As disciples of the Lord we need to keep things simple. The early church in the Bible kept it simple. They majored on four things…
First they came together as we do for worship and teaching from the Bible. They did it daily – we do it a number of times each week mainly Sundays and one night a week with our small Growth Groups. Read more
Nothing happens in life by accident. If you want to accomplish something for the Lord in 2012 you will need now – at the start of the new year – to set some goals, plan how you are going to achieve those goals, get to work right away while the year is new and fresh, and persevere until you reach the goals. Run the race and cross the finish line. Read more
STARTING THE FLOW OF MISSION FROM ANYWHERE
I know what many of you are thinking at this point: “I understand what you are saying and I wish I could just start over with such a clean apostolic understanding and a missionary flow, but I’m slammed! I lead one of these structured churches right now and our corporate paradigm is pretty non-missional and definitely non-apostolic. In fact, our structure calcified into a hard lump of coal ten years ago. Is there any way for us to be this stuck and move toward missional ways of church? Can we actually become apostolic and prophetic moving out to win the lost once again?” Read more
We have been looking at how Jesus worked in engaging the culture in which He found Himself when born as a man and dwelling among us. It is time to move on to His second stage of creating the first church and thus the model for the Church that He is building today. After engaging His culture and even while continuing to do so He began to form community. This is the second step in what the Lord is doing today in His Church as well as what we must do when planting the Gospel in any new community. Read more
Every disciple of the Lord needs to have two key people in their lives.
First, they need someone who is helping them to grow and mature as a believer and follower of the Lord. There are four stages of growth – discipling, training, equipping and mentoring. Every disciple, regardless of the stage, needs to find someone to help them grow. You need to find someone and enter into a covenant with them where you will meet with them and they can guide and direct you in your walk with Jesus. It is possible to have more than one “mentor” at a time – but everyone needs at least one. Read more
Last time we were talking about the need to engage the culture and build relationships with those that we are wanting to reach for Jesus today. As we do this we have a great need for a lot of patience. We may want an instant or microwave result and see the local church grow quickly as our evangelistic efforts bear much fruit. But, this is seldom the case. Much time, effort, energy, and prayer must first go into building solid and healthy relationships with people and with the community before we will see any return on our investment. Read more
“And the Lord would say” are very powerful words to speak. I say those words many times a day both when overseas and at home as I minister prophetically on a daily basis. I teach many people in numerous nations to prophesy as well. This is my main task as an apostle – to equip the saints of the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12) and raise up the next generation of young apostles. Anatoli is one excellent example of that as he made amazing progress flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit in just three short days. Read more
God has given to us some marvelous gifts. The most important and most precious is the gift of salvation as found only in Jesus. As well, we have the gifts of the Holy Spirit that allow us to minister supernaturally to those who do not know God and thus help them to come to know their heavenly Father.
God has also invited each of us to become personally involved in His work – the task He sent Jesus to begin and created the Church to continue and complete – seeking and saving the lost.
Written while in Russia…
It has been an awesome 7 days with God’s presence and His power very much on display for all to see. And there has been a sense of His peace in each and every place we have been honored to minister – airports, back seat of cars, homes, and during the services.
God sent His Son to “seek and save the lost” and He died on the cross to do just that. His death and resurrection have made a way where there was no way. Only through the shed blood of Jesus can we find forgiveness and experience the love and acceptance of God. Only in Jesus can we have the assurance of a place reserved for us in Heaven so that when we die we will immediately be with Him forever. Read more