Even though we are living in uncertain times, we know that God is with us. The past few weeks, I’ve been reading through the life of Jesus. I don’t know how many times I’ve done this, but each time I make new discoveries and gain new insight into our Savior and Lord.
This time, I’m noticing how often Jesus would tell people to be quiet about what He had done for them. This was very odd because you can also see all the things He did when crowds of people showed up at His doorstep. In those times, He healed everyone and drove out demons. Then there were other times, in certain places, when He would heal someone and tell them to keep quiet about it.
There were even times when people, including His own family, wanted Him to go public with some type of great campaign to display His power and spark a movement to overthrow their oppressors, but He always retreated from those aspirations. It seems that Jesus was very sensitive to seasons and regions.
He had come into this world with a very specific mission and He wasn’t going to allow critics to deter Him, or His biggest fans to propel Him. He was going to remain in step with His Father’s plan and purpose.
Today, Jesus’ journey is giving me some wisdom and confidence for the future of our little gathering and the entire Church in America. As we watch the suffocating grip of a new system of government slowly coming upon our nation, all of us are left to wonder, how the church can continue in such an environment. Freedom of speech is essentially nullified. Gay Rights and Pro-Choice activist have vilified all religious organization. Muslims, within America, are now being called upon to start a holy jihad against Jews and Christians, and even Homeland Security has now classified many Christian groups as domestic terrorist.
Believers all over America are having dreams about soldiers invading their homes through the initiation of martial law; stripping away all citizen rights. Like us, many pastors and Christian leaders are beginning to implement plans and strategies to launch home church and under-the-radar gatherings, right here in America.
As I share these things, please don’t panic. The Church has survived all kinds of cruel and harsh governments and movements. It’s just that in America, now it’s our turn to face the real struggle that has been going on, all along, all over the world.
I also noticed, in my daily Bible readings, that Jesus was still able to preach the message of the Kingdom and travel from place to place even though they were under the dominating rule of the Roman Empire. The Romans were performing military house to house searches back then. They were tormenting and harassing average citizens back then. They were wrecking the lives of business owners back then. They ruled, in many regions, through martial law. Everything that we see coming upon America, was being done in the world in which Jesus Christ was spreading the message of the Kingdom of God.
This has assured me that we can trust God to help us to navigate through whatever awaits us in the coming months and years in America. Like Jesus, we’re not trying to become famous or takeover the governments of this world.
We are not trying to display miraculous power just to gain access to popular mainstream media. Most assuredly, WE WILL DO GREAT THINGS FOR GOD, but they are going to be done to reach and teach those who have an ear to hear and a heart to receive the true and living God.
This upcoming Sunday, we will continue with our STEALTH Ministry Training. STEALTH is our acronym for Spiritual Training for the Equipping, Anointing, Liberation and Transformation of Hearts and Homes. This is part of our effort
to obey God’s command to me, to RESET ourselves and prepare us for a new way to minister in this new version of America.
It is our hope and prayer that by the time we complete this training, we will have established strong Believers who can serve God and their families by doing the work of the ministry outside of the four walls of a church.
Our goal is to build a team of people who can serve God and one another, without seeking fame, glory, recognition and praise. It is our goal to build a team of people who can help us rebuild, renew and restore hearts and homes in the urban community.
Lately I've been reconsidering how I present our ministry to Believers who are considering membership. I have decided that I'm not going to soft peddle our mission and vision just to gain members. I have had to settle it. Our church mission isn't for everybody.
In fact; What if our Church presented itself the same way the Marines do? What if we stopped using the promise of wealth, material blessings and miraculous healing as our way to draw people into our fellowship? What if we just told it like it really is? You're signing up for something that's greater than yourself. You're signing up for Spiritual Warfare.
Do you have the heart for this?
You may recall that just a week ago we told you about an African country that closed nearly 100 churches. The president of Cameroon used some negative incidents and a few bad pastors as his leverage to close them. You may also recall that we said that we should expect this same strategy to be used in America to close churches.
We thought it might happen in a few years. We were wrong. It only took two weeks for an incident to come that could start the process in America.
We just saw another alarming BREAKING NEWS posting. A measles outbreak in Texas is being blamed on Pastor Kenneth Copeland, his mega-church, and his teachings about faith and healing. Since some of the people who attend his church failed to get measles vaccinations, the media is blaming him and his ministry for the outbreak.
We can now expect the next step. Somebody, perhaps a State Representative, a Senator, or someone with great influence, will make a proposal to close the church and any other ministries that are viewed in the same way.
More and more, God is showing us that HE has been preparing us for a very dark time that is coming upon America. A lot more pastors had better start getting their congregations ready for home church gatherings and internet ministry.
Just last week, in a country in Africa (Cameroon), the president of that nation ordered the closing of nearly 100 Pentecostal churches. He cited the wrong doings of a few bad ministers in that nation. He used their inappropriate actions as the basis to close down churches. Since he used the military to do it, nearly 100 pastors and congregations had no choice.
This past Sunday, hundreds of church goers suddenly found themselves forced to do what we are already accustomed to doing in Urban Life. They had to meet in their homes.
We should not be so naive and ignorant that we ignore the real possibility of this same strategy being used to close churches in America. With all of the uncertainty in our nation we have been seeking God about the right strategy for our church. I don't know how many pastors, in America, are preparing their congregations for this possibility.
Right now, the best thing I can do is to teach, train and encourage our church family to seek God and stand up as leaders in their own homes. I want them to know that no matter what the future holds, they can keep moving forward. They have what they need. They can do this. They can rebuild, renew and restore their families.
I pray that God blesses their home group gatherings in a very special way!
A couple of weeks ago, I was reading my morning devotional from Oswald Chamber’s ‘My Utmost for His Highest’. I’ve been reading this particular book for many years, but it’s still amazing how God can speak something new into my heart each year that I go through it.
This particular day’s reading led me to a profound thought. The Holy Spirit of God reminded me of the words of Jesus when he was twelve years old. You can find his response to His parents, who had been searching for him for several days. Luke 2:49 records his response to them: “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” The Bible goes on to say,”.…they did not understand His statement, but then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart."
After this, the Holy Spirit reminded me of Jesus’ words when He was a thirty-something year old man. In John 5: 19 He says: "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.”
The twelve year old Christ was full of zeal and ready to go forth with God’s work, but He had a process to go through. The thirty year old Christ shows us the result of going through this process.
As a human being, Jesus had to learn obedience. The almighty God of the universe, while dwelling in human flesh, subjected himself to earthly, human, flawed parents.
We must go through the same process. There are many 'twelve-year old' adolescents in the Body of Christ, who are out on their own, having pulled away from their spiritual family, and they are trying to be about God’s business. But like the boy Jesus, they need to go home. They need to submit to spiritual leaders and parents, who are human beings, with flaws and failings.
Many adolescent Believers are in rebellion because they discovered the flaws and failings of their leaders. They felt that this discovery gave them the right to leave them and start their own church or ministry. They felt it gave them the right to ignore the counsel and guidance of their leaders.
This has led to thousands of churches starting all over America. There are often three and four church buildings in one inner city block, in neighborhoods across the country. However, many of them are merely gatherings of rebellious and naive spiritual adolescents, seeking attention and affirmation.
We believe that the trials and tribulations of these last days will filter out the adolescents from the adults. There will be a distinction between the immature and the mature. The mature ones will be those who have submitted to the process and progression of Christ.
After submitting to His parents, the only thing the Bible says about the next 18 years of Jesus’ life was recorded in Luke 2:52 which states: And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
I certainly want to be that kind of leader and I consider it an honor to oversee people who desire the same.
