him with Satan because his mind was only on man's concerns, not God's. Anything that serves only human needs and concerns is satanic, says Jesus, and that's where the church is headed for---man's glory. It has nothing to do whatsoever with Jesus' great commission, though they may be actively involved in "evangelism." That isn't God's plan at all. God's Strategy for Kingdom Come For the Kingdom to come ( Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven ), the church needs to live the Beatitudes on a natural, daily basis, where being least is glorified, being allied with the weak, the oppressed and belittled. Go over the Sermon and you'd see how God sees "Thy Kingdom come" coming about. It comes when we finally appreciate that havin...

Youtube First Part It's a glorious plan, bringing down to earth the Kingdom of heaven, so that in these last days heaven shouts saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever." [Revelation 11.15]. Jesus' great commission stated in Matthew 6 ( Thy Kingdom come ) is the Alpha and Omega of God's present move in these last days. And this great commission is to be implemented by Jesus' discipleship. Thus, Jesus' great commission is really in two parts--- Thy Kingdom come and make disciples . They cannot be separated, as the greatest commandment (love God with your all and love your neighbor as yourself) cannot be separated. We're to be a Kingdom within a kingdom. God's strategy is like yeast a woman mixed with three measures (60 pounds, says one translation) of dough until the whole thing is "worked through" or "permeated with" yeast. You...

Shazoo.Ru For many years they've made Matthew 28.19-20 as Jesus' Great Commission, making disciples. But the idea was just humanly decided. Jesus never mentioned it as his "great commission" to the church. So I can also safely make my own great-commission selection . Any believer can. And I believe Jesus' first great commission is in Matthew 6. First Great Commission It's really "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That's Jesus' prayer and it reflected his true mission on earth. To bring down the Kingdom of the Holy God on earth, make it fully operational here, and make heaven a genuine reality on earth. It's a supernatural commission. God's sons and daughters are the ones tasked here (that's why we pray "Our heavenly Father" ) and should have this mission-vision at heart. That's Jesus' first great commission. And the second one---making disciples of all nations---...

Image from Shutterstock. Sons are exempt. Jesus said this about paying taxes but principles like this have spiritual implications and ramifications. Exemption here is not just about earthly taxes. I can see it applied to our entire sonship in Christ, for instance. We tend to box ourselves in traditionally and humanly accepted meanings and fail to see passages like this through the mind of Christ and miss the glory. Like muzzling an ox that treads the grain. How did Paul conclude that to apply to ministers of the Gospel and not really to an ox? The context in Deuteronomy 25 is to point out how imposing unreasonable punishment on a guilty offender is like muzzling an ox while it’s doing its burdensome work. The comparison is on the difficulty and cruelty. Imagine subjecting the ox to heavy work without feeding it. Sons Look for Spiritual Principles in the WORD But Paul took it to apply to ministers (though we see no hint on this whatsoever in Deuteronomy). Why? Becaus...